Sleeping; Greg Louganis; Pillows; Flea Treatment; Our Favorite President; "Hollywoodland"

Sleep comes and goes. Some nights I sleep better than others. The last couple of nights have been marked by sporadic sleeping.

This afternoon, when I came inside from tree and bush trimming, I felt exhausted. This is not unusual. As I tried to browse online, I became so weary, I decided a nap was in order.

It seems to have been physically therapeutic, but when I woke I felt like there was some type of intense internal depression. As if there were an orb inside my body akin to some type of black hole that held the depression in an invisible globe.

Dreams always center of trying to unravel some type of problem, and I'm never able to do it. In this one, I was at some college, and I was so overworked that I was failing all my classes. And I knew I needed to start over. I finally gave up, but that's as far as I got.

I used to have a dream about a Spanish class. It's the day of the final exam, and I'm standing in a hall and realizing I don't remember a thing about Spanish.

In Louganis' book "Breaking the Surface," he mentions being terribly depressed, and wanting to die. Not a conscious act of suicide, but just a fading away.

When I first read that, I thought it was a perfect description of how I felt.

I need to see if I can find that passage so I can quote it.

Ever since I started the upper respiratory infection a couple of weeks ago, I'll wake up so totally congested that I can hardly breath.

I figured out it was caused by possibly two things. One, the pillows needed changing. Two, the cats were having a flea problem and needed another treatment. I did not see any fleas, but I did notice the tiny bloody marks on surfaces indicating the residue of a flea bite.

The first thing I did was to gather up every pillow in the house - from bed, chair, sofa, and the garage sale pile. And push then into large black garbage bags and place them on the street for my friendly rubbish removers.

I looked at the pillows on the bed and noticed they were not hypoallergenic . I really thought they were, so at some point I switched pillows without thinking about what I was doing.

I'd also noticed that the cats had been sleeping on the other pillows which made them a perfect home for an infestation of fleas.

My next step was a visit to WalMart, where I picked out two medium firm hypoallergenic pillows and two matching covers. When I got home, I flipped the mattress, vacuuming, as well as I could the top and bottom. Added a mattress pad which I already had. Then topped that off with the new pillows.

I also washed a folded blanket that I keep at the foot of the bed. When I removed it from the washer, the inside tub was covered with what looked like gorilla fur. Which makes me wonder when it was last cleaned.

Flea treatment always sounds like such a simple task.

First off, the only treatments that really work are those you buy from a vet. Those off-the-counter ones at WalMart or elsewhere are a waste of money.

Thursday, I stopped off at PetsMart, and bought a four-treatment package of Advantage. I was fairly certain I had a treatment vial left over from the last time, when I bought two three-treatment package of Frontline.

This wee package cost $50. Why is it so expensive! Some drug companies are making a ruddy fortune. As I recall the Frontline was equally costly.

The big problem is administering the treatment. Hermes knows the second I've brought it into the house and immediately disappears for two or three days.

I have yet to find an easy way to reveal a spot between the fur. But I made a valiant effort. Holding the kitty and revealing a fold of fur and skin works fairly well. I had to sneak up on Hermes, firmly hold him with one hand and try not to spill the treatment, but I did it.

In looking at the Frontline I had remaining, I noted that I had two treatments left. And I really should have had only one, which tells me I may not have done Hermes the last time.

The effort appears to have been a success. The tiny bloody splotches have disappeared.

Several months ago, when Bush was in India, he visited the Gandhi Memorial in Delhi. Security preparations required that the site be scrutinized by bomb-sniffing dogs. Since the monument is considered sacred, this was viewed as defilement, and the marble had to be cleaned with water from the Ganges.

Later I read a very snarky comment that asked, "What did they do after Bush's presence?"

A friend and I went to see "Hollywoodland" yesterday.

Expect no simple answers. All the performers are fascinating. A great job by Adrien Brody as a sleezy private eye. (Brody seems an unlikely candidate for a matinee idol. He has none of the classic features. But it's that lack that makes him attractive.)

Ben Affleck as "Superman" George Reeves. Since he's playing a real person, of whom I know little, it's hard to judge his effort. But from what I've read, it says he has Reeves mannerisms down perfect. And he does radiate a world-weariness that lurks just beyond the edges of his personality.

I've always sorta liked Ben, so I don't think of his career as being up or down. It is noteworthy to note he did win, a few days ago, the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival. (I may be the only person on the planet who actually enjoyed "Daredevil.")

Of course, "Hollywoodland" is another in a series of films that try to capture that almost ethereal mystique of the movie industry. Which I always view as a microcosm for the American ethos. (By the way, the best work in distilling the anthropology of America is Tony Kushner's "Angels in America.")

PAX!