Looking back on my 20s and 30s, just where did all the time and motivation to read and write come from? It feels far different now, well entrenched in the middle-aged years. Finding that twin-barreled resource to engage in those activities in the same way has seemed elusive for some time now. Being a different person and having different priorities at this stage of life surely is getting in the way, but it seems like that it shouldn’t require as much effort as it clearly does. 

I will choose to blame laziness and inertia. They surely are a bitch…

It’s been a few weeks since writing a post such as this. Shortly after putting the last one online, it occurred to me to start using the Notes app on my phone as a way of capturing thoughts and ideas as material for posting more regularly. However, when looking at the fragments and brief thoughts currently in the file created for just that job, it appears some of them just don’t contain enough information to fully recapture the thought(s) from that moment. Clearly, at least some of my future jots need to be more robust.

One brief note that needed no other information: “Star Trek comfort watching.” Lately, my comfort television watching involves lots of Star Trek — in particular, Picard and Lower Decks. Both are actually rewatches, but, actually, Enterprise is the only series that wouldn’t be a rewatch.* However, that’s totally fine. Comfort television watching often means indulging in the familiar. More importantly though, getting immersed in a show providing an optimistic look on humankind and the future is something that I really need these days. The present provides plenty of reason to believe that the future is only going to get worse, and frankly it worries me.

In fact, those worries actually keep me awake at night. It’s not uncommon to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, go to the bathroom, return to bed, and then find myself unable to go back to sleep while the various frets and concerns completely overtake my thoughts. Runaway global warming, the rise of authoritarianism in this country and around the world, the plastic pollution crisis, the continuing upward redistribution of wealth and power… Averting the future suggested by these ills will require a global coordination of the governments around the world in a manner that is just unprecedented in human history. At the moment, there is little to suggest that could happen any time soon.

No, the not-distant-at-all future currently looks like something like one of the nightmarish scenarios described in a Kim Stanley Robinson novel: meta-national corporations and oligarchs becoming so powerful that the traditional nation-states are unable to properly constrain them, and the efforts of humankind are directed solely for their own enrichment. The general welfare of the planet or the species? Well, that just gets in the fucking way of profit…

Let’s see, what else to mention at this time…

Sally and I spent some time in downtown Frederick yesterday. Spent a little time with an old high school friend and his girlfriend, enjoying good comfort food and drinks, visited some or our favorite stores, and, most importantly, came home with a small disco ball. We just need to figure out how to hang it from the living room ceiling and properly direct some light onto it for the nights we decide to enjoy ourselves by listening to our favorite music while having a few drinks…

Speaking of alcohol, the new version of The Match Game, starring Alec Baldwin, has been one of our favorite Friday night activities for some time now. We tend to have a couple adult beverages while watching, which means that we’re fairly certain that much like Drunk History (which is also watched while having a drink or two,) we’ll be able to enjoy rewatching the episodes seeing as the alcohol impairs our ability to recollect what we’ve seen before…

As the final note for this post, searching for a new favorite local Irish-style pub is now a priority. It still seems patently wrong and utterly unfair that the pandemic killed O’Faolain’s, but with the large-scale reopening now taking place, finding someplace that serves a similar purpose is simply something my soul needs. More on that once the search is properly underway.

* As much as I love the universe, I needed a break from it when the show started to air. The first handful of episodes did nothing to convince me otherwise, and if new Trek is needed while waiting on future seasons of the various new series, it’s still there waiting for me.