This bothers me

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No so much that the President of the United States salutes a foreign powers military officer (that is another story) but that the President salutes at all.

Sure when you become President you also become Commander in Chief of all the countries military and get to look at the code to punch the red button.

Never been in the military. The closest I got was the boy scouts (that is sort of like a junior military cadet corps with their own uniforms and metals but didn’t carry guns).

I watched enough parades and was propagandized about the countries military accomplishments. There were monuments and flags and ceremonies and holidays to (mostly) men walking in unison wearing fancy uniforms with brass buttons and turning left and right then standing still on orders of someone with more jewelry. No one can match the pomp and circumstance that the military has.

One of the requirements of the military is to salute. Raise your right hand to your forehead when passing a superior officer (see paragraph #1).   

A salute is a gesture or other action used to display respect. Salutes are primarily associated with armed forces and law enforcement, but other organizations and civilians also use salutes.

In military traditions of various times and places, there have been numerous methods of performing salutes, using hand gestures, cannon or rifle shots, hoisting of flags, removal of headgear, or other means of showing respect or deference.

In the Commonwealth of Nations, only commissioned officers are saluted, and the salute is to the commission they carry from their respective commanders-in-chief representing the Monarch, not the officers themselves.

According to some modern military manuals, the modern Western salute originated in France when knights greeted each other to show friendly intentions by raising their visors to show their faces, using a salute.

Others also note that the raising of one's visor was a way to identify oneself saying “This is who I am, and I am not afraid.” Medieval visors were, to this end, equipped with a protruding spike that allowed the visor to be raised using a saluting motion.

The US Army Quartermaster School provides another explanation of the origin of the hand salute: that it was a long-established military courtesy for subordinates to remove their headgear in the presence of superiors.

British Army soldiers saluted by removing their hats during the American Revolution.

With the advent of increasingly cumbersome headgear in the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the act of removing one’s hat was gradually converted into the simpler gesture of grasping or touching the visor and issuing a courteous salutation.

As early as 1745, a British order book stated that: “The men are ordered not to pull off their hats when they pass an officer, or to speak to them, but only to clap up their hands to their hats and bow as they pass.” Over time, it became conventionalized into something resembling the modern hand salute.

In the Austrian Army the practice of making a hand salute replaced that of removing the headdress in 1790, although officers wearing cocked hats continued to remove them when greeting superiors until 1868.

The naval salute, with the palm downwards is said to have evolved because the palms of naval ratings, particularly deckhands, were often dirty through working with lines and was deemed insulting to present a dirty palm to an officer; thus the palm was turned downwards. During the Napoleonic Wars, British crews saluted officers by touching a clenched fist to the brow as though grasping a hat-brim between fingers and thumb.

Back to the subject of the President of the United States saluting is I thought a person in uniform saluted while a person in civilian wear placed their hands over their hearts.

 

I know there are lots of pictures of Presidents descending the ramps of plane or helicopter while a sharply dressed military personnel stands at attention in a salute.

Don’t expect the leader of the Free World to give a high five but a simple acknowledgement to a person who has been standing in the heat or cold for hours waiting for a President to leave one vehicle and walk to another vehicle seems more than satisfactory.

Maybe if the Commander in Chief had a special uniform? That would look as regal as the dictators of Africa and worthy of a salute. It would also stand out on a stage full of dull politicians in dark blue business suits. Add some extra bling so the other generals and admirals would be jealous.

Through the ages many traditions to acknowledge another have been used. There was the handshake (in several variations) and the hip bump and the improper pat on the butt, but probably the best was the oriental head bow.

Still the military have ‘present arms’ to pick up their weapons before their face. Those who carry swords pull out their scabbards and press the blade against the nose.

I have no problem with the military and all their regimental ceremony of grandeur for when they are through, they get back in their grubby gear and we pay them to go out and shoot at people.

I WANT YOU

It is an interesting employment. It is the only job where you are trained to legally kill people in massive numbers. It is also the job where you accept up front the possibility of also being killed.

Now there are other dangerous jobs and some allow wearing weapons, but to kill is not the prime directive.

To be hired you sign up. You can join or volunteer or if there are not enough bodies to count, be drafted.

Once enlisted the process is much like prison. The hair is cut, a uniform is required to wear and authority figures yell instructions that must be followed. This intimidation is the method of making groups of people follow, orders without question.

