Just want to put a small spotlight on Marvel Girl: Like A Phoenix, a new comics script adventure I’m writing here. I’m officially halfway through. Obviously I’m not writing about it here like I did the last one, partly because it’s literally just a script page a day, and partly because most of what I’ve been writing on this blog lately is pandemic thoughts.
Speaking of which, I did indeed return to work last week. Worked every day, had a checkpoint with questions concerning possible exposure, my temperature taken, and requiring a mask. The mask thing is one of those hot topics. There are people (I can’t guarantee this, but they may be based in major urban populations) who think you’re being suicidally and homicidally reckless if you step outside your home without one. Everyone I worked with last week found their masks to be cumbersome. Probably everyone who’s wearing one these days thinks they are, sure. Who knows how common these things will be in the future. The Chinese have made a habit of it for years. Maybe we’ll see people turning to them instinctively here, too. But my colleagues weren’t just uncomfortable. They’d sneak them off given half a chance. Again, there will be people reading this in abject horror. That’s life now. But so is trying to reintegrate back into normal life. Life is strange now, and it’s not going to be normal again anytime soon. That’s something I’ve been slow to accept.
Work went well. The first day was easiest. We had two kids from our center that first day, and one of them went home within two hours and never came back. Apparently he cut a patch from his hair when he was home. Apparently later he messed up his ankle. There are doubtless many stories like that, kids doing things all day every day whose parents are staring at it with absolute disbelief, and no chance to look away. (Every kid is Kramer.) Previously I talked about this in terms of parenting. Some of our parents have adapted brilliantly to these new challenges, and I love that, and there’s probably a lot of that going around, and of course there will be those who aren’t doing as well, and we’ll hear less about that, or we’ll hear versions that don’t really reflect the reality of what’s happening, because they’re exaggerating or because they don’t want scrutiny on the results.
Anyway, I got to watch a baby who had really only just started with us, a young one, when we were getting ready to temporarily shutter. Seeing him again was weird because I had no real memories of him except circumstances. Turned out he was doing quite well in the month since I’d last seen him. Some challenges, but, certainly with one-on-one care, nothing that was overly difficult, and he could be incredibly lively and amusing! Yesterday we got our second baby back, and this was a cause for some concern, since she was previously known for being perennially upset. And that’s what it seemed she’d be again, but the afternoon was a miracle, and I was able, generally, to balance both of them in reasonable comfort for all involved.
I was supposed to work two days this week, but over the course of yesterday morning it expanded to four. But I’m not as concerned. It will once again be a pleasure to tackle daily baby challenges.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #9
Today I worked a few hours for the first time in a month, and it was a breeze. I had finally gotten some masks on Friday, suspecting that they would be required at the childcare center, and of course they were. I know at this point it’s completely normal to see people wearing them, but until today I honestly hadn’t done it myself yet. But coming from Maine, where it’s sometimes quite necessary to wear some kind of facial covering during winter, I had the kind of experience necessary to figure out how to wear the mask and still, y’know, breathe...
Last week I spent more time on Twitter. I know previously I was complaining about Twitter, but the thing about me is that just because I’m complaining about something doesn’t mean I want it to disappear from the face of the earth (I say it this way because I used to work on stories where there were literally “fly nullifiers” in use, which is all the more alarming given my family’s “Floyd the Fly” legacy my niece has recently learned about, and instantly became the subject of my 2020 Christmas poem, the package for which I wrote already and am debating whether I should send ridiculously early, perhaps as part of a general birthday/baby shower/pandemic gift box, as my niece is going to be a big sister in the fall). (I write long parenthetical phrases.) (Just so you know.)
I had finished the longish short story I had been working on last Sunday, and decided to submit it, and a few other stories, and decided to write a few more for, to my Colorado friend’s new anthology, previously detailed as WriteClubCo. Funny enough, but the same movie (The Gentlemen) that I was watching early in the year when I figured out how to write one story ended up inspiring a different story. It’s the movie that keeps on giving!
I looked at another of the poetry collections and started putting it into shape. Potentially libraries will be opening again soon, so this avalanche of material is going to start flowing. Obviously things are starting to open, and that bothers some people and it’s a relief to others, and the two sides see the issue the same way Hulk Hogan’s hair regards his skull.
