WEARISOME DAY

first sign of approaching autumn

Middle August is the time the first bits of color start popping out. Earlier today I was looking out the window and saw this across the road. The weather is cooling down a little bit. In the 60s at night again. Wont' be long until I'll have to close the windows. The next step will be occasionally having heat, then always having heat until next summer. Winter gets a bit tiresome about February, but when I think of all that winter does for us, I'm happy for it. Malaria first. We don't have malaria because we have winters. The winter keeps fleas, ticks and other pests down. It's malaria I'm most grateful about. Once it takes hold in you it never lets go. The Mongol hordes in the time of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan liked to stay up north along the route of the silk road, their road for carrying loot back to Mongolia from the region where all the countries end in -stan. They learned when they went south, they came down with diseases, their bows didn't shoot as well and their horses lost their vitality. Somewhere I read long ago conjecture that Job of the Bible lived in what is now called Uzbekistan, Uz then. In the time of the Mongol hordes all the -stans were under Kazakhstan, which was then enormous. The Mongols obliterated their civilization. There was no defense against them.

These are my thoughts with the approach of winter. I'm not so crazy about the cold, but I love not having malaria a concern and a long list of other diseases. We still have plenty of diseases. Global warming will spread malaria northward. That's not today's concern. It's the concern of today's grandchildren. Who cares about them? Not any capitalist American. Not any American Christian, the ones that go about announcing themselves as such wherever they go in the guise of hate, perverting the name. They want to see the whole earth go up in flames, believing they won't be here to be part of it, because Jesus is gonna come get them. Whatever. It's like Jehovah's Witnesses having the rich man's house picked out they want to live in when they're one of the 40 thousand, or whatever the number, left on a destroyed earth. I say let them have all they want. They don't come to my door anymore. I don't think they want to live here. Last time some were here, I said you've come to my house to tell me what you believe; since you're in my house I'll tell you what I believe. They ran for their lives. Never returned. Thank you. Thank you. That was easy.

I dread paying the winter's heating bill. I didn't realize how much I was saving burning wood. It was an enormous amount of saving. It's got so expensive now to live, it can't keep going on this way, though it will. Next will be a city of poverty around our city dumps like Mexico City where a major population of people find everything they use and eat. Thirty more years of Reagan Junta and we'll be well on our way to becoming the next India. Has anyone but me noticed that over the last 30 years the CEOs and other execs, the suits, take all the wealth for themselves and the work force hasn't had a cost of living increase in 30 years while prices have kept on increasing with inflation? Working people get poorer by the year. The ones that get by taking for themselves get richer by the year. I think of the old hymn, Farther Along. Farther along, we'll know all about it; farther along, we'll understand why. It's the way of the world. All I know to do is vote against Republicans. That's why I vote. Like I've said before, I believe in the boycott of one. So I've just pist off 3 groups of people. None of them read me, so they'll never notice until somebody tells them about it, which will be the case in all 3. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. It's not a mistake.

It's been a peculiar day. I've felt like sleeping all day. So I did. Sleep 2-4 hours, up for awhile, then feel like going back to sleep for a few hours. During one of the awake spells I watched Stephen Seagal's other recent move I'd not yet seen, Driven To Kill. Pure Seagal. The best of Seagal. Not necessarily the best one, but among the best. He didn't want to do it, but he had to. Somebody tried to kill his daughter, almost got the job done, and killed his ex wife. Early in the story bad Russian mob boys set out to get him. When somebody says they're out to get Seagal, he becomes a dead man walking. He will not survive the film. It's a story of Seagal investigating to find out who did it. His character is quite a sleuth. I enjoy Seagal films on a whole new level after finding Zatoichi the blind swordsman in his character. It's too complex to try to explain why I like Seagal's stories so much. I like an action movie from time to time. They have a quick pace. There's the political correctness stance on violence that I don't buy. Anybody can be as PC as they want, just leave me out of it. I had a brief conversation with an eccentric old feller in the post office once about a bumper sticker on his Mercedes that said he is not PC. We had a fun moment laughing at the concept and how pervasive it is for a conformity device. One thing that really helped Obama was political correctness said to vote for him. I found it an interesting phenomenon.

I can say I know why I like Seagal's films but can't explain it. Too many reasons and they all weave in and out of each other. It turns into a jumble when I try to pick it apart, one reason at a time. In a way, they're as much cartoons as Spiderman or Godzilla. I like cartoons. Not exclusively, but I do appreciate cartoons. His character is somewhat 3-dimensional in that he contradicts himself like all the rest of us do. He's a man with a spiritual life that is not stifling; rather it's his guide. He comes from the world of espionage fiction like Tom Clancy with his own twist. It's like a peephole into the doings of the CIA and bigtime mobs. I can see it at a safe distance when it's entertainment.

To see it any closer, I'd have to be there, and I don't want to do that. Tell me a good fictional story of somebody who rights wrongs from a world I know nothing about. Total fantasy. Also, he makes films in different countries. I like to see landscapes and cityscapes in parts of the world I'll never visit. I've always had immense curiosity about other cultures, other parts of the world, other times. It's been with me as long as I remember. Because somebody is not born in my country or not of my race does not invalidate that person before my eyes one little pixel. Seagal feels the same.

Everybody want to be a tough guy.

But nobody want to pay the price.

---Steven Seagal