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

When Will It Be Normal Again?

If you've been reading all the COVID-19 coverage online or watching cable news, you must've seen a title of an article or segment that opines about when will we be normal again? As if "normal" is the same for everyone, but I get the point. Let me start with the answer, then the analysis.

When will we be normal again? Never.

Seriously, never. Or at least never in our lifetime, though a lot of people will eventually return to some variation of their previous "normal." But, unless your head is completely full of air or rocks, you must know that if a pandemic like this could happen and it's not that fatal, imagine one where it is not only virulent but kills a large number of those who become infected.

So, we have to accept the fact that there will be a new normal but even how that will look is hard to predict.

Think about dining out in a restaurant. How many do you go to that are packed cheek to jowl with tables and customers and waitstaff? Probably too many to count, right? If you were the owner, how would you reconfigure it?

Here's what I would do:

• Reservations-only seating
• Staff must be checked daily for temperature and perhaps O2 levels
• Customers must be checked for temperature and O2 levels as well
• While in the restaurant, waitstaff must wear masks and surgical gloves (same for kitchen staff, too)
• Remove half the tables or more to allow for 6' minimum social distancing
• Tables, chairs, and other surfaces need to be wiped down thoroughly after each customer leaves

And even this isn't perfect. What if an asymptomatic person comes into the restaurant? No fever, O2 saturation levels are fine, but they're shedding viruses left and right--how do you prevent this? Sure, on-the-spot testing would help, but even if it was available, who could afford to do that every day for every person passing through the doors?

This is just one example. Think of your own and then you start to see the sheer magnitude that this challenge presents.

So "normal," as we used to know if, is history. What happens going forward is up to us as a race because just returning to our old ways will only open the doors for the same kind of pandemic or even worse--the one that will take out humanity altogether.

And what's the most asinine thing I see now are the covidiots protesting that their liberties are being assaulted. My only words to them are these: get with the program or get ready to lose you life or that of your loved one.

Yours in quarantine,

Michael

Tales from the Loop

As I've noted multiple times in this blog, we've been watching new series as we learn about them from our son or from the internet. After weeks of action movies, we've decided to change the mood a bit and began watching Tales from the Loop, an 8-episode series on Amazon Prime that falls in the realm of surrealistic sci-fi (perhaps a redundant term).


Based on the eerie paintings of 36-year-old Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, the series explores the lives of residents of Mercer, Ohio, a company town where the "industry" is a device called The Loop that is built underground. From all appearances, The Loop is a particle accelerator and the question viewers will consider is whether the strange happenings a result of the device itself or merely an adjunct of a town filled with engineers and scientists.


But that's only the backdrop. The town itself is drab, but the lives of those living there can hardly be described as such. Though we've only watched three episodes thus far, it seems like each episode, though standalone, feature characters that are interconnected linearly from one episode to the next. Certainly, it's not a movie series in the traditional sense.


On the plus side, the cinematography is beautiful, the soundtrack is tight, and the writing is beyond skilled. Figures and structures in Stålenhag's paintings are faithfully reproduced and integrated with the entire story. Whether some of it is CGI or not (I respective it is, though), it's still quite stunning.


On the minus side, it's very slow. If you're used to your series jump-cutting here and there, lots of car crashes, bullets, and bombs, then you may not really enjoy this series so much. However, if you're looking for a more cerebral viewing experience, I say it's worth a try.


The good news is, according to the showrunner, there is enough material for future seasons of Tales from the Loop, though right now, there's no word whether Amazon's interested in renewing the contract. So much in the air right now with impacts from COVID-19, we'll just have to wait and see.


Yours from the Loop,


Michael

Walk Away, Renée

Everyone has songs that become earworms for them. Some of them are common and seem to cross generational boundaries, at least in my experience. Some examples come to mind: Come On, Eileen and Chechez La Femme are two of them I know are earworms for people other than myself.

Then there's Walk Away, Renée, a 1966 hit song by the pop band The Left Banke. The tune was written by Tony Sansone, Bob Calilli, and Michael Brown, though Brown was the principal writer and keyboardist for the band. This song is one of the worst earworms for me and for years, I didn't know why. Now I have an inkling.

If you're not familiar with this tune, here's an early video of them performing it music video style:

The lyrics:

And when I see the sign that points one way
The lot we used to pass by every day

Just walk away, Renée
You won't see me follow you back home
The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same
You're not to blame

From deep inside the tears that I'm forced to cry
From deep inside the pain that I chose to hide

Just walk away, Renée
You won't see me follow you back home
Now as the rain beats down upon my weary eyes
For me it cries

Just walk away, Renée
You won't see me follow you back home
Now as the rain beats down upon my weary eyes
For me it cries

Your name and mine inside a heart upon a wall
Still finds a way to haunt me, though they're so small

Just walk away, Renée
You won't see me follow you back home
The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same
You're not to blame

Now a bit more about the song before I get into the history.

Walk Away, Renée is classified as one in the "baroque pop" genre, one of many that employed the use of classical music instruments such as strings and harpsichords. Other bands, such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Procol Harem, The Zombies released music in this genre, but The Left Banke was an early progenitor of the style.

Michael Brown was only sixteen when he wrote the song, which after reading the lyrics, you wonder how someone so young could be so introspective about matters of the heart. Though unrequited love has long been a topic of pop songs over the entire history of pop music (even prior to the rock era), the lyrics capture the angst missing from many of them, at least to me.

Brown's muse was Renée Fladen, a singer in her own right and the girlfriend of Tom Finn, the band's bassist. According to Brown, he had a major, yet unrequited, crush on Fladen. So much did he love her that when it came time to record the harpsichord part in the studio and finding Fladen there to watch the session, his hands shook so much, he had to leave. Later, he returned to the studio to record the missing part.

In the video above, the blonde walking away during the song's bridge is Renée herself.

I think the reason the song gets in my head and won't leave right away is that I feel the young man's pain in the lyrics, and even though he wasn't the lead singer of the song (Steve Martin Caro was), it's haunting beauty is evident in every syllable. This resonates with me and probably why the song's been covered so many times.

Michael Brown died on March 19, 2015, after a battle with heart disease. Steve Martin Caro died on January 14, 2020, also from heart disease.

Here's another of Michael Brown joining the band for Walk Away, Renée just prior to his death (in 2013). As you can see, he's not physically well and his playing is a bit rusty. But nonetheless, it's a treasure it's been captured for posterity.

RIP, Michael Brown and Steve Martin Caro!

Yours in music,

Michael

Nextdoor.com Exposed!

As I believe I mentioned in previous posts, I belong to NextDoor.com for our local neighborhood. This is a website that allows residents in particular neighborhoods to interact online. There's the usual run of things posted, like items for sale, groups forming, questions about service providers, and the rest. Nothing earth-shattering.

Then there are discussions on other topics of supposed public interest others to participate in and enjoy. Because we live in a very red district in a red (almost purple) state, many of the posts tend toward the political, and they are pro-Trump to the max.

