The Future Is Yours
You are incomplete, unfinished. As goes your self, so go your actions; half finished plans, dreams delayed, your heart a field of broken toys. The world in its wisdom has brought you to this point and the full depth of your sufferings and failures transcends the sugar spun follies of youth.
But as someone who has lived a panoply of lives you know an even deeper truth:
The World Is A Lie.
The world lies to you for its purposes which rarely — if ever! — align with your own. It wants you simple, practical, ordered, humble, but not humble as an alloy of your strengths with deeper hued wisdom, but humble as a making lame, a cutting of tendons so that you may not go further!
There is no victory in this; you must create the World for Yourself. This day reminds you of this! Struggles against the Coalitions of your worst aspects will be driven from the field on this day!
Never forget that all may be accomplished, that the Grande Armee of your soulcrafting can bring you only triumph on this your Austerlitz Day!
Undeniable
Your enemies scoffed. Your friends fretted, the closest of them doing so silently, almost stoically. You had none of these feelings, for reasons you could not explain even to those most cherished.
The future was yours to shape as you will — it is your Austerlitz Day! No whim or caprice shall be denied you today; the heavens do not grant these days freely or often. But it is this day, more than any other that reminds of what great triumphs you can achieve. Do not fret or fear any obstacle; wryly view these as that which makes your success that much more amazing, more profound! See your as yet unaccomplished goals in life as already vanquished foes, praying for your mercy and forbearance! Your strength is more than willing to be generous in their defeat, because you know that the Fates could have turned on you and not them. Forward! Even more glory awaits!
Why I love my housewarming gift
When I moved into my new place in March, the only person who sent me a housewarming
gift (and gave me some very nice congrats) was our bloggeress. A box
from Zingermans arrived, (how many times do I fantasize about that!) and it
was a traditional housewarming gift, bread and salt. The bread got inhaled
post haste, but let me talk about the salt. Why do I love it?
1.) It’s simple. It’s just salt.
2.) It’s practical without being boring or odd.
3.) It’s in a cool jar with a big cork topper.
4.) I keep it right by the stove and use it nearly every day. When
I do, guess who it reminds me of? Exactly!
5.) It adds flavor to anything and even a little texture as the crystals are
somewhat larger than normal. Does it raise my blood pressure? Maybe
a little, who cares? You think flavor comes for nothing? Guess who
it reminds me of? See #4.
6.) It has a “household saint” kind of feel that ancient Romans
would understand. Salarium, bringer of flavor.
7.) Although it won’t won’t happen anytime soon, eventually the salt will
be gone, leaving the cool jar….which will get another purpose, maybe
to hold coins or my keys. It will never not have a purpose. It’s more
than I can say for me.
It connects to the giver, to the joy of cooking, to a new home, it’s
elemental…and it fills me with love for all of those.
Gratzi, Annie.
It could be no other!
The cosmic whimsy of the universe has made you L’empereur of your fate. There is no way around it for any of us, as much as we would not wish it to be so.
And to be sure, Life is indeed the longest, hardest campaign even for those of us given gifts from the gods. How many times resources are strained at best and non-existent at most typical! How many grueling holding actions, forced retreats, barely avoided routs and even worse debacles are closer to you than kith and kin! Those of you somberly nodding your heads as you read this know whence I speak.
But Today, that most glorious of days, Austerlitz Day, allows for no such gloom!
Your careful preparations, your adroit maneuver, and, above all, your indomitable will have brought you here, sublimely ready to reap the harvest of past circumspections.
The artillery of your passion and courage shall smash the weak fixed formations of melancholy arrayed before you! The infantry of a wise and calm heart shall seize and retain the high ground of what is most precious to you, and the cavalry of your energetic joy shall overtake and capture all past doubts and misfortunes for you to ransom as you deem fit!
That day….is today. That day is your….Austerlitz Day.
Turkey. Fish.
I’m alone. There’s no family, friends, money, food (unlike what the title implies, no turkey either).
I’ve come to accept this around the holidays; that’s the way it’s been for a long time for me.
But things are better than they were at this time last year; long time readers of this blog are aware of that. Last year at this point, I had just left a terrible situation was about to spend the winter on a sofa with rabbits lurking about. Better than freezing to death! And now, today, I’m in front of my fireplace with a cup of tea!
I just had a sort of strategic setback, but my health is slowly improving with the help of PT. Just last week, the last batch of my CDs have returned; now I need to arrange to get their wooden storage cases back.
