Monday, September 28

Today I am grateful for:

My sweetie and our friends continuing to make progress on the addition. I'm sitting this out, for obvious reasons, but I guess I'm happy that someone is doing it. I hope it's all as safe as possible.

Sunshine.

I went to check on River, and he's settling in well. I chatted to the owner for a while about this and that, and it was really nice. I got to meet her big, beautiful, love-floof of a doggie.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how impossible it is to avoid all trauma and pain, and all accidents, and the never-ending internal battle of risk vs. missing out on life and opportunity. That many serious accidents also come of slipping on ice, in the bath tub, on a kid's toy, walking under the wrong tree or window, going for a walk, and on and on. It's sobering, and scary. We can be careful, but safety is still a bit of an illusion. Not that we shouldn't do our absolute best to be safe, and cautious, and educated.

I consider myself to be a careful person, but I also still cut my thumb and ruined a tendon a few years ago on a cat food can lid. I still tore a ligament in a finger because I pulled up a narrow-legged pair of jeans the wrong way and had to wear a finger brace for a month. None of this makes me less afraid.

We dug some more potatoes.

Then we came in and watched "Deadpool" again. It's an oddly charming movie, for all it's violence and gore.

The cult of Elvis, and how odd celebrity can be.

I can understand how Elvis was kind of an unexpected phenomenon. He was probably the first mega-celebrity, or at least among the first people to be in that wave of mega-celebrity. It was kind of the beginning of the era where television, film, radio, and magazines could really propel a person to a fame never heard of before.

I can kind of understand too, how he was such an idol for teens because Elvis was right on that wave where rock n'roll took off, and he represented something completely belonging to that generation.

I am amazed at how history seems to forgive his penchant for "young girls", which would now be an outrage. He actually had procurers bring teen-aged girls to his mansion for him to pick from. He was obsessed with virgins. Priscilla Presley was only 14 when he met her. None of this is unknown.

It seems to do nothing to tarnish his memory in the minds of his fans.

What does amaze me, is how hard core his fans really are. People collect MOUNTAINS of "memorabilia". Just his image on every object possible. Plates. Posters. Clocks. Mugs. Shirts. No one intends to use this stuff, just display it. Or hoard it. Like one more commemorative stamp or coin will somehow tie them closer to Elvis.

Being a fan is really kind of a wild thing, isn't it? I can see having all of his music, if they like the music. I can see having a few things around like a picture or two, if he meant a lot to them. But a whole room full of stuff?

My husband worked with a guy who literally would only play Elvis's music. My husband's job at the time meant a lot of driving to work locations, and this guy drove the truck. Only Elvis on all of these long truck rides, and the whole time on location. This guy had been listening to only Elvis for most of his life. Maybe he heard other music when other people played it, but HE only played Elvis.

Elvis was like a religion for many people of that generation. A cult.

I've liked some music a lot, or certain celebrities. I could see me having a band shirt, or something like that. I'm not sure any one person made me feel like I needed to be surrounded by their image.

Anyone else have thoughts or insight?

Tuesday, September 29

Today I am grateful for:

More sunshine.

Managing to get to town today on my sore leg, and get done the things that needed doing. I got dog food, supported our movie store as best I could (no new releases in a long time that I'm interested in, but they have old movies for two bucks, and I buy a lot of those), went into Winners and came out with some glittery eye shadow (resisted nice sweaters on the grounds that I have lots at home), and got groceries.

As always, I am grateful for having a car, a licence, the means to buy food and extras, and the physical ability to do so (and keeping in mind that many people are in pain or have mobility issues worse than my leg).

I wore a mask everywhere today, and most people were also wearing one. One thing I miss, is the connection of smiling at strangers. I feel that with masks, people are not bothering to look at each other's faces any more. I used to get more of a sense of connection with people in stores and so on, and that isn't happening as much. People are still nice, but they talk less, and you don't get to see their faces, so the whole experience is diminished. I know we need to wear masks, and I do, but it leads to more feelings of isolation.

That our yard is more cleaned up. It would be a lot harder to get around our yard, if not impossible, with my sore leg.