Halloween In the 'Hood

Today is Halloween, the last day of October 2021.  Two months left to go until we can finish this cheap-ass knock-off of 2020.

Today is the day for equality of all elements, for it obviates all rules for harmonious association.  

Trick or treaters in my neighborhood today.  I recognize Mikkel Nielsen, Indiana Jones, and Harley Quinn.  I dunno about the rest.

Oh, by the way, remember that meeting at a neighbor's house I mentioned the other day?  The reason for the meeting is that the Atlanta Beltline wants to run their mixed-use trial down the private drive behind those children.

I hate to sound like a NIMBY, but we neighbors are opposed to the plan.

 

Talk Show

The weekend is here and tomorrow is Halloween.  Only 62 days remain in 2021.  Use them wisely.  

Today is the day for hidden expedient means, for they are sensitive to many kinds of suffering.

It's Larry Wilmore's birthday!  The comedian, television host, and former Daily Show correspondent turns 60 years young today.

Speaking of television hosts, Steve Allen, the first host of The Tonight Show from 1953 to 1956, died on this day in 2000 at age 78.The man basically invented the talk-show genre.   Impermanence is swift.  

Anyway, carry on with whatever it was you were doing.  Nothing to see here today.  Maybe I'll come up with something tomorrow.  Who knows?

Surprise Delivery

It is the 302nd day of 2021.  No trees have fallen on my house for a full year now.  Today is the day for a mind without enmity or intimacy, for if we can equally abide enemies and intimates, we are impartial.

As previously reported, I bought tickets to a number of shows back last April through June, back before the delta variant spike when covid numbers were low.  I wound up not going to those shows because of the increased number of delta cases, and because it made sense to me not to take unnecessary risks at my vulnerable age.  But last night, for the first time since the pandemic broke, I went to an indoor gathering at a neighbor's house (even though this is Georgia, it was too cool and rainy for the gathering to be outside).  About 20 of us spent about two hours, unmasked, in a cozy, comfortable living room, with a low fire in the hearth and beer and wine served by our gracious hosts.  That's the "riskiest" behavior I've participated in since the Mattiel concert at The Earl back in February 2020.

Covid numbers are down again now - not as low as they were last summer, but nearing an average of 1,000 new cases per day, well below the Labor Day peak of almost 10,000 cases per day.  Arguably, it's  now relatively "safe" to get together with neighbors again, just as it's probably relatively "safe" to go to a show at The Earl again.  Like the Nation of Language show at The Earl tonight.  The one I had tickets to.  The one I didn't attend.

Excuse the double negatives, but I didn't not go because of the covids.  I didn't go because I just plain forgot.  I forgot the show was tonight until almost 11:00 pm, when it didn't make sense anymore to try to run down and catch them.  

Did I forget because I'm so aged and senile or because I'm so out of sync with the live music world that it didn't even occur to me to track the show date?  Or is that two different ways of saying the same thing? After two years of pandemic isolation, has my mind turned to such lemon jello that I don't even know when shows are anymore, even though I track them right over there to the right?

Here's more evidence of my mental decline - tonight, after feeding the cats at 7:00 p.m., oblivious to "doors open" time at The Earl, and after scooping out their litter box, I was heading out the door to throw out a trash bag full of feline feces when I saw an Amazon package on my doorstep.  Not expecting a delivery, I thought, "Oh, no! The driver dropped a package at the wrong doorstep."  I checked to see who the package was for, ready to trot over to some neighbor's house to leave the package at its rightful location, but saw that it was addressed to me.

That's odd.  I didn't recall ordering anything from Amazon.  Did I order something over my phone one night while drunk?  That has happened before but I've always remembered placing the order, even if it was something I wouldn't have ordered if the time of night and my blood alcohol level weren't the same number.  

