Tag: coronavirus

I’m King Paranoid

My wife and I went for a walk at lunch time.  We picked a random neighborhood side street and walked down it.  About halfway along we turned around, crossed the street, and started back.  The sun was out, the air was clean.  It was nice.

Until…

As we were slowly making our way back up to the main street a car pulled out of a driveway behind us and drove past.  Oh well.  It’s not like we were going to have the whole neighborhood to ourselves, right?

Then two cars pulled into the road from the main street at the same time.  One drove past us.  The other stopped in front of us!  What?  They were one house further up the road.  We crossed the street again.  Then the driver and the passenger got out of the car.  The passenger got back in to the drivers seat but the former driver just stood there.  The car drove away and still she didn’t go inside.  She checked her mailbox, she popped the trunk on another car that was in the driveway.  Come on, lady!  We’re trying to social distance here and you’re making us super duper paranoid!  Was she screwing with our head (probably not)?  Was she just evil (no)?  (was it totally harmless and innocent? yes)

It’s a crazy world we’re living in these days.  Now join us in washing our hands… twice.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 10

Tuesday is trash day.  This morning when I was getting ready for work* I had to ask my wife what day it was, and I had to make sure yesterday wasn’t some weird holiday too.  I needed to double check that it actually was Tuesday.

I didn’t do the dishes after I made dinner last night (chicken breasts, instant mashed potatoes, and canned green beans.  Jen told me I did good).  I was going to sneak them into the dishwasher while Jen was eating breakfast.  A few minutes ago I heard some noise from the kitchen.  She was putting the dishes in the dishwasher.  I went out and helped, but I missed my chance to surprise her.  Curses!  Foiled again.

*I still get up at the same time I get up when I have to drive 15 hours to get to work.  I still shower and get dressed every day and I am all put together as if I had to leave home at 7:15.  We’re also still making the bed every day.  There aren’t many things we can control, but we can still do that.

April 2020 RPM

You thought this was over for a while.  No way, dude.  No way.

The RPM Challenge has a website and a Facebook group.  There’s a subreddit and a discord chat too but I don’t use those too often.  Every February the 300 or so of us pop over to the website and sign up for the year.  Lots of people post on the forums and some people write blogs.  On Facebook people usually just post links to their music including links to live streams and gigs and things.  Normally both places are nice and busy from late-January through mid-March.  Outside of that little time frame both are pretty dead.

A couple of weeks ago there was a post to the Facebook group suggesting doing a second RPM Challenge in April.  If we’re all going to be stuck at home anyway, why not write some music.  I responded by saying I was already planning on it so I was in.  I then went over to the website and checked the forum.  There was something about doing a mini-challenge but nothing much.

This weekend, as March was winding down, I went to both places to see if anything was going to come of that little discussion.  There was nothing on Facebook.  The forum had one little mention stating that something was in the works.  Cool.  Yesterday I took another look at the website.  There it was.

The whole front page had been redesigned.  That usually happens in January.  This time there was a link to a Google Form where you could sign up for April.  This time there are more options for goals.  Instead of just 10 songs or 35 minutes, you can alternately sign up to make a sing, one song or five minutes, an EP, five songs or 20 minutes, and a box set, 30 songs or 100 minutes.  I signed up for the usual 10 songs or 35 minutes.

There were a couple of posts on Facebook from the admins announcing that sign ups were open again.  I haven’t seen much from actual participants.  There are a couple of little comments.  My favorite being someone who was happy that he got a second opportunity to ask himself why he’s putting himself through it.

Like I said, I was going to do this anyway.  It still feels nice to think that at least some of us who are regular participants are going to use it as a motivator for social distance.  That’s a good thing.  We’re all going to stay at home anyway, so why not make some music while we’re stuck.

Now the question is, how many April 2020 RPM Challenge albums are going to have titles that include Social Distance, or Shelter in Place, or Quarantine, or COVID-19, or Coronavirus?  All of them?

On to Week Three

Happy Monday.  Welcome to work from home week three.  It seems like yesterday we still had a morning commute.  Ah, the good old days.

We’re dealing with it.  We got some groceries via Instacart this morning, only to find out that instacart’s workers are going to strike today.  I guess we snuck it in under the wire?  Those folks deserve hazard pay.  Give them what ever they want.

We are all still here and we are all still healthy.  I feel like I’m having a bad allergy day today.  My eyes are itchy and watery.  No fever.  I’m still COVID-19 symptom free and I’m hoping to keep it that way.  Social distance is working in our house, even if it’s not working nationwide.  Let me clarify, nationwide the social distance thing is likely helping things.  It’s just not eliminating things, the way those of us who view the world through rose colored glasses hoped.  Dig it?

