No Change

Cool mornings, comfortable evenings and warm days that verge on being hot. SOSO. I am doing relaxation exercises, akin to Tai Chi. Very good! And in the gym yesterday I had strength gains, going up to 180 pounds resistance on a particular exercise I do for my shoulders. I'm usually at 120 to 150 on that. And i went up to 290 pounds on the leg press machine. I don't do deadlifts or hack squats on Wednesday. On Wednesday I focus a lot on the cable machines. All in all, it was quite satisfying. I really like my gym! It is just right! I am within striking distance of 80, and that means I must workout very consistently. Usually I go to the gym MWF, and I start each of those days with my own free weights at home. Wednesday, the home routine is centered on my adjustable bench. and some equipment I can use for dips and leg extensions. I do the leg extensions on the bench in a novel way that also works the abs pretty intensely. Rarely do I aim for isolation. I want to work lots of muscle groups at the same time. Hypertrophy has never been my goal-- strength and endurance are the things I aim for. Sunday mornings I do a barbell and dumbbell routine that focuses on reps, so I have a lighter bar for that, and a set of resistance cords I found on Amazon a few months ago. Years ago I did a lot of bicycling and jogging in addition to weight training. But now I'm content to do a mile or two of speed walking two or three days per week, and sometimes treadmill jogging. I stopped going to the gym during covid and that's when I got the bench and added a lot of iron to my home gym. I was so darned happy when I could go back to the gym! I was so pleased when the vaccinations became available, and I got them all. I can't lift as much as I used to, but I really need to respect aging joints and connective tissue. Injuries can be devastating at my age. 

Let those who get their rocks off prepping for raptures that never come, enjoy themselves! Feel the burn! As they used say in the gym. I guess I really don't care what people around me believe or think, as long as they leave me the fuck alone. 

Dry, Cool Mornings, Above Average Highs

 This pattern has become well established. Now how will it change, and when will it change? It is a very mystery. Rapture re-scheduled for October 7th. Dimbulbs take note. You fell for it once, you'll fall for it twice. And then you'll fall for it yet again, and again, and again. Meanwhile, I can GUARANTEE that it will NOT happen. I don't claim to be smarter than the rest of you, although that is almost certainly the case, but I do believe that I am SANER. You might have made yourselves stupid for the Lord but there is nothing to be gained by becoming psychotic for the Lord. Loony Toons for the Lord. Irrational for the Lord. Ignorant for the Lord. None of that amounts to virtue. There is no virtue in mental illness. 

October has arrived, right on schedule, my favorite month. Ah. 

Transitions

 At this time of year we start getting transition scenarios as weak fronts move through. Even though last week treated us to cool mornings and cool late evenings, days were rather warm, too warm for my taste, but a weak system has brought clouds and lower temperatures. I like the transitions that take place as we approach October, the best of months. Late October is usually when we start getting a hint of the winter to come. My wife and I liked to participate in Trunk or Treat at our church, so close to us, and we enjoyed that greatly. Even though I am still a member of that church, memories of my late wife are so thick and strong there, that I can't go there anymore. It triggers a wave of grief, even after all these years. That grief will never go away. And I do not want it to go away. I do not think in terms of a "new beginning" and rejected all thoughts of such a thing very early in my "grief process". I didn't marry her so that someday I could have yet another new beginning. The only new beginning I want in my life is the one that began to take place when I met her, and one that evolved and grew during our married years. No more of that. You might argue that I have a sort of new beginning by default but it is minimalistic and it preserves as much of the past as I can. Probably I've become a bit bitter. So be it. Better to be a bitter and alienated surviving spouse than to assume the impossible burden of a new life with someone else. No thanks. Not now, not ever. If I rave from time to time, mark it down to Grief Derangement Syndrome. If there isn't such a thing I have just now invented it. It is real enough for me. 

Those of us with GDS are inclined to say such things as: "Fuck life." It sums up how we feel. 

Cool Morning

 Very pleasant morning and a warm day. I had my usual Sunday drive and it was very nice. Construction on 19th seems to be winding down at last! Probably most of the small businesses along that four mile stretch are toast but the state doesn't care. Collateral damage. The all-powerful state. Seizing whatever it pleases to further its aims. Destroying lives to further its ends. The all-powerful state. Red state, blue state-- all alike. All power hungry, all greedy, all willing to crush anyone who dares to stand against the all-powerful state. 

I could say the same thing about every nation in the world. All of them foul. All of them evil. But some are far worse than others. 

Are They Stupid, Or Merely Crazy??

 The poor, hopelessly clueless, addle-brained boobs who fell for the rapture nonsense might want to consult a psychiatrist and see about getting some meds-- that ought to work better than an exorcism. There is really nothing to exorcise. But meds might help, and intensive counseling. Of course, if there really is no cure for stupid...

Our weather pattern is so stable lately, with cool mornings and cool evenings and warm days and fairly dry air and only slight rain chances into the early part of October. I would hope for some cooler temps in October. 

Someday I'll do some fiction again. Some DAY. SOME day. Or maybe not. There are books I'd like to re-read but they will be hard to find. Unless I go the eBay or Amazon route and I really hate to do that. There are a few used book sellers in town. I ought to browse. Someday. SOME day. Some DAY. And maybe not. 

Has this ALWAYS been the United States of Stupid?? I think so. It's just that now social media makes it really, really, obvious. I regard my fellow Americans with contempt. I assume they are half-wits and/or psychos until they prove otherwise. A brief conversation is usually enough to make the diagnosis. 

But in most cases I keep everything very shallow and perfunctory because I don't want to know. It is too depressing when one must say, "Oh, CRAP! Another one!"