It's Thursday. Got that?
I took a couple days off. Or, rather, I didn't feel the impulse to write. It happens.
But I've been thinking A LOT about eating. From my Twitter timeline, lots of people are thinking about food.
Where to start? Let's start with dumb ideas.
I saw someone who wanted to make pancakes with 3 ingredients. Cottage cheese, oatmeal, and egg.
That is NOT a pancake!
Which leads to this observation: because of worries about food, there's a lot of people whipping up concoctions from what is "in the pantry." Right.
Did you see the picture from the person who predicted what we'd be eating in Week 30 of Stay At Home? A tortilla with peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, a pickle, and a raw hot dog. Aka red neck sushi.
I guess there's an app where you put in these items in your pantry and they give you a recipe. (is this what you get when you put in hot dog, pickle, marshmallow fluff, etc? or cottage cheese, egg, oatmeal?)
None of it seems all that edible.
Then there's this big question: why is everyone baking bread?
Seriously.
You know, you can walk down the aisle in the grocery store and get good bread, cheap? Right?
Yet here are all these people uploading pictures of loaves of (not particularly appealing) bread. In odd shapes and colors.
And tweet after tweet about how to find, keep, retain, etc, yeast starter. This is why we buy it in the store. 😵
Here in town, there's even a taco truck that has opened. Ironically (or maybe not), it has a hand printed sign that says "carryout only." On a taco truck.
I have to end there. We are all lost in a food wilderness.
Till next time.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Monday, May 18, 2020
Monday...re-opening
It is Monday. Get over it.
I survived the morning -- it's always a struggle. You know, motivating yourself to get out of bed, generate momentum to get through the day, then the week.
It's tougher during this quarantine thing.
Then there's the eternal confusion about what people are thinking.
For instance, New Jersey is opening up their beaches, with all sorts of supposed codicils, next weekend (it's Memorial Day, a traditional go-to-the-beach in the mid-Atlantic weekend).
So, you think: okay, beach. Lots of space, lots of room for social distancing. You don't have to touch anyone. Fine.
Then I see a picture from a boardwalk in some small town I've never heard of and it is of a line of people waiting to get their beach passes. It must be 100 people deep. No space between them in line. I don't see a lot of what look like masks. What the fuck are you people thinking?!?!!?!? You want to go to the beach so bad you're willing to risk getting this shit1?!?!!?!?!?!?
It's depressing.
Look, 85,000 people in this country of died (and that number is probably low, acc to all kinds of people who think we haven't counted everyone who's died of it) and over a million have had it, or still do.
It ain't nothing. It ain't a hoax.
It kills people. Lots of them.
And if it doesn't kill you, it may ruin your lungs forever.
But, what the heck, let's line up with a bunch of unmasked strangers for our beach passes. La-di-da.
I wonder if our ancestors did this with the plague. You know, "Everyone around has this thing that gives you a fever and kills you, but let's go down and hang out at the pub because I couldn't stand to go a night without me pint." I wonder.
The thing is, even 100 years ago with the Spanish flu, virology was not as sophisticated as it is today -- they didn't know what they were fighting.
You think if you told them "you stay home, wear a mask if you have to go out and meet someone, wash your hands a lot, stay six feet away" they would have said "but I need my beach pass" or "I need to party" or "my hair looks bad?"
One wonders. If they had, I suspect we wouldn't all be here.
And that's today's Monday depression. Good luck with yours.
I survived the morning -- it's always a struggle. You know, motivating yourself to get out of bed, generate momentum to get through the day, then the week.
It's tougher during this quarantine thing.
Then there's the eternal confusion about what people are thinking.
For instance, New Jersey is opening up their beaches, with all sorts of supposed codicils, next weekend (it's Memorial Day, a traditional go-to-the-beach in the mid-Atlantic weekend).
So, you think: okay, beach. Lots of space, lots of room for social distancing. You don't have to touch anyone. Fine.
Then I see a picture from a boardwalk in some small town I've never heard of and it is of a line of people waiting to get their beach passes. It must be 100 people deep. No space between them in line. I don't see a lot of what look like masks. What the fuck are you people thinking?!?!!?!? You want to go to the beach so bad you're willing to risk getting this shit1?!?!!?!?!?!?
