Banishing BrainGoblins by Caitlin Walsh

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Banishing BrainGoblins by Caitlin Walsh

It is terribly tempting, and among my worst traits, to wallow in the depths of all of the terrible things happening and being forecast, none of which you can do a blessed thing about.

When I’m being especially bad, it’s not even the Big Things (country-spanning turmoils and whatnot), but just a continual, vicious loop of what’ll happen if I die right now, if my husband dies right now, if all of the things we’ve been relying on to function just up and dissolve in the middle of the night.

Now, my husband is on a similar wavelength to me, so we’ve got a number of things set up for various Worst Cases; I haven’t been able to find a suitable replacement wife for him, nor he a suitable replacement husband for me, but we’ve got a decent number of buckets of bulk staples, cases of toilet paper, and friendly boltholes, so at the very least we’ll probably have enough time to think of the next thing if things go weird.

…and once you’ve managed that, tell me, is there any point in bothering about it further?

So, from the mind of someone who isn’t ever able to *fully* dismiss the goblins of What If, I would like nevertheless to present a list of things that sometimes work, at least a little, to get my feet a bit more under me than they otherwise would be. Perhaps they’ll help you as well!

—

1) A Good Book

This is one of the most efficacious steps when I get to the point I’m afraid to be alone with myself. Why, there was one time that grinding through The Chronicles of Narnia all at once got me through the dark night that somehow lasted two or three days and feeling okay on the other side. Another time it was a teen romance about an aspiring Olympic swimmer who was frustrated that her aspirations and training didn’t really leave her time to date. It’s completely weird what twigs, and I haven’t been able to quantify it yet.

…I’ve been finding this a lot harder since the COVIDiocy. Have you? I’ve been all but unable to keep track of a story for more than a few chapters at a time, and mostly incapable of remembering what I was reading. It’s been almost four years, there’s no excuse for it not to have come back yet.

But it was ridiculously effective before, and even since then I’ve managed to trip into one or two seizing me at exactly the right moment to give me context. Because that’s the thing about books–*context*. Specifically, a context separate from your own, a perspective and drive and ideal outside of the tiny little box your worst self has managed to squish you into.

When the White Witch has enslaved the land of Narnia, and one of the prophesied Sons of Adam manages to redeem himself from helping her in those aims, it’s harder to see your certainty you’ll never do anything useful as an all-overpowering shadow of certainty. Sometimes, all you need is a step outside of your own head to get it back to right.

2) A Win

I believe it’s BA Smith who says to try to accomplish *something* in a day that won’t be undone the next day. Which is a little sideways for me–my stress-doodles are constant, persistent, and when I look at them unstressed I’ll frequently see something valuable enough to keep. It’s the continual things I’m supposed to do, but don’t, that get me down–the things that will be undone tomorrow, but make life better ’til then.

So in my world, when I need a boost, those are the places to go.

Not the littler things, if you’re down enough; doing the dishes or folding the laundry is a great thing to do to keep things rolling, but if you’re looking for A Win, you’re looking for something you *don’t* usually manage. Maybe it’s a Big Effort for something you’re sick of; clearing out the storage room, or organizing the shelves so you can find the book you need, or even throwing out the broken toys that you’re sick of looking at. Or maybe it’s just Something You Don’t Usually Manage–that cobbler your husband likes, or homemade ice cream, or doing that paper craft with the children that always seemed like too much of a pain.

Just a thing where you can go “Regardless of what you say, O Shadow, I have made things run better, and I have made the people in my care happy.”

(That said… cooking in particular carries a big risk of Things Going Even Wronger, so have a backup in your pocket if possible.)

3) Touch Grass

My mom has a saying: If nothing is right and everything is messed up, HALT. That is, ask yourself: Am I Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? Maybe that’s why.

Now, ideally, once you’ve worked that out, you should fix it; there’s a lot of times that having a sandwich has curbed all of my darker natures. However, for most of my life, Lonely has been my go-to problem–*significantly* less so now that I’m married with children, but still sometimes–and that’s a touch harder, especially if you don’t exactly have a friend you can call up to go have milkshakes with.

But you can trick yourself, sometimes.

A lot of times, Lonely and Angry are absolutely a function of the environment you’re stuck in. Do you browse the web first thing in the morning? I do. And it is an absolutely TERRIBLE thing to do, a way to make sure all of your first thoughts are about all the terrible things people are doing to each other, how everyone probably thinks you’re stupid or evil, and anyway the Grand Titans of the Universe are playing chess on a level we aren’t ever permitted to influence, so why does it all matter anyway?

