Into the Breach Again

Today was another retail excursion after two weeks of being sequestered. That's about our interval, based on the last two forays. Again, prescription refills triggered our trip into town.

This time we were short on chicken and fresh produce. We have plenty of everything else for the most part, except for a couple of deliveries of paper products that are en route. Overall, the only things we're lacking are disinfectant wipes. They seem to be impossible to get these days. We can't even get put on a waiting list anywhere. It's very frustrating.

The stores were not as tapped out in certain of the aisles, though the usual suspects (again, paper products, bread flour, pasta) are MIA. The stores weren't too crowded, but I would say more than half the people in the five stores we went to wore masks. The rest, well, just let's say they are dumber than dirt and that insults dirt...in other words, covidiots.

Why wouldn't people (perfectly healthy, mind you) not wear face masks unless they were so dense or so arrogant that they don't care whether they may be infecting other people?

Today was the last day we used improvised face masks. We bought a couple of cloth ones made by a lady in our community for five dollars each. And talk about well-made! She has a nice little studio in her golf cart garage where she does all her sewing and such. Quite a set-up, my wife said.

Now we're set for our next retail excursion, which will be in a little over a week when my wife has to go get her blood test. Being a cancer survivor, she has to routinely make sure her cancer markers aren't off. While they're not a perfect indicator, they are definitely an important part of her diagnostics.

More than likely, she'll do a teleconference with her oncologist to go over the results instead of going in. That's currently scheduled for a week after her blood test. After that, we'll probably make a stop or two, but it won't be a major shopping day.

Yours from the front,

Michael

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

The title reflects one of my favorite sayings these days and it's so true.

Here we have the alleged President of the United State routinely speaking falsehoods under the guise of daily briefings, which we all know are just replacements for his rallies we taxpayers fund in myriad ways. The true experts in the Administration are either muzzled or fired outright.

And Trump's base, those God-fearing covidiots are getting louder and more kinetic in their protests, many of whom are now threatening store clerks who are just doing their jobs to enforce social distancing.

Imagine going to a Costco, standing in line for hours, only to be shot by some maniac with a semi-automatic rifle because he wasn't able to get into the store when he wanted to. It could likely happen. Hell, there have been mass shootings for less "justification" than that.

In our little community, the right-wing, Trump-loving lunatics are getting more and more boisterous in their demand that all the amenities we have here open up no matter what the Governor's orders are.

We're seeing here (and in other parts of the country) citizens going head to head with cops, spraying their COVID-19 breath everywhere, demanding to have their freedoms "restored." There are also some county law enforcement officials who declare they will not enforce the social distancing orders and there work for the damn state!

My wife and I have talked about moving out of here to be closer to our families. We actually had a loose timetable to do this since we visited them last year. But because of the novel coronavirus, our plans are on hold. We have no idea when we'll be able to travel to look at a new home, let alone get everything all ready to move.

So, my wife had enough today when we saw on Nextdoor.com veiled threats from some members toward the vocal liberals among us. It was disturbing enough. Check this one:

This kind of thing is more than discouraging. Considering how these people love their guns here, is it that out of the realm of possibility that someone will step up the assault and shoot one of us? So we're stuck here until we'll be able to travel freely again. Until then, we just have to remain vigilant.

Yours from the nuthouse,

Michae.

At the Circus

I have a long history with circuses in my life. While these days, circuses are abandoning the use of wild animals in their acts, there was a time where lions, elephants, chimpanzees, and other creatures were the highlight of the show. Elephants were (and still are) particular favorites of mine.

The first time I saw a live circus was when I was about eight. My parents took my sister and me down to New York City to see the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden. I remember being overawed at everything I saw that day and it probably took a week to come down from that particular high.

Even before that, though, circuses had been a fascination in my life. I remember one incident I had read about in the NY Daily News on a Sunday not too long after Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys hit the airwaves (I know because I always associate the two things). Apparently, a lion tamer was attacked and mauled by one of his lions. The man's father, also a lion tamer, ran into the cage to wrestle the beast away from his son. This all happened when I was about seven.

It was a gruesome tale, even made more so by the pictures that accompanied the article. Even though they were in black and white, it was enough to give me nightmares that night. Interestingly, to this day, I cannot find any archived articles reporting the event.

Later on, the Clyde Beatty, Cole Brothers Circus began an annual tour with one stop in our little town. They staged their performance area on a former garbage dump site less than twenty minutes on foot from our house. The first time it happened (when I was maybe nine), my friends and I went tromping down there to check it out while they were still setting up.

As it turned out, one of the supervisors, a grimy sort of guy with a bowler hat and smoking a big cigar, saw us and asked us if we wanted to do a little work for free tickets. We readily agreed and soon we were hauling gear and doing whatever else he directed us to do.

When finished, he did indeed give us free passes for everything, including the sideshows. I remember enjoying the hell out of the day because I worked and got directly rewarded by it.

We continued to do this for a few more summers after that initial one. The last one we went to, and perhaps the last one at that location, had an incident that I also cannot find readily available online archives of. During the big show, while we were outside the main tent flaps, 4-5 chimpanzees escaped and ran right past us. All but two weren't caught in the initial romp.

