As I type this dross in the darkness of a rainy Saturday morning, I look back at a week filled with ups and downs.
On the upside, all the deck railings and posts have finally been stained, and I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turning out. I wish I would have used a sprayer but for a virgin deck stainer, I’ll take it.
I still have the floor boards to do, but the weather has not been cooperating. Still, I’m hopeful that this week, we’ll get two days without rain, and I can get it done and out of my greying hair before moving on to the next summer project.
While I continue to restrict the quantity and lengths of my lumbers, there have been some improvements. I’m still way off where I was back in March, but my feet/knee/toe are starting to get a bit better, and on Friday, I had my best average pace (3.9 MPH) in months during a wonderful heavy rain storm that caught me without my rain jacket because the radar said there was NO rain in the area. Fuck it, it was bliss!
On the downside, my mood has been shit this week and exacerbated by a lack of outdoor exercise, an ongoing deck job with meager DIY skills, Wifey still on the mends from surgery, fatherly stress about B, worrying about Jake (the dog), taking care of the Cul De Sac Shack, ongoing concern for my aging father’s declining health, and feeling lonely and completely isolated amongst the right-wing, gun-loving, Bible-thumping, oil loving, brown-skin hating, tax-avoiding, camouflage wearing, conspiracy theory having, white bread republican “patriot” assholes that make up most of mid-Michigan. [insert a heavy teen-like sigh here as I kill a few more brain cells and realize what a hell The 2024 Lumber Through Hell Tour has actually become and that this is pretty much what this country is now no matter where you live in it].
Having said all that, I continue to avoid The Bed of Torment for anything but my normal fitful night’s sleep and an occasional rainy weekend nap, so I guess there’s that.
I’m hoping to get back to some semblance of normality soon. If not, there’s always beer and Lexapro, as well as grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, laughers, screamers… Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls.1
Later.