No. I didn’t sign up. I didn’t volunteer. I wasn’t drafted. I did get a selective service card that was required to every lad my age (the ladies got a pass).

I saw as many WWII movies as the next kid my age. The movie newsreels showed how our troops won the war with flag waving and parades and stimulating music but didn’t show the body parts. I played with toy guns and simulated battle but everyone got up and went home.

I understood the survival emotion if someone is shooting at you, and then you should shoot back at them. I didn’t understand when you were ordered to shoot first. In all the screaming and explosions and panic of war, that ‘thud’ that was hit was a son or a father or an uncle or a mother. They would not be going home.

On these holidays remembering the dead, we lower the flags, bring out the survivors’, make patriotic speeches and play Taps. Families look for names of a relative and veterans wear the jewelry that says ‘they survived’.

The gravestones were not only for the GI Joe who died heroically in battle but those who were bringing up the ammunition or taking away the wounded. They are those who tried to put out the crashed plane or shoveled the coal on merchant ships torpedoed.

So we celebrate the patriots or the heroes or whatever popular term we use for kids running forward into the hail of bombs and bullets hoping they won’t be the one. When we are the winners we build monuments to the fallen on our side.

What about all those men and women wearing the other uniform? They were sons and daughters and fathers and uncles and mothers who were murdered in a game called war. Did they have the same belief in their cause or were they just trying to protect their homes from an invader?

At the end, maybe they had more bodies to bury than we did?

War still seems to be our favorite pastime so our gladiators will continue to find some reason to murder each other.

Leave some room in the back; there will be more coffins.

How will you vote?

Voting is a method for a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, in order to make a collective decision or express an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a place represented by an elected official are called “constituents”, and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called “voters”. There are different systems for collecting votes.

In these unusual times, not far down the road of the calendar is November 3^rd. It is a Tuesday.

That is the day we, the People, are to cast our ballots for people who have convinced us he or she is the best choice to make decisions on how much we pay taxes or if our roads are repaired or if the water is safe to drink or if we are attacked by ‘invisible’ enemies, we will be protected.

Most of these people are unfamiliar unless they have a good public relations team and a bundle of money to waste.

On Voting Day we walk to the poll and disclaim ourselves as legal law abiding wholesome Americans participating in our duty. The same as we fill out our application for selective service (but the gals don’t get to play).

This year may be different.

My history has been to walk to the polling station, show my registration card to which I a verified and handed a piece of paper. I then walk to an empty booth that was curtained but now just a cardboard box around an iPad and make my selection (just like online to choose a burger). Then I walk over to another station and a kind person gives me a sticker that says “I Voted”, a proud badge of participation in the electoral process to show to all.

This year of 2020 with the pandemic and all, will I walk the three blocks to the elementary school I used so many years ago and walk pass the masked promoters with pamphlets and junk mail I’ve already seen then stand at a appropriate social distance from other neighbors until I can make my mark and get a purple finger?

Will voting be a mail-in? Seems many important papers come through the mail like driver licenses, utility bills and social security checks, so why not ballots? Seems to work for the military overseas and absentee or early voting ballots for those who cannot stand in line. The problem is the Post Office might run out of money in September. Will FedEx pick up the votes? Logistics.

Will voting be online? People order everything from pillowcases to lawnmowers to dinner, so why not order up a president? Tinder, Grindr, eHarmony and lots of others allow you to swipe left or right at what you see in the profile as an almost automatic reaction. Who knows that person running for the school board? Who knows the three people running for the city council position in your district if you’ve never heard of them? Speed election.

Maybe it will be drive-by beer pong or corn hole? Miss the mark or the hanging chads; the electoral congress will make the final count.

All these options and possibilities and variations are being discussed and evaluated by state, counties and cities writing reports, making charts, counting numbers as time marches on.

No one has suggested that a second (or third) wave of this virus will appear in the fall pressing more restricted movement eliminating the cue at the polls.

What if the voting site online is hacked? What of those voters who can’t log in? How long are you willing to wait? How does the voter verify their identity?

Worse case scenario is November 4^th, 2020 will come and there will be NO VOTES.

Will the voting process be delayed, like sports and churches, to another date when things are safer? Will the current president continue until a new election date can be settled upon? Will the government just shut down?

In a few months we will found out.