It's depressing.
Look, 85,000 people in this country of died (and that number is probably low, acc to all kinds of people who think we haven't counted everyone who's died of it) and over a million have had it, or still do.
It ain't nothing. It ain't a hoax.
It kills people. Lots of them.
And if it doesn't kill you, it may ruin your lungs forever.
But, what the heck, let's line up with a bunch of unmasked strangers for our beach passes. La-di-da.
I wonder if our ancestors did this with the plague. You know, "Everyone around has this thing that gives you a fever and kills you, but let's go down and hang out at the pub because I couldn't stand to go a night without me pint." I wonder.
The thing is, even 100 years ago with the Spanish flu, virology was not as sophisticated as it is today -- they didn't know what they were fighting.
You think if you told them "you stay home, wear a mask if you have to go out and meet someone, wash your hands a lot, stay six feet away" they would have said "but I need my beach pass" or "I need to party" or "my hair looks bad?"
One wonders. If they had, I suspect we wouldn't all be here.
And that's today's Monday depression. Good luck with yours.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Oh, no!!! It's...it's...
Okay. It's finally happened. I awoke this morning, looked at my fitbit (845 on the clock hand version I have chosen) and wondered "why is K on her staff meeting?" I was sure it was Monday. I even laid in bed and thought about checking online on my new students -- because it was Monday.
It's Sunday!!!
It is really Sunday.
It's stunning that 9+ weeks ago we all thought Sundays were good things.
But that's a lot less so when everyday seems like a Sunday. When the line between work day and every day is so blurred you can't tell the difference, Sundays lose their charm and potency.
It's Sunday.
They ran at Churchill Downs yesterday. The star of the show, Monomoy Girl, did what stars do to become stars -- made everyone else look pedestrian. Bottled up along the back stretch, her jockey (Florent Geroux) swung her out to three wide an she acceclerated like she had a gear the others don't (which she clearly did) and zipped pat them all to a 6-length win. After months of little stardom in racing (okay, the Arkansas Derbies two weeks ago), it was good to see what looked like sports stardom perform.
Our big news here yesterday was this:
It's been since March since we've seen this in the stores. Yesterday my daughter snared a package. Woo woo.
I just heard, and saw the graphic, that 48 states were doing some kind of reopening in the coming days. It's not clear what "reopening" means -- here it means no hair salons, tattoo parlors, restricted restaurants, and quite a few businesses not really open. Reopened is stretching the defintion.
We are all trying to find a way to get through this. Not just the zoom world we now live in, but the strange mixture of masks, distancing, half available tables, and lines, six feet apart, in stores, restaurants, and places of entertainment.
But it's Sunday! We don't have to worry so much about that today. It's a(nother) day of rest!
Enjoy.
It's Sunday!!!
It is really Sunday.
It's stunning that 9+ weeks ago we all thought Sundays were good things.
But that's a lot less so when everyday seems like a Sunday. When the line between work day and every day is so blurred you can't tell the difference, Sundays lose their charm and potency.
It's Sunday.
They ran at Churchill Downs yesterday. The star of the show, Monomoy Girl, did what stars do to become stars -- made everyone else look pedestrian. Bottled up along the back stretch, her jockey (Florent Geroux) swung her out to three wide an she acceclerated like she had a gear the others don't (which she clearly did) and zipped pat them all to a 6-length win. After months of little stardom in racing (okay, the Arkansas Derbies two weeks ago), it was good to see what looked like sports stardom perform.
Our big news here yesterday was this:
I just heard, and saw the graphic, that 48 states were doing some kind of reopening in the coming days. It's not clear what "reopening" means -- here it means no hair salons, tattoo parlors, restricted restaurants, and quite a few businesses not really open. Reopened is stretching the defintion.
We are all trying to find a way to get through this. Not just the zoom world we now live in, but the strange mixture of masks, distancing, half available tables, and lines, six feet apart, in stores, restaurants, and places of entertainment.
But it's Sunday! We don't have to worry so much about that today. It's a(nother) day of rest!
Enjoy.
Friday, May 15, 2020
TGIF -- and THIS Friday
Yes, it's Friday. This is the end of my 9th week in quarantine.
