Sunday, February 22, 2009

Blah.

I got nothin'.

If I wasn't one of those cynics who lumps psychology in with those other "-ologys" like phrenology or astrology, I might even say I was "depressed".

I've been stuck in the house by the weather, and I've been fairly broke-ish for the last couple weeks, which has amplified my cabin fever, which is in turn reinforced by the short days and gray skies, which has caused me to write less. And the writing less has made me feel non-productive, which makes me feel more depressed. Which has in turn... Well, you see where this is going: Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Plus, reading CNN first thing in the morning and SurvivalBlog's news links last thing before bedtime is just the thing to lift one's mood these days: "Depression! Misery! Pestilence! Democrats! It's the feel-good family hit of the Summer! Bring the kids!"

I've been answering the phone in that way that makes "Hello?" rhyme with "And what the hell do you want?" so, uh, I'd like to thank those of you who have called for not hanging up. Don't worry, I'm still a long way from going up a clock tower with a scoped rifle and a sack lunch.

Hopefully we will be able to return you to your scheduled blog sooner rather than later.

30 comments:

Carteach said...

Check your E-mail Tam :-)

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of Wierd Al's "Happy birthday" song

"Your daddy's in the gutter with the wretched and the poor

Your momma's in the kitchen with a can of Cycle 4

There's Garbage in the water

There's poison in the sky

I guess it won't be long before we're all gonna die!

Come on boys and girls sing along okay?"

Anonymous said...

I, like most of us, have had moments, usually divorce or relationship related, when the thought of dangling from a manila necktie in a quiet, shady barn seemed restful.

Didn't do it, got past it, grew up or grew older, something like that, and damn the maples were beautiful last fall.

And that first, stray, month early, warmer dry breeze that came out of nowhere yesterday told me beautiful secrets about April. So hang in there Ma'am, and may you be one of the last to go.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

"Depression! Misery! Pestilence! Democrats!"

Which in my mind always went together anyway.

I hope Roberta is feeling better -- and that you do, too :)

Borepatch said...

What we miss the most about Atlanta is how it's fixin' to be spring there by now. Warmer, more light, color that isn't the shade of road grit.

If this is your first winter in hell^H^H^H^H yankeeland, it will pass. Slowly and painfully, but surely.

On a Wing and a Whim said...

This too, shall pass. The spring is coming, the world shall wake once more. We're gaining daylight. No matter how grey the days may seem, we're moving toward summer.

Sink into the comfort of friends, and rest your soul a while. Take time for the small things, for a full night's sleep, good food, the glory in a well-prepared cup of tea or a sizzling pan of perfectly cooked bacon.

If you feel you have nothing, worry not; post or not as you feel - we do not demand you burn out for your readers, but I will request that you take care of yourself, for I grow fond of you and wish the best for you for all we've never held a conversation.

Anonymous said...

Whip out the plastic, go down to the basement, see what is missing from the collection, online to Midway, Brown Truck of Happiness is on the way. Something to look forward to.
'Side's, Numnut's will send you your share. Easy!
He said he was going to send our money [or was it our grandkids] back to us.
Who loves ya Kid?
Skip

Julie said...

time to swop cnn for dilbert.com ... that's if you can't get out to the range! Both work wonders for me when i start feeling blah.

Z@X said...

Depression is serious stuff, Tam. It's not a weakness or defect. Not being a dramatic, consider giving the Dr. a buzz. Have been there and dealt with it.

February is not the best month for many of us. Some artificial "daylight" can help a bit.

Hoping you feel better soon.

Robert Langham said...

Come down to Texas and we'll rob some banks.

Anonymous said...

"Depression! Misery! Pestilence! Democrats!"

The 4 horsemen.


Seriously, get outside, take a walk in the daylight. 30min.

While you are walking, plot world domination and talk to yourself.

Anonymous said...

Remember all that nasty shit you said about Yankees? Starting to understand life in the North a little better? All those farms and industries and edifices were built in this shit weather, by people who were cold and sick and their backs hurt too. Vincennes, 1779.

Now you're pissed off, which is a lot better than being just depressed. To a Yankee.

