Not a week, in some cases, a day goes by that I don’t hear the local news media talk about ways we can pass the time in quarantine inside our homes practicing social distancing in hopes of preventing one from getting the Coronavirus.
Here is my list of what I will do WHEN I get, assuming it’s only mild symptoms of COVID-19, and don’t have to be on a ventilator in a hospital’s intensive care unit. It’s not “IF” I do get the virus. It’s WHEN. As the second unappointed “Mayor of Realville”, I don’t care if you don’t want to read the truth or not. Bottom line: WE’RE ALL GOING TO GET THE VIRUS IN SOME FORM. Just depends how bad. Doesn’t matter how many face masks you wear outside or at the grocery stores or how much social distancing you practice.
1) Catch up on my reading: As much as it pains me to quote the fictional TV father of the 80s, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, as played by actor-comedian and now convicted sex offender, Bill Cosby, from The Cosby Show (1984-1992), there is a line from one episode where daughter, Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), tells dear old dad she can’t find anything to do. Cliff tells her he has a million dollars worth of books in her bedroom she has yet to read. By comparison, I’ve bought quite a few hardcovers I’ve set aside with plans to one day finally open up. Perhaps catching mild symptoms of COVID-19 might cause that?
2) Netfilx: Since becoming addicted to the streaming service Thanksgiving Day 2019 (I only got the app because I wanted to see Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese’s three-hour plus gangster opus, The Irishman), I’ve accessed a number of films on my account that say “Continue watching” from classics like The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Once Upon A Time In the West (1968) to such classic television series like Star Trek (1966-1969) and the WB’s Supergirl (2015-present). Like all those hardcover books I plan to read one day, I’m eventually going to finish watching those dozen plus titles I accessed since late last year, provided the streaming service does not pull them from access within a few months. Though I have noticed when Netflix does pull various titles, those same movies return to the service within a few months.
3) How about all those yet-to-be opened movies I bought sitting in drawers: Should the situation arise where I can’t find anything to watch on Netflix I can always go to that pile of unopened Blu-rays I have been meaning to watch (2019 films: Ad Astra, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Joker, Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1).
4) iTunes: Moving all my music from my old outdated iTunes account on my 10-year-old Apple computer that came with a CD burner (today’s $1500 plus Macs no longer come with them) to my new updated account has been an ongoing project the past month. Such is the one and only reason why I still have the 10-year-old Mac computer as nothing else works on it anymore. The desktop software is so out of date now that the latest browser versions of Firefox and Google Chrome are no longer compatible. I wouldn’t even be able to use the machine if I took online classes to take tests and do assignments. The real test, though, will come when I am finally done transferring all my music (close to 1000 songs, if not more) to the new account. Will all that data synch up upon hooking my Iphone 7 to my notebook let alone, if I get a new IPOD with the highest memory. To be continued…
5) Blogging: Personal issues since January 2019 have kept me from updating my two blogs (one with film reviews and the other with commentaries) on a weekly basis every Wednesday. It’s not a case of writer’s block. I just have too many things going on right now. I suppose I should thank the COVID-19 pandemic and working from home as this crisis has prompted me to churn out a few weekly blogs about the subject since mid-March.
6) LEGOS: Have I told you that Lego building could be a means to keep a person sane? I have found myself at my calmest when building some new set, or an old one. I got plenty of unopened sets to pass the quarantine time. Trouble is finding the space when I’m done building them. The $700 Ultimate Collector Star Destroyer set I bought last year is one such example!
7) So maybe instead of Lego building I can work on a puzzle? I am not much into 1000 plus piece female fantasy jigsaw puzzles. The one I saw at a local comic book store last month, however, caught my eye so I had to get it. Perhaps I’ll put it together while jamming to all those 1000 plus songs I got on my new iTunes account full blast?
8) And the Oscar for best original/best adapted screenplay goes to: In addition to blogging, I have dabbled in screenwriting over the years. I still have an unfinished adapted supernatural screenplay I wrote back in the 1990s I have been meaning to get back to.
9) Paper shredding: Another ongoing project I have had on my To Do List. Years of old bills to go through. I’d put all that paperwork in cardboard boxes and take to the local UPS store to have them do the shredding but COVID-19 took care of that. I’m going to have to do this all myself. Jamming to my iTunes music while doing this comes to mind.
10) Walk doggie: Dogs love it when their owner takes them for a walk and my dog, Mikey, is no exception. Mikey knows he doesn’t get a walk every day from me so on those days when I drag out the leash he intends to make the most of that 20-30 minute stroll every minute. Amazing how a piddly seven-year-old, 20-pound parti yorkie pooch can physically drag a 165-pound man throughout the neighborhood!
©4/15/20
Here is my list of what I will do WHEN I get, assuming it’s only mild symptoms of COVID-19, and don’t have to be on a ventilator in a hospital’s intensive care unit. It’s not “IF” I do get the virus. It’s WHEN. As the second unappointed “Mayor of Realville”, I don’t care if you don’t want to read the truth or not. Bottom line: WE’RE ALL GOING TO GET THE VIRUS IN SOME FORM. Just depends how bad. Doesn’t matter how many face masks you wear outside or at the grocery stores or how much social distancing you practice.
Even if you don’t get it, it’s a good bet you will probably know someone who either got the deadly virus and lived to tell about it, or they succumbed to it. Being diabetic, I am on that list of potential candidates susceptible of catching it thanks to a weakened immune system. In fact I am convinced, regardless what the television medical experts say, why I haven't caught it is because I got my flu shot in November last year (medical experts claim a flu shot will not prevent you from catching COVID-19). So here is what I’ll be doing in quarantine at home when that happens. (I’m actually doing a majority of this already and I’m not sick…at least not from COVID-19 that is).
3) How about all those yet-to-be opened movies I bought sitting in drawers: Should the situation arise where I can’t find anything to watch on Netflix I can always go to that pile of unopened Blu-rays I have been meaning to watch (2019 films: Ad Astra, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Joker, Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1).
8) And the Oscar for best original/best adapted screenplay goes to: In addition to blogging, I have dabbled in screenwriting over the years. I still have an unfinished adapted supernatural screenplay I wrote back in the 1990s I have been meaning to get back to.
9) Paper shredding: Another ongoing project I have had on my To Do List. Years of old bills to go through. I’d put all that paperwork in cardboard boxes and take to the local UPS store to have them do the shredding but COVID-19 took care of that. I’m going to have to do this all myself. Jamming to my iTunes music while doing this comes to mind.
©4/15/20