I brought the package in and opened it and there they were - the free covid home test kits I ordered from the Fulton County Board of Health.  I remember placing the order last Monday - it was over morning coffee and I was wide awake and lucid, but they advised me to allow "3 to 4 weeks" for shipping.  It arrived in four days!  It didn't even occur to me that the package was the test kits because a) I didn't think they'd be coming via Amazon, and b) my mind wasn't expecting them until sometime after Election Day.

So was the "surprise" in the surprise delivery a sign of cognitive decline, or an excusable oversight given the circumstances?  Was it in any way connected to forgetting about the Nation of Languages show at The Earl tonight?  Am I coming down with dementia, or are these lapses an excusable part of modern life?

Don't ask me - I'd be the last to know.

Zeta

Today is the day to expiate causes, for with it we attain salvation.

It was one year ago today that Hurricane Zeta came through Atlanta and dropped a tree on my house, causing extensive damage.  It took over six months to settle my claim and get all the repairs done.  That's the reason I obsessively look at the National Hurricane Center's forecast each day.  For the record, it's  still quiet out in the Atlantic, except for the nor'easter that's now moving east away from North America.  Nothing's currently forecast to head this way.

Covid cases continue to decline in Georgia.  The average number of new cases per day is now 1,141, down from the August 31 peak of 9,244 cases per day.

It's Jamie xx's birthday.  The musician and producer turns 33 today.

Names and Forms

Hi!  Today is Wednesday, the 27th day of October, 2021.  This is the day for knowledge of names and forms, for it clears away many obstacles.  65 more days remain until the end of the year.

It's Fran Lebowitz' birthday. "Romantic love is mental illness," she once said. "But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality, and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw."

Lou Reed died on this day in 2013.  Brian Eno once said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years, but that everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.

I had a copy of that record, you know, the one with the Andy Warhol banana peel sticker on the cover, and listened to it a lot around 1971 and '72,  but I never started a band.  Well, that's not completely true.  Me and some of my housemates attempted to form a band around 1974, but it was really more just a bunch of loser guys pretending to be a band.  We'd jam in the house and never played publicly.  We spent more time worrying about a name - I think we eventually came up with "Burnt Member" - and designing a logo (a burning pepper shaker), than learning our instruments.  We came up with a lot of titles for imaginary songs but only bothered to write a few of those songs.  But we had a band name, a logo for our first album's front cover, and a track list of all the songs that we only had to write, after we figured out how to actually play.  If we were inspired by Velvet Underground, we weren't aware of it.  What an embarrassment to look back on! 

I remember once seeing the band Black Lips perform here in their hometown of Atlanta.  At one point between songs, one of the members, I think Ian St. Pe, said to the audience something like, "At this point, you're probably thinking 'I can do that.'  And that's the point - you can.  Go home and start a band with some friends.  Learn two or three chords, that's all you need and you'll figure the rest out from there."  Eventually, he promised, we'd be opening for Black Lips somewhere.

I think it can be argued that Patti Smith inspired more people to form a band than Lou Reed or Black Lips or anyone else.  I've already purchased my ticket for Big Ears 2022, and this week the festival announced that they've added Smith to their already stacked line up.  It'll be my first time seeing her perform, but afterward I doubt I'll be inspired to go out and reform Burnt Member.

October 26

 

Today is the day for right means, for they accompany right conduct.

On this day in 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru (Ayers Rock) to the local Aboriginal tribe.

I got my covids vaccine booster shot today.  Moderna again - I didn't mix and match.   The average number of covids cases per day here in Georgia continues to drop, and is now down to 1,312 cases per day, the lowest level since July 20th.  I wish I could say that the decreasing caseloads in Georgia were due to vaccinations, but Georgia in the 9th least vaccinated state in the country. Vermont, the most vaccinated state in the country, is currently experiencing a covids spike for some reason.  The per capita number of cases in Vermont (33 per 100,000) is higher than the per capita rate in Georgia (12 per 100,000). Some speculate that the colder weather in Vermont is driving people indoors, where the covids spread better, but no one is really sure why. There's still a lot we don't know about the virus.

