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10/8/2020: Up about 4:40 AM
and could sleep no more. Too much to do. Prayers, Bible. Plunged right into NOT
and cover quests. It’s now 6:05 AM and ready to tackle Biographies.
Posted that, then
deconstructed half the house to get back to the Tolkien posters. Took a shower
to clean up, and just as I was almost done, the water poops out: Andy must be
watering. Between finding pictures of the posters online for a post, to making
more posts, to cleaning up, sorting, and ‘curating’ them into old, Jackson, and
Hickman, it is now almost 11 AM, and I feel I might be able to nap now. Maybe
just one more post: Maps. Worked till 12 noon on 2 posts. NOW maybe I’ll try to
nap.
Sent John this e-mail at
9:34 AM: Last night, as a break, I decided to post some of my posters in the
"Tolkien Treasury" part of NOT. I put in the ones I remembered, then
thought 'Why not take them out and have a look at them? I'm sure there are
more.' Imagine my surprise when the rolls that I had been imagining were them turned out to be old 'family' posters, and my Tolkiens were tucked away in a
nearly inaccessible recess behind a pile of bins and whatnot! Well, it was too
late at the time, but this morning I dismantled almost half of the room and
finally managed to snake them out, find copies on the interweb, and post them
too.
I do not regret the
circumstances, though, because it allowed me to do some further assessment and
arranging and cleaning. It brought forgotten things into the light; it was
almost as good as going out and buying something, to rediscover something that
had slipped my mind!
It is a funny thing, but
when I am on the Quest to find and post Tolkien stuff, I do not feel pain or
hunger or anxiety. Perhaps that's another reason I enjoy it so much, as well as
the satisfaction of laying things out all nice and neat.
So, I laid down about an
hour, not really sleeping, then went in to get some leftover taters and cabbage
for lunch. Had the bright idea to switch the little fridge into the kitchen,
freeing up the window. Kept hunting and posting until 4 PM, when I just finished
all the Tolkien posts (which I thought would take me all week). Nipped in and
made chili, corn, and noodles, fed pets, and out again by 5 PM. Ate, made a few
more posts, cleaned up and deleted files, and now it’s 6:45 PM. I feel spent.
Only one more book for the BIB. And then the end will come. Posted it about
7:30 PM, I think.
Went in about 8 PM, made Kam
supper, washed dishes, and then we watched “MP and the Holy Grail”, at
his request. He went in a little after 10 PM; at 10:30 I prayed a rosary,
arranged a few more things, then wrote my K[ing] K[orm] page. It’s now 11:15
PM, rather sweltering, and all I have to do is write my A[merican] P[rometheus]
page, though I still feel spent (yet edgy). Must call in my medicine tomorrow.
11:26 PM and I’ve written
the page. I’m torn between getting some DQ8 in or starting to write a note for
NOT about coming to the end of my books.
Instead, I became obsessed
with a project, GREAT WORK OF TIME, where I put all the images from NOT into
one folder and then run them in a slideshow. Stay up until 1 AM doing that.
10/9/2020: Up at 6 AM, and
at first the day is normal. Then at 9 AM I call my medicine in, and they say I
need to ask the Dr. to renew one of them. Call the Dr., and they say I need to
have a consult, if only over the phone. And then the nurse asks me about a
FIFTH medicine, that supposedly I’m supposed to be taking in conjunction with
the Lisinopril, which I swear I’ve never heard of or had, but which she said
has even been renewed! Is my memory that bad, or is somebody jerking me around?
I write my post talking about the end of the BIB on NOT, and that takes me all
morning. I try to nap, and when I get up the weather is so hot and humid, I
have to put on the AC for the first time in weeks. At 2:30 PM start frying
taters. At 4:30 PM, while I’m still cooking, at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon,
mind you, the SS office calls and asks if this is a good time to go over my
stuff! I explain my situation and he says he’ll send a letter and we’ll set a
time. I go back to my house, eat, and collapse till after 8 PM. Go in and clean
up, then back to fret and worry about what the hell is going on. How many times
– how much more do they need to do – why can’t they just say yes if
everything’s in order, or tell me no if they’re not going to do it? Are they
just waiting for me to DIE so they never need to do anything? Now 10 PM and on
to the rosary; perhaps there is some comfort there. I am allowing myself a
suspension of writing until Monday; my original blog post must count for
something (most of my other posts had been prepared weeks before as the BIB
document). I write no more tonight; I am weary and weak. Bed about 1 AM.
