Status Report - Moving Forward is Hard Work

It has been a while. Much and little has happened to me. I still have doves cooing in the morning. Still have crickets doing their thing. Especially as I try to record the podcast.

For me, it it hard to say I'm happy. I'm not. 

There is bad stuff in America and the world. Which is why I consciously make sure I listen to the doves in the morning. 

They know there are cats in the neighborhood. 

They coo for love. 

They coo for protection.

They even coo when they fight. 

 And doves do fight. Two or more non-relatives on a branch can cause a commotion.

What else?

I'm starting to work on a health literacy certificate. I have an idea about a concept.

I want and need more training so I'm hanging out at the National Medical Library to get a move on about it.

I've restarted the Create Video Notebook but this time I'm only posting once a week-ish on functional and accessible creative tools for media creation. Probably viewed through a frugal lens but hey, I'm a frugal (but not cheap) person.

Re-entry into the world is a bit tough, but I'm doing it. Need a new pair of shoes and have to wait until I'm vaccinated to get them. But will hobble to get vax'd.

Oh, on-line grocery shopping.

This is a big one for me. I never thought I'd do it. 

For me, it works about 70% of the time.

My preference is to shop for food in person. When I couldn't, I had to switch.

It made me more thoughtful about my purchases. I could order exactly what I wanted without concern about how was I going to get it home. Or reject an item because I couldn't carry it home.

Now I can order or try out things I wouldn't have.

However, I do not have access to items that I would have found in an Asian or other markets. There is also limited brand selection with one of the services I used. 

And the meat situation was not acceptable. I'm not paying $16 for a whole chicken. $28 for a piece of beef. 

Plenty of process meats but not good deli style. Processed deli if you get my drift.

And if you don't order within a certain range of you will see sold out. 

A lot.

So yeah, I will be ordering groceries about twice a month. A combination of actual retail and on-line grocery when I work from home. 

Now prepared food delivery. Probably not again.

It hurts. It hurts the restaurants. It hurts the delivery folks.

Damn sure it hurts my wallet. 

Only thing about it that works is the delivery. But I've had food 3/4 cooked delivered. Or forgot my drink. Or the dish overly salty.

Nah. I can do bad on my own. 

Otherwise...

I'm good. Doing ok. Have plenty to do and I'm grateful.

Something from long ago

 4:30 a.m.

sounds of leaves scraping across cement

sounds of electrical power and steel on steel

neighbor's tv with old movie fighting the night terrors

"Is it always going to be this way?"

A Memory About Gas, Life and Death

Just a memory. As a kid, there were times in my life where there wasn't enough money to pay the gas bill. The heat would be cut off in the dead of winter.  One or two degrees below zero. Or more. Broke folks learned to find ways to stay warm.  

It was miserable.

You quickly learned that old lady x down the street died because of freezing. Or across town. The numbers would rack up. Every year local papers reported the number of deaths.

 Every year the Gas company would shrug shoulders and say it's not my problem. 

It was a constant thing and never really a question about life over profits.

Finally there was a negotiation between the gas company and the city that the gas would not be turned off during a set period of time in the winter.  

There was still a bum rush to do it before the cut-off date.  Also the implementation of state and local programs to help folks pay for utilities.  

In the 2021, do citizens have a say in how their power infrastructure is designed and constructed? 

We are about to find out.

Lois Lane and 2020. It has been a journey.

When I was a kid and could find enough soda bottles to buy a comic or two, I'd search for the good ones first, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or Batman. If they were gone then I'd pick up a Superman.  If he was gone and I'd really need a fix then I'd pick up Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.  (There were also the torn cover days. In that case, I'd stock up on the annuals.)

Her prime motivation in the early sixties was to marry Supes by any means necessary. Or marry some other man to "settle".  Only to be metaphorically slapped in the face by a man, alien, or robot that lied to her.  

Toward the late sixties she got a brain, backbone and became her own person. Actually dated other people. Decided to live on her own terms and those did not necessarily include Supes.

Still did dumb stuff but Lois began to evolve as a person, a capable reporter.

Here I am in 2020. Press has been and continues to be a target by the 45th administration and opportunistic crackpots. 

Not saying there isn't an issue with corporate media romping around as journalism. Or pundits pretending to be journalists. Or some (way too many) actually trained journalists not doing their job.

We need reporters and journalists. We really do.

This is a DC graphic novel of a twelve part comic book series.

There are concerns. Still being written by male people. Truly find the cover on the fair right un-appealing.

But here we are, In an alternative universe, journalism is a super power.

In memory of going downtown

 It has been awhile. Lots of stuff happening and not happening.

So, cleaning out some stuff and found some old photos from one of many food festivals that I attended.

I hope that I don't forget what it is like. Or have a permanent fear of being around people.

Well, maybe for the time being that is a wise fear to have. 

Seeing how some folks are packing their Hummers for visits to places they got no reason to be.

Anyway, just a simple video. No words, just memories.

My AudioCov Trailer

Ok, here is the deal. Ernmander has AudioMo which is 30 days of audio recording. 

Usually in June. I think. 

He also has Audio365 which is what folks can do when the want to post an audio to Twitter or whatever.

Ernmander decided that he wanted to have something that would allow folks to connect with each other in regards to Covid-19 so he put the word out about #AudioCov.

I saw the post and thought it was a good idea.  So I made a trailer with Headliner.  Headliner allows folks to easily add captions to an audiogram to make it easier to open the content to others. 

I want to put this here so that I remember to make more than a trailer. I need to share as well.

I'm tired, angry and frustrated too.

Putting this here as a time and place marker. Because if things do not substantially change then we are going to have to face this again. And again. And then someday, what the fuck just happened.

Watch the whole thing before you start to have an opinion.

And sit with it and try to understand it.