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

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