9 December 2025 Tuesday 9:08 am

Sitting here on my brand new old boat, the Double Lotus.

How am I feeling this morning?

I’m feeling not all that Holly Jolly.

You heard me. Holly Jolly. The way you’re supposed to feel as Christmas approaches. Maybe I’m a little bit Holly but not quite Jolly. Or say a mite Jolly but not all that Holly. WTF!!!! I’m the Gloomy Boomer. I’m almost never Holly Jolly. The world is a mess and Human Beings suck. I believe this to be true. Is it my fault the world and especially the good old U.S.A. is so screwed up these days? Absolutely not. I’m just a harmless old dude getting by on his wits. Still, I don’t blame others for my less than agreeable temperament.

I have nobody to blame but myself. Being a Gloomy Boomer is my own damned fault.

I’ve discovered why I’m not a Holly Jolly Dude.

It’s very simple: I have not risen to my fullest potential.

I’m not SELF-ACTUALIZED, as Abraham Mazlow would say…

Self-actualized means realizing your fullest potential, becoming the most complete and capable version of yourself by fulfilling your unique talents and aspirations, a concept central to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, representing the pinnacle of personal growth and fulfillment. It’s a lifelong process of continuous growth, creativity, authenticity, and purpose, rather than a fixed destination.  

Mazlow used a pyramid to express his ideas and theory of human potential.

Made it all clean and simple.

Even a kid might understand.

Mazlow’s Pyramid

Let me see now. Where would I sit on Mazlow’s pyramid at this very moment?

I’d say sitting near the top of the pyramid means you are HOLLY JOLLY at least 100 percent of the time.

So I guess I’m not even close to the top.

At seventy two years old I’d say I’m definitely on the pyramid. I’m not stuck in the sand. Chasing my Camel.

I’d say I’ve made it to the rubble at the base of the pyramid. I’m climbing. I mean I was climbing. A while back. Now I’m resting. I’m maintaining the status quo. But where exactly on the pyramid am I? Am I beyond the purple part? Edging into the green part? The part where I got my rent paid and nobody’s about to evict my ass from this Marina? Rudy the Harbor Master digs me. Plus…old Double Lotus is floating pretty good!

The bilge is dry!

I’m fairly snug inside this tub! It’s cold as hell outside around 44 degrees which ain’t bad at all if you’re in Russia but this is Sausalito so yeah it’s cold as hell outside. But I got a couple electric heaters blasting. They use a ton of electricity but my bill is fixed at eighteen bucks a month. So I’m good. I’m better than good. I’m tight. I’ll be less than tight when the rain starts back up again sometime next week. But that’s a ways off and I got picnic cups taped under my leaky spots. Is that tight? Not quite.

Does that put me solidly in the green?

Got plenty of game I can rely on. Got a wad of hunsky’s in a coffee can. Got a few Gs in the bank. So far so good. Oh, yeah! I’m still working my free booze tasting gig.

I though for a moment there my team leaders had let me go. Fired my ass. Made me disappear, with zero notice, as is the custom in the gig universe. But no. I was not fired. I was merely being ignored.

So I guess I’m pretty solid in the green.

What about belongingness and love?

I’m talking the butterscotch level on the pyramid. The part where you needs of belongingness and love are being met.

Hmmm…that’s a tough one.

I’m not worshiping Satan.

I’m not engaging in Satanic Rituals. Drinking the blood of newborn babies. Like they claim Hillary Clinton and others of her evil and malign crew in the Democratic Party and The Deep State are accused of doing.

Could worshiping Satan place me in the belongingness category? lift me higher on Mazlow’s Pyramid? That’s hard to say. I got a pal, Kona Dave, who happens to sit right up there on the top of the Pyramid.

He made it to the top.

Dave worships Tiki Gods. I suspect that’s how he make it to the top of Mazlow’s Pyramid of Needs. He prayed to his Tiki Gods and they responded by helping him to realize his fullest potential. Maybe I should worship Satan now and then. Maybe that would help me to realize my fullest potential. Rather than being stuck down here on a trail obscured by overgrowth…

Near where the homeless dudes hide their belongings.

My shit stuffed behind electric transformer 509 on the corner of Nevada and Bridgeway.

Sleeping on my bus bench.

Crossing swords with the Grim Reaper!

I not there.

This is just me being a Gloomy Boomer.

What about the butterscotch?

I do have intimate relationships and Friends.

I got you readers.

The more I’m thinking about it I got quite a lot to be thankful for.

I should be feeling Holly Jolly.

I should be counting my blessings…as the tired old saying goes.

Because there’s people out there who are desperate at this very moment. Joan showed me this posting from Her Next Door site:

Where on Mazlow’s Pyramid would this family be?

“Hey Mazlow, you feeling Holly Jolly?”

I suppose old Mazlow would say, from beyond the grave, if he were able, “why yes, I did achieved self-actualization. Then I croaked. Your point being?”

How many thousands no millions of people are stuck on the street? I don’t think they’re feeling too HOLLY JOLLY. Trumpies would say it’s all their own fault. They need to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Work on becoming self-actualized.

I’m done thinking about Mazlow’s Pyramid. Hey Mazlow?

“Yes?”

“You suck…”

there’s lots of people out there with troubles way worse than mine.

I’m not even counting my ex-girlfriend Carla. Carla, you may remember from one of my prior postings, is currently living in her car. Living in her car with her Dog. Yet things could be worse for her.

She’s still got her car roof over her head. If she ever finds herself stranded on the corner, like the poor folks in this sad Next Door story, I guess I’ll need to offer her shelter from the elements.

Where would I put her? I guess I could stick her in my after berth.

Tuck her in there behind the bucket. Her and her dog.

There’s plenty of room for both of them back there. I just gotta remove some stuff. rearrange the cushions. At least they’ll be in out of the cold…and the rain.

You may be asking yourself why doesn’t Gloomy, The Boomer, offer Carla, The Ex-Girlfriend, room on his boat right now? I mean now! Before something worse befalls poor Carla?

That would be the charitable thing to do.

Would doing so make me feel HOLLY JOLLY?

Not in the least…