2021 Diary: Disenchantment on Many Levels

2021 Diary

1/19/2021: Up at 6:50 AM, just a little too late to watch cartoons. Prayers. I had been thinking of going to Dollar General, but with the rain in the forecast and my right leg hurting so much, decided not to. Got dressed and put on my shoes, which are finally dry and should help my legs, my old sandals that I had to wear yesterday being a little shifty under my feet. Took my medicine and opened the house up, read my Bible chapter, then caught up diary.

At 9 AM I went in and got the stuff to make Kam his bacon and eggs. Made myself ramen and eggs, and a toast, cheese and turkey sandwich. At lunch Andy brought me a banana, my washrag from the dryer, and a letter from Medicare. At 1:30 PM I went in and prepped for the cabbage fry. The weather, which was supposed to be rainy, was not, but that kind of neither/nor weather that happens so often in the latter half of January.

At 3:30 PM I started the cabbage fry and heated the oven and popped the sausages in. Ran the garbage bins in from the road. Fed the animules. Came back in at 4:30 PM. Sent Alan a new part of the tobacco song I found in my reading today. Ordered some stuff from HEB. Rosary at 6 PM. Clouds and some wind starting to gather. Managed to write one paragraph on Koppa.

Went in at 7:30 PM, made Kameron taquitos and corndogs, washed dishes, and got the last fried cabbage & taters & carrots & mushrooms & onions [really need to come up with a short phrase to describe that – maybe an acronym?]. Watched Gomer Pyle and Green Acres, then read a bit (Ancient Poems and Ballads) then to bed.

 

1/20/2021: Biden’s Inauguration Day. Have I lived so long that Whoopi Goldberg is playing Mother Abigail in “The Stand”? Up at 6:30 AM. Prayers and Bible. Shower and medicine. Going out to wait on the porch at 8 AM for my HEB delivery. Hear birds outside; the weather must be fairly clear right now.

Got the delivery at 8:30 AM, including 2 cans of chili and beans I had not ordered, but did not pay for either. Saw a great grey heron flying across the backyard; awesome. At 9 AM I fried Kam some bacon and eggs and had some scrambled eggs myself. Got a couple of cucumbers that I put in the salad. Saw that Netflix had the new season “Disenchantment” on and spent most of the day watching it. Entertaining and fun without being narratively engaging; a lot of stuff happened without there seeming to be any reason beyond something had to happen. During that time, I ate raviolis, 5 sausages, and 3 chicken egg rolls and drank Big Red Zero. Avoided watching the Biden inauguration. John called at 2:37 PM and we talked a while. He is going to the doctor tomorrow. He directed me to a show on Netflix (which is pretty coincidental as I haven’t watched Netflix for months until I looked up “Disenchantment” today) of Martin Scorsese interviewing Fran Liebowitz, which I started watching after Dis and watched until about 10:40 PM.

Made linguini with spinach and mushrooms in poblano sauce for supper at 3:45 PM. Fed the animules and went in about 4:30 PM. Watched Fran. Also ate chicken a la king with 3 slices of bread and another can of ravioli. At 7:35 PM went in and cleaned kitchen. Watched Fran. About 10 PM or a little thereafter prayed rosary while I washed my own dishes, swept, dusted, and made bed. Stopped watching Fran as there are about 5 more episodes to go. It’s now 11 PM and I should hit the hay, but it might take me a while to wind down. Bed (or should I say couch?) before midnight.

 

1/21/2021: Awake at 5:40 AM. Prayers, Bible. Dressed as if ready to go to town. Cartoons at 6 AM.

Watched the last episode of Fran in “Pretend It’s a City”. Kameron called just at 9 AM when I was off to Family Dollar. Went there, bought some stuff but not the mirror I thought was there (Dollar General?), then back home and shared some Underwood Deviled Ham with Kam and baked him some cinnamon rolls. Then ate peaches and another can of deviled ham sandwiches, then laid down. Andy brought me a tax form at lunch. Watched “The Professor and the Madman,” then on to tax form from SSI. At supper made chili, rotini, and corn on the cob; but I had the leftover linguini. Amy came by to visit and I said Hi as she, Susan, and Andy talked for about an hour. Went in to wash up at 8 PM and had chili. Rosary at 9 PM and I cleaned up. Ready for bed, I think, here at 9:30 PM.

 

1/22/2021: Up a little before 6 AM. Prayers, Bible. Cartoons at 6 AM. Medicine. Out the door at 7:20 AM, went to Texas Cooler to get 10 Megamillion Numbers (jackpot’s up to $970 million). Weather a little drippy at first but it cleared up after I passed the park. Went to DG and got some Spam, sugar wafers, cooking oil, and so on, and headed home. Leg a little hurty, but they cannot stop you, they cannot break you! Home about 8:50 AM. Kam called me for bacon and eggs after 9 AM (later he needs me to supervise while he makes grilled cheese for school). Now almost 10 AM.

So at 10:30 AM I went in and supervised. Kam did very well, except he needs to learn to spread butter. He digs and chops, rather than skims and spreads, but that does get the butter on the bread. He even flipped it to the other side well. I went in at 12:30 PM and made some Spam salad; Susan came home to give Kam a computer in the middle of it, but that was okay. Had a couple of sandwiches. The weather had turned into beauty, sunny but mild. At 2:30 PM I started frying the taters. With the windows open I could hear the neighbors yapping over the stream. Watched quite a few “Breaking in The Habit” episodes on YT. Made a few extra pieces of fish, but not the whole other bag. Ate six pieces right away, but only a few taters. Washed up. Said the rosary. Getting ready to go in at 7:30 PM to clean up.

Did so, then watched Gomer Pyle and Green Acres, read a bit (starting S. Baring-Gould’s “The Book of Were-wolves”) then went to bed.