But this is going to qualify as a good Friday (no religious connotations) -- there is actually a small menu of juicy live sports coming on this weekend.
There's been horse racing all 9 weeks, although the big races, the Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes have all been postponed, with the Derby rescheduled for Labor Day Saturday. The other two aren't.
Anyway, they have run on in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska (did you know they raced those places), and Florida, through it all. You can ponder why those places, but I think you know why.
As of today, Santa Anita in California is open and running. Tomorrow Churchill Downs is open and its races will be running on FS1 all afternoon.
It's something.
Let me just say this: it will be better next weekend, as Churchill Downs hosts the Matt Winn on Saturday, a race for three=year-olds that will now be a Derby prep, giving points toward Derby qualification. That counts as juice.
On Sunday, we have golf. Four golfers, who may or may not be household names, Dustin Johnson (former US Open champ) pairs with multiple major championship winner Rory McElroy against Ricky Fowler and Matt Wolff with two F's. From one of the best courses in Florida, Seminole. It's big news (ar ar) they aren't using caddies, but carrying their own bags. Twitter wonders if it'll be the 50-pound burdens they make their caddies lug every day as pros, or something smaller.
No matter what, it's live sports. On NBC, a major network. Something to watch and not be too bored. Though it is golf.
It's a light at the end of the tunnel. It's 9 weeks. Finally, something is happening.
Have a good day. And hopefully a good weekend.
But this is going to qualify as a good Friday (no religious connotations) -- there is actually a small menu of juicy live sports coming on this weekend.
There's been horse racing all 9 weeks, although the big races, the Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes have all been postponed, with the Derby rescheduled for Labor Day Saturday. The other two aren't.
Anyway, they have run on in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska (did you know they raced those places), and Florida, through it all. You can ponder why those places, but I think you know why.
As of today, Santa Anita in California is open and running. Tomorrow Churchill Downs is open and its races will be running on FS1 all afternoon.
It's something.
Let me just say this: it will be better next weekend, as Churchill Downs hosts the Matt Winn on Saturday, a race for three=year-olds that will now be a Derby prep, giving points toward Derby qualification. That counts as juice.
On Sunday, we have golf. Four golfers, who may or may not be household names, Dustin Johnson (former US Open champ) pairs with multiple major championship winner Rory McElroy against Ricky Fowler and Matt Wolff with two F's. From one of the best courses in Florida, Seminole. It's big news (ar ar) they aren't using caddies, but carrying their own bags. Twitter wonders if it'll be the 50-pound burdens they make their caddies lug every day as pros, or something smaller.
No matter what, it's live sports. On NBC, a major network. Something to watch and not be too bored. Though it is golf.
It's a light at the end of the tunnel. It's 9 weeks. Finally, something is happening.
Have a good day. And hopefully a good weekend.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Vast Wasteland of Quarantine
It's Thursday. Gawd, I've always hated Thursdays. It's a terrible day of the work week.
Not better now with the big Q. This is ending week 9. This blog is rather like the wall of the prison cell, like the Count of Monte Cristo, scraping another notch each day to make sure we remember the passing of the days.
It's Thursday.
ICYMI, the Cal State system announced Tuesday that they are going to almost all online in the fall, already. I'm not sure why they decided it was time to pull that trigger, but they have. Others have said they are close -- including noises out of Harvard. We'll leave THAT to another day.
But the PA state system has already been on all online through the summer, which means at some campus till mid-August. The Chancellor has said publicly they are wondering about online in the fall.
Without face-to-face (F2F) in the fall, I'm not sure when I'll "go out" again (this is except for trips to pick up food and/or groceries/prescriptions).
I feel for my car's loneliness. I haven't filled up with gas in forever, though I've seen the local quick mart's prices fluctuate slowly down to $1.72, now back up to $1.97 (from a high the first week of $2.49). I'd fill my tank but it's still full. :)
Anyway, the title.
There's nothing to really look forward to. If you haven't read the blogs before this one, you won't know (and those who have can skip this) that all summer vacations plans, long made, are now off.
There's no work in the fall F2F -- I can start to think about revising my online shells. Woo woo. Talk about juice.