I started another daily writing project, another comic book script, this time involving Marvel characters rather than DC. This method of writing a single script page at a time is a very relaxing strategy, and I already know pretty much everything I need to know about the story, but little revelations are always occurring to me and improving the results.
I think I used the time away from work well. And hopefully I can keep the momentum going...
Last week I spent more time on Twitter. I know previously I was complaining about Twitter, but the thing about me is that just because I’m complaining about something doesn’t mean I want it to disappear from the face of the earth (I say it this way because I used to work on stories where there were literally “fly nullifiers” in use, which is all the more alarming given my family’s “Floyd the Fly” legacy my niece has recently learned about, and instantly became the subject of my 2020 Christmas poem, the package for which I wrote already and am debating whether I should send ridiculously early, perhaps as part of a general birthday/baby shower/pandemic gift box, as my niece is going to be a big sister in the fall). (I write long parenthetical phrases.) (Just so you know.)
I had finished the longish short story I had been working on last Sunday, and decided to submit it, and a few other stories, and decided to write a few more for, to my Colorado friend’s new anthology, previously detailed as WriteClubCo. Funny enough, but the same movie (The Gentlemen) that I was watching early in the year when I figured out how to write one story ended up inspiring a different story. It’s the movie that keeps on giving!
I looked at another of the poetry collections and started putting it into shape. Potentially libraries will be opening again soon, so this avalanche of material is going to start flowing. Obviously things are starting to open, and that bothers some people and it’s a relief to others, and the two sides see the issue the same way Hulk Hogan’s hair regards his skull.
I started another daily writing project, another comic book script, this time involving Marvel characters rather than DC. This method of writing a single script page at a time is a very relaxing strategy, and I already know pretty much everything I need to know about the story, but little revelations are always occurring to me and improving the results.
I think I used the time away from work well. And hopefully I can keep the momentum going...
Monday, May 4, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #8
It occurred to me that a decade ago, my life was headed toward, what is to this point, its darkest point. My mom was diagnosed with cancer, and the flight I booked in the fall was the first time I felt the financial tremors that were to spiral downward for the next few years after that. It seemed as if everything was conspiring to destroy me, everything that could go was in fact going wrong. I had a lifeline, though, one that I didn't appreciate enough at the time, because most of the time I could only concentrate on what was going wrong. I had my sister. We had been and would continue to be close, and were living close enough together that I could shelter from the storm. At one point I was living with her, and at others the ability to visit her became a beacon in troubled waters. Things began to turn around. Things I never expected in a million years began to happen. Then ten years later, I am in a position to wonder why I am so fortunate when so many others are not. One of the things I can offer is the perspective that things at their worst don't always mean they'll stay that way, that fortune is fickle, perhaps, and in time you will find yourself level again. I don't know if anyone reading this now is concerned in the ways I was concerned a decade ago, or are handling matters quite different but equally alarming. The pandemic itself, for instance. I need to keep saying this because I'm not sure it's getting through the thick wall of media coverage, but the pandemic itself isn't the only thing happening right now, that the effects of it go beyond mere measures of health and even death. Life itself.
I started having breakfast again last week. I realized that I had to impose some sense of normality back into my routines, and even as last week began a process of losing any real sense of what normal is, losing track of just how long I had been doing this self-isolation, how long I had been away from work, how long it had been since I had seen the childcare center's babies, worrying about how they're developing, wondering at how much they're progressing...Listen, I was getting stuck in a rut. It was getting weird. I got heavily involved in Twitter, for god's sake! That's a whole phenomenon right there, like any social experience something you have to be doing a lot for a long time in order for anyone to care, to mean anything at all. Otherwise you're just another random user in the vast anonymous sea, and nobody really cares. It's different from, say, Facebook, because on Facebook it's people you know, or have known, that you're going to be spending the bulk of your time interacting with (unless you're a troll dropping trash on news items, or worse, sharing every meme that comes your way). Twitter is mostly impersonal, and it's everything everyone wants desperately to be true, which leaves a lot of room for warping to happen, without anyone realizing it...
Anyway, so I opened submissions for Mouldwarp Press Presents: Not In Kansas. You can find the details in the tab above. Even if you don't want to participate yourself, consider telling others about it.
