I’ve been doing a lot of walking during these pandemic times. It looked like a gorgeous day today but it was very cold for this time of year. I don’t think it got above 40ºF today. We are under a freeze warning for tonight.
I’ve been admiring these tulips across the street for past couple of days. They bring a smile to my face. I’m thankful our neighbor has taken the time to cultivate them.
I hope the tulips survive the freeze. I hope I do as well.
People here in the 21st century like to make fun of the screeching noises our modems made in the late 20th century. My husband and I were the outliers when we made our home in a our small apartment in 1996; we had two phone lines, enabling us to both be online at the same time. We finished our time with America Online in that apartment; by the time we had moved to our first house in 1997 we had moved to a local Internet Service Provider and again we had two phones lines to accommodate our two 56K baud modems.
Good times.
I vividly remember the Internet of the late 20th century. Heck, I vividly remember going online before the “Information Superhighway” was touted as a thing; I was dialing into local Bulletin Board Services and text based online services with my Commodore 64 in 1986. It was not much later that I was working for then the second largest computer company in the world where everyone had a computer on their desk. All of our computers were connected and if we knew the right path to get to another company, we could send email from our desk to a friend’s desk at another company hundreds of miles away.
Edward Snowden wrote about this in his book, “Permanent Record”: the Internet (and its precursors) was a much friendlier place back in the day. In the circles where I traveled, and I traveled in many online circles back then, our focus was on communication and information exchange. It would be literally decades before people aspired to be “influencers”. Honestly, getting online, navigating the systems, and actually staying connected was difficult for the average joe and because of this, there wasn’t a lot of flooding of misinformation, deception, and propaganda. Sure, we had bulletin boards where we talked about conspiracy theories and I kept up with the few folks I knew associated with ACT-UP, but it seemed to be very rare where there was so much spin and deception running rampantly across our screens.
I can’t get through one screen of Facebook without rolling my eyes at the stupidity of some of the people I have on my “friends” list. The list is growing shorter by the day.
I firmly believe our society was not prepared for the freedom offered with all information being instantly available. I don’t know that humans are truly equipped to handle this much information, especially when so many bad actors are easily getting onto the “Information Superhighway” to purposely disrupt, deceive, and destroy.
The Internet was suppose to bring us together, not rip us apart. But that’s exactly what it’s doing and unfortunately this destruction is making too many people rich, so it will never stop.
The idiocy of the Internet will outlive American society. I am convinced of that.
I miss the days when one had to be tech savvy to use a computer and get online. Now we can bark into our refrigerator to tweet.
Is that really a good thing?
Before the quarantine we used to enjoy eating brunch at one of the many places we have nearby here in Chicago. The Windy City is a pretty brunch-centric place and many of the restaurants offered a wonderful spin on the experience. It was an experience I would look forward to.
After six(?) weeks of quarantine and all sit-down restaurants being closed, I’m finding I enjoy weekend brunch at home more than the dining out experience. Now, I’m quite lucky because I’m married to a man who definitely knows his way around the kitchen, so perhaps my perception is a bit biased.
This got me to thinking; after the COVID-19 pandemic is part of history and no longer part of the present, what lessons will we learn from this experience? I’d like to think we’d be a little more caring as a society. Perhaps we won’t be as eager to be on the run trying to do the latest and greatest thing all the time. Will we have learned to ramp back the pacing just a bit?
Judging by the number of people storming capital buildings to demand businesses open up so they can get a haircut or a manicure, I don’t think the U.S. will change all that much in the greater scheme of things. Other parts of the world may adapt, may slow down, may appreciate what they have right at home, but too many people in the U.S. seem to thrive at a frenetic pace, hence the frenzy of folks protesting safety precautions.
I’m going to concentrate on slowing down a little bit and most importantly, finding ways to better connect with the Universe again. If these grand thoughts are a result of skipping an overpriced brunch at an eatery, so be it.
Any start is a great start.
The view from our condo on the north side of Chicago gives me the opportunity to see flights on approach to both O’Hare and Midway Airports. The night view is especially compelling; I can easily see flights on approach to Midway. However, the skies over Chicago have been noticeably quiet since the Coronavirus concerns began. Midway doesn’t seem to have much night traffic at all and the flight going into O’Hare have no need to get in line over Lake Michigan, so they’re using closer fixes to the airport to make their final approach.
It’s interesting, but it’s sad at the same time. It’s a sign of the times.
We are on the front line of history right now. Generations to come will read about what we’re doing right now. How did we respond to the pandemic of 2020?
I know what I want history books to say. I fear not enough people think the way I do.
Boy, I sure miss watching the regular flights in Midway and O’Hare.
Sometimes the toughest standard we live to is self imposed. That’s all I have today. Thank you for attending my TED talk.
So we’ve been getting our money’s worth from Amazon Prime Video during this lockdown. After watching reruns of “That Girl” over the winter, “The Mothers In Law” was in our suggestion pile so we gave it a whirl.