And woe to anyone who dares to offer a contrary opinion! In fact, the MAGA crowd infiltrates discussions started by non-Trumpers and tries to bully everyone into submission with their idiotic Fox News talking points.

This behavior has recently led to the liberal among us to start our own subgroup where we can share our frustrations and disgust with the orange-tinged maniac in the White House. This forum has been a source of relief from reading the threads in the public space.

Of course, these days, the biggest topic of discussion is the anger at the ongoing stay-at-home orders, especially when it comes to restrictions on the use of the common facilities here such as the swimming pool and sports courts.

The management here is strictly adhering to Republican Governor Doug Ducey's restrictions on the entire state, but that doesn't matter to the MAGAts around here. They complain ad nauseam about how unfair it is, it's government overreach, our liberties are being trampled, and all the rest of the BS the right is spewing right now.

The unavailability of the public pool here seems to tweak these crotchety old farts the most, though. They don't swim. They soak and chat. It's where cliques of friends gather together and gossip about other cliques. It's just like high school. Very few of them actually swim.

They're all upset because they can't meet with their tribe at the (literal) watering hole. It's beyond laughable reading the complaints tumbling forth (with misspellings and poor grammar, by the way). There are a few notables who truly love hearing themselves "talk." One woman has started two, maybe three separate threads on the pool and she doesn't even use it (by her own admission)!

I swear, I'll never live in an "active senior living community again." I may be sixty, but my mind isn't old and dusty like these folks, and God willing, will never be.

Yours in amusement,

Michael

UV Light and Disinfectant -- A Descent into the Abyss

Donald Trump is nuts.

There, I said it. For years, the man has exhibited signs of mental illness, primarily malignant narcissism. His current behavior borders on sociopathy, at least according to a number of mental health care professionals, and to my mind, he always has.

However, beginning with his birtherism BS during the Obama years, he's been demonstrating even more symptoms of mental degradation, and since he's become President, based on the words he speaks and the tweets he posts, he has further descended into the abyss with no end in sight.

Some have suggested this is due to years of illegal drug use. Others have posited that it's symptoms of late-stage syphilis. I'm not convinced either of these is true.

Instead, I believe Trump suffers from early-onset dementia, which only tends to exacerbate his already known mental illness.

My mother-in-law suffered from depression (and possibly other issues) and when her dementia began to manifest in earnest, it was not only difficult to differentiate that behavior from her behavior before she went on antidepressants, but it seemed the two worked synergistically (and not in a good way).

Yesterday, Trump seriously--not sarcastically, as he's trying to say now--mused how ingesting/injecting disinfectant and UV light into the body of those infected with COVID-19 should be looked into as a possible treatment.

THIS from a man who was strenuously promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat novel coronavirus, a practice now dismissed by the CDC as potentially fatal based on data from clinical trials. And now he's talking about using Lysol and black lights? IN the body?

There's already been at least one case of someone ingesting disinfectant to get rid of COVID-19, which, of course, landed him in the hospital. Fortunately, he survived this stupidity despite Darwin's theory.

How many more covidiots will do the same because Trump thought it was a good idea?

Serious, people, this guy is without a doubt, 100% certifiable. And yet, he remains in office. Clearly, he's a candidate for invoking the 25th amendment, but he's not going anywhere until we vote him out.

Let's hope we actually do.

Yours in amazement,

Michael 

Bloody Hot

We made the decision to move from the Los Angeles metro area back in 2013 after both my wife and I had suffered through some serious illnesses. Our thought was simple: life's too damn short to spend it working our asses off to pay bills, especially a huge mortgage which, if you ask anybody, is the only kind of mortgage you can get because houses are so damn expenses.

Despite the fact we knew we'd miss Southern California, it turned out to be a smart choice, at least from an economic perspective. The cost of living in California continued to rise in the interposing years since our move. Mounting expenses grew at a much higher rate than income in the same period...basically, a no-win situation.

I had another reason for not wanting to move. Not being close to the "film capital of the world" while I had so many scripts in progress (and in the hopper, so to speak) meant I would be getting out of the game when I hadn't even gotten a chance to make a name for myself in the entertainment business.

Anyway, we had been looking at the Phoenix area for years as the place to retire because the cost of housing and living, in general, is about a third less than Los Angeles. We merely accelerated the timeline by ten years. No biggie.

One thing everyone knows about Phoenix is it's hot as hell during the summer. I'm talking triple-digits-for-weeks-on-end kind of hot. What they don't tell you the heat doesn't dissipate much at night. You can still have 100+ heat at mostly any time of day. But we were naive at the time and figured the similarity in weather between California and Arizona would be acceptable.

It's not. Trust me.

Without relief for such a long period, year-round residents basically shelter in place, only venturing out when necessary. Either that or you travel out of the state for a couple of months--just to escape. Of course, California is a popular destination spot for Arizonans (particularly San Diego). Others, go to Utah and other ski resort areas to take advantage of the lower summer rates.

So, when we saw on the TV weather report that we're about to hit our first triple-digit days, we were dismayed beyond belief. With temps in the 90s this week (as a ramp-up to the 100+ days to come this weekend), we've already shifted our walking time to the morning.

But what will happen when it's too hot for even early in the morning, which is always the case? Without a gym to go to, we're going to have to get creative in ways to get our cardio in.

The problem? We have no ideas right now.

Yours in confusion,

Michael

True Confessions of a Flour Buyer

We did our twice-monthly shopping trip into town yesterday. With our bandana face masks on our faces and surgical gloves on our hands, we stopped store after store to get all the items we would need for a couple more weeks.

We couldn't find many paper products, particularly toilet paper. After more than a month of this, I've concluded that some covidiot is hoarding it all. With any luck, they'll be stuck with it until the end of their days, though more than likely they're selling it on the black market for 10x what it cost him/her.

Think about that. Toilet paper unavailable for over a moment. It boggles the mind.

At one store we went to, a downscale store that caters to the Spanish-speaking community, we hit the jackpot. I was in one aisle, my wife was in another. She hurried to find me to tell me that they had a lot of all-purpose flour on their shelves!

Excited, I followed her and sure enough, there were several bags sitting there. I took a look to make sure there were no signs and picked up three bags. Then we went to check out.

As my masked cashier rang me up, she narrowed her eyes disapprovingly.

"Only two bags," she said.
"Two? There was no sign," I replied. I turned to my wife. "Did you see any sign?"
"No, there was no sign."

The cashier just shook her head and rang us up anyway. I apologized profusely, but I don't think she believed I was being sincere.

Do you know that bothered me for the rest of the day? This is a small store. The same people work there all the time. Save for the fact I was wearing a mask, this cashier knows me. I'm so embarrassed, I don't know if I want to go back there again.

Of course, that's silly. We love that place (the prices are great and they have a wonderful selection of produce). But still, I feel bad even though what I did wasn't intentional.

Okay, now that I've confessed my sins to you, gentle reader (👋), I'll move onto the rest of our trip.

