Duncan's Blog

Nurse! Nurse!

I worked overtime on Saturday and pulled someone up in bed without any help. This week I'm paying the price. My back is KILLING me

I don't want to forget this moment for future reference.

Something there is that doesn't like a passive aggressive personality.

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html

It's not a brilliant title. It was actually stolen and re-worded from the first line of a Robert Frost poem.

For those unfamiliar with the passive aggressive personality, here it is in the proverbial nutshell :

Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defensive mechanism and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive. Alternatively, leaving notes to avoid face-to-face discussion/confrontation, is another form of passive-aggressive behavior.

I think about it today because I had a blind date who doesn't live near me. He agreed to meet me at a half-way point. Since he knows the terrain better than I, I asked him to pick a spot. He hemmed and hawed and I heard his reluctance to commit, so I told him to call me the day OF and give me an address. When it came to the three hours before the date moment, I just called and got his voicemail.

"Sorry," said I, "but I don't think I can make it. I have a back ache." Believe it or not, I actually DID have a back ache. But what irked me most was his seeming inability to pick a place to meet. I mean we're talking a cup of coffee... Denny's, Winchell's or even the dreaded STARBUCKS would have been acceptable.

So I think I shall chalk this one off the list of potential suitors/gentlmen callers!

C'est la vie!

Used to be the body got big(ger) and the clothing got tighter. Pants and shirts were then sent off to the Goodwill and new(er) clothing were obtain through the second-hand shop. Why bother buying new clothing that's for "fat" people when this is only a momentary, temporary, transitory, effemeral state of being?
That was my life.
Now I have lost a lot of weight and the body got small(er) and the clothing fell off. Pants and shirts that were no longer appropriately sized got put into a pile to be sent off to the Goodwill, however, instead of making in there, they are sitting in the pile on the floor.
My weight loss has kind of stopped. I have to get back onto the excitement curve and I just don't feel it happening. Not wanting to go back on the lifelong diet sort of distresses me.
The idea of being on an excitement curve throughout the course of life seems and sounds rather silly... perhaps even obnoxious. I don't know what else to call it. Still, I have about 20-30 American pounds to go and it isn't going to come off with little snick-snacks of peanut butter and jelly on rye.

The Entry Title probably sounds more provocative than the subject matter actually is. One of my chickens turned out to be a rooster and today is the day I bring him back to the feed store. It's more of a hassle than anything else. Picking him up, putting him in a cage, driving to the store, processing the separation anxiety. Yeah right!
Contrary to what one might think, I haven't developed any attaching bond with the birds. I feed them and water them. I watch them. Period.
It's been four months now and I am awaiting the six month growth period to be over before I start seeing the dividends (i.e. eggs) from my labors. Nothing says loving like farm fresh eggs!
That's my Sunday adventure.

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/photos/06-22-07/thrid_man_ferris_wheel.jpg

It's 2/3s of the way through September and it rained today. Most would probably say somehting like, "Big f**king deal," or "...and your point is?", but for those of us who live in the Southland the rain is precious and odd. We hold fast to the notion that it is supposed to make an appearance at specific times of the year. When it's out of season, it seems to throw off expectation.
Sure does cast some nice rainbows though