Tag: lock down

Welcome to December

Hello and welcome to December 1, 2020. It is really hard to believe we are here, but we are. We are just a couple of weeks away from the first day of Winter. When the lock downs started back in March it was at the very end of Winter. All of Spring, locked down. All of Summer, locked down. Pretty soon all of Autumn, locked down. If you stop and think of it, it is pretty overwhelming. For that reason, I suggest you don’t stop and think about it. Just put your head down and keep moving forward.

I’ve done 10 album in a month projects over the last 10 months. Today marks the start of project #11. I think I want to restrict myself to just my Les Paul, a Klon Klone overdrive pedal, and my two 15 watt tube amps. I need to put new strings on the Les Paul, but I can do that tonight. I still have five songs left on the re-recording project too so those might be Les Paul. We’ll see.

November was noteworthy for this here little bloggie. It had the most page views in any month since I created the account. It also had the most unique visitors of any month since I created the account. How about that? The numbers are still teeny tiny in terms of most real bloggers’ goals but for me it was kinda cool. Thanks for dropping by, everyone. Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

Today is my weigh in day. I was down a little. That’s nice. I hit a minor milestone. That’s nice too. I was paranoid that I was going to be up, and out of fear I did my entire 30 minute exercise first thing this morning. I doubt it had any effect on the scale, but it sort of made me feel almost better at the time. I find myself doing this on most Tuesdays now. Whatever works, right?

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 64, aka The Perfect Delivery Storm

I just survived a perfect storm of deliveries. George Clooney was there and everything. It was crazy.

First, a package delivery service. I don’t know which one. The two packages came from Amazon, so was it an Amazon truck? No clue. What I do know is that the delivery professional leaned the two boxes against my door.

Let me type that out again in case you missed it. He/she/they leaned the packages against my door.

How, dear delivery professional, am I supposed to go outside and get the delivery if I cannot open the door because you leaned the friggin packages against the door?

Prior to my finding out about the first delivery, Instacart came by and dropped off some groceries. They did not block the door, because the door was already blocked. There is a little porch outside of our front door that has three steps leading up to it. They placed the groceries on the first step. They completely covered the whole step.

That sounds worse than it was. If someone who has a physical issue and can’t walk well came to our house they might have trouble, but for a reasonably healthy person, walking over the first step should be doable. It’s not ideal, but it’s not as bad as leaning the boxes against the door.

When we received the notification that instacart had been delivered, I went out to get it. That’s when I noticed that I could not open the friggin door because of the first delivery. Have I hammered home how obnoxious it is for a delivery person to block the door with the delivery? If I haven’t, it’s friggin obnoxious. Anyway, I looked out the window in our door to see why I couldn’t open the door, and that was when the perfect storm was completed. The mailman was two houses down the street, and heading our way.

Our mailbox is next to the door, at the top of the three steps. If the mailman arrived he’d have to step over the groceries. Shit. I can’t ask the mailman to do that, can I?

I forced the door open. I had to push the boxes aside and then swing my foot through the small opening and kick the boxes further away. Once I was able to squeeze out I grabbed the two boxes and threw them into the house (not literally, I placed them inside the door) and then jumped over the groceries and cleared a path. I got back in the house just in time to avoid Covid contact with the mail carrier. I did see that he was wearing a mask, which made me happy.

A minute or two later I had all of the groceries inside and put away. The boxes are in our little package staging area waiting for me to open them up later.

Please… if you’re delivering stuff… don’t block the door. Don’t block the steps either, but more important, don’t block the damn door.

Thanksgivmas

I think I might need to admit defeat on this one.

Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday. I probably post that every year but it’s true. I just love me some Thanksgiving.

This year, Covid-19 is screwing everything up. No large groups. No family gatherings. Effectively no Thanksgiving. The kids are at their dad’s on the day itself, and also for that whole weekend. That means Jen and I will be alone. We’ll do something low key, and then have a full blown Thanksgiving on the first weekend they are with us. It will be a great Thanksgiving, even if it’s not on Thanksgiving.

What else does this mean though? What other effects does the lack of a normal Thanksgiving have? In a word: Christmas.

It’s November 18th and it’s safe to say that Christmas is already here. The Christmas lights are on the house, there’s a new fake tree that’s ready to be put up, there is a huge box full of new decorations just waiting for the go ahead.

One more thing? Jen bought a Christmas theme quilt for our bedroom. It was delivered yesterday. It’s in the washing machine right now. Before we sleep tonight, it will be on the bed.

