Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

This Time Tomorrow…

At this time tomorrow night, 24 hours from now, we will be in the air on our way South to Orlando, FL and a long weekend away at Disney World.

Our clothes are packed but we still need to pack our carry on stuff, like the laptop upon which I am currently typing this masterpiece of a blog post, and 15,000 different Apple product charging devices. My film camera is packed, along with a new roll of film I loaded into it and my spare film stash, but my digital camera and it’s charger are sitting on the desk still waiting to be put away.

My step son, Harry, is going to spend the weekend here watching over the cats. I cleaned the bathroom in anticipation of his arrival because it was getting pretty grody in there and I didn’t want him to see it. It’s all good to go now.

I have packed enough protein bars to feed an elephant for a week, no pun intended… wait a tick to let that one sink in… I’m not as physically fat and elephantine like I was a year and a half ago, but that fat elephant of a red head still lives in my brain so the fat joke is still relevant… mentally, at least. Boy did I go a long way for that one.

Lily the Cat is acting like a mentally insane feline person tonight. It’s like she knows we’re leaving tomorrow so she’s trying to impress us with as much crazy as she can while she still has us around. Freakin’ gremlin-cat.

What else… I wrote lyrics for a couple of songs tonight and also finished season 10 of the original Doctor Who. Now it’s 10:20pm and I am completely exhausted to the very core of my being and I need to go to sleep so that I can get through the work day tomorrow and get to the airport and get on the plane and get to Florida and get to the hotel sometime after midnight.

I am so ready. Florida, here we come… 24 hours from now.

Tuesday Morning Music

Last night, just before I fell asleep, I added a new song idea to the 50 songs in 90 days thing. It is song number 47 and I made it all that way before I worked on a 12-bar blues. Usually the first 12-bar pops up way earlier in the project than this.

This morning I got up early and added guitar tracks to three songs, including the shiny new 12-bar. If I don’t start cranking out lyrics like a lyric writing factory, then this whole challenge is going to seriously crash and burn. I still have a mountain of stuff to do and not a lot of time left to do it in.

For now though, Hipstamatic guitar pics. Shake to Shuffle.

Red Flag

Daily writing prompt
What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?
View all responses

There are a lot of personality traits that act like warning beacons for me. Lack of empathy, selfishness, unwillingness to pet cats when the opportunity arises. There is one that stands out above all others though. Really, it’s not a personality trait in and of itself. It is more like the result of a series of red flaggable traits.

The red flag of which I speak is being a trump supporter. Those stupid red MAGA hats are literally red flags that they stick onto their own heads. Thanks for that, I guess.

If you are a trump supporter then in the best case you are someone for whom racism, hate, greed, sexism, nationalism, selfishness, and full on fascism are not a deal breaker. That’s enough for me to avoid you at all cost. Worst case, of course, is that you are just a plain old run of the mill fascist and that’s enough for my country to go to war with you, as evidenced by that little blip on history’s radar from back in the 1940’s. Remember that? When half the West was conquered by nazis and the other half banded together to eliminate them? That little historical event? Yeah. That’s where your trump support leads.

That’s it. Simple. Support trump and set off all of my red flags.

I Have Not Forgotten

I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that it has been 22 years since 9/11. I was an adult when it happened. How can I have been an adult 22 years ago? Does not compute.

I wrote a recap of my view of that day back in 2018 so I am not going to write it again. Someday I might revisit things and then compare what I write to what I wrote before. I’ll view it as a time-affecting-perspective exercise. Not today though.

I haven’t forgotten how it felt, being mesmerized by it all. I never want to feel that way again, but whenever people post pictures of the burning buildings I feel like I am being dragged back into it against my will. Jen and I often spend a little time looking through documentaries, but that is something I choose to do. It’s also something I prepare myself for in advance. Popping onto social media this morning and seeing images of planes crashing into buildings just feels like a punch in the face and a kick in the balls. Even knowing the date, I am never ready for that sort of thing and it’s awful. I don’t need that sort of reminder, thank you. I mean, folks are going to do what they need to do, right? I just feel like, for me personally, today is a good day to avoid the socials. That’s all.

I have not forgotten, and I never will.