I Blame Robert Louis Stevenson!

Yesterday we went to Cha Cha's brother's house (you may remember him as The Lost Sock from Dirty Laundry Podcast) for our Christmas which included the annual Ugly Ornament Contest. I did not win or lose (not sure which one you are if you have the ugliest ornament).

I feel like someone poisoned me yesterday because I had a really bad night. My mind and body are up to their old (not really old) tricks again. Maybe someone slipped me a mickey or I am allergic to something now. My body acted like it did when I was having my out-of-body or out-of mind experiences. I am fairly sure one of the episodes of The X-Files was based on my case. Thankfully, I am off from work today and tomorrow so I can be right as rain again. Where the heck does that idiom come from? Of course, I looked it up and it was originally a British saying. I guess that makes sense since it rains just about every day in Great Britain and if is raining the situation is normal. I like rain but I do not feel like dealing with the Mr. Hyde part of my psyche anymore. I thought he was gone but I Dr. Jekyll is fighting him as well as he can. Perhaps I have allergies and I ate something at the Christmas thing yesterday that I have developed an allergy to? Maybe someone is trying to "off" me and this will be the only clue for you to Sherlock Holmes the heck out of this (wouldn't Holmes be involved in a Jekyll/Hyde situation?). I am really tired and perhaps that is a contributing factor?I am having a bit of an "episode" right now but I have so much I want to get done today that I will push-through. I will not leave the house today though. But we do need some water softener salt...hmmm

Don't tell anyone but I prefer to exhale through my mouth for some reason

I use the meditation and breathing techniques that I learned from Buddhism over the past few years to get me through the spells and slow them down so they do not go further than minor numbness and/or tingling. Happily I am off from work today and tomorrow and I know I will have everything under control by the time I go back to work. If not, I will call off sick but I don't foresee that happening as it usually only last a little while and the Hyde doesn't come back for weeks or months. Now Van Halen is telling me to "Jump." Is that a sign?

I am sure just doing the bills helped my frame of MIND(S)? I have not eaten anything today yet and it is already 13:00 so I should probably try that but I don't want Hyde to show is ugly side again.

I wanted to organize the basement more today and get the Christmas tree back down there. The tree is going down for sure - RIGHT NOW! No time like the present!!! The Christmas present!

The tree is downstairs now and some of the decorations are as well. I miracled it down there. Why isn't "miracled" a word? It is a word now as far as Matt Culture is concerned.

 

 Let There Be ROCKford! 

It kinda bothers me that I am listening to "Don't Fear The Reaper" right now by Blue Oyster Cult on the AC/DC station right now. Foreshadowing? Fate? A clue from the cosmos? I like this station - lots of Queen and AC/DC (of course) and and Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and Kansas and Foreigner and Van Halen and Jim Croce and ZZ Top and Styx... you get the idea (what are probably considered oldies by my kids - I prefer "classic rock").  As Blog is my witness (or witless) "Carry On My Wayward Son" just now came on. Is it a message from Dr. Jekyll? I saw AC/DC in Rockford in 1979; what a great show: AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, The Babys, I cannot remember who else.

Talking about Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece (that took him only three days to get the rough draft done and I am still anguishing over righting my MATTsterpiece three years after I began my research) makes me want to begin write right now. I need to just start writing and then rewrite and edit and rewrite again and fine-tune as I go. I have known the premise of my first book for years but the research has to be done around life and the many hiccups and interruptions that are included.  I should just write and then fill in with the expository stuff later.

Okay, I have some more things to get done as I feel better "for the now." And then, as I typed that, I am having the falling-asleep feeling starting in my stomach and spreading to my legs and arms. It is really weird when I can systematically feel my body falling asleep in phases. I am happy with that because I know it is coming and not be a danger to myself or others. After I have this under control I am going to learn  time travel. That will help me get that book done. I know, I will just plagiarize Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and freak everybody out when I publish it then and am still alive now. I guess I should steal H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and  then you all would really be amazed, huh?

I love this movie! (that's me on the left)

Well, if I am going to get all of that done I had better end here and get to writing and time travelling. I haven't even anything at all today so I should probably do that since it's closer to dinner time than breakfast time. I haven't had anything to drink at all today yet either. No wonder I am having issues.

