It was, on balance, an OK day. I slept, went out for brunch, and the shoulder pain started. The restaurant was way too slow with our orders, but the people-watching was a satisfying diversion.

I came home, watched the women play softball. Good games. Well played Women! Too bad one team had to lose, but that’s sport for you.

I fixed some shrimp for dinner. I bought more strawberries, bananas, heavy cream, the basics of life.

I watched Nicola White of Tideline Art pull the fascinating trash of centuries out of the Thames mud. She is worth her weight in selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s).

Now Chill Bill is telling us all about the coins he found in a plowed field.

No Trump, no Pelosi, no abortions nor guns. Just simple people seeking to understand our world from tiny bits of the past gleaned from the mud and the fields. Maybe if the politicians, established or aspiring, could see that all the treasures of their realms will one day be fair game for some nosy bloke or sheila with a metal detector, when they will be forgotten, they will approach public life with the proper humility.

It is almost 3:00 AM, Eastern time, North America. I am watching a young Aussie exploring a disused rail line, with two steam locomotives on it, abandoned and rusting. This is typical insomniac entertainment for me, watching these explorer chaps.

I did a lot of sleeping yesterday. We went to the 530 Vigil Mass for this Sunday. It is First Holy Communion for the parish children. It is always a Sunday when the 1100 Mass is taken over by the families of the children. Besides J and I like the 530 Mass, starts our Sunday off on the right foot.

Now there is a Japanese newsreel from the World War Two era. The newsreel’s format is similar to Die Deutsche Wochenschau, the propaganda newsreel of the Third Reich, Nazi Germany. There are lots of bombing and shelling depicted,with some homefront stories, all pretty creepy. The war footage shows the Japanese ravaging China, for the most part. Thank God the militarists lost.

I’m getting tired again.

Every time I have a setback that takes me away from what supports good habits, I always get discouraged as to when I will get my “groove” back. It’s like a batting slump.

I’m tired because I’m not doing anything. And vice-versa. So the challenge arises in turning it around. My cash position is poor until Wednesday when the Social Security check hits the account. So no ambitious stuff, just the basics are in order.

I may not post as much.

Later folks.

I am stoked. I just figured out how to write in the Cyrillic alphabet on my Smart phone.

If you can read the title, please acknowledge.

I made macaroni & cheese for the second time this week. Actually I added some more to the leftovers from Tuesday’s batch for a visit from C (#2 son). We had that, homemade cole slaw and some chouriço (Português sausage). During the Summers, we would visit the coast of Masschusetts, particularly near New Bedford, where the Portuguese influence is strong,

We were just hanging out together. He seemed to have some confusion about the conquests of Alexander The Great, so we watched a video on YouTube to clarify things.

J likes to point out how much he is like me. What an honor. That both my sons want to emulate me.

Lunch Picture

I am watching a video posted to Youtube by a group named RnK All Day. America’s Most Abandoned Gary Indiana. They posted only last week. What is sobering is that they are posting video of an abandoned and vandalized school, the abandoned hospital where Michael Jackson was born, and theatre where Sinatra performed. Gary was a steel town. With the collapse of the domestic steel industry, or that industry segment using obsolete technology, we saw the economic collapse of entire cities, like Gary.

Haunting.

I don’t know sometimes. I did stuff. And felt incredibly lazy. I had a full day to do something. And I made some chicken salad.

That’s about it. I had a spell of shoulder pain for about two hours. I feel that I am improving markedly.

Oh and I took out the trash.

Four years ago, I had my rotator cuff repair on this day. It seems like ages ago. The surgery was simple, an outpatient procedure. The recovery took about three months, but combined with my spinal fusion in November, I never worked again.

Now I sit watching the rain come down and listening to the drops land on metal somewhere.

The gray skies make the spring colors, especially the greens that much brighter.

J’s lunch is packed.i have had my breakfast. I have found that oatmeal made with steel cut oats tastes good cold, with maple syrup and sliced strawberries.

I’m sleepy again.

I just texted my surviving ex-wife, mother of my elder son and wished her a Happy Mother’s Day. My other ex-wife, mother of my younger son, has been dead for three and a half years. I have no ideaof the whereabouts of #2 son’s birth mother .

My wife has been a wonderful stepmother to my 2 sons, especially the younger one.

It’s complicated. When I was a boy at Third Presbyterian Church, a red carnation was worn if your mother was living, a white carnation, if deceased. That was simple. Now we have mothers, stepmothers, surrogate mothers, households with two female parents, households with two male parents. I dunno. Somehow those carnations seem inadequate or incomplete.

Anyway, if Mother rings true for you, Happy Mother’s Day.