As it turns out, a couple of the audience members had been bitten by the crazed simians, something that really made the town fathers unhappy. A massive manhunt (chimp-hunt?) began. Dense wood lined the dumpsite, making it a perfect place for the beasts to find refuge.

They found one of the two fugitives a day or so later, but the final one didn't get captured until a week after the circus left town. My cousin happened to see it in her backyard foraging for food and told her mother, who called the cops to come and pick it up.

Because that (and another) incident happened that summer of note, I've written a short story and two screenplays based on those events. One of the screenplays is basically a retelling of the short story in script form. The second looks back on the incident years later, narrating an imagined disappearance of one of the boys who worked for the circus as we had done.

Yesterday, I had yet another circus-based story come to me. This time, it has nothing to do with chimps escaping. And yet, I think it's going to be compelling when I finish it. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Yours in the monkey cage,

Michael

The problem with committing to writing a blog every day is you sometimes have nothing noteworthy to discuss, at least something that will fill a short article space. Sure, I can rant on about the latest stupid thing that Trump and his minions did, but that gets old. Every day is a new insult to our country and to analyze every single one of those instances is better left to the journalists.


So, here's a brief list of things on my mind this day.

SNL At Home

Have you had a chance to watch the two episodes of SNL produced all from within the cast's homes? Despite the lack of a studio audience, it's been pretty inspired comedy. It demonstrates the professionalism of those involved with the product, from the writers all the way to the video editors and everyone in between.


I've been a fan of SNL since it first aired back in the 70s. I was in high school then and I thought their comedy was edgy and a bit dangerous, as compared to the way TV was back then. Over the years, the quality came and went, but I hung in there as so many fans did.


Sure, their episodes are uneven. Some skits are funny as hell, others are just bombs. Sketch comedy is a brutal business and the way SNL's process seems to lend itself to disasters sometimes.


To be able to see new episodes in this stay-at-home format really has increased my appreciation for what they do. Bravo, Lorne Michaels and the entire team!

Nextdoor.com

I've already ranted about the people using this platform in our neighborhood but their complaints have grown both more strident and more ridiculous since I began posting there regularly.


The number of in-house epidemiologists we have here is simply astounding! These self-described experts (really covidiots) cite their sources as some idiot they saw on Fox News or some You-tube video they saw. They attack the true medical experts like Fauci, even questioning his motives, his background, and everything else.


Yet, these same morons think that everything that spills from Trump's lips is like words from the Lord himself. Talk about a bunch of delusional twits.


And the complaints? Don't get me started. Besides the constant whining about the amenities still being closed, they bitch they're "rights" are being taken away because they post stupid and misleading stuff on Nextdoor, and then the posts are removed.


The First Amendment's intention was to prevent the government from abridging the right to free speech. It was not written to allow anyone to write/say anything on any platform completely unfettered. NextDoor.com isn't run by the government; users must follow the guidelines prescribed by the moderators. The same goes for Twitter and all other social media.

Hot Peppers

Do you like spicy food? I mean really like spicy food? I do. And having grown up in a household of pepper-eaters (my mother's Italian), I grew up eating the stuff, the hotter the better.


When I met my wife, she wasn't a big fan of spicy food but over the years, she's learned to love it almost as much as I do. Every once in a while we buy chilis japones, those hot red peppers you get in kung pao style food at Chinese restaurants. We fry them up in vegetable oil until they just a little crisp and then put the result in a glass bowl with a spoon, where we apply it to any/all food we eat.


Without getting graphic, of course there's the natural digestive result that comes with eating hot food. But anyone who loves the burning going down to the point of an addiction tolerates the results with a modicum of acceptance. Even when it hurts, you still crave more.


I won't admit to the number of hot chili sauces I have in our refrigerator, either. Just know I regularly have to replace empty bottles of the stuff.


Yours in miscellanea,


Michael

May Day 2020

Is the year over with yet? The decade?

Today as I look out at this bifurcated country we live in, I wonder how the hell the United States can continue to survive intact. Of course, in large part, I'm referring to the political polarization that both sides of the divide engage in.

Sure, I could trot out the well-worn platitudes honed from years of cable news coverage, but we're not talking with each other--instead, we're talking at each other, which never bodes well for the future of a unified nation.

But I'm not going to do that.

Instead, I'll point to the more dangerous schism than right vs. left. It's the crazies vs. the sane people and I fear the former are taking over (that is, the inmates are running the asylum).

Case in point...the ongoing "freedom marches" being held across the country by covidiots who want their state governments to reopen the state immediately despite what the experts are saying about opening too early and inviting a resurgence of COVID-19.

It's not just those that are marching that bothers me. I've already written that they get themselves sick, they can infect the rest of us, overwhelm the healthcare system, invite an even further extended quarantine, etc. These people live in a world where Fox News tells them what they should think and do. Morons, one and all.

