Shortly after I completed my 10th Blog In Review in December 2018, I posted this synopsis including sample images from the decade of BIRs and selected excerpts from what I believe we're just random posts from each of the years. Click the above link to get a better picture of what I'm talking about.
Well it's been now five more years and five more BIRs.
Since 2018 I've used a similar formatting theme so composing these BIRs gets easier and easier each year but it's still quite a tedious process. First I have to grab the selected images after reviewing each month of the current year. Then from those images I have to crop it into a square shape and resize it to 350 pixels by 350 pixels. A little tweak here and there to adjust color, contrast, and sharpness since cropping and resizing can make the new image a little worn out looking. Then I take these squares and drag them into Microsoft Paint. Yes cheap old Microsoft Paint. Heck, even the photo image manipulation tool I use is just a free copy of Irfranview, a pretty much ancient low end Photoshop wannabe. But I've used it for years and it feels familiar to me. In Microsoft Paint, the squares are arranged into a 700x700 pixel larger square and saved. Then I take those larger squares and upload them to an online photo editing website. I had been using PicMonkey for years but then found more features and better UI on Pixlr so I've been using that for the past couple years or so. Problem is with both of these sites, they're restricting free access more and more each year it seems. Now this year, Pixlr is restricting saves to just three per day. Well that just wouldn't do, so once I was done editing my images including adding the shaded text, I had to use Snip & Sketch to grab each completed month and save to my desktop. From there I bring each month back into Irfranview in order to add on the border. I've gotten it down to where it's kind of like a factory process now.
Well, like I described in the linked post above titled "A Wonderful 10 Years Of BIRs," I selected here one sample monthly image collage from each of the past 5 years, and also included the text excerpt of a random post that I thought worthy for inclusion in this little homage collection I'll call "The Bloggies."
2019
Started off with a Yard glass of frozen margarita but when I found out about their bucket of 7 beers for $35, I was sold. Two please. Yup. In the course of a couple hours I drank 14 beers. Tried to buy the cute little wrestling ring condiment holder on the table. They wanted $50, stood at $40 and at first they were okay but then the manager came over and said they couldn't sell. Not sure what that was about but whatever. I probably would have kicked myself later if I had. My guess is they thought about it and if I went around saying I bought it for $40 they'd have a lot of others asking to buy them. They had little Lucha Libre figurines glued to some of them and some had none. I bet people just snap off the figurines and steal them so they got that issue. All in all, spent $100 cash that lunchtime and didn't order any food.
Obviously, the rest of the day is a bit cloudy. I remember finding myself in the theater in time for the show but didn't know how I got into a different outfit. The show was another song and dance medley, this time of Broadway tunes. It was okay, except I got the impression they weren't invested in it heart and soul like they were with the Italian shit. I sense a slight disdain for American culture.
I remember glancing at my watch as I made my way to my room with Cruz, my cabin steward waving to me, and it was about 8:15 so I'm not sure if I ate either lunch or dinner. If I did, I sure don't remember it.
2020
So, yeah, I click on my news feeds yesterday and get hit with video featuring this blast which at first glance I legit thought it must be a nuclear bomb. I thought: "Whelp, that's it. 2020 got the best of us, yo. Peace out."
Turns out (as we are now told) it was an accidental explosion of a cache of ammonium nitrate. Whatever it was, Beirut looks a mess. And what a time to overwhelm hospitals in the midst of a pandemic, and in a third world country at that.
I remember the similar accident in China a few years ago, but I think that one was at night and well into an industrial area so the reported death toll for that one was less than 200. This shit though...on the harbor-side and near the heart of the city? Shrugs.
Hopefully all this bad stuff is just a parallax view of circumstances stacked askew by the human tendency to see patterns where they may or may not exist. Things gotta get better soon, right? I mean, let's look at the calendar and see what's likely coming up...
Hurricane season continues. At least two more severe storms hit US.
Trump starts to become unstable, already showing major signs, declares martial law. Election suspended. Congress dissolved.
Current riots amp up at least ten-fold in response. Militant right-wing response converges on cities like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York. Open fire indiscriminately.
Extant yet dormant terrorist cells awake in light of developments and bomb shit everywhere.
