Chapter 263

I woke up around 10, and relaxed a bit. I didn’t do much during the early part of the day, I read, I wrote, I listened to Metallica’s ...And Justice For All album, on a YouTube channel called The Bass Channel. One of the criticisms of that classic album is that the bass sound is very thin, and one guy played along, adding some crunch to the tracks. I had never listened to the album in its entirety to this day, and it’s pretty good, a mix of thrash metal and the radio-friendly hard rock that Metallica started drifting towards.

A cleaning lady came and tidied up our apartment. I alway felt weird about getting someone to do that but it’s a win-win, she makes a living doing that (though her fee is extremely cheap) and our kitchen is now spic n’ span, she went deep into crevices I wasn’t able or willing to reach.

After she left, I cranked up the death metal. I played an album by Fulci, an Italian band obsessed with zombie movies. Like their 2019 offering, I found it frustrating, the metal parts are groovy and guttural and remind me of Avulsed, but it’s also full of filler, in this case, a lot of creepy keyboard music.

Then I watched the UFC. The first four fights were great, ending in TKOs, except the female flyweight between Ariane Lipski and a tough German newcomer who got knocked down in each round but kept coming. Then I headed to the gym. The room with puzzle mats where we usually train was empty, I sent messages, and turned out the other guys were not coming. Ah well, I’ll just go do some deadlifts then. The gym was quiet, only three young Chinese guys in basketball jerseys, and one was already setting up the bar. I worked in. We got to 315 pounds, and though I can one-rep it fairly easily, I ripped my hands badly. I closed the flaps of skin and finished my workout.

I got back home and the girlfriend and I went on a long walk with the dog. The weather was very pleasant, and we had a long talk about yesterday’s incident, and where we are going as a couple. Everything’s gonna be all right.