Welfare

Welfare is a type of government support for the citizens of that society. Welfare may be provided to people of any income level, as with social security (and is then often called a social safety net), but it is usually intended to ensure that people can meet their basic human needs such as food and shelter. Welfare attempts to provide a minimal level of well-being, usually either a free- or a subsidized-supply of certain goods and social services, such as healthcare, education, and vocational training.

A welfare state is a political system wherein the State assumes responsibility for the health, education, and welfare of society. The system of social security in a welfare state provides social services, such as universal medical care, unemployment insurance for workers, financial aid, free post-secondary education for students, subsidized public housing, and pensions (sickness, incapacity, old-age), etc. In 1952, with the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, the International Labour Organization (ILO) formally defined the social contingencies covered by social security.

The first welfare state was Imperial Germany (1871–1918), where the Bismarck government introduced social security in 1889. In the early 20th century, the United Kingdom introduced social security around 1913, and adopted the welfare state with the National Insurance Act 1946, during the Attlee government (1945–51). In the countries of Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Australasia, the government out of the national tax revenues, and to a lesser extent mainly provides social welfare by non-government organizations (NGOs), and charities (social and religious).

Growing up, our parents were our Welfare State. They provide us with clothing, food, shelter and possibly the ability to speak. The instructions that come with pregnancy have certain requirements.

They were also our banks. Want some candy or a comic? Ask your parents.

Then the responsibility of ‘earning’ income fell on you. That meant long hours of struggle and sweat called WORK. It was easier before.

So the government creates all these ‘safety nets’ for those who become disenfranchised from the ability to earn income (from a myriad of reasons). Don’t worry; the government will take care of you. They have the big pockets.

Whatever they want to call it, “bailout” “stimulus” “bonus” “financial assistance” “compensation” “disadvantaged recovery” “destitute delivery” “penurious payments” it is FREE money for doing nothing.

Maybe this is our ‘feel good’ charity until the scales shift. How many are working at food banks or delivery during these ‘trying times’?

In this time of FREE TIME when the usual requirements are absent, are we exploring new ideas and innovative thoughts, or relying on becoming an encampment of beggars wanting to be feed and clothed and sheltered by an organization of empowerment?

Time will tell.

The Turnaround

There comes a time in life where everything shifts.

Starting off we depend on elders to feed us and bath us and teach us and shelter us. Our parents teach us how to talk. Our school classes require us to be quiet and listen to the one adult who spouts the wisdom we are tested on. Our employers mentored us to do the job requested properly with a raise and a move up the corporate ladder as motivation. If you fail this test, you are fired.

When we are young, we would go to the doctor and get a shot or a pill on his or her qualifications by the diplomas on the wall. The doctor knows best.

If you don’t feel better, your parents can try a different doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis and treatment.

The title “Teacher”, “Preacher”, “Mayor”, “President” is title given in respect of their knowledge and wisdom. There word must be accepted due to their title. It is a caste system.

Then comes the time when the old ideas are put aside for a younger, more creative innovative ideas come from the next generation.

I can only imagine a parent who has lost authority.

The decision makers must now become the students, following the changes they don’t understand. The ‘good ole day’ or the ‘way things were’ don’t last long. The future marches on without control.

Some of us will accept it and some will hang onto the past.

Either way there is one certainty.

No one gets out of here alive.

The Bathroom

Everyone is scared to touch anything or get near something someone else has used… except for the bathroom.

In most houses there is one kitchen but possibly several bathrooms. Some have several sinks and walk in baths or showers and some might have a separate bidet.

Supposedly it is the cleanest room in the house.

Then you climb aboard an airplane with one bathroom for all the passengers. A bus or trains are no different.

If you decide to drive your own personal transportation (without an internal toilet) you must decide when the time comes to pull over to a ‘rest stop’ or a fueling station to use the communal loo.

Every restaurant or club has the tiniest room in the house reserved for patrons to dispose of their food and drink. Even stadiums and airports have giant tiled rooms used by hundreds.

They call them lavatories, latrines or heads but are they any more ‘clean’ than the Porta-Potty? 

