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

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?"

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

Writing While Waiting

As a writer, my natural tendency (and preferred state) is to sit in front of my computer, plotting or writing whatever projects I have going on at the time. At the time of this post, I have two novels, two screenplays, and a longish short story in progress along with this blog I'm updating every day. If you knew me, you'd know I'm at my happiest with a lot going on.

So, while this self-isolation is no picnic, I'm not feeling the least closed in or anxious for human interaction. Perhaps I'm a bit anti-social--certainly, being surrounded by staunch Republicans throughout this community, I don't feel compelled to engage my neighbors and endure their flag-waving and MAGA hats. I have my wife and she's just like I am. Our few friends are scattered throughout the country and we keep in contact with them through email, text, phone calls, and the occasional video chat.

Thus, you can see where I'm going with this...I'm in my milieu. Not having to go out unless I have to is no big sacrifice to me. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's a luxury. I get to write all day if I want and read when I'm not writing.

Now there is a downside to all of this isolation time. I can't stop my brain from coming up with new ideas for things to write. I use Evernote and Bear, to multi-platform applications that are fantastic for capturing ideas on the fly. I'm one of those writers that if I get something in my head I'd like to write someday, I jot down as much of the story (synopsis, dialog, whatever) as I can until I have enough down where I can come back later to really do something with it.

I know, some writers never come back to their old ideas or write thousands of words or multiple pages (for screenplays you measure in pages), only to abandon it forever. Not me. I've pulled partial scripts or synopses out of my files and have completed first drafts.

These are the times that artists of all stripes relish. Naturally, it's not the circumstances for the isolation we celebrate, it's the end result.

Yours in words,
Michael

Worrying Across the Miles

My eighty-six-year-old mother lives in the Hudson Valley in New York, over 1,200 miles away from us. As everyone knows by now, her state is the worst hit by the coronavirus in the United States. Andrew Cuomo, their governor, is doing the best he can despite the federal government's inaction and over antipathy toward him, but it's clear New York is going to be impacted for a long time to come.

My sister lives in the same town where my mother is and she has some siblings, grandsons, and a few nieces and nephews in fairly close proximity. Still, I worry a lot about her because she lives alone in the house I grew up and she has a number of underlying conditions (including pulmonary fibrosis, an interstitial lung disease), making her quite vulnerable to the impact this novel virus could inflict on her if she were to get it.

As a matter of managing all her health issues, her calendar is filled with doctors' visits: such as a cardiologist, a neurologist, a pulmonologist, a vascular specialist, not to mention her primary care physician and dentist (she has teeth issues, too). Needless to say, her staying home from her regular appointments is worrisome enough.

I speak to her every day. Yesterday, she told me she fell walking back in the house from getting the newspaper from the delivery box out on the street. She fell on her side, bruising her ribs, but thankfully, she was able to get herself up and back in the house.

While it doesn't sound like she broke anything, the thought that she could've fallen unconscious on the front stoop is scary as hell. But then even if she decided she needed to go to the ER or urgent care (or someone who found her), would she be safe going and exposing herself to the virus with sick people in the waiting room? And then there's the decision as to whether to impose on already strained emergency services...what's the right thing to do?

In the end, she chose not to call for an ambulance and based on what she told me, I agreed with her. But if something really terrible happened and she had no choice, what could she do?

Scary thoughts.

Yours in bubble wrap,
Michael

Zoom - All the Cool Kids Are Doing It

During this time of self-isolation, it's comforting knowing there are easy (and free) ways to video conference with multiple friends.

Zoom (www.zoom.us) is one such tool and seemed to have "zoomed" in popularity since we've all begun self-isolating (sorry for the bad pun).

I used Zoom back in the early days several years ago, so I was already familiar with the app. Not only that but in my past life, I telecommuted and initiated teleconferences hundreds of times using other programs. Call me a veteran in this regard.

Thus intrigued about how much Zoom has improved, I installed it today after Face-timing with my stepson. He mentioned he and several of his buddies used Zoom to have a virtual get-together, thus prompting me to get up to speed again.