Everything was calm out in the Atlantic until it wasn't.  Although not technically a tropical storm, a nor'easter has suddenly popped up about 200 miles south-southeast of Cape Cod, and is wrecking havoc in  flood-prone parts of New York and New Jersey.  Meanwhile, a "bomb cyclone" is ravaging the Pacific Northwest, and tornados once again tore through parts of the midwest in between the nor'easter and the bomb cyclone.  Good times . . . 

Finally, the Georgia Secretary of State's web page acknowledges that they received and approved my mail-in election ballot.  

That's what passes for news around here lately.  We'll pick this up again tomorrow.

RIP

Today is the day for pursuit of abundant knowledge, for with it we truly reflect on the many things.

Sadako Sasaki died on this day in 1955, age 12.  Impermanence is swift.  At the age of two, Sasaki was with her mother at her Hiroshima home about one mile from ground zero when American forces dropped an atomic bomb. She was blown out the window and when her mother ran out to find her, she found Sasaki alive with no apparent injuries. While they were fleeing, Sasaki and her mother were caught in black rain. Her grandmother rushed back to the house and was never seen again; she was later presumed to be dead. Though severely irradiated, Sasaki survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha – the Japanese term for "bomb-affected person."  Sasaki is remembered for folding more than one thousand origami cranes before her death. Today, there are statues of her holding a paper crane in both the Hiroshima Peace Park and the Seattle Peace Park.

Happy B.D., Whiterose!

Today, Sunday, October 24, is the day for love of awareness of the myriad things. That love encourages us to become aware of the myriad things.  

It's B.D. Wong's birthday.  Wong has played many roles, but is known in these circles Minister Zhi Zhang, aka Whiterose, in the cyber series, Mr. Robot. Wong turns 61 today.

On this day in 2005, civil-rights activist Rosa Parks died of natural causes in her Detroit apartment at age 92. Impermanence is swift.

As you probably know by now, the Boston Red Sox lost Game 6 of the ALCS and will not go on to the World Series this year.  Their season is over. Impermanence is, well, you get it.  Instead, the Houston Astros (boo!) will face the Smyrna Braves (boo!) in the World Series.

Now, I may have already given my argument away, but I refuse to call them the Atlanta Braves because they turned their backs on the City of Atlanta and moved out to the lily-white suburb of Smyrna, Georgia in 2017.  Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, too focused on making a sweetheart deal with the Atlanta Falcons for a new, taxpayer-funded football stadium, let the Braves skip out of town without so much as a counter-offer.  

I've always been a die-hard Red Sox fan, but I so enjoy urban life and identification with a big city, that I had season tickets to the Braves from 1994 through 1998. I had Pittsburgh Pirates series tickets the year (1993) that I lived there.  But I cheered the Braves on from the stands at their home playoff and World Series games during those years; fortunately for me, the Red Sox weren't their opponent for any of those seasons.  I eventually got discouraged that for all their opportunities and all of their talent, including arguably the best-ever pitching rotation in the game (Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, etc.), they only managed to win one World Series title, but I wasn't inclined to turn my back on them altogether. 

That is, until they turned their back on me and on Atlanta and moved out to Cobb County, a white Republican stronghold.  "It's easier to get to the game now," they proclaimed, which may be true for fans out in the distant suburbs and exurbs, but shows that they didn't consider us urban folks living in the City as their fan base. Besides, coming into the Big City for a baseball game, taking public transportation, and experiencing different people with different lifestyles is a formative educational experience for both the young and old alike.  It helps people bind with the City, but the Braves move out to the suburbs only serves to increase the existing partisan divide between urban and rural Georgia, and increase the social and political alienation. "You shouldn't have to go into that dirty old town just to enjoy a baseball game" is the implied message.

