Well then, when last we visited this space, it was march of 2001. We were staring down the barrel of a not insignificant pandemic. People were dying from respiratory failure, the then President of The United States was creating havoc and divisiveness, and we were all for lack of a better way of putting it, sheltering in place. Things were scary and uncertain. The interceding two years have been strange and different.
Over the last several years, we stopped going to bars on friday nights. Now we host a weekly dinner party for our friends. We watched crime and protest spike, and then decrease. We saw traffic vanish, then policing vanish. We watched people’s behavior and their driving get much worse. Some things got expensive, some things got cheaper. There were bad wildfires in the USA and Canada. For a while, I would wear gloves and a mask to the grocery store, then shower, and wash all my clothes when I got home. Our habits changed. Normal changed. Every thing was different.
Over time, the virus mutated, and got less deadly. Billions got multiple vaccinations. And in time, everyone in our close circle had caught the virus, and survived. Life slowly evolved to a new normal. Gone was my office. Gone was my commute. Days were now spent working from home, an altogether new experience for me. Things that once held high value in my daily life, now sat idle. Where I used to carry a backpack and a water bottle all the time, my backpack stayed in the closet, and my water bottle was replaced with a glass from the cupboard. Where I would wear out a pair of shoes and a pair of pants in six months, now they lasted more than a year. Where I used to shave every day, I now shaved twice a week. Buying gas for my car was now a once a month thing. My sleeping and waking habits adjusted to this new “no commute” lifestyle. Where I used to check the weather, first thing, as it dominated my commute, I now only checked it for curiosity and interest, as there was a good chance I wasn’t leaving the house on any given day. And that was a definite change. Monday through friday, I was out the door in the morning, gone all day, and home in the evening. On the weekends, there were errands, chores, and social gatherings. This was replaced with grocery shopping once a week, and maybe a couple errands on the weekends. I wouldn’t say that I became a shut-in, but more that I had no reason to leave the house.
Here we are these years later. I’ve adapted to the things that have changed. They were odd at first. But now, not so much. I still think I need to leave the house more, and people still suck more at driving than they used to. It’s too hot in the summer, and not cold enough in the winter, but we’ve done that to ourselves. And interestingly, I’ve pretty much left all social media. Facebook became a soapbox for everyone pushing politics of religion. So I quit. Twitter, well, Elon Musk shat in that castle pretty effectively. I deleted my account. Livejournal, yeah, it’s pretty much dead. Instagram, yeah, I post once in a while. The pics are shared here. Oh yeah, Threads. That just dropped. I downloaded it, signed in, realized I didn’t care, and deleted it five minutes later. But, sometimes, I want to share a thought or a feeling, just to get it out. I believe that’ll happen here. Every now and then, I think “I’ll setup cross posting to Facebook.” Then I remember that I wont, because I can’t disable the comments. And really, anyone who feels the need to hijack the comments on my thoughts, can fuck right off.
So, here we are. Sunday at 9PM, Work tomorrow. up at 8:30, sitting at my desk at 9. It’ll be me and a Diet Coke. But who am I kidding, thats a pretty good thought. I mean, shit, I could still be getting yelled at for a living (Apple).