Yes, it's very easy to sign up and install. I now have it on both my phone and my Mac, so I'm set in case a teleconference suddenly breaks out. Invitations are mailed (or you can copy/paste the invite into text). All the features of premium teleconference tools are there. It's easy to control audio, video, and other in-conference functions. All in all, a winner in my book.

Something tells me there will be a lot of people using this program in the future because as we become more isolated, we'll look for a touch of face-to-face contact with multiple people at once.

Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Yours in Videoland,
Michael

Fitzgerald & Hemingway

The following is a reprint of a letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to a friend during a Spanish flu quarantine. Long having been an admirer of Hemingway's writing and to some degree his persona (emphasis is mine), I'm not surprised by his attitude. 😀

A LETTER FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, QUARANTINED IN 1920 IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE DURING THE SPANISH INFLUENZA OUTBREAK. 

Dearest Rosemary,

It was a limpid dreary day, hung as in a basket from a single dull star. I thank you for your letter. Outside, I perceive what may be a collection of fallen leaves tussling against a trash can. It rings like jazz to my ears. The streets are that empty. It seems as though the bulk of the city has retreated to their quarters, rightfully so. At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that, he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t. He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources. The officials have alerted us to ensure we have a month’s worth of necessities. Zelda and I have stocked up on red wine, whiskey, rum, vermouth, absinthe, white wine, sherry, gin, and lord, if we need it, brandy. Please pray for us. You should see the square, oh, it is terrible. I weep for the damned eventualities this future brings. The long afternoons rolling forward slowly on the ever-slick bottomless highball. Z. says it’s no excuse to drink, but I just can’t seem to steady my hand. In the distance, from my brooding perch, the shoreline is cloaked in a dull haze where I can discern an unremitting penance that has been heading this way for a long, long while. And yet, amongst the cracked cloudline of an evening’s cast, I focus on a single strain of light, calling me forth to believe in a better morrow.

Faithfully yours,

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Stay safe and stay healthy!

The Name of the Blog

In case you haven't figured it out, I call this blog "Love in the Time of Corona" as a play on the famous 1985 book Love in the Time of Cholera by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. A movie of the same name was released in 2007.

From Wikipedia:

The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's Aunt Escolástica. They exchange several love letters. However, once Fermina's father, Lorenzo Daza, finds out about the two, he forces his daughter to stop seeing Florentino immediately. When she refuses, he and his daughter move in with his deceased wife's family in another city. Regardless of the distance, Fermina and Florentino continue to communicate via telegraph. However, upon her return, Fermina realizes that her relationship with Florentino was nothing but a dream since they are practically strangers; she breaks off her engagement to Florentino and returns all his letters.

A young and accomplished national hero, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, meets Fermina and begins to court her. Despite her initial dislike of Urbino, Fermina gives in to her father's persuasion and the security and wealth Urbino offers, and they wed. Urbino is a physician devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress". He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who greatly values his importance and reputation in society. He is a herald of progress and modernization.

Even after Fermina's engagement and marriage, Florentino swore to stay faithful and wait for her. However, his promiscuity gets the better of him. Even with all the women he is with, he makes sure that Fermina will never find out. Meanwhile, Fermina and Urbino grow old together, going through happy years and unhappy ones and experiencing all the reality of marriage. At an elderly age, Urbino attempts to get his pet parrot out of his mango tree, only to fall off the ladder he was standing on and die. After the funeral, Florentino proclaims his love for Fermina once again and tells her he has stayed faithful to her all these years. Hesitant at first because she is only recently widowed, and finding his advances untoward, Fermina eventually gives him a second chance. They attempt a life together, having lived two lives separately for over five decades.

Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina many years into their marriage. Though the novel seems to suggest that Urbino's love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino's was, it also complicates Florentino's devotion by cataloging his many trysts as well as a few potentially genuine loves. By the end of the book, Fermina comes to recognize Florentino's wisdom and maturity, and their love is allowed to blossom during their old age.