I grew up on Long Island, at the time (1960s) a predominantly white, Republican area demographically, not unlike Cobb County today.  I don't recall a single child of color in any of my elementary school classes.  But going into The Bronx for a Yankees game exposed me for the first time to City life, to predominantly black neighborhoods and crowds, and to a different lifestyle than I had experienced out in the 'burbs.  It was eye-opening, and as I grew into my teens I enjoyed trips into the City without adult supervision, and as a grown man I've always preferred to live in an urban setting, be it Boston, Atlanta, or Pittsburgh.  My years in small-town Albany, New York (1986-1992) were among the most depressing in my life.

Today, folks out in the Atlanta suburbs pack their kids into their SUV, drive to another suburb, park in the appointed decks and lots, walk through the amusement-park themed development around the stadium, and then return to their suburban homes without so much as a taste of the City the team is named for.

I couldn't be more disappointed, and I can only wish the Smyrna Braves a rapid defeat at the hands of the Houston Astros, another team I despise but for whole other reasons I won't get into now.  

Former Mayor Kasim Reed, who let the Braves leave town, left office in disgrace himself, riddled with charges of corruption and under criminal investigation.  He eventually got cleared of charges, although many in his administration did not, and is running for Mayor again. Polling shows he is statistically tied with Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore in a crowded slate of candidates. Not only because of the Braves but for all of the corruption around him, when I mailed in my ballot on Friday, it did not choose Reed for Mayor. I won't forget and I'll vote with my conscience. I voted for Moore because she's more than qualified and is the one candidate who can defeat Reed.

Atlanta, Redux

Today is the day for enjoyment of the meaning of dharma, for with it we seek the meaning of dharma.

While you ponder what that one means, here's the latest batch of pictures of Atlanta I've culled from my social media feeds:

ALL CAPS (Shouting)

There are only 70 days left to 2021. Use them wisely. Today is the day for not being foolish, as it stops the killing of living things.

Today would have been the 72nd birthday of pioneering punk rock musician Stiv Bators (The Dead Boys), but he was hit by a car in Paris in June 1990.  He was taken to a hospital but reportedly left before seeing a doctor after waiting several hours and assuming he was not injured. Reports indicate that he died in his sleep on June 4, 1990 as the result of a traumatic brain injury. Impermanence is swift.

There is still no significant storm activity likely to form a hurricane in the Atlantic, and the average number of new covid cases per day in Georgia (1,436) dropped below 1,500 for the first time since July 23, 2021.  

The Boston Red Sox play a must-win Game 6 of the ALCS tonight in Houston.  Clutch pitcher Nathan Eovaldi starts for the Sox.  Best wishes to the boys.

I voted today.  Not that I went to a polling place for early voting, but instead dropped my absentee ballot at the Post Office this afternoon.  It's an off-year election, but Atlanta mayor and several City Council seats are on the ballot.  I voted by mail because I'm over 65 and because it apparently pisses off conservatives.

On my checklist of daily activities, in addition to eating, showering, and meditating, today I completed the NY Times' Spelling Bee puzzle (in record time, I might add) and got in my two-mile walk along the Beltline. It's now after 4:00 p.m., so as soon as I finish this post, I'm off to play some Fallout 76 before cheering on the Red Sox.  Also, it's officially the weekend, so the bar opens after dinner tonight, after I feed the cats at 7:00 p.m.

Final thought:  Speaking of video games, you know that old saying about how even though it's a 50-50 chance, every time you try to plug into a USB port, you're upside down on the first try?  Well, many PC video games make you use the Caps Lock key for certain commands, and even though it's technically a 50-50 chance if Caps Lock is on or off when you try to type something later, it's ALWAYS in the "On" position.

Personal Pastime

And on this day, we do not quarrel.  Refraining from quarrelling stops angry accusations.

On this day in 1975, during the 12th inning of Game 6 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, Carlton Fisk hit a long fly ball down the left-field line of Fenway Park. In an iconic moment, Fisk, watching the ball while he trotted down the first base line, started waving his arms to his right as if he was trying to coax the ball to "stay fair." The ball did indeed stay fair and the Red Sox won the game, 7-6, and tied the Series (they lost Game 7 and the Series as 1975 was still part of "the curse" years). 