The summary we were able to score chicken, steaks, and ground beef, along with fresh produce. No TP, as noted. No Excedrin, but there was a manufacturing issue before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out (we ended up getting the store brand from Walgreens). No Chlorox II, for some reason. No hydrogen peroxide, either.

So, reviewing all this, I'd say we did pretty good. Now in a couple of weeks, when prescriptions need to be refilled, we'll be going back out again.

Yours in retail bliss,

Michael

General Miscellanea

Sometimes I don't have a particular topic I want to discuss, so I'll fill this space with news bits and pieces, or as Stephen Colbert refers to a segment on his show, "Meanwhile."

Meanwhile...

We already finished season 6 of Bosch and it was every bit as good as the first five seasons. The downside of binge-watching, of course, is we have to wait another year, or maybe even longer now that filming is on hiatus, for season 7. I have to satisfy my Connelly cravings with the few remaining ebooks of his I haven't read (though none of them are about Harry Bosch).

Meanwhile...

We're going out shopping today after being home for a little over two weeks now. Running low on fresh produce and some other staples, as well as things we can live without, but we'll get while we're forced to be in the grocery stores. Of course, we'll be wearing masks and surgical gloves in our travels. Wish us luck--I hope we don't run into any covidiots while we're out.

Meanwhile...

The price of oil went negative for the first time ever yesterday. With that, investors are saying May is shot as far as manufacturing is concerned, though futures beyond that look hopeful. It's impossible to imagine that the price of oil -- not gas -- would get so low considering the oil shortages of the 1970s. Still, we don't plan to do any driving anytime soon.

Meanwhile...

We're about to hit our first triple-digit temperature days in the next week. What this will do for our daily exercise remains to be seen. We're not morning people and to shift our internal clocks to earlier than what they are now won't be easy. I don't want to be like stereotypical seniors generally are, up at dawn, in bed at dusk. Just because I'm sixty doesn't mean I have to act my age.

Meanwhile...

I'm getting a lot of reading and writing done during this long period of self-isolation. I have a 50-book target to read this year and I'm a little under halfway there already. My writing goals are a little looser. So far, I've finished five screenplays this year and I have two in progress as of this moment. I'm also in the middle of writing two novels and what I think will be a novella, though I'm not limiting that in case it wants to be longer.

Yours in miscellanea,

Michael

Covidiots and Random Thoughts Thereof

Today, we're getting more reports of protests against stay-at-home orders by those I call "covidiots." We've learned many of these protest groups are sponsored by right-wing groups such as the gun lobby PAC. Also, one can see Confederate flags and other hate symbols among the stupid fools marching like somehow their defiance will protect them against novel coronavirus.

If that was all it was, I'd say, go on, march around like little tin soldiers, give the disease to each other, be happy. But now we're seeing these protestors facing off against healthcare workers at hospitals and other medical places, taunting them and verbally abusing them.

Who the hell do these covidiots think they are? I mean, what planet did they descend from, and more importantly, how can we send them back.

It infuriates me to think that the President of the United States encourages such behavior in his tweets. He's supposed to be the leader of this country and he's acting like the world's biggest troll.

Sometimes, he acts the fool during his daily press briefings, aka his propaganda presentations. Other times, he'll say the "right" things (nominally) and contradict his very word on Twitter! What the hell?

I have a couple of theories about that. First, he has mental problems and his lucid moments are being overshadowed by his demented ones. That is, he's able to hold it together for a while, but then the demons in his head break loose and he becomes a raging lunatic. It's like his id becomes almost possible to control in public, but as soon as he gets on his phone in his private place, the demons are freed.

Why isn't the GOP doing something about this? As I've undoubtedly noted before, Trump will do their bidding and they're getting things done they never would've had a traditional Republican in the White House. They needed the perfect partner--an unhinged, megalomaniacal troglodyte who has no political loyalties and will sell his soul to the highest bidder of the moment.

Some say we were due to have such a horrible Chief Executive given our history of embracing authoritarianism and right-wing dictators throughout the world. The threat of communism so terrified both the left and right that they would do anything--I mean anything--to stop it, including getting into bed with some of the worse humans on the planet.

Trump's even worse. His adoration of despots is profound and unbidden. Putin, Kim Jong Un, Balsanaro, Duerte, Xi Jinping, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and others...Trump's ass-kissing of these self-styled "strongmen" is offensive. And yet, the GOP does not reign him in. No, in fact, they encourage him by their silence.

History will look back at this time and hopefully describe in painstaking detail how horrible this regime is. I know I'll never forget it.

Portrait of a Frustrated Perfectionist

I've been retired from the business world now for over six years. Throughout my professional career, I endeavored to be the most organized and productive I could be, which generally meant I had to-do lists, logs, and journals everywhere, especially digitally.

Over time, I found my favorites of these and stuck with them consistently, every once in a while changing how I used them in order to improve my process.

Of course, disorganized people or those who do things loosey-goosey would be appalled if they knew how much time I committed to an inbox zero philosophy, folder management, etc. I guess I would be, too, if I was like them.

I'm not. Obviously.

My go-to online notetaking journal is Evernote. I use it for everything; an online diary, a task tracker, a writing idea collector, a web page captor. I've been using it for years. Before that, I used OneNote from Microsoft, but I liked the flexibility of Evernote better. Recently, I've been playing with other multi-platform apps. Bear is a current favorite for its markdown language support and I've just started trying Journal, a new multi-platform app that has some interesting organizing capabilities which I am trying out for current writing projects.

On the to-do side, I was quite satisfied with Wunderlist. It did everything I needed and did it well. Then Microsoft bought them out and many of the features I liked about Wunderlist disappeared with Microsoft To Do launch. Now I've just returned to one I tried years ago called Todoist, which actually has a lot of what Wunderlist did, but with a few more features. I really like it a lot.

Yesterday, I just installed an app called TrackingTime, which integrates with Todoist, which allows me to track how much time I spend on each writing project. Since I already use BusyBox, an iPhone app for this, I now have a way to get my data converged.

For a frustrated perfectionist like myself, this is as about as good as it can get. Color me thrilled.

Now, about my handwritten journal and my handwritten day planner...

Yours in productivity,
Michael

The Return of Bosch

For many years now, long before the Kindle and other e-readers, I began reading books on mobile devices. My go-to device back them was the venerable Palm Pilot and the books I downloaded were plain text classics from some long-forgotten source.

Since then, I've upgraded my reading devices to Kindles and iPhones and iPad, each one making the reading experience more enjoyable and certainly easier on the eyes than that little gray screen with the dark letter gave me! Along the way, I picked up audiobooks from Audible.com and read those when I would go to the gym or was doing some other mindless task, like doing housework -- in fact, I still do.

When I read (which is often, as you can see), I tend to gravitate toward thrillers, the more complex, the better. I began reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, first from Audible, and then (as luck would have it) via an app called Overdrive, which was eventually replaced with its improved app Libby. These two apps allow one to add one or more library cards to gain access to those libraries' digital content, both e-books and audiobooks.

