Tag: OCF Update

And with Strange Aeons Even Death May Die

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“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

 

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

 

After yesterday’s post I received several communications from readers outraged at the manner in which such a venerable and iconic entity as the First Selectman could be allowed to leave this continuum.  Many simply refused to believe the facts such as they are and hang onto hope that Cthulhu lives.  As the quotes above attest there is a tradition that Cthulhu can remain inert for literally billions of years and still reanimate and wreak a terrible vengeance on mankind when the stars align just right (or just wrong).

Well, I will not speculate at this point on the Great Old One’s chances of resuscitation.  As Hamlet very cleverly noted, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  And if we add to heaven and earth the depths of hell, then we begin to list the span of infinities where knowledge of the First Selectman can be hiding.  And since I already miss the old villain a little bit, I’ll keep an open mind as to his chances of reintegration.  Let’s leave it there for now.

I have finally completed the herculean task to which I was yoked.  My spirit, such as it is, has rebounded measurably and I look around me to see the state of life in the here and now.  I note the same stale prattle about polls and bickering with the names Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz attached.  Frankly all of this is too tedious to even consider.  Let all of that stew for a while.

The summer wanes and school children are already frozen with existential dread at the approach of Labor Day.  But, this time of year is not without its charms.  I was forced to rise hideously early Tuesday morning and so I was out and about before 4:00 am when I happened to look up at the sky and was struck by the brightness of the stars and planets and their inspiring beauty.  If I had not been on an unavoidable mission, I might have stood there for a quarter hour and marveled at this arresting vision.  At that moment I was reminded of this aspect of reality and how these incomprehensible phenomena we call stars can be both the source of our lives and these beautiful beacons that light up the night sky that we so rarely bother to view.  So out of the most tedious and soul-crushing activities it is possible to experience a moment of primal joy and wonder.

But now I’ll spend a day or two catching up with my various duties.  Bear with me as I take up again the reins of my daily routine and restore order to my life.  I must write and trim some posts and schedule them and I must read up on any “news” I might have missed and try to draw inspiration from my surroundings and the important things that need to be said and done.

So good morning!

09JUN2024 – OCF Update – It’s a Rainy Morning Sunday, That’s Got Me Without Knowing What to Write

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A rainy Sunday at the Compound.  I’m stuck in the house and getting on Camera Girl’s nerves, I can tell.  Next week will be very busy.  Tuesday will be a marathon of work until the wee hours.  I will be with the people, in all their gritty and idiosyncratic splendor.  So, I must get some things done today.  I’ve got photos and quotes to get uploaded and scheduled.  And I’ve got some scheduling things to figure out for my writing.  I’ve been so busy lately with work that I haven’t been able to do any fiction writing at all.  And that bothers me a lot.  As you get older the number of creatively productive hours in a day or a week decreases.  So, I need to make some time budgeting decisions to maximize my results.

But life rolls on.  And the now incredible increases to the cost of living are biting ever harder at my meager resources.  I was looking at some repairs on the swimming pool and wondered if outright replacing the lining might make some sense.  But when I heard the estimate, I was gob-smacked.  Yikes!  So, I’ll pay the piratical repair costs for patching for this year and decide about replacement next year when I get rich.

But just to assert our rights as Americans to waste money we went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Sure, the cost was up about 50% from what I remember it to be.  But it made Camera Girl happy and it spared her having to cook last night.  And they have really fresh and delicious food at this place so it was a treat.

I was reading how McDonald’s might be pulling out of California all together.  And on one of the talk shows the socialist pundit was putting a brave face on it and saying that this would open up opportunities for Mom and Pop shops.  I was thinking, “Sure mom and pop get a really good deal on food prices compared to a behemoth like McDonald’s and they’ll definitely be able to outcompete McDonald’s on rental costs, utility costs and paper and plastic consumables.  Oh yeah!  It’s gonna be a paradise for small businesses in California.

Something that TomD commented about my Here and Now post.  He stressed that our present ruling class is not just more of the same.  He stressed that they’re really working to destroy us, “The progressives want us disarmed, private vehicles gone (except elite), and everyone on the dole and living in huge Soviet style arkologies. Males castrated.”

And I agree with that characterization.  They differ from the past in what they are attempting to accomplish.  Our former elites wanted us as factory wage slaves.  The new elites just want us gone.  And they think they can get the job done quietly and efficiently by eliminating our means of livelihood.  They impoverish us and then weaken us with drugs, illicit and prescription, that they flood the environment with and stupefy our children with a digital narcotic.  We’re being eradicated with poison like roaches.