10/10/2020: Woke up pretty
early. How early? I don’t know. I went almost immediately on blogging mode,
looking for pictures of items from around the house like bookends, cookie jar,
lunch box, stuff like that. Prayers, Bible. Took pictures and asked John to
e-mail them back to me, which he did. Then took down the CDs and started image
gathering for them. Andy brought me a pancake platter for breakfast at 9 AM
(two stove lid pancakes, butter, syrup, two sausage discs, and some Sunny
Delight orange juice). A little later he brings me a spare plate. Continue
gathering. Turned AC on at noon. Kam brings in his remains sometime after 1 PM;
almost two more pancakes. Finish gathering images (it was a lot easier than
books) and put CDs away a little before 3 PM. Now just have to arrange them and
post. Have been watching “Dr.
Parnassus” on and off. I think I might take a nap now or at least try to.
Couldn’t really. Up and
played some DQ8, and other fiddling around, like turning the couch around to
face the TV and finishing Parnassus. Went in a little after 7 PM and got
leftover chili for supper. Put out a few posts. Decided to look up bin with
other calendars and graphic novel magazines tomorrow. It’s now 9 PM, and I
think I’ll start a rosary.
Instead, I was inspired by a
glance at my document of what’s where and seeing that the box with the
calendars was quite close. When unpacking it, I found my ‘Life in Hell’
books! Quickly found covers for them as well, but not without having a lull in
my computer connectivity, in which I prayed my rosary. Then I went back and
finished up the post. It’s now 10:30 PM. Bed at 11 PM.
10/11/2020: Up at about 3:30
AM and turned off the AC. Yesterday and just now I’ve had feelings of déjà vu;
I seem to connect it with the time of year, the AC conditions, sorting the
house, and maybe even looking at the calendars and Groening books. Perhaps with
when I was writing ‘What Happened’? Decided I couldn’t sleep anymore, but it
was still too early for ‘church’. Started in on prayers; will soon finish with
the acts [of faith, hope, and charity], then Bible. I am convinced that cataloging EVERYTHING
that I own would be an almost infinite task. Just think of the action figures.
Also, that I would get very little if it was all sold, but it would take much,
much more money than I would get for it if I then wanted to replace it all.
So now it’s 8 PM. After
prayers, Bible, and YouTube church at 7 AM, I have spent all day working on
NOT, finding covers for comic magazines, remembering stuff for the Shadow
Library, thinking of stuff for the Wish List, implied but stuff I maybe should
have, like you know, to complete a series. Nobody, of course, is looking at it,
but it’s mainly for me anyway, and I have a lot of fun. Went in at 2 PM to get
a ramen, and they gave me a bag of mellocreme pumpkins and candy corn. Then I
went in at 7 PM to make dips. Grabbed a little potato and a ramen for supper.
It took me to almost 9 PM to
boil the potato soft enough to eat with the soup, and that was with cutting it
up into little bits. Watched the Fox animation line-up, and it is so poor these
days. Not horrible (well, maybe the Simpsons, especially when you remember what
they were), but so mediocre. Smashing the mellocreme pumpkins flat with a
hammer to make them soft enough to eat. They turn into a little orange rosette
with a dot of green in the middle.
Thinking about what needs to
be done tomorrow. With the regular chore of boiling eggs, doing wash, and
making broccoli salad, I need to talk to the doc’s office about making at least
an online appointment. I wonder why the Shanafelts didn’t pick up my medicine?
I should have reminded them.
Almost 10 PM; I should get
on my rosary.
Oh, my. I stayed up until 1
AM, looking through POB for books I hadn’t mentioned (they belong in the Shadow
Library) and found about 100. Tomorrow I will double check and then start
posting them.