I'm trying to find something to look forward to.
The Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Labor Day weekend. This might be the thing. Because it's not clear baseball will be back. Or I guess come June I'll watch A LOT of golf, since they are planning on being back. I don't imagine they'll wear masks, either. LOL.
It's tough folks. And I'm a lucky one -- I have a job that is secure, so does my partner, and therefore I have computer, multiple streaming services on the TV (my latest thumbs up is Upload on Amazon Prime -- it's both funny and rather touching), plenty of money, and multiple people in the house who can cook -- unlike the Tweet I saw this week of "quarantine in a few weeks" with a picture of a tortilla laid out with a pickle, hot dog, with a smear of marshmellow fluff and peanut butter in the middle.
I don't have to worry about that.
But it's not a pretty landscape out there looking forward.
Till tomorrow, which is yahoo! TGIF. ICYMI. :)
Not better now with the big Q. This is ending week 9. This blog is rather like the wall of the prison cell, like the Count of Monte Cristo, scraping another notch each day to make sure we remember the passing of the days.
It's Thursday.
ICYMI, the Cal State system announced Tuesday that they are going to almost all online in the fall, already. I'm not sure why they decided it was time to pull that trigger, but they have. Others have said they are close -- including noises out of Harvard. We'll leave THAT to another day.
But the PA state system has already been on all online through the summer, which means at some campus till mid-August. The Chancellor has said publicly they are wondering about online in the fall.
Without face-to-face (F2F) in the fall, I'm not sure when I'll "go out" again (this is except for trips to pick up food and/or groceries/prescriptions).
I feel for my car's loneliness. I haven't filled up with gas in forever, though I've seen the local quick mart's prices fluctuate slowly down to $1.72, now back up to $1.97 (from a high the first week of $2.49). I'd fill my tank but it's still full. :)
Anyway, the title.
There's nothing to really look forward to. If you haven't read the blogs before this one, you won't know (and those who have can skip this) that all summer vacations plans, long made, are now off.
There's no work in the fall F2F -- I can start to think about revising my online shells. Woo woo. Talk about juice.
I'm trying to find something to look forward to.
The Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Labor Day weekend. This might be the thing. Because it's not clear baseball will be back. Or I guess come June I'll watch A LOT of golf, since they are planning on being back. I don't imagine they'll wear masks, either. LOL.
It's tough folks. And I'm a lucky one -- I have a job that is secure, so does my partner, and therefore I have computer, multiple streaming services on the TV (my latest thumbs up is Upload on Amazon Prime -- it's both funny and rather touching), plenty of money, and multiple people in the house who can cook -- unlike the Tweet I saw this week of "quarantine in a few weeks" with a picture of a tortilla laid out with a pickle, hot dog, with a smear of marshmellow fluff and peanut butter in the middle.
I don't have to worry about that.
But it's not a pretty landscape out there looking forward.
Till tomorrow, which is yahoo! TGIF. ICYMI. :)
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Delayed gratitude, airline style
It's Wednesday. Or, as Winnie the Pooh so famously says, Winds-day. Actually, THAT is not too bad today.
But it's a happy non-Pooh day because I got through to Orbitz and I am getting a refund for my tickets to London for next month.
Someday.
That's where the title comes from (sort of).
Actually, the title comes from a malapropism of my mother's from some years ago when my son wanted his Christmas presents early: "he needs to learn delayed gratitude" she stated. I don't think he ever quite has. Have any of us?
But a combination of Orbitz and British Airways is trying to teach me, in my 7th decade, some. 😡
I'll start here: we were going to London, then Glasgow, to see a Cardinals-Cubs baseball game (because who doesn't go to London for that, right?) and then a European Cup first-round soccer game.
The European Cup was postponed (till next year) first. Weeks ago.
Then, several weeks ago, the baseball game.
There was no reason to go to London.
And British Air kind of knew that: I lost count of how many alerts I got from Orbitz saying the time or place of the flight was changed. Again, and again.
Hey! ICYMI there is a travel ban from here to Europe. Hello!
But they insisted on acting like they were flying us to London on June 11th. Even if we had to stop 3 times on the way to do it. 😡
But now they have relented.