Public Transportation

I like public transportation. I grew up with a bus stop in front of my house (convenient). I walked to school but rode the bus to go downtown. I would car pool and even walk to work but the public transportation was the most reliable method. The route I took went down to the end of the street, turned left to Broad Street then drop me off in front of Murphy’s. The trip took about 15 minutes and cost a few coins. In the summer it was hot even with the windows up. In the winter it would become slower and crowed with those who didn’t want to drive but knew the bus could plow through the snow. Most days it was a steady pace with regular faces sitting quietly on plastic seats reading the morning newspaper. For a few minutes there was time to check the daily notes, review the to-do list or just watch the city go by. Some days would be disrupted by a rider who wanted to complain loud enough for all to hear with the driver having to deal with a tantrum, sometimes ending in an arrest as the audience watched. Sometimes you didn’t want to get too close to the other rider on your row and other days were standing room only. I did ride a school bus to summer day camp that was a bumpy noisy ride and just hoped to get there and back alive. While waiting for your public transportation ride, would stand in sun and rain. Sometimes there were others in the neighborhood that took the same route at the same time. Might have a brief talk with the stranger until we boarded and found separate seats. Occasionally the bus would whiz pass and would have to wait another 15-30 minutes for the next bus. A secretary working in a different department moved into the neighborhood and rode the same bus. It was a brief time to flirt and laugh making the trip too fast. The interiors were updated with cloth seats and instead of a strap to pull was a pressure strip on the wall. The fare changed from dropping in coins and getting change to scanning a card. The riders changed from the commuter businessperson to homeless looking for air conditioning. Some days were entertaining and some days were uncomfortable. For distant transport, the railway was the preference. Not the fastest method to get from point A to point B, but riding the rails was better than the bus or the airplane.

One would now promote the simple solution of having a mobile machine parked in front of the house. It is a very private method to move about protected from the weather following hundreds of others to and fro, back and forth, here and there. Then it is parked, sitting empty, dripping oil and rusting for most of the day, just like your house or apartment.

So now the world is reopening, are you ready to cram inside public transportation?

The Future

Boy: What was it like?

Man: You mean before the virus?

Boy: Yeah. What was it like back then?

Man: Well, let me see if I can remember. Things are very different now. History changed when the virus came.

Boy: I read somewhere people could go outside?

Man: Yes, that is right. People, like you and me, could travel all around the world and intermingle and see sights and eat foods and enjoy each other before the virus.

Boy: What else?

Man: Well, people worked in field’s together and raised animals on farms. Some worked in offices in tall glass and steel buildings called cities. People lived together in houses. There were lawyers and doctors and accountants and manufacturers. Everyone seemed to have something to do. They were very busy.

Boy: And then the virus?

Man: When the virus came, everyone was scared and didn’t know what to do so they hid.

Boy: Hid?

Man: The people called ‘leaders’ hadn’t thought about a worldwide pandemic (that is what they called it) that would make people sick and die.

Boy: What did these ‘leaders’ do?

Man: They told everyone to run inside and stay away from each other because there wasn’t a sign of who had the virus and who didn’t. They told the businesses to close down and all the workers lost their money.

Boy: How long did they hid?

Man: At first there was the thought that the virus would go away, but people kept getting sick and dying. Everyday there would be numbers posted of how many were sick and how many died.

Boy: Then what happened?

Man: People got bored of being inside. It is said ‘we’ are a social creature and wanted to get back together with friends and family. The local authorities put out warnings and executive orders and recommendations, but people left the darkness of their rooms and into the light.

Boy: Then what happened?

Man: People disregarded their restrictions and went back to shaking hands and back slapping and hugging each other. Since it had been some time apart, they were ever kissing strangers.

Boy: Kissing?

Man: I’ll tell you about that later. Let us just say, people gathered in large groups and enjoyed each other’s company until….

Boy: The second wave?

Man: You have been paying attention. The virus spread with abandonment and more people got sick and more people died.

Boy: Why didn’t they obey the rules?

Man: Our species have never been known for being smart. Since we crawled out of the water we have been struggling with our variations. We envy and steal and even kill each other for no good reason and only things like the virus stops us.

Boy: Why didn’t we get along?

Man: That young man is the eternal question. The virus brought that out in all of us. As it spread from city to city people started being afraid of each other. They built walls and refused entry to anyone they didn’t know.

Boy: But that didn’t stop the virus?

Man: No, that didn’t stop the virus. The leaders came up with promises but rumors and gossip spread faster. People were making their own concoctions and remedies in hopes to stop the virus but it didn’t work. More people got sick. More people died.

Boy: What about a cure?

Man: The great minds of the world were all competing for a solution but this virus kept changing. Once a vaccine was found, the virus adapted and became immune to that formula. At first the virus was affecting the respiratory system, then it seem to be creating problems with other organs. The liver, kidneys and even the heart became vulnerable to this virus.

