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birthdays

Concentration

For some time, I’ve been struggling with concentration. Be it the dreaded “brain fog” (which most people seem to have these days), or just a general difficulty focusing on things for more than short periods… it’s certainly a nuisance, as well as an obstruction to engaging in much by way of “constructive” activity.

Too, I have been struggling with atrocious insomnia, a different problem but, I think, closely connected. And I believe the chief core of these issues is to do with stress, depression, anxiety & worry. I have a lot on my plate. At the end of this month, I have the tremendous pleasure of becoming 58 years old. To say the least, this is not something I have any enthusiasm about, as hinted at previously.

I’m definitely not one of those people disposed to “age positivity”. I see no merit in getting older whatsoever. On top of that, I am dogged with the feeling that I’ve substantially wasted my life—or thrown it away, if you like—with considerably less time left ahead of me (and considerably lower quality time, at that) than behind me, in which to… what? Redeem myself? Salvage my life? Make it all seem a bit more worthwhile? You get the drift.
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Births & Deaths

So, as almost all horror fans know, today is the birthday of both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee… and just yesterday was Peter Cushing’s date of birth, by odd coincidence.

Lee, Price & Cushing, 1982
Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing—publicity shot from 1982, during the shoot for HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS.

Also, for me, a significant day for losses. On this day back in 2006, we not only lost the legendary cartoonist Alex Toth—my mother also passed away. Has it really been 18 years? Not to me. Time makes no sense these days.

A few pics of mom…
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Remembering the Two Freds

As hinted at in this post, March 14 would have been Fred (Jr)’s 20th birthday, if he was still here. He died in 2018.

Well, further to that, today would have been a big birthday for the “original” Fred, who was born on April 26 1994. Yup, the Big Three-Oh! Of course, no Westie in the long history of Westiedom ever lived to be 30, but it’s a bittersweet landmark that I wanted to note. I also plan to make a few more postings about both of the Freds in due course, 2024 being a big year for them. Below are a couple of pics of OG Fred in the meantime (I’m working on scanning many more)…

Fred July 1994
OG Fred as a pup, early July 1994.
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