{"id":9784,"date":"2023-03-30T05:12:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T09:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/?p=9784"},"modified":"2023-03-30T02:13:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T06:13:58","slug":"thur-mar-30-2023-where-does-the-time-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/2023\/03\/30\/thur-mar-30-2023-where-does-the-time-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Thur. Mar. 30, 2023 – where does the time go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cool and damp.\u00a0\u00a0 Supposed to rain.\u00a0\u00a0 But it’s Houston.\u00a0\u00a0 I got some rain on me yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0 It didn’t actually rain <\/em> as such, which is why I say I “got some on me.”\u00a0\u00a0 I had drops of water from the sky hit me at various times of the day, in various parts of the city.\u00a0\u00a0 But it never actually rained.\u00a0 It was even briefly sunny in places.<\/p>\n

I spent most of\u00a0 the day running around.\u00a0\u00a0 Did my pickups.\u00a0 Gas is mostly between $2.89 and $3.09. \u00a0 Went to Costco.\u00a0\u00a0 Costco had many of the things I missed last time back in stock.\u00a0\u00a0 Still missing the smoked almonds though.\u00a0 Selection of rice and flour is still reduced.\u00a0\u00a0 Pork was reasonably priced (~$2.50\/lb) and chicken was too, so I got some of each.\u00a0\u00a0 There were items on sale, just like pre-wuflu, although not as<\/em> on sale.\u00a0 They have something that looks like king crab for sale at only $25\/lb. which is a huge decrease.\u00a0 Of course it is ‘golden’ crab, and not actually Alaskan King Crab.\u00a0 Mostly the same, almost as big…<\/p>\n

And that seems to be the state of the world at the moment.\u00a0 Mostly the same.\u00a0 Almost as big.\u00a0 Somewhat fewer choices.\u00a0 And drab.\u00a0 FFS, it’s drab.\u00a0\u00a0 Cars are all the same silhouette.\u00a0 And selling in the same drab colors – black, white, red, dark blue, silver.\u00a0\u00a0 Houses are black and white.\u00a0 I’m astounded by how many new buildings are black, white, and grey.\u00a0\u00a0 The store complex with our local Spec’s liquor store, Starbux, and various small storefronts just painted the whole brick complex white and black.\u00a0 It was red, cream, brown, and natural brick\u00a0 and stone colors.\u00a0\u00a0 The lack of color in the built world tells me that people are not happy and optimistic.<\/p>\n

I’m seeing more homeless, and they are bolder.\u00a0\u00a0 They are sleeping and setting up housekeeping right in the open, right in the heart of commercial areas.\u00a0 I’m also seeing more vacant commercial space at the same time there is an explosion of residential construction.\u00a0\u00a0 All those people moving here are going to need jobs, eventually, when their excess cash from selling in Cali but buying here runs out…<\/p>\n

And don’t get me started on what passes for pop music.\u00a0 What isn’t violent and nihilistic hedonism is depressing glorification of mental illness.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is there conditioning for restraint, self control, or self sacrifice.\u00a0\u00a0 Those are three of the pillars that built and supported\u00a0 western society.\u00a0 And they’re gone from our stories, our heroes, and our culture.\u00a0 That idea alone is probably worth an essay and a deeper look.<\/p>\n

We grew up with those ideas firmly in place.\u00a0\u00a0 Our parents sacrificed so their kids could have a better life.\u00a0\u00a0 Their parents did the same, and sacrificed their bodies and minds in war in the belief that they had to, to build a future to live in.\u00a0 Our stories and culture were suffused with the ideas of self restraint and self sacrifice, with the ordinary man expecting that to lead to success, and while for the hero the outcome was often his death, he did it anyway.\u00a0 As individuals self sacrifice didn’t always lead to good outcomes, for society, SELF -restraint and -sacrifice, done by choice, led to a better world for everyone else.<\/p>\n

And that’s almost entirely gone.\u00a0 There are pockets.\u00a0 Farmers.\u00a0 Soldiers (warriors).\u00a0 Parents. Teachers.\u00a0 But in the ranks of those, the numbers decrease every year, replaced by parodies of what was.<\/p>\n

It makes me sad to see fundamental changes like this.\u00a0\u00a0 There isn’t an easy or quick fix when something so vital (in retrospect) is removed from the culture.\u00a0\u00a0 I doubt that it’s even possible to get back to a point where those things can be restored, without a complete and massive destruction of what it’s become.\u00a0\u00a0 Things never “go back to normal.”\u00a0\u00a0 We are all of us and always changed by what happens to us and around us.<\/p>\n

Stack all the things.\u00a0 It’s going to be a while.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

nick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cool and damp.\u00a0\u00a0 Supposed to rain.\u00a0\u00a0 But it’s Houston.\u00a0\u00a0 I got some rain on me yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0 It didn’t actually rain <\/em> as such, which is why I say I “got some on me.”\u00a0\u00a0 I had drops of water from the sky hit me at various times of the day, in various parts of the city.\u00a0\u00a0 But it never actually rained.\u00a0 It was even briefly sunny in places.<\/p>\n

I spent most of\u00a0 the day running around.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

 » Read more about: Thur. Mar. 30, 2023 – where does the time go?  »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,83,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-decline-and-fall","category-polemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9787,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions\/9787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttgnet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}