…honestly, things go Much Better when, instead, I manage to take a bike ride before the kids get up. This time of year? Oh, it’s cool, it’s misty, it’s *perfect*.

(Why on earth is it so hard to convince myself to do it?)

Other times, I used to (before children) go to bars early, when it was just the retirees hanging out. They’ll talk to just about anyone, in my experience. Or if I just needed to know other people existed and behaved normally, I could just go to a grocery store. The big idea is to *break your usual habit* so you at least get *some* impression of something being different.

These are really, really basic things, and you probably know them. But… I keep forgetting them every time I fall into the pit. So I share them, if for no other reason than I can bookmark it and check back next time I need it.

Hopefully it’ll be a while. But you never know.

—

MANDATORY PLUG: Are you going to be in the Las Vegas area the weekend of the 13th through the 15th? Remember, our glorious hostess will be one of the guests at SON OF SILVERCON! Come see Sarah and Dan Hoyt, MCA Hogarth… and even me, Caitlin Walsh, the Chief Artist! (Or sign up to be a Supporting Member and I’ll send you something pretty in the mail.)

Check the details or buy a membership at https://fission-chan.org/ !!!

132 thoughts on “Banishing BrainGoblins by Caitlin Walsh”

  1. Good list. I try to limit my exposure to the news, but things leak through especially after such a disappointing baseball season for my beloved Padres. Looking forward to meeting you at Son of SilverCon. (I don’t think we met at LibertyCon.) I keep a file for all the compliments I’ve received–yes it’s so few I can count them, but still…. I reread it when I need to remind myself that someone might actually want to read what I write next.

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    1. “You don’t watch TV?!”
      “No over-the-air signal. Gave up cable when I found it was $50+ a month and I was only watching a nickel’s worth, maybe. Didn’t bother with satellite.”
      “You don’t watch TV?!”
      “And it’s AMAZING how low my blood pressure is now, too.”
      “You don’t watch TV?!”
      “…AND… I have not seen a campaign commercial in ages.”
      “You lucky [bastage]!”
      “See why my blood pressure is low?”

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      1. I gave up watching TV in college and never saw cause to resume it as a habit. Some shows? Sure, though that’s usually in rewatch/binge. Jeopardy! was fun.

        News? Oh hell no. I’d had a dubious view of TV news before I got to college, and doing broadcast studies only solidified that into certainty. With the best of intentions and purity of motive, you can get every single detail wrong. It’s SO easy to do just through ignorance. Just imagine what happens when you get your “frame” (and that’s an actual term) involved.

        TV news is good for the weather report, and usually for the after-weather report. That seems to be the limit.

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        1. I had already given up on TV news when I read Amusing Ourselves to Death but even my occasional flip to “see what’s happening” died after that book (exception, watching CNN for meltdowns election night 2016, but I knew I wasn’t watching news but schadenfreude the series).

          Even more than propaganda, I think the purpose of most TV (and increasingly even YT which used to be more useful) is to keep us distracted from what TPTB are doing beyond our control (short of violent removal).

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      2. We’ll watch the Grand Ole Opry at times, (I might be a redneck, though all the cars run.) but while $SPOUSE watches weather, HGTV and ancient game shows on Buzzer, I’ll join her for DVDs, usually of old mysteries. We’re almost done with Inspector Morse, but have the full set of Bones shows on hand. (For some reason, there’s a shortage of good British comedies on DVD. $SPOUSE refuses to watch Blackadder and I dislike watching much video solo. I think there’s a Fawlty Towers set, though.)

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        1. I picked up a complete Monty Python boxed set quite a few years ago as well as Red Dwarf boxed set. I highly recommend Chef!. And while it isn’t comedy, Neverwhere is a fantastic short series.

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          1. Yes, we loved Chef. And Vicar of Dibley, and several others, long gone from the airwaves.

            “I’m stupid about money.” True words at times…

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          2. $HOUSEMATE thought he’d bought a complete MPFC boxed set years ago. Alas, one entry was omitted and another doubled. And guess how many care to rectify that? HINT: It’s a non-positive number.