I spent most of last week having terrible, terrible nights sleep.  It got a little better late in the week and then I had a couple of good nights over the weekend.  Last night was terrible again.  Do you think I’m stressing about something?

The kids are here today but they are going to their dad’s this afternoon and staying there for the next couple of days.  They both woke up at reasonably decent times, but I am pretty sure they both went back to sleep again.  I’m curious if their respective schools are going to implement standard class schedule times to stop students from flaking like that.  It’s not a school vacation, even if it is a disaster of global pandemic proportions.

I talked to my father over the weekend.  He and my mother are doing all right.  My sister threatened them with violence if they left the house but I don’t believe he’s exactly following that plan.  He’s been sneaking out to a drive up mailbox.  I can’t get upset for that.  Hell, I drove to a mall parking lot to sing some shitty songs this weekend.

We learned two card games this week in our attempt to entertain ourselves through the quarantinishness.  Whist, which is a game my father used to play every Monday and Friday night, and Spades.  I had played Spades back in the distant past but I don’t think I ever got it.  I was terrible but I’m much better now after two games this weekend.  I get it now.  Both games are variations on the same thing.  I can’t decide which one I preferred.  Maybe Whist because Jen and I are undefeated as a team (two wins, zero losses).

I’m tired.

I’m not hungry but I want to eat junk food.

My 12:00 meeting was cancelled.

We’re on to week three with no end in site.  I wanna go on vacation.  Some place where I can bitch about the big crowds of people.  Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

Live Music

I just went to my first ever Richard Thompson concert.  It was a Facebook Live stream and it was great.  The traffic getting to the show was clear and my seats were fantastic.

He did play “Keep Your Distance” in case you are a fan and were wondering.

March is Almost Over

I know that no one else on Earth gives even the slightest fuck about yet another stupid song writing project.  We all have much bigger fish to fry.  I don’t care.  You’re getting another March Music post and that’s all there is to it.

I’ve got three days left.  Tonight while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I wrote the lyrics and the melody to the last three songs.  I now have three vocal parts to record, and six lead guitars to record.  I am hopeful that I can get them all done tomorrow, though that will require another trip to an empty parking lot for the three vocals.  No problem.

That will leave me with Sunday night, and Monday and Tuesday before and after work to mix the six remaining songs.  Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

Once that’s done all I will need to worry about is the global pandemic and the news stories detailing a growing sense of panic in some parts of the world… some of which are not too terribly far from me.

Until April 1st that is, when I start another month long writing challenge.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 9

I mentioned in one of my psychotic, depressed rants yesterday that we are trying to give ourselves the illusion that we have control over at least some parts of the current situation.  Deluded?  Yeah, probably.

One thing we are doing to exert control over the universe is making the bed every morning.  Neither Jen nor I are the kind of people who worry about making the bed every day.  In the current circumstance though?  Yeah, we’re making the bed every morning.  Control what you can.  Forget about all the rest.

209/365

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Fight the Urge to Stress Shop

One of the slew of guitar orientated BookFayce groups I belong to had a post a few minutes ago where one of my fellow members confessed to stress-buying a guitar pedal.

Fulltone is a company that manufactures pedals.  I own three of them.  Well… more like two and a half.  Two different versions of one pedal, and then a second pedal.  Whatever.  Suffice to say they make good stuff and I am a happy repeat customer.  I am also on their email list.  I got an email from them a few minutes ago.  I read some updates on things they are working on and I think I literally salivated a little.

Unlike my fellow BookFayce sufferer, I have managed to stop myself from stress-buying… anything.  Not just guitar gear, but anything.  The only thing I’ve spent money on since the quarantini kicked off is food and one tank of gas in the Kia.  That’s it.

My thinking is simple.  If we don’t spend any money during the quarantininess, I should be able to afford a new Les Paul once it’s all over.  If it lasts another month or so I’ll be able to afford one of those sweet 2019 Les Paul Standards (with the gold finish because I’ve always wanted a gold top).  If it lasts through the Spring, like many people believe it will, I’ll be able to afford a nice late 60’s Les Paul Custom, in black, of course.  If it lasts into next year… well… with that much money saved we can start looking at something from the late ’50’s.  Probably not a Burst (capital B) but maybe a ’56 or a ’57?  Maybe a ’59 junior?  Sky’s the limit, kids!