Before we started watching the show I didn’t remember a lot about it. Every once in a great while my husband and I would be reminiscing about old television shows and he’d bark out “Kaye Ballard!” and then “The Mothers-In-Law!”. I don’t remember watching the show as a kid but I sort of remembered Kaye Ballard, mostly from mentions Rosie O’Donnell made during her talk show way back when.
The first couple episodes of the first season are a little rough to watch. I think it has to be the first series outside of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” where (almost) all of the lead characters used their real first names. Kaye and Roger live next door to Eve and Herb. Their kids fall in love and get married, and the in-laws don’t really get along but they really do and they get into all sorts of whacky situations.
I remarked the other night in my blog entry writing spree that Kaye Ballard chews up the scenery in this series but the truth of the matter is that’s just Kaye Ballard. And I’m enjoy her performance. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden are a lot like Lucy and Ethel and ahead of the curve in a little bit Laverne and Shirley. “The Mothers In Law” was produced by Desi Arnaz. He directed quite a few of episodes, and Desi Arnaz, Jr. appeared in an episode tonight. He played a drummer of a band in a club run by Rob Reiner (without his mustache). There were a couple of seemingly ad libbed lines. I’m now enjoying watching the show very much and I’m interested to see how the dynamic changes when we get to season 2 when Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd from Star Trek) is replaced by Richard Deacon (who appeared in everything in the 60s and 70s).
I read somewhere online that during this pandemic people are looking for “familiar” entertainment. Well, we’re going retro with our entertainment and enjoying “The Mothers In Law”.
I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, but when I do my brain does its usual thing and throws a bunch of lucid dreams. Once in a while I can figure out, while still asleep and dreaming, that I’m asleep and do some fantastic things I can’t do in the real world, but more often than not the subconscious is in control and I just go along for the ride.
Last night I had this really weird dream about working for the Trump administration. It was like anything I had heard or read about him was wrong and while he was basically bombastic and loud he was also misunderstood and portrayed as something he is not by the media.
My analytical self goes into overdrive with these types of dreams so I’m trying to figure out what my subconscious is telling me. Are angels trying to guide me to be less judgmental? Is the universe telling me to chill out on the news consumption?
It was then I realized I had eaten a snack right before bed and it was probably just gas.
Welcome to Hawaii. Here’s your ankle monitor: Stronger policies to track tourists eyed.
I guess I didn’t realize folks traveling to Hawaii were being put into quarantine upon arrival. Apparently there’s talk of putting ankle bracelets on arriving tourists to track their movements to make sure they’re adhering to the quarantine.
My biggest question is, who is traveling to Hawaii during this pandemic? I am concerned about privacy rights and the constitutionality of this tracking practice, but still, who is traveling to Hawaii during this pandemic?
We live in crazy times.
Last July my husband and I were sitting along side a beautiful pool in a gay resort in Palm Springs, California. We were relaxing and on a quick getaway from life. My husband had given his all to his career for decades and was able to retire at a fairly young age; I took up the mantle and continued the whole “power gay couple” vibe and continue to do so today, with a sprinkling of vacation time here and there.
We didn’t know anyone around us at the beautiful gay resort. It was gorgeous and so were most of the men in the pool. Conversation flowed freely. Some were clothed, some were not. I was drinking early in the day. I was intent on exploring new facets of my personality. INFJ is a result, not a label. Let’s explore what it really means. I do this from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with new discoveries. Push your boundaries! There’s a place to do it and a place to refrain.
As naked and barely clothed men swam in the pool, as the club music quietly presented itself from the pool side speakers, as we mused about our current affairs and where we are in this life, I suddenly bolted up from my lounge chair and made a declaration to my husband.
I’m going to write my autobiography and it will be called “Trip The Moment Fantastic”! The exclamation points were in my voice.
He asked, “What does that mean”?
I replied, “I have absolutely no idea but at this moment in time it makes perfect sense to me.”
I will turn 52 years old here in this mess we call 2020. I’ve had a couple of successful careers during my lifetime and if I must say so I’ve done some pretty awesome things. When it comes down to the lowest common denominator, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Nothing. As Sandy Duncan, while in her 40s, once said, “I’ve done some great things in my life. The rest of it is gravy”.
I like this gravy!
When I declared the title of my unwritten biography in my head I was in an altered state. As I write this right now my head is in a similarity constructed altered state. COVID-19, coronavirus, meteors, and all the other ills of the world: the fact of the matter is, I’m sitting in a beautiful condo on the north side of the third largest city in the United States. We moved here from a very red part of the country some folks call a “snowy Alabama”. The root of my upbringing is “Thank god I’m a country boy!”, my head is a middle of the road politico, not too liberal and not too conservative, and my heart is where I am right now: if someone gave me a test I’d be on something other than a rainbow spectrum, I love technology, people make me crazy, and I really want to fly an airplane. And I am hopelessly in love with my husband, so thankful for our chosen family, and grateful for my upbringing, my family, and my bloody relations.