Well, it won’t be easy but we have to learn how to avoid the traps and organize to assist each other in surviving.  Alright, enough of that.  Finish with something good.

 

I was watching the Coen Brothers version of True Grit the other day.  They’re a couple of nihilistic film makers but they did a remarkable job with this film.

 

27APR2024 – OCF Update

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So, Camera Girl is yelling and throwing stuff at me and threatening me with grievous bodily harm if I don’t do some of the things on the honey do list.  Most pressing in her mind is raking and disposing of all the leaves in her flower beds.  Now this is grunt labor because I’ve never gotten organized.  What I should do is rake the leaves onto the lawn and run the mower over them.  Because a lot of it is oak leaves this reduces them significantly down in volume and makes disposal much less onerous.

But I’m just that lazy that coordinating getting the mower ready for use and piling the leaves on the lawn defeats my initiative.  So instead I’ll go out there and spend ten hours going through this ritual of backbreaking stooping and scooping the leaves into a garbage pail and hauling them to the edge and hurling them into the bottomless abyss that yawns below the Cliffs of Utter Chagrin.  So let me be brief.

It’s a third beautiful day in a row.  No rain.  No clouds.  No wind.  The Lord himself is telling me to get up and go outside and

DO SOMETHING!

So thatsa whata I’ma gonna do.

I’ll be back later with something sad or sublime or inspired.

So please enjoy the morning and we’ll see about later.

SONY DSC

21APR2024 – OCF Update – Photo of the Day Info

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Our long national nightmare is at last within sight of ending.  Today I added the last three photos from that endless series of rock and mineral show shots I took last year onto the scheduler.  After Wednesday something different will be in its place.  What that something is remains to be seen.  I’ve ruled out cat pictures (because we haven’t got any cats).  But let’s hope I can find something with a warm weather theme.

OCF Drought Warning – The Curse Has Come Upon Me

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Folks, the next nine days will be terribly busy ones for me.  I’ll be away from my desk and a virtual prisoner for most of the day during this period.  I will attempt to keep the quotes and photos stocked if I can.  And I’ll try to have some content available if time and circumstance allow.  But truth be told, things will be kind of quiet here at the site while I do penance for a decision that I am already regretting.  No good deed ever goes unpunished.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2023 on OCF

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I am going to try mightily to avoid politics tomorrow and the day after.  I’ve already written a political screed but I’ve scheduled it for 5 am December 26th.  Essentially, “Do not open until the day after Christmas!”

I’m going to look around and try to find some holiday related material to post or to link to.  Of course if the storm troopers swat my Christmas party I’ll probably defy my own edict and produce a screed from the back of the Bradley Assault Vehicle but short of that I’m going to try to take the high road this year.

OCF Update – 19DEC2023 – Where the Hell is photog!

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Apologies to all my readers.  The power, phones, internet and magic have been out in Dunwich for the last day and a half.  I’m just using an off-site computer to send this message.  I’ve angered Cthulhu with all my mockery and he has summoned the winds and boy oh boy did they clobber me.  A hundred and fifty foot White Pine landed across the upper driveway and took out part of the fence.  Try cutting through that with an 18″ triangle hand saw.   Well, I have some stuff to post (A Biden Carol – Part 2) but I hope the power and internet are back on soon at home so I can post it.

My apologies for the site lull.  I’ll have to join Elon Musk’s Starlink or something.

Cthulhu

Damn you Cthulhu!!!

09NOV2023 – OCF Update – Our Long National Nightmare is Over

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“photog Unbound,” my favorite lost play of Aeschylus, ends with Zeus freeing me from Tartarus where all the food, even things like vanilla ice cream, is served with tartar sauce already added into it, a fate worse than death itself.

But now I’m free.  And in my absence, as usual, all hell has broken loose.  Elections have been bungled and pundits have drawn absurd conclusions from them and even more ridiculous people have been running around in circles declaring that the sky is falling.

In other words everything is quite normal for our world of the present day.  But it’s good to be back and I’ll try to collect my thoughts and put down in somewhat coherent quasi-English what I think about all this stuff.

So, yes, yes.  I’m back with my nose to the grindstone and my shoulder to the wheel (which combination, by the way, sounds quite uncomfortable).  And I’m bound to come up with something that I predict will include the letters a, s, d and f just because of carpal tunnel syndrome or some other repetitive motion injury of the hand syndrome that I am unaware of.

Good morning.