I’ve been telling myself the pandemic would become real to people in the U.S. once X number of deaths were recorded. When the number is too high to be ignored. I’m wrong about that. The number doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it. These are “fake deaths” in the minds of a whole bunch of people. Covid won’t be “real” until everyone knows someone (family or friend) brought down (death or serious illness) by the virus. If that doesn’t do it, I’m out of ideas.
Giving up on time
“He was used to the disappearance of large parts of his life. Sometimes, he passed out at ten o’clock in the morning, and when he woke up, it was nine o’clock in the morning — some other morning. At first, the time changes were disorienting, but over the course of a couple of years, he got used to it. He simply gave up on time — now life was daytime and nighttime, strung along like beads on a string, and the minute, hour, and date were irrelevant.”
— Wicked Prey (John Sandford)
Staying connected
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Hugs and kisses (virtual) for the CenturyLink tech that found and fixed the problem with our DSL. Be a while before I take even so-so internet access for granted.
Time to grow up
“We live infinitesmally short lifespans on an insignificant speck of dust in space, with delusions of grandeur, when the best we can achieve, which is pretty good, is friendship, love and to a small extent, self-awareness. We’re going to get smart now, and learn to be the humble mortals that we are. Or we’re going to cease to exist. In other words, it’s time for the human race to grow up.”
My favorite “Do masks work?” video
Raccoons-1, Humans-0
My friend George kept his cat food in a metal cabinet to keep it from the raccoons. The figured out how to work the latch and open the doors. So he started locking the doors. They found the key (hanging on a hook nearby) and stole it. He had to break the latch to open the doors. Problem solved.
Cognitive Assessment
6,200 thoughts per day
“A new study from psychologists at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario Canada reports observations of the transition from one thought to another in fMRI brain scans. Though the researchers don’t detect the content of our thoughts, their method allows them to count each one, and they say we have about 6,200 thoughts per day. The researchers refer to them as “thought worms.”
“We had our breakthrough by giving up on trying to understand what a person is thinking about, and instead focusing on when they have moved on. Our methods help us detect when a person is thinking something new, without regard to what the new thought is.”
1970 280SE Cabriolet
This is a 1970 280SE Cabriolet. Mr. Wolf is — I assume — selling this for one of his clients. In addition to working on “specialty vehicles,” Mr. Wolf buys and sells on commission. He found my Land Rover and more than earned his 10 percent commission. More photos of the beauty above can be found here.
Social distancing California style
My buddy Grayson Wolf and his wife Larisa loaded up his 1967 Unimog 404 and drove up into the Sierras for a little break from the pandemic. (More photos here)
Two things in the photo below caught my eye: the well-stocked bar and what looks like a picnic table in the back of the vehicle. Grayson explains:
“It is essential to make six-ingredient cocktails when you’re camping next to a three ton military truck, right?
And that “picnic table?”
A German beer hall table, to be precise, and it is bolted to the bed. Nice place to eat our meals.”
Okay, three things. Grayson has brought back the mohawk.
Life goes on!