But I've reached the number of sober days where it starts looking more recognizeably like a date-- I looked up the year 1356 and this is what we have:
- January 20 – Edward Balliol surrenders his title as King of Scotland, to Edward III of England.
- September 19 – Hundred Years' War – Battle of Poitiers: The English, commanded by Edward, the Black Prince, defeat the French, capturing King John II of France.
- October 17 – Erik XII proclaims himself king of Sweden, in opposition to his father, King Magnus IV. Thus begins a civil war in Sweden between father and son, which will last until Erik's death in 1359.
- October 18 (St Luke's Day) – The Basel earthquake affects northern Switzerland, with a maximum MSK intensity of IX–X (Destructive–Devastating), leaving around 1,000 dead.
- December 25 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, promulgates the Golden Bull, a constitution for his empire.
- The city of Lwów is granted Magdeburg rights by Casimir III of Poland.
- The majority of the Great Pyramid of Giza's limestone casing stones are removed by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan, to build fortresses and mosques in the nearby city of Cairo, leaving the first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the step-stone condition in which it remains today.
- Burnt Candlemas: Edward III of England burns down every town and village in Lothian, Scotland.
- The Hanseatic League, a trading alliance between many cities in northern Europe, is officially founded.
- Ghazan II replaces Anushirwan, as ruler of the Ilkhanate in Persia.
- Zhu Yuanzhang, one of the leaders in the Red Turban Rebellion, captures the city of Nanjing from the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in China; from then on it becomes his base of power, and the capital of a new dynasty he will establish in 1368, the Ming dynasty.
Events
January–December
Date unknown
Of those the Battle of Poitiers is the only one I'd ever even remotely heard of and that was pretty darned remotely.
Anyhow back to mememememe me. I'm tired. I have the day off because in a little while I'll be driving Spouse to his six-months-post-transplant visit three hours away and we both have come to dread the six hours of car time for at most ninety minutes of total non-car time and that's being very generous usually it's just under an hour. We've already had one episode of Youngest Duckling deciding to stop taking the med for a while and now that she's back on them she doesn't like her flat affect so there's angst there and I'm offering a therapist's ear....the problems are different for Eldest but more therapist ear there too and of course this is all while working full time.
And now that Spouse is in NY for this clinic visit we're back up to three dogs again. It's A Real Lot. Just all the time there's -something- y'know? I dunno how the fuck I could even dream of beginning to manage all of it if I were still drinking so I'm grateful all over again every day that I'm not.
And sure the thought has been there now and again but there's two things staying my hand: 1) It just doesn't fucking help. I've done that experiment a million times and although in the short term it's blissful "short term" is only about ninety minutes tops and then it's all downhill and 2) then I'd have shame on top of every OTHER problem. No thanks. Easier to just NOT do a thing. Well and now it's got momentum of its own.
Enough so that somehow I've become the family substance guru and my biggest advice is always this: I would never dream of telling anyone else how to handle their substances since I had such a terrible time with my own for so long. Also nobody will ever hear even the kindest words till they want to hear them.
I had a wonderful little overnight to meet a friend and visit the biggest yarn store in this part of my country Sunday into Monday. Bought a ton of yarn, almost all of it half off. That was great but also sadly brings into even sharper contrast just how Not Calm my regular life is. Theoretically things will get better and I hope that actually proves to be true.
Keep at it. Whatever it is.
Peace out.
