[Editorial note: You probably remember 2016 Whisky Wind-down. Hell, it basically just ended. Am I saying 2017 is already so bad that it’s time to start a similar countdown already? No. I am not. However, some days beg to be noted in time. Also, some days call for a stiff drink.]
Today’s dram: Ruskova Vodka Real American Whisky
Today’s tasting notes: Blarg. Gak. <string of expletives>
Today’s thoughts: Appropriately enough, I woke up sick today. Psychosomatic? Could be.
At any rate, I hadn’t been awake long when my phone rang. T-Mobile customer service. Without getting into the specifics, I’ll just say the company and I have an ongoing billing dispute. They’re wrong, of course. The service reps — I talked to three, over the course of 90 minutes — acknowledge the problem, but say they “can’t change that in the system.”
All in all, it was a frustrating experience, being in the right but still unable to make a positive change. Powerless before the needs of the corporation. Pay up or lose.
Which is, again, appropriate enough for the day at hand.
All the facts in the world don’t matter if one side has power and the willingness to use it.
All the reason in the world doesn’t matter if the other side is unreasonable.
Try as you might, the inertia of the system will carry you away, regardless.
Today’s notes on the immediate future: And so … I drank my selected “whisky.”
I poured a second.
After a bit, it got easier.
I mean, if you have low expectations.
No, lower than that.
Afterward, I went to my happy place.
Not the bar.
My other happy place: the kitchen.
There, I baked Christmas cookies.
What with travel, various sicknesses, and other conflicts, this weekend is the earliest I have been able to coordinate gathering with my family to observe the holiday.
It’s harder than it used to be, and I don’t just mean the scheduling.
See, try as I might, I can’t convince some of them we’re better off, by far, than we were eight years ago, and the next four years bode poorly for all of us.
(In fairness, try as they might, they can’t convince me of the opposite, either.)
We resolve these differences mostly by ignoring them.
At least we agree on cookies.
Today’s toast: Nostrovia, comrades! “May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.” –Jack Burton
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