Thankfully, all of the Jack Reacher books save for a couple were accessible to me this way. I listened to his entire series via the Libby app and only shifted to e-book format when I couldn't find them in the former format.

Looking for new authors of a similar caliber, I asked my uncle, another lover of thrillers, for his suggested. One of his top favorites is Michael Connelly, who has written a large number of books featuring (in most cases) the exploits of Harry Bosch, LAPD detective and general badass.

Like the Reacher books, I listened to every audiobook I could get of the Bosch series and only shifted to ebook format when I ran out of options. I'm still reading them as of this writing.

When I found out that Bosch was made into a series on Amazon Prime, I was, well, thrilled. Surprisingly, my wife was into it as much as I was and we binge-watched all five seasons, usually three or four episodes a night.

I'm happy to report that season 6 of Bosch has been released. Last night, we watched the first three of ten episodes, and the acting, directing, writing, and cinematography is as brilliant as the first five seasons were. What a treat!

And the best news of all... Amazon is in development of a Reacher series based on the Lee Child books. The only challenge, unfortunately, is that the COVID-19 outbreak could very well delay any further progress because of filming concerns. We'll see if this is true or not in the coming months.

Until then, I'll continue reading my thrillers and finding new authors. Steve Berry's Cotton Malone character is interesting...

How Late-Night TV Has Changed

Unless you've been living like a prepper for years, all that we're going through is brand new to us, thanks to COVID-19 and our government's piss-poor response to it. After more than a month in self-isolation, it's easy to see why some are going a bit squirrelly. I do not and will not believe this should be cause for jumping the gun on "reopening the country" (a stupid term, if you ask me).

But I digress (which is easy to do in a blog where you're the only reader)...

Among the many changes we've seen is the face, literally and figuratively, of late-night TV. Whether you're a fan of Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel, you've seen how they have shifted to a home-studio format instead of airing repeats.

We're Colbert people here. Stephen's show (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, aka LSSC) is taped in HD in a very sparsely decorated room. His family lends a hand as his in-house production crew and they work in conjunction with the mothership back at CBS studios.

Colbert's musical director, the incomparable John Baptiste, is the only member of his band that plays on the show from his own house (in New Orleans, I think). Contrast this with Seth Meyers' show that follows Fallon's, where he has his much smaller band playing from their individual homes together. Stay Human, Baptiste's band, is too large to accomplish such a task.

It's not just the look of the LSSC that's changed, it's the entire vibe and I think that goes for the other shows. No live audience (and no laugh track, thank God), has been a definite drain on the energy Stephen exudes. He freely admits he gets his juice from the interaction with those in the studio. Without that, his show, while still funny, lacks in that buzz.

The most surprising things to note are the much more frank and free-spirited interviews with celebrities, also broadcasting in their homes (sometimes in their PJs) and the stark, but haunting, performances from some very talented people. My favorite of the later was a solo piece by Michael Stipe, formerly of R.E.M.

When things return to normal -- and they will -- I think I will miss this new format of late-night talk shows. Unlike cable news where a good background, audio, and video can make it seem like a news anchor is speaking from a studio, the late-night hosts can't hide behind such tricks. Talent steps forward while the talentless disappear.

Yours in late-night,
Michael

It's Not a Stimulus, Stupid

Yesterday was the day all electronic payments from the IRS were to be transmitted to eligible adults throughout the United States, at least for those who have bank data registered there. That would be, in most cases, for those of us who've e-filed within the last few years and included that data.

As expected, because it was the Trump administration who ran this, it's a total cock-up from the jump. Many people are reporting they didn't get the full amount expected. Others noted that the government website called Get My Payment wasn't either not working right or totally overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, online banking has been a nightmare for many as banks are being inundated with deposits from the IRS and transactions from customers doing something with those funds. Talk about a total screw-up!

Our experience has been the same. We filed jointly every year since we've gotten married, but we only got $1,200 instead of $2,400 for both of us. Of course, we have no idea which one of us received it. When we go to the Get My Payment site, neither one of our social security numbers pulls up information.

The online banking issue is untenable. I can't believe how easy it's been to take down major banks' online systems, now going on two days with a resolution. Are things this fragile? I think we're seeing the answer to this in real-time.

As far as calling this a "stimulus," that's just plain ignorant. It's a relief check and a piss-poor one at that. Other countries (like Canada) approved a regular stipend for all adults for ten weeks. Other countries have done something similar.

Here in the United States, the oligarchs have determined that the masses should be happy with $1,200 per eligible adult for one time only. No matter if two workers are now unemployed and can no longer collect unemployment benefits. "Let 'em starve" seems to the motto of this heartless Administration.

And while we're on the subject of Trump's incompetence, it's beyond the pale that those who will be getting paper checks will have to wait even longer so that Trump's name can appear on the memo line of the payments. Talk about a load of bullsh#t! His ego cannot be contained, even if peoples' lives are at stake.

Yours in terminal frustration,
Michael

Brief Rant About Armchair Epidemiologists

Someone on Twitter wisely noted that they were amazed at how all his constitutional scholar friends are now experts in epidemiology and immunology.

Truly fascinating, right?

Today's brief rant is a side burn toward those among us who speak like they are experts on COVID-19, quoting unnamed sources that taking chloroquine is either (a) safe or (b) effective as either a prophylactic or treatment for novel coronavirus.

Their "expertise" is really based on something they made up, something they heard, or from the nominal President of the United States who lies repeatedly during his daily propaganda tirades.

I've seen these ignoramuses on private message boards and public social media. What they propose is dangerous and should be ignored. Common sense says to favor the advice of the medical professionals.

What's even worse is the doctors who are just throwing a cocktail of azithromycin, an antibiotic, with chloroquine at patients in hopes of preventing COVID-19 or helping those already infected. Here's an article about why that's not a good idea:

https://www.biospace.com/article/hydroxychloroquine-and-z-pak-may-be-effective-treatment-for-covid-19/

There is one report of a doctor administering this cocktail to a nursing home full of elderly and mostly frail residents in hopes of warding off the disease. Instead, it caused such detrimental effects, it had to be discontinued.

Even the CDC is stressing that there is no known treatment for novel coronavirus right now. Believe them, believe the WHO (even though Trump made the asinine decision to cut their funding), believe the medical researchers who are working day and night to solve the riddle of this pandemic--but don't believe morons like the Fox News talking heads and the non-medical personnel in the White House, including the orange-tinged megalomaniacal troglodyte that is currently soiling the Oval Office.

Yours in ranting,

Michael

Sadly, Snowbirds Are Grounded Right Now

I live in a community where about 30-40% of the residents are snowbirds from other parts of the US (mostly states like Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Washington, and Oregon), as well as Canada. This would normally be the time where they would all be flocking back to their primary homes, but this pandemic has forced many, if not all, of them to remain here in Arizona.

As I've mentioned in past posts, we don't interact with our neighbors except for a passing wave if we cross paths. There are various social clubs here, though right now, they're all on hiatus as far as we know. We don't belong to any of them; we're not joiners.