However, let's talk money.
When do I get my refund? "It might take up to 8 weeks for it to show up on your credit card..."
EIGHT WEEKS!!!
Eight effin' weeks!!!
What can you say or do?
Fortunately, we're not going anywhere anytime soon, but that money, which isn't insignificant for 3 tickets to London, could be used for something else. Like retail therapy.
Delayed gratitude.
My gratitude ain't coming anytime soon.
But it's Hump Day. We're gonna make it through this one, right?
Right?
Till tomorrow.
With gratitude,
But it's a happy non-Pooh day because I got through to Orbitz and I am getting a refund for my tickets to London for next month.
Someday.
That's where the title comes from (sort of).
Actually, the title comes from a malapropism of my mother's from some years ago when my son wanted his Christmas presents early: "he needs to learn delayed gratitude" she stated. I don't think he ever quite has. Have any of us?
But a combination of Orbitz and British Airways is trying to teach me, in my 7th decade, some. 😡
I'll start here: we were going to London, then Glasgow, to see a Cardinals-Cubs baseball game (because who doesn't go to London for that, right?) and then a European Cup first-round soccer game.
The European Cup was postponed (till next year) first. Weeks ago.
Then, several weeks ago, the baseball game.
There was no reason to go to London.
And British Air kind of knew that: I lost count of how many alerts I got from Orbitz saying the time or place of the flight was changed. Again, and again.
Hey! ICYMI there is a travel ban from here to Europe. Hello!
But they insisted on acting like they were flying us to London on June 11th. Even if we had to stop 3 times on the way to do it. 😡
But now they have relented.
However, let's talk money.
When do I get my refund? "It might take up to 8 weeks for it to show up on your credit card..."
EIGHT WEEKS!!!
Eight effin' weeks!!!
What can you say or do?
Fortunately, we're not going anywhere anytime soon, but that money, which isn't insignificant for 3 tickets to London, could be used for something else. Like retail therapy.
Delayed gratitude.
My gratitude ain't coming anytime soon.
But it's Hump Day. We're gonna make it through this one, right?
Right?
Till tomorrow.
With gratitude,
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Monday blahs -- a day later
It's Tuesday. I've said one point of this blog is to remind us of the days. Tuesday.
Funniest story oWilf yesterday (and many days, probably): we are sitting before the TV last evening, just having a chat, and my wife said that her colleague had told them all that they had postponed their canoeing trip from this past weekend to next weekend due to weather. "At our meeting yesterday morning..."
Of course, yesterday morning was Sunday, so...I pointed this out and she said "well, it really WAS a long day." No kidding!
In the never-ending, or rather hopefully soon-ending, saga, I spent two hours on "chat" with Orbitz, trying to get a resolution to next month's plane trip to London. I found out the flight was actually cancelled, which I think changes my rights. But I never got a resolution: after typing "I'm looking into rules, I'll be back to you" an hour later the session was closed without warning! I will call back today.
I also got a phone call from the Royal Shakespeare Company, wanting to know about my tickets for next week. I was on with Orbitz, so they are calling back today.
Talk about bummers.
and I looked at London weather and it was great for the weekend plus we were supposed to be there (starting yesterday for this trip).
It's getting harder to distinguish day and get the motivation to move on.
College semesters are over. So, what do we do to have shape to our lives?
I don't have an answer. Horse racing might help, with Will Rogers in Oklahoma running on Monday and Tuesday. But WRD is infamously hard to handicap: yesterday's two Pick 5's (if you don't know, I ain't explainin' here) started with a 6:1 shot winning, then a 35:1 shot winning. I don't count on winning Pick 5's -- the odds are astronomical -- but a big part of playing them is the hope of winning -- you win a race and you begin to wonder what might happen. Friday I got the first four right at Gulfstream and was in line for a $500 payout (on a series of .50 bets) if one horse came through -- it didn't. Badly. But there was that hope. Losing the opening race to longshots (yes, 6:1 isn't one of the favorites in a race) destroys that.
There are things to do. The trim in the living room still needs painting from two months ago. There are things outside to do, if the weather holds. There might even be golf, again dependent on weather.
But there needs to be something to distinguish our days and give us something to look forward to.
