No, Microsoft Word Mobile, when I typed wherever, I actually fucking meant wherever. I did not mean were or where’ve or we’ve or whatever other out-of-place bullshit you keep autocorrecting it to every time I press space. Jesus fucking Christ on a bike, stop.
The heat has lasted long enough now that even hanging out downstairs provides little relief. The air is so warm and thick, it almost doesn’t even feel like you’re breathing.
Out came a frozen towel! Tented a tea towel (dish towel/cloth, in America?) over my face while I lay down for a bit, and lemme tell you, despite the faint whiff of onion, those were the coolest and clearest breaths I've taken in days!
Only lasted about ten minutes before it melted enough that it had sunk to my face and had to go back in the freezer (dampness and high humidity do not make good bedfellows), but I’ll take it, holy shit.
@noah-wyles may I interest you in being able to breathe again?!
advice from a Texan on keeping cool: damp towels in the freezer for a while, once almost frozen take them out and put them on. it cools you down FAST
They will smell like onions 😂 but thank you for the tip! They can join the numerous bottles of frozen water I've got in there for use as a makeshift A/C.
The things we have to do in order to live comfortably on this slow-roasted rock is insane.
Got round to watching the Tip Toe finale this evening, and fuck me.
I've said that a lot, about a lot of shows and characters this year, but seriously... Fuck me. I've only just now stopped sobbing, almost an hour later.
Before tonight, I think the last time I screamed out loud at something I was watching, was probably GOT's Red Wedding.
I screamed tonight. Not because I was scared, not because I was disgusted, but because I was so completely broken and horrified by what my eyes were seeing.
I get it. It needs to be seen, it needs to be known and it needs to be talked about, because that is the reality for members of the LGBTQIA+ community across the world every single day. It can (and does) happen anywhere, at any time, to any one of us.
But I was not ready to see that. Obviously they made it clear from the very first episode what happens, but I was not ready to see exactly how that happens. Really, really not ready. Not for that.
I'm going to spend the rest of tonight taking care of myself, doing and seeing feel-good things. I hope you are all able to do the same.
Stay safe. Take care. Much love.
💗
In case anyone is thinking of watching, and wants a heads up:
MAJOR SPOILERS AND POTENTIAL TRIGGER UNDER THE CUT
In the first minute of the very first episode, we see our gay main character hanging from a street light.
In the final episode, we see exactly how that came to be - a brutal homophobic mob lynching, in broad daylight, in the middle of a housing estate.
Do you ever think it's coming back? All that shit from the '90s? We were despised, but you read the stuff online now, it sounds just the same. Do I think it's coming back? Yeah. It's back, you fucking idiot. Right now, it's here.
Story Time! And a wee rant about the absolute fucking state of the world…
I ventured into town today. Our local high street has bollards up from 8AM-6PM, to keep it pedestrianised during opening hours. A DPD delivery driver had run afoul of this rule, and found himself having to park up and walk his boxes the 250ft or so to the shop he was delivering to.
After watching him struggle for the handful of seconds it took me to reach him, I decided to help out. Job shared is a job halved and all that, and it wasn’t like I was in a rush.
We ended up delivering to the most miserable Karen-bobbed creature.
See, she had also been watching him struggle from outside her shop (along with several dozen others on the street), hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. When we arrived, she apologised to me for having to help the "incompetent twat of a delivery driver" to do his job.
I’m sorry, but what the actual fuck? That there is one of the many things that is so deeply wrong with this world. Because when did helping others become such a problem?
It cost me next to nothing to help that man. Five minutes added on to my day that would have otherwise been spent sat waiting inside a pharmacy.
Once upon a time back in my day, community was a thing. We were friendly with our neighbours. People helped people, without fear or shame. Humans are a social species - it serves us plebs no good purpose to be divided, but the grotty politicians and kiddy-fiddling billionaires rub their dirty, little hands together at the prospect of our division, because if we can't trust each other then we will never be able to band together against them.
For as long as I am able, I will never stop helping others, because it's kind and because it's right and because I might be the only one that does, in a world that seems to be diving head-first into coldness and cruelty.