General Observations, Thoughts along with some Personal Anecdotes #1?

• This is a blog entry with bullit points. I just feel like making one.

• My mood as I write this? Glum. Why? The world is clownish; I am lonely; a 14 year old son is far worse that a two year old one; moving because you lost a job is depressing; and I seemed locked out, because of personal circumstances, from living a life that has any meaning.

• The school I was working at was to have had its graduation ceremony for its students on June 30^th. But because there were Covid cases in the area on June 29^th , the authorities that decided that the school year was finished. So the ceremony was cancelled. But then it turned out that it was postponed. I got a message asking if I would go to it. I didn't want to but I thought it best if I did. So, I went. I first sat in my old chair in the teachers office not knowing what to do with myself. I found out that the graduation play we had rehearsed over a month ago was to be performed. I was fortunate to have not thrown the play script out and spent time studying it... I didn't do so much interaction with the children. It seemed that they didn't really care to see me. Just before the play began, we learned that the girl playing the main character was not present. We got a clever girl to take over the role. Another clever girl I had take over the first girl's role. The play went off pretty well. After the performances there was a ceremony of sorts where the children were given diplomas. I felt emotional as that was happening. As soon as it was over and I feel comfortable enough, I left.

• I am deleting contacts on my WeChat. It is time to look forward and forget about the year 2021-22.

• My visa expires on August 12. This is another thing that is ruining my summer. For as of July 24^th, I haven't found an apartment in Jiangyin so I can have residency there which I need to renew my visa. The problem I am having with getting an apartment is that my darling wife wants to have as cheap an apartment as possible, and I want something with more room.

• I am reading The Path to Rome by Hillaire Belloc and Essays in Idleness (The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko). Both books which were written in a different time and might as well have been written on a different planet. I am enjoying both books immensely. Belloc's book is a travel book that I find hard to put down. It meanders and goes off on tangents, but Belloc is a Catholic reactionary and I find his observations and comments compelling and very agreeable. Are there people like him anywhere in this current world? Are there people like him about the expatriates of Wuxi or China? I haven't met any. I heard of Kenko's book by reading David Warren's Essays in Idleness blog. Warren said Kenko played a part in the naming of his blog and he highly recommended the ancient book. Warren is a Catholic reactionary in the manner of Belloc and Davila and I of course followed his recommendation and I find Kenko to be a great read. Essays in Idleness, the book, is full of observations and anecdotes that keep me from jumping out the window as my glumness , I mentioned earlier, would have me do. The best life is the simple life is the general impression one gets by reading Kenko, and you can rid yourself of many modern day problems by seeing how Kenko diminishes most of them to the unimportance they really have.

• I keep imagining that Justin Trudeau gets assassinated and that my reaction is to express my glee loudly on social media, especially WeChat.

• My son was so angry at me last week that he said things for which I should have punched him in the mouth. I had to let it go. My son has my wife's temper but he has my inability to stay angry for a long time. My issue with Tony has been his playing too much on his screen devices, his inability to clean up after himself, his inability to respond quickly to my requests, and his spending too little time out of doors. His issues with me seem to be my getting on his case all the time and my impatience at his slowness to respond to my requests because it is interrupting the game he is playing.

• I went to the pub and talked to some people the first time. The second time, I went I was uncommunicative. I didn't want to talk because I was feeling glum and it felt so much better to read Kenko.

• Inaction speaks louder than silence.

• How you do like your corn? Do you like it on the cob, off the cob, by the cob, under the cob, in the cob, along the cob, near the cob, opposite the cob, behind the cob, in front of the the cob, besides the cob, tangent to the cob, parallel to the cob or at the cob?