Something rational
Please go and look at this.
I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I have never seen such genius. House of Leaves by Mark D Danielewski is in fact the most pretentious book ever I have ever read. I borrowed Doodle’s copy when we went to the States in 2002. Unfortunately, my shampoo decided to explode during the journey and the book caught a fair amount. So I gave Doodle the money to replace it and kept the book.
I eventually read it, a tortuous experience because of its massive size. I could only read it at home, it was too gargantuan to take anywhere with me. It dragged in places, made no sense in others and I had to do maths to get some of it.
It was worth reading once though, especially if it means I can appreciate comics like the one above. And of course Poe’s lovely second album Haunted is supposed to compliment it so I can enjoy that level too. I should mention that Mark is Poe’s brother.
I’ve been beating myself up for not going to the Quaker meetings. I finally had to face the issue. My problem is that I sleep from 10am to noon every day. I woke up at 11:45 today. The Quaker meeting starts at 10:30. Which means I have to get up around 8:30 to give myself enough time to get ready and walk up there. I missed three weeks ago because I was recovering from my dilation, I missed two weeks ago because I was visiting Horatio, I missed last week because I wasn’t feeling well. I’ll miss tomorrow because I’m still not feeling well. I’ll miss next week because I’ll be visiting Horatio again. So then I have to ask myself how badly do I want this to be a part of my life?
If I am completely honest, I’m not that bothered either way. I wanted to get involved with some sort of community. I wanted to try to access something bigger than myself. I still want those things, but perhaps now is just not the right time. Perhaps I’ll designate one Sunday a month to drag my sorry carcase out of bed early.
Weasel and I spent a fair amount of today trying to figure out how to fit a rowing machine in our lives. Our little house is a little packed. We talked about moving our bed [5’x7’] into the box room [7’x7’], talked about getting new dressing room furniture and putting the rower in there, talked about putting it in the library. We finally settled on moving some chairs in the lounge and putting it there. We even talked about getting rid of the sofa! The next question was if Weasel would help me select a rower. At the gyms I’ve been to I had access to Concept II rowers and they are perfection. I’ve tried to research other brands only to find out things like they break easily or the resistance is too low. In the end we decided to get what we really want. We can get the model D for £899. So the current plan is to wait until I get my redundancy pay then pool our other resources and get one.
Fergus has a mushroom which he likes to stalk, nom on and generally abuse. But it is a loving relationship. Weasel fetched a hedgehog that makes kissing noises from the library today. I’ve had hedgehog for many years and he is the perfect size to be a friend for Fergus. So he has been holding him today and there has been many kisses and lots of playing. We’re all delighted with this latest development. Does mean I’ll have more to pack when we go on holiday though.
I’ve been following several fat activist’s blogs [gag] and one of them was arguing against a universal health care system for the US because she thinks people would go after the fatties when the taxes went up to pay for it. I couldn’t understand initially, to me it is like paying the same tax as my neighbours even though I’ve never had children, why am I funding schools? It benefits society to have the cictizens educated and healthy.
Anyway, it occurred to me today: she is healthy. People who are healthy have few problems with the current US system. You see your doctor two maybe four times a year at $20 a pop in co-pays and it isn’t any big deal. At my worst, I had three doctors appointments each week. That’s $240 on top of the $200-$500 I would have been paying to have insurance in the first place. $240 is a minimum guess as well, because $20 is for a GP, I was seeing specialists.
I cannot imagine how much my six chemotherapy treatments would have cost. How much my five day hospital stay would have cost. How much each prescription would have cost if I hadn’t had my pre-pay card. How much having these dilations would cost. They’re just going to keep doing them until the treatment sticks. I’ve already had two and I have another in a couple of weeks.
It is all about doing the best we can for as many people as we can.
