Mercury in Retrograde

[Drunk Monk]

I just realized that the right speaker on the ol’ magnavox is out. May have happened when it got moved when we took out the carpet. I’ve been thinking it sounded a bit off but wrote it off to the whole house now being a wood cabinet and that changed the sound. The sound really travels here now. Maybe I’ll try open it up to see if it’s just a loose wire. I haven’t changed a speaker out in decades. But I remember it wasn’t that hard back then.

And just like that, it's magically back in stereo. It's been getting shuffled about with all the house construction. The power has been shut off to that side of the living room for the last few weeks. Today I hijacked an extension cord from one of the workers piles, and plugged it back in. Maybe it just needed a rest?

Merc can be funny that way. I luv my ol' magnavox. Listening to Spliff's Reggae Express now and all is right with the world.

[Drunk Monk]

I seem to have lost my treasured Shaolin Temple wristband.

Given the run of shows and events that I've been on, I've had a few wristbands. I like to keep them on for a few days to remind myself that I may be more exhausted than I seem. Some wristbands are nicer than others and I swapped them for an odd rubber wristband that the ex-Abbot gave me at Shaolin Temple when I was back there in 2024. It was kinda odd, but tougher than a beaded mala and a good reminder. It was funky, an odd fusion of traditional. It had a Jinnaluo chant written in Chinese characters and pinyin. I love funky Shaolin stuff.

This morning I woke to a nekkid wrist. I'm not sure what became of it. It was thick and could not have snapped. Maybe I pulled it off accidentally when I was changing gloves at FIFA last night (I went through maybe a half dozen pairs of gloves). Maybe it came off when I was changing shirts, which I did several times putting on layers and such. Maybe it's tangled in my shirts which I tossed in the hamper last night. Maybe it'll turn up again somewhere.

Having a sad. Another lesson in detachment.

[Drunk Monk]

After a trying day at work, a mediocre dog walk where Yuki incessantly begged a friend’s nephew for treats (I warned him), and a fair Kung Fu session, I tucked into a nice frozen pizza and some tollywood ultravi. Then a friend texted.

It was my +1 for The Furious. His wife is dying of cancer. She had a major downturn this week, liver and gall bladder failure, jaundiced, put on hospice. They’re at Oakland Kaiser and she’s being released to die at home. She’s been given 3-5 days. They are in their mid 40s with 3 kids. He texted me and we texted about death, grief, being present, and the martial arts for about an hour. He seemed to want to stay on texting saying he was sobbing at one point. It’s such a sad tale.

I went back to my movie after he said he was going to bed finally. But being a tollywood film, it’s 2.5+ hours and I was starting to nod off. I’ll finish it later.

[Drunk Monk]

Ah Loong is dead. Ah Loong was my dragon tree plant. I had it in my office at Tiger Claw for years. I specifically bought it from wonderful store just a few blocks away where the lovely clerk found me something durable that could live neglected in the office. I faithfully watered Ah Loong (Burce Lee's character in Return of the Dragon - Loong means dragon) as instructed for nearly a decade.

This water I put it outside in the rain, thinking it might enjoy that. Stacy had tone the same with plants on our veranda and they turned such and green. Not Ah Loong. Ah Loon turned brown. Clearly an indoor plant. Ah Loong had three sprouts. Two died. I trimmed the last remaining sprig so only the green bits remained. But yesterday, it fell over. It's done. 

Time for a new dragon tree.

Mercury in Retrograde is a time to whine and complain about life's tribulations and blame them on the stars.

[Drunk Monk]

A bird took a massive dump on my front windshield. I ran out of windshield wiper fluid in mid swipe, turning my view into a milky smear. 

Got a new jug of wiper fluid and refilled it. They always sell you twice as much. When Stacy saw it she asked ‘is that the same stuff that I put behind the sauna?’

Now I have plenty of wiper fluid.