Today I went onto the base where I (normally) work for the first time in a month. I got really tired of staying at home. Still distancing! It feels weird. Last week some of my colleagues had a parade thru base housing. Kind of forgot about it until after they shared photos.
Still bought way too much stuff online, still waiting for things to be delivered. Ironically, the things that are scheduled to take the longest to arrive are the masks. I guess it figures, all the way around...
I started having breakfast again last week. I realized that I had to impose some sense of normality back into my routines, and even as last week began a process of losing any real sense of what normal is, losing track of just how long I had been doing this self-isolation, how long I had been away from work, how long it had been since I had seen the childcare center's babies, worrying about how they're developing, wondering at how much they're progressing...Listen, I was getting stuck in a rut. It was getting weird. I got heavily involved in Twitter, for god's sake! That's a whole phenomenon right there, like any social experience something you have to be doing a lot for a long time in order for anyone to care, to mean anything at all. Otherwise you're just another random user in the vast anonymous sea, and nobody really cares. It's different from, say, Facebook, because on Facebook it's people you know, or have known, that you're going to be spending the bulk of your time interacting with (unless you're a troll dropping trash on news items, or worse, sharing every meme that comes your way). Twitter is mostly impersonal, and it's everything everyone wants desperately to be true, which leaves a lot of room for warping to happen, without anyone realizing it...
Anyway, so I opened submissions for Mouldwarp Press Presents: Not In Kansas. You can find the details in the tab above. Even if you don't want to participate yourself, consider telling others about it.
Today I went onto the base where I (normally) work for the first time in a month. I got really tired of staying at home. Still distancing! It feels weird. Last week some of my colleagues had a parade thru base housing. Kind of forgot about it until after they shared photos.
Still bought way too much stuff online, still waiting for things to be delivered. Ironically, the things that are scheduled to take the longest to arrive are the masks. I guess it figures, all the way around...
Monday, April 27, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #7
Well, the toilet paper apocalypse, at the very least, is subsiding.
It’s not true everywhere, of course. There’s still places I go where the shelves are empty, but not everywhere. It’s becoming routine to find toilet paper again. Yay humanity! The greater problems are still out there. The pandemic, for instance. We’re at the point where some people desperately want things to return to normal(ish), and there are people who respond, “No way, idiots!” So civil discourse is about the same as it’s always been. Comforting? I guess?
I‘ve backed off Facebook. I was checking it obsessively. For a while, kept trying to come up with funny things to say. People in general are going back to normal there. Again, this does not mean normal is returning or will return anytime soon, but it’s good to see.
After admitting last week that I stopped eating breakfast, I of course started eating breakfast again. Found another new peanut butter cereal, so of course am having that now.
I was pretty productive last week. I edited or looked at some projects I’d been working on previously. Squire’s History of Oz looks good. Found I had actually pretty much finished Modern Woe, the latest collection of poems (if by “latest” you allow me to mean material written literally a decade ago). That’s a project that was kind of disrupted before the pandemic, thank you. I’ve had an interesting past six months. I’ve had an interesting last year, and I’m coming ever closer to a year without my niece, and am still trying to make sense of that.
I started outlines for two last Space Corps books. Space Corps is the largest project I have ever worked on, and the thing I still hope to hang my legacy on (but who can control these things?), and I’ve spent years developing these outlines. These last two, I’ve been slow to work on them, but again, a lot has changed over the years, and I work at a different pace. But it finally seemed like the right thing, to use this time to work on them. I mean, I personally would consider myself an idiot if I didn’t.
The family continues to merrily converge for a video-chat game night on weekends, and even though I’m still not playing along, I’m glad it’s happening. This is how COVID-19 will be remembered, in the grand scheme. I have nothing but deep sympathies for those who have suffered, but for a lot of us it’s a moment that’s giving us a huge opportunity, and it’s good to see it being embraced, however it may look.
I mentioned, I think, the Colorado friend with the anthology he wants to do, and it occurred to me that the story I’m working on now (Pat is being driven crazy by its inability to stay on track with the vampire thing) will be as appropriate as anything to give him for it. I’m really proud of this one.
Now, if I could just get some reassurance that I won’t have to wear a mask when I go back to work...