Boy: What did the doctors do?

Man: No matter how hard they tried, the virus kept morphing into a version they hadn’t expected. The virus continued to spread. More people got sick. More people died, including doctors and nurses.

Boy: Doctors got sick?

Man: Doctors and nurses and ambulance drivers and firemen and police all got sick. They tried to protect themselves but they had to touch those who were sick. With all the sterilization and washing and shields and gloves and coverings, they were overwhelmed.

Boy: What happened if you got sick?

Man: You could call the emergency line but no one was left to come and get you. If you could get to a care center, there were no beds available and not enough staff to help. Beside the hospital was full of bodies so it was not the best place to go.

Boy: Is that when it happened?

Man: People became desperate when the grocery stores closed due to all the employees getting sick or not coming to work. After they were looted, there was no food.

Boy: What did they eat?

Man: Many didn’t and starved. Some had planted gardens for a minimum survival. Some started living off dogs and cats and rats, but they got the virus too. Some started invading other houses to steal from their pantries.   

Boy: That is robbery?

Man: Law and order was breaking down. The National Guard was called up but the citizen soldiers were out numbered and in some cases, out gunned.

Boy: What about the army?

Man: The army and navy and air force were spread all over the world and so was the virus. Ships were docked because there were not enough sailors to man them. The soldiers were fighting terrorist but both sides were dwindling under the virus rather than bullets and bombs?

Boy: How did people protect themselves?

Man: This country is full of guns and bullets. Neighbors would block off streets with homemade barricades. Didn’t matter ‘friend or foe’ whoever got close would be shot? No questions asked. Anyone outside the neighborhood was suspicious. Children were isolated inside. Education was a thing of the past. This was the survival of the fittest.

Boy: What were schools?

Man: Schools were places where children would gather in rooms with desk and chairs and a teacher would instruct them on subjects like reading and writing and arithmetic.

Boy: Arithmetic?

Man: Numbers. People needed to be able to add numbers and subtract numbers. They needed numbers to count their children. They needed numbers to count the bodies. So children had to learn how to read the numbers and write the numbers.

Boy: What happened to the schools?

Man: At first the schools were closed and all the children sent home to their parents. Everyone thought this was temporary so parents tried to home-school their children, but they didn’t know the curriculum or basically how-to-teach. This was a DIY project that came with no instructions and affected the next generation. The teachers tried to make online classes until the Internet went down.

Boy: Internet?

Man: When the virus came, everyone went home to work on the Internet. It was the link around the world, as televisions and radio and newspapers and books had spread the word before. Everyone thought they could send pictures and words to anyone and watch movies and listen to music without any restrictions but then all the computers started overheating and the people who ran the wires started getting sick and one-by-one areas became dark.

Boy: So why are we all not dead?

Man: Good question. Seems that after some time, our species adapt and find enough anti-bodies to become immune to the virus, at least for now. It is still out there, but it always has been so we live day-by-day.

Boy: What about tomorrow?

Man: See that guy way down there?

Boy: The fella riding a bike?

Man: Yeah. I see him riding by everyday about this time. I don’t know who he is or where he came from or where he is going, but he seems to have a routine.

Boy: Are routines good?

Man: There was a time, way back when, we set our watches and clocks to alarm us a time to follow a routine. We woke up at a certain time. We got washed and dressed. We all went to different places to do what we had to do, which was another routine. We’d ended the day with a meal and watched some silly shows before going to sleep and repeating the process.

Boy: Do we have routines now?

Man: We make our own routines now. There are very few of us left and we don’t interact the way we used to, so we create our own use of time and space. Some seem to have flourished in this ‘free time’ while others need structured instructions of a place in time. This is a new normal and we are still working it out.

Boy: Will we survive?

Man: Listen. Do you hear that robin? It has survived and has a new family. You can listen to the call and answer. Look over there. See those bunnies? They just come to the same spot at the same time everyday. You wake up at about the same time every morning and go to sleep about the same time every night. It is your body telling you when to rest and when to enjoy the day. Now let’s go out and pick some blueberries. I see hungry faces.

When all this blows over…

Keep hearing this term and wonder what it means?

Like tomorrow the sun will come up and we will all get back to the way it was.

 If it doesn’t?