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            1. My first Beatles White Album (original release) had two of the same records in it. Got it fixed. Much later, I bought the Mobile Fidelity box set (back when my ears could take advantage of the sound), and the same damned screwup happened. Tower Records (RIP) got a MF White Album and swapped the correct disc into the box set.

              Things that make you go WTF?

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        2. “weather, HGTV and ancient game shows on Buzzer”

          Sounds kinda like me! I could watch 1970s Match Game and Hollywood Squares episodes all day long.

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            1. One of the old Match Game shows featured the question “When the Martians landed on Earth, they decided there was no intelligent life because the first person they met was (blank).” The contestant said “Richard Nixon” (this was several years after Watergate), which got both applause and boos from the audience. Most of the celebrities said, you guessed it, Howard Cosell, though Brett Somers said simply “a politician”, which didn’t count as a match. Needless to say, if the same question were asked today, the answer would be a lot different….

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              1. As for Hollywood Squares, I just watched a show from ’72 in which Paul Lynde got the following question: “According to an official at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth is considering allowing Prince Charles to do something very important. What is it?” Lynde guessed that she was planning to let Charles become king before her death. The contestant disagreed, but that was the CORRECT answer — the unnamed “official” had been quoted as saying QEII planned to abdicate in 1977, her Silver Jubilee year! Looks like that prediction was just a wee bit off….

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        3. Bones is >90% good, as is Castle. If you”re a country music fan, I recently binged seasons 1-4 of Nashville. Season 5 jumped the shark.

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            1. I’ll have to check out the Firefly recordings. IIRC, the Serenity movie is part of the tale. Do I have that right? ($SPOUSE is not fond of SF, though we both liked Person of Interest, at least until it started to look like future history.)

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                1. Yep. Have those, the complete series of Castle, Dollhouse, Stargate, SG Atlantis, the SG movies, Caprica, BSG, the BSG movies, the original BSG, Jesse Stone, Lord Peter, the Die Hards, the Lethal Weapons, the Cruise MI series, plus quite a few Bogies, John Waynes, Eastwoods (spaghetti westerns, other westerns, Dirty Harrys and a few others), everything of L’Amour’s made into movies (and why don’t they do all of the Sacketts, from Sackett’s Land on; it’s only 18 books! Sheesh… Ditto for the Lord Peters), A-a-h-nold’s stuff, Tom Cruise, and a whole pot full more, from Boston Legal to Sherlock Holmes (at least two series there). Broadcast TV? Streaming? Who needs it? :-)

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              2. he Serenity movie is part of the tale. Do I have that right?
                ……………

                Yes. Serenity was the response to FireFly canceling.

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  2. A year or so ago I introduced my Dragonette to the concept that the voice in her head is an asshole. She has taken it a step further – she says that when the voice in her head is saying mean things, she opens the car door (metaphorically) and kicks it out. And since she’s ADHD, the car is usually going 75 mph.

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        2. I can’t get enough of cat videos, particularly videos of mama cats and their kittens. Yep, I’m a devout Cat-holic.

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    2. That looks like a great show. Another anime that’s good for raising one’s spirits, if not restoring faith in humanity, is Girls Und Panzer. It’s pure and wholesome and so…much…fun. I don’t know where to find it anymore, but it’s about time I watched it again.

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  4. I turn on the computer first thing– but it’s not to browse the news, I’m doing my social stuff, sorting email, anything that might need more than two minutes between kids popping up for me to respond to it. :D

    The permission to skip stuff that will do no good is important! Twitter/X, top of the hour news, IMPORTANT!!! radio shows/podcasts– click!

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    1. Now that I’m retired and have no little ones, customers, or administrators to please, my morning routine begins with the weekday Shacharit prayers, and by the time I’m finished, the local gym is open. Stroll over, sweat like a hippopotamus there for 45 minutes, and the hardest thing I’m going to do all day is over and done with — NOTHING can stop me now!

      But in order to keep things under control, I’ve had to break my time- and sanity-consuming habit of constant blog-reading, especially the comments. It matters a lot more to those I love that my mood stays sunny than that I’m up to the minute on the news. You’re onto something, Foxy Lady. (If I just misgendered you, my apologies!)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Yep, I’m the mama. ;)

        Oooh, your exercise reminds me– “loud music on headphones and go do brainless walking/elliptical/some kind of motion that takes NO THINKING” is another good mood lifter.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Mornings are for journaling, writing fiction, and following up on stories that the media is pushing (strictly for the purpose of finding out what the media is leaving out of the story).
      Social media and email (the latter for financial and business reasons, the former to make sure I’m not missing any family misadventures or calamities).
      And reading on Kindle. And, just thinking.
      I’m going to start adding exercise to that. I find I get more out of it when I hit the gym early.

