She's got a big, bad record on the heartbreak radio.

  I really have nothing tonight. The day drained me some. Otis had a visit to the vet, partly because it's time for his yearly check-up. A lot of it, though, was questions about his change in behavior and how much we should be worried by his colored, liquid shits whenever he gets into the cat poop. The good news is he's got nothing seriously wrong with his insides, he just needs to stop eating cat poop.

 The bad news is on top of being deaf and losing his eyesight, the vet said he more than likely had the dog version of Alzheimer's. That's partly why he frets so much in the evening. I'll be getting medication for it in a couple of days, but it does make me feel sad. He's pushing 13 if he isn't already and he's definitely lost a step in the last couple of years. The very real possibility exists that I'll see 50 without him and, even worse, his decline will be marked by more and more things he can't do.

 I don't worry too much about my own mortality, but getting old is a serious drag. Even worse, it seems like I have to work harder just to do what I do to get through the day. It's also a drag to see everyone I love getting older and to know that I'll probably lose some of them before the next decade rolls around. That's how it goes, though. As my friend Branch told me years ago, "Life is people you love dying."

 A little maudlin, kids, I know, but I'm sick to my eyes of the whole Dr. Seuss debate. I can't believe we're, what, seven days into it? There is just no reason for this. I don't really understand what the Seuss people are supposed to do. They made this decision, figuring it best for not only Theodore Geisel's but also their own profits. The argument seems to be that due to "wokeness" and "cancel culture," they had no other prematurely option to bend to the will of the SJW's even though no one had complained about it, but that's just stupid. I don't see how anyone with the merest inkling of how the publishing business works thinks that could be so.

 The other issue they seem to miss is the same one people who gripe about mixed-race couples in cereal commercials or movies with female heroines miss. If these big conglomerates are seeing the writing on the wall, maybe your the one in the wrong. Do they really think Disney would take such a stance if it hurt the bottom line at all? No, it wouldn't, you bloody fools, calm down.

 Ah, well. So much for all of that. If I thought any of it was genuine or being argued in good faith, I'd spend more time down in the ditches fighting the good fight. But I really don't see the people - conservative or not - worthy of the time and energy, especially when journalists are being prosecuted for reporting on Black Lives Matter in this country.

 So that's enough for today. I don't know what else. I'll probably spend the rest of the evening blowing my harp and fighting alien invaders. There are worse ways of spending one's time.