This ‘new’ normal came upon quickly with little awareness yet catastrophic changes. Business shut down, people out of work, stocks falling, schools closed, there is no end in sight.

There is talk of taking test, but if you fail the test you are sent home without a cure. There is talk of contact tracking to whomever you talked to or were in close quarters with before you were classified as a ‘positive’, but if it were Aunt Betty or Cousin Sam it would be easy except for that guy you passed in the grocery not wearing a mask or the unknown jogger you passed on the way?

Who would have thought two months ago the new fashion statement would be wearing a jockstrap on your face?

So the daily news report tells of the plastic facemask and rubber gloves being produced followed by a body count.

There are the ultimate promises that scientist and doctors and pharmaceutical organizations are working on all sorts of techniques to poke and prod positive and negative human guinea pigs and score the results until they can ‘prove’ it is the cure.

The microwave mentality has a hard time waiting for the time needed for the body to process the new ingredient and people in white coats to access the results.

So we grow our hair, eat fast food, watch endless television worthlessness in our bedroom garb and wait for the bell to ring.

Behind the scenes the mixtures and potions and Petri dish examinations are coming up with possible solutions to this ‘killer germ’ but there is no solution without through test and comparisons and data and graphs and charts.

Have you taken your test yet?

There has always been some amount of ‘cooties’ around that makes us sick, but we push through it and survive. Is this any different?

We’ve become fearful of stepping outside or interacting with another human being. We view each other as enemies who could possibly kill us with a comment rather than a friend or a neighbor.

So when this all blows over…. But wait.

This may go on for weeks or months or years.

The scenario of quick finish may not occur.

Instead we may have a brief release only to be overwhelmed by the second wave or the third wave.

Our children may never remember what going to school meant. Commuting to the office is a distant memory. Entertainment will be made at home. Socializing will become an ancient memory.

While we look for the next sunset to wash time away this may last for days and days and tomorrow.

Don’t want to bum you out but we may be gone before this ‘new reality’ goes away.

Enjoy your summer vacation and your holiday celebrations.

See you next year. Same time. Same station.

Lethargic

Lethargy is a state of tiredness, weariness, fatigue, or lack of energy. It can be accompanied by depression, decreased motivation, or apathy. Lethargy can be a normal response to inadequate sleep, overexertion, overworking, stress, lack of exercise, improper nutrition, boredom, or a symptom of an illness or a disorder. It may also be a side effect of medication or caused by an interaction between medications or medication(s) and alcohol. When part of a normal response, lethargy often resolves with rest, adequate sleep, decreased stress, physical exercise, and good nutrition.

Lethargy’s symptoms can last days or even months.

Causes: • carbon monoxide poisoning • dehydration • fever • hyperthyroidism • hypothyroidism • hydrocephalus or brain swelling • kidney failure • Lyme disease • meningitis • pituitary diseases, such as pituitary cancer • nutrition deficiencies • sleep apnea • stroke • traumatic brain injury

Symptoms: • chest pain • unresponsiveness or minimal responsiveness • inability to move your limbs on one side of your body • disorientation, such as not knowing your name, the date, or your location • fast heart rate • paralysis on one or both sides of your face • loss of consciousness • rectal bleeding • severe headache • shortness of breath • vomiting blood • aches and pains that don’t go away with treatment  • difficulty sleeping • difficulty tolerating hot or cold temperatures • eye irritation • fatigue that lasts longer than two weeks • feelings of sadness or irritability • swollen neck glands  • unexplained weight gain or loss • changes in mood • decreased alertness or decreased ability to think • fatigue • low energy • sluggishness

Lethargy can also be the result of mental health conditions that include:

 • Major depressive disorder • postpartum depression • premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Or the Covid-19 pandemic causing home imprisonment and self-deprivation.

The first week is an adventure, like camping but you know it will be over. This time it isn’t. The fun of having all the family together isn’t the wonderment you had always talked about. The children run out of things to keep their interest, the adults find petty arguments and abundant alcohol runs.

Normally to get away, you’d hop in the car and venture off to get some air but there is nowhere to go.

Slowly your body functions start to fade (like in a hospital). Changing clothing becomes struggle. The walk down the hall to the bathroom has become exercise. Delivery has replaced the effort of cooking. Naps are not treats but necessity.

Your eyes fog over with the constant push of the remote buttons to finally watch wherever it stopped.

The dishes pile up in the sink. The homework is not being finished or checked. Personal hygiene is become infrequent. Tomorrow will be the same.

