Good morning, well good afternoon, would you believe good evening? I’m writing this only 12 hours late, it’s 9:33 PM. Remember the days I would bang out an entry every day before noon. There were semesters I banged them out before 8 AM. COVID-19 has a strange affect on time. It must have to do with General Relativity. COVID-19 creates a gravitational field that slows down time. Yes, that’s it. It has nothing to do with my mental state. I decided that what I’ve been calling the blahs is mild depression. I’m not ready to increase my meds. I just have to take better care of myself. Most importantly stop and meditate when I start falling down the black hole. Normally I say rabbit hole but let’s stick to the General Relativity metaphors. I studied but General Relativity and the Alice books in college. I tried to have a well-rounded education. I also studied art, music, ancient, mediaeval and US history, classical mythology, political science, anthropology, physics, psychology, and geology, in addition to my major in math. What else am I missing, oh yes, fencing and golf. I studied polymathematics.
Yesterday I went on a shopping expedition where I did my best wrong-way Corrigan impersonation. I accidentally got on the BX28 instead of the BX10. Last time I got on the wrong bus it was no big deal. It took me to Fordham Road where I could take the BX 9 to Aldi. That was a different bus, this one went in exactly the wrong direction. If I had gotten off the first stop it wouldn’t have been that big a deal to walk back, but I didn’t. I figured I would end up on Fordham Road. I was wrong. I finally got off and had to walk back 0.6 miles to catch the BX10 which I just missed so I had to walk another half mile to get back where I started from to get a BX 10. Yes, I could have just stayed where I was but this way there was a chance I could have caught an earlier BX1. I missed that one by a bus length. I was shouting for the driver to wait but he didn’t hear me or left anyway.
It wasn’t a total waste of time; I talk on the phone to Erika as I walked and listened to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me while I rode the bus. The ride home was much less eventful. Today I talked to Carolann. I’m back to being proactive and calling people. That is an important part of my self-care. So are the chocolate fudge pop tarts I bought.
I finally started watching season 11 of Doctor Who. I can watch it now on HBO Max but not with ROKU. That means loading it on computer and sharing the screen to the TV. It’s not difficult but just enough extra work to keep me from watching when I am having other issues. This is the first season with Jodie Whittaker. Peter Capaldi was by far my favorite new Doctor, but it fell off quite a bit his last season when the show changed showrunners. That also made me less eager to watch. The first episode was good. I didn’t want to throw anything at the screen which I did during part of Matt Smith’s run. I just watched a few scenes of a Fourth Doctor episode and it reminded me how great the original series was at its peak. The writing was brilliant. I’d much rather have great writing and poor special effects than the other way around. I’ll continue to watch the new series now that I started.
I have to start reading again. Those years of not being able to see got me out of the habit. I want to get back in it. I love reading. Reader is part of my self-image. I owned something like a thousand books at one time. They were all over my house. I had beaten up paperbacks and rare antiquarian books. I really should get a Kindle. Then I could have books that don’t take up space. I won’t have the illustrations or beautiful bindings and print but I’ll have the words, and they are what matter the most.
Tomorrow’s mission is buying Metamucil. I need it for my MRI on Wednesday. I went to buy it a few days ago and they were out. I’ll try and combine shopping with a walk. That’s also good for my mental health. I’ll do a phone-a-friend too. When I get to bed if my mind won’t shut off and instead insists on recounting everything I’ve done wrong in my life I’ll meditate before it gets a running start. I could use a reread of Lord of the Rings, Tom Bombadil is always effective at warding off evil.
“Tom Bombadil is the Master. No one has ever caught old Tom walking in the forest, wading in the water, leaping on the hill-tops under light and shadow. He has no fear. Tom Bombadil is master.”
Wise Madness 