 

1/23/2021: Up at 6:20 AM (after the usual ups and downs of the night) from a dream of getting lost in college buildings again and losing my stuff as I tried to get out; Wolowitz [from The Big Bang Theory] helped me find a box I had lost full of action figures that only had a few ST:TNG in it, where before it had included ‘first run’ Jackson LOTR. Prayers and Bible, checked the internet, then caught up diary. Gonna take a shower.

Went in at 8 AM and while passing through the yard heard the dogs barking, looked over, and saw the gate ajar! Went in quick and told S&A, and luckily the dogs weren’t far and came at their call. Made the omelet and some beans, then came in at 9 AM.

Worked on Koppa from about 9:30 AM, breaking a little after noon to eat Spam sandwiches, then finished writing about 1:30 PM, sending John the section almost immediately. Laid down and took a nap until about 4:40 PM. Wrote a post on “Monster of Frankenstein Vol. I” for NOT. Made Knorr Chicken Rice for supper. Watched bits of a couple specials on Reelz about Charles Manson until almost 8 PM, while turning channels. A little drippy outside. Turned off my computer for a while to update the programs.

Got a reply from John about 9 PM: “I already like Koppa and Dunwolf more from this than I ever grew to from my own writing.  Well-conceived and executed! I like how the chessboard is already set with the Festival, Nolan, Thron. Nicely done; press on!”

Trying to decide whether the weather will allow me to go to church tomorrow. 45% chance of showers predicted during the morning hours.

 

1/24/2021: Up about 6 AM, turn off the alarm, and lay down again. Weather wretched, but I keep asking myself, should I try to go? At 7 AM I convince myself that I shouldn’t, but with many emotional reservations. Prayers, Bible, and rosary, and mean to watch on FB, but apparently that practice is ended. Make an order with HEB and clean out the little fridge, meaning to plug it in tomorrow. About 11 AM I begin to read the missal and pray the prayer for spiritual communion, when Kam comes knocking at the door. S&A have gone shopping, and the dreary weather makes him nervous, so he seeks my company. He listens as I read, even giving the correct response, “And with your spirit,” which charms me. We watch a couple of MST3Ks (the end of Space Mutiny and most of Gorgo) until S&A are home and he goes back in. I nap.

Between reading The Book of Were-wolves and watching episodes of “Breaking In the Habit” and “Polyphonic” on YT, I go in about 4 PM and get some eggs and the leftover chili and rotini, and later Andy brings me the garippe [chicken bones with some meat still on them] and some bananas. I eat the ramen with eggs first and the rest later.

Try to watch the animations but feh, they are all reruns. To bed before 9 PM.

 

1/25/2021: Woke up at about 2 AM from a dream. At first, I was having a huge, somehow ‘living’ playing back in the ‘guest room’ (which was Susan’s room, then my room) using many different action figures in a good vs. evil siege scenario, then I am going through a notebook of my drawings with John. What impresses me is that I have never seen the pictures before (awake) but that they are all definitely in my hand and things I would have drawn (I recall one of the Fellowship camping in a wood). They include in the last pictures experiments in other artists’ style (I think one was Goya) but all definitely mine. It was like seeing me in an only slightly alternate world. I remember telling John at the end “And here is where I more or less gave up.”

Then I was just awake. I tried reading BW some more to go to sleep, couldn’t, wrote down the dream, and mean to work on the house a while till sleepy again.

Did so, and up at about 6 AM. Found out my clicker didn’t work (batteries?). Prayers, Bible. Plugged in the refrigerator. Wrote a tiny bit on Goldfire Chapter Two. Started wash a little bit before 9 AM (Susan left a little early), started wash and started boiling eggs. Groceries delivered about 9:25 AM; the delivery woman had a little toddler with her that grabbed my bread while she was unloading then tumbled itself into the back seat and almost crawled out the back of the car. So I moved my groceries into the guesthouse and finished making egg salad. At 10 AM I changed my wash, then made Kam some kolaches and TX toast. Listened to GGACP In Memorium 2020. Finished wash and swept kitchen porch before S&A got home. Andy brought me another tax form from the mail. Made Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper for my lunch.

At 2 PM I started making broccoli salad, finished at 3 PM. It seemed I was cleaning up poop and peep all day [the chihuachua Ginger’s continued aging incontinence]. At 4 PM I started supper (couscous and fish cakes). Finished at 4:30 PM.

I started to watch “Disenchantment” Season 1 when Kam came out to watch MST3K while S&A went to a meeting this evening. We watched until about 7:40 PM, then Kam went in. I went in to wash up at 8:10 PM. Watched more “Disenchantment”, then broke off and cleaned up and prayed rosary. Now a little after 10 PM. Finished watching Season One.

Notes

I had great hopes for Disenchantment. A fantasy series where the creators of Futurama would do for fantasy what they did with science fiction? It turned out to be less than classic.

I had no memories about these other shows and had to look them up for context.

Breaking in the Habit: Offering personal reflections and explanations from a Catholic and Franciscan perspective.

Polyphonic: YT channel about music’s place in pop culture, especially the development of music videos.

Pretend It's a City is a 2021 American documentary series directed by Martin Scorsese featuring interviews and conversations between Scorsese and Fran Lebowitz. The series was released on January 8, 2021, on Netflix. Lebowitz talks to her friend Scorsese about living in New York City. The film is interspersed with clips from archived television interviews and video footage of Lebowitz and Scorsese walking around the city.

One thing I’ve always found fascinating about dream imagery is the ability of my mind to generate convincing dream versions ‘in the art style of’ different artists. Beside my own stuff I remember seeing things by the Brothers Hildebrandt in a particularly vivid, almost hallucinogenic highlighted image.