the smart god. the elephant headed god. the first transplant patient (as an eastern european poet miroslav holub in his book the rampage once put it - sadly the book seems to have vanished into the stacks or returned into the great pond of good that is the second hand book market).
if horsemouth understands it correctly the idol of ganesh should be celebrated until the 21st (sweet cakes should be eaten) on which day the idol should be submerged in water to unblock him (in indian myth ganesh flies off to spend time with his mother and father on this day).
the rat is his vehicle as a charming indian lady informed him when she saw him reading a ganesh diary with an illustration of ganesh riding a giant rat (sadly the grumpy client prevented any further communication).
ganesh is the remover of obstacles. horsemouth cannot now remember who gave him the statue. it sits on a shelf with the other idols - a buddha and a little musicians of bremen statue (thanks myk), a 'bug-in-a-box', 3 sandalwood balls in a circular elephant decorated box with a removable lid, some hazelnuts various white seashells/ calcified calamares. the chrome wing-mirror of a motor-scooter or car (stolen or scavenged from a wreck by duncan).
for a long time horsemouth regarded the ganesh as helpful with work and earning matters. it formed a part of his post-squatter life where he dropped back into the world of rent (and the work necessary to pay for it). horsemouth pursued work somewhat ruthlessly, lived frugally and saved against the bad times (in this he is the true grandson of his yorkshire/scottish grandmother).
three-quarters of horsemouth's existence is the rent possibly more sometimes, possibly less. ultimately he needs to address this.
horsemouth will now indulge in some worrying about his financials out loud (please feel free to skip this)
the good news is the works pension people have come through with the works pension (it's not a gamechanger but it will help). horsemouth can access this now, having been made redundant over the age of 55, rather than wait until state pension age. the bad news is, of course, it's not very much - about £52 a month and a lump sum that horsemouth will be taking up front.
taking the lump sum is not a bad move he thinks in these unpredictable times (another friend has described it as classic british short-termism) - he doesn't start to lose money on this decision until he is 77. if horsemouth makes it to 77 and is still blogging he will castigate his younger self for his profligacy (assuming he hasn't lost his marbles by then and gone ga-ga, assuming the internet and humanity are still in existence).
as one source of anxiety closes another opens. on the other hand in modern times he can't quite believe it could be so (it would seem archaic to him). never mind - now that the anxiety has surfaced it must be addressed. he needs to be confident that the resources he will be relying upon to feed him are all actually there and tap-able. he doesn't believe he can totally coast it out until his (state) pension (but he can do less). of course all this is reliant on his being able to live on the state pension if or when he gets to that (it could go of course always go like russia where one day fine day they just abolished it).
there is a distressing trend in politics to pit the young against the old - for the state to purse its lips about the largesse being doled out to the old while crying crocodile tears about how hard the youth have it (the state having made it hard for the youth by loading them up with debt while all the time failing to tax the rich or restrain capitalism and the rentier economy). horsemouth can only forsee more of this.
today he goes to visit howard (assuming howard is not too knackered to receive visitors he's back to work on the covid frontline). it is a grey morning. last night a pretty to look at (but not very good) french detective serial with a bio-medical bent the crimson rivers.
horsemouth has done nothing to hype the fall of the house of fitzgerald or poplarism or his poetry or indeed musicians of bremen in a while. he will celebrate the festival of ganesha and then he'll get on with things.
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