Turpitude

Slanapa 440

September 2006

August-September was a pretty good month for me. There was a relatively large amount of alone time, which I enjoy and which keeps me calm. There were visits from/to friends that were relaxed and very re-creational. I went to the doctor and had my medications “adjusted,” which has not worked out very well. I also had my yearly visit with the Department of Veterans Affairs doctor.

I am a tidy person; I know I am. Why is it, I wonder, that my basement (read “my nest”) is always such a disaster. I had a good deal of time to contemplate this during my alone time this month. I am afraid that Susie is right; I just have too much stuff. There is no place to put things, so they sit in accusative piles along most walls and in every corner. Sue complains to me and thinks that her words roll off my back. However, I am slowly – oh, so slowly – registering that she is right. I have virtually stopped buying books and am very careful about adding to my collection of communications receivers and transmitters. She doesn’t believe this yet, but I hope to convince her of its truth pretty soon.

Dale was just remarking to me that alone time with nothing special to do tended to reduce a person’s energy and help sink them into lethargy. On the whole I agree. I have had so much free time that I have begun to wonder What is the point of everything? Good for philosophers, bad for someone like me.

John Bullis, late of SLANapa – very late – and his lovely wife, Lettie, stopped by for a visit. John and Lettie live in Boulder City, Nevada, and were in the Northwest for a family affair in Seattle. John is a couple years from a much sought retirement from high school librarianship; one might say he is aching for retirement. Lettie has all ready retired from Personnel with Honeywell. John had much to complain about: work, politics, society; in a word, John is John. He still looks the same and talks the same. Lettie just smiles and tries to keep him from going off the deep end.

My second visit was one I initiated myself: a drive to Seattle to see Frank. It was a hurried trip and I didn’t stay long, but it sure did me a lot of good. I haven’t had a car trip in a long time – if one can call 250 miles a trip – and it felt good to have the wheels turn under me and the wind whistle in my ears. Sigh; The Roads Must Roll. I caught them on a night when the Radio Readers invaded AnnaJo’s domain. Frank and I fled to Borders and their coffee shop for three or four hours’ worth of pleasant conversation with a modicum of companionable silence. I took note that three or four authors I follow had new books out – I will have to keep an eye out at the Goodwill for them. All in all, a nice pre-TanKon visit, one that I think I will likely repeat before the next convention.

I am supposed to go into my doctor every six months to evaluate my medications. It doesn’t seem that I get back as often as that. This visit I reported an increase in my reluctance to participate in life. That put the worry on her and she fiddled with the dosages of my meds, upping the Neurontin and Paxil and cutting back on the Abilify and Geodon. The result has been an increase in my anxiety levels. Must get that fixed. Hmm, I find myself doing just what Dee’s panelist said not to do. Oh, well, I don’t remember complaining here in SLAN before, so perhaps I can be excused this time.

My other doctor is with the DVA. She is treating me for diabetes and high blood pressure. The reason for this appointment was to see how my high blood pressure medication was working. They called me into a large room where I sat in line to have my blood pressure taken. The nurse questioned me a minute, then picked up the ‘phone, and dialed the doctor. They must have both been looking at the same computer screen for my name was not mentioned. Then the nurse told me to increase both meds I take for high blood pressure and sent me home. The doctor didn’t even see me. The whole procedure seems to have been designed to keep the line moving quickly, but I would have rather had at least a glimpse of the doctor. Guess it’s progress – or the DVA’s response to having lots of doctors in Iraq.

Ned – I did not mean that I feared death in modern Viet Nam, merely that that period of my life is still so emotional that I could not/would not go there. You’re right that I would fear Atlanta, just as I worry about Salem (Oregon). When we went to New Orleans a few years ago, we were very careful to stay off the streets after dark in the French Quarter; I don’t really know if that was necessary, but it seemed prudent.

Bob – In Sirens, the full frontal shots were taken with the actresses standing in waist deep water. I don’t think that that counts. I was subtle in my comments regarding Sirens; I believe I said I was glad to have seen it…not that I enjoyed it. I found the freeing up of the heroine’s sexuality disturbing, although perhaps it did not go too far and was thus “all right.” *** You are right about me not being too fond of Eddie Izzard. Was he in drag? I didn’t realize it. I thought it was a cool suit he was in and just had a little too much makeup on. I suppose I expect “entertainers” to be ‘way out of the normal range of presentation. *** About the radio contest (from March): results are out and I won from Oregon. That isn’t saying much; the guys in California and Washington had scores that quadrupled mine. I don’t know how they did it.

Frank – perhaps I was concussed: I ‘don’t sleep well, then tires during the day and needs a nap.’ Is she just stringing you along? No, I didn’t really think so. *** I am a tough sell on humor; guess I am too uptight.

Jerry – I note that you felt you had to explain who the Chad Mitchell Trio was. Boy, does that make me feel old. *** I am absolutely appalled at the voting fraud issues. They hurt me to my American soul. I didn’t think I was too naïve, but I can’t shake the ‘it can’t happen here’ feeling, so I guess I am. The Bastards, how dare they destroy a man’s faith in his country.