Tags

masks, shut downs, vaccines, virus

V- Something Day with No Parade

First of all, I know I’ve been away for a while but why can’t I get a proper font size for my title?

In any case, the worst seems to be over for many us. The rest of the world is hosed until I don’t know when this virus burns itself out or we get shots in 5 billion more arms.

So we pat ourselves on the back and start dipping our toes back into society saying maybe all the grief and pain, not to mention all the deaths while not worth it were sorta necessary – I don’t know and those who fought shutdowns and masks and vaccines say why did we need shutdowns and masks and vaccines anyway because in the end it doesn’t really seem to have mattered.

It does to those who lost someone.

So there was no clock to run out, no 4th quarter game clock to expire, no cheering we’re number one, no V-E Parade, no V-J day, no V- over virus celebration. It ends, if you choose to believe it’s ending with a slow fade to grey, no even black over which the credits would roll.

No trophy, no awards, no cash prizes although if I knew someone was offering me a million bucks to get vaccinated I would have held out. Nope, not for a second.

All we had to do was be smart and not be stupid which apparently was a tall order for some people.

I don’t feel like cheering. I don’t feel like celebrating and i don’t feel like throwing a party because it’s not over. sometimes I don’t feel like anything.

That’s what I would like to get back to…feeling something, anything.

Cue Stephen Sondheim – ” Being Alive.”

Still, I don’t think a parade is warranted or needed. Just a quiet, sigh, a thank you and let’s move on if we ever can really move on.

The Year 2020

Tags

2020, 2021, climate change, masks, Trump, virus

Hi folks, 2020 here and as most if not all of you are ready to shove me to the curb, into a dumpster and off a cliff I have few words to say.

None of the mess you’re in this year is my fault.

For example…Hurricanes are larger and more destructive. No kidding.

Everyone has known the climate is changing for years but no one really seems to be interested in taking actions that would cost money to begin to fix the problem. And by no one I mean a select group of old white men in Washington DC.

Wildfires, droughts, floods, tornadoes -See above. The changing weather is not news to anyone.

The virus.

You could have worn masks. You could have stayed away from motorcycles rallies in South Dakota and campaign rallies both indoors and outdoors.

You could have stayed home at Thanksgiving but you didn’t.

You could stay home for Christmas but you won’t.

You and I’m speaking to politicians now who called the virus a hoax every day since January and now you want the vaccine to protect you from the hoax.

Nice way to cut into line just because you work in Washington.

Let the old people die first except when they are friends of the president and then they get special antibody treatment.

When was the last time a helicopter whisked you from your front door to a private floor at Walter Reed Hospital with your own cadre of doctors?

Am I angry? You bet. That fool on the hill can’t be gone too soon.

Remember, the virus would magically disappear in April when the weather got warm.

My only hope is that he disappears one minute after 12 noon on January 20th, 2021.

2020 Here

Tags

2020, drought, hurricanes, man made disasters, virus, years

Hi all, 2020 here and I’m going set the record straight.

Look. I was just in the queue of years waiting my turn patiently I might add when the you know what hit the you know what and everyone started blaming it on me.

Viruses, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, politicians and on and on.

I am an innocent bystander.

You could have stopped or slowed the virus but what did you do? You played games with the truth saying was no worse than the flu. You had time to get restrictions and testing onto place and what did you do?

Somehow you thought impeaching your governor was going to make things better. Guess what.

You’ve had years upon years of warning about the climate. Is it my fault the oceans are warmer and the droughts are longer and the rains when they come amount to a years worth in some places and it lands in 36 hours? Don’t hang that one on me.

My point is this – I showed up on time and I’ll be gone in two and half months. 2021 is sitting in the wings in horror and terrified of how you’ll treat him or her or it.

We’re innocent bystanders to the mess you’ve made.

So really, get your acts together and stop blaming someone else.

To Mask or Not to Mask ?

Tags

insanity, masks, travel, virus

I recently traveled out of my home state through New  York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

At every gas station, donut shop, hotel and pizza place there was 100% mask wearing compliance.  That includes highway rest stops as well.

I take heart.

Returning home I find only a 70% ( unofficial, of course) mask wearing rate on the main street of downtown.  And I lose heart.

I muster up the nastiest look I can muster behind my mask at the non -maskers, my mother used to call it – Stink Eye, and I make sure to swerve a good and deliberate 10 feet out of the way of the clods who refuse to wear masks.

The question posed in the title is not all that difficult to answer.

And as far as those ” embers” of the virus, those embers are people with lives and families.

 

 

 

It Don’t Matter, Part Deux

Tags

music, observations, The Monkees, virus

Following up on the previous post of almost the same name.

That replayed football game’s 4th quarter happens to coincide with a local station’s broadcast on their point 2 as in, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 etc…that I like.

Eight point two shows two episodes of The Monkees starting at 5pm on Sundays.  The fourth quarter of the replay games shares airtime with Los Monkees.

Watching the show again after 50 something years is hard to describe.  The boys were so young, who wasn’t?  The music was pretty good and it turns out they were talented performers in their own rights.

