Beavis and Butthead rise again...

I don’t know how many of you remember MTV’s first animated show Beavis and Butthead but I’m willing to bet you’ve seen enough of it to realize that their mentality covers quite a span of several generations of ignorant American teens on the loose and wreaking havoc in unbelievable ways. Now, mind you, this type of silly adolescent behavior is not new and has been going on even before the 1950s but besides proliferating, exponentially (in many ways I won’t go into quite as yet) I have not seen the like so much as what we might see on America’s Funniest Home Videos or South Park- just this year. An imitator of the so-called ground-breaking Beavis and Butthead, South Park came after the Dumb Duo and was rather sophisticated by comparison!  

     Am I surprised that grown young adults are pulling the same antics, such as what Roman Atwood puts up on You Tube? This one gets paid for every 1,000 views of all these dangerous shenanigans he video records- mostly from his car- and is becoming rich for staying stupid. Yes, this deplorable state of the world’s sense of adulthood is making out big for getting hurt, pulling mean and evil pranks and then sitting back and laughing at it all as though it’s a positive and good act. Lunacy.

     This year I have seen more real-life copy cats on roadways, bike paths, steep stone staircases, etc. with anything from skateboards, makeshift go-carts, handsprings or just about anything that may not move. I wonder why safety and using your brain effectively has lost its appeal for normal human existence? Some of what I’ve seen involves adults my own age! As far back as High School I have wondered to myself if certain individuals I knew (or was only casually acquainted with- wink!) would ever make it past twenty years of age- for any number of reasons. I myself tested the boundaries of the laws, natural laws and supernatural laws but all that was pretty much over by the time I was fifteen and was an owner and driver of my own car.

    

     I know why this nonsense continues and no one seems to want to put an end to it. We’ve been laughing at all of it. Nothing eggs on a prankster more than wallowing in the nonsense and laughing. It’s time to sober up and stop laughing at people getting hurt, accidentally or purposefully hurting themselves. Reality doesn’t bite but a barbed-wire fence does! Stop giggling at people destroying things and other people. What is the humor in that, I ask?

     Tracing this back to the origins of this lunacy, I remember going to see the first Gremlins movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out on Netflix or wherever you might get 80s classics. The film was pitched at kids but adults were telling me to go see it. As I watched these somewhat cute and cuddly beings begin to turn into evil killers and children laughing at all the mayhem they perpetrated I knew that I had hit a fork in the road with humanity. I remember telling every female client of mine not to take their kids or grandkids to this movie unless they were willing to set them aside afterward and tell them that it was reprehensible behavior and not a bit funny. Maybe only half of them took me seriously but I have noticed that people in my own age group are into some wacky type of tawdry culture. Laughing at idiotically dangerous acts and being the instigator of them is a brand new type of izzat which wouldn’t make a lick of sense to our parents or even someone much younger. Personally, I wish they’d all grow a brain and stop the nonsense. This world is violent enough without that garbage and these people are definitely old enough to know better. The best thing I could say is, “Grow up!” I have now said enough.

The Castle Lady

Keep Your Eyes on Summer

My title is not only the name of one of my most favorite Beach Boys songs but it’s very appropriate this summer. As a matter of fact, 2017 has seemed to be off schedule all year long! I can honestly say every month in Denver has been quite unusual in correspondence to its season and August has been no exception. Everyone’s talking like it’s autumn already and it’s not even close! The strong heat started right at the beginning of June for one, with no storms whatever. July was steadily hot and well above 90ْ, also, with few storms. August has been rainy at night and much cooler, overall, than June and July combined. That’s weird weather for August considering that it’s usually our hottest month.

    

Perhaps this total eclipse coming up has something to do with all of it. Denver is right in the path for an overhead viewing at 92% but I won’t be watching any of it. A partial total eclipse is a non-event in my estimation and its main claim to fame is that it will be really dark in the middle of the day for about an hour and a half. Yawn. Don’t be surprised if your dogs and cats decide to go to their backyard houses or favorite night time spot. They’re smarter than they seem. If by chance you insist on looking at what will be basically just darkness, be sure to take the ‘special glasses’ wearing to heart. Can’t get a hold of a pair? Then, please, at it don’t stare. (hee hee) Simple.

    

Remember when I vowed that I was not going to mow the lawn this year and that someone else was going to have to do it? Well, guess who got the so-called honors anyway? You guessed it. Who else but yours truly?  I’ve never felt so exhausted in my life! Avoiding the heat was impossible and you can’t mow at night. Let’s just say the latter isn’t a good idea. The other part of this is that it takes away from my writing time. Have you noticed West Somerset on my Word Press blog yet? Right. It isn’t there. It shouldn’t take me too much longer but it seems as if it’s taking me forever- face it! -but not because I haven’t put the effort in.

     As a matter of fact, I’ve written the thing nearly twice now. The first nearly completed final draft just suddenly disappeared from my computer without a trace in February after some extreme weirdness with my P.C. That is not the first time this has happened but I have vowed that it’s never going to happen again. What could be more frustrating than watching something that you’ve spent four months writing suddenly vanish? I honestly can’t think of anything worse right now and so I’m telling any type of malevolent miscreant or namby-pamby glitch that they better not touch this or something’s going to get hurt. Bad. When I show any signs of aggression in word, thought or deed you can be assured that you’ve pushed me over the edge of my good nature. You have been warned. 

     It may sound like summer has been a bummer but most of it has been much nicer than I expected. I’ve had a bit of a reprieve on extra duties around the house just simply because I’ve let some chores and extra work just go. You have to do that at times, you know. Most of my life I’ve been a live-for-the-moment type of person and this summer I let myself do just that. I’ve been catching up on the news and happenings and at my leisure rather than on the run. Here again, the heat may be partially responsible because when your body gets to a certain temperature you just have to sit down and do something that doesn’t involve movement of any kind. I’m getting good at it again. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to stare off into space!

    

However, I would have you know that I’ve, in fact, been overflowing with ideas for writing projects for over a year and a half and getting overwhelmed with the amount of writing time I’ll have to do to get it all done. I thought my castles projects were overambitious! Whew! At one time my family thought I was going to become a hermit because I had a great place to hide and write all day. Those were the days! I need to get back to doing that and once I figure out how, I’m going to be unstoppable. Look out World!

    

At any rate, you can expect to see a fabulous version of West Somerset in the very near future. (Promise!) Along with all that you can expect to see quite a few sideline entries on all these ideas that have been fermenting, getting jotted down at odd moments and ultimately committed to a non-electronic apparatus which I’ll call the aide to my P.C. Hint: It’s called pen and paper! Yes, I still do that and this year it’s been done in the coolest place I can find- my basement! Bliss!

     Well, have a wonderful remainder of summer. It won’t be officially over until September 21^st- or thereabouts- and you may get to see a whole lot more of my writing on castles and much more for the remainder of this year than you’ve seen in quite some time. It’s proverbial. Life gets in the way of art but to be truthful there is just no comparison to the reflected life. Both are worth living but you have to learn to balance the two and take your bliss where you can get it.

The Castle Lady