 A link to the entire article is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera

I remember reading the book when it first came out and loved it. I never did see the movie, however. 

Binge Watching

Like everyone else, we've ramped up our binge-watching to get us through this self-imposed isolation we're living with. Some thoughts on three of them.

Manifest (NBC Streaming) -- Science fiction with a large dollop of human entanglements. An airplane filled with passengers on the way to the U.S. from Jamaica gets "lost" for five years and when the passengers return home, they find time only stopped for them, not the rest of the world.

The acting is a bit melodramatic sometimes, though there are some particularly good bright spots. The plot is quite intriguing and overall, the feeling of suspense (and realism) is well-done.

Rating: 4.2/5

Hunters (Amazon Prime) -- 1977 New York City. A ragtag band of Nazi hunters seek out and execute Nazis who are hiding in the United States. Stars Al Pacino, which for me is always a plus. Very violent, though. A little like Quentin Tarantino on steroids at times.

The acting is strong. All the characters are three-dimension, fraught with their own demons and agendas. The plot, a bit stretched in some places, is very good with a lot of plot twists to keep you on your toes. And the action...well, let's say it's superb.

Rating: 4.5/5

Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime) -- Based on the Tom Clancy character, Jack Ryan (played by John Krasinski, best known for The Office) is a former Marine turned CIA analyst whose sole mission is to save the world from the bad guys. I know that's generic, but it's what it is. Each season is one long action movie, following the entirety of the plot down to the last frame.

The acting is excellent as are the storylines. Krasinski is quite a fine dramatic actor and he plays Jack Ryan in an understated way, which is a high compliment. I love the way the stories unfold and the multiple plot twists. Definitely exciting!

Stay tuned for more reviews in the future.

Grocery Trips, The Early Days

We live about twenty miles away from the closest grocery store, so our pre-pandemic norm was to drive into town about twice a week for groceries. Being the cook in the family, I kept multiple lists of items needed in each store we would need to go to.

The last time we made a retail run was a week ago today (on March 13th). We went out later than usual with the brilliant idea that we'd avoid the crowds. Even though we heard of empty shelves at our usual places, we felt certain that the staff would've had the time to restock the shelves after the mad hordes had left.

Wrong.

We ended up going to five grocery stores and we were only able to get three-quarters of what we deemed as necessary. Fortunately, we had plenty of paper products to begin with and most everything essential, including pasta and tomato sauce. I stupidly failed to buy ground beef at our previous Costco run and didn't find any at any of the stores we stopped at that night.

Right now, we have plenty of everything we need and are able to stay here for a month or longer if we need to without rationing. However, we do have to go into town to pick up prescriptions, though we plan to shift to a delivery system right after we pick up this load. While out, we'll make a stop in a couple of stores to see if we can get the few things we'd like to have on hand (again, ground beef).

This is the new normal. We're slowly coming to grips with that sad fact.

Day One of Many

I doubt I will keep this blog up for very long, but I'm going to try as long as we're effectively in lockdown thanks to COVID-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus has changed life as we know it, perhaps forever. I hope this will be a chronicle of life during and after this global crisis.

Here, I will not only share my observations about daily existence but also my thoughts about how our future world will look once we're past this mess. Only time will tell how right or wrong I am.

Warning: this blog will not stray from making political statements. While the virus in and of itself did get started as a result of our politicians, it certainly has worsened under the poor leadership from the White House and the GOP. History will show how badly they failed us all--of that I have no doubt.

I have a zero-tolerance policy for trolls. If you post offensive or threatening comments, you'll either be blocked or reported (or both). Write your own blog if you want to communicate opp argumentative opposing views.

If you have a difference of opinion and want to share it in a logical and thoughtful way, have at it. It doesn't mean I won't disagree with you but at least I won't disrespect you. I expect the same courtesy; otherwise, you're gone. Life's too short, as are quickly learning.

Welcome to my blog. There's no turning back.