10/12/2020: Up at 5 AM
(maybe four hours of broken sleep). Payers, Bible. Mouth seems cut up by the
candy corn. Went right into NOT, and by process of elimination was able to
reduce that list of books down to about 30. When I started the Shadow Library, I
really had no idea that I would become so involved with it; I just wanted to
put up a few gone books in the blog. I wonder whatever happened to that missing
list I typed up at Loop Drive, and what it would recall if I found it. I never
got rid of ANY books in those days. Probably threw the list away as useless. I
keep having the nagging idea that there might be a bin with some books up in
the ‘attic’, but that seems unlikely. Posted in four separate posts. It’s now
7:30 AM.
Wrote a page of KK. It is
now 7:45 AM. Made appointment for virtual check-up tomorrow, made egg salad.
Ramen.
So made a post about “You
Can’t Take It with You”, but mainly fiddled with trying to make a document
of “Great Work of Time” to send to Kindle, but it didn’t work; too big to send
as an attachment. Ramen lunch and made broccoli salad. At supper fish patties
and couscous. Right leg really hurt later in the evening, tingling, numb, and
with the knee grinding. Made Kam grilled cheese and corn dogs. Rosary at 9:30
PM. Bed about 10:30 PM, windows open, as it is cooling down.
10/13/2020: Up about 5:30
AM, after a fairly decent sleep for once, with the usual pee breaks and night
thoughts, of course, and my right leg hurting all night. Prayers, Bible, then
organized my ‘aumbry’ using the old leather bag to put the ‘jewelry’ in so it’s
not just rolling around. Although I think the compulsion of NOT is dying down,
I still want to work on organizing the file “Great Work of Time”, relabeling
the images. Now 6:30 AM. Think I’ll sweep and take a shower.
Almost 8 AM, and I have
rewritten a page of KK as well. “He was obsessive/compulsive, manic/depressive,
passive/aggressive, and possibly AC/DC.” I suppose I can expect my ‘virtual
doctor’s appointment’ any time now. I wonder what Perry Mason is up to this morning.
So, the Dr.’s office called
me and said it would cost $100, so I postponed it to try to figure out what to
do. Day after that went as usual, sausage cabbage and taters, rosary, and so
on. Some DQ8, some posting about the few VHS tapes I have. Couldn’t find my Bakshi
LOTR tape or remember what I had done with it; is it possible (though it hardly
seems likely) that I sold it? Again raise the specter of a fabled bin in the
attic. It’ll be MIB toys next, I imagine. Reading Kipling (started “The
Light that Failed”). Bed I know not when, but well before midnight.
10/14/2020: Up about 4:30
AM. Night had not been so cool as the one before, but okay. Prayers, Bible.
Rewrote about 2 pages of KK; it goes on apace. If I truly applied myself today,
I could be done with it. We shall see. It’s now 5:30 AM. Posted on NOT about
MIB toys.
Laid down about 8:30 AM and
napped until 10 AM. Went in and got ramen and eggs. Was actually writing on KK,
when at about 11:30 AM the SSI feller called me, and said they had ruled
favorably on me, and we just needed to go over things again, which we did. He
said I should be getting payments within the month, including backpay from the
time I applied! S&A were still here so I was able to tell them.
Afterwards I did finish the
KK conversion and sent it to John and Kenny. Also, I alerted John to the good
news. At 2:30 PM I started work on the rice, then made the chicken, rice,
mushrooms and broccoli, which was done at 4:30 PM. I went out at 6 PM to wait
for Andy, and he took me to get my medicine at HEB. Prayed my rosary, went in a
little after 8 to clean up. Polished off the broccoli salad. Watched Green
Acres, and now it’s 9 PM. Haven’t heard any reply from the boys yet. Still
filling in nooks of time with Kipling and DQ8. Bed? Sometime before 12.
NOTES
The King Korm
‘conversion’ was of course turning notes into actual writing. If I could have
imagined what all I would eventually catalog, including not only action figures
but also their accessories, comic books, and so on, I probably would have
slumped in exhaustion just at the thought. But five years of content-grinding
has pretty much ‘filled in the nooks and corners.’ The ‘attic’ is still
a mystery to me, probably not of bins of books but almost certainly action
figures. I haven't touched those posters again from that day to this. Not sure how many people look at this blog, but it’s become sort of a
scatter-shot biography for me.