The Red Sox didn't fare so well in Game 5 of the ALCS last night.  In fact, they were downright awful, losing the game to the Houston Astros, 9-1.  At one point, combined with the previous Game 4, the Sox had gone 14 innings without scoring a run.  You don't win pennants like that.  The series resumes tomorrow in Houston and Boston has to win both games to advance to the World Series.  Anything's possible and miracles do happen in baseball, frequently to the Boston Red Sox, but it's hard to be optimistic about their chances.  Also, if they don't start hitting again, they probably don't deserve to be in the World Series.

The puzzling thing is that the Sox were hitting so well earlier in this series and in the ALDS before that.  They hit a total of three grand-slam home runs in two games earlier in this series.  But starting with Game 4, their bats suddenly went cold and they seemingly couldn't buy a hit.  Baseball is a game of confidence and momentum, but I'll leave it to others to determine what exactly happened that made the hit parade suddenly come to a halt.

I'll say this for retirement - you've got all the time you need to watch complete baseball games.  3½ to 4 hours for one single entertainment?  No problem - there's plenty of time to engage in all my other leisure activities.  

There are several things I try to fit into each waking day.  In addition to the usual, mundane activities of cooking and eating, showering, and meditating, I try to walk at least two miles each day, usually on the Beltline trail near my home, and I try to keep up with current events.  I subscribe to several daily newsletters (the NY Times' morning briefing, Axios' Atlanta newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson, and others) which I read over morning breakfast and coffee. In the evening, if I can also catch Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show, and Colbert's opening monologue, all the better. 

Some time is spent each day composing something on this blog.  In addition to writing, I also try to read for at least one hour each day; right now, I'm on book two (The Dark Forest) of The Three-Body Problem trilogy. After the trilogy, I'm looking forward to reading Richard Powers' Bewilderment and the new Jonathan Franzen novel.  There's also the weekly issues of The New Yorker to keep up with.  On the other end of the intellectual spectrum, I try to spend some time each day with comic books - I have the Marvel Unlimited app on my phone, giving me access to the complete library of all Marvel comic books.  I'm currently working my way chronologically through the Fantastic Four series, from its 1961 origin to present.  That's well over 500 comics. My work is cut out for me, and I'm reading two books per day.

To keep my mind sharp, I try to complete the NY Times crossword puzzle each day, as well as their Spelling Bee puzzle.  On Fridays, I look forward to their weekly news quiz.  How long all that takes me depends on how difficult the puzzles and quizzes are and how sharp my mind is that day.  

The video game pastime is well documented on this blog and doesn't need elaboration at this time, other than noting that it takes a lot of self-control not to let the games gobble up all my time.  In fact, I've instituted an informal, self-imposed rule - no video game playing before 4:00 p.m. I don't want to be that guy sitting indoors glued to a computer screen on a lovely day.  However, I do allow myself exceptions, such as rainy days, or days when I simply don't want to do the other things (fyi, it's raining here today).

Music has always been an important part of my life, and it fits in so well with everything else that I don't have to set some time aside specifically for that.  I can listen to music while reading, while writing, while out for a walk.  But sometimes I do find myself just perusing the New Releases on Spotify, or browsing through Bandcamp, or clicking through suggested YouTube videos, or revisiting some old MP3 files on my backup hard drive. Little sonic adventures.

I don't like to mindlessly watch "whatever's on" television any more like I once did, but instead I seek out shows and movies to stream that I enjoy.  Right now, I'm on my own, personal Pedro Almodovar film festival - I've seen many of them before, but it's fun to watch them sequentially. Recently, I've watched Volver (my personal favorite of his), Tie Me Up Tie Me Down, The Skin I Live In, Bad Education, Broken Embraces, and I'm So Excited, as well as his recent short The Human Voice.  I still have Talk to Her, Julieta, Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Pain and Glory, Pepi Luci Bom, Live Flesh, and High Heels to look forward to, among many others.

