Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt:  Which of my pleasures are really punishments?

What this prompt is getting at is which of the things I enjoy do I tend to over-indulge in and then regret it later?

I have remarkably few of the typical vices.  The one I can think of right off the bat, however, is jewelry.  I have way much more than I could possibly ever wear, but I still buy it.  I’d get rid of some of it, but I’d want to give it to someone it would be meaningful to, and most of my friends are not big jewelry wearers.  So the punishment is just seeing so many neat pieces just sit.  Now, granted, I’ve slacked off on this a bit, but I seriously must have been a corvid in a former life, because I cannot resist the shiny.   

And the older you get, the more you realize that useless stuff just sits around.  I have mostly given up buying tchotchkes, and I’ve gradually narrowed down what I do have to things with actual meaning to me.  

What isn’t a punishment, however, is buying art from my friends.  I just sent in the second payment for an art print from a friend of mine.  As I look around me, not counting the SCA scrolls, I can spot wonderful things made by about a dozen friends.  And it’s those pieces that I treasure the most–particularly a couple by a friend we have lost.   Some were gifts, others were purchased, but all are special.  

*****
Still stuffed from dinner from the Keg.  We had to get it from the Waterdown restaurant, which meant driving into a bit of a snowsquall on the western side of town.  But the food was waiting when I arrived, and the steak was, as always, wonderful.  I’ve spent most of the day painting, and I’m now into detailing.  Still not quite to the sharing point on this one, though.  And apparently tomorrow we will learn the results of last weekend’s scribal challenge.  So I’m sort of sitting on more than a week’s worth of art right now.

Down in the US, the impeachment vote was 57-43, so no 2/3 majority and no conviction.  Also, no surprise. Just a sigh.  I do not think it’s the end of this, however.  

In birthdays, we have two guys named Peter:  Peter Gabriel, and Peter Hook.  

So here’s my favourite New Order song of all time, one that features what would become that classic Peter Hook high bass.

And here is the wonderful f*ckery that is Gabriel-era Genesis. Apocalypse in 9/8: