What would you do if you won the lottery?
So … if I won, let’s say ten million dollars, I would spend about ten thousand, on a vacation. We would go to Las Vegas. There, I would inform the pit boss of the casino that I wished to place a nine million, nine hundred ninety thousand dollar wager on roulette, placing all of it on double zero. The wheel would spin, and I would probably lose.
That said, it’s good to have a plan for if I won the lottery.
SSW
What books do you want to read?
I have a list of one hundred novels I would like to read. I have completed about thirty-five of them. When I had my stroke, a little over a year ago, it diminished my ability, for awhile at least, to think clearly. I didn’t really read for several months. But, I have regained some if not all my reading capacity. And, 2024 is a new year!😂
Recently, I completed Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”
It’s a shortish novel, and gave me all I could handle! So I felt good about that. And, I got to scratch one off my list. What I want to read, I have a list for. It’s going slowly, but it’s going. Just ask Ms. Shelley. 🤣
Now I’m ready an easier one, “Sex and Vanity” by Kevin Kwan. It’s not on my list. 🤣 “A summer romp with a satirical sting!” So says NPR, anyway.
I don’t like it so much. It’s a page flipper, but hey… to each their own. I’m cleansing the palate. Probably, I’ll finish this week. I mean, I guess it is on my list. I picked it up, right?
Then, onto the next!
SSW
Today, I read a story in the Wall Street Journal about Joni Mitchell. First of all, the story begins with reciting boyfriends that Joni Mitchell had fifty years ago. Why do so many stories about Joni Mitchell begin with who she was sleeping with? Not your best work WSJ.
The story concerned an album Ms. Mitchell made in 1974 (after breaking up in an ugly fashion with Jackson Browne in 1971 — again what this has to do with anything … your guess is as good as mine) called “Court and Spark.”The WSJ does a 50 year anniversary retrospective on albums. Always good … though it makes me feel old. Strike that. Frequently good … but yeah … I’m old! 😂 Anyway, putting the story in the for what it’s worth category, I looked forward to hearing the album … for what it was really worth!🤣 “I know what I’m listening to today on my run/walk,” I thought.
Except, when I got to the gym, I couldn’t play the album. “Court and Spark” showed up on Spotify, but had to be “purchased.” Then I remembered that Joni Mitchell was in some kind of a tiff with Spotify. (I remembered, from another Wall Street Journal story, about how Joni had taken her work off of Spotify.)
Anyhow, I played my standards from Spotify. They didn’t include Ms. Mitchell. It would have been nice to hear “Court and Spark.” Another time, perhaps.
SSJ
He writes profusely. He has like 8000 friends or something. He’s been at it a shorter total time from me who boasts 150, and keeping up with them is hard enough. 🤣 He works two jobs. He has children. He has a wife.
He lives in Israel. I don’t know his politics. I hardly even know what the politics are. I don’t read everything he writes, but I read a lot of it. Mostly, he is a poet.
Lately, I have worried about him more. The enemies of Israel seem to fall into one of two camps. There are those who think he, and everyone else in Israel, should just up and move somewhere else. The second batch, the more extreme, would like to see him and every other Israeli dead.
When I suffered my stroke about a year ago, more than a year ago now, he wrote to me every day it seems for a bit. He liked my screeds, good and bad, for all they were worth … and not worth. 😂 He copped a friend, who suffered his stroke about five years ago, and much more severely than I, to write me. He, a Brit, was a great help to me for some time. Our correspondence is stale now, but still it was a huge help. Thank you for that.
Only recently has my Israeli friend not been liking all my posts. At first, I was sad about this. But I had moved on. My crisis du jour was over. But then I thought that maybe, probably, he was worried about something else. Someone else.
Recently, David texted me. I felt a little relieved. His crisis had moved to center stage, but we had a nice back and forth. I didn’t say anything about how much I missed his “likes.” Nor did I apologize for not responding back to his each time he posts. We just exchanged our good wishes. And that was that.
