Day in the Life of Conrad

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8:00 AM

Nice morning.  Check the news and see if the world has fallen the rest of the way apart.  It hasn't.  The rest of the way still is to go.  Better eat some breakfast.  Oatmeal and banana sounds good this morning.

8:45 AM

Check my email and Facebook, etc.  Nothing big yet.  Ordered a book series by Zelazny.  It's his full 10 book Amber series.  I enjoy his books.

9:15 AM

Hmmm ...  It's Thursday.  I know because they are doing trash pick up.  Better check the air quality, because my doctor wants me to walk 1 hour in the morning and 45 minutes each evening.  That hasn't been working very well, because I have susceptibility to bad air conditions causing asthma and I don't go out unless the 2.5 micron particle count is in the good range, below 50.  California fires don't care about my walking schedule.  So, let's see ...


Nope, too high.  I'll find something else to do until it gets better.  If it does.  In fact, while I eat breakfast, I think I'll watch the new episode of Star Trek Discovery.

11:00 AM

The show was good!  Carol and I will chat for a bit, she is going out in the yard to do some landscape cleanup - sometimes her energy makes me feel guilty, but I get over it - and I notice that the air is now down into the 40's.  So, I'll get dressed and go for a 1-hr walk.

12:15 PM

I walked at a fast clip for me.  3.4 miles in an hour.  The air was nice and the temperature perfect.  It was a nice walk, felt good.  Followed by a shower.  Not shaving today.  I'm retired.

2:15 PM

Writing my blog.  I've cleaned up enough stuff around the house, etc.  Time to settle in.  I always do it around this time if possible.  Those crazy people in India don't have clocks that work very well, so they think it is 2:45 AM on Friday.  I'd spend more time complaining, but they outnumber me.

The World Series I notice is tied at 2 games apiece.  Oh, and Trump is complaining about what he calls his unfair 60 minutes interview that will air Sunday.  He says Leslie Stahl was not prepared to ask him about Hunter Biden in China and instead asked him stuff about Covid-19, etc.  The last debate is tonight at 6:00 PM - 6:30 AM Friday in India, which is actually closer to China, so maybe they know about Hunter Biden.  And maybe they know about the Trump bank account in China that Americans just learned of yesterday or day before.  Maybe both the Chinese and the Indians will need to get the info from Russia which will probably be the most efficient route.

Wait, the debate is on during the World Series!  Dudes!!!  We need to work on priorities in our scheduling.

Afterword, Carol and I will pour ourselves a glass of wine each and settle into our current Soap Opera, Greenleaf, the fictional account of a black family that runs a megachurch in Memphis.  Man, those people have problems!

======  And that is kind of how a day goes ===================

I've had changes that were transformative before.  A move from Kansas to California about two months before my thirtieth birthday was one of them.  Meeting Carol was another.  The difference is that those were events that were individual in effect or shared with a select few.  This time, this pandemic, this Presidency, this is different.  The transformation is global.  No one reading this will not have been touched in a significant way.  Many are facing terrors that my family is spared like finding food or health care or child care.  Or simply paying the rent and praying they won't be evicted.  They deserve much more empathy - AND HELP - than the situation that I describe below shared with my peers.

When everyone is under the same stress, there is a calming sense of sharing.  We are poor in experience, unusually restricted, but none of us is exceptional or unique in our uncustomary deprivations.  Sure, some defy the situation at high risk, beating their chests in macho denial.  But this changes nothing other than kick the can down the road.

What I have found, though, is that my total sense of experience hasn't diminished all that much, it's shifted from outside me to inside me instead.  As silly as my day above looks, my inner world is actually enriched, because I have so much time for it and little else that I can do.

How are your days?

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Chuck the Shackman at their blogs: 

Comments

  1. Shackman October 22, 2020 at 3:05 PM

    More important there is a new epispde of Supernatural on tonight LOL. Rather than read or do yardwork I listen to music - all in all not a bad way to spend the day. I expect some of the resentment to go away whenit is not somethong we have to do but choose to do (stay home)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilOctober 22, 2020 at 3:49 PM

      Yes. We are gentlemen of leisure after all.

      Delete
    2. SanjanaOctober 22, 2020 at 8:00 PM

      Wow, I didn't know you guys watched Supernatural! It's always been a favourite of mine :)

      Delete
  2. SanjanaOctober 22, 2020 at 8:01 PM

    I loved the honesty, simplicity and wittiness of this post. And the way you spend your days sounds so great to me! I'd be lucky if I, in my old age, get to lead a life like yours.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilOctober 24, 2020 at 10:57 AM

      Here’s what’s weird, Little Grasshopper. Oddly enough, it sounds weird to me to be referred to as in my old age. Inside, I’m in my twenties!

      Delete
  3. Ramana RajgopaulOctober 23, 2020 at 4:31 AM

    Interesting way you spend your normal day except for the constant monitoring of the quality of the air which has nothing to do with the pandemic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilOctober 24, 2020 at 11:03 AM

      Kind of. That was a rendering of the way I spent that day. We are in a continuing state of evolution and none of this really reflects my inner workings much.

      Selling the mobile home of my mother-in-law is going to free us up to focus on other projects here.

      Delete
  4. Srinivas COctober 23, 2020 at 8:38 PM

    Gives a fairly good picture. I like that you are able to experience a day at close quarters, but also see things at a distance, the big picture etc.... But why do you say that there is little else you can do. I hope things are reasonably well for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Old FossilOctober 24, 2020 at 11:13 AM

      Things are well. The little else that we can do is reference to getting together with friends or going on vacations or going on transit to enjoy a day in the city - we live right across the Bay from San Francisco after all - or going to a restaurant to celebrate a birthday. Or going to a winery. Or going to the mountains and spending a few days staying with our best friends. Or having a friend of many years come out here so we can go see the Giant Sequoyas.

      We are Californians. These things will return in their time.

      Delete

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