It’s not true everywhere, of course. There’s still places I go where the shelves are empty, but not everywhere. It’s becoming routine to find toilet paper again. Yay humanity! The greater problems are still out there. The pandemic, for instance. We’re at the point where some people desperately want things to return to normal(ish), and there are people who respond, “No way, idiots!” So civil discourse is about the same as it’s always been. Comforting? I guess?
I‘ve backed off Facebook. I was checking it obsessively. For a while, kept trying to come up with funny things to say. People in general are going back to normal there. Again, this does not mean normal is returning or will return anytime soon, but it’s good to see.
After admitting last week that I stopped eating breakfast, I of course started eating breakfast again. Found another new peanut butter cereal, so of course am having that now.
I was pretty productive last week. I edited or looked at some projects I’d been working on previously. Squire’s History of Oz looks good. Found I had actually pretty much finished Modern Woe, the latest collection of poems (if by “latest” you allow me to mean material written literally a decade ago). That’s a project that was kind of disrupted before the pandemic, thank you. I’ve had an interesting past six months. I’ve had an interesting last year, and I’m coming ever closer to a year without my niece, and am still trying to make sense of that.
I started outlines for two last Space Corps books. Space Corps is the largest project I have ever worked on, and the thing I still hope to hang my legacy on (but who can control these things?), and I’ve spent years developing these outlines. These last two, I’ve been slow to work on them, but again, a lot has changed over the years, and I work at a different pace. But it finally seemed like the right thing, to use this time to work on them. I mean, I personally would consider myself an idiot if I didn’t.
The family continues to merrily converge for a video-chat game night on weekends, and even though I’m still not playing along, I’m glad it’s happening. This is how COVID-19 will be remembered, in the grand scheme. I have nothing but deep sympathies for those who have suffered, but for a lot of us it’s a moment that’s giving us a huge opportunity, and it’s good to see it being embraced, however it may look.
I mentioned, I think, the Colorado friend with the anthology he wants to do, and it occurred to me that the story I’m working on now (Pat is being driven crazy by its inability to stay on track with the vampire thing) will be as appropriate as anything to give him for it. I’m really proud of this one.
Now, if I could just get some reassurance that I won’t have to wear a mask when I go back to work...
Monday, April 20, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #6
Finished writing “Falling Toward Oz” last week. It happened on another day when I thought I was again going to not work on it at all, stuck in a pandemic rut, and then that evening just went to work on it and buckled down. It ended up clocking in at 8,000 words, exactly, which had become my target, but it felt weird, typing the last few and seeing the total. I reached the climax and thought maybe I’d rushed toward it too quickly, but kept on writing and, I think, ended up with something better than I had previously been thinking. Anyway, it’s always a nice feeling, as a writer, to finish something and feel pleasantly surprised at the results. I posted about it on Facebook. Some people were like, Oh, you’re still writing? This, despite the fact that I’ve literally linked four flash fictions I’ve done this year alone. Well, what can you say? My Colorado writing buddy was among them, and suggested we collaborate on one last anthology. I told him I’d think about it. Thinking, at the moment, the results of the serialized story I’m currently blogging (the one about the pandemic), which doesn’t currently have enough vampire for Pat (hi, Pat!) but will circle back to them in a few days.
Still at home. Starting to feel weird. Again, I’ve spent long periods of time more or less in this mode before, but never with so few options outside the home. As noted above, began to feel stuck in a rut, but then began to challenge that. Late last week I finally went out and sat in a park (my oldest sister has been sending pictures of her family at a lake they just discovered in their backyard) to do some reading. The book I’m reading now, it had a bad start (more common than you’d think) so I was concerned it was actually a bad read overall, but the park proved otherwise, so I’ll be diving back in eagerly after I finish up blogging this morning. Anyone who knows me knows I read a lot, and probably most people just assume I’ve been doing a lot of reading during this time, but they’d be slightly less right than they’d guess.
