I have so many blog ideas, I think I will just have to list them and let you take them from there, or one, or two, if anything appeals to you. It was a strange, hard week as I tried to be strong and upright after my flu bug, great to be swimming again, but I had some horrible fiddlies to deal with, technical fiddles, of course, to do with a very recalcitrant computer, or program, or provider, or whatever.
(ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Latin recalcitrant- ‘kicking out with the heels,’ from the verb recalcitrare, based on calx, calc- ‘heel.’) Computers, of course, don’ t have heels, but they carry quite a kick. I was exhausted at the end of each day last week. But I coped, with the help of some (endless!) online or (baffled and baffling) chat help, and I knocked off three tasks hanging over me. All it took was time, I guess.
Evenings when I had a second and even a third glass of wine, I thought of the rule that women are supposed to have only one a day, and I thought, too, of the assurance that if one limits one’s liquor consumption, one will live longer. I have already lived longer, so what kind of an incentive is that? Well, I say to myself, if I’m going to go on as I am, I’d better take some care. Remember that comment of the entertainer, Eubie Blake, on his 100th birthday: “If I’d knowed I was gonna live so long, I’da taken better care of myself.” I’ll be careful.
Next, I came across an expression, apparently common and recognizable: the IKEA effect”. It refers to the inordinate pride people take in IKEA furniture they have laboured over, out of proportion to the beauty or quality of the product. Cute, but I know what they mean. I have lived several lives in several different venues and few things have stayed with me, except books. My line is that I have lost family, friends and furniture (also doctors and agents). So – furniture; I have gone through several different phases of furniture and I have ended (?) with IKEA, not early-married IKEA, not stop-gap IKEA, but late-life IKEA. I guess it’s had an effect.
Then, I read an article in the NYT by someone trying to procrastinate more as a way to increase his creativity. I have discussed procrastination in my blogging past and will again. Always put off today what you can do tomorrow, except when there’s a gun at your head. I have always been fond of quoting Dr. Johnson: “Depend upon it, Sir, knowing you’re going to be hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully.” And that’s all I have to say about that. For now.
And now, I just got cut off, not by Safari but by my neglect of the battery. So I’ll put in the plug and pull out the plug on this busy day and week.
Anon, anon.