I expected a brutal summer and it's arrived. 106 F yesterday. I note that city services are suffering due to budget cuts that result in understaffing in many departments. Solid waste, for instance, is underfunded and struggling to do their jobs. And yet all sorts of big ticket projects are being funded. It's obvious that conservatives are running the show, doing what they do best. Pillaging. Ripping off. Lining their own pockets.
Hot day and still on that treadmill to economic collapse and doom. Deal 41 crashed and burned. Blame it on Israel, and you'd be dead right. I predicted that. Anyone at all could have predicted that. A lot of folks predicted that. Nice to see Moscow getting hammered. And that's it for current events-- still a clusterfuck. When has it not been a clusterfuck? I think the answer is: never. Ah well, let the pundunts pundunt. It's a sorry business. I try my best to disengage. Easier sometimes than others. In general keep it simple and keep it close to home. I found optimum picks for each of my electric guitars, so instead of using the same picks for each one, like all mediums and all of one material and from one manufacturer, I've gone to different gauges and different styles for each. Like, I've got a couple of picks I made from an old Fina card years ago. One is a regular guitar pick shape but the other one is more of a triangle with rounded corners. One guitar is best served by a plain white medium, another by an orange Fender heavy, and so on. None of my guitars have the same feel or sound, so a pick optimized to the character of each guitar makes sense.
Yesterday evening I did see a few bees and that was encouraging. And today it might not get as hot as forecast, and that would be a boon. Among so many banes a boon is a treat.
No, not a grand evening, but a good one. Today it will be on the warm side, apparently, with only slight chances of storms or rainfall, but tomorrow will be very hot, and Monday and Tuesday will be on the mild side again. At least we receive some variation. I've mentioned the use of wine in my evening relaxation ritual. Don't think that I would consume an expensive wine. I like Franzia, in the box, and I like to mix it up. Some red in some white, for instance, to make a "blush". Mix flavors. I've had good results with that. Last night I thought about childhood treats, like "floats"-- these were made with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream and some sort of soda. Coke (trademark), Big Red, or any kind of root beer worked best. Do people still do that? I don't even know whether you can still get stuff like RC Cola, or Big Red. I only drink diet sodas anyway. I suppose Diet Pepsi would make a good float. This summer I'd like to try that. Regress a bit. I used to enjoy cold beer and no doubt I would again, but the stuff is too fattening. And it fills me up. Wine, now, is my favorite drug. My only drug, as such, apart from caffeine, and we ALL love our caffeine. I used to sweeten strong coffee with glucose, for a kind of pick-me-up, in my working days. My favorite wine is Franzia Red Blend, at 13% alcohol. That is also my favorite wine to blend with whites, like Chardonnay or Pinot. I sometimes try Sauvignon Blanc. I don't like my wine chilled, not even white wines. I think chilling kills flavor. I like strong, sweet, iced coffee in the summer. I sweeten it with Stevia. I suppose I could mention that once upon a time I did rune casting, for guidance. I have no need to do that anymore, and today it seems childish. But not I Ching. That does not seem childish at all. I have ordered a 500+ page book on the history and use of the I Ching. I will study it, and use it.
I had a very productive day yesterday. And it was a grand evening, with a cool north breeze. I spent some time in the midst of the vegetation in back. It felt good. It was healing. And I have the feeling this morning, a realization actually, that all my life I have been where I needed to be, doing the things I was meant to do. And at this time in my life, I am where I want to be, where I need to be, and I do what I want to do, and it just so happens that those are also the things I need to do. It all fits together. That's rather amazing. I've done without doing. I seem to have been on a Taoist path without even realizing it. I need to reevaluate life from a Taoist perspective. Fortunately I have a lot of books to help me do that. I have my journals, too. This morning it is quite cool, and still rather breezy. I did so much yesterday, I have only the essentials today. Otherwise, my time is free. It is good to have disciplines though, providing a sturdy framework for the day.
105 F yesterday. It was oppressive but now we are in a "cooling" trend. It's all relative. It certainly won't be as hot today as it was yesterday. And we've got a nice breeze. I snatched at the opportunity to do some work outside, early. But it's clear that we are in summer time conditions. Rain chances are not very good in the current forecast, but those things are always subject to change.