This is more or less the point I’m starting to wonder how little others think about me. I’ve had to initiate every communication during the lockdown (except this one lady who periodically contacts me so she can vent about personal problems, though I think perhaps I may have put a dent in that last week talking about pandemic things). I know I’m ordinarily a fairly private person anyway, an introvert who spends his free time alone by choice anyway, never developed routine relationships with regular conversation, but...Am I really so disposable? Does everyone really just assume I will happily continue like this? I realize I began my pandemic journals lamenting about family, but it’s...not even just that. It’s everyone. If I’m rattled by anything in this whole thing, it’s that. And yeah, it increasingly sucks that everyone else, in just family terms, has other people living with them, and so when they want to, for instance, initiate a family game night over the internet, they have that instant leverage. I usually do best in those circumstances playing off of someone else. Well, I don’t have someone else, and so I can’t participate. This is partially a complaint of my own making, I understand. But it also emphasizes what I lost last year above and beyond my niece...
Of course I used up a little more of my financial wiggle room last week, and panicked a little, because again, I’m also increasingly worried about what follows this lockdown, if I’m setting myself up for another financial hole, which I’m lucky enough to not be experiencing now, but many others are, and it’s still weird to think, that for many people the pandemic isn’t minor complaints but real ones, and I have no practical experience with that side of it, and that’s a large part of why it doesn’t seem real to me, despite the pandemic being a worldwide experience. Knowing, and even having a small fraction of the impact on my life, that this is happening, it’s tough to reconcile. It feels very much like the kinds of privileges and disparities I didn’t previously apply to my life, and that’s kind of inexplicable and humbling at the same time.
We’re at the point where arguments are being made to lift restrictions, but realizing that even when we reach that point things will still be different. The workplace sent a memo detailing what that might look like there, and it actually feels more intimidating in that sense than it did when we were merely consolidating for lack of children. Then, at least, it was still business as usual if limited and altered by scope. Now there looks to be entire procedures, and perhaps even those mandated masks people keep arguing over, which are increasingly common as I poke my head out every now and again...
To top it off, there was a network TV special on the weekend. Lady Gaga, at least, seemed to have totally forgotten the recent context of the song “Smile” (as employed by the film Joker). Maybe she’s right. Maybe this is all a hard reboot. If so, I hope we use it wisely.
Oh, and hey! Here’s some fun trivia for you! I have always, always eaten breakfast. For the first time in nearly forty years, lockdown life had changed that. For at least the past week (see? I can’t even remember when it started now) I have been skipping it, and just headed straight through the morning to a noon lunch. I know this’ll revert back once I’m working again, but it’s tangible proof that I have fundamentally altered at least one aspect of my ordinary life because of the pandemic. No breakfast! Not even brunch! Madness.
Still at home. Starting to feel weird. Again, I’ve spent long periods of time more or less in this mode before, but never with so few options outside the home. As noted above, began to feel stuck in a rut, but then began to challenge that. Late last week I finally went out and sat in a park (my oldest sister has been sending pictures of her family at a lake they just discovered in their backyard) to do some reading. The book I’m reading now, it had a bad start (more common than you’d think) so I was concerned it was actually a bad read overall, but the park proved otherwise, so I’ll be diving back in eagerly after I finish up blogging this morning. Anyone who knows me knows I read a lot, and probably most people just assume I’ve been doing a lot of reading during this time, but they’d be slightly less right than they’d guess.
This is more or less the point I’m starting to wonder how little others think about me. I’ve had to initiate every communication during the lockdown (except this one lady who periodically contacts me so she can vent about personal problems, though I think perhaps I may have put a dent in that last week talking about pandemic things). I know I’m ordinarily a fairly private person anyway, an introvert who spends his free time alone by choice anyway, never developed routine relationships with regular conversation, but...Am I really so disposable? Does everyone really just assume I will happily continue like this? I realize I began my pandemic journals lamenting about family, but it’s...not even just that. It’s everyone. If I’m rattled by anything in this whole thing, it’s that. And yeah, it increasingly sucks that everyone else, in just family terms, has other people living with them, and so when they want to, for instance, initiate a family game night over the internet, they have that instant leverage. I usually do best in those circumstances playing off of someone else. Well, I don’t have someone else, and so I can’t participate. This is partially a complaint of my own making, I understand. But it also emphasizes what I lost last year above and beyond my niece...