Normally, we secretly root for the snowbirds to go home so restaurants can return to normal, grocery stores won't be so crowded, and traffic will calm down. Except for the restaurant, their extended stay may impact us longer than normal.

Our grocery stores, still depleted of key items a month after the crazy hoarding began, could possibly keep up with the demand from the summer population, but with part-time residents remaining here, they will remain under pressure for the foreseeable future.

I've seen posts by these folks on Nextdoor.com, lamenting about being forced to maintain social distancing and not having their normal lifestyles maintained. After all, why are we paying HOA fees if we can't have access to all the amenities?

I wish I could elicit some sympathy for them, but those of us who live here year-round have to live with these amenities being shut down for long periods of time for repairs or traffic being impacted due to construction projects purposely scheduled for after snowbird season.

We have to live with the extreme heat, the monsoon winds, the hellacious storms, and until recently, the piles of tumbleweeds that would blow across the desert into the neighborhood. And we're not talking about a few of them, either. The first summer here, I piled up enough tumbleweeds to reach above our roofline.

Anyway, this is my own rant about the snowbirds' forced remainder and how we full-time residents have to accept them just as much as they have to accept remaining here despite their personal plans. Let's hope we get through this summer unscathed.

Two Binge-able, But Totally Different, Netflix Series

In the interests of full disclosure, I was a huge fan of The West Wing, though not during its first run. Years ago, I binge-watched the entire series in short order and loved every minute of it. I like books/movies about the inner workings of Washington, a place that both fascinates and terrifies me, depending on who's in office at the moment. All the wonky stuff intrigues me.

For similar reasons, I loved House of Cards, though I have yet to watch the last season because of the taint of the Kevin Spacey revelations. Or should I say, my wife's not interested for those reasons; frankly, I'd love to get closure, but eventually, I'll see it. After all, the disgraced actor isn't even in the final season.

But I digress...

We just finished watching two binge-worth, but oh, so different, series on Netflix.

The first--and hence my initial paragraphs--is Designated Survivor, starring Keifer Sutherland as the lone surviving member of the current Administration and newly sworn-in president. He is tasked with rebuilding the federal government (literally and figuratively), while at the same time dealing with all manner of threats typical for any president to face.

The first two episodes were aired on ABC and then was purchased by Netflix, who produced the third and final season (at least final for now). Unlike the West Wing, it has a lot of elements of a thriller interwoven into the day-to-day governmental folderol and shenanigans.

Sadly, the third season ends with a lot of open issues and no fourth season in sight. Regardless, most definitely worth your time.

The second series, the one everyone is talking about, is a seven-episode documentary called Tiger King. Talk about a wild ride and a peek into, let's be honest, the most red-necky parts of America. In short, the limited series traces the rise and ignominious fall of Joe Exotic, aka the Tiger King. Joe ran a zoo of sorts, featuring wild cats of all types, though mostly tigers.

This isn't one of your touchy-feely, "We bought a zoo" kind of shows. Instead, it reveals the seedy underbelly of the illegal big cat breeding and sale industry so rampant in this country. We meet a number of squirrelly characters, most of whom are really degenerates in their own ways. The big names in this underhanded business have oversized egos and oversized hunger for drugs, sex, booze, and guns.

I won't give spoilers, but let's say Joe gets what was coming to him and now he's pursuing a scorched earth policy. There's a lot more to the story than this series has shown. Stay tuned.

Yours in TV-land,

Michael

Easter Sunday & Social Distancing

I was raised a Roman Catholic and managed to live through eight years of parochial school relatively unscathed. I know how important a holiday Easter is in the Church. Unlike what many people believe, Christmas is not the holiest and most sacred day in the Church calendar--Easter is.

With that said, I understand the difficulty all Christians have faced this past Holy Week and today when told they would not be able to celebrate Easter in their respective houses of worship.

It's perfectly natural to grouse and complain about church doors being shuttered right now, I get that. But some of the comments I've read and some of the news I've seen really baffles me.

There are churches who have declared in no uncertain terms they will hold services today. I've read haughty promises by many Christians who promised they could defy stay-at-home orders no matter what.

I figure there are two reasons for such foolhardiness:

• Americans hate being told what to do, even at the risk of harming themselves or others
• Innate stubbornness or a mistaken belief that as long as they are worshipping, the Lord will protect them

Now, I'm going to challenge someone's faith. However, if your faith can directly or indirectly threaten the health of others, you are not behaving in a Christian manner. Do you think Jesus Christ would condone such a wanton act of irresponsibility? 

It's not like you're only harming yourself if you violate the self-isolation directives. If you are infected by the virus, you could unknowingly be spreading COVID-19 everywhere you go, including places the rest of us try to avoid until absolutely necessary.

The arrogance of some, specifically those on the right, to practice their faith in a manner they see fit no matter who they put at risk is criminal, in my opinion. We liberals aren't trying to destroy religion or inject our beliefs (or lack) into your world. We're trying to save people from dying unnecessarily.

It's funny...on Nextdoor.com for our community, a woman proudly posted that she was feeling perfectly fine and she's not going to heed the stay-at-home order, further stating that if anyone had a problem, they could kiss her a** (paraphrased). Of course, she was roundly trounced in the responses, which I took as a good sign.

Another man said he's been self-isolating for a month now (he never got the virus), so he feels it's been long enough, the virus must be long gone and he's obviously immune to it. That engenders even more derisive replies and for good reason--the guy had no idea what he was talking about.

In my less than humble opinion, all this happens when you refuse to put your faith in science in the same measure you put in a being you worship. Religion should never trump (ugh!) either scientific reasoning or common sense when it comes to the real aspects of life and the universe.

Just don't tell a Trumper that or their brains will explode.

Yours on Easter,

Michael

Stopping Voter Suppression - The USPS story

Let me say up front that unlike many people, I am a big fan of the United States Postal Service. Really. These folks work hard, the price to send mail is still relatively cheap, and they are (mostly) pleasant people to work with.

Congress seems to have made it their mission over the last few years to do away with the post office. The laws they've passed have made it unable to compete in the global shipping market. They enacted the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) which "requires the Postal Service, which receives no taxpayer subsidies, to pre-fund its retirees' health benefits up to the year 2056."

This link from 2018 gives a quick overview of the insanity:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-04-04/congress-not-amazon-messed-up-the-u-s-postal-service

As everyone who pays attention knows, the GOP hates the American voter. Or to be specific, they hate voters who will vote against their party. Instead of trying to woo voters to their way of thinking, Republicans have done whatever they can to suppress Americans' right to vote. For example, they've:

• Instituted gerrymandering to give Republicans more seats in the House
• Blocked every initiative to implement automatic voter registration
• Thwarted any attempts at setting aside a national voting holiday
• Fought to illegally purge voter rolls
• Implemented other tactics to prevent voting or harass voters

Now, Trump comes along, and with the Republicans in the Senate, didn't include funding for the USPS in the first pandemic emergency bill and doesn't plan to in the second. Why? 