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  5. Well, I must admit that I usually do hit the internet first thing in the morning. However, I have a process: Mornings, I only click on the good stuff, like McCarthy having his little hammer taken away, Pelosi and Hoyer being kicked out of their hidey-holes, DSNY stock taking another hit. I only look at the other things after I’m done with my self-assigned tasks for the day (I also try to slot the darker side of my amusements in there, such as Leftists being shot, stabbed, beaten up, carjacked, etc. by their own beloved thugs). Evenings, I switch to videos of fun stuff – anime, old campy shows (watching Space 1999 right now), funny cat/Marine/gaming videos, etc. This gives me much less trouble, while staying (reasonably) informed about the world outside of these walls.

    And WPDE is still not letting me write in paragraphs…

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    2. DSNY…hadn’t heard of ’em before, but looked up a bit of info. Only a bit. Since it seems their target market is the music industry, anything that hurts their company is okay in my book.

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      1. I suspect he was thinking of Disney (DIS) stock tanking.

        But thanks, ill-lit peruser, for a new penny stock to investigate.

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      1. Urk. I have days like that myself – but maybe one in every two weeks or so. (Slight note; I think that your definition of “functional” is on a rather higher level than mine.)

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  7. Having just passed four score and five (& yep, I counted on my fingers and toes this time to assure I got the score right.) I am contemplating certain intimations of mortality.

    Oddly enough such isn’t funk or brain goblin inducing, I too shall pass & it’s the right thing to do.

    (Hum, oddly wordpress isn’t allowing me to start a new paragraph, I hit enter and the cursor doesn’t move [Just went over to LibreOffice writer & all the keys, including cursor work fine there so it seems to be wordpress not my keyboard or computer.] so…) So! Guess Gods of the Copybook Headings are telly me shut up! OK but one last wo….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Having just posted the above I see the enter key was changing paragraphs, such just not showing up on my screen. None the less Gods of the Copybook Headings shut me up with is probably a good thing. ;-)

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      1. Both Pale Moon and Firefox showed the behavior.

        A carriage return gets a space in the draft window, but shows as normal once posted. I think they were trying to improve something, as only WordPress can do.

        And yeah, it shows on all WP blogging sites that I visit.

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          1. I use Vivaldi now for ATH because I cannot log into WP on Firefox anymore if I want to comment. That has been true for nearly a year now if not longer.

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        3. Oh for crying out loud. I use Firefox and have been seeing this constantly. It has been driving me insane. I think Pale Moon is off the same base as Firefox, so likely they are seeing the same issue.

          Word Press Delenda Erat!!!

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          1. Without someone else, okay lots of someone elses, noting the problem, I would have never realized the CR worked when posting. (“Never” might be too harsh. Might have done some testing, but someone beat me to it.) Despite having written software for 35 years, professionally. “I wrote software. I don’t use it.” Is not just a saying. (Blatantly not true. But the computer professionals get the idea.) Depends on my motive for figuring the problem out. Right now? Not much motive.

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            1. Now, my only customer is myself. The customer is a pain in the ass, but at least he lets the programmer use the tools that work for him. :)

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      2. Firefox under Ubuntu Linux atop a HP Z2 tower G9 workstation, but I checked and all was right at other sites so, suspect it was a wordpress glitch. T’ain’t the first time I found wordpress to do strange.

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        1. Apparently it works with Chrome-based browsers, but not Firefox or similar. So maybe a combination of WPDE and Google being evil.

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          1. I run Google Ignored– it’s amazing where that stuff is– and while there’s five things blocked here, besides the six ad blocker items, everything works.

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  8. cooking in particular carries a big risk of Things Going Even Wronger

    I violate all the rules of how to try new cooking things. I do them at the last minute for a potluck (why, yes, all the frosting did run off the cake because it was still hot when I frosted it in order to get it here on time). I foist never before attempted – sometimes even tasted – dishes onto guests (but I do tell them, so if it’s awful we can just throw it out).