Of course I used up a little more of my financial wiggle room last week, and panicked a little, because again, I’m also increasingly worried about what follows this lockdown, if I’m setting myself up for another financial hole, which I’m lucky enough to not be experiencing now, but many others are, and it’s still weird to think, that for many people the pandemic isn’t minor complaints but real ones, and I have no practical experience with that side of it, and that’s a large part of why it doesn’t seem real to me, despite the pandemic being a worldwide experience. Knowing, and even having a small fraction of the impact on my life, that this is happening, it’s tough to reconcile. It feels very much like the kinds of privileges and disparities I didn’t previously apply to my life, and that’s kind of inexplicable and humbling at the same time.
We’re at the point where arguments are being made to lift restrictions, but realizing that even when we reach that point things will still be different. The workplace sent a memo detailing what that might look like there, and it actually feels more intimidating in that sense than it did when we were merely consolidating for lack of children. Then, at least, it was still business as usual if limited and altered by scope. Now there looks to be entire procedures, and perhaps even those mandated masks people keep arguing over, which are increasingly common as I poke my head out every now and again...
To top it off, there was a network TV special on the weekend. Lady Gaga, at least, seemed to have totally forgotten the recent context of the song “Smile” (as employed by the film Joker). Maybe she’s right. Maybe this is all a hard reboot. If so, I hope we use it wisely.
Oh, and hey! Here’s some fun trivia for you! I have always, always eaten breakfast. For the first time in nearly forty years, lockdown life had changed that. For at least the past week (see? I can’t even remember when it started now) I have been skipping it, and just headed straight through the morning to a noon lunch. I know this’ll revert back once I’m working again, but it’s tangible proof that I have fundamentally altered at least one aspect of my ordinary life because of the pandemic. No breakfast! Not even brunch! Madness.
Monday, April 13, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #5
Last week, no work at all. Finally, at the end, we got word that yes, we’re still being paid, and yes, we’re going to have to do some things. I know a lot of people have been working from home (never mind the people working every day in the ongoing essential services), and a lot of them with kids at home, and those kids being expected to do various permutations of schoolwork, and some of those people are going crazy...For me last week was a really long week, not even like a vacation (I’ve done that, “staycation”), but the longer it went the more I had to remind myself, this was only the first week of this for me! And some people have been doing this far longer. And a lot of them have been a far better job of actually staying inside all day every day...
I went out on shopping errands far more often than it might have seemed. Once was to get another bookcase, even though I started out spending far less time reading than I might have previously thought, or done. But I’ve been getting better at that. I’ve also been getting far better at being productive, writing. Like I’ve been doing for a decade, I decided to tackle the A to Z Challenge again, but unofficially, unlisted on the official site, but at this point I wonder how much that matters. The whole month has gotten progressively less social over the years. Anyway, talking about movies again, at the movie blog. Got some fun subjects lined up for some of the trickier letters. Pat (hi, Pat!) wasn’t amused that on the first day I used “A” for movies that literally began with “A” like A Christmas Carol (though none of the dozens of takes on it were in my selections), because that’s how I categorize my movies, and there are lots of movies with titles like that...
Anyway, tackled a serialized pandemic story, don’t know how long it’ll be. Most chapters are turning out bite-sized, which is about what you’d expect from something being written on a phone. Wrote a few other things. Worked on Falling Toward Oz, and hopefully will finish that this week (though, again, doesn’t seem terribly pressing; work says we won’t reopen for about another month at least).
I kept waffling on doing a pandemic story, but a few days into A to Z it just seemed like a natural blogging companion project. That’s the only reason it happened, plus of course having the time, having time to come up with an idea, having time to get started right away with little excuses in the way, and actually coming up with an idea, although the early material makes it seem like a thinly-veiled pandemic journal (other than this one) (which of course it is).
I bought more things last week because I have financial wiggle room. Part of me has started worrying that what’s wiggle room now will be desperation, should this thing continue to draw out. Definitely. But at the same time, with so few options out there, and so much uncertainty, and no idea how much the world is going to change because of this, I keep thinking of it as bulwark for the world I hope to find on the other side.
