Remember the movie The Lost Weekend, with Ray Milland? (Remember Ray Milland?) Yesterday was The Lost Friday for me, sans the booze.
It was harrowing. I needed an oil change and tune-up and was told by Mastercraft to leave the car before 9 am. I did. Susan took me home and I impatiently puttered around--had lots of errands to run, wouldn't you know--until TWO P.M. before I was called. Was told the thing would cost four hundred and some dollars before taxes--so call it $500--and he'd "try to get it done today."
He didn't. I was without transportation all day in this lousy, icy rain weather. Don't know why I didn't tackle anything constructive, like the hundreds of tasks that are always waiting, but I didn't. Just alternated between reciting my part for "Riders," reading the bio of Julia Child, Appetite For Life, and gnashing my teeth. Now it's Saturday and I'm still car-less. Surely Mastercraft will have pity on me and do mine first. Surely--oh, good grief--my baby Buick won't be kept over another night, which means two nights because they're not open on Sunday.
Isn't it incredible how all this seems to matter in the face of the horrors of the world? Humans can't seem to help the "me first" thing--at least, it seems I can't.
Wider: If you don't remember The Lost Weekend and Ray Milland, how about Afghanistan? Maybe this'll refresh your memory:
http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/?uc_full_date=20091015
I guess it could be called "The Lost Vestiges of Sanity In The U.S."
Wider and Maybe Deeper: Well, hell, I still have time to kill, so here's a bit from "The Beast" blog:
"Perhaps this explains Obama’s complete failure to actually describe the plan, aside from painfully vague references to 'reform.' It’s suspicious that a group of people with the kind of supernatural message discipline they exhibited during the presidential campaign can’t muster any kind of reasonable explanation of what the plan is. Why is opposition to the health care bill rising? Not because conservatives don’t want it; they never did. It’s because liberals are starting to smell the bullshit, and recognize that what they’re trying to foist on us is not reform, but a massive boondoggle, just another way to funnel cash to donors. And make no mistake, all of the interested parties in this disgusting extortion racket we call a health care system have thrown mountains of cash at all of the important Democrats involved."
But it's gotta be read in its entirety. Here's the link:
http://buffalobeast.com/138/Surprise.htm

Well, Obama is in and we'll see what happens now. After voting for Nader, I've more or less lost interest in the political show. Naturally, being a helpless liberal (helpless in the sense that I'd cut off my right arm before I'd debase myself as a conservative camp follower), I feel some satisfaction in the rejection of McPalin, but it's at a remove. The old whores will be leaving Washington, and the new whores will move in. However, I can understand the joy of those who voted for Obama. When it seemed apparent a few days ago that he would win, daughter Ellen wrote: "There'll be time to be disappointed in him in the future. Now, I just want to be hopeful."
Pleasant day yesterday. Pat slept very late and I busied myself with chores. A. stopped in to show us her medal, marathon shirt and jacket, and the sign Jeremy made her. I took pictures and sent to various relatives. She took some time off and will come down to be with Pat while I go to lunch with Mary Ann Van O. tomorrow.
And here's why I voted for Nader:
Imagine being a young mother in Afghanistan. You're--say, 24, and your soft-spoken, easy-going husband is a mechanic. You have two little children. Rashid is 5 and wants to do everything his daddy does; Kashir is almost 2, with curly hair and a real talent for patty-cake.
Somebody shows you a translated excerpt from an editorial in the New York Times:
"Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan."
Would you realize that allowing the Pentagon to "focus its resources on...Afghanistan" actually means the possibility of seeing Rashid screaming in terror and the brains inside your little curly-head spattered on a wall?
"Focusing resources" sounds a lot better, doesn't it? Let's always go for the soothing words so we can pass over what they mean.