Coronavirus Quarantine Diary: Day Two, Weird Times

From Bullets Over Broadway

I'm not seriously going to do this everyday, am I?

Started the day with a brisk 30-minute walk to my doctor's office. My doctor is retiring in two weeks so this was the last time to see her. She's been my doc for half my life and I'm still alive so she's evidently been doing a good job. If I die in April I, we'll know why.

I crossed three major streets in the course of my walk and lemme tell you folks, it's never been so easy. Very few automobiles traversing the roads these days. I also saw a commuter bus heading towards San Francisco -- this at about 8:00AM -- and it was empty. (Actually, I'm pretty sure there was a driver). I noted that many shops and cafes and restaurants were closed for the duration. Weird times.

The doctor prescribed me a service animal for my depression, something none of the stupid psychiatrists I saw ever thought to do. She also took a look at my throat which has been raspy recently. I got a referral to an ENT doctor. I asked what an E, N,T was and was told ear, nose and throat. What if all specialists came in threes? Knees, ankles and hips. Heart, lungs and liver. Brain, back and bowels.

I thanked the doctor for her wonderful work, paid my bill and skipped merrily out the door. Of course I was careful not to touch doors and their knobs or anything else for that matter, with my skin.  I also had hand sanitizer with me just in case. Weird times.

My next stop was to be the pharmacy but they weren't due to open for 20 minutes so I took a stroll in the neighborhood I lived in with wife and children from 1997-2013. We spent all 16 of those years in a lovely two bedroom dwelling with a nice backyard. It was the longest I've ever lived at a single address. The people who bought the house lo those seven years ago completely re-did the dump to the point where it doesn't look a thing like the abode we occupied. Thus the nostalgia of my journey was lessened somewhat.

My friendly pharmacist, Gabriel, was wearing gloves and he sanitized the pen before I signed for meds. Weird times. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I skipped merrily out the door towards my current humble home. Wife and oldest daughter were home (where else during a pandemic?) and we chatted a bit. They are both handling our quarantine quite well and have made sure that our cupboards are full without getting into this whole nasty hoarding business. Weird times.

I prepared to start teaching tomorrow. Of course I will be doing my instruction on line (schools everywhere are locked up tight) which means learning how that's done. I sat through two video presentations, one of which was live. The live presenter kept saying that if we had more questions or needed to know more about a particular thing we could "cruise on over" to a particular link or website. Back in the old days we used to say "go over" to a particular link or website but then again we didn't say "grab a link" which he did. Indeed we did considerably less "grabbing" of things in days of yore. Today people "grab" lunch, a shower, sunshine and for all I know, a half hour of meditation.

So tomorrow I start my course -- same school, same students, same book -- on line and I have very little actual idea what I'm doing despite the best efforts of my on line experts. (I should probably be either hyphenating on-line or making it one word as in, online, but I'm not currently doing so and I blame the coronavirus.)

I've washed dishes twice today. I like a clean kitchen for other people to cook me food in.

Watched a Bergman film (as I'm want to do) on the Criterion Channel (goodness I truly do love the CC) Hour of the Wolf (1968). I haven't seen it in so many moons I'd forgotten much of it. Boy howdy folks it's not an easy film to forget (so how did I?) and maybe I'll write about it here someday. Maybe not. I don't know. Weird times.

Last night I watched Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994) -- "don't speak." Hadn't seen it in a long time as well as it's been out of circulation. However I found a cheap copy on eBay last week and bought it. It's a regular knee-slapper. So I sat there slapping my knees until they were red and the film was over.

I did other stuff today but my god this post is already boring enough as it is. What, I'm going to tell you about another nap, or taking out the recycling or scratching an itch on my backside?

Right now I find myself writing on my blog after which I'm going to graciously eat the dinner that is currently being prepared and then watch last night's Better Call Saul on ye old DVR with the missus. (I like her a lot. She's the cats.)

Will I have more to say tomorrow? Will I update the world on teaching online? Will I take another long exhilarating walk? Will the virus magically disappear overnight? Will I stop asking questions and end this stupid blog post? Yes to the last question.

Weird times.