One final note: alcohol, while enjoyable, dulls the mind and precludes some other activities (it's hard to concentrate on a book while drunk and impossible to meditate).  So another self-imposed rule I've instituted is I don't drink on weekdays.  On weekends, I don't drink until after dinner, and I don't eat dinner until after I've fed the cats, and the cats don't get fed until 7:00 p.m.  

What keeps my days interesting is that I can't squeeze all of these activities in on most days.  Sometimes, walking time eats into comic book time, or a difficult puzzle will preempt my reading.  Prime-time sporting events like the Red Sox games almost always blocks me from streaming movies.  

I know the stereotypical retiree is supposed to putter around the garden all day or redecorate the home, and eventually I may get around to that, but right now my little distractions and diversions are entertaining enough for me.  So until I get bored of all this, the house and garden may have to wait.

Go, Red Sox!

For Junko

This is the day for reflection on impurity.  Today we can abandon the mind that is tainted by desire.

There's also a full moon today.  The so-called Hunter's Moon, named for Hunter Biden, will rise at 7:15 p.m. tonight and set at 8:36 p.m. tomorrow morning.  Just kidding, tonight's full moon is named for gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.  But seriously, the Hunter's Moon commemorates the time of year that animals fatten up in preparation for the colder months ahead and hunting season is underway as hunters stock up on meat for the winter.

Bela Lugosi was born on this day in 1882.  Were he still alive, today would have been his 139th birthday, which makes sense because he was freaking Dracula.  But the mortal Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 in his Los Angeles apartment while taking a nap. Impermanence is swift.

Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei died on this day in 2016 (impermanence is swift).  In 1975, Tabei was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, despite the fact that while climbing, an avalanche struck her camp and buried Tabei and four of her fellow climbers under snow. She lost consciousness until sherpa guides dug her out, and although bruised and injured by the incident, barely able to walk and forced to spend two days recovering, she resumed the expedition and continued leading her team up the mountain. She was also the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent.  In later years, Tabei organized environmental projects to clean up rubbish left behind by climbers on Everest, and led annual climbs up Mount Fuji for youth affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.  Asteroid 6897 Tabei was named for her, and in 2019 a mountain range on Pluto was named Tabei Montes in her honor.  

Seasonably cool weather persists this week in Georgia.  The forecast high temperature for today is 79⁰, although the low will drop to 52⁰.  I actually had to turn the heat on for a few hours yesterday to warm up the interior of my house, and I've got the heavy winter blankets on my bed.  It's nice weather for enjoying outdoor walks.

Out in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center continues to report no developing storms at this time, although we're at the peak of the usual hurricane season right now. And the average number of new covid cases per day in Georgia is now 1,547, well below the August 31 peak of 9,244 cases.  Good times.

The Red Sox got clobbered in the Ninth Inning of Game 4 of the ALCS last night, blowing a 2-2 Eighth Inning tie and giving up 7 runs to the Houston Astros.  The series is now tied at 2 games each, so we've effectively got a best-of-3 series ahead of us.  Game 5 is this afternoon (5:00 p.m.) in Fenway and I'm still confident the Sox are the better team and will prevail.

Finally, for those of you keeping track of such things, instead of a second playthrough of Beyond: Two Souls, I reinstalled the video game Fallout 76 and started a replay of that.  I quit the game back in 2019, frustrated by it's numerous bugs and lack of NPCs, but the developers have significantly improved the game since then and I'm finding this second playthrough much more enjoyable.  The bugs have largely been fixed and the game now has bona fide NPCs and coherent story lines. It's finally an actual video game now, and not just a setting for a potential video game.  On this second playthrough, I'm experiencing an odd mixture of the familiar and the novel.  

And such are the quiet days of my retirement - playing Fallout 76, watching the Red Sox on television, keeping an eye on covid and hurricane statistics, enjoying my afternoon walks, exploring music, and reading when I can find the time.  Not a bad way to spend one's time.