    As long as you don’t burn down the house, treat it as an adventure. If you get lost in the woods, just call search & rescue. It’s a metaphor! Pizza delivery is much cheaper than literal search & rescue.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. In case anyone cares…
      The worst success: Tofurkey. It’s just bad. How you cook it is nearly irrelevant. It looked and smelled good. It tasted like – surprise! – tofu.
      The best failure: My first crochenbouche turned into a jumbled pile, but everyone loves cream puffs; presentation is a distant second.

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        1. The Reader likes his deep fried Oreos with a deep fried Twinkie between them…
          Actually the Reader can’t eat fried foods (something inherited from his father) but it is a nice fantasy.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. I’m currently in the process of sous vide-ing breakfast tomorrow morning’s breakfast for the first time; specifically, steel oats being cooked in a small mason jar.

      I had to scramble a bit when the jar – which is about half full of air – began bobbing in the water bath…

      ^^;;

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    4. We’re on a limited diet (gluten issues for both of us), and the weekly menu is fairly predictable.

      OTOH, Sunday is pizza night. From scratch. (As I said, gluten issues, and IMHO, Amy’s pizza should be banned by the Geneva Convention.) Even if the pizzaria that sells GF were close by (an hour each way), the price is too high at $20+ for a 10″ pie.

      We use the Bette Hagman pizza crust (yeast with rice flour) from one of her books, and I’ll slice the goodies while $SPOUSE does the crust. Aidell’s sausage for the meat, and either mozzerella or an alternate cheese (Colby Jack or Mild/Medium cheddar.) It’s not Chicago pan pizza, but Spinoccilie (spelling?) went off the menu a long time ago. OTOH, it’s damned good, and we have fun doing it together. Kat the border collie supervises, usually camping out under the microwave until the crust process forces her out.

      Good times each week.

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    5. Wa-wa-wait! This post is like a Jeopardy! question; there’s a hint in the question! (OK, in the illo.) Make pie! If you’re hopeless with crust, get a couple pre-made at the grocery. Fill it with fruit, pop it in the over. Bingo! Pie for breakfast!

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          2. Peach and blackberry makes a great fruit combo for a pie filling.

            I was really into pies a few years ago. I would make the crusts fresh and fill them with a lump of pie filling that I’d previously frozen into pie shape in a slightly smaller tin than the one I put the crust in.

            Works really well with apple pie and beef-and-cabbage pie. Don’t think I tried it with any more delicate fruit.

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          3. I’m with Mary and Mike. Peach pie is relatively common, Peach Cobbler more common and usually better with a nice Vanilla Ice Cream. Been a New Englander all my 3 score and 2 and am yet to have seen people eating pies of ANY sort for breakfast other than an occasional Quiche for brunch (and that’s not really a pie…) and not particularly New Englandy anyhow. Mangos are right out, didn’t see them at all until late 1990s :-) .

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            1. Found a recipe for galleta over on Maggie’s Farm a couple months back–it’s a lazy pie filled with a variety of fruit, peaches, berries, whatever. I tried slices of mango, and it’s a winner. My family–Californians all–started the Pie for Breakfast tradition almost 40 years ago when Mom did a blackberry pie marathon for Christmas, and it was all we could to to eat all those pies up. Nowadays, if there’s pie in the house, my wife demands pie (or galleta) for breakfast.

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        2. A Yankee in Vermont.

          “To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
          To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
          To northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
          To easterners, a Yankee is an New Englander.
          To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
          And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.”

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I’m a Connecticut Yankee (tho I don’t live there anymore) and I LOVE mince or pumpkin pie for breakfast. One of the best parts of Thanksgiving leftovers!

            Apple pie is good, too, or tart cherry pie. We never bothered making peach pie, tho.

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  9. For the vast majority of my life I have had reading as a refuge. Unfortunately, after having a stroke in 2020, I now have a significant problem staying focussed on a story. I can attribute a bit of that being due to the lower quality of the books I have been trying to read, but the majority of the issue is obviously brain damage. It is extremely frustrating.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reading was always my refuge too. I had a stroke in 2017. Lost my ability to focus too. And my photographic memory.

      HOWEVER, keep working at it. It does get better. They will tell you that whatever progress you make after a year or so is as good as it is going to get.

      They lie. I have gotten better every year. I read short stories. Then longer ones. And now I can read novels. It takes me longer than a day to read one still, but I’m working at it.

      Never give up. Never surrender.

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    2. Concussions, ditto.

      It’s like part of my brain is five again, and has to re-learn “focus”.