Weird, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by The Scorpions is on now - I saw them in Rockford too. Curiouser and curiouser. Oh sure, Lewis Carroll wrote that in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass but spell check knows more about writing that Lewis Carroll? Curioser is a word!

Thanks a lot for stopping in and giving me a break from my many chores. I am eating a banana now but I may move to grapes next. I appreciate you very much and am always delighted that you stop here when you can. TTT? (maybe tomorrow)...MITM (out) TA!

Where's The Blog?

Happy New Year a week late! I am having a rare Saturday off today so thought I would write a blog
today. I love to write the blog but I always seem to have other things that take precedent. Speaking of the precedent, we will have a new one of those here in the U. S. and A. in a couple more weeks - UGH! It will sure be a carnival fun-house for a few years.

I have next Saturday off too (using a vacation day) because we are going to Chicago to see Michelle Wolf at The Hideout in Chicago. Splenda and Andy gave us the tickets for Christmas; they are going with us. You may have seen Wolf on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. She is very funny and we are really looking forward to the show. I used to work in a comedy club for several years and I am a tough critic so, if I say she is fumy, she is funny. I know humor is subjective and we all have different tastes in comedy (as in everything) but I am an expect in the field.

Since I seem to be in the humor portion of the blog... last week (or maybe the week before) Cha Cha and I took the Fiat over to Ralph's Car Wash. It is a local place that does a great job on your car - inside and out. While they were washing the car and vacuuming it out and doing the windows and interior... we went to the end where people wait to get their cars back. We went outside as it was a nicer day and one of the dudes brought a car (a Buick) out. The music was blaring and the lyrics being sung (or rapped) were somewhere between a rating of R or X (at the very least NC-17). The bass was pounding the speakers as the guy was wiping the interior and doing the insides of the windows. The F word was being used rather often and the N word (ending in GA rather than GER) was rapped regularly. Cha Cha and I wondered which person waiting for their car would walk out when the guy signaled that the car was ready to go home. We wondered if the guys doing the car changed the stations and pumped the volume but when our car came out the music was off as it was when we gave them the car. We were the youngest people there but at least a few decades and we had the darkest complexions of all the customers. There was a man just a bit younger than us waiting for his car but he had his two young sons with him so that was doubtful. I saw a lady sitting there who looked like Clara Peller and said the Jill, "wouldn't it be funny if it were her car?" Pretty soon the guy waved that the car was ready and guess whose car it was? She tipped the guy, got in the car and boom, boom, boomed out of the parking lot, GOOD FOR HER! I bet she voted for Hillary and Bernie in the Primaries! Jill and I laughed off-and-on all afternoon about that.

We got a new router to make out house even more internet/WiFi friendly. We want to be able to I have been having a tough time hooking it up as technology has changed since we installed the first one. I worked on it for awhile and realized that the old one was fed by coaxial cable from the satellite dish. The new one, of course, uses Ethernet rather than coax so I have traveled around town trying to fin an adapter that turns a coax female end into an Ethernet female end. I went to Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Radio Shack and nobody has it. I know they exist because I checked online (using access from the coaxial hookup) before I went gallivanting around town. So, I ordered one on line and we will just have to have to deal with the new 2016 version (that is so last week) until we catch up to the 2017 technology.

I have been having problems sleeping again but I think it is because I have been fighting a cold for the past week or so. I have been taking ADVIL PM or ZzzQuil (alternating) at bedtime before bed but I have still been waking-up at 02:00 or 03:00 every morning.  I have been having strange dreams every night too. I guess I would classify them as nightmares though I am not scared of much so they don't bother me. I am really good at steering my dreams while I sleep. I can change the course of my dreams using my mind. I have always been able to do that somewhat but I am really good at it now. One I have had a few times over the last few weeks is like The Sorcerer's Apprentice but with metal folding chairs. I hope I am just about done with this cold but 'tis the season. I have never seen Jeff or my former dogs (Maisy, Ernie, Barney...) sick so why do we say "sick as a dog?" What about sick as a frog? Or sick as an antelope or something?

I am done for today and who knows when I will write a blog again? Maybe tomorrow? I appreciate you being here whenever I do get the urge. Thank you, so much, for that. I hope you're having a great 2017 and have a great what's left of your weekend. TTT?...MITM (out) TA!

Ugly ornament contest at Cha Cha's brother's house tomorrow - I am very hopeful this year. I may even wear my ugly sweater and top hat? TA (again)!