I know I haven’t posted here enough lately and I’ll try to fix that going forward.
Ron
Hmmm…what’s coming up?
“So, Dick, this Trump guy…what an asshat! I think I had Chrysler with a hood ornament like that hair!”
“Dick, is it true that Bill is running his side piece, Monica, for POTUS? The stones on that guy!”
“No, Ike he’s running the other one.” “The one with a voice like Nosferatu’s fingernails on the blackboard? The one who looks like a potato stuffed with straw? You’re kidding me!” [Nixon shrugs]
[Ike looks through the photograph…at us]
“Well, we fought The Great Depression and World War II, but I feel sorry for you guys…you can’t seem to find your ass with both hands.”
“Dick and I are probably gone by your time –”
“Speak for yourself, Ike, I’m probably still hanging around…and even if I’m not, Henry is, you can bet your ass he is, and I’ve already told him what to do about now.”
[Ike gives Nixon the side eye]
“Look, don’t pay these fools at the top too much mind. You’ve screwed the pooch this time around and you’re going to give a con man or a criminal the job we used to have. But cheer up, you’re Americans, you know which end is up. Have the faith in yourselves I’ve always known you should have because you ARE Americans, right Dick?”
“Absolutely”
“I apologize for the failures of the guys who came after me,” [Gives Nixon more side eye] but do what you feel you need to do to get the ship of state righted, kick some ass, and you’ll be fine!”
“We’ll still be here, laughing it up….join us, fellow Yanks!”
Hooked into this….
I know, I know….an engine rebuilding video? But I just love how the work of 6 days is shown to you in 6 minutes.
You start with an old hulk of an engine….and wow, look at that thing at the end! Those glowing pistons! The amazing covers with tons of old fashioned bolts holding in place….It’s surprising what comes at you and makes you love what people do.
Summer is here….
So….it’s that time of year to dance!
This is a colorized lobby card from Top Hat (colorized back then, not now)
Return of the KngFish
The Walnut Room was the upstairs room of Drake’s a long-gone, long time Ann Arbor institution. I got a chance to buy this and another sign from the place when they closed.
This post is long overdue. My housing crisis is over, and I now have a place to live. Now the point of my writing this is not to talk about how I did this and that to acquire this place. Rather, what I want to talk about here is you. All of you. You are who I have in the world. I am not a man of wealth, or family. What family I did have gave up on me years – decades – ago. My remaining living sister did not bother to tell me my other sister died 5 years ago. Is there a term stronger than estrangement? I need that term.
But why am I writing now? It’s simple….I’m grateful. That’s more than just a thank you; it’s not a single moment, but a feeling that carries forward into the future. What do I have to give you in gratitude? The best I can for each of you, and the best I can be for myself . I’ve failed at this in the past, primarily because I didn’t know I really valued in myself.
I have such a long list of people to thank, but no Oscar speeches, and no Hallmark card prose either.
I spent a lot of time thinking how to do this thanking, but I’ll break it to two parts: feeling and doing. Obviously, I’m a bit overwhelmed with feeling these days; relief, joy, surreality. If I could walk up and hug each and every one of you I would, with delight. But I simply can’t do that! Rats!
But the best way isn’t with feeling, it’s with doing. Fortunately, I have a lot to do! Health, wealth…a real home. That would have a lot of meaning to me. Ideally, I would love to have a large enough home to throw a large enough party to invite you all to!
For my friends who live in a different locale than I, what I want most is a visit where I see you in your own setting!
Those of you who know me for some time…I have a novel to deliver and I promise that will get finished.
I will be going back to the Y and working out every day. A car will be needed!
For now….let me just thank you all again for everything from emotional, to financial, to spiritual support.
In front of the new fireplace and my Maxfield Parrish print of “Enchantment”
News Fish
Ok, I thought I would hold off a bit until I could get some photos and such, but I thought I’d let you know that I have moved into a new place! Yes, it’s complicated, but I’ll be here at least a year, probably more.
I’ve been getting my stuff back from friends who have held onto it for far too long. I’m still lacking a lot of things…like a sofa or pans! But I have a nice new bed on my old bed frame, and slowly but surely things are getting in shape.
This small island of a blog has been a touchstone in my coming back after 3 years of horrible nonsense that I was not sure I was going to get out of. I am grateful to you “regulars” here, especially to Annie, for making this my go-to rather than my own blog! More news will be filled in as I go along. I need wheels!
Ambiance 