I think this might be a sign of old age, but I am completely fucking fascinated with the little plant clipping. It sat in a glass of water for a couple of weeks without growing at all, then in two days it sprouted killer roots. We potted it and put it in the window. I open the blinds every day (it only gets indirect sunlight) and I watered it a couple of times (not too much) and it’s definitely not dead yet.
But has it grown at all? I think so, but it might be wishful thinking. I’m going to start documenting it. Get ready for shit loads of pictures of Bellana’s little clipping.
I’m hoping it will be 10 feet tall by the time she gets home.
I don’t like Discord. I know that makes me sound old, but it’s just an AOL chat room so it’s not that I am old, it’s that I’ve been there and done that and don’t want to do it again.
The RPM Challenge forums no longer exist as they have been replaced by a Discord server. Okay. I’ll play along.
There I was, typing in a post to the random chat board, and either the app on my machine crashed or the server went down. Like… right in the middle of typing!
Okay, we have established that I don’t like Discord. Now it seems that Discord doesn’t like me either. Well screw you, Chuck!
On an unrelated note, Bellana and her roommate posted another video. They went to Belgium. Just a spur of the moment trip to Brussels. How cool is that? How cool is the EU?
Maybe I’ll share the video one of these days.
On another unrelated note, why is the last post I made last night displaying in a box? Is this post going to display in a box? Did I accidentally click a put-your-post-in-a-box button? I don’t know. Let’s publish this puppy and see what happens!
ADDENDUM: I didn’t click a put-your-post-in-a-box button, but I did post the previous update while I was about 95% asleep and I did accidentally click a stick-this-to-the-top-of-your-page checkbox. It should be fixed now.
My step daughter’s roommate posted a new video, letting us check in with their Dutch adventure. They haven’t started classes yet, but they have completed their Covid quarantine, so they get to wander the city.
Jealous much? Oh yeah.
The video right now has them checking out a bookstore that for some reason looks really familiar to me. It’s nice to see that all of the signs are in English.
They are doing well and are enjoying the experience so far. Still not sure if I want to post their videos here or not. Also not sure if I would be able to as they have some pretty tight permissions set.
That’s all I have for today’s lunch time post. It might not seem like much, but I got to watch the video so it’s pretty much the best lunchtime post ever. Also, I sent Bellana a picture of the newly potted plant that is a cutting from a plant that belonged to her step mother’s mother and she was very happy. I’m happy too.
I failed to get out of bed early enough to go out for some car music today. It’s been a while. I need to keep on this. I want the re-recordings done before RPM starts on February 1st. Get on it, fat boy!
My hair is so long that it keeps covering my glasses. When I am wearing my sit-at-the-computer glasses and I have to look somewhere else, I try to look over the top of my glasses. I can’t do that today because there is 20 pounds of hair sitting there. I keep thinking my glasses are dirty because there’s smutz on them. The smutz, as you can probably guess, is actually my hair. If I don’t get my hair cut tomorrow I am going to lose my shit. At the same time, I really don’t want to get my hair cut tomorrow because I really don’t want Covid. Damn it!
Yesterday was Dr Martin Luther King, Jr day in the USA. Was it also a holiday in the UK? Why is the That Pedal Show live show happening today instead of yesterday?
I just did something I haven’t done in ages. Instead of chasing my lunch with some junk food, I had some fruit. I am sharing that information not because it’s interesting to you, my loyal and much loved readers, but because if I happen to look back at this a few days or weeks or years from now I want to know that on at least one day I did at least one thing right. I am encouraging/guilting my hypothetical future self.
My step son is taking a jazz piano course. Just a one credit thing. He had his first lesson today. He’s very excited. He said he popped a 9th on top of a Dominat 7 chord. Yes. Next stop, Chick Effin’ Corea babie!
We took Harry back to school. We are empty nesters again. We’re happy and sad and yadda yadda. I miss him. I miss Bellana.
I don’t have a problem with them being at school. I am loving the trip, seeing where they are going and how they are getting there and all of that.
I am just tired of all the other shit. I am so tired of Covid. Just feeling overwhelmed and absolutely sick of it all. I want our lives back. I want to get back to a world where stopping for gas isn’t something that makes me feel afraid for my health and the health of my family.
I don’t know. I just want this crap to be over, you know?
If you were super curious about how The Netherlands is handling the quarantining of visitors from other countries, here’s what I know.
Bellana entered the country on Thursday morning, January 13th. She was allotted some time to get from the plane to her final destination, which was something like three hours by train, and then once she was where she was going her quarantine began. On Monday she will take a Covid test. The results will take 48-72 hours to return but once they do (assuming a negative result) she’s free to move about the country.
