One.

All weekend I've had the song "One is the Loneliest Number" playing in the back of my head.  (Because of something someone said at Bible Study on Saturday morning that made that line come to mind.)  So when I was looking for a pic to go with today's blog entry, I started by Googling images related to that song.  I didn't come up with anything that spoke to me, but thinking of "One is the Loneliest Number" led to me thinking about "One" by Metallica.  And that is what inspired today's pic: the video for "One" by Metallica, which also has clips from the 1979 American anti-war movie called "Johnny Got His Gun," adapted from the 1939 book of the same name.

I've read the book.  I don't think I've seen the movie, though.  I remember finding the book at a flea market in the early 90's, and so I probably paid like 25 cents for it.  Of course, I'd never heard of it until the Metallica video came out, but so what?!  It was a good book.  It is a good book.  

My point? Don't be frightened by today's pic.  We were watching The Twilight Zone all weekend so I'm in a very "insert Twilight Zone theme music" mood. 

And also, get a load of the "PPE" of the medical personnel in the above pic.  I'd presume they are portraying physicians, but I can't say for certain.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

ANYWAY...remember last year when the whole "internal monologue" thing was big, or should I say, the acknowledgement of an "internal monologue" was big?  I do, because I never could conclude whether I had one or not.  And mind you, this is based on random tests that were posted on FB, so, highly scientific and reliable.  I remember one that went something like, When you see the word "apple", does an image pop into your head?  And my answer was...no.  It doesn't.  When I see or hear the word "apple", the word "apple" pops into my head.  Not an image but the word itself.  

Maybe I'm confusing "internal monologue" with something else. Something that I can't find the words for right now.  Because I remember other questions along the lines of whether or not a person envisions like an internal movie or something like that when reading.  You know, like if you read the sentence, "The man ate the apple," do you actually picture a man eating an apple?  Because I kind of don't.  I don't know.  I know the words, and I know what they all mean, and I understand them all put together in a sentence like that.  But I don't get a movie playing in my head when I read something.  I mostly just get words.  Maybe that's why my reading retention is horrible at times. 

It's not like I can't get an internal movie going, though.  I just have to either read things really slowly, or re-read them several times to get that effect.  

But, is anyone else distracted by spelling out words in their heads, or is it just me?  I've been this way for as long as I can remember.  I'll involuntarily pick out a certain word from something I've seen or heard, and ruminate on that word.  It's like my mind is playing with it and won't let it go.  Spell it forward, spell it backward, put all the letters in alphabetical order, count the number of letters and if it comes to an odd number, add letters to it to make it an even number.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  

So! I get to have my first COVID test of the year tomorrow morning.  All weekend I've been feeling kinda crappy, with a headache and a sore throat and achy body and such.  But then, it got super cold out and I've been doing things I don't normally do, as well.  (Get your mind out of the gutter; I'm talking about painting the bathroom.  Which involved more standing on ladders and stretching into odd positions than I remembered from the last time I painted a room.)  Plus, it's winter.  Who doesn't get a cold in the winter?!  It's only a matter of time.  But now, thanks to COVID, there's no such thing as "probably just a cold" anymore.  

Oh, well.

On that note, I'm going to sign off.  If I have COVID again, I'm going to...IDK...I want to say I'll be mad, but I don't know who I'd be mad at.  Cry is probably a better answer.  Yes: if I get another positive COVID test tomorrow, I will most certainly cry.  

That is all.