Post's first words written in January 1st.
Good morning, my friend, dear reader of this post! Happy 2024! And I wish you a good prologue to January! How was your celebration? As for me, I guess I needed some time for myself, which I got. I wish I could have chatted with some friend, that is true, but at the end of the day, at midnight I was already sleeping, only vaguely got awaken to the sound of fireworks. It was not a bad day by any means, and today it seems it is going okay as well. I hope it keeps at least on this track. I was planning on going to grandma's house for lunch, but, as I was expecting to be extremely hard to get an uber ride, I did not plan too hard anyway. Mom is returning from her celebration, and the only bad thing of her coming back is that I won't be able to use her fan anymore bleh, will need to put it back in her bedroom... ah, how easy it is to get used to just a bit more comfort! I wish I could have an AC, but with the pricing of electricity these days...
I will return to my workings at some point in this or next week, most likely, today I should rest. I also plan on returning to the hydro exercises, if they are available, this wednesday or so. I already started working on a new drawing, the first one of 2024, and I left some doodles to see if I may finish them this year, as well. It is true, Christmas is unfortunately fading, the season will end at the 5th of January, but I still want to do that gingerbread house drawing! Will see how it goes...
I think, for now, we should continue on going one step at a time. As I was the last year as well... I hope to keep continuing on reading the biography on queen Maria Theresa of Austria... it has been a nice reading so far, what a world was the one she lived in. Armies were getting bigger and dynastic disputes were giving birth to some true world conflicts, like never ever seen before, not even at roman times. The Habsburgs were competing with the Bourbons to see who could have the most dazzling court, meanwhile the fireworks of St. Petersburg balls were joining the dispute as well. And in all that we have this formidable woman, Maria, that was worthy of her title of Head of the Habsburg dynasty, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, and Archduchess of Austria, Queen of the Hungarians. The 18th century was a time for bigger than life folk, and specially women, like Empress Elisabeth of Russia, Catherine II her successor - by unorthodox means. And of course, Maria Teresa and her family.
When I say Catherine was Elisabeth's successor by unorthodox means, this is because Elisabeth's first plan was to pass the throne to her nephew, Peter Ulrich. That was all well in good on paper, but then she saw who Peter was, and was bitterly disappointed. When Catherine had her son, Paul, officially with her husband Peter, but truly with the courtisan Sergei Saltikov, Elisabeth snatched the poor kid from her biological mother and seriously considered snubbing Peter, whom was a complete drunkyard and idiot, to pass the throne to Paul. That was not to be. Peter got the throne when Elisabeth died, and made himself extremely unpopular at St. Petersburg in special, for his absolutely absurd measures of ending the war with Prussia, after the Russians were at the point of defeating Frederich II, insulting the orthodox church at any step he could, and also insulting the military by wanting to change their uniforms to his whimsical desires. He also almost got into a superfluous war against Denmark... Not all that Peter did was a disaster, like he reduced the taxes on salt for example, and freed the nobles from service to the state. But his erratic drunkyard behavior and his desire to command through the beat of his chaotic damaged brain, that was what prompted many to look to Catherine as a potentially more stable ruler, even a desirable one, at least as regent to her son Paul. And so came the coup d'etat against Peter... this is what I mean by unorthodox means, she did usurp the throne, but the circumstances were desperate, such is life, never ideal. She rose up to the task, and so, with Maria Theresa and more so than her predecessor Elisabeth, became one of the great women of her generation, and perhaps of history as a whole.
Ah, I am just in a tangent, now... I know it is the point of this blog, reason why I have the divagation store as a title... but anyway. I think this is a good point to end today's post.
I ideally would have written it yesterday, but I was out of coffee, and therefore out of sorts. So, posting it today on the 3rd. I hope to be back soon. Ideally, till the weekend. I may return sooner if my desire to write gets the best of me, but that is not something I can properly predict... until then, thank you ever so much for reading, and for being a friend, wish you tbe best. And I see you again real real soon.
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