Simply put, there's a push by major voter groups to pass a national vote-by-mail initiative. Considering that November is not all that far away, it makes sense to keep people away from the polls if at all possible.

Vote-by-mail is something that currently works in some of the states, including my own (Arizona), and it works well! Vote-by-mail almost ensures more people will vote and the Republicans (and Trump) have admitted that would be bad for their party.

Let me repeat that: the GOP wants fewer people to vote because it would be disadvantageous to them. They realize that if all eligible adults voted, they would be wiped out because the majority of Americans know they're horrible. 

Why else would they want to suppress the vote? There is no legitimate reason I can think of.

Of course, they lie and say voter fraud is more likely, which we know is a lot of garbage because if they carried about that, they would be doing something to prevent Russia from influencing our elections this time around.

They are so desperate to hold power they're willing to lie, cheat, steal, and intimidate to make sure that happens. And Trump, the most corrupt president to be elected in American history, wants to remain in his taxpayer-funded retirement home, complete with multi-million dollar golf outings, free private planes everywhere, and 24/7 security.

This is the America we've become, ladies and gentlemen. This is an embarrassment.

A Thank You Letter to Donald Trump (satire)

A LinkedIn connection of mine messaged me this today. I wish I had written it, but it's too good not to share. With attribution, I give you a thank you letter to Donald Trump (emphasis my own).

Douglas Reynolds writes:

“Thank you, President Trump, for Making America Great Again! First, for the little things, too often overlooked in this age of fake news and alternative facts. You've taught our children to call people derogatory names. You've taught our children to blame others for their own actions. You've taught our children to avoid taking personal responsibility for anything. You've turned demeaning those who don't agree with you into an art form and brought back bullying after all those nambypambys tried to suppress it. You've forced many parents to consider parental filters for televised presidential addresses. But many people don't know that that's not all the greatness you have given us.

You've reversed the small steps that we'd made over many decades in fighting racism and intolerance, exacerbating the worst aspects of our nature as tribal animals. After all, there are good people on the white supremacy side, too. Oh, and you've brought back the nationalism movement of the 1930's and combined it with the McCarthy era paranoia of the 40's and 50's. I love medleys, but that's a very impressive accomplishment!

Furthermore, thank you for reversing forward-thinking environmental rules meant to address the long term health of our planet, in favor of short term gains in the stock market. You certainly improved unemployment! (Until recently) there were far more low-paying second jobs that people could get to supplement their primary low-paying jobs. So they could pay their rent! Or maybe get health insurance. But certainly not both. (Those people are so disrespectful!) And it worked! (Until recently) the stock market was booming, built on the backs of those unappreciative people and the poorer health of the planet for future generations. 

I especially liked the relaxing of ivory import restrictions. Now Junior can shoot some more elephants! (I hope he gave you the tail he cut off with his pocket knife.)
And you kept your promise! You drained the swamp of previous administrations' lobbyists, replacing them with your own lobbyists. Putting an ex-coal lobbyist in charge of the EPA was brilliant! That'll show those people who want clean air. Ungrateful bastards. 

And I especially liked that you drained the swamp of many highly qualified team members, even though you hired them! I'm eagerly anticipating the firing of HHS Inspector General Grimm, who has had a brilliant career since 1999 and was appointed this past January, (that means under your administration, many people don't know that), but who made the mistake of doing her job and compiling a survey of undersupplied hospitals that Jon Karl explained to you at your latest, "react to questions like a third grader," press conference. 

I also gotta admit that you've done a great job of making sure that anyone from your administration that is allowed to speak in public can efficiently recite the words, "Under President Trump's leadership." That's nine syllables! Well done. 

Oh and finally, thank you so much for treating the impending pandemic so lightly as to not alarm your citizens, or more importantly, the stock market. Through your great leadership, we've learned that by merely denying something, it can't actually hurt us! We had the most warning of anyone on the planet. We saw it coming. We watched it spread across the world, getting closer and closer by the day. We watched South Korea react quickly and efficiently. It blindsided the world! But since you assured us that you had it under control, that it would soon go away magically, that we only had 15 cases and would soon go down to 1 or 2, Covid-19 never got here and churches are still full in the South! 

And right now, as Bill Gates warns that we need to be planning and building the factories and capabilities to manufacture billions of doses of vaccine when it is finally synthesized, I'm confident that you are leading the charge to do just that. Because "billions" is a really big number–a lot of zeros. Not many people know that. Because once we DO have a vaccine, we don't want to face a shortage, do we? That would be bad. Really, really bad. 

Thank you, President Trump. Everything you've done has been beautiful. Perfect-it's-perfect beautiful! Better than anyone has ever done. Other countries are calling, saying, "how did you do that?" You've done the most ever in history. And that's a long time. History is. But what do I know? I'm not a doctor. But what do we have to lose? Everyone says that. Many, many people are saying that. 

And finally, thank you for making things so much easier for ME. For my entire life, I've struggled with who to vote for: Carter? Reagan? Bush? Perot? Obama? Romney? I gave them all a check mark. I've expended so much energy over the years wading through the noise, investigating, trying hard to pick out the very best person. And that was the same for state and local elections! It was always a time-consuming effort. But you've eliminated that chore for this one time, right-leaning centrist! Thanks to your strong leadership, (see, I said it!), I'll never have to spend time thinking and researching again. Because I'll never cast a vote for a Republican again. At any level. Period. 

Ain't America Great?"

The Daily Propaganda Show

We are living in an unprecedented moment in our history. The world is seized by a dangerous pandemic, which has caused significant changes in virtually every aspect of our lives. There is a strong possibility that many of these changes will remain permanently embedded in the fabric of our society.

In the past, the primary source for guidance in crises such as the COVID-19 emergency was the federal government. We looked to Washington to provide assurances our country remained in good hands, that there was stable stewardship leading the ship of state through such rough waters.

No more.

Now, we're assaulted verbally, emotionally, and intellectually by the partisan screeds of Donald Trump, which are sometimes alternated with good medical information.

I just can't watch them. I can't stand his voice, I can't stand his lies, I can't stand his snideness. Call it Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) if you will, I don't care. Trump has been a loathsome creature for as long as I can remember (this is going back to the 1980s for ). I despised him then and I despise him now, only more so because somehow he got elected to the highest office in the land.

We, the American people, don't need a daily propaganda sh#tshow being forced upon us. Those of us with working faculties don't want to have to spend the entire pandemic briefing hitting mute whenever the orange-tinged baboon takes the podium.

This whole affair--Trump's mishandling of the warnings from various governmental agencies through the attempt to smear Chinese people for the spread of the disease (leading to Chinese-Americans being threatened) through the constant blaming of Obama (WTAF?)--is an affront on common sense and simple decency.

Every day, the cable news channels are flooded with a new Trump campaign rally. He insults reporters from news agencies he doesn't like, gives validity to those who praise him (some of which are the most wacko of all of them), and generally acts like an uncultured, undignified slob.