      Working in IT, the ability to jump around tasks gets me a good rep as flexible and a wiz at disaster recovery and juggling crisis-salad.

      But it gets me all the pop-ups, wrecking ordinary throughput.

      I can’t speak to your personal process. Mine requires a “shoot the squirrel” ruthless “if your issue isn’t a fire, send me a ticket and I will get it tomorrow.”

      I am glad most of our team respect that, as they know if they do have a fire I jump.

      I have to hush distractions hard and fast.

      LOL, I set an alarm for the EBS test yesterday, so I would stop and take a break prior, thus no real task interrupted.

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      1. Due to my schedule, I was asleep for that. Thus did I turn the phone OFF and keep it in a cookie tin (cookies long gone from it, yes) until I woke up mid/late-day to deal with… biology. Only then was the device freed and resurrected.

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        1. I turned my phone off for the national emergency test too. Not because I was sleeping, but because it’d scare the 4 legged critters.

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      2. requires a “shoot the squirrel” ruthless “if your issue isn’t a fire, send me a ticket and I will get it tomorrow.”
        ……………..

        Programming. The last 12 years couldn’t quite get away with this, but prior jobs I could. “Unless an emergency. Don’t call. Send an email.” Every call, regardless of how long, was a 20 – 30 minute reset. Did get most the clients over the last 12 years to be a lot better. But still got a lot of calls (no call center, no help desk, programmers handled the calls). It did help, that if they were in an emergency (billing or payroll information due, an auditor was in the building, or the boss was there training, were the 4 big ones), they got immediate attention.

        OTOH must admit toward the end payroll issues (timecards due, because the software didn’t do actual payroll) that came in at 4:30 PM, or later, they were too *late (oh, someone took the call, I didn’t). Especially a couple of clients who were notorious for pulling this. Every single time it was the data, not the software. Garbage in. Garbage out. On top of which, the ones calling and panicking had been using the software longer than I’d been with the company. The problems, every single time, were accounting problems. They were accountants, I wasn’t, and I could spot the problem. Let that sink in for a bit.

        (*) They’d been looking at it all day and it was suddenly my problem to solve before 5 PM? On a Friday? I don’t think so, even if there was a programming problem. Programming problem likely wasn’t a 30 minute find the problem at best. Quick fix, probably, maybe, when found, but finding it? Not likely.

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      3. They cut my hours, I don’t answer the work phone outside of work hours, the message instructs them to call my boss. I figure if the boss gets bugged enough, maybe management will realize that it really is a full time job.

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  10. Do something, just do something, and always remember it took years for your body to get out of shape, it will take years for it to get back in shape. My sister’s boyfriend had just died, both divorced in their fifties. Living together in sin, meh. In the funeral home it was standing room only. I went for my sister, I learned a lot at that funeral. This guy I couldn’t take time to learn about had a saying. “It’s always a good day to have a good day”. I watched all the people, I am good at that. He made a difference to so many people with his attitude. Now I always tell people, “It’s a good day to have a good day”. Attitude. It’s always attitude.

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  11. Brain goblins is good. I call them war movies. That scenario that plays on repeat in your mind’s eye.

    Never stops, never changes, just keeps playing.

    Used to be a good book would shut them up. These days I write them down, because the books are worse than the war movies.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Especially for the writers, I highly recommend watching “We Love You Sally Carmichael” at least twice a year. It’s absolutely hilarious. I nearly fell out of my chair at the last interview scene. I was laughing so hard the neighbors probably thought I was insane. (Yes, I already hear the snark in your head. You don’t need to actually say it.)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for reminding me of that delightful movie! Let me check … and it’s streaming for free on Tubi!

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  13. “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, and What If are demons.” Said on an EWTN program by the hostess, who was told it by her confessor. Over the years, all I could ever think was, “She’s right, and so was her confessor.”

    What If loud right now. For those who want an angelic counterpoint, this article has some ideas: https://aleteia.org/2023/08/31/a-priests-top-advice-on-how-to-deal-with-anxiety/. If you would prefer something a little less prosaic, try this: “And? But? So? Therefore? What can I do here and now with what I actually have to mitigate things? Maybe I can move that thing in the way of walkers aside so there is less risk of tripping over it….”

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  14. It does strike me, if you ever did find a replacement wife, and he found a backup husband, what you two have found are a couple of loose souls who probably need to be introduced to eachother, likely shortly removing them from the pool of backup spouses.

