Diary #384

When one is down and feeling the weight of the world on one’s shoulders, it’s always such a wonderful thing to be reminded that one is loved, admired, cared about or otherwise has a positive effect on the lives of others.  Gift-giving occasions like birthdays are really good in this way; it’s not so much the gift itself that does the trick (though a lot of those are nice too!), but rather the thought that someone took time out of their day to select, purchase and/or prepare that gift.  It’s a tangible way of saying, “I’m thinking of you” or “You mean a lot to me.”  For my birthday last week, Lorelei prepared me a lovely spread of food (I asked her for a dinnertime version of trick or treat and she delivered!) and we took a little break from Doctor Who to watch three of my favorite science fiction/horror films, the Professor Quatermass series (the third of which I wrote on almost four years ago).  One of my gentlemen gave me some beautiful snake earrings, a new butter dish I’ve wanted for a while and the DVDs of the ’80s TV series Monsters; also in the monstrous vein, reader Ivan Dragomiloff gave the the DVDs for the Groovy Ghoulies show from my childhood.  And because I love cartoons, two other readers (Jeremy Dunn and a gent who prefers to be anonymous) gave me discs I didn’t yet have of classic Warner Brothers cartoons.  Besides all this, I got a larger number of cash donations than usual and a new subscriber (for which I’m always grateful).  So thank you, all of you; I know I don’t always express it clearly or loudly enough, but it always means more to me than I can possibly explain.