Anonymous said...

this is the time of year where these feelings are common. my hope is you realize we all feel this way- downtrodden, cold, alone, hopeless. and then, when we all wake up...

people like you don't go away.

hang in there.

Anonymous said...

Gas up the zed three, turn on the heat, turn up the Rush, and zoom your cares away.

-A

doubletrouble said...

Hiya folks.
Ya say ya lost your job today?
Ya say its 4 A.M. and your kids ain't home from school yet?
Ya say your wife went out for a corned
beef sandwich last weekend - the corned beef sandwich came back but she didn't?
Ya say your furniture is out all over the sidewalk 'cause ya can't pay the rent and ya got chapped lips and paper cuts and your feets all
swollen up and blistered from pounding the pavement looking for work?

Is that whats troubling ya, fellow?

REFRAIN

Well, lift your head up high and take a walk in the sun with dignity and stick-to-it-ness and ya show the world, ya show the world where to get off.
You'll never give up, never give up, never give up...that ship!

Hey there, friend.
Ya say your radiators never worked all winter and now that its summer they started up again and ya can't turn them off?
Ya say your wife sent your light weight suits to the cleaners and that means you'll have to wear your itchy tweeds this morning when they say it'll hit 106 and ya gotta meet an important business man in an hour and your bridge just broke and ya pasted it together with bubble gum and ya hope it don't
fall apart while you're doing some fast talking to this man?
And - and your shoelace just busted and ya opened a big cut on your cheek trying to
even out your sideburns and your daughter's going out with a convict and your wife just confessed she gave your last sixty dollars as a deposit on an airplane hanger?
Is that whats troubling ya, friend?

REFRAIN

Hey there, cousin. Ya say ya can't pull your car out of the mud and you're in the middle of nowhere and its pouring rain and ya can't get the top back up and your paycheck's all blurred and your foot went right through the gas and your girl's screaming bloody murder; shes scared of the dark and a stroke of lightning splits your motor in half and your suits shrinking up fast and ya start up the windy road on foot and sixty yards barbed wire hits ya right smack in the puss and ya both fall down in the mud and then a wild animal comes over and runs away with your shoes and your car blows up suddenly and your windshield-wiper ends up stuck in your mouth and ya can't move and the mud's rising up to your nostrils and you're sinking fast and ya don't hear your girl screaming anymore?
Is that what's on your mind, cousin?

REFRAIN

And now, this is the old philosopher saying, so long, folks.

Anonymous said...

Tam--

BTDT, feelin' thatway myself these days.

But, I was in Little Rock last week, and saw some SOLID green grass, and my lawn in Memphis is turning grayish green.

Hang on! Spring's a'comin!

Anonymous said...

Well, when you start talking about 'hitchhiking down to Jonestown for a couple laughs and a cool drink,' that's when I'll start to worry.

Besides, maybe you'll start to feel all the warmth of the candy cane forests and marshmallow rainbows
the Chosen One's supporters have been talking about and start to embrace the magic that is the new administration.

Did I get at least a smile yet?

Anonymous said...

Come down to Texas and we'll rob some banks.

Screw that, come to New Mexico. We'll rob gov't labs of plutonium. Much more interesting possibilities. We could probably dig up a nazi skull or something to reanimate with said Pu, which of course makes everything more fun. Nazi zombies, the ultimate pick me up.

Jay G said...

Tam,

There's definitely something going around - I like to call it "When the hell is Global Warming, err, winter gonna end"-itis.

I prescribe a range session with some form of Magnum caliber. And don't let Caleb talk you into .22 Magnum...

the pawnbroker said...

young, blonde, beautiful badass with a bimmer in the garage, a headful of awesome, and thousands who hang on your words and "love" you...yeah, life's a real beeatch sometimes.

besides, in a couplea days, you'll be all "stimulated", money worries will be over, and "happy days are here again!" and has that tune ever let you down? oh, yeah...

well, anyway, buck up and entertain, you slacker, or no soup for you!

jtc

Anonymous said...

Da Blahs!!!

Yupper, it's a real thing, too. Even if you live in upper Minnesorta or Michigan's UP, or 'Laska and spend all sorts of time outdoors doing strenuous endorphinny physical activity, the lack of sun can affect you.

