Sign of the times
Today is certainly going better than yesterday--so far. I haven't gone to work yet, so that my change. I got up early today and managed to get my lathe mounted on my tool box. I figure that project is about 1/4 done. I still need to make my idler shaft and a sliding motor bracket and get them mounted. But I'm trying to take my time and do a nice job, one that I'll be happy with for a long time.
I was going to do some of this work yesterday but it didn't happen. I had a couple bad dreams about work and I overslept. I was awakened by the door bell. I live in a secure building and people have to buzz you to get in. We never get any visitors, so when that buzzer woke me up yesterday, I assumed it was UPS or FedEx since they tend to show up around 10:30 here. I haven't ordered anything lately but Michele is on Ebay once in a while. Anyway, I jumped out of bed and buzzed the door lock so the FedUPSEx guy could come in -- if you don't do it right away, they leave and take your loot with them. They're wankers. After buzzing the door lock, I got dressed so I could answer my apartment door. It took longer than usual for someone to knock. Delivery dudes are usually pounding away like there's a fire in the hallway before I have a shirt on. Be that as it may, someone did knock, however belatedly. I went to the door expecting some vast mysterious treasure to be granted to me in exchange for my signature, something really neat like a case of discontinued hair conditioner or something. Imagine my surprise
when I opened the door and there stood a young man in slacks shirt and tie and an older woman (much older) in a floral print dress.
My mind went "what the fuck? oh, fuck --fucking Hell!" before I could even twitch a facial expression into place. The guy started nattering on about "do you think blah blah blah". I wasn't even paying attention. I was thinking "do I do it nicely or do I just do it? where do they come from? I haven't seen any since the seventies". Then I realized I'd been asked a question. I stood there dumbly (meaning mute, really) for a second replaying the chatter of the feable minded back in my head. OK. Got it. "World peace?" I croaked in my pack-a-day haven't talked to anyone or had a cigarette yet voice, "Not in my lifetime."
His eyes went a little wide and took part of a step back which must have over-taxed his brain because he dropped the clutch on his mouth and started nattering again. He dug a small black book out of his bag while I was thinking "world peace. of course. armed conflict in the middle east, soaring gas prices, economy sucking wind -- and they come out to prey on the feeble minded. easier to get recruits and starry-eyed believers when things look dismal." Then he had his little book open and he read me half a sentence out of one verse in a psalm. It was about 4 words long and one of them was peace. He was looking at me like that little random sample was somehow in context with EVERYTHING that is going on in the world and it was PROOF of the TRUTH.
I said "I'm sorry. You woke me up. I work nights." and closed the door.
I remember reading the watchtower when I was little. It used to be they wouldn't leave unless they could give you one of their little twisted magazines. I was barely old enough to read then--and even then I'd go "Huh? this doesn't make any sense".
Sign of the times. Just like the seventies -- we had the cold war, which we thought we'd never see the end of, and the war in Viet Nam, which we knew we'd never win, we had soaring gas prices, we were in a recession and the Jahovah's Witnesses were everywhere. Now we have the war on terror, which we'll probably never see the end of and the war in Iraq, which we'll never "win", we have soaring gas prices and economy is getting pretty damn shitty for people in the "middle" class.
The Jahovaah's Witnesses are back. If that's not a sign that things have gone to Hell, nothing is.