March 2021

Desert Living.

Around 10 years ago… OK, let’s stop right there for a minute; has it really been ten years? Actually, it’s been 11 years. Wow.

So, a decade and some change ago, I was commuting back and forth to my software developer job for a telecommunications company. The commute was 55 miles in each direction and involved a little bit of expressway, a little bit of main roads through villages, and a few back roads in Amish company. I liked driving back and forth as it gave my mind a chance to wander a little bit. The drive wasn’t stressful, not even on the snowiest of Upstate New York winter days.

I had my new iPhone in tow and would play some music and would often find myself rotating a certain number of playlists. A fan of electronic and dance music, I found myself listening to an artist named DJ Antoine. To this day I love the original radio and dance mix of his track “This Time”.

Here’s the version of the song that I really enjoy. I still frequently use it as a workout song.

Back in the day I looked up the video and while I didn’t particularly enjoy the different remix they chose for the video (it’s really not my thing at all), I liked the story being told in the video, particularly because it took place in the desert. Being in all the sunshine and exploring the world and the expansiveness offered by the desert seemed like such an exciting thing to do.

The video is actually part of a series; there’s also the same video (with a much different track) from the other point of view

Final Leap.

So the month of March would not be complete without a blog entry about my discontent with the United States’ practice of “Daylight Saving Time”. In just a few short hours, we are suppose to move the clocks ahead one hour so folks that are easily duped think they have an “extra” hour of sunlight each day. The reality is we’re just playing mind tricks with those that are easily fooled, and the rest of us suffer.

Noon is traditionally defined as when the sun is nearest its zenith for the day, but we can’t do that because people won’t shift their alarm clocks in the morning and instead want the clock to order them to enjoy more sunlight in the evening.

The really cool thing about 2021, at least for our family, is that this is the last time we will need to go through this barbaric ritual. In ten days we move to Tucson, Arizona, and Arizona doesn’t participate in this outdated practice. The majority of the state of Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time all year long .

We will choose to enjoy recreation time in the coolness of the evening instead of shoving the sun to a different part of the sky for no reason at all.

Meltdown.

I had a mini meltdown on social media today. After doom scrolling through too many successive posts of glee around receiving COVID-19 shots I decided I had enough and decided to vent. I don’t understand how this is working, I don’t understand why young people apparently healthy enough to go out partying for St. Patrick’s Day are getting vaccinated when the rules are something like 65 and older for us in Chicago right now. I read about people coming from Iowa and Wisconsin and Indiana getting vaccinated because it’s easier. I’m told to hang out around the back door of certain Walgreens locations to maybe get injected with some Moderna or Pfizer scraps that weren’t claimed during the day.

This is how the “greatest country on Earth” is vaccinated its citizens. By living The Hunger Games dreams, politicizing the event beyond any sort of reasonable thought processes, and people paying and/or lying to get to the front of the line.

I read that NASA found another meteor the size of three football fields. They always promise something big with meteors but it never happens. I don’t want an Extinction Level Event, I just want a meteor to come so close that is makes a lot of wind and dust and scares the shit our and some sense into the populace.

Front line workers, essential personnel, and our elderly should be at the front of the line. Full stop. Now the Instagram Influencer dude or chick making idiotic cash by talking about their COVID-19 vaccination experience online? Get in the back of the friggin’ bus.

Anyone that has had to deal with cancer. People keeping society moving. Doctors. Nurses. And all the people that support the medical profession. Teachers. All the folks in the public sector trying to keep our economy afloat. Vaccinate them. Don’t make them have to pledge their unborn children in a sacrifice to get a few drops of J&J from the back door of a CVS.

The Biden Administration is making up for a lot of lost time. I get that. But there should have been a federal system based on zip code and population. And stop dividing the public up into groups of “ones”, “phase 1A, 1B, 1C”, etc. We’re not all number one. For God’s sake, group one, group two, group three. I don’t need the ego boost.

I just want my husband to get vaccinated. I at least want to know when I’m going to be vaccinated.

And when it happens, I will NOT be broadcasting the event. Anywhere.

Time Passes.

I still have my “band jacket” from my high school years. It’s a little snug 37 years later, but I can still button it up. I wouldn’t wear it in public, as one of the snaps might break loose, but I’ll gloat here on my blog.

Healthy.

I didn’t ask my doctor about my tinnitus during my annual physical. We talked about what I’m calling my “COVID 10”, or the weight I’ve gained during the pandemic. Honestly, I could have easily gained more weight if I put my mind to it, but I wanted to make sure things were kept fairly reasonable. I get anxious about physicals and visits to the doctor in general, hence my blood pressure was elevated the first time they took it but much better the second time the put the cuff on me.

The lab took five vials of blood. Among the blood tests was an HIV test. I get tested every year whether I need it or not, I guess it’s the Gen-X/grew up during the beginning of the AIDS crisis in me that prompts a yearly test. I attended too many funerals in the 80s and 90s. I still remember.

She didn’t do a very good job of taking blood, though. It didn’t hurt much, but she left a mark.

Closures.

I’m growing weary of businesses in our neighborhood closing down. In the past year we’ve had two comedy clubs, several restaurants, some barbershops, a couple of bars, and one or two other storefronts all close down. All of these locations are within a half mile radius of our home.

The pandemic has been hard for everyone, especially local businesses.

