I was working on my jigsaw puzzle late Sunday afternoon. Fifteen hundred pieces, it’s been slow progress. My wife rarely works on it (it doesn’t draw her – c’est la vie), and I work on it during free time. But I’m close to finishing it (well, it’s eighty percent done) and other puzzles are waiting, so I working on it.
Then I hear, “You won’t hear me.”
“What?”
“But you’ll feel me.”
It was my mind, of course. “I’m busy,” I said. “Go away.”
“Without warning, sometimes dawning, listen.”
“Wait a minute. I know those words.”
Then — bam bam bam bam bap — “Turbo Love” (1986) by Judas Priest blew into my head.
“Really?” I asked my mind. “Why?”
My mind responded by playing “Turbo Lover” over and over. So, it’s one of those ronasits that I need to share it with you to get it out of my head.
Hope you enjoy it. My mind seemed to. Check out the video at least. Such an eighties look.
Hearing stories from around town…horror stories. It’s one thing to not respect the CDC and WHO guidance about wearing masks and social distancing, to not credit the countries, cities, and states who did this (and here, I shout out to New Zealand) and managed to keep infections and deaths down. It’s quite another matter for people (who claim to be for freedom, don’t you know) who aren’t wearing masks to attack others.
Yeah, attack them. We’ve heard about the shootings and the stabbings. Locally, there are people without masks going around coughing on those with masks and verbally abusing them.
Yeah, this is Trump’s America, a sorry state where bullying undermines intelligence, where childishness and immaturity is applauded as protest.
To close the loop, then, I was thinking about understanding, which lead to a song riff and remembered lyrics, and then the song, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”. I’m more familiar with the Elvis Costello cover, so I went with it as your Sunday theme music offering. Like the dash of humor at the start. Cheers
Reading news of dysfunctional America, where political leanings can almost be discerned by who is wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, the Green Day song, “American Idiot” flooded the morning’s musical stream.
Written in 2004, the war in Iraq, election of George Dubya Bush and the U.S. political scene inspired “American Idiot”. Seems like we’ve gone from bad to disastrous. But, as always, just when you think you hit rock bottom, some new madness will emerge.
I’m waiting, breath not held, so see what that is. “Welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alien nation, where everything isn’t meant to be okay.”
Song from 1969 is rambling through my head. (Guess it’s Throwback Thursday.) (This is Thursday, innit? Days are sort of bleeding together with a lovely melange of rain, sun, and night.)
“Good Times, Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin is cranking through the stream? Why? Because it can. But I think it sorta works for these P.D. (pandemic days, or pandays, if you must). “Good times, bad times, you know I’ve seen my share.” Plant sings it so much better than me, according to my cats. But then, they’re very critical by nature. They’re like, “Stop singing. Feed me. Stop moving. Let me sleep on your lap. What’re you doing? Where you going? Get back here. Don’t close that door. Hey, what’re you doing? What’s going on behind that door? Let me in! Let me in!”
Have a friend who has tested positive for COVID-19.
She the first friend that has confirmed she’s tested positive. I have third hand tales that a group of friends I sometimes hang out with had two people test positive.
My friend is traveler, visiting Africa, Europe, Japan, and other parts of the U.S. this year. Retired, she enjoys being active and seeing the world. After returning from her latest trip (to Arizona), she experienced symptoms that were listed as possible signs of COVID-19; besides that, she’d been with someone else before that exhibiting the signs.
So, she decided to go into isolation and get tested.
Deciding to get tested was one thing; actually getting tested required days of telephone calls and insistence that she be tested. After being tested at a drive through testing center, she remained in isolation while awaiting the results. Receiving the results took more days of telephone calls and emails. Ten days later, they confirmed what she suspected.
Although she’s over seventy, her symptoms weren’t too severe. The worse part was the dry cough, she said. It felt like her ribs were being torn apart on some days. Mended now, eight weeks later, she considers herself lucky.
Meanwhile, as nobody else seemed interested, she conducted her own tracing program and notified others she’d been with. Of the seven that she notified, six tested positive for COVID-19. The seventh didn’t want to be tested. He was showing numerous symptoms but refused to be tested. Coincidentally — and it must only be a coincidence — he’s a Republican and Trump supporter.
And that first person? Yes, he tested positive for COVID-19. Like her, the worse that he experienced was the dry, hard cough.
Went out shopping yesterday, Trader Joe’s and Costco in Medford, OR. We were masked up. We heard it wasn’t bad…
They were wrong.
Costco won’t allow entrance unless you have a mask ‘on’. Everyone wore a mask, but not properly. Several had the mask down below their nose and/or mouths. The store has signs up about keeping social distance, and people around with signs. Signs won’t ever deter the ignorant or self-absorbed. Those who ‘know better’ don’t give a shit about signs. Frustrating Costco experience.
It was bliss compared to Trader Joe’s.
TJ’s controlled entrance; one shopping unit out, one group in. Separation was begun on the sidewalk outside. Tape marked off six feet segments.
Most folks outside were not wearing a mask. Why wear a mask? They’re outside. The man in front of us was eating a sandwich. That seems safe.
Inside the store, about three-quarters were masked. Not all of them practiced six-feet of SD; either they didn’t care, were self-absorbed and didn’t notice, or thought all of this was trumpshit (you could see that by their actions).
Yeah, it pissed me off, but I remembered people. Doing the right thing is hard. It requires mindfulness, practice, and patience. Few U.S. citizens are ever accused of being those three things.
Finally, worse though, in both stores, were the employees. Focused on work, they frequently blew through the idea of being six feet apart.
I can only imagine the shit that they’re saying about me at home. I was a senior NCO in the military. My eyes can express a great deal of anger and contempt when it finds its way in me. Yeah, I’m not a patient and tolerant person, especially when I think someone is being stupid.
As an addendum to the whole thing, groups are organizing together in freedom rallies. What cracked me up is that they said, “a military mindset” must be used. A ‘military mindset’ to me means order, structure, discipline. It means listening to your intelligence in the sense of the experts who gather and analyze data. It does not mean asserting your will to do something else in the face of the intell provided.
From all of this, a fave song by The Offspring jumped into the stream. From 1994, here’s “Come Out and Play”. Obviously, it’s chosen for the line repeatedly employed, “You gotta keep them separated.”
By the way, our county had been steadily reporting no new cases. We went ten days, I think. But guess what? New cases of testing positive are being reported.
Trump’s comments about people dying were infuriating to hear. He couldn’t do anything about it. So powerless, isn’t he?
Yeah, infuriating. Watching him, thinking about that, and remembering children in cages, and the way he seems to think — certainly the way he acts in general — an old Foreigner song, “Cold As Ice” (1977), came into my mental music stream.
Not like the COVID-19 deaths (or the children in cages) is the first time he’s demonstrated a lack of empathy. Remember his call to the family of the U.S. soldier killed? “He knew what he was getting into.” Jesus wept. There’s also the lack of caring demonstrated in dealing with Puerto Rico and their issues. Unless it’s about him (and his numbers) or, lordy, the economy, he just doesn’t give a shit, demonstrating nothing but contempt, anger, and hatred as far as emotions go.
Yep, cold as ice. He’s willing to sacrifice anything to make himself look good.
Michael Seidel, writer 