How many travelers get weary bearing both their burdens and their scars.

  I've been trying to ignore today. I don't know why, really. I don't feel bad, physically, nor is the black cloud hanging around. I'm a bit on the cranky side, but I'm always a bit cranky. My settings are permanently set on salty, that's just how it is.

 And it was a lovely day outside, too, warm and full of sunshine. It's going to be like that at least through the week, we'll see some rain and colder weather by the weekend. Hell, I've also been digging on some mods for XCOM 2, which make it not quite a whole new game, but definitely expand the play.

 But some days I have to hide, and no one seems to really get that. For much of my life, I'd go to work or some other obligation wanting nothing more than to be allowed to lay down in a cool, dark room. It had nothing to do with the job or whatever it was I was obligated to do. I just like doing that. Just lay there and think, slipping in and out of lucid dreaming.

 Today was a day like that. Woke up, let Otis out, looked at the news (such as it was), and packed it in for a couple hours. Woke up again, let Otis in, read for a while, and then packed it in again. That's how I spent my day. Some people might disapprove but screw 'em and feed 'em cornflakes.

 Anyhow. Anthony Warner. We're learning a bit more about him, namely that he was into conspiracy theories and apparently spent time hunting "lizard people" in and around Nashville. He's also supposed to have told a neighbor that he'd have a fairly interesting Christmas, though not going into detail about the what's.

 I'm not sure how this changes things, exactly. "Terrorism" has been tossed around, but I'm not going there just yet. I remember the Bush Jr. Administration when everything from protesting with the Iraq War to not agreeing with the president's education policy was considered "terrorism," so that word - like patriotism - has been worn pretty thin.

 There is something to the racism aspect, though. It's like whenever some asshole decides to burn down a black church or shoot up a gay nightclub, and we have to hear about what a sweet kid he was. If Warner was black or brown or the wrong religion, we wouldn't be hearing a thing about his concerns of an alien invasion.

 Well, this is interesting. New information from The Tennessean says Warner's girlfriend reported to authorities that he'd been building bombs in his RV but he wasn't considered worthy of being "on the radar." The cops knocked on his doors to investigate, but he never answered and they never followed up. Of course.

 I need to go ahead and wrap this up, I reckon. The only bad thing about days like this is my brain becomes a sponge, in that it absorbs a lot but won't give unless it gets squeezed. That's an unnecessarily tortured metaphor, but it puts it over word count. The year's almost over, so let's see what inane madness tomorrow brings.

Shine on, harvest moon.

  I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas or if that's not your bag, a nice Friday. For whatever it's worth, mine was pleasant. It's still a bummer we couldn't do the big family gathering thing my family usually does, but that's how it goes. Maybe next year.

 Anyhow, let's do the do. It's been a weird week, to say the least. We started off Monday with the idea that we might see the COVID stimulus bill and possibly a larger check for folks Wednesday. Reality took a hard turn Friday with the explosion in Nashville. Again, luckily, no one was killed although there was quite a bit of property damage.

 The law dogs have been working all day to find out what they can, and they've come up with what they're calling a "person of interest." Sixty-three-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner is apparently the owner of the RV used in the bombing. There were human remains found after the blast and officials are trying to figure out if that's Warner. They've traced the ownership of the RV back to property Warner signed away in the last couple of months. Twitter detectives have come up with that owner, but as they don't seem to be involved, I see no reason to bring them into all this.

 For now, the FBI is dealing with all of this as a "suicide bomber," though they've given no inclination they know why Warner blew up the RV with himself in it if that's indeed what he did. Again, the Tweeter gumshoes have thrown up some ties to white supremacist movements but I haven't seen anything concrete.

 So that's where we are. Unless something's happened in the last hour or so, Trump hasn't said a thing about the blast. He has complained that his wife hasn't been on any glamour magazines and more whining about getting curb stomped last month, but nothing about Tennessee. Actually, apart from those tweets, Trump has spent most of the Christmas weekend golfing. I don't think anyone is really surprised or, for that matter, really cares.

  I really do think most people are tired of his shit, honestly. The Base gets loonier and loonier, making greater stretches and leaps of logic to explain why Trump actually won. And they just don't care. All morning Twitter was ablaze with the news that Adam Schiff had been arrested based on an obviously faked page. This is why you don't put much stock into the efforts of Twitter shamuses. Give everything a little bit of time to marinate and work out the kinks, just like with computer games. Life is full of buggy software, especially these days.

 Beyond that, well, the black mood seems to have blown over. I still have nothing kicking inside my head when I drift away from The News. I've been staring at that last sentence for a good 20 minutes. I've spent a lot of time picking guitar but I really can't do anything besides strumming rhythm. My fingers are simply too short, too fat, and my lack of grace extends to my entire body.

 I really haven't been posting this elsewhere because nothing interesting's being said. The news about Nashville can wait until tomorrow's round-up. Like I said, let it marinate. Scoops are great, sure, but let real professionals take those hits. Most of us can wait.

 I think I'll twist this off here. Something interesting, yadda yadda. I've got my Actual Paying Work done and may fool around with XCOM: Chimera Squad some more or perhaps Tyranny. Or I may read more of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Or go to sleep. Hell, I don't know.