Cherry

 Okay, now it's Tuesday for real.  October 19th.  2021, or so they tell me.

Today is the day for belief and understanding, for with them, we decisively comprehend the paramount truth.

On this day in 1995, musician Don Cherry died at age 58 in Malaga, Spain. Impermanence is swift. Cherry is best known for his long association with free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, which began in the late 1950s. He also performed alongside John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Sun Ra, Ed Blackwell, and Albert Ayler.   In the 1970s, Cherry became a pioneer in world fusion music, drawing on traditional African, Middle Eastern, and Hindustani music.  He was a true hero of mine, and opened my mind and ears to much of what I still listen to even to this day.

Here's Cherry performing in Italy in 1976.  The other musicians in this set are his wife, Moki Cherry  (vocals and tamboura), Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau, percussion, and vocals), and Giampiero Pramaggiore (guitar, flute, and vocals).  His step-daughter, Neneh Cherry (Moki's daughter from a previous marriage), and son, David Ornette Cherry, join him on stage for the last piece, after the flute song.

Late Night Post

It's still Monday, the 18th day of October, 2021, although for only a few more minutes.  By the time I finish this post, I'll probably have to back-date it to October 18th.

Today is the day for living without hindrances, for it sets the mind free of doubt.

I'm posting late because I missed posting yesterday, and today I got caught up watching the Red Sox in the ALCS.  They won tonight, 12-3, and had a grand-slam home run in their 6-run second inning, the third grand slam in this ALCS, a record.  This post-season, they beat the Yankees in the Wild Card game, then beat the Rays in the ALDS, and they're going to beat the Astros in this series.  They'll probably beat the Smyrna Braves in the World Series, too.

Fuck the Braves.  They moved out of Atlanta, turning their big fat asses on the city and their fans, and I'll never forget or forgive them.  The Red Sox will make them wish they moved even further away, like overseas.

Tomorrow's Tuesday (technically, it's already Tuesday now).  We'll take these matters up later.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Today is the day for the non-arising of ill will.  When ill will does not arise, we protect ourselves and protect others.

It's a good day today.  A cold front blew through this morning with gusty winds, and temperatures fell some 20 degrees.  Tomorrow morning is forecast to be an almost nippy 48 degrees.  I'm gonna have to break out some blankets tonight.

The average number of new covid cases in Georgia (1,723) dropped below 2,000 cases for the first time since my birthday (July 25), and way below the August 31 delta-variant peak of 9,244 cases per day.  No one is really sure why - Georgia has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country - but I'll take any reduction is caseloads that I can get.

Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center is tracking no developing storms at this time. No hurricane activity. None. The ocean is as calm as it ever can be for this time of year.  

So that's all good news - cool weather, no hurricanes, and dropping covid numbers.  Meanwhile, the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs beat a surprisingly good Kentucky Wildcats football team, 30-13, to go 7-0 on the season and retain their No. 1 ranking.

And the Boston Red Sox bounced back from last night's Game 1 loss in the American League Championship Series and beat the Houston Astros in Game 2 today with not one, but two grand slam home runs in the first two innings.  That's the first time in modern baseball history that there has been two grand slams in one game.  The final score was 9-5 and the series moves to Fenway Park on Monday night.

So let's acknowledge reasons to be cheerful.  The good guys are winning, at least in sports, and the world is getting healthier.  It's easy to prevent the arising of ill will under these conditions.

Photo Essay

It's Friday!  TGIF! Today is the day for inhibition of self-conceit.  With inhibition of self-conceit, wisdom is fulfilled.

On this day in 1917, Dutch dancer, courtesan and alleged spy Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad.  Impermanence is swift.  She was not bound at the time of her execution and refused a blindfold.  Defiantly, she reportedly blew a kiss to the firing squad.

Time for a photo essay?  Sure, why not, I need to clean out my picture cache anyway.  So here's a photo essay to finish out the week: