Don’t think of it that way.
Think of it as The World being just One Big Mac away from being a better place.
In my first apartment, just a few years ago, I finally went from a big glass tube tv to a flatscreen. When I had to do an emergency move due to toxic molld, the movers did not pack or wrap the tv. They did tape the power cord to the back. I still don’t know where my amplified antenna and my remote are. They are packed somewhere and were not with the tv. I ordered a new amplified antenna (it works very well) and a new remote. There are problems.
I don’t know if the trouble is with the new remote or if the tv was somehow damaged. During my time at my second apartment, the tv would sometimes display the channel guide spontaneously. If I did nothing, the tv would turn itself off in a few minutes. Sometimes, the tv would not respond to the remote. I checked, it was not low batteries or a bad angle. Sometimes when on the channel guide, I would click up or down just once. The tv would frantically go past a dozen channels.
Since I moved to my new apartment, things are worse. At unpredictable intervals for unknown reasons, the tv will spontaneously go into channel guide mode and switch to the lowest broadcast channel. That is annoying enough. But the remote for this tv has no number buttons. To get back to whatever I was watching, I have to click down all the way to the proper channel.
Sorry guys. I’d say, “Welcome to my non-medicated brane,” but nothing is really welcomed there, and it’s a horrible place to be.
I suspect this is a bad mental health time for a lot of people.
I haven’t been doing all that well emotionally for a couple years and the election just exacerbated things.
But I am surviving by keeping my expectations in suspended hibernation for now. Limited interface with news and social media.
Instead of retiring and moving to an apartment I am staying at work and I found a handyman to start some repair projects in my house.
I hope to do some major cleaning (will hire someone) and buy a few things to make me as comfortable as possible over the next few years.
A bed, a laptop, a firestick, etc.
Library books, jigsaw puzzles, flavored creamer.
Simple pleasures. Tasks accomplished.
I hope I can continue to do some traveling but I feel like hunkering down for awhile. I traveled way too much for my stamina the last 2 years.
Plus there’s medications for the occasional overwhelming anxiety.
I just finished of bottles of both my night time pills- lithium carbonate and Qelbree. I went to the cabinet where I keep my meds. I saw two pill bottles. They are both Paxil. I frantically searched everywhere in my apartment. If I have more pills, I cannot find them. I will need to call the pharmacy and possibly my psychiatrist tomorrow. I shall panic now.
I took a bus once from Gaberone, Botswana, to Johannesburg, South Africa. It takes about six hours, as the bus stops often and there is a border crossing.
This meant that we got to listen to the album six times, at least, as it was apparently the only CD they had, and it was on repeat. I hate Phil Collins.
Ha, you reminded me of a guy I knew in college, who once drove from the UT Austin campus aaalllll the way to El Paso … with a single Fleetwood Mac cassette tape for company.
There are some cities between Austin and El Paso, but there’s also hundreds upon hundreds of miles of absolute nothingness, and definitely no radio stations.
Fleetwood Mac weren’t a favorite of his before … he sure as shit hated them by the time he got back.
As a cyclist, I often come across roadside finds. The best was a big ass pair of channel lock pliers. Big enough to fit a 5 inch diameter pipe. They have actually come in handy numerous times. I highly recommend that everyone go out and search the roadsides until they get a pair of big ass pliers.
But I have only found one cassette tape on the side of the road - Dr. Hook Greatest Hits. I fully understand how that thing was flung out of the window in disgust.
I wonder if Jimmy fallon’s awful “I got my thight pants on” would counterbalance the streatchypants song?
LOL many years ago I was driving from PA to Charleston, South Carolina and I swear the only song available was “Eww I’m Driving my Live Away”.
I’ve had a pair of those for more decades than I care to think about – dang, I think it might be nearly 50 years. It’s one of the two most useful and frequently-used tools I own, along with my favourite screwdriver of all time, the one with the big heavy red handle that looks cool and somehow fits my hand better than any other. 
I just called my pharmacy. I am trying to find out if there are refills that I forgot to pick up, or if I did pick them up and they are lost somewhere in my apartment. I got the expected voice menu. I pressed a number to speak with somebody in the pharmacy. There was another menu, I pressed 3 to speak to somebody for something not covered by other options. The menu kept playing. I pressed 3 again, and again. The menu kept playing. Then, I heard the phone ringing. After waiting a while, the call disconnected.
In Good News
I was looking through my Live Journal (I never deleted the account) for something. I not only found the entry I was searching for, I found my Icarus! I had written a short re telling of the myth of Icarus. It was in one of the issues of the Teemings e-zine. Somehow, I lost all my copies of the file. Nobody else could find a copy. I thought it was gone forever. Now, I have a Notepad file version on my hard drive and have the LiveJournal entry bookmarked.
Congratulations! I remember you talking about having lost it.
I love roadside finds! That’s a great discovery.
Not too long ago I pulled into a parking lot and it appeared that someone had either purposely or angrily dumped an ashtray full of coins onto the pavement. Most of them were pennies but there were a few quarters and some dimes and nickles. I picked up every last one.
D’oh! I forgot to include a link! And thanks!
Just got back from the pharmacy!
I did not pick up my prescriptions and then lose them. They were never filed. I am still not sure why. They filled my lithium immediately, They were out of Qelbree. They said it should be ready in two days. Tomorrow, I cam calling my psychiatrist and asking what happened.
My Beloved is angry with me. As I said earlier, I was looking for a specific post in my Live Journal. It was a rabbit hole down memory lane. Some of the friends I had then have drifted away. At least one has died. There was post about the baptism of the child of two friends. The parents are still my friends. That baby is about to enter college. You get the idea. My Beloved is convinced that my motives were lewd and I was reminiscing about lost loves. I told her the truth. She doesn’t believe me. sigh
Today while doing a bit of organizing I happened to notice way back in a remote corner of one of the cupboards two ancient jars of pasta sauce that had expired ten years ago.
Ask me if I poured them down the sink in a goody-two-shoes effort to be environmentally responsible so I could recycle the glass jars.
Oh, do ask me! Ask me about how I looked at the jars, looked at the kitchen sink, and considered how richly I had contributed to the lavish lifestyle of a couple of Ukrainian plumbers just a couple of weeks previously.
Those evil jars went directly into the garbage bin, my contribution to society being that I wrapped them in extra plastic bags so they wouldn’t break open in the garbage truck. (Stores don’t use plastic grocery bags any more, but I have enough plastic bags stashed away to last until the next ice age.)
Down the sink, no, but you might have been OK dumping (heh) the contents into the toilet - maybe a couple of rounds, not all at once - if you were just hell-bent on recycling the jars.
Glad to know I’m not the only one with lotsa plastic bags, though. I use the excuse that I have a cat and need to bag the used litter, but let’s face it, I have enough to last me till … yeah, next Ice Age covers it pretty well.