Kim's Plumbing (hardly Leery)

So yesterday, after the delivery guy installed Refrigerator Bear the day before (with Trish, everything's a bear) I went down in the basement (I need my head examined) to fetch some ice from the deep freeze. Albeit yesterday/last night was the coldest so far this autumn, I still use copious amounts of ice, mostly to guzzle iced coffee in the morning, before Trish is up. Then I saw that there was a big puddle of water on the floor directly under the spot where the hose to the old icemaker was installed. I freaked out & started calling plumbers, starting with the classical Wagner. We finally reached this guy named Kim, who Kame over Kwickly. He said it was a busted valve, which he fixed, then demanded cash.

Trish was going driving with Trish-uh! yesterday, so we weren't able to run down to Iron Claw Credit Union to pick up the mere $30 cash he charged (he was giving us a break), but since Trish's check from McRonald's (home of the world famous Bozo Burger), she simply picked it up during her driving lesson.

Meanwhile, the guy from Wagner Plumbing came over to look at our shower. Kim Plumber had told us that the bathtub was also leaking, & it'd be a major repair. Wagner said it was something they could fix in an hour, plus parts. & then we watched Buffy until suppertime.

After supper, I did very little other than watch TV, as I was upset about the whole situation. This may delay me starting to work on Arn Part 3 until next week.

chillin' w/ Refrigerator Bear

Yesterday, we finally got a new fridge. The old one was leaking water pretty bad, & would do things like soggify the egg carton or water down the jello. About a month ago, we went shopping with Karen, & went up to Sears, then Larry's Appliances. But they wanted a lot, & Larry only had a 9 cubic foot one that would fit our hole, unless we wanted to re-make/re-model, & Trish was already Lady Tron once this year. Finally, we found one at Quality Appliance, but the guy said for 40 more buckadingdongs we could get a larger one that'd still fit in.

We called Karen, but apparently she didn't get the message. Yesterday, Trish & I were in the Perky Pam Layout, & Karen walked thru -- she ate lunch there, later. We asked, "Why no-show on the refrigerator?" so as soon as we got back from lunch -- almost, I hadmy blood pressure measured (normal) -- the guy called & they brought the thing in aroud 2:00, when the Beautiful Bumblebee Girl was in physical therapy.

Then we called the tattoo parlor. Welcome to my life, tattoo...

Still feeling bad about LAURA LEMM. I'll see about editing that post, now.

The Science of Church-a-tology

I woke up around 7:00 this morning -- a little late, for me; I used to wake up around 6:00 -- then again, the sleeping pills didn't really kick in until I added a single Benadryl. I read my email, & there were 2 reviews of the latest chapter of Arn. Unfortunately, one of them was by a guy whose address listed him as being "L. Ron Steele", so I'm pretty certain I was dealing with a Church-a-tologist there. His review was all in tiny print, with comments that weren't in wrap-around text, so I had a lot of trouble reading it.

Then I reached the part where Becca decides to shoot Xotichon. The situation is that the attacking aliens have found a weapon that creates mass insanity, so she reasons that antipsychotic medication will help. This L. Ron Bozo told me there's "important legal work being done by people who don't have shares in the drug companies, to have psychotropic medication removed from the market due to their fraudelent nature, so they won't be around in the 26th Century, hopefully". I sent him a note to the effect of, I wouldn't be writing, or even be here, were it not for psychotropic drugs, that he must be the Bozo King (right across the street from McRonald's), to please not review any more chapters of Arn, & then I erased his critique.

www.scientology-kills.org

What more can I say?

& rhw Lemm lies down on Broadway

So there's this SF author, Laura Lemm, who used to read my stuff on Critters, synesthetic & religious. Yesterday, she sent me a short, off-list critique of the latest chunk of Arn, along with the statement that she wouldn't do any more, as she "didn't like my characters". I took this as an insult; my characters come from the deep waters of the unconscious, where gnosis & X-ianity are both rooted. Now, I'm having 2nd thoughts as to whether or not I want to summarily dismiss her, but I find disgusting someone who can say, "you're a brilliant writer, but I don't like it cuz I'm a X-ian". I suppose I'll wait a day or so & send her a note saying, "We can still be friends, as long as you don't mind my dippy blonde having ritual orgies". I dunno. I've had religious experiences due to my schizophrenia & also psychedelic drugs, & it's left me doubting anything but the raw materiality of the system. I really can't any longer stand or understand the "Amen Jesus" style of ecstasy; there are dark things in the chasms of the collective unconscious, & I have experienced some of them. Laura needs to understand that. If she rejects my characters, she rejects me at the same time. & the Lemm lies down on Broadway. There is a Broadway in every city, even in this small town where I live: copz in carz, the topless barz: I need an Invisible woman, & I love the one I'm with. Because the Mighty Insect Slayer is my girl, I have no regrets. This Laura-thing hurt me. But I'll forgive her. I'm just going to wait to tell her that, though. She needs to learn the price of nails before she kneels in Jesus.

chromaverbia

Trish napped again, as she slept poorly again last night. Suzanne Locoweed did double her Risperdal, but she’s still having problems. She did so well on the haldol that it’s a shame she had to have the dose reduced, but she had some bad side effects from it.

