the pause that refreshes

It's about 7:50 in the pm. The sun has just about set on a beautiful Spring day. Coming down from a moderately irritating day at work. It was one which the bright sunlight outside kept from being a severely irritating day inside. Usually does in our office- despair comes harder in the sunshine. That plus the fact that you can, at least to a large extent, refuse to let things get to you(thank you Albert Ellis!).

I've just enjoyed my beer du jour(see earlier blog about regimen of meds), and am commencin' to fix dinner. (Commencin' is of course a Jed Clampett-ism, meaning I'm kinda getting around to it. )When I first started this "regimen" I tried my beer at bedtime, but at that hour it stirred me up more than relaxed me. Don't know the precise medical explanation for this but it has to do with sugars- either already in the body that get stirred up, or by the beer, or both. So as an experiment, tried it right before dinner. Perfect, especially with tunes on the CD player. Especially jazz, and there of the mellower variety.

At this point in the day, exercise is probably a better plan. Indeed, perhaps down the road apiece the beer du jour will give way to some sort of daily perambulation, but for now I'm going to enjoy my minor vice. My moderate debauchery..

What the hell. One beer in a day takes off a bit of edge from your workday, sands down whatever the sunlight and one's own attitude(RET-inspired or not)fail to do. I can remember in the not-too-distant past, after some particularly harrowing Mondays at work, having a bit of an evening bender-not only taking off the edge, but the whole side of the building!

Tomorrow may or may not be a beautiful sunny day. We will assuredly have disgruntled folk visiting our office then, sunny day or not, who may or may not get on my nerves. With these variable probabilities going, I will probably have my one Corona right after work, my beer du jour(and probably avec musique). See you a demain.

Generic Ambition

Bob Sills has got what it takes to take him to the top!

Carole Waterford has got what it takes to take her to the top!

Ted and Alice Berford have got what it takes to take them to the top!


Yes, there's something that irritates me here, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The same undefinable paroxysm that shoots through me when I'm watching Wheel of Fortune and one of the contestants yells, "C'mon big money" when they spin(personally I think they should dock them when they say it). Maybe it's the unbridled greed, maybe the lack of personal imagination.

Whatever it is, it bugs me. I dunno about you, but I get tired of hearing people tell me they want to be World Champion, it gets--generic--after awhile. So I've had this idea for awhile now, a monthly magazine called Generic Ambition which featured nothing but the same stock quote, from and about 3 ambitious people. The types of work these individuals would be engaged in would be quite diverse, although the ambition and its expression much the same from person to person. You'd have three people who just plain want to be number one in their respective areas and will do what it takes to get there.

I've got what it takes to take me to the top!

Again, the type of work runs the gamut. Bob is an Insurance Agent, Carole a part-time cashier at Wal-Mart, and Ted and Alice are in a BeeGees/BeachBoys singing group(singing groups are usually prequalified, particularly if they're of the tribute variety). But despite the different paths they've chosen, they're all on their way to the top!

And of course there could be a Seminar/Workshop, with special motivational speakers- maybe a company called Winners Inc or some such nonsense. And from there, no doubt a photo gallery of all the people we've helped take to the top once things are off and running(provided it actually works!), as a testament to its success.

As to the seminar, I could see the program being patterned after the old David Carradine movie "Circle of Iron", where the protagonist, Cord, the young martial artist/philosopher who goes up against a series of adversaries on his way to Zetan, the great master who is also the keeper of the Book of All Knowledge. Cord is very focused through all this, and chops down a series of opponents(all played by Carradine)on his way to the master. "My goal is Zetan", he says at least once in the movie.

I could see that in the training program, to internalize Zetan, to personalize him into whatever or whoever is holding that book. The Book of All Knowledge, as it relates to your life and career aspirations. It could be the book of all Shoe knowledge, but if it helps get you to the top, that's the book, and Zetan(whoever or whatever he manifests himself to be to you)is its keeper. So the focus is on one's own personal Zetan.

Each session would begin with the trainer greeting the class, "G'morning class, what's your goal?" The class, as one, would respond, "My goal is Zetan!" And then from there, off to work..

Well whether that would actually happen is still up for grabs, but I do see a reality TV show in all this. It could definitely work. The only question is whether I'd actually watch such a piece of shit once it's off and running. Fair warning here: there may be more on this idea...

of Clotted Clouds and charred potatoes

I've found this to be both alarming and comforting, but nonetheless true. Once you get get 'em talking a bit, you'll find that most folks will start telling you how much it sucks to be them. The litany of ailments both real and imagined, the breaks they never quite got. The hell that is their very existence, their utter themness..

In other words, they're usually just as screwed up as you are!(That's the part that's both alarming and comforting). Granted, they may not have the same problems you do, but they usually have about as many of their own problems. And they're usually just as consumed with solving them(or at least alleviating the suffering)as are you with your load o' troubles.

What got me going on this was talking with someone in the office whom I thought if for no other reason than age should have a life relatively bereft of problems. Early 30's, apparently healthy and so forth. Once we got talking, I realized he had all kindsa stuff wrong with him just like me. Alarming and comforting in one shot.

Come to think of it, I can remember being 30 and having no fewer problems than I do now. Just different ones, a 30 year-old's problems. Actually I can't think of an age past 10 where I didn't..

I think you get in this life just as much as you can "barely" handle(or at least perceiving yourself as barely handling it), your own very personalized load o' troubles, made only for you and - well, your capacity to handle it. So yeah, it is a bit comforting to know you're not alone in this. In the words of The Ghost of Christmas Past(played by Sam Kinison)on an episode of Married, with Children delivered to a distraught Al Bundy, " You think your life stinks, pal- well get a whiff of mine!" Kinison often played characters you'd want to be downwind of under any circumstance.

So, yeah, we all have some Joe Blftsk in us(the character pictured here, from Al Capp's Dogpatch USA comic strip: the character with the perennial raincloud who is always a jinx when he appears), our own specially issued rainclouds. The umbrella is up to us.