Mike Nesmith  already had written a hit or two, Peter Tork was in a couple of working bands, Davy Jones had performed in the West End and on Broadway and Mickey Dolenz had tv chops.

Some of the music holds up pretty well even after 50 years. Some of it doesn’t.

It’s the smirking asides from Nesmith and the boys that I see now for the first time.  I suspect they all knew how ridiculous the whole scene was and so they decided to be as ridiculous as they could be.

They were fine with management as long as they towed the line but once they realized they had power since they were the stars and  wanted to make their own music they were done, cooked, kaput.

I would toss in a Monkee tune here but you all know which ones are your favs and besides I’m tired of fighting “Skip Ads” on You Tube so you can “Skip Ads” yourself.

I’ve also had it it with ” You’re not signed in,” Start a free trial account” and ads right in the middle of whatever movie I’m watching.  Ads are your problem, not mine.

As far as going bed early, or late or even to at all it don’t matter as it’s always Groundhog Day but without Bill Murray or And McDowell or Ned Ryerson.

Honestly, we have it pretty good overall.

So you better get ready, they maybe coming your town.

 

 

 

It Don’t Matter

Tags

country music, crossword puzzles, observations, virus

I figure I’ll write the piece and then maybe a title will come to me or it won’t.  As they say in country music – ” It Don’t Matter.”

I think I just happened upon a title.

Along the lines of passing time these days I offer these observations:

I watched a replay of Super Bowl 31 or XXXl as the NFL likes to call it.  I have no idea when it occurred except that I probably, maybe, most likely watched it.  There were no leather helmets involved so it somewhere in te recent but maybe distant past.

I found the time waster to be fairly interesting as John Madden and Pat Summerall called the game.  Since it was x number of years ago there was serious lack of video and teevee bells and whistles in the replay department which I found refreshing.

Even better was how the game was edited down to three or maybe 2 hours leaving all of the in game commercials on the sidelines, if you will and whatever dreadful halftime show that actually took place never made it to air.

I remember when my kids were young and my Sunday afternoons were not free for football viewing I would tape the games, yes, tape the games, and then watch them at 11pm that same evening having embargoed myself from the final scores so I could be genuinely surprised that those New York Football Jets had actually won a game if they did.

I could watch a whole game in about 25 minutes fast forwarding past the pre game, kickoffs, replays, commercials, halftime show, commercials, replays, commercials and commercials and commercials.  Boom and done, Jets win, Jets lose and I go to bed.

But back to the matters at hand these days.   I have been consciously varying my schedule day to day in order to change things up.  Go to bed early, go to bed late, take a nap, don’t take a nap.

Then I read an article today somewhere cautioning me on how to avoid falling into the trap of going to bed early, going to bed late and so on.

I walk and run, I play guitar and piano and I have a love hate thing going with the NY Times crosswords.

Sometimes the puzzles are too cute for their own good.

Last night I did one where there was supposed to be a four letter word in one box although neither the puzzle nor the Times tells you this upfront.

The word was “Back” so a four letter answer became “Back Bay” or ” Pay Back or Get Back” and so on.

We do not appreciate extra cuteness around here these days so please leave your cleverness at the front door.

And as for the title, It Don’t Matter.

Next post – Part Two of It Don’t Matter.

 

 

 

 

Passing Time These Days

Tags

observations, politics, virus

I wasn’t sure if I should title this piece ” Passing Time” or “These Days” so I came to the obvious conclusion I should use both.

Here we are passing time these days or these days we’re passing time.  I can probably still reuse the titles since these days I have nowhere to go and all day to get there.  Passing Days anyone?  These Times? Passing These days?  The possibilities are somewhat limited but might be good for a week’s worth of observations.

I have been watching WWll documentaries on the Battle of Britain.  The Nazis keep making the same mistakes and the Brits always prevail.

Yes, I know history repeats itself more often than we realize or would like admit.  We keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Supposedly Jackson Browne was 16 years old when he wrote his song,”These Days.”  Pretty self aware for a kid.

We could use some self awareness in certain quarters so that history would stop repeating itself for a while and give us a break.

Thanks to everyone who is till at work keeping the rest of us safe.

Categories

Tags

aging, categories, virus

I don’t mean the like the ones on Jeopardy or the board game Scattergories.  I mean how we get separated into groups.

No matter what or when I’m always in one category or another and in multiple categories at the same time.

Man, husband, father, runner, musician. tax payer, non tax payer, voter, shopper, car buyer, student, union member and so on – all the hats we wear during the course of a day, a month, a year and our lifetimes.

Now I find myself in new category.

The current virus news cautions the elderly and those with underlying health conditions   that they are at high risk for complications from the corona virus.

My age – not what I consider elderly but news reports say anyone over 60 ought to be cautious so I get heaped in with them.

And what exactly are underlying health conditions?

Maybe the list is too long for a news broadcast so I asked my doctor if I have underlying health conditions.  He said yes.

The list is probably so long that anyone of us over 60 has at least one or more reasons to worry even though we continue to lead normal, somewhat healthy lives.  We think so anyway.

in addition to being a voter, tax payer and so on I’m now in another category wearing another hat.

Another hat.