Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, having had a reasonable ME day yesterday and hoping for a wonderful week ahead and wouldn’t THAT be a lovely way to spend a week ahead? So far these here notes are making me want to vomit on the ground. They give treacly a whole new meaning, don’t they? They’re so unctuous and when was the last time you heard THAT word? Then again, what the HELL is wrong with hoping for a wonderful week ahead. What, we should hope for a not wonderful week ahead? That would be the height of negativity or would it be the lowght of negativity. We need to accentuate the positive, especially now. Therefore, I damn well will accentuate the positive, even though the first three letters are POS, which is occasionally used as the initials for something wholly other. Keep your POS and give me the rest – because without the itivity POS is merely that. As I write this, I am trying to figure out what the HELL I’m talking about and I truly have no idea. The whole thing reads like an Ionesco one-act. I think I’m suffering the delirium tremens due to the house being seventy-nine degrees. So, I’ve turned on the air and hopefully that will help. Of course, I can’t really be suffering from the delirium tremens because I’m not having withdrawal from alcohol. However, that said, I clearly am having withdrawal from reality and these here notes are the living proof (foorp, spelled backwards). I got about six hours of sleep, was up early to have my muffin and pill, went right back to bed and slept three more hours. Once up, I answered a few Sunday e-mails, did some organizing on the computer, then food arrived, which I’d pre-ordered using a 40%-off coupon from Daughter’s Deli. I had the pastrami on double baked rye with coleslaw, Swiss, and Russian dressing – pastrami extra lean, of course, It was really good. I also took pill two. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched a motion picture from the year 2025 entitled The Amateur, starring Rami Malek. You’ve seen the plot a million times in a million thrillers about black ops in the CIA. This one’s based on book by Robert Littel and though they’d like you not to know it, there was a previous movie version starring John Savage. It’s strictly by the numbers with the only unique thing about it is that its hero is a nerd who has to use his high IQ to exact revenge, as he has no skills in the art of killing the usual way. But it does grow tiresome after a while. I didn’t hate it, nor did I love it. I did watch it all the way through, though.
Then at around seven I had a sampler thing of four different ice cream flavors – four tiny scoops that probably made up one normal scoop. It was good but probably too rich for me these days. After that, I watched another movie entitled To Olivia, released in 2021, the story of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal dealing with the death by measles of their daughter Olivia. There was, at the time, no vaccine for measles in England. Unfortunately, the director is so heavy-handed in the grief portions and the score, rather than being sensitive is syrupy and bombastic, which is just too much damn sauce. The tragedy is tragic enough – it doesn’t need the help. And Dahl comes off for almost the entirety of the film as an unabashed monster. I’ve read that most of it is fiction anyway. And the scenes with faux Martin Ritt and faux Paul Newman are just horrible. The film ends with her winning her Oscar and him publishing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hugh Bonneville plays Dahl and is very good. The gal who plays Patricia Neal is also fine. I was blessed to work with Miss Neal back in 1971 on Ghost Story (later retitled Circle of Fear) in an episode directed by Robert Day. I didn’t have much of a part, but I didn’t care – I was working with Pat Neal who’d recently gone back to work after recovering from her stroke. She was nervous and insecure and asked me several times to run lines with her for our little scene, which I was naturally thrilled to do. She was wonderful and warm. Years later, I had a similar experience with Jean Simmons. I just look back at that time and think how blessed was I? I mean truly blessed.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’m hoping Amazon gets its act together and consolidates the eBook with the soft and hardcover so that the reviews show up. I’ve already written my gal and told her to tell whoever at the company deals with Amazon to really try and get them to fix it ASAP. I’ll do a quick ATM run to make a deposit, then come right home and get the computer space organized for the change that’s coming on Thursday. I sure could use a new swivel stool that’s comfier than this thing and I may have to get one. IF the Amazon thing gets fixed, I’ll do Facebook posts that it’s now available and put the reviews for people to read. I’ll eat something fun, I’ll take my three pills, do whatever needs doing, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have a work session for an hour or two to do arrangements of three or four of the fourteen songs in the play I’m directing. Otherwise, it’s just organizing, and excitedly awaiting the arrival of Mac Mini. I would have named it Mini Mac so we could sing, Here it comes to save the day! Mini Mac is on its way! Oh, and I got an invite to what will be the sixtieth reunion of my high school graduation. Not sure I want to go, but if I can lose thirty pounds by October, maybe.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, hope that Amazon consolidates so I can post that the stuff is now available on Amazon, do a quick ATM run, organize the computer space, see if I can find a new not too pricey but more comfy swivel stool, eat, take my three pills and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: One of my favorite topics, which we’ve done many times but it’s always fun to do is what was your very first computer, when did you get it, and when did you become part of the World Wide Web and what did you do on it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have written notes like an Ionesco one-act.