Let's Catch Up!

Oh, it has been a busy week since Wednesday.

Rent was due. The money from Dad's trust had not come in. I sent an email out to the trust's attorney, only to find out it had been sent the week before. By certified mail. The mailman did not leave a notice. This is why I have learned to curb my temper, to work hard at patience, for I misattributed the fault for not having the payment.

I had to borrow money from my sister to make it to Wednesday. Rent was due. I had to borrow from MW. I even dug into my Social Security payment. Then I had to scramble to get to the main Muncie post office.

Muncie's main post office is not on any bus route. CC had come over, and she could not walk from the closest bus stop to the post office. I called a taxi. She gave me twenty for the taxi. The check was there, so the taxi took me to my bank. I got money for the rent, and deposited the check. The teller informed that the check would not clear for another week. I'm wondering if I can make it for a week. Then he gives a paper showing how much will be available the next day. Roughly, about two-thirds of what I made from this year's laboring.

I took the bus to pay rent and back home.

When I got home, I found the front porch cleared of vines. CC had come to clean, and she went on to clean up the outside. She started on about me getting deck chairs and what not - when she knows I am leaving. She is a ball of confusion - more than capable of thinking like a good middle-class homemaker and having a body she's mutilated with her needles and drug abuse.

We celebrated with a pizza from Cousin Vinny's then she had her boyfriend pick her up before she fell asleep. I was left more than a little lethargic. I got a little work done on my new old story, but not much.

Thursday morning was hectic. I went to the bank for the balance of my rent money and groceries. After I got the groceries settled, I caught the next bus out to the property management company. Instead of coming home, I went to CVS to pick up my prescriptions. Deciding against waiting for the #1 bus, it was running behind when it delivered me to the CVS, I walked down Tillotson to catch the #2. I stopped at KFC for a two-piece meal. This crosses off, something I meant to do when I got out. When Is started out at Fort Dix FCI, we were being fed chicken quarters twice a week. This became once a week. Thing was, however they tarted up the meal (one they called Jamaican chicken), it was boiled/steamed into a tasteless, texture-less meal. Many thought it would ruin chicken for us unto the end of ages. No, I can say that KFC is not ruined, nor is chicken generally, but that what the Bureau of Prisons feeds its prisoners bears as much resemblance to real chicken as Donald J. Trump resembles the savior of the nation. The bus got me home, I needed a nap, and did not really get a good one. I was lethargic for the rest of the day. Nothing much done with the story.

I did call T2. Who said she read the first section of "Theresa" and liked it. I am beginning to think she may have a soft brain nowadays. She then told me she had been waiting on the next installment, whereas I had no idea she had finished the 8 pages I sent her! I sent her the next installment, which includes the part where J thought the story went off the rails. I also told her after the 14th I would have wheels and meant to come to Evansville. I asked for a date and time and place; she said she would send it back to me. I have heard nothing from her.

I meant to go to the First Thursday in downtown Muncie, but lacked the energy.

The email has populated like mold, but all I did was get rid of most of the political stuff.

I got back on track, sort of, with the story before catching the bus to the group session. Also, I started looking for shelter when this lease ends at the end of the month.

This was pretty much a gab fest. We did the reporting of our week's events with interruptions and went home.

Last week, the person running the group session brought is dachshund puppy. A cute little thing. He is also a guitarist, so I suggested Nick Lowe's "Marie Provost". When I asked if he had listened to the song, he told me had not liked it, or anything else he of Nick Lowe's that he had listened to. The younger generation has no sense of irony and satire.

One guy in my group is a conspiracy theorist. He is having problems with the City of Anderson. After the session, I referred him to an attorney over there and suggested he contact his city councilman. Between him trying to convince me of various conspiracies.

I do not understand conspiracy theorists. OTOH, it doesn't matter to me unless their theories impinge on my life, or they keep interrupting me when I need to be elsewhere. Come to think of it, both happened this afternoon! Conspiracy theorists must have a better view of people than I do - I don't think people can keep their damned mouths shut long enough. He started on the Epstein files, and thinks there is a video of Trump banging some young stuff. Chris Cillizza made a great point - somebody in the Biden Administration would've leaked the video if it existed. I just don't think Trump is that kind of predator - he likes forcing women into having sex, not kids. Bill Clinton is the kind of guy who liked willing women - that massaged his ego. It strikes me now that conspiracy theorists believe the powerful are a united front. I cannot think of any group that presents a unified front. The Mafia doesn't. And in support of my views, I present Niccolò Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy (which is longer and more fun than The Prince).