In my sink there is a red pot. One of those enameled cast iron Dutch oven beauties I bought last Christmas for no reason than it was on sale. I cooked my routine chili in February and ate beans and beef for the next two months. I’d hoped it would cook better than the aluminum pot I used the year before. I also hoped it would clean up better.

I burnt the bottom just as I’d done the year before for I don’t watch the pot and stir.

The plan was to put both pots in the sink, give them a good soaking and scrub away to sparkling clean. It was a good plan.

Now almost June the two pots sit in the sink. They have been filled with water and poured out and moved back and forth while other utensils and plates have been washed of their food crust.

Tomorrow I will wipe them off, scrub the bottom, place in the rack to dry and be done with that project.

Or not.

That is lethargic.

You know you are old when…

Part of the rite of passage is to keep track of your friends, relatives, and any other important contacts was to fill out an address book.

Next to our telephone in the dining room was a flip up alphabetical phone number keeper. It was our connection to the world.

How much time did we spend copying names and addresses and phone numbers from one year to another in new address books? People would move or phone numbers would change so the old information would be scratched through and the new information crammed into minute spaces.

Anyone remember Day Planners as a carry around collection with notes and calendars and reference to phone numbers and updates to people’s status and romantic connections.

The first thing one would do meeting someone was to ask for his or her address and phone number. Long distant phone calls were expensive but letters could be written while waiting for a reply.

Networking was collecting information from clients or possible working associates. Conventions were group parties fueled by alcohol selling ideas and passing business cards.

The Day Planner couldn’t hold all that information, so cards were taped to Rolodex card for easy reference. A twirl of a wheel and the name, address, phone number and any other pertinent information could be quickly selected.

Then the digital age hit and every computer came with an address book. It may have been called ‘contacts’ but still all the information from the Rolodex had to be typed into page after page.

As technology refined to add the cell phone speed dialing, again all the information had to be transferred.

When work is over, all those contacts could be removed. An occasional check might delete some others who do not respond anymore.

I personally do not have contact information on my electronics. If I get hacked, they will not get your information.

Recently I’ve been deleting ‘friends’ on Facebook. Not that I don’t want to be ‘friends’ with them; but they are dead.

You know you are old when….

Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a dish of ground meat that has been mixed with other ingredients and formed into the shape of a loaf, then baked or smoked. The final shape is either hand-formed on a flat pan or created by cooking it in a loaf pan. It is usually made with ground beef, although ground lamb, pork, veal, venison, poultry and seafood are also used. In addition it can be made out of lentils or quoin-beef as well for a vegetarian option.

The cooked loaf can be sliced like a loaf of bread to make individual portions. Because the dish can become dry, various techniques aim to keep the dish moist by either covering it with sauce or wrapping it, using moisture-enhancing ingredients in the mixture, or filling it with meats, cheese, or vegetables.

Meatloaf has always been mystery meat to me. My mother presented it to the table as a dull overcooked dry slab of brown stuff that looked like fruitcake only hot. It wasn’t a hamburger and it wasn’t roast beef. Whatever this slice was cut off of I didn’t want to see.

Placed between two slices of white bread just increased the blandness. Soaked in gravy or tomato sauce only absorbed in an attempt to give it flavor. Cut into chunks stirred into the mashed potatoes almost made it consumable.

I certainly understand stretching a meal, but like sausage or scrapple or hot dogs or those other mystery meats, make me a vegetarian.

Either give me a slice of bloody cow or fry me up some poultry for I can’t stomach this grounded up mystery meat.

When you think about what is on your plate and about to go into your face, you’d probably not eat at all.

All I can say is I’m not a fan of Meatloaf.

Smart kids

Back in the days before public schools and buses delivering kids and grades and teams and auditoriums and cafeterias and playgrounds and orchestra and cheerleaders and proms and graduations, there was home schooling.

Fathers and mothers woke and went to do the chores that fed the hungry mouths. The children had to learn on their own.

The father or mother had to train the child how to make noise to communicate but little else.

Some had grandparents to pass down skills and family culture. Some had books to read if they knew how to put the letters together. Some were taught the necessities of maintaining animals or working machinery or removing trees or constructing barns.

Yet the kids were learning by watching. Observation and mimicking became a daily lesson.

With formal education taught by a qualified instructor with a diploma upon accomplishing the task, who is the smarter?