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  15. Reading and reruns. Right now Grimm through Peacock (started with new xfinity comcast channel add “Comet”). On the news just enough for “nothing’s changed”. Best for sanity.

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        1. Fan slang for Lalafels.

          Logic was, IIRC, Papalymo => Popoto => lalas are smol and cute demons => potato.

          This is in the same sub-group that talks about “Lord Baemric.” (Aymeric de Borel)

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            1. :evil laugh:

              Try Mad Because Small.

              Not at work.

              Or around kids…..

              (it’s not obscene, it’s just got some stuff you do NOT want to explain)

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  18. The cartoon describes my philosophy at times. Sometimes we can’t get the big victory (for some folks “all the Democrats and RINOs quitting and going home”, for others “seeing all my family stop fighting”, etc.), so we need to accentuate all the little victories.

    And pie does go very well with coffee…

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    1. With ice cream, warm pie with ice cream is even better. Hmmmm. Don’t understand people who put cheese on their pie but I believe in freedom, you want cheese on your pie, go for it. I’ll have a small piece with too much ice cream. Then a long walk, have to burn up the sugar somehow.

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  21. That looking at news etc first thing in the morning and just whenever is i am convinced the worst addiction of anything even over heroin, problem is now magazines etc are harder to get, unless you want a subscription to something, and have made the mistake of having digital subscriptions to everything that then almost always leads you back down the rat hole of looking at stuff that just makes the terrible imprint on your brain. 

    This is why i think it would be better if everything just went dark all of a sudden. And then stayed dark till everybody reset completely. 
    Id miss reading a few blogs and looking at the lunar calendar on Almanac but id endure. 

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  22. Lately, I find myself having difficulty dragging up a word I want to use. For example, I couldn’t think of the word “Parliament” the other day when I was trying to describe coalition building. I’m in my 60s and this has happened enough to make me wonder if I need to change some habits and worry a bit more about dementia in the future. Besides exercise, and specifically strength training, does anyone have any good suggestions or places to send me to read more material? Thanks

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    2. Would you believe Scrabble? Or any other game that forces you to use the synapses where your word-memory is stored.

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      1. I am lousy at Scrabble. For the same reason when I misspell a word, nothing in the list that comes up for correction is even close. At least in written conversations, like those that take place here, then I can look up the word I need, or rearrange what I am writing to say the same. Speaking conversations OTOH, I don’t have that luxury.

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        1. Me: Buerucrat Spellcheck: Bureaucrat That time it was close enough for spellcheck to figure it out. Most attempts are not. English spelling needs a revamp – especially for the French words.

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    3. Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to remember the word for moving/putting political power to/at the lowest level. Sarah has used it a number of times. “Federalism” is the American Constitutional word, but there is a more generic one. Anyone?

      Internet search has not been helpful. “Delegate” and “Power” returns all “The three branches of government…” results. “Devolve” is not helpful. Etc…

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    1. But are cobblers pie? Cherry cobbler tastes wonderful with ice cream. So does apple cobbler, if it has enough cinnamon, no wonder I am type two….

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      2. Cobblers and crisps are Pies where someone forgot the crust (or the attempt to make the crust failed horribly). Sweet Fruity and warm, I’m all for it crust or no. Although there does NOT seem to be a lemon meringue cobbler darn it… Or coconut custard or Banana Cream for that matter.

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  25. }}} I believe it’s BA Smith who says to try to accomplish something in a day that won’t be undone the next day.

    Indeed, this, to me, is one of the biggest complaints about Modern Life.

    SO MUCH of ML is just flat out “maintenance” — doing shit that needs to constantly, endlessly, be re-done, much of which is tedium and has little of pleasure in it — doing the dishes, doing the laundry, picking up the “crap around the house”.

    There’s cooking, which, at least, gives you the pleasure of eating what you make… but, then, you have to clean up… F*********************KKKKKK!!!. :-D

    It’s hard to find something to do while doing all that that actually kinda-sorta manages to just STAY DONE. :-D

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  26. }}} My mom has a saying: If nothing is right and everything is messed up, HALT. That is, ask yourself: Am I Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? Maybe that’s why.

    What if everything is just flat out messed up, because you’re surrounded by total idiots who keep ephing things up no matter how much YOU do to fix it?

    Ahhhh, What Then?

    :-D ;-)

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