Historians will look back on this era and wondered how American fell so far to have elected such a bumbling twit and then didn't have the good sense to get rid of Trump before he did too much damage. That is, IF there are historians after his reign of terror.

Yours in frustration,

Michael

Christmas in April

No, I'm not talking about all the packages we're receiving in the mail these days, though it does make a difficult situation a bit more festive. In fact, when we get a delivery, we ask Alexa to play "The Wells Fargo Wagon" from The Music Man as we're wiping down the packages.

Yes, we're getting a bit loopy.

When I'm referring to Christmas here, I'm talking about screenplays. Now, I'm not of those people who look forward to the Hallmark Channel's "Christmas in July" promotion. In fact, I don't usually watch the station at all. It's not my jam, as the kids say.

But a few years ago, I wrote a holiday-themed screenplay (a comedy featuring kids) that I thought was pretty good, but like most of my scripts, I kept it in the virtual drawer, awaiting an opportunity to pitch it. A writer friend of mine had told me he was on the lookout for a live-action holiday film project as a producer friend of his was in the market for a made-for-TV film to pitch to studios like Hallmark.

Even though I had envisioned my project as a feature film for the theaters, I sent him my script. My friend liked it enough he ran it by his producer friend, who in turn liked it enough to tell him with some editing, it could be something he could use.

I readily agreed to make my friend a 50 percent partner in the project so we could tune it for the producer's needs. I won't go into the long, involved process to meet the requirements (that would entail a whole post by itself), but we finished it. And of course, as is the way in the film business, it's now in someone else's drawer, awaiting an opportunity to pitch it.

In 2018, when my dad was at home and dying of pancreatic cancer, I was back in NY in July to help with his caregiving. At night, I began watching Hallmark's Christmas movies as a way to escape from the daily sadness as I watched my father's decline. The whole experience inspired me to write my second holiday-based screenplay, this time a dramatic piece about a dying father and a son's reconciliation with him before his passing.

Author's note: the dying part was the only biographical part of the screenplay. My dad and I never had a falling out. In fact, we grow closer over the years.

Last summer, I was in NY visiting my mother and she was watching the Hallmark Channel's holiday movie offerings. Not to belittle those who write those movies, but it didn't take many viewings to realize they were very similar. I thought, hey, I could write those without a lot of effort.

Then this past Christmas, my wife and I watched a bunch of movies in this genre and I got a flood of more good ideas.

Since then, I've written three more Christmas-based scripts, some rom-coms, some dramatic, including one I just finished yesterday. I sent that off to my friend to see if he wanted to partner again. He liked the logline so much, he asked me to send him the rough draft.

Who knows where this will go?

Yours in holiday spirits,
Michael

Silkwood Shower

There was a film back in 1983 called Silkwood which was inspired by the life of Karen Silkwood, a "nuclear whistleblower and a labor union activist who died in a car collision while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked." The movie starry Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher.

In the movie, if one of the workers became radiated in their work, they were dragged (usually kicking and screaming) into a shower and scrubbed down by hard-bristled brushes by two workers in full protective gear. At least two scenes demonstrate this (both on women) and it was both humiliating and excruciatingly painful to the affected person.

Here's a scene:

After two weeks of sheltering in place, we had to go into town to pick up prescriptions and necessary supplies. This time, we wore both surgical gloves and masks made from bandanas as we negotiated our way around the stores we visited.

Once home from that long odyssey, we then wiped down everything we bought with disinfecting cloths before putting them in their various storage locations.

Then we took our Silkwood showers to rid ourselves of any traces of the virus as best as we could. I use a shower brush head anyway, so my skin is used to a brisk scrub. I can only imagine how folks with sensitive skin would react in the same circumstances.

The problem with any/all of this is we have no idea if we were sufficiently careful through any of the stages. The virus is a tricky bugger. It could be anywhere, including the bottom of our shoes. Are we tracking it in? If so, I can see scenarios where it could enter through our eyes, nose, and mouth once inside our house.

Hopefully, we have enough provisions to last us for at least three weeks. If we could get our prescriptions by mail order (see an earlier post for that nightmare), we could ride it out here even longer.

By the way, I still can't get flour anywhere. It's become quite frustrating. Soon, I'll be out of it and will have to buy store-bought bread, if I can get that.

Yours in cleanliness,

Michael

Monday Thoughts: Drug Stores, Shopping, Life

We haven't been into "town" (that is, haven't made a retail run) for two weeks today. In fact, we wouldn't be going except that I was unable to successfully shift from pickup to delivery.

My drugstore (which shall remain nameless, but it's a big chain) was supposed to reach out to my doctor to transfer my prescriptions to their online pharmacy, a separate entity from the in-store locations. After almost ten days, I found out the refills were stalled somewhere along the chain and I just gave up.

No big deal, though, they have a drive-thru.

Naturally, we'll be going to the grocery store to restock on some things we're running low on. We'll likely be going to multiple stores again because we'll not find everything we need in just one place, just like that last time.

This will be the first retail run we'll be making wearing makeshift masks. Despite the earlier assurances none would be needed (like less than a month ago), now the CDC is basically telling everyone if you're in a place with a lot of people, wear a mask. We fashioned no-sew masks from bandanas using info we found online, so I think we're good to go (we already have surgical gloves).

Never will we take for granted full shelves in grocery stores again. Nor will we be as unprepared as we were for the next pandemic, whether it's COVID-19 or it's successors, and mark my words, there will be those. We're already carving out space in our closets for our "zombie apocalypse" supplies and when life returns to normal, we'll buy the items we don't already have.

Never, never again.

I've reached out to old friends to check in with them. Some replied to assure me all is well with them, others I haven't heard back from yet. I'm trying not to worry. I'm sure you're feeling the same angst.

Yours in the midst,
Michael

Saving Doctor Fauci - A Rant

By now, everyone (even those outside of the U.S.) know who Doctor Anthony Fauci is. In case you don't, though, he is a noted American immunologist and a key figure on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Click on the link to see his entire CV.

In the daily press conferences held by the team, Fauci is often one of the key speakers, often answering reporters' questions in frank, clear, and concise terms. In addition, he's appeared on multiple TV, radio talk shows, and podcasts as well as magazine articles on- and off-line.

In short, he is truly a beacon of reality that shines past Trump's propaganda nonsense during these long sessions.

Since Fauci's arrival on the scene, he's gotten a whole lot of attention, all of it well-deserved. He's a modest man and when his praises are sung, he quickly redirects the attention to the pandemic and dealing with it.

And yet, Trump, the narcissist, has expressed in private his dismay that Fauci is stealing his (Trump's) limelight. Not only that but today on Twitter, there's a trending topic called #FireFauci. Obviously, this is a hashtag created and amplified by Russian trollbots, QAnon hacks, and malignant MAGAts in order to pressure Trump to get rid of him.

Mark my words: if Trump heeds this push, we are all up shit creek without a paddle because Fauci is the singular voice of sanity in a sea of sewage. If he goes, we all go.

