Friday 12/23/22
Walked three miles, did 100 push-ups. Went to Charlestown to run the Monument, and once again, the Monument is not open. I haven't been checking because I figured it was closed after having found it so two or three times in a row, which was, I believe, in late October-early November. Does anyone do their job anymore? I had to deal with someone today who cuts corners in their job and coasts and it costs me. So, a theme.
What's strange about the Monument is that ranger had pulled me aside, said they were going to be open more days of the week shortly, and then it shut down again. It takes very few people to staff the Monument. There's a desk at the bottom. You really just need one person. Maybe two if there's an emergency. But it's not like on the hour a ranger goes up the Monument to make sure everything is good inside. They never go up to the top. The Starbucks down the street likes to shut down at three, too. They say they're short-staffed. So why am I looking at baristas standing around doing very little? This is the way now, huh? No one does their jobs and they despise the few who do? Who's left?
Someone asked for a longer version of the Roberto Clemente op-ed, so I made a longer version and sent that to them.
I read "Best Present Ever" two more times this morning. A few minor changes were made. It's all been rather minor for some time now. Now it's done. I sent the story to a bunch of people, and then I sent it separately to the only two people who are always there for me. I thought it was more appropriate that they should receive it that way.
Here with the story completed, I want to say a few things, but I don't want to give anything away. I didn't even put up an excerpt in these pages from this one. Nothing at all. But this is for the record. So it's going to read like it's almost in code, but after people read the story and they want to go back and see something about how it was written, they'll know what this means.
I had the bb from the start. That was where the story began. I had A, of course, also from the very start, and B, T (though T was a C), C at the start as well. The lb in the p with the p of l came later. Also, the ow at the sc on the other side of the p. The part with the a of A and her f m and d and the b at the cc came along later. That was big. And though I had the bb all along, the part with the bb's changing f came later, too. The whole thing with f's came later.
All of it happened really fast. But for me, time is different. I'm making this sound like it went down over a year, when it was minutes, but some different minutes on a few different days. While I was creating and doing everything else.
But it's like I always say: I am told the story. And the story happens. That is probably the most apt way of putting it. The story happens. That's how it gets made, as such.
Also: What the hell happened at this Camp Lejeune? Why do I see constant commercials for this place and receive twelve emails about it every day?
Just looked at my phone. First thing in my feed was a piece about how Harrison Ford tried on seventy-five hats before finding the right hat for a film. That's fascinating. Always great to see great writers writing great stuff. It's crazy how bad everything is. How nothing everything is. "What are you working on?" "I'm working on a piece about how Harrison Ford tried on seventy-five hats." "That's super. Sounds amazing. I definitely need to read that."
Watched a little of the Bruins game last night. They've been starting slowly. Another game where they fell behind. 2-0 this time. They came back. They have been doing that. But you don't want to be playing from behind. That's not sustainable winning hockey. Don't react to the action, direct the action.
