The Walls Come Rattling Down
It was not always like this, of course. On occasion it’s been worse.
— John Gardner, Grendel
It’s cold as beans in Philadelphia. That’s -4°C, technically speaking. I like it.
Something has been rattling inside the walls for the last 20 minutes. It sounds like a pipe runs from the bottom of the house to the top, and it’s shaking vigorously all along the way. It’s stopped for the moment, but such a racket does not bode well for the future. Little much does at the moment. A burst mystery pipe amounts to little in the bigger picture of History, eh, Ozymandias?
My guess is we have about three or four weeks before the first truly terrible things start happening.1 The word is they’re planning to purge senior officers from the military any day now. Even GitHub Copilot is concerned about that.
When I was a very small child, an angel came to me and said not to worry because everything would be alright. Of course, the angel did not specify precisely what not to worry about or what alrightness would look like, and no timeline or expiration date was proffered. Whatever they were talking about may have already happened, and I wouldn’t have noticed because everything was alright, and these current goings-ons could be something else entirely, and not covered under warranty.2 It seems reasonable to worry a little, under the circumstances.
I have to put this blog post away and do the dishes. Can you believe it? Western Civilization is coming undone, and still there are chores to do. It’s endless, Ozymandias. Endless.
The walls are rattling again.