So worst case scenario (that doesn’t involve a positive test) is that her quarantine starts on 1/13 and ends on 1/20. Note that in The Netherlands they would say her quarantine starts on 13/1 and ends on 20/1, but that’s neither here nor there.
One funny note from our FaceTime. She has changed her weather settings on her phone to Celsius. She said it was currently 2 degrees. Jen laughed and said it was 2 degrees here too. Doing the math, our 2 degrees is -16.7 degrees for her. Brrrr, babie.
So now you’re up to date on the Dutch quarantine process for international travel. I hope you all enjoyed this little lesson.
I didn’t go out for car music today. Nope. I was going to. I woke up at 6:45am (on a Saturday, you savage!) and my watch told me it was 2 degrees out. Yikes. Well… we’ll see how things look after my shower and stuff. When I was all dressed and ready to go my watch told me it was 1 degree out. Welp, maybe next time.
That’s one thing dropped from the to-do list. We are hoping to add one thing too. There will, hopefully, be a FaceTime call with Bellana today! All the way from The Netherlands where she is quarantining and probably super bored. I still haven’t decided if I want to share their YouTube video or not. I’m hoping they post things regularly so we can feel like we’re a distant part of their adventure. Fingers crossed. I probably won’t post the videos here. I don’t know. Maybe, but probably not.
In closing, yesterday I listened to a podcast that broke down the Grace Under Pressure Tour video that Rush released in 1984 or so. It brought this little masterpiece back to the front of my brain and it doesn’t show any signs of leaving any time soon.
Fear. A sort of suite. Sort of. In 1984 when Rush released the Grace Under Pressure album, the song The Enemy Within was subtitled Part One of Fear. Well what the hell did that mean? They eventually explained it to us. One of my friends in Junior High said he had figured it out, but I don’t believe him.
Fear is a three song suite-ish that includes one song each from three albums… in reverse.
Part One is The Enemy Within from Grace Under Pressure, released in 1984. Part Two is The Weapon from Signals, released in 1982. Part Three is Witch Hunt from Moving Pictures, released in 1981.
Simple, right? If I remember correctly, Neil said he numbered them in order of the hardest to write to the easiest… or was it the other way around. Damn it. I don’t remember for sure. It doesn’t matter, they were numbered based on the writing process, that’s all you need to know. I don’t recall if The Weapon and Witch Hunt were ever officially given a Fear subtitle on any subsequent release, but they might have. There was also a fourth song, Freeze from Vapor Trails, released in 2002, but they never played all four of them together. In fact, they never played Freeze live at all. They were never supposed to play Witch Hunt either. That was written and recorded as a studio only thing as there were little things that couldn’t be pulled off live with just three people at the time. As a result, this arrangement is a little different than the Moving Pictures album and that was something that Rush just didn’t do, making this version extra special. Years later, as sampling and triggering technology caught up with the band, they did do Witch Hunt as it was originally arranged. I really like this one though. It lacks the cowbell in the beginning, well most of it at least, but it adds that killer guitar solo at the end. Awesome.
Gee, I hope these videos actually play though… seems like a lot of people have posted this with the sharing options off. Yikes.
Friday. Lunch break. My Covid hair is so long right now that it’s actually giving me a headache. Is that even possible? I’m looking at Wednesday as the day I get it cut. I am going to look and feel like a different person. It’s going to be weird.
Wednesday is also the first step in the weight loss surgery process. I’m just going in to have my vitals taken. Safe to assume I will crush the scale when they weigh me. My back has become such a problem that I can’t really exercise at the moment. It is going to be a really tough time for me but if I don’t do it I am going to die of fat. It’s that simple.
Bellana and her roommate just posted a video to YouTube detailing their journey to The Netherlands and their first couple of days in quarantine. I really want to post it here but I don’t know if I should. I want to though.
Harry just came home. He’s been working for one of the gig-economy internets services. Two customers stiffed him on tips. They both suck. Actually, I don’t know that for sure, they could just be going through tough financial times, but they did stiff my kid so I am mad at them. At least he’s home. He’s planning on going out again at dinner and we will miss him. He’s going back to school on Sunday and I don’t want him to go, but I do want him to go, but I don’t want him to go. Aw, crud.
Bellana and Kenny’s YouTube post is giving a tour of their apartment. The views of the city are amazing. I want to just watch it over and over but I have to go back to work. Blah. Three hours and nine minutes to go.
Inside the Red Head's Head 