We’ve tried to support local business as much as possible during these COVID times. When safe to do so we’ve walked to pick up food. We’ve even picked up alcohol from a favorite local pub when they were doing that. The city of Chicago banned alcohol sales after 9:00 PM for much of the pandemic, and closed bars at the same time. This was to discourage people from congregating in groups. I’m sure many just gathered in their homes.

As restrictions loosen up I’m hoping to see businesses open up as well. Resilience. It’s what we all need. But it’s going to be a couple of years, at least, before the economy fully recovers. At least we’re heading in the right direction again. It was touch and go there for a little while.

I’m ready for whatever the new normal will be. I’m sure everyone else is as well.

Ring Ring.

My ears ring. My ears ring a lot. The left side rings more than the right side and it’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I have memories of laying in bed in our mobile home when I was a youngster and wondering why my ears rang so much. The ringing wasn’t as loud then as it is now, but I guess having ringing ears for as long as I can remember has made it manageable for me. It’s just there.

Years of DJing in clubs and on the radio probably didn’t help the ringing situation, but I believe the initial ringing may have been a result of having spinal meningitis as a kid.

As far as I can tell, there are no cures for ringing ears. We sleep with white noise going in the bedroom, which is more to muffle the sounds of the big city instead of my ringing ears, but the ocean waves coming from the HomePod in our bedroom certainly helps combat the constant ringing in my ears. I’ve always had white noise or a fan or something going in my bedroom.

Luckily, the ringing doesn’t overpower my ability to hear. I actually wonder if my tinnitus has actually made my hearing better, because I can hear the faintest of sounds as long as it’s not the same exact frequency as the ringing in my ear.

Perhaps the constant sound has contributed to my eccentricities. Oh well, it’s part of who I am, might as well enjoy the music.

Warmer.

It was 10ºF in Syracuse, New York when we departed our hotel this morning at 8:00 a.m. By the time we were west of Cleveland, Ohio and stopped for lunch, it was almost 50ºF and the forecasts on the various radio stations I was hopping around on indicated it could be nearly 70ºF tomorrow and Tuesday.

Spring has sprung?

I have a feeling this is fake spring and there will be another winter storm before Mother Nature gets her act together. But when we got home the Chicago forecast also indicated very spring-like weather this week, and that has me in a sunny mood.

We’ll be packing this last week of Standard Time for 2020-2021. At least we’ll have some warmer temperatures outside to make the task more pleasant.

In the meanwhile, a selfie from a Service Plaza on the Ohio Turnpike.

Anxiety.

We took a walk around a local mall during our travels this weekend. Still concerned with COVID-19 and the behavior of society in general, we’ve been social distancing as best as we can, while wearing our masks whenever we’re out in public. But sometimes nature calls and the closest bathroom is in a mall.

I was very surprised to see how busy this mall was.

To be fair, everyone we saw, save for one person who looked confused in general, was wearing a mask in some way. Too many people weren’t doing it properly; if people are wearing condoms the way they’re wearing masks it’s no surprise how many accidental births we have in the country today. For the uninformed and/or confused: the mask goes over the nose and mouth. Covering just your chin (what the hell is that about?) or only your mouth is like putting the condom over the testicles instead of the penis.

I decided to word that in a way that isn’t as crude as it probably should be. Today’s finer American needs “crude” to understand concepts.

While we maintained plenty of distance from the mall patrons, I couldn’t help but feel very anxious and trapped as we made our way from finer fashions to the mall bathrooms. Folks still ignore signs on the floor that encourage social distancing. People congregate in packs. I said to my husband, “let’s get out of here”. So we did.

This particular mall has four anchor stores. Two of them are gone: JCPenney had departed and Macy’s was in its final days of a store closing sale.

I do believe the retail landscape has been changed forever.

Formerly.

In the early 1990s the New York State Thruway Authority spent millions and millions of dollars to rebuild all of their service plazas along 496 miles of the toll road in Upstate New York. Old Howard Johnson’s and other 1950s buildings were razed and replaced or heavily redecorated to get the facilities ready for a 21st century motoring experience. Sit down restaurants were replaced with fast food selections, often alternating in either direction between McDonalds and something else. Sometimes the alternate was Burger King, other times it was Roy Rogers, and then there were Tim Hortons on the western half of the roadway. Other franchises made an appearance: Arby’s, Checkers, and Pizza Hut showed themselves at one time or another.

We made a trip to my old stomping grounds to say hello to the relatives before our move to the desert southwest later this month. On our way we stopped at one of the Service Areas to grab a bite to eat. We hadn’t had Checkers in forever, so we stopped at one of the services areas that had a Checkers.

Nope, it’s closed down. And so was the pizza place there.

We hopped back on the Thruway and stopped at the next service area. I wanted a sandwich, and Tim Horton’s has decent sandwiches. Except, Tim Horton’s has also been closed down.

We opted for Arby’s. They don’t have brewed iced tea.

I believe all of these closures are a sign of the pandemic times. Theoretically there’s less people traveling. Before we moved to the midwest the Thruway Service Areas were starting to look a little sparse during the week; the pandemic has just made it worse. Thank goodness for Arby’s Curley Fries.

Apparently the Thruway Authority has a new vision for the service areas and will be ripping them down and replacing them again.

I have a hunch they won’t be as huge as the plazas today. That’s part of the past.