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contours provocations
journal - 2003-0430 - 2100 End of the Month; Drugs; Manor House The end of the month is always such a pain. Part of my web serf duties involves preparing various calendars and schedules for each month. And usually, all kinds of lame, bogus, jive-ass projects crop up at the last minute. At this month was worse than usual. So of course, I've gotten behind. Today, I feverishly worked to get the calendars started. Even if it contained an "Under Construction" notice. And finally I got everything ready. But I got a vicious headache in the process. I really could go on here for a couple of hours. But I'll try to restrain myself. In addition to all the normal hurly burly, I had to have two prescriptions re-filled today. But I'd put it off for almost a week, waiting for payday. Doing without them may be one of the reasons I feel so cranky. I dropped them off at lunch. The last couple of times I've waited, it has taken almost 30 minutes; so I drop off the prescriptions and pick them up later. When I went by around 5:30, the clerk tried to give me someone else's. A error quickly corrected but still unnerving. Since Monday, I've been watching PBS' "Manor House." Another one of those unscripted dramas that attempts to re-create a particular era or situation. Seems like there have been a lot of these: a frontier house, a 1900 house, a 1940s house. And I noticed one on either the BBC or Channel 4 web site about a re-creation of living in the trenches in WWI. (What an experience that would be!) "Manor House" is a replication of the upstairs and downstairs life at a Scottish home of 100+ rooms in 1905-1915. I missed most of the first episode, until a friend called with a "cute guys" alert. And indeed the guys are adorable - in that bright-eyed, apple-cheeked English way. Which is fine by me. Such a life was so different from current expectations. Terribly rigid with few options. Yet with all the interest in propriety, it was not uncommon for a "gentleman" to have a mistress. And the program mentioned that the relationship between Edward VII and his mistress was general knowledge. Jesus! What did you do if you were gay? I suppose you had a quick tryst with the hall boy or the assistant games keeper. But the idea of two men living together must have been unthinkable. The last quarter of "Manor House" was bittersweet and very touching. The narration indicated what each person would return to. And what might have happened to each one in 1915. No doubt, because of WWI, several would have perished. One passing note struck me. It was mentioned that the two footmen, Charlie and Rob, planned to see the world together. Hmmmmmmm! PAX!
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