theswordsman's Diaryland Diary
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Good thing Andrew doesn't charge by the word
I spent today emotionally detached from my own circumstances. I have to do that sometimes when things look bleak. It's kind of like my life has me on a small raft in stormy seas, but sometimes I get a day or two on a barren island to take a break from rowing and re-energize a bit for whatever's next.I finally nabbed a few hours sleep late this afternoon, and right now I'm feeling more or less healed. It will probably be about Monday or so before I get concerned about consequences. One of the many fun symptoms of PCS is that I get frustrated much easier,and frustration slips into anger at the circumstance or the person that caused them. I think that asking strangers for prayers, praying for a few of them myself, and saying the rosary tonight helped calm me a bit.
In the past week I watched thirteen episodes of Samurai Jack, who uses a magical sword that had been made for and presented to his father, and a few episodes of Heroes involving Hiro and his sword, which came from a famous samurai named Takezo Sensei.
Since I spent the day in denial about my financial future, I gave a bit more thought to what my sword would be. There are sword masters in Japan right now who make excellent katana based on the old methods. But it's a big part of Japanese culture, so it's tough to get one outside of Japan, and if you did, one could cost around $30,000. I wouldn't spend that if I won a million. I also wouldn't buy an antique sword, because I wouldn't want something in the house that might have killed or wounded another human. There was a time in history when a new sword blade made by a master was tested by seeing how many corpses it could cut through at once - five meant it was a world class blade. The score got marked on the blade, along with the signature, etc. I sure wouldn't want one of those.
So the choice of my dream sword is actually down to two made in China using classic Japanese methods, unless I'm handed one by a lay in a lake, or possibly come upon one stuck in a stone. (That reminds me, I need to get out more, because there's obviously no cool stuff like that available in my basement apartment).Anyway, the long sword is still a choice of two, but the wakizashi decision has been made, and that's it in the picture. The Paul Chen Paper Crane, made from iron sand using the charcoal fueled clay furnace to make it into Tamahagane steel. The longer version is one of the two finalists for John's Dream Sword.
There's no way anyone is still reading this.
Friday morning my sister has her cardiac aversion where the knock her out and put the paddles on her to see if they can shock her heart into not fluctuating so much in terms of rate. My middle sister is taking her there, and I'm on call to sister-sit in the afternoon.
At 9:30 A.M. Central Time, which for some reason is only five hours behind GMT right now, my lawyer will be in a room with another lawyer and Judge Garvey deciding my Fate, or how much longer they'll postpone that Fate. I really hope that the decision will be made to settle for the insurance money and not take the thing to court. If you've got a free moment around that time (2:30 PM Greenwich Mean, 10:30 A.M. New York, 7:30 A.M. Los Angeles, I'd appreciate any happy or positive thoughts you might send in the general direction of Judge Garvey. Thanks.
I clicked on a news item earlier about a pizza chain that sold pizzas in certain cities for 23 cents today because a Washington DC franchise owner had shirts made up calling LeBron James a crybaby. Lots of people in Ohio got a cheap pizza for the price tied to LeBron's jersey number as an apology. Someone posted a link at that forum to a PayPal competitor that was offering people $25 free for just signing up with them, plus people can make ten dollars more for every person they e-mail about the deal who signs up. I Googled it and read stories about the company and the offer, and went ahead and signed up for the free $25. It's not enough to get me to the hundred I need to pay the graduation fee so I can apply to colleges, but it would either buy me another bottle of capsules, or go a good long way with the dollar sale items at the supermarket. For seven bucks I could get two loaves of wheat bread and two more gallons of milk, plus some other one dollar items, plus some Mega Millions tickets for the $145 million drawing. It's two right now, and I still need to watch 30 Rock and Grey's Anatomy, so I'll head over there when they open at six and make myself feel good for a bit.
I didn't walk last night because I really need to switch to early morning exercise, so I'm staying up all night and will head out while it's still dark at 5:00.
I've obviously been behaving strangely this week, so I'm adding to it. I've been working on the reunion group, and thinking of travel, and yesterday I read from a guy who carries his passport around with him in his own country because he's afraid to leave it at home. I always thought it would be cool to carry it in case I craved Italian food or something and had money to go for it. But mine expires July 5th, and I don't know if I'll ever have or need another one. So right now I'm wearing the traveler's neck pouch that has a shortened cord because on the way back from Edinburgh the engine cover kept popping up on the coach, and people were tired and whined whenever we pulled over, so since I was riding shotgun I headed out, cut off a bit of the nylon cord with my travel knife, gave it to the driver to tie it off, and it not only got us home but got him all the way back to Edinburgh with another group. Anyway, I've got on the neck pouch with the passport in place, and it's got a list of things that I want from life, and those tiny raw emeralds I got off eBay, and it will soon have the name of the judge and the insurance company and the decision I want, and also a handwritten transcript for a completed MBA Program. I'm loading the thing up with my hopes and dreams and reminding myself that the pouch was from a time when I could creatively solve problems and make positive things happen.
I just decided that I'd best make tomorrow Sanity Saturday.
I hope you have a great weekend and that your life is full of positive things and creative solutions to any obstacles that might pop up.
1:34 a.m. - Friday, May. 09, 2008
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