White House coup attempt fails in bloodshed, Trump and his small clan of cronies wrest full control of the "football."
And in the wee hours of January 1st, the foggy grey skies over Beijing suddenly become a blaze of light.
Welcome to 2021.
2021
I noticed that a clock on the wall had stopped working and Dave said that must have just happened that day. Oddly, another battery-operated clock on another wall also had stopped working and in the break room there wasn't a clock on the wall at all.
Here's why clocks on the wall with accurate time is important in this field. It's part of the Bill of Rights of clients of agencies having intellectual disabilities or mental health issues. Ordained by the state of Florida to have the right to certain basic freedom of information which all people enjoy, even little things that can easily be overlooked, like having access to the time of day, the day of the month, and the year. Why would this be important? Let me tell you a story back when I was first starting work at the Gaskill group home.
One of the residents, Alfred, had his girlfriend over visiting and we were all in the living area sitting around and chatting and I think it was myself who mentioned that it would soon be the first day of fall. Alfred's girlfriend suddenly looked shocked and asked me "It's fall already?" and I assured her yes and then with a sad look and a tear in her eye that I will never forget, she said woefully "What happened to summer?" I said summer's almost over and she said "No one ever told me summer was here."
2022
At 3:47 pm, my internet went down for a few minutes and there was a short dip in the power so I decided to LIVE BLOG until the internet or power or both go out for good.
3:59 pm I was trying to take a nap since it'll be a long night and I won't sleep much. No luck, even after two Benedryls, so I'm doing this.
4:02 pm I'm about to eat some Salisbury steak and rice. I eat when nervous. Well, I eat for any reason, but I really am a nervous eater. Microwave is beeping at me.
4:04 pm I have 3 candles lit in prep for when lights go out as it's getting kinda darker out. Plus it's always dark in here.
4:07 pm Watching YouTube channel SevereStudios. He shows images like above. Has cams installed watching live feed from some current eyewall-near sites: Punta Gorta, Siesta Key, Venice. Fascinating.
4:10 pm Outside the winds come and go. Not a lot of rain, just steady. It's also been rainy all week so this is just more saturation. Thankfully, I think I'm on a slight elevation and our soil is very sandy here so I think I'm okay in the flooding department. The wind is playing with a loose slat of my jalousie window here behind my desk set up. I worry once it gets stronger, I may loose that slat. If so, after it's all said and done, I have no idea where I'd be able to get a replacement. Jalousie windows are definitely old fashioned and I doubt they make them anymore.
4:15 pm Dude narrating (doing a great job BTW) says now one million people are without power across Florida. Not including me....YET.
4:16 pm So how I'm doing this is clicking "Update" (formerly "Publish") on Blogger dashboard after I type each timestamp entry. Thusly, the last entry published would either indicate I'm down and out one way or another. Or I might chose to go on to other things but if still connected, I'll post a closing out entry.
Around 4:22 pm after finishing what may well be my last hot meal for days, the internet went down again. I waited ten minutes and it didn't come back so I laid down to take a nap. Not able to sleep, I checked the computer again around 5:05 pm and internet was back. But I'll stop this LIVE BLOG here and check out other things on the web while I still can.
2023
So I get to the hospital of choice, that is, NOT the Jesus Hospital with the theme park music out front. (Music that makes you think, "Welcome to the hospital and listen to the strings of harp music, cuz you're going to be in heaven soon!") Yeah, I don't need any of that fucking shit, so I go to the atheists choice, HCA Florida Highlands Hospital, a smidge farther away down the road, but I figure, what the fuck, Paris, in this case, is NOT worth a Mass.
The dude checking me in at the triage desk of the ER is literally twice my size, and all I kept thinking is "And I'm the one with heart problems?" He takes my info. One of the nurses or doctors, I don't know, I can't tell the difference these days, milling around, hears as I go down the list of my diagnoses: morbidly obese, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Bingo!, diabetes. He goes, "Oh yeah, that's it, you're going to be staying." I felt like I was being processed in County Jail. Or maybe the analogy should be a little closer to that Monopoly game and these folks all saw dollar signs in their eyes "Pay $50 for each roll of the dice to get out!"
