Month: May 2020

Today is a stream of consciousness blog:

I wake up get my coffee, check my email, scan the news, and then the day blurs into yesterday, and the day before, and before, and before.

This morning I woke up with the Nine Inch Nails song, Every Day is Exactly the Same running through my head.

Generally speaking I like Nine Inch Nails. I’m not sure about hearing them in my head at 6:00am.

Oh there’s some slight variation around the house but really it’s all the same. BORING! 

My head is feeling muddy I’m not able to really think or process much and with each passing day I’m thinking less and less. I can’t get into reading anything and I’m having a hard time focusing on or learning new things, even those things that I want to do.

This malaise has recently been strongly highlighted with the realization that I haven’t been practicing guitar like I should have been. My left hand is not as strong as it should be, or was. It occurred to me that even if I’m not learning something new I should just be running scales to keep the hand strength and dexterity.

So I’ve got the acoustic guitar sitting on a stand next to my desk as a reminder that if I do nothing else playing scales is better than nothing. It’s working too. I’m picking up the guitar often during the day. It is providing a mental break from looking for a job, and worry.

Writing is slow and I’m not making a lot of progress. Even posting a blog is hard whereas before all this tedium, blogging was fast and the thoughts flowed out of my addled brain.

A plumber is coming today to take care of water related issues around the house. Stuff is just wearing out and I hate plumbing with a passion. So he’s going to be around here taking care of multiple issues.

In preparation for the work I pulled my car out of the garage and parked it at a kind neighbor’s place. I’d washed and waxed it the other day and this was the first time I’d had it out in the sunlight since. Looks like I did an okay job. 

As I was walking back from the neighbors house, I looked at the front lawn. It was then that I realized I hadn’t been out front (and paying attention) for a while. I need to get out there and do some weed whacking. 

To fight the boredom and as a possible hedge against continued supply line disruptions, I ordered some above ground planters. My intention is to use some sunny space in the back yard to grow vegetables. It appears that I can get one harvest, possibly two depending on the vegetable.

It probably wont make too big a dent in the overall scheme of things but it will pass the time. I like fresh veggies and there are a number of varieties that will grow even at this altitude. I’ve gone with the raised boxes because the soil here is rather poor and it’s unlikely that I could amend the soil in the back yard enough to get decent yields.

God only knows how much it’s going to cost to fill these planters with good soil, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.. I think the next week is going to be about bringing the sprinklers online for the yard in general. I’ll have to find the line that’s never been used. It’s buried around the perimeter of the deck. My plan is to make that line a drip watering line for the veggies. I can always re-task it later, if need be.

I’m trying to make some of the days different. If for no other reason than otherwise I’ll go quietly insane. 

I noticed NASA was hiring folks to participate in an 8 month long Mars mission simulation. That might be a tough sell after this lockdown. On the other hand I’d actually consider it, after I’ve had some time to be out & about interacting with other people. 

3 months, 8 months, there’s not much difference. Give me my computer, my guitar, occasional company, and an airlock & I’d be fine. The airlock would be so that I could practice guitar without driving other people crazy.

I’d imagine that there wouldn’t be much bandwidth to surf the net or watch movies, given that it’s supposed to be a simulation. If you’re simulating, you’d also have to simulate the time lag between Earth and Mars. Even at the speed of light radio takes time to get to Mars and back to Earth.

But I could write and study. I’m sure that there are routine maintenance duties to be performed in such a simulation. You’d have to maintain the O2 & C02 Scrubbers. There’s probably going to be some kind of hydroponics. and activities in some kind of environmental suits outside the habitat.

Those duties would probably be an opportunity to learn some interesting things too. Hell, I could see learning stuff from the other participants and perhaps teaching what I know to them. I’d probably be journaling a lot more too. 

I’m sure that there’s a huge psychological component to be observed. How people navigate the annoying habits of their co-workers when you have to deal with them 24/7 and other social issues.

Certainly a lot of those kinds of studies have been done on the ISS and in submarines over the years. I’m not terribly sure what new information could be gained except to say those studies have been performed on highly trained exceptional individuals and this study looks like it might be trying to collect information about what happens when more “average” folks are placed in stressful situations.

Who knows, they might just need or want a pragmatic jack of all trades, master of none, in their mix, just to see where it goes.