- Isolation Day 40 - 1 Update
- OT: Mint low cost cell service $15/mth - 1 Update
- "Planet of the Humans" (2019) - 4 Updates
| Beaver_Fever@live.com: Apr 23 03:35PM -0700 Isolation Day 40 Been trying to write another entry but it's very difficult as my thoughts are so scattered, I don't really understand what's happening and very frustrated that this should have been a time of pure bliss but instead sinking into a hell I can't claw myself out of. Until a few days ago I was continuing to exercise vigorously every day. Except my exercise bike is wearing out and making noise deep inside and this has a design flaw that prohibits basic maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Too bad, this gives me some sort of purpose and once I falter it's very difficult to get going again. Same exercise regimen in 2018 burned off 40 lbs very quickly but I had gained about half of it back. My energy level continues to plummet. My mailbox place remains open, made a non essential trip and I finally found some masks there. I had been making do with a tanktop wrapped around my face when I absolutely had to go out. But then I walked some clothes to a donation bin and I felt like I was suffocating. Nothing was different in the way it fit my face except I was suddenly so mentally overwhelmed it was becoming difficult to breathe. Not getting enough sleep when all I want to do is sleep. Late night texting sessions with the one person left on planet earth I am talking to doesn't help but since I no longer need to maintain the level of hyperconnectivity of the past few years I decided to keep my phones off except for 10 minutes every 5 hours. We will see how long that holds but the routine that me conditioned to check constantly no longer exists. All the labors of love I was looking forward to working on have become all labor and no love. My goal of reading a book a week also seems completely unrealistic right now even if limited to just popcorn reading like my ceiling high stack of music autobiographies. I did get a first time ever phone call from one of the people who I regularly see at events. He has been at it a long time. He even went to Monterey Pop. He is now in his 70's and still checking out new bands. Sounds like he also doesn't know what to do with himself. And much like most of us hardcore travelers, is unmarried and a bit of a loner. Like many of us we may have seen each other at the same places over the course of several years before striking up conversation. I decided I was going to pass it on and also call someone else to check in on him and his family. The best candidate was going to be the guy who owned a record store for about 5 years around the turn of the century on the block where I worked. I started hooking him up with concert tickets when a cancer scare gave him the exact opposite of a religious awakening and he left his church and decided it was time to start living life again via music. He is not the first person I know who has had that experience. I meant to call him before the world ended and let him know Blue Oyster Cult is playing right here in our neighborhood soon and we are going to be in the front row. Still haven't made the call. However I did run into this homeless guy I know. I would always see him on the bus coming back from downtown at night where he said he knew these women who would buy him dinner. He would tell me I am always invited but I never took him up on it. He was such a nice guy with a sweet little dog and I would worry when I would go a long time without seeing him. He would sometimes sell me panhandled grocery store gift cards at a discount. He did have a real job and a life at some point. Talked to him for at least 30 minutes. He did tell me he may finally have housing. He also told me was working a few days a week at a music equipment place in the neighborhood but now that's on ice and it never paid enough for what rent costs here. Gave him $20, my number and to let me know if he needed anything. Contrast this with some other homeless dude approaching me on the street just as the world was ending. He was really tore down, telling me 7-11 wouldn't serve him now and if he gave me money could I buy him some beer. He was closing in a bit too uncomfortably. I just told him I don't have ID and tried to maintain my distance. Poor guy probably had no idea what was going on. Went for a much longer walk last night. There are now so many more people walking around my neighborhood, or maybe I just never noticed. But so many on certain stretches it's a challenge to maintain appropriate social distancing protocols. Only a few solo like me, some couples and often entire families cloistered closely together. Except now people are zig zagging across the street eyeing other pedestrians suspiciously. I continue to clean and organize with the outgoing stack growing progressively larger with items not dumpster appropriate yet no way to donate or sell them. Some of the items friends have dibs on yet they may just sit there for years. I feel the piles will start to fall together and will have to be resorted again further down the line. The most remarkable thing to happen this week isn't going to be talked about though it continues to cause considerable emotional distress of the kind not felt since the tumultuous and also socially isolated early 90's. It really underscores what I knew all along. My whole life and the way I lived it was a total waste. But what would I do differently? Nothing. I don't really know what else to do. I still do not worry about getting sick and dying. Not worrying about finances though money feels somewhat useless right now. What good is all the hard work and risk that went into earning it when my layabout roommate can simply get a stimulus check, free food and eviction protection for not having any? In spite of myself I am still seeing the disease itself as not much more than infotainment. I am not spending so much time listening to the news in the morning. Would always listen to NPR Morning Edition from waking up until 9am but now I feel everything happening in the world can be summed up in about 15 minutes. New Rolling Stones song today nearly brought me to tears it was so beautiful. And if that wasn't quite enough to do it, when I went to look at the date and add up the days I remembered today was the 16th anniversary of the last time I saw David Bowie. |
| Whoey Louie <trader4@optonline.net>: Apr 23 02:10PM -0700 If anyone is interested, Mint Mobile has cell phone service starting at $15/mth for unlimited voice/text and 3GB per month of high speed data. If you exceed that it slows to 2G speed. They run on the T-Mobile network. The only catch is that you have to pay for a year of service to get the $15, it's $25 a month if you do a month at a time, $20 for 3 months at a time. They also have 8GB and 12GB plans. They use a SIM card, you can bring your own phone, etc. And hotspot is included if you need that. Right now they are offering UNLIMITED high speed data with even the lowest cost plan through May 15 as part of the Covid support. If anyone is interested, I have a referral code that will get you a $15 credit good for any renewal when you open a new account. I've had the service for over two years, very fast and reliable. If anyone wants the code, just let me know here. For full disclosure, if you use it, I get $25 too. |
| lenona321@yahoo.com: Apr 23 01:07PM -0700 Haven't watched it yet, but all I can say is...if the producer, Michael Moore, was willing to stick out his neck like this (his fans just might attack him for it) I'd better darn watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE |
| lenona321@yahoo.com: Apr 23 01:23PM -0700 And here's the Guardian review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/apr/22/planet-of-the-humans-review-environment-michael-moore-jeff-gibbs While the movie may be scant on solutions, I would hope that at least one principle we can agree on is that shopping, as a rule, is bad for the environment, because even second-hand goods need to be transported. Just because one may be rich does not make it ethical to buy things that one hardly even wants. There's a good reason that the first rule is "reduce," not "recycle." The same goes for using gas or electricity when you could wear a sweater or engage in non-electrical entertainment. Not to mention that children are supposed to be deeply wanted, not just lightly wanted, by both parents, so maybe people shouldn't have them until can live up to that standard AND raise them in a safe environment. Also, if you can't think of anyone who would happily raise them should you die (clearly a very important issue if you're thinking of becoming a single parent), you just may have to forfeit the glory. Lenona. |
| lenona321@yahoo.com: Apr 23 01:32PM -0700 To clarify, here's something from blogger Sylvia D. Lucas that everyone who's considering having kids should read - even lesbian couples, IMO. "He Says He Wants Kids – But Does He Mean, 'I want YOU to have kids'?" https://sylviadlucas.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/he-says-he-wants-kids/ Lenona. |
| Bob F <bobnospam@gmail.com>: Apr 23 01:54PM -0700 > Haven't watched it yet, but all I can say is...if the producer, Michael Moore, was willing to stick out his neck like this (his fans just might attack him for it) I'd better darn watch it. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE Then go see the discussion between Moore, the filmmaker and the writer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBGcEK8FD3w |
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