Category: Current Events

Posted on

I Broke Down Last Night

I thought I'd been handling this self-quarantine, lockdown, whatever-you-wanna-call-it thing pretty well. I'm a homebody at heart, so I figured going into this not leaving the house lifestyle would be a walk in the park.

Well, that was proven wrong last night. It started with a mild headache yesterday afternoon and progressed to an upset stomach. Ben started making dinner and the smells that were coming into the den sent my headache into overdrive. I wanted to wretch. I told him I wasn't at all interested in eating at the time and closed the door.

After Ben had eaten I ventured into the kitchen, where he joined me. I turned to him and started crying. He came in for a hug and I just let loose. I didn't cry when my mom died. I didn't cry when my dad passed. And yet now—for seeming no reason at all, I lost it.

Amazingly after that good cry, the headache was gone as well as my upset stomach.

In his wisdom, Ben suggested we both get out of the house for a while, either together or separately. Cabin Fever was setting in.  And you know I'm stressed when I reach the point I can't spend one more second in front of a screen of any kind, which was exactly where I was.

We didn't make it out last night because it was too late by the time I'd finished dinner, but when we woke today Ben said, "We need to take a drive."

Since the world is on lockdown, we really couldn't—nor did we want to—go anywhere that we'd run into masses of humanity, so we settled on one of the public spaces still open: White Tank Mountain Regional Park.

Back in the early 1970s after moving into our new home at 47th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, my family and I had an unobstructed view of the White Tank Mountains to the west. I often said that once I had my own car, my first destination would be driving out west to see them up close.

You can almost make out the White Tank Mountains through the haze on the horizon. That view doesn't exist any more. (That's my grandfather's 1955 T-Bird that he conveniently got rid of right before I got my drivers's license.)

It took 42-some years to do it, but I finally did when I drove out a few years ago to photograph the White Tank Library. While there I contemplated driving into the park, but for a variety of reasons decided to put it off for another time. It took an additional three and a half years beyond that, but I finally fulfilled my teenage dream of visiting those mountains today.

Deal with it. This is the first new car I've had in thirteen years, and goddamnit, I'm going to photograph the shit out of it.

We both felt much better—much relieved—when we arrived back home this afternoon. Ready to face another week of self-quarantine…

Posted on

Just Putting This Out Here

Being a photographer is making people see what I want them to see." ~ Ruth Orkin

I'm not saying the City is totally deserted as this video would have you believe, but unless I hear differently from someone with actual boots on the ground, I'm taking this with a small grain of salt.

Posted on

Time Slows Down

Am I the only one who feels like the last two weeks—and this week in particular—have been the longest year in memory? I think I've finally figured out why, and it's not just the stress.

Our daily routines, our "loops" or "narratives" in Westworld parlance, have been disrupted. We are so used to going through life primarily on autopilot, that these past couple weeks have forced us to adopt new routines. This causes our perception of the passage of time to slow since we now have to examine and process pretty much every. single. thing that we come across.

It will be interesting to see if our perception returns to "normal" the longer we're all forced into these new routines.

Posted on

Quote of the Day

In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider what parts of normal are worth rushing back to." ~ Dave Hollis

Posted on

Responsible Social Distancing

We were both suffering a bit of cabin fever yesterday, so I suggested to Ben that after dinner we take a drive. Not actually go anywhere, but just take Rabbit out for a run (since the most I've done with the car has been a week's worth of seven mile round trip commutes, a few trips to Target,  and my daily runs to Starbucks, which is about five minutes from the house).

Neither Ben or I had been on the new 202 freeway, so we decided to check it out.

Traffic was light. I'd compare it to a Sunday night on a -day holiday weekend when everyone's out of town. We ended up doing a loop through the southeast valley and then headed home.

It was a much needed escape.

Posted on

Just in Case…


Yep. If you're still stuck indoors in 3 months, blame those idiots on the beach in CA and so many others like them.

P.S. Don't believe a THING that orange shitstain in the White House says.

Posted on

#Mood

I think everything is finally catching up with me. In a deep funk tonight. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping everything in check, but when we made a brief run to Target this morning it all started falling apart. Whereas a week ago, with the exception of the paper products aisle and anything disinfectant-related being sold out, pretty much everything else was the same as always. There were fresh veggies, meat, frozen items, and ready-to-eat products in quantity. Not so today. It was as if a swarm of locusts moved through the store. And it still makes absolutely no sense to me at the items that are sold out. We were able to get the items we needed, but it was just…sad.

So then we came home to another rambling bather-fest by the orange menace in the White House. When are these news organizations just going to stop broadcasting his every dim-witted word salad? We need leadership, not bullshit.

And it doesn't help that AutoNation is still dicking around with my financing. I was told a week ago the loan had been approved by Belco Credit Union and I'd shortly be getting a welcome call from them. Lies. AutoNation's finance guy called this morning asking me to send them proof of employment because Belco was asking for it—even though I'd sent this to my salesman earlier in the week when he requested it. I swear one hand doesn't know what the other is doing at that place.

Frankly, I don't mind being cooped up in the house. Truth be told I was looking forward to this scenario as my retirement. You know, not having to go out and deal with people on a daily basis. The dogs obviously love it, even if they seem a bit confused why Ben and I are home all day. And they're certainly enjoying their evening walks (because neither Ben or I are used to just sitting at a desk all day; even I am used to walking to and from the parking garage, walking across the building to hit the restroom, and going to lunch).

So that's where we stand at the moment. I'm in a deep Sunday evening funk (deeper than my usual Sunday evening funk). I know there's a light at the end of this tunnel, but no one can see it yet, and the Federal Government is doing nothing to install confidence that they even know what they're doing. Thankfully local and state governments seem to be stepping up as best they can.

So how are y'all doing? Leave a comment below…