The New Normal

 THE NEW NORMAL  (Released July 15, 2018)

Hand in Hand  (Elvis Costello)

Dance this Mess Around (B ‘52’s)

Beggar's Farm (Jethro Tull)

Is Anybody Alive in Here? (Police)

Crime Don’t Pay (Joe Jackson)

867-5309 (Tommy 2 Tone)

Loui Loui (Pretenders)

Too Much Time On My Hands (Styx)

Rails on a Crazy Train (Ozzy Osborne)

Are You Happy? (Iron Butterfly)

Echoes (Pink Floyd)  23 minutes

You’ll have to excuse my mental sluggishness.  It’s hot on here because Augustine doesn’t respond to our coplaints about the air conditioning not working during the heat of the day -only in the morning and evening, which is strange.  Today is national Ice Cream day, declared by President Ronald Reagan.  You can’t buy this album in Federation record stores till Tuesday morning but they are playing it on the radio today.  We thought of other shorter songs and scrapping “Echoes” for another shorter Pink Floyd song, but this is what we wanted.  The front photo is of someone’s back yard, it looks like in America.  There is one yard with a patio and a fence off to the left with a patio roof from the next house.  There are five German Shepherds perched on top and they are barking at President Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin and there are a few aids around (sworn to secrecy) and there is a sign on the fence saying “No cameras or other recording devices).   Putin has folders full of documents he wants the President to sign.  There are two guards at the side gate.  Straight back in the direction you are looking there is a white brick fence.  This is the front of the CD.  On the back of the same CD there is that same brick fence now off to the left.  There is a narrow street and protesters with signs and stuff waving fists and shouting slogans.  But they are all encaged in a metal wire mesh like those kids were, and there are national guard troops with guns on the outside of the mesh.

The song listings are on the open out flap to the left.  There is also a commentary on “the new normal”.  We could start with this weather which has been pretty hot over the past ten days and it’s been setting records all over the country from Oklahoma to New York.  Of course there have been more violent storms too.  We are used to this economy where pay is still low and not equal and also as a percentage of the work force employed we are still in the sixties, which is a decades long low.  There is of course the news of the day with President Trump blowing up the NATO summit and insulting Germany and arguably the Prime Minister.  Of course Trump is like a cult because whatever he says, his people believe.  You almost see how Jonestown kept going because no matter what bad news breaks President Trump has an excuse for it.  It’s either a government conspiracy against him or else it’s the press conspiring against what’s her name or else it’s disgruntled workers who aren’t satisfied with the pay they get.  This is the first compilation we’ve done since late March.  For me most of this year hasn’t been “normal” even by my standards.  I am now out of money in record early time.  I don’t think I have ever been out as early as the fifteenth or so.  All I have is fifty cents and maybe I can get Michelle to give me coffee for that.  The scale says I’m actually gaining weight but it doesn’t feel like it.  My arms are still too skinny.  I need to work out or something.  They just announced afternoon snacks.  They should serve ice cream, but even that strawberry slushy stuff would be good again.

I guess they are having the summit in Helsinki or some place like that.  It doesn’t matter.  We know it will amount to nothing.  Besides they won’t tell us what they are really talking about anyhow.  It’s probably just more business deals or perhaps worse.  France won the soccer match over Croatia and Britain and Belgian played for third place yesterday.   Serena Williams lost and all we hear about is that her true success these days is motherhood.  I went out for snacks and got two Oreos and an iced tea and then I scrounged for cigarettes.  I had Leo Laporte on at the usual time and Chris Marquardt was on talking about how several small lenses can do the work of one big lens and do it better thanks to computer technology these days- - with their advanced mathematical programming.  Leo was also talking about how good vocal simulators are these days.  I could get in a microphone these days and it would be Leo’s voice coming out over the speaker.  It gets to where you don’t know what’s real and what isn’t these days.  Byte Fence is having a summer sale, I'm just informed.

[Wednesday May 11th) As I was going out to smoke Alvin showed up at the door a little after nine saying it was time to go to the dentist.  I said I needed to straighten up the room in preparation for the cleaning people to arrive.  After doing this I went out and had a cigarette.  I was smoking this when Alvin showed up again out back and said it was time to go.  It was maybe nine twenty.  Some lady in a wheel chair was in the front seat.  She had an appointment at a quarter to ten and mine was at ten.  Nevertheless I was dropped off first.  I went in and then went back out again to have another cigarette.  I was ushered into a dental chair well before ten but then waited till a quarter after for Dr Bui to arrive and get started.  She used less novacaine than usual, which was fine with me.  The procedure was punctuated with countless delays.  I was having a root canal on a tooth I thought had already had a root canal performed on already.  The procedure actually didn’t take as long as I expected what it got going.  They would stick this massive thing in my mouth which was much more substantial than a bite guard.  Numerous X rays were taken.  Well, I guess there were three sessions.  She remarked that my roots were long, an observation I’ve heard several times before.  I was done at a little past eleven thirty.  I used the restroom.  I had this new girl call the number here, which I still haven’t memorized.  I went out for a smoke.  There were a lot of dried leaves on the sidewalk, which would be kind of a fire hazard for careless dropping.  I went in and picked up the C-Net magazine but I didn’t that that far with that and Alvin was already here.  I got a prescription for an anti-biotic.  I had swollen glands on my right lower lip and Dr Bui said that I should really see a doctor of it.  She took a photo of it.  It had gotten hot outside and it was muggy again.  I went right into the dining room for a topless tuna melt with cheese.  I also had a banana and French fries and catsup.  Others had mandarin oranges.