Today, I went to the Mall with Carmen (Perky Pam’s sister); she’s my TA & we go out once a week to talk. Mostly, I’m sad because I lost a friend today. I met the woman on the Internet; wife, mom & writer, in that order, according to her blog. She’d been following the progress of Arn thru the queue at Critters, but started complaining that she "didn’t like my characters" because the heroine, Becca, has a mental illness. I tried to explain that I was writing what I know, that my character, like myself, is locked into this little box called "the mind" & is struggling with the dark things that hide there. She complained that she "just couldn’t stand my characters," & since, though the narrator is a woman 600 years into the future, she’s still pretty much a part of me; the part I became when I worked out the rough draft of the story over 15 years ago, mania modulated by stelazine & tegretol, typing desperately to keep up with the flood of images.

I think her real problem lay with the character’s religion, which is not something I believe or advocate, Becca simply is part of an exploratory mission that discovers an alien species on a planet called Arn, who have a biologically-based religion, & I wanted to show some human equivalents to it. I think this Laura person is narrow-minded about her own personal take on Christianity, & has never been in my position: I’ve had religious experiences due to my schizophrenia, & have had my faith shattered & reformed by them many times over the years. I went from Catholicism to Fundamentalism to Gnosticism to agnosticism to atheism to pantheism, & I’m still not entirely certain what I do & don’t believe. I’m not going to believe anything just because some guy who’s supposed to be an authority tells me to, nor do I want to be totally without faith.

My writing is coming along pretty well. I finished another chunk of Arn last week, & wrote critiques for Critters all this week, so I could have the story read without waiting a month, & so that the people who’ve followed the story for the last couple months won’t forget what’s happened so far. Some of the stories in the workshop were very good & others were kind of yucky, but that’s just the way the bee bumbles.

Karen wanted me to enter a painting in the art show, but like, yeah, right, I’m a great artist. I started a painting this morning, but my own art’s not something I value so highly that I think it’ll sell. Mostly, I do birds imprisoned by churches, as that was the theme of my one good painting 30 years ago.

Kimothy Leery

Kim's been hanging around a lot lately, & I don't know what to make of it. She started coming over when I called her when Trish was at work. I phoned largely as an experiment: she has a TDD, but when I dial 711, usually what I get is a warbling sound. This time, a relay assistant came on, & Kim was at home, preparing to eat: her seizures are so severe, she has to have home health care come in & fix meals for her. She showed up that night, & started to come by once or twice a week, no doubt wanting to worship in the Church of Ooga-Chugga (which is still a much nicer church than the Science of Church-a-tology). I deliberately didn't lay a finger on her, as I wanted to stay faithful to Trish.

Then she showed up Labor Day, after we'd already invited Jeffer Auss to come eat hot dogs with us. She started announcing in sign that Perky Pam was taking her to Great Falls the next day, at 11:00. Trish became deeply disturbed, as she'd already planned to go driving with Trish-uh! & put an application in at Pizza Hut. Trish started to cry, & all Kim did was sit there & babble about her dentist in sign.

As soon as Jeff appeared, Kim disappeared. I think she doesn't like him. He seems to make her a bit paranoid. We watched Monster-in-Law, & then Trish couldn't sleep until 2:00 AM. We called Silver Rectangle about the shot, & Kathy professed ignorance about the whole Kimothy Relationship (which is better than a Karen Relationship). Then the staff had their meeting, & we finally walked over there a little after 10:00. Pam put a spike into Trish's vein, & she crashed for the rest of the day.

However, Kim reappeared last night, while we were trying to watch Judge Dredd, which is this savage-ass movie with Sylvester Stallone & Tweetie in it. We wound up putting the CC on for Kim. She left around 8:00, when it was pill-time, & Trish went to bed as soon as she was out the door. Trish seems to be adjusting to her med change well, except for not-sleeping.

Then today, she went driving, after I got my haircut, & did real atomic. Trish-uh! wants Trish to take the test Friday.

Bareback ladies have fish.

dangerous vistas

Trish is sitting in the Captain's chair, with the old re-made/re-modeled Rectilinears playing 5 CDs at random. She's drinking her morning coffee, prior to hopping into the shower. She just finished her Raisin Brand (at least that's what I thought it was when I was Jung) -- the original Post -- & called Upstairs to see if Perky Pam could use her pill cutter to chop her Klonopin in half. She's starting to feel a little better; she didn't sleep well last night -- too much caffeine during the day. She drank most of a pot of tea by herself, while at the same time, Dr. Huffman wanted her on less Klonopin -- then she had a panic attack at work last night, so I suggested she take the original dose. I think a lot of her problem is that she's been waiting & anticipating hearing about the job she wants at PJ's. I want her to get it, as it'd eliminate (most of the time) the need for her to drive -- but Trisha has also been giving Trish much better grades on her driving than before, so maybe she'll have her license soon.

The other big problem is Kimothy. She keeps koming over, & seems to be deliberately trying to kome when Trish is at work. She's paranoid & partially deaf, & I know if I said she couldn't kome in it'd exacerbate VADIS. Replacing the Vast Active Destructive Intelligence System with someone real -- Trish -- was the main problem with Mr. Fantasy back in the Mind-Warp Era.

I'm back at work on Arn, & quit for the morning when I had to do a major re-make/re-model & ran out of ideas for my heroine. They shoot Orgasms, don't they?