Even a Stopped Clock is Right Twice a Day

Among the handful of people who did or said the right thing at the right time, and helped stave off either my demise or entry into another dimension--possibly a delusional one--Joel holds a unique spot because he continues to harass me and convince me I'm nuts.

And he's helped me in several scrapes, the nature of which vary greatly.  Not always obvious when I'm in a scrape.  Don't think it is not used as ammo from time to time.   Then again, maybe it useful to be reminded of how the road's been traveled.  There is progress, but that is after lots of opposite of progress.

The advantage here is that there are times when he is right, because I am sometimes nuts.  It always makes me think.  He may not use the word "nuts', but it boils down to the same thing.

Recently we had a conversation and he expressed a little skepticism regarding why I would be down.  There is no good reason.  That actually helps because even though I can't see it now, I know I could see that there are no compelling reasons for my lowest points during our conversation.  So, I know myself well enough to know that I am not viewing reality with a constructive attitude.   I'm wondering if it isn't an inner sense of place that is the problem.

I'm not so sure the place is of a geographical nature.

Where I work can be interesting.  Take the Hollywood actress; mostly B movie parts and rap-booty videos.  She's good looking, and apparently clueless.  She's really a concubine of sorts but thinks she's the number one girl of the faithful guy who owns the place.  He lets her and her entourage stay there on his dime when they want.  He's elsewhere.  Last week he was there with someone else.  She was elsewhere.

Booty lady's entourage consists of her mother and a few friends, and maybe somebody's kids.  Among the friends we have an allegedly homeless man who is some sort of in-law.  She says she brings him and the occasionally one of his colleagues because "they'd never get to know this kind of luxury", and it's her "way of giving back".

She has the house manager buy car loads of groceries and booze, all on the "john's" dime.  She and her mother then load up all that's left over---which is most of it---and cart it back to L.A.  She is paying for nothing, yet she uses that obnoxious phrase, "giving back", as if she's a saint.  Give back to what?  Uncle Waldo because you robbed him as child?

I guess he's a help when they load up coolers full of food and beer for the ride home.  I think they schedule visits when groceries run out.  They give back to their pantries and refrigerators.

And it is most charitable of them to give Uncle Waldo a lift.  Who knows, they may make him pitch in for gas.

That group leaves the place like a tornado hit.  Always expect the most unlikely things to get broken.  This time they broke the ping pong table, and some piece of a shower head set-up.  In these cases, as in most, the breaks are of a nature that leave how it broke a tricky mystery.  I can usually fix whatever it is, but I cannot always solve the mystery of how or why it was broken.

The table is a very solid attempt at making a fold-up ping pong table durable and idiot proof.  This residence is where I would test any new design to see if it can survive energetic morons.  Finally, the morons beat the table.  I will say it withstood some really stellar dimwits until now.  I can probably make it whole again.  Don't think I can make it Booty-actress proof.

The political person with whom these people rub shoulders very likely thinks spending the money of others is his way of giving back, too.  No wonder I'm down.  What seems fine to most people doesn't sit well with me.  But being Don Quixote is not the route I hope to take.  I didn't like him or his putsy friend.  Right as they may have been--about who knows what.

So, when is one exercising courage, doing the right thing, and when does one cross the line into tilting at windmills?   If the Revolution had been lost, would Washington and Jefferson and the like been seen as wild idealists without sight of reality?  I like them better than Quixote and Toto, or whatever his odd friend was called.

It is interesting that reality of the way things are, and what is right often collide.  At times those who stand on what is right are considered brave and courageous, and at times they are thought to be lunatics.  In both scenarios hindsight often, but certainly not always, renders the initial judgement wrong.

See? It gives you nothing solid to go on.  The whole deal is a self-doubt factory for those who care what is right, and about the well-being of people in general.  And who often find society a confusing place.
---------------------------------------------------

Mt Laguna's on fire.  It is not that far and I go there all the time.  This is not good.