A good RX is a real, certified 'sunshine' lamp, right next to the 'puter, shining in y'r face for at least an hour or more per day. It's cheap to run, doesn't use a perscription, and takes effect rather quickly.

As far as meds to remedy the Dark Blight, the SSRI family has a newer reliable: Lexapro. And it's child, Pristiq, which is the metabolized version of Lexapo, burns super-clean with few very minimal side-effects.

However, y'r not sounding like the chronic severe depressive condition that infests some folk's life, so git out and get a gen-u-wyne sunshine lamp.

Live long and prosper, grasshopper.

John the Red,
living at the West end of Lake Erie
, which has nearly the lowest days of sunshine per year in the USA

The Armed Canadian said...

Tam,

If you wind up on the clock tower, it's gonna take the National Guard and a lot of gun bloggers to talk you down. Whitman carried his stuff up in a sack. You'll need a bloody handtruck.

Somehow, I think a sack lunch and boxes of ammo just isn't your thing. Unless it was that son-of-a-bitch Jack Frost. Then I could see you parking one in his running lights with a Berthier at 300 yards just for sport.

And if you did wind up on a bell tower somewhere, call us first. Just to make sure that the contents of Tamara's Shrine do not wind up in the personal collections of undeserving peace officers. We'd keep them safe for you until they took off the coat with the long sleeves.

Don't worry, a lot of that is going around. Things do get better as they always do.

Joseph said...

Try getting a job, I find that I really enjoy being at home doing nothing or next to nothing after a day of work.

Bonus is that it provides you with idiots that provide all sorts of inspired thoughts.

Tam said...

The problem is that my skillset is so very limited, and that it kinda defeats my purpose in deliberately becoming an unemployed bum...

...but yeah, I may have to go get a gig just driving a cash register if nothing else, just to get out of this headspace.

Tam said...

"Remember all that nasty shit you said about Yankees?"

I don't like to use the "Y-word" when there are children present. ;)

Arcadia Iris said...

Psychology may, in many cases, be a crock. However, the effects of one's environment on one's mental, emotional, and even physical health can be very real. One of the best doctors I ever had was a man who truly listened to me and worked with me because, as he put it, "You're the one who lives your life, so you're the one who knows what's going on." He didn't try to roll a pill at me for whatever reason of the week a medical journal said I might need a pill. So keep that in mind... what's happening is real, and it's a sign that the way things are going is not working for you, so something needs to change. Change it yourself if you can. If you can't, wait for the magic unicorns to change it for you. I mean...um... do your best to remain aware of what's really going on because that can be a big help with hanging on until the wheel turns again. (It's easier to hold on when one can say, "The weather is affecting me, but the winter will be over in X weeks," as opposed to, "I just feel so down. I don't know what's wrong! Why am I crying all the time? OHGAWD! I'm gonna DIE!!!")

Michael said...

My reply didn't go through, so let me try again:

Psychology is a real science. It shouldn't be lumped in with psuedoscience or woo-woo 'therapies'.

Astrology is not a valid 'ology'. The suffix -logy is used for scientific fields of study. Scam artists like to slap -ology on the end of some Bogus thing to add legitimacy to it.

If you will give it some thought, you do not want to disregard 'ologies'

Want to try surgery without someone who practices anesthesiology?

I really hope as a woman, you support gynecology.

Want to get cancer treatment from someone who didn't study oncology or maybe radiology?

Who do you trust for a weather report? I hope they studied meteorology.

if you live on the west coast, you should listen to anyone who studies seismology, geology or vulcanology.

If you are reading this, I'm sure you embrace technology.

Biology, zoology, archeology, paleontology, pathology, cardiology, proctology, ecology, neurology, immunopathology, hematology and entomology just to name a few more.

Anonymous said...

...my skillset is so very limited...

Uh, no.

Tam said...

"If you will give it some thought, you do not want to disregard 'ologies'"

If you read this site, it's important to get "jokeology". ;)

Michael said...

I'm sorry, the sarcasm didn't come through to me, I thought you really did think psychology was in the same category. I'm a little up on the slowtake today.

And I read this blog BECAUSE it makes me laugh.