Through the Door, Not Smoking, and Being a Research Robot – Thoughts from April 21 and 24, 2024

April 21, 2024

Walking through a closed door is a nerve-racking experience. You can usually guess what’s on the other side of it, but all bets are off if there’s a person on the other side. If you’ve had bad experiences with unwanted happenings behind closed doors, you might be anticipating a repeat of that experience. Restroom doors are especially anxiety evoking because truly horrible things can happen in there. We’ve all had experiences in restrooms that we’d rather not see, hear, or smell again. When I come home to the house at night, I am usually greeted by at least one furry head of a cat welcoming me home. Occasionally, one of them decides they want to run out the door when I open it. I must always be prepared for that happening. Not knowing what you’re going to get is the worst part.

April 24, 2024

I was listening to a book. They were talking about a shirt that didn’t have buttons. At first, I could only think of a t-shirt, but I eventually thought of fashionable shirts that just didn’t use buttons. It got me thinking about unnecessary fashion accessories. Pretty much every fashion is unnecessary, but at least a shirt can just happen to be fashionable. Shoes, pants, underwear, and socks can be utilitarian and fashionable. A scarf can be necessary, but when it’s not, it’s purely for fashion. When you wear a belt that just hangs loose, it’s purely for fashion. It took me years to get used to wearing my wedding ring. I’m not about to wear extra things on my body just to look stylish. Fashionable people are rolling their eyes at this whole paragraph. I’ll move on.

Patti texted me and told me she didn’t smoke any cigarettes today. She, of course, said, “Not that you asked, but …” I congratulated her. She said she was going to have a “min champagne.” I don’t know if that means mini or something else. With Patti, it’s hard to tell. She doesn’t read what she types most of the time. If it is more than just a mini champagne, her texts will get even worse. Of course, that’s if you don’t count their entertainment value. Her texts are at least entertaining as a puzzle that needs to be solved to be understood.

Something that annoys me is people who call someone with a question when they have done three seconds of research about it. Many times, getting ahold of the other person is enough time for them to think about the question and answer it themselves. If the person they’re trying to get ahold of is me, I will harass them about calling me to answer something they could have answered for themselves. It’s as if they think I’m sitting around waiting for people to call me with questions. Since we all walk around with computers on us most of the time, it’s a rude thing to do. They are treating me like a personal research robot. Google can be used by robot me or by them. One of them doesn’t involve me but requires a minimal amount of effort.