I pray, for whatever my two cents is worth in God’s great heaven and earth, that David finds peace. That his country is absolved. Or, at least, that it is atoned. That it continues unabated for the foreseeability of its imperfect future. That, sooner rather than later, David can go back to how things were. That he can write poetry, infringed not by war.
And I pray, that in January of this ominous year — a time that seems so limited in its possibilities of goodness, that something of value must lie just beyond the perimeter of perception.
SSW
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Posted in Creative Essay
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
Running is a great pleasure to me. At least it has been. I have found myself increasingly in a state of diminished effort. In my halcyon days I would run 1800 miles in a year. Always there was one or two marathons.
Now? What can I say. The Fifties have been unkind to moi. But it’s a new day. New things are sure to come my way.
SSW
List five things you do for fun.
🤔 In order of least offensive (1) drink beer
(2) have sex (3) drive golf balls (4) make money and … (5) repeat … number 1 that is! 🫣
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
This is Hazel. She’s seven. She likes to sit on my lap. She’s rather friendly. Pretty easy going she is … for a cat.
One thing she does not understand. It’s the thing that makes her dependent on me. It’s water. Simple hydrogen times two, plus oxygen. There’s lots of it around. But Hazel thinks it only comes from the faucet. She waits thereby until I come out. Then it’s “mew, mew, mew,” until she gets a drink.
Silly cat. 😹😺😻
SSW
What’s your dream job?
My dream job, what I think would be really neat, is to be a writer. A successful one. I’d write about ten books. I would comment seasonably on current event. I’d be semi-famous to those of literary persuasion, but I could walk around relatively unperturbed by most. After book number ten I’d wile away (not “wipe away” … damned autocorrect!!!) my days writing short comments and stories. I’d show up at my alma mater annually. I’d drive a convertible and be fit for my age!🤣
Sometimes I would just drive and drive and drive. The lights of the evening Sun would cast marks to the west as a signpost for my travel… orange and red lines … marking the way to something new.
What makes a good leader?
A good leader is one who knows where he is going. A good leader knows how to get there. A good leader knows that there is often a price to be paid to get his forces where he wants them. A good leader entrusts his followers. A good leader does not waste time on frolics.
Steven S. Wallace 
Down Two
It’s time, on the last day of the month to check in on the weight front. I came down a little from the beginning of the month at 178.5 to 176.0. This I think is ok. Not the great 170.0 I hoped for, but also not higher. My 176.0 is nothing to write home about. It’s also a little bit wonked by not eating much today. Then again it is lower than the start of the year, and who is writing home anyway?
I’m coming in at a click over 16,000 steps per day. I made 10,000 steps every day, for January, including one day that I missed because of a wonky calculator that left about 6,000 unaccounted for. Anyway, I’m reasonably happy with this amount.
The key to dropping more by this time next month is first to boost the calories burnt on a daily basis. This isn’t going to prove much, but if I could boost coverage to 18,000 steps per day, that would be, give or take, 150 more calories burned per day. Ceteris paribus, as we say in Rome or economics, that would lower me an estimated one pound.
I’ll probably look one pound better, but I won’t really be ready to start running, as I think that is really 168.0 — ish pounds. I’ve come to believe I’m too heavy to be running. Why else would I keep getting injured? So the trick is to lower my weight, sans running, and then kick it up a notch when I’m light enough to take more pounding.
Regrettably, I’m going to have to cut my intake some. The good news is that it won’t have to be much. The not so good news is that I’ve already cut out iced cream. The reasonable news is that cutting say 300 calories out per day, yields 9000 by the end of a month, or about 2 1/2 pounds, roughly.
So the goal, by the end of February, is 172.5. That is a makeable goal. Less than one pound a week. I am going to weigh in more often than I did this month. I won’t post each time, I promise! Only at the end of the month.
Wish me luck!
SSW
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Posted in Commentary
Tagged running