No, the ones I'm really fearful of are those who propose absolutely unscientific, ill-advised, and just plain batty theories about novel coronavirus. Some examples:

• The virus is a hoax perpetrated by [fill in the name of your least favorite liberal]
• Bill Gates wants to control us with all with his vaccine
• This is how the liberals will take away citizens' guns
• 5G technology is responsible for COVID-19
• The virus was manufactured in a Chinese lab as a bioweapon & it got away from them
• The world is conspiring to get rid of Trump
• People aren't dying, they're crisis actors we're seeing
• Hospitals aren't being overrun, it's all fake news

How the hell do these people dress themselves every day? Something tells me they have a screw or ten loose.

With the internet, these whack jobs now have the way to join forces and enlist other brain-dead souls to their way of thinking.

You may be asking what does this rant have to do with May Day?

May Day was once celebrated in Soviet Russia (and still is, to some degree) in honor of the working class on whom the Russians built their communist world and of whom were taken advantage of by the Communist Party elites. It equates to a much lesser degree to our Labor Day.

The fact that on this May Day workers are demanding to be allowed back to work is, of course, a noble thing. I don't fault people for wanting to get back to making money. Too many folks are in a financial bind and being furloughed without pay is making it impossible to meet their expenses.

But when you see covidiots bringing semi-automatic weapons to these demonstrations or seeing anger toward a made-up enemy (George Soros, for example) makes me wonder if they have any sense God gave pocket list.

(Actually, I don't wonder, I know they don't).

Meanwhile, and this is true, Georgia, which flung open their doors wide a few days ago, has already reported a surge in COVID-19 cases since their grand reopening.

Of course, they did. Any wonder?

Yours in confusion,

Michael

Fitness Update

In an earlier post, I mentioned I started a yoga program using an iPhone app called Sunsa. This app offers free programs, using real yoga instructors who take you on a routine that ranges from 10 to 26 minutes.

As of yesterday, I completed my first full program (for beginners of course). The entire journey was twenty-eight days long. I only missed one day, thanks to one of our long retail shopping days.

Here is the review of the app and my overall personal experience.

The app itself is truly wonderful. The instructors are very fluid in their movements. The narrator has a soothing voice that accompanies the gentle music that plays in the background. While some reviews indicated that they would've preferred getting to see each pose with its name individually so they would recognize them, anything I needed to learn, I found out about on Google. All in all, I give the app five stars out of five.

As far as my overall personal experience, I can truly say the last 28 days have been transformative--mentally, spiritually, and physically. While I did experience pain early on (leading me to purchase Joint Juice, a glucosamine-chondroitin drink), I am pain-free as of this writing.

My flexibility, which wasn't too bad to start with for a sixty-year-old man, has improved quite a bit. I find myself looking forward to my daily yoga sessions and feel very cleanses when I complete them. In fact, I employ some yoga poses during the day, too, just to center myself.

I now have to decide whether to go further in my studies or stay with what I've done to date. As of today, I decided to start from the beginning of my program and add a few additional poses on my own in conjunction with the push-ups, sit-ups, and planks I already do twice a day.

The only cardio workout we're getting is walking outside. Most days, we're getting three or more miles done. While it's not my preferred aerobic exercise, it works for now considering we won't be able to get into our gym until at least May 12th (Arizona's "reopening" date) and probably longer than that. As I told my wife yesterday, I would want to wait it out for another 3 weeks to see if we have a resurgence of the virus before going back.

Yours in health,

Michael

Digital Abstract Art

I'm a big fan of abstract art, particularly that of the period art historians call abstract expressionism. The movement began with the New York School, an art movement that began in the 1950s and went into the 1960s. Aside from visual art, the School encompassed music, dance, poetry, theater, and other artistic disciplines, all tied together by the theme of surrealism and avant-gardism.

Notable abstract impressionists from the School included Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Joan Mitchell, Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner, Albert Kotin, Robert De Niro, Sr., Willem de Kooning, and Elaine de Kooning.

My love affair with abstractionism began several years ago after I had explored Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism to my satisfaction. In particular, the action painting of Pollock (as he termed it) appealed to my senses. What some see as mindless splashes of paint, I see rhythm, flow, and the merger of colors. It's visceral and not meant to be interpreted for its hidden meaning (in most instances, anyway).

Sadly, I cannot draw, a fact I learned many, many years ago. I don't have a natural talent for visual art that others have. So, I had to resign myself to be a fan and not a player (as it were).

Then, I discovered the joys of digital art. With the right tools, time, and patience, I learned to become a fairly well-skilled artist. I was then free to begin making my own abstract art and did so with abandon.

One important lesson I learned in this process is the difference between mediocre abstractions and those that truly make an impression are three key elements: layers, color, and presentation. Without all three in the mix, the painting appears flat and lifeless. Proper implementation of all three and the painting comes alive.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Coyote Stairwell

Arlecchino

Wiegenlied

Velveteen Allegory

That's all I'll post for now. Perhaps, I'll add some more in the future.

The ironic part is despite the self-isolation, I have less time than ever to create artwork. Most of my free time is spent writing and I have so many projects, I seem to lose track of my days. That's a good thing, I guess, since I'm remaining creative.

Yet I still miss it. Oh well, maybe after this pandemic is over.

Yours in digital ink,

Michael