Monday

5-1/2 hours sleep, 42% sleep quality. I simply could NOT fall asleep last night. I finally got up at 12:30 and took a Benadryl. That knocked me out, but I'm comatose this morning.

Good Enough

I don't know how long most people own a car before they reach the point when washing it that they say, "good enough," but I've definitely reached that point with Anderson.

When I first got him, he'd get washed twice a week. Sometimes I'd even get up early, just to do it before heading to work. I'd obsess over every nook and cranny. No streaks were allowed anywhere and he'd get a full waxing every couple months. I'd even jack the car up periodically take the wheels off to clean inside the rims.

But now? This past year or so he's lucky if he gets washed every two months. I just want to get the dirt off. Every nook and cranny does not get obsessed over. I still want it to look nice, but let's face it: Anderson is eleven years old and no matter what I do he's showing his age. Because of the way I get in and out of my car, the driver side upholstery is in tatters (happens with every car I've owned). The one headlight that wasn't replaced five years ago has completely oxidized. All the black plastic trim has faded beyond repair, and the black rubber gaskets at the base of the windows are revealing themselves to be black rubber paint on top of metal frames. So that's why today, after wetting the car down, doing a quick wash, rinse and dry followed by an equally-quick once-over of the interior I announced "Good enough!" and packed it in.

Morning Commute

I Feel Love notwithstanding, I really did not like this album when it first came out. Based on my acquisition of Giorgio Moroder's From Here to Eternity earlier that summer and Donna's own I Feel Love that was being played everywhere, I was expecting the entire album to be in that same hard-thumping electronic vein, and it most definitely was not.

What we got on Side 1 was sixteen minutes of 50s-inspired bebop that flew in the face of everything Giorgio (or for that matter, Donna) had done previously. And now I believe that was the whole point.

As the years have gone by, those A-Side tracks have grown to become my favorites, magically transporting me back to sun-dappled autumn afternoons in my dorm room at the University of Arizona. I may not have liked the album, but damn I played the hell out of it because it was Donna!

The B-side contained three more tracks (a more traditional mix of soul/disco that were good, but not as good as the flip side) before culminating in the still-amazing I Feel Love.

 

Quote of the Day

We must never never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue, with the tone set at the top. We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. ~ Senator Jeff Flake, (R) Arizona

I am no fan of Jeff Flake. Never have been. But it was quite heartening—not to mention just a little bit surreal—to hear him stand up in the Senate yesterday and finally say (as a Conservative) what we on the Left have been saying since last November. Trump is unfit for office. Period.

I Have a Problem

My latest additions, the Blade Runner 2049 collection.

It took me years to buy my first Pop! because I knew that once I did, it would become an addiction. And it has.

Next weekend it's a trip to IKEA to buy two more LACK shelf units because the collection has now officially outgrown the three current shelves it occupies.

I suppose I could have a worse addiction…

I Need To Get Out With My Camera Again

Still working on organizing 50 years of photos.

And it's making me realize I've taken a lot of shots I really like, (a few from 2008-2009 follow) but for some reason have never been posted, either here or on Flickr. I guess maybe at the time I didn't think they were that good, or perhaps required more Photoshop tweaking than I had skills for. Or maybe I was just lazy. But it's showing me that I miss making photos and really need to get my lazy ass out there again…