Yuck yuck yuck

Saturday 8/22/26

I'm on cramp watch. Been hydrating like mad. Got some pickles in case I have need of the juice.

After Monument-based activities finally wrapped up today I went down to the Starbucks and had a double espresso. All things being equal, this is my favorite coffee drink, and perhaps my favorite drink of all.

The older kids returned home to Illinois from Rhode Island. I sent my sister a text saying to welcome them back for me, and also to say hello to Amelia who, upon receiving this message, stuck out her tongue.

Went through two pairs of sneakers today and have absorbent powder in both.

The Red Sox and Patriots (preseason, obviously) are both playing tonight. Sonny Gray notched his 16th win last night. He wasn't great, but the offense helped him out. I am the last person who believes wins matter for a pitcher. But I also think hardly anyone knows baseball (and really anything). As I've said, for 150 years, good pitchers on even bad teams have usually found a way to have high win totals. How many other people do you think anyone else is aware of this? As I wrote, Gray has an outside shot at 20 wins, which we'll just be seeing less and less of, until it basically never happens again. We're right there.

I've had some pleasant encounters with Grateful Dead fans in the Bunker Hill Monument recently. Today one made a point of sharing with me that it was Donna Jean Godchaux's birthday. I don't feel about her as many do, or say they do. I think there's some sexism at work. I value her contributions to the Dead's music.

I also don't think I'm overstating things--nor do I think I'm in the wrong--to say that I loathe people who say, "I'm old AF" and the like. I also loathe people who ask, "Is it worth it?" I'm asked this every time--and sometimes half a dozen times--I am in the Monument. Mind you, they're not asking me some probing question along the lines of is it worth it for me, this arduous thing I do that takes dedication, discipline, and strength both physical and mental. Is it worth it in the grand scheme of my life. It is a unique thing for someone to do. I am the only person who'd do this. But when you think about it, with what I am, what I'm trying to bring about, what I'm up against. It makes sense that I, and I alone, would be here doing this thing.

The "Is it worth it?" question speaks to how lazy and incurious people are. What I want to say is 1. Fuck off and 2. You are the problem with the world. Normally I ignore the person completely. If I don't ignore them and instead answer, I'm sure they would have wished I hadn't. I never say, "Oh, it's totally worth it" or "No, definitely not, turn around." They sicken me. That attitude sickens me. I find it deplorable.

Today there was a guy coming down the stairs who decided to do a joke. This is always painful, because people are painfully unfunny. They're not smart enough to be funny. There are no displays of wit. But they're so self-satisfied with their stupid jokes. This one moron coming down the stairs says to some people coming up when they were only about 100 stairs in, "You're almost there yuck yuck yuck," and the moron he was with says to him, "You're so funny"--in a borderline reverent tone--and I thought, "Oh, fuck me, here we go," because now that he'd been encouraged there was no stopping him, plus the morons ascending the stairs gave him some big laughs. (And then one of them quoted Wodehouse, which I wasn't expecting. No! No one quoted Wodehouse. Come on.)

There were more people in front of me, and of course he tried his joke on them because in his mind he was in the zone. Well, then he got to me, and wouldn't you know, this buffoon brought out his joke again for the third time in the space of maybe forty seconds. I guess you could say that in this instance it didn't exactly meet with its ideal audience.

I should add that no matter how the joke initially goes over, these guys are almost always committed to saying it to everyone else they encounter the rest of the way down. I've heard some of them repeat their material half a dozen times or more. Sound carries in that place. Someone 100 stairs away sounds like they're right around the next turn.

The jokes are always the same from person to person, over the years. Nobody in there ever has anything vaguely original. And yet, each of the morons think they've come up with something no one has at any prior point in human history. Going by the looks on their faces, you'd think they were Newton having just worked out gravity (which, incidentally, very few of these people understand at this late date, or have any clue about, because the majority of them express total surprise, like they can't figure out why on earth this would be, that it's easier going down the stairs than up).

Not long after, there was another moron--these are usually guys with their wives, but sometimes they're with other guys; typically it's guys doing this joke shtick, though--who sees me, of all people, rather near the top as he's going down (thinking I'm doing this once and have never done it before, because he's never done it before and is doing it once and people assume you must be doing what they're doing and also are usually incapable of piecing anything together), and says, "Only 900 more stairs to go, yuck yuck yuck." Did I call him an idiot and/or ask what was wrong with him? I'm not going to answer that. But I will say that before this idiot delivered his joke, he gave his wife a heads up. He actually said, "Listen to this" kind of under his breath so that she could be sure to ready herself to be awash in hilarity, then broke into his big line. Yeah, I thought, "Just die." I didn't feel any need for self-chastisement about that either and resumed inwardly humming the Swingin' Medallions "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)".

People have no self-awareness. In their simple, simple, simple minds, they think they're this thing that has not the slightest overlap with reality. We see, too, the role the enabler plays. Their co-morons.

And, once again, we see the selection factor as well. Being a moron is largely a choice. Just like one can decide to be and get smarter. There are things you can do. If you do those things, you will be smarter. You can get smarter, very easily, every day. There are 365 days in a year. That's a lot of days. And you can get smarter during each one of them, if you'd like, without much effort. Then there are additional years. That's a lot of time. Lot of opportunities. But nah.