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

The Biggest "Sacrifice"

That title is tongue in cheek, of course. There are no greater sacrifices being made during this pandemic crisis than those of our health workers and first responders who are trying to save a tsunami of sick and dying people in the hopes of preventing a total overwhelming of our hospitals and other facilities.

So when I read or hear people complaining about the few sacrifices we have to make to reduce the spread of this disease, I get a bit miffed, to say the least. Case in point...

I live in a planned community where many snowbirds come for the winter. While there are renters, the vast majority of these temporary residents own these second homes. Unlike us year-round homeowners, they migrate with the seasons.

If you're not familiar with Nextdoor. com, it's a website that allows neighborhoods to connect online, providing message boards as for each community to interact. We joined ours when we lived in Glendale, CA and we belong to the one servicing where we currently live, too...

You wouldn't believe the amount of complaining, whining, and general nastiness our neighbors exhibit online. Talk about a bunch of whiny babies! And most of the whiners are the snowbirds, all of whom take umbrage at the fact that most of our amenities are closed down for the time being. It makes me embarrassed for them.

All of us have to make sacrifices during this time of international crisis. We'd love to be able to go to the gym we have here but realize we can't as long as it's closed and more importantly, there's nothing we can do about it anyway. As noted in another post, sure, we'd love to be able to go out to dinner sometimes but are happy to stay away from crowds until given the all-clear.

What I'm trying to say is people should sit down, shut up, and be thankful they have what they have. Grousing about being cooped up isn't doing you or anyone else any good. You're lucky you have enough food in your larder to weather this storm. Some go hungry every day; some die of starvation every day.

We're all going to get through this if we follow the guidelines and keep a cool head.

Reaching Out Across the Miles

Back in early January, I quit Facebook completely and despite having been there since 2007, I took exception to Mark Zuckerberg's kowtowing to the political right and his allowing Russians to influence our 2016 elections with policies that seemed to invite the same this year.

Instead, I recently began initiating new connections on LinkedIn. My goal was not to use it so much as a business networking tool (admittedly, what its stated intent is), but rather to meet like-minded people in a more professional platform.

The other day, I connected with two gentlemen from Africa, one from Tanzania, the other from Ghana. Both men are proud of their countries and their continent, eager to sing the praises of what their people have to offer the rest of the world.

By sheer coincidence, I drafted a spec screenplay several months ago called Serengeti Rains, inspired by the song Africa by the band Toto. I mentioned this to my new connection and he sounded very intrigued, wanting to know more and offering to be involved in the project should it ever come to fruition. Who knows where that will lead?

The point is that both he and the man in Ghana told me that the coronavirus has barely touched their countries at this point, so they don't share the same concerns about their future. Instead, they are looking forward to the growth of their continent in the eyes of the world. A different perspective, if you will.

Yours in self-isolation,
Michael

Coronavirus Is a Hoax (and Other Lies)

As you would expect, there have been plenty of lies and gaslighting from Trump and his administration about this coronavirus.

Remember when he said this was a "Democrat [sic] hoax?" Or that everything is under control and the few cases would peter our right away? I mean, the number of lies Trump tells in a single day is staggering, but none as damaging as the plain old bullsh#t he spews at every one of daily briefings.

But he's not the only one. Did you hear that there's a supposed man of the cloth who is blaming coronavirus on gay people? Or someone else claiming that this is God's vengeance on liberals? And then there are all those self-proclaimed stable geniuses who still insist that coronavirus is a hoax perpetrated in order to unthrone the Mango Mussolini.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me clarify something for you. Anyone who lays the responsibility of this virus on a supposedly loving God is, to be frank, unhinged.

Now I'm not so uncharitable to suggest anyone who is religious has a screw loose. I'm a spiritual guy but more importantly, I am first and foremost a man of science. I didn't disconnect my brain through eight years of Catholic school and four years of catechism classes.

There is a problem in this country and it rests on the religious right, the so-called "evangelicals" who all too often spew a message of hate of everyone except good ol' God-fearing, white people.

Give me a break.

Cooking Extravaganza

I love to cook. Absolutely. I love all aspects of it...the prep, the cooking itself, the coordination of all the dishes so they're done at the same time, and yes, even the clean-up afterward. My wife gets mad at me because I won't let her even wash or dry the dishes. It's how I relax, I keep telling her.

Yes, I'm weird.

There was a time when my wife did most of the cooking while I worked outside the house. Even though she's a good cook, she really didn't like it. That's similar to my mother, an Italian born of immigrants who is probably one of the best cooks I know (surpassed only by her mother) and only recently discovered she really never liked doing it.

Talk about messing up my childhood.

Anyway, I must've learned something watching her over the years or maybe there's something to the truth that cooking has to be in your "blood" (or DNA, if we want to modernize the myth a little bit). Whatever it is, once my wife and I moved from L.A. to Phoenix, I took over the cooking duties and never looked back.

My wife is a big fan and she (by her own admittance) is a picky eater but she raves about what I serve. Perhaps I cook specifically to her tastes and preferences, and though I like my own cooking as well, I don't consider it rave-worthy.

Though I mostly only cook for us, I've occasionally done so for others, too, including my mother. To my surprise, I've gotten rave reviews, so I guess I'm doing something right.

The only time I don't cook is when we used to go out to dinner after one of our retail forays. My wife, always complimentary, would enjoy the outdoor food but insist I've ruined her for restaurants forever.

Naturally, this self-isolation we're undergoing is keeping me in the kitchen more frequently than in the past and I'm loving it. It's given me a chance to experiment more, oftentimes with my wife as a muse as she finds recipes that look good to her. I don't mind her input at all...it gives me ideas of what she would like to try.

Besides writing, cooking gives me a creative outlet like no other. I'd invite you over, but we should all shelter in place.

Yours from the kitchen,
Michael