What a Load of Crap

• Might be a short one.
• I write about cars a lot.
• Used to love them.
• Now I kinda hate them.
• Which started with the Mini.
• The car that put me in a massive debt hole.
• I’m still paying for repairs on that car.
• I haven’t owned it since 2018.
• Traded it for the Subaru, which has been a pretty good car.
• At least until February.
• Took it in for a tune-up after the trip to the Mayo.
• The tune-up resulted in the engine blowing.
• I left out some mechanic trips in the middle, but, ah, there you go.
• I finally got it back last Friday.
• Had not visibly seen it since March.
• This morning, I started it to go to my infusion clinic visit at St. Francis.
• Check Engine light.
• GFD.
• I shut it off, went back in the house and got Steph’s keys, drove the Pilot to the appt.
• On the way, someone turned out in front of me, close enough I had to lock up the brakes to not hit them.
• I honked.
• They stopped their car in the road in front of me, rolled down their window, and flipped me off.
• What in the fuck is the matter with people?
• Especially driving.
• Selfishness?
• Complete lack of road awareness?
• I had to tell the nurse not to take my blood pressure for a while.
• Now I … don’t want to write.
• I’m doing it anyway.
• Because habits don’t do themselves.
• Is it hard for everyone to pull out of a bad mood nosedive?
• Is that just me?
• Could be just me.
• Systemic exacerbation.
• A bad habit of easy provocation.
• The comfort of habitualized anger and frustration.
• (I made up a word there, apparently.)
• (WTFE. Shakespeare did it all the time.)
• (Not that I’m Shakespeare.)
• If you’re easily provoked, you’re easily manipulated.
• Which, you know, everyone is trying to do to us these days.
• I dislike the thought of being manipulated.
• Another anger trigger.
• Life’s hard, y’all.
• NP: Metallica, “The Outlaw Torn.”
• I know fans revolted when they released Load.
• It fostered a time when it was not cool to be a Metallica fan.
• I listened to that album a lot.
• Still do.
• (Eagerly awaiting the re-mastered edition that comes out this week.)
• Came out the June after I graduated from OSU.
• Some of those songs are so damn good.
• “Bleeding Me”
• “Hero of the Day”
• “The Outlaw Torn”
• Not metal.
• So?
• Everyone crying about them not making another Master of Puppets.
• Braver as an artist to make what you want instead of trying to please the fans over and over again.
• They’re making the music, not you.
• You don’t have to like it.
• Don’t have to listen.
• Anyway.
• That’s ranty.
• The … she’s not a nurse, really, but the woman who always takes my blood pressure, when taking it the first time today (was high, obviously) asked me if I liked tools.
• “What?”
• “Your shirt.”
• “Oooh. No that’s one of my bands.”
• “What?”
• “Tool. They’re a band.”
• “There’s a band named Tool?”
• She’s older. I could see her not knowing.
• But then, the nurse re-doing my dressing, and younger than me, said, “Oh, I did not know that either.”
• …
• I mean, put me in the home already I guess?
• Goddammit.
• You know what?
• I don’t care.
• Embrace the aging.
• Do not go gentle, right?
• (I’m going to beat that dead horse. It’s part of the tattoo plan, which Steph added to recently.)
• (More excitement. I just have to talk the hematologist into it.)
• Watched Sinners last night.
• Not bad.
• I think Jordan overacts a bit.
• But wasn’t bad.
• Vampires and a bit of Southern Gothic magic.
• The end-credit scene might’ve been better than the movie.
• Kaia dug it.
• Wanted to talk about it when it was finished.
• Apparently she always wants to talk about movies she likes.
• Gotta push her to do it.
• C’mon, kid, out with your opinions!
• Unleash the hounds!
• We had a good talk.
• Even as she liked it a lot, she picked it to pieces.
• The evaluator/critic is strong in her.
• Proud dad moment.
• Been a lot of those lately.
• The outline for her … fan-fiction epic is like 90-pages long?
• Not going to get hung up on what comes next when she’s writing.
• We’ve had a lot of creative progress around here lately.
• Don’t want to talk about the no-hitter much.
• Strange things are afoot …
• Discord thing of the week so far: “We don’t trust those who don’t think in movie quotes.”
• I will get back on that horse.
• Your life would be shit without creatives doing what they do.
• They should be paid properly and accorded the credit they deserve.
• That’s a List Motif, btw, since a lot of you are newish and playing the home game.
• Do not take art in any form for granted.
• It’s hard to create, no matter the form.
• It enriches our lives.
• Makes them bearable.
• Better.
• It should be celebrated, and creators rewarded.
• If we’re not doing that …
• I’m out.
• Have the Tuesday you deserve.

And I still haven’t written about Hollywood being creatively chickenshit … Sigh. Still on the TBW list.