Helped suggest another family chat for Easter yesterday, and by this point I’ve gotten over being the grump of a month back, upset at the budding disruptions, and was able to enjoy it. Starting to notice how it’s affecting other members of the family, in the opposite direction, which is unsettling. But realistically, this thing is having and is going to have a massive psychological toll, and that’s going to be something we as a global society will be dealing with for years to come. For every introvert like me, there are extroverts who were not at all prepared for a disaster party. (“Disaster Party” by Magic Giant is one of my pandemic songs, having been coincidentally performed on one of the morning shows a month or so back. “Crazy Train” is another; it’s the song the crazy kid was singing on a loop via karaoke when the cruise ships were being quarantined and I was talking with a coworker about that back in January).
So, yeah. To quote my sister-in-law on Facebook the other day, quoting Dumbledore: “Alas, earwax.”
I went out on shopping errands far more often than it might have seemed. Once was to get another bookcase, even though I started out spending far less time reading than I might have previously thought, or done. But I’ve been getting better at that. I’ve also been getting far better at being productive, writing. Like I’ve been doing for a decade, I decided to tackle the A to Z Challenge again, but unofficially, unlisted on the official site, but at this point I wonder how much that matters. The whole month has gotten progressively less social over the years. Anyway, talking about movies again, at the movie blog. Got some fun subjects lined up for some of the trickier letters. Pat (hi, Pat!) wasn’t amused that on the first day I used “A” for movies that literally began with “A” like A Christmas Carol (though none of the dozens of takes on it were in my selections), because that’s how I categorize my movies, and there are lots of movies with titles like that...
Anyway, tackled a serialized pandemic story, don’t know how long it’ll be. Most chapters are turning out bite-sized, which is about what you’d expect from something being written on a phone. Wrote a few other things. Worked on Falling Toward Oz, and hopefully will finish that this week (though, again, doesn’t seem terribly pressing; work says we won’t reopen for about another month at least).
I kept waffling on doing a pandemic story, but a few days into A to Z it just seemed like a natural blogging companion project. That’s the only reason it happened, plus of course having the time, having time to come up with an idea, having time to get started right away with little excuses in the way, and actually coming up with an idea, although the early material makes it seem like a thinly-veiled pandemic journal (other than this one) (which of course it is).
I bought more things last week because I have financial wiggle room. Part of me has started worrying that what’s wiggle room now will be desperation, should this thing continue to draw out. Definitely. But at the same time, with so few options out there, and so much uncertainty, and no idea how much the world is going to change because of this, I keep thinking of it as bulwark for the world I hope to find on the other side.
Helped suggest another family chat for Easter yesterday, and by this point I’ve gotten over being the grump of a month back, upset at the budding disruptions, and was able to enjoy it. Starting to notice how it’s affecting other members of the family, in the opposite direction, which is unsettling. But realistically, this thing is having and is going to have a massive psychological toll, and that’s going to be something we as a global society will be dealing with for years to come. For every introvert like me, there are extroverts who were not at all prepared for a disaster party. (“Disaster Party” by Magic Giant is one of my pandemic songs, having been coincidentally performed on one of the morning shows a month or so back. “Crazy Train” is another; it’s the song the crazy kid was singing on a loop via karaoke when the cruise ships were being quarantined and I was talking with a coworker about that back in January).
So, yeah. To quote my sister-in-law on Facebook the other day, quoting Dumbledore: “Alas, earwax.”
Monday, April 6, 2020
A Journal of the Pandemic #4
Well, it finally happened. I went into de facto quarantine.
Last week was the first full week of alternating work schedule, and it gave me two three-day weekends in the process. We have three buildings in the child development center system on base, and last week also saw all three combined. The best thing about all this was the chance to see some kids who had shuffled to other buildings over the past year or so. On Thursday I got to see one I had been particularly missing, an adorably sassy little girl. (But they’re all adorable, of course!) Then Friday evening we received notice that one of our staff had tested positive for COVID-19, and Saturday evening were informed that the program had been put on hold until further notice.
So here I am at home, like so many others, waiting for things to change for the better.
Last week also gave me a clear example of how irrationally some of this is unfolding when the apartment complex made it clear it had locked up the laundry room. There was a true April Fool somewhere when the sign posted indicating it would reopen on the 1st turned out to be a nasty lie. Management had previously sworn there would be no interruption of laundry service. I called on Friday to find out what was happening, and the receptionist unlucky enough to be manning the desk at this time had only vague answers, and asked if I wanted my information passed on? Well, it’s kind of beside the point now, isn’t it? I hauled my extra load of laundry to a local facility, and of course paid more, but at least it was finally done. Then of course I found out I wouldn’t be going back to work soon.