It’s November 18th and the Christmas decorations are already going up. We’re going to have Christmas for Thanksgiving this year and no amount of complaining by your humble narrator here is going to stop it. Ho Ho Gobble Gobble Ho.

Another Bad Luck Coronaversary

Friday March 13, 2020. That was my last day in the office before the Coronavirus shut down started.

Friday November 13, 2020. Today. Yet another Friday the 13th. Eight months and counting.

We have a new President Elect, we have rumblings of a very effective vaccine, no one in my family has Covid-19, we still haven’t really left the house to speak of but everyone is Corona-Free.

Eight months. 10,642,218 sick Americans. 243,044 dead Americans.

I don’t really have anything else to say. I still feel the need to recognize the monthaversary, but this is normal now. Working from home. Never leaving the house, more or less. My company is still hinting that we’ll be back to the office at least some of the time after the new year. I don’t think I’m ready for that. Short of a vaccine I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that.

I really want this to be over though. My soul is feeling pretty crushed right now.

Uncle, right?

Halloween Plans

So with over 1400 new cases of Covid-19 in Massachusetts today, and over 80,000 new cases nation wide, I figured I’d bring up the topic of Halloween plans.

What are you folks doing?

Wanna know what we’re doing?

Our plans are to turn off all the lights outside of the house, turn off all the lights inside the house that face the street, close all of the curtains, lock ourselves into a room in the back of the house and act like Shaun and Liz and Ed and Dianne and David and Shaun’s mom from Shaun of the Dead and wait for this whole thing to blow over.

Happy Covid-ween, everyone. Stay home and wash your damn hands!

Happy Halloween

In early May my hair was lock down long. Jen cut it for me. It was wonderful. One month later it was getting shaggy again and Jen cut it again and it was wonderful. Today it was back to super lock down long and Jen cut it again and it’s wonderful.

I have never had a buzz cut before. At least not since I was old enough to tell everyone I didn’t want a buzz cut anymore. My hair has never been this short before. My 1992 hippy long hair past self is in shock, but I love it.

Thanks, Jen!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Boo!

Tiring

Do you know want to know what is tiring?

Coronavirus. That’s what’s tiring.

We should be planning weekend trips to the mountains to see the foliage. Instead we’re freaking out over the prospect of having to put gas in the car. We’re freaking out over the prospect of kids going back to school. We’re freaking out over the fact that I coughed a bunch of times before I went to sleep last night.

This whole thing is exhausting. Quarantine fatigue indeed. Still staying strong and keeping safe though. Not like the millions of idiots who “don’t believe” in the virus. I hate stupid people.

Hair During Quarantine

Twice since the lock down started my beautiful wife has cut my hair. Today, for the first time, she cut her own hair. She found a how-to video on youtube and this morning she went for it…

…and it looks GREAT! She’s not all that happy with it, but I think she looks fantastic. I am really impressed. There is literally nothing she can’t do.

I Missed an Important Date

Today is September 14th. I missed an important anniversary yesterday.

September 13th marked six months since the start of the lock down.

No end in site.

I am still keeping track of the daily numbers for both Massachusetts and the United States. I added the Rt number as well. There was a time when Massachusetts was becoming the envy of the nation as our Rt number dropped to the lowest in the country. No more. It was 1.16 yesterday. I don’t have a number for today yet.

Schools are opening and the numbers are spiking. Some schools in MA are already switching to remote. They should all just stop screwing around and switch. New Hampshire should too. My step son is at home this week, but next week? Who knows.

Six months. We were originally expecting two weeks. This is insane. 194,000 corpses in the US and counting. I am so tired of this. It’s just exhausting.

The Bruins are Out

The Bruins are out, the Red Sox are historically awful, we lost our entire Spring to the Covid shut down, and now that it’s September 1st we have also lost our Summer.

I listened to a little bit of the second period. I heard the Bruins score their first goal. That was nice. I watched some of the third period. I shut it off because I just couldn’t bear it (pun kind of intended). I have to say that after the game three slaughter my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I was keeping an eye on the score. I saw it go to overtime. I saw it go to double overtime. I was asleep when it ended.

Summer is about to end. Lock down is not about to end. That math sucks. I feel like Covid-19 may have cost the Bruins a Cup this year. It definitely cost Pastrnak a 50 goal season. I know a lot of fans will pin this on Tuukka. Not me. He did the right thing.

Everything sucks. My epic binge watch of Agents of Shield just reached the episode where Bobby and Hunter leave. Those two actors got shafted. They left the show to get a spin off of their own, only to have the spin off cancelled before it went into production. That story fits in nicely with the general vibe of 2020, doesn’t it.

I want my summer back. I want my hockey season back too.