If I sat down and wrote “Trip The Moment Fantastic” I’m certain no one would read it. While my life has been quite wonderful, I would have no dreams of it becoming Kardashian worthy. My life has been perfect for me but no chapter would make “Hard Copy”. So I write in a private journal, password protected from prying eyes, and no pieces will be shared until I’ve moved to whatever comes next. My husband knows how to share my musings after I’m long gone.
But the title rings beautifully for me. “Trip The Moment Fantastic”. Such beautiful words. Like the screen name “Machias”, which still rings as spectacularly as it did for me in 1990, “Trip The Moment Fantastic” rings as a reminder to me: enjoy the moment. It likes a loud, golden bell, ringing louder than anything Jaye P. Morgan smacked on a game show.
Enjoy life. Be Free. No one else has your point of view, make the absolutely best of it.
I want my gravy to be awesome.
One of the main themes from the 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” is Jeannie was a jealous wisp of smoke that could never really have her “master” the way she wanted her master. At least not until the ratings push for the fifth season rolled around. Astronaut Major Anthony Nelson would occasionally date other women, even though Jeannie lived in his house in a bottle on the hutch in the Kravitz’s living room, and this would make Jeannie jealous. She’d then blink and with a jump cut and a sound effect the object of her jealousy would become a porcelain statue or a dog or something. Boing plink, I’m jealous.
I’ve been married (in the relationship sense) for nearly 24 years. You know where jealousy comes from? From within. It’s a signal of a lack of self-confidence. No one can make you jealous. Jealous is your own thing. You’re feeling inadequate. You’re feeling insecure.
People have asked me how my husband and I have managed to stay together for nearly 24 years. Well, I’m going to share a secret with you. Back in 1996 when we decided we wanted to spend our lives together we decided the only exit plan was death. There were no other options. Divorce? Not an option. Separation? Not an option. Murder? Under extreme circumstances.
I find many men attractive. I find some women attractive too and quite frankly since 24 years ago we established “death” as the only exit plan for our relationship, I don’t hesitate to tell my husband if I find a guy cute. Years ago we were walking together in Crossgates Mall in Albany, N.Y. and apparently a man was eyeballing me on the escalator.
OK, let’s step out of the blog entry for a moment. I’m going to tell you something about me. I have never been able to pick up on these “clues”. I never know when someone is flirty. I never know when someone finds me attractive. I have no idea what the homosexual signals are for “let’s have sex!” in a Thruway Service Area.
I. Am. Clueless.
My husband has a keen sense of who is scoping out whom and he knows who’s having sex in the mall bathroom. He just knows. Even though I’m eight years younger than him and I came out of the closet years before he did, he knows who’s shagging whom in the stall number three and I’m just there to pee and wash my hands.
So we were on the escalator in Crossgates Mall in Albany, N.Y. near a department store called Cohoes and apparently this guy was checking me out. I didn’t have a clue but Earl, being the card carrying homosexual that he is, did have a clue and he whispered in my ear, “that guy is checking you out.”
Had it not been 1999 with dial up access there probably would have been a meme with two girls and a guy (no pizza place) on a street.
This type of scenario does not happen in our relationship because death is the only exit. Do not take the elevator, the building is not on fire, no one is leaving the auditorium.
Honestly, if everyone conducted their marital affairs the way we did, NBC afternoons would have never been populated by “The Doctors” and the other soap operas of the 1970s. Where would Mac and Rachel be? Would Iris be mean enough to spring herself into her own soap opera named “Texas”?
See, you really didn’t know that I was gay enough to know these things about NBC soap operas but it’s not a gay thing as much as it’s a freak thing.
So, when I find a guy attractive my husband is fully aware of it and there’s no harm done. When he finds a guy attractive I am really into it and there’s no harm done. What the secret to a successful marriage? Be confident in who you are, lay down some ground rules, and be yourself.
Just because you’re chained to the fence doesn’t mean you can’t bark at the cars.
I wonder what the American marriage success rate would look like if people were confident in themselves and their relationships. How much happier would society be if people just accepted the fact that human beings are like every other animal on the planet and will always admire the beauty around them.
I’m musing about this because last night we watched a first season episode of “Bewitched”. If you’ve never watched it in its original black and white glory you should do so. “Bewitched” was a much more adult show in its first season and we enjoyed an episode where Larry Tate ogled women and suspected Darrin of having an affair with a brunette woman that resembled Samantha’s cousin Serena (who wouldn’t make appearance until much later in the series). At one point Larry Tate thinks Darrin is having an affair with his wife Louise (played by the much better cast Irene Vernon).
Speaking of “Bewitched”, why weren’t people upset about the fact that Maurice and Endora had an open relationship? I think I’ll save that dialog for another blog entry.
The bottom line of this rounds of musings is this, be yourself and allow your spouse or significant other to do the same. Love is the strongest bond in the universe. Allow it to stand on its own and put all of your confidence in that bond. Have confidence in yourself and have confidence in your relationship.
Leave the drama for the soap operas.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!