The numbers have started to pile up. Testing is still less than comprehensive, but the response remains level, at least officially. We still believe our drastic measures are completely justified, even while petty bickering suggests not enough was done soon enough, which is still completely insane. This is a completely unprecedented event. Literally everything we’ve done is already far more than has ever been done.
We’re stuck in a holding pattern. I have plenty of experience with free or merely extra time on my hands. I have no commitments outside of work, no family living with me, or living with family (which itself is anomalous in the general outline of my life; literally everything about it seems to have aligned precisely to make this entire experience as easy as possible). I’m not worried about how I will pass the day or the week or however long this lasts.
I didn’t write last week. I really should have, right? I worked two days. But I guess I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now I have no restraints on my time at all. I can write to my heart’s content, which is every writer’s dream, and perhaps nightmare. Anyone who’s read this blog previously knows I tend to accumulate projects. I’ve got the one I’m actively working on, more I want to tackle, and of course last week I had a breakthrough on another...
Heck, I didn’t even read much last week! But over the weekend I started to rally in that regard. I watched a lot of stuff. Story of a generation. And now I’m going to do other stuff. I ordered literally tons of comics on Friday, will hopefully get that by the end of the week. I have, at the moment, financial wiggle room, and I want to spend it where it will help, where it will foster the kind of world I hope is still around in a few months.
Hopefully when I do another of these, I will be able to say I wrote a good amount of material, and maybe even share some good news about the pandemic. Stranger things have been happening...
Last week was the first full week of alternating work schedule, and it gave me two three-day weekends in the process. We have three buildings in the child development center system on base, and last week also saw all three combined. The best thing about all this was the chance to see some kids who had shuffled to other buildings over the past year or so. On Thursday I got to see one I had been particularly missing, an adorably sassy little girl. (But they’re all adorable, of course!) Then Friday evening we received notice that one of our staff had tested positive for COVID-19, and Saturday evening were informed that the program had been put on hold until further notice.
So here I am at home, like so many others, waiting for things to change for the better.
Last week also gave me a clear example of how irrationally some of this is unfolding when the apartment complex made it clear it had locked up the laundry room. There was a true April Fool somewhere when the sign posted indicating it would reopen on the 1st turned out to be a nasty lie. Management had previously sworn there would be no interruption of laundry service. I called on Friday to find out what was happening, and the receptionist unlucky enough to be manning the desk at this time had only vague answers, and asked if I wanted my information passed on? Well, it’s kind of beside the point now, isn’t it? I hauled my extra load of laundry to a local facility, and of course paid more, but at least it was finally done. Then of course I found out I wouldn’t be going back to work soon.
The numbers have started to pile up. Testing is still less than comprehensive, but the response remains level, at least officially. We still believe our drastic measures are completely justified, even while petty bickering suggests not enough was done soon enough, which is still completely insane. This is a completely unprecedented event. Literally everything we’ve done is already far more than has ever been done.
We’re stuck in a holding pattern. I have plenty of experience with free or merely extra time on my hands. I have no commitments outside of work, no family living with me, or living with family (which itself is anomalous in the general outline of my life; literally everything about it seems to have aligned precisely to make this entire experience as easy as possible). I’m not worried about how I will pass the day or the week or however long this lasts.
I didn’t write last week. I really should have, right? I worked two days. But I guess I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now I have no restraints on my time at all. I can write to my heart’s content, which is every writer’s dream, and perhaps nightmare. Anyone who’s read this blog previously knows I tend to accumulate projects. I’ve got the one I’m actively working on, more I want to tackle, and of course last week I had a breakthrough on another...
Heck, I didn’t even read much last week! But over the weekend I started to rally in that regard. I watched a lot of stuff. Story of a generation. And now I’m going to do other stuff. I ordered literally tons of comics on Friday, will hopefully get that by the end of the week. I have, at the moment, financial wiggle room, and I want to spend it where it will help, where it will foster the kind of world I hope is still around in a few months.
Hopefully when I do another of these, I will be able to say I wrote a good amount of material, and maybe even share some good news about the pandemic. Stranger things have been happening...
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