Category: General

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California is locked down

OH God!

I’m gonna lose my mind.

I really would rather be out wandering around, but there’s little point to going anywhere since most of the places I’d like to go are Closed for the duration I’m pretty sure that this genie is out of the bottle. Fine! I’ll stay at home and go quietly insane from boredom.

You’d think there would be movies I wanted to watch on one of the streaming services. Nope! Anything I’m watching at this point is mostly out of boredom. Remember I’ve been looking for a job for 6 months, so I’ve already been home way more than I’d have liked to be.

I’ve watched most anything that caught my interest after exhausting the job search from 5 to 12. My schedule was usually, get up, have coffee, search for jobs, have lunch, then watch a movie.

I’m movied out. I’ve considered adding to my Itunes collection but a lot of the movies I’d like to add are $20 and that gets really expensive really fast. I’ve noticed that since the Coronavirus hit Apple isn’t discounting movies like they were.  Makes sense, they’ve got a captive audience right? Why discount anything if you’re one of the only suppliers and you know that people will pay top dollar to entertain themselves or their children for a couple of hours.

I do finally know what it takes for me to do shit around the house that I don’t really want to do.  Make me stay home where the distractions are limited and I’m looking hard for a reason not to look at my computer.

I’ve started reconfiguring my home network… Just for the fun of it. Now, that’s freaking sick!

So today I’m shredding old paperwork and statements that have been scanned or that I’ve  downloaded and filed.

Why am I blogging you ask? Because the shredder is overheated and I’m waiting for it to cool down.

I swear I need one of those CIA grade shredders!

On the plus side, the stacks of paperwork to be shredded have diminished by quite a bit. Talk about a fire hazard!

Why do banks insist on sending the most useless bits of paper? Yeah, I know I added your freaking card to apple pay. I had to call you to do it so why are you sending me 3 individual letters stating that I did it on 3 devices?

Really? Are you trying to kill a forest?

Shredder is cooled down again… 

Back to my imitation of a Hillary Clinton Aide.

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Happy St Patrick’s Day

Of course depending on where you are you might not have had the usual party.

Thankfully, there was more than enough beer and booze, a great meal and a nice small crowd.

But with bars & restaurants being closed it’s obvious that the celebration wasn’t quite to the extent that it normally is.

Gotta admit that I’ve not been a huge St Patricks’ day celebrator but it was nice to drink and laugh with nice people.

Today was kind of a day of little projects, Naturally the smallest project turned into one of those situations where pulling the thread was problematic.  It’s the nature of “small,” “simple” projects for them to a pain in the ass.

I’ll finish up those projects tomorrow, then head back on schedule, home. What awaits me there may be more chaotic that when I left. but the chaos is now nationwide. There’s no escape unless I find that mythical alien ship to “jack” and get offworld.

Since that’s not likely to happen, home to the mountain it is. It’s going to be a shock to my system, here it’s been in the low light 70s and wonderfully comfortable. Home has been in the 30’s so I’m going to be freezing, again.

It will be a long flight but perhaps this time it will be mostly empty. 

I’d thought about extending here but two factors prevent me from doing that. 1) is that I’m starting to be slightly concerned about not being able to get back. 2) I’m worried about contaminating my elderly relatives.

Mel Brooks and his son made a sortof cute PSA about it and they have a point.

I’ve got to plan to visit again soon. Perhaps when the Coronavirus is on the wane. 

 

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Okay Coronavirus is a big deal…

I said it was gonna be because China quarantining a huge area was a big deal.

But folks… 

Come on, how can you say you’re observing social distancing when you’re packed into CostCo, and virtually every other store thicker than sardines?

Look. Do your normal shopping. Get in, get out, and leave something behind on the shelves for the next folks.

I must say the folks in Northern FL are a lot calmer than the LA folks I left behind. Perhaps it’s a function of population density perhaps, it’s a function of pragmatism.

Thank God the bars are still open here. 

At this point it looks like I can still get home. But if I can’t well I’ll stay right here and if necessary try to locate some kind of job locally and adapt to the new reality.

Worst case scenario. I’l shave my head into a mohawk, outfit a car with steel plating and go “Mad Max” 

I don’t think it’s going to come to that. On the one hand it might be interesting. On the other hand I’m feeling more like Pooh, “Oh Bother!”

Let’s get smart, let’s be kind, let’s understand that this thing is going to do what it’s going to do. It’s not right, wrong, good, or evil, it simply is. 

Panicking isn’t helping. 

Take a breath. Turn off the news for a few hours, read a book. and calm down.

Trust me you can’t stay healthy in a blind panic 24/7.

Stream “The Martian”

Start by solving one problem at a time. Solve the most immediate problem first. Keep solving problems as they arise and we’ll all come through this. We may be forever changed, we’ll probably learn a lot, and the next time we’re presented with an emergency we’ll do better. 

This isn’t the time to play blame X, Y, or Z. Quoting Hillary Clinton, “At this point what does it matter anyway?”

Play the cards we’ve been dealt.

I’m not sure I could carry off the “Mad Max” look, and if I go “Mad Max” you’re not going to like me very much.