Everyday Stupidities

Hello, folks. I'm going to say very little about the home improvement thang today [audience: "yaaay!"] because there isn't a lot to report since last time. The flooring hasn't been started, the pantry door is being painted (translate: paint one side, wait a day, paint the other side, wait a day, we're busy so let's wait another day, time for a second coat... etc.), and I'd be putting up the cabinet doors right now but it seems those hinges that have been sitting around for months are chrome not nickel so I need to go get another package at yonder big-box store. Along with some coarse-grit sandpaper, since it seems that Ace may offer Black & Decker and 3M brand sandpapers for my Mouse™ but only in fine. But anyhow, the project is wrapping up, with only the floors and the painting of the utility room walls and the replacement of the utility room doors and of course cutting and sticking up new trim around the doors and kitchen cabinets left to go...

What else is dumb beside Ace Hardware not carrying 80-grit sandpaper? And my lethargy regarding both small home projects and replying to an email that's been in my box since mid-September? Well, daily-dose Cialis ads (and the notion of taking Cialis on a daily basis... do you know how much that stuff costs?) are making their way to the top of the heap. Banks and mortgage lenders falling into the toilet is exceptionally stupid since, gee whiz, they're the ones with the money. I can think of a couple three new friends from Flickr who the longer I know the more confusing they become (how exactly does someone tell for two weeks how they're going to take a vacation from looking for a new love due to some recent-past issues, then disappears for four days only to post a few pictures of them with someone never previously mentioned, with cryptic captions about weekends being too short?) but I don't consider the people stupid, just the situations they put themselves into and how they treat others in those situations' wakes. I could call Sarah Palin stupid but that wouldn't be accurate -- she merely says ignorant things when she gives speeches and is condescending when she discusses things with others. (Stupid would be to vote for her and McCain, of course, but there are people who believe in staying the Bush course another four years... apparently those people heard the same rumor about the Rapture that Bush did eight years ago so have no issue with running this country into the ground even further, thinking they won't be here to pay for the shortsightedness; those people are stupid.) The constant misuse of the word "maverick" is particularly stupid and annoying -- look it up, it means "not thinking and acting like everyone around you." And I think anyone who claims they miss talking to you but make no effort to get in touch with you in the many means they have available is definitely acting a certain way, you can guess what it is. (Hint: There isn't a firm parallel between saying you have been "too busy lately against my will" and that 'busy' being going out on dates every night with different people. Sounds like it does require your planning and consent!)

But I think the most stupid thing I can think of is: Turning 41 in eleven days. How the hell did this happen? Sure, I'm happy that I'm above-ground, no doubt about that, but I don't feel a day over 25 most of the time. While working on some projects, I'm so worn out I feel 75, but that passes. I don't look a day over 25, and in what I've accomplished in my life I may as well be 25. Can I call this my twenty-sixth birthday without sounding like one of those vapid people who claim to be, for example, "turning 29 (for the fifteenth time)"? I know... I tell people that I have a given name and a taken name, since I prefer Mushroom Mandrake to that thing my parents called me. How about a practical age and a chronological age? No lying involved, just here's what my license says and here's what I prefer you think.