I had sent KH The Importance of Counter-Clockwise Dance Rituals by Ted Gioia. He thinks we need more logic than emotion. I agree with the article and disagree with him insofar it promotes positive emotions. We have way too much of the negative. Everything takes everything personal and is thin-skinned. The counselor of the group sessions has tried to prick me about politics, and has said he doesn't understand what my politics might be. Probably because he is thirty-something. I get the feeling from things he has said that he leans towards Trump and Elon Musk. I am not sure, since he cannot have the group falling into political rancor. I just cannot take politics as a personal identifier. Reader, you have a very good idea of my politics, if you read much of this blog. I think you will agree I can find much to roll my eyes about the more self-righteous of whatever denomination! Stuffed shirts need the stuffing knocked out of them. I vote Democrat because they are less dangerous than the Republicans. That is, if you will allow their fecklessness is not a danger!

Some news from the email:

 Coffee House Press has new releases for you.

Fairlight Shorts have new stories online and are open for submissions.

Issue 5.17 of Cutleaf is out. 

Issue 15 Book of Matches is out in flip book and PDF formats. 

Rejections:

This was for my short play, "The Beer Bros":

Thank you for your submission to Meetinghouse Magazine. Although we must decline your submission this time, we appreciated the chance to consider it and hope to read your work in the future. We will open for submissions to our next issue in October.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Meetinghouse Magazine

And the beating goes on for "Problem Solving", but was a bit of a surprise - I submitted it over a year ago.

Thanks for sending us "Problem Solving." Unfortunately, after some consideration, we feel it's not a fit for Untoward. We truly appreciated the opportunity to read your work.

Thanks again, and best of luck placing your work elsewhere.

Sincerely,
The Editors
Untoward Magazine

This was a bit of a surprise for taking three days between submission and rejection:

Thank you, Samuel Hasler, for your Fiction submission "No Ordinary Word."

We read every submission carefully, but because we receive such an enormous volume of work, it can sometimes take up to six months for us to respond. Thank you in advance for your patience. You can review the status of your submission anytime here: thekenyonreview.submittable.com/user/submissions/51503731

In the meantime, we hope you’ll consider subscribing to The Kenyon Review if you haven't already. Purchase a one-year subscription here and use the code SUBMITTER25 for $10 off.

Already a subscriber? Use the code SUBMITTER25 here for $10 off an additional year (four print issues, domestic addresses only).

And for the latest KR news, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook, and X.

Sincerely,

Nicole Terez Dutton

Editor, The Kenyon Review

I had two calls yesterday that were a bit of disruptions. First, a woman called from the property management company, telling me she had shredded the check instead of the whatever else is attached to it. Monday, I need to see if I can replace it. If I can't, then I can't, but she is a nice older woman, so I will make the effort. 

The other call was more personal and from the Open Door Clinic. I may be in diabetes territory again.

CC came over again. This time she was not feeling well. Family issues. We looked at a few possible places for me online. Two were around the corner and I gave her a fright by almost stumbling down a front step. She left after about an hour.

I had a sandwich for dinner. The back had started hurting while CC was there, and had no ambition for cooking. I did some work on two more sections of the current story. However, I did not finish it before turning in around 8 PM. However, when I woke up around 11 and could not get back to sleep, I went in and finished editing the sections.

Yes, as of today, I am a little behind on the new old story, and may get a little further behind. I intend to work on the blog. I have a bunch of notes from prison - legal research - I want to get through. It was a damned imposition thinking anyone but me could have gotten my prison journal online. I can tell when I stopped thinking it was possible - I went from printing to cursive. All these notes - and it is not much more than notes - are in cursive! They hurt my eyes! 

I have a meeting at 11:30, Which means catching the bus around 10:25. That gives me two more hours here.

Back to buying the Coke Zero

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