Which leads us to this: the headline in the local paper yesterday was "County Commissioners May Defy Shutdown." I think, having read the story, the headline is a misnomer, but still...one of the commissioners is interviewed and he talks about reopening as of Friday. But he says they are going to talk about it and the consequences.
I don't understand this drive to reopen with the pandemic at our door. My county hasn't had a lot of cases, but it hasn't checked any of the boxes the governor (or the feds) have set for reopening -- like 2 weeks of fewer new cases. Nope, not any of these.
So, why are they wanting to violate the law and put a lot of businesses at risk -- the governor pointed out yesterday morning that they would be liable if something happened (like someone got the virus) and their licenses and certificates would be in jeopardy if they violated the governor's order?
I know a lot of people don't have enough money. But I'm going to repeat this (maybe a lot): you aren't going to have anywhere near pre-covid customers if you reopen now, with no vaccine, with the wave still near its peak. We aren't all clamoring to go eat in restaurant, get our hair cut, get our new tattoo, go to the movies (all examples often cited).
I may not know what day it is, but I know that.
Happy Monday...errrr...Tuesday.
Funniest story oWilf yesterday (and many days, probably): we are sitting before the TV last evening, just having a chat, and my wife said that her colleague had told them all that they had postponed their canoeing trip from this past weekend to next weekend due to weather. "At our meeting yesterday morning..."
Of course, yesterday morning was Sunday, so...I pointed this out and she said "well, it really WAS a long day." No kidding!
In the never-ending, or rather hopefully soon-ending, saga, I spent two hours on "chat" with Orbitz, trying to get a resolution to next month's plane trip to London. I found out the flight was actually cancelled, which I think changes my rights. But I never got a resolution: after typing "I'm looking into rules, I'll be back to you" an hour later the session was closed without warning! I will call back today.
I also got a phone call from the Royal Shakespeare Company, wanting to know about my tickets for next week. I was on with Orbitz, so they are calling back today.
Talk about bummers.
and I looked at London weather and it was great for the weekend plus we were supposed to be there (starting yesterday for this trip).
It's getting harder to distinguish day and get the motivation to move on.
College semesters are over. So, what do we do to have shape to our lives?
I don't have an answer. Horse racing might help, with Will Rogers in Oklahoma running on Monday and Tuesday. But WRD is infamously hard to handicap: yesterday's two Pick 5's (if you don't know, I ain't explainin' here) started with a 6:1 shot winning, then a 35:1 shot winning. I don't count on winning Pick 5's -- the odds are astronomical -- but a big part of playing them is the hope of winning -- you win a race and you begin to wonder what might happen. Friday I got the first four right at Gulfstream and was in line for a $500 payout (on a series of .50 bets) if one horse came through -- it didn't. Badly. But there was that hope. Losing the opening race to longshots (yes, 6:1 isn't one of the favorites in a race) destroys that.
There are things to do. The trim in the living room still needs painting from two months ago. There are things outside to do, if the weather holds. There might even be golf, again dependent on weather.
But there needs to be something to distinguish our days and give us something to look forward to.
Which leads us to this: the headline in the local paper yesterday was "County Commissioners May Defy Shutdown." I think, having read the story, the headline is a misnomer, but still...one of the commissioners is interviewed and he talks about reopening as of Friday. But he says they are going to talk about it and the consequences.
I don't understand this drive to reopen with the pandemic at our door. My county hasn't had a lot of cases, but it hasn't checked any of the boxes the governor (or the feds) have set for reopening -- like 2 weeks of fewer new cases. Nope, not any of these.
So, why are they wanting to violate the law and put a lot of businesses at risk -- the governor pointed out yesterday morning that they would be liable if something happened (like someone got the virus) and their licenses and certificates would be in jeopardy if they violated the governor's order?
I know a lot of people don't have enough money. But I'm going to repeat this (maybe a lot): you aren't going to have anywhere near pre-covid customers if you reopen now, with no vaccine, with the wave still near its peak. We aren't all clamoring to go eat in restaurant, get our hair cut, get our new tattoo, go to the movies (all examples often cited).
I may not know what day it is, but I know that.
Happy Monday...errrr...Tuesday.
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