Author: James Amos

I'm a retired consult-liaison psychiatrist. I navigated the path in a phased retirement program through the hospital where I was employed. I was fully retired as of June 30, 2020. This blog chronicles my journey.

Workout at the Hotel!

We’re camping out in a hotel while our new house is being built. We tried out the exercise equipment. It has been tough to exercise what with all the chores of showing and selling the house, moving all our stuff into storage, and now adjusting to living in a hotel (which will be for a couple of months).

The hotel has a Peloton bicycle. We tried it. One of the foot straps was missing, and we didn’t try the free workout offer.

As some of you know, I wrote a blog post about the Peloton machine a while back, comparing it to my anti-Peloton bike. The title is “The Anti-Peloton Exercise Bicycle.” As part of the moving process, we donated the old bike to charity.

We’re not planning to invest in a Peloton any time soon.

Hotel Iowa

Well, we’re in the next stage of relocation, which is the Hotel California-excuse me, I mean the Hotel Iowa, so to speak. We’re camping out a hotel while our house is under construction.

We were up well after midnight moving before we got to the hotel. We had a Casey’s pizza for dinner.

The movers got all our stuff into storage-right up to the door. They’re magicians.

The hotel has a really nice complimentary breakfast.

Boxes Are Everything!

As if you haven’t already guessed long before now, we’re moving. I don’t need to tell any of you what a happy, thrilling, fulfilling experience this is. Right.

The added wrinkle this time is that we’re camping out in a hotel while our house is being built. The only reason you’ve seen any blog posts from me lately is that I’ve been posting ahead of my usual schedule until I figure out if the hotel wifi works.

This could go on for a couple of months.

The Svengoolie Movie the Leech Woman and What About the Pineal Gland?

OK, so I watched the Svengoolie movie, “The Leech Woman” a couple of weeks ago and I think I missed the part where the June Talbot was told that the potion containing the pineal gland secretion and powdered flower parts entailed the requirement that the pineal gland secretion should come from a man. You can read the Wikipedia plot summary for background and watch the movie for free on the internet archive.

Leave aside for the moment that the film tries to make you think you can have easy access to the pineal gland through the back of the neck using a sharp point on a ring. Of course it’s deep inside the brain.

What I don’t remember is whether or not June was ever told that the pineal gland secretion has to come from a man in order to reverse aging. It won’t work if it comes from a woman. Aside from devaluing women in general, it was never clear to me that June was ever told that by Malla, the African woman who is over 150 years old but looks like she’s 20 when she gets her shot of pineal and petal.

I’ve looked on the internet for reviews which mention the mistake June makes when she murders her lawyer’s fiancée who is unhappy that June managed to easily seduce him. She’s so unhappy she threatens June with a pistol in a confrontation that gets rather comically violent, resulting a in struggle leading to June stabbing the fiancée in the back of the neck, obviously in an effort to get the priceless pineal juice.

What’s weird about this (other than the obviously ridiculous premise that pineal glands have anything to do with aging or rejuvenation) is that June apparently either forgets or never realized that the pineal stuff has to come from a male to be effective.

What’s even more puzzling is that, before assaulting a woman for the pineal fluid, June had adopted a predatory strategy to pop the pineals of several men, leading you to believe she knew the source had to be a man.

So, is this an example of dementia or stupidity?

The United States Postal Service is in Code 101 Lockdown!

No matter what I do, the USPS Change of Address (COA) snafu team makes the situation worse. It reminds me of this scene in Men in Black 2 in which the MIB headquarters goes into something called Code 101 Lockdown. Agents J & K return to headquarters and Agent J fires a sort of space cannon into the front door.

This leads to just about everything outside (including a hot dog stand) getting sucked into the building. The verbal exchange between agents goes something like this:

Agent K: “Code 101 Lockdown!”

Agent J: “I know, I know! The building gets pressurized. Nothin’ in, nothin’ out. I knew that.”

OK, so the movie gets it wrong. The scientists would say that if a closed system is “pressurized” that means from the inside. Technically what actually happens is a negative pressurization or partial vacuum, because everything gets sucked inside the building.

The situation at the USPS is in Code 101 lockdown because it has sucked in both my online and paper requests for Change of Address (COA) and also has not refunded me the $1.10 they charged my credit card before the system failed to give me a confirmation code for the COA. By the way, that’s backward. The right way for the USPS to do that would be confirm that my input is correct—and only then charge me.

No matter what I try to enter into the dysfunctional USPS system in order to right the wrong, it just gets vacuumed into the system and no definitive solution gets out.

I don’t remember how the lockdown in MIB 2 got solved. And I don’t know how to resolve the USPS lockdown. Maybe get the worm guys to shut down their power?

UPDATE: As of July 2, 3024, the USPS snag may be on its way to being resolved.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Absorbing Influences”

I listened to the Big Mo Blues Show last Friday night on June 21, 2024 and wouldn’t you know, he was recorded. He wasn’t there live that night but as usual he put on a great show of blues music.

And I listened to the Big Mo Pod Show a few days later, and the theme was Absorbing Influences. Very thought provoking. The choice of tunes was interesting and Big Mo pretty much got them all identified. He usually does.

I can’t remember all the tunes he played on June 21st, but as usual, I had a different perspective about the selection for the podcast. I think I heard a Catfish Keith number on the Big Mo Blues Show, which I can’t remember too well and furthermore, don’t quite understand. It was “I Don’t Know Right from Wrong.”

And I’ll throw you another curve. That’s not the number I want to talk about in terms of the absorbing influence theme. Briefly, it just means that many blues artists get influenced by a musician they really like, pick up on what they learn from a song and gradually make it their own.

I think Catfish Keith was influenced by Son House, who sang a song called “A True Friend is Hard to Find.” Catfish Keith absorbed the music, and did his own version which I recently heard. I think it’s a gospel number. Memorable lines include:

“Bear this in mind, a true friend is hard to find.”

It’s true. You have a real treasure if you ever find one.