So the next time you hear someone grumbling about Fauci, ask him or her why? Is it that they don't like bad news? Are they immunologists and know better than him? Are they just sick of sitting at home and blame him for their angst?

Whatever it is, ignorance needs to be attacked and destroyed before it kills us all.

Another Park, Another Sunday

I woke up with that old Doobie Brothers song in my head this morning. In case you're not familiar:

If I were inclined to interpret this, I'd say that's the way life has become for many of us. Some religious-minded people welcome Sunday as their special day to connect with God and their community. For them, being kept away from weekly services has been challenging, but fortunately, a lot of houses of worship are shifting to an online format to accommodate the demand from their respective flocks.

For the rest of us (at least those of us currently working and recent retirees), by Sunday evening, there was always a fear of dread because the next day would start a new week of stress at the office or whatever one called their workplace.

There are many (too many!) Americans furloughed right now, perhaps permanently. The new unemployment claims just got released and it's shocking to see how badly this pandemic has impacted businesses, particularly small ones. And those lucky ones who have jobs they can telecommute to (or is it from?), they're working ungodly hours to make up for the reductions in force their companies are implementing.

When every day feels like Sunday, you'd think you'd have some level of peace of mind. Generally speaking, that's how it is to be retired for many people. You do lose track of what day it is because unless you've structured your life to do so, there is no schedule you absolutely need to follow. Do as little or as much as you want, no one's looking over your shoulder.

I tend to like schedules and live by them and yet I still sometimes have to double-check what day it is. I can only imagine how younger people, especially those trying to work at home with kids, are adjusting.

Yours in waiting,
Michael

Bread, Glorious Bread

Back in the day after I divorced my first wife, I bought a bread machine. They were pretty popular and fairly new back then and being newly single, I figured I could use some enjoyment in my life. I found the smell of fresh-baked bread therapeutic and gorged myself on the stuff until work found overtook my life. Like so many people, I put it in the closet to collect dust.

When I got remarried, my new wife brought a bread machine to the marriage. I don't even remember if we used them much all the years we had them, but we finally gave them to Goodwill because they took up much-needed space.

About a year and a half ago, I got the bug to get a bread machine again. Despite the fact both my wife and I eschewed unnecessary carbs, we still bought bread at the store, so I figured I might as well make it for us.

I loved the thing from the very first use and have consistently made bread every time I was close to running out, only taking a break when we went out of town for two months last year. I have my own recipe--a mix of wheat, all-purpose, and bread flours and a couple of scoops of fiber powder for the added roughage, as it were.

Even though I'm not a baker (despite my love of cooking), I used the bread machine to bakes cakes a few times, too, but bread is my jam (no pun intended).

As it turns out, though, my wife doesn't like any other bread than sourdough, even if it's homemade. For a while, I considered buying a starter, but I didn't want to commit to the weekly feedings because if we went out of town, it would go dormant (perhaps for good) while I was gone.

Since we're in a stay-at-home mode right now, I decided it would be a good time to begin my own starter. My handy-dandy recipe book had a simple starter recipe, so I used that. Today was day 2 of the project. I have to feed it for a total of 5 days and then once a week.

I'll use this space to report on my first loaf with my starter.

Yours in yeast,
Michael

Overachieving in Pandemic-land

Okay, I admit it. I'm an overachiever, and like most of my kind, I'm a failed one at that. At least, that's what I believe in my heart of hearts.

With that confession over, this unique environment we're in--being discouraged from going out in public unless absolutely needed really provides opportunities to overachievers like me.

I already talked about my reading and writing time. No surprise, I track all that on spreadsheets and daily journals.

I haven't returned to coding since my dad passed away in August 2018. Nothing to do with his dying, per se, though that was indeed horrible. Contracting pancreatic cancer while one is in their mid-80s leads to a real cruel ending. Even though my dad was a professional programmer (a career I pursued for thirteen years until circumstances derailed me into a management position I never escaped from),

I don't have a mental block or anything. I just stopped doing it, instead devoting more time to my writing.

Same on the art front. For a time, I was creating digital abstract art like mad. I downloaded apps (mostly free) to make these pretty far-out "paintings" and had slowly developed my own style. But I stopped a year or so ago and haven't been back to it since.

Again, there's no reason. I just stopped.

I've been pretty consistent with my home workout program which supplements my gym workouts. That hasn't changed in any meaningful way in the last three years.

As I'm being bombarded with emails from Coursera and CreateLive (among others), luring me with short-term classes promising to teach me all manners of things I'd love to learn, I decided to be judicious and pick one new activity: yoga.

Now I'm already doing some yoga poses as part of my home exercise. I've also downloaded yoga apps to my iPhone, fully intending on starting a program of daily yoga. However, the price just to try the course out to see if I could stick with it prohibited me from using them.

Enter Sunsa Yoga, an iOS app that at least has beginning sessions that are free. I started out with the 16-minute yoga sessions for beginners and have enjoyed them so far. The only downside of this app is they don't have an iPad version (your tablet will run the app, it's just not in designed for the form factor of the larger screen).

So while I'm not taking up watercolors or knitting or learning Icelandic, I am doing something for my physical health...and that's all right with me.

Yours in flexibility,
Michael

Reading in Self-Isolation

Like most writers, I love to read and always have. When I was a kid, Santa or my parents or both would make sure I had stacks of books in lieu of toys, though I got plenty of those, too. Same with Easter, birthdays, and pretty much any other holiday.

I devoured books and almost always could be found with a book in my hand or the latest Hardy Boys mystery bookmarked on my nightstand. A true bibliophile.

Back in the day, Scholastic Book Club (which I note is still around) would have our teachers hand out a catalog every year--maybe before the holidays, I don't remember--and my mom and I would go through the whole thing and I would pick out the ones I wanted.

I didn't get every choice, but I got a lot of them. They would arrive in a big box, though I don't remember whether it came to the school or directly to our home via the post office. Either way, I would be awash in reading material for a few months.

So naturally, this self-isolation is working out well for us readers. On Goodreads.com, I signed up to read fifty books this year. Last year, I exceeded that by twenty-four! I read them mostly by e-reader and in audio format. The latter is perfect for me while I'm doing other mundane tasks that require little or no concentration (housecleaning, working out, food prep, for example).

The thing is I have all the time in the world to read as it is. Officially retired from the 9-to-5 grind for almost seven years, I adjusted easily to my new normal once we were able to move into our new house. That allowed me time for writing and reading to my heart's content...that is when I'm not doing some of my other hobbies.

I'm not bragging--I know the heartache working people have right now. The uncertainty of one's job when you have a family to raise or college loans to pay off sometimes seems overwhelming. I know if I was still working, I'd be sweating out this pandemic for more reasons than running out of toilet paper.

What I'm saying is if you're at home anyway and you're not working, why not pick up a book? I'm not even suggesting reading mine (though that would be nice 😆), but I think reading is good for the brain, if not as an escape, then as another source of knowledge.

Yours in the word,
Michael