Thursday, March 26, 2020

I vacuumed and did my homework

Last weekend, my shrink gave me an assignment: she wanted me to express what I felt my "next chapter" was going to look like. I don't know why, really. She mentioned it at the very end of our hour and I didn't have much chance to question why she thought this was important. 

Anyway, she's the doctor, so today I did it. It took about two hours for me to explore where I think my life will go after this job ends. This was the first long document I've done in Apple's Pages word processing program, so that was interesting.

I tapped into a conference call -- this time without alerting the authorities. And I vacuumed. Second time this week! One of my coworkers called to touch base. And now I'm going to take nap.

That's the deal I've made with myself. I have to be productive before I get to nap. Yesterday I slipped, but today I was on it.

My temperature is 98.3ยบ.



I'm sure Thom Harmann is a nice and wise man

... but I'm not listening to him. At least not these days.

My friend Kathy doesn't have cable, so she's taken to listening to progressive radio. She pays close attention to Stephanie Miller and especially Thom Hartmann, believing they're sharing important information that the major networks miss. I don't know how she could know that, since she doesn't get CNN or MSNBC, but that's not the point. She sincerely believes that Thom Harmann's show would engage me and she wanted to share. I appreciate that.

But I've declined. I have severely restricted my news intake during this pandemic. I listen to Gov. Pritzker, read the Sun Times, watch the local news and the first hour of The Today Show. For an avowed news junkie who has cable news on from the moment I open my eyes, this is quite a switch. But I find it's the best way to stay sane.

I can't bear the minute-by-minute stock market updates and Trump tweets. My local and state governments have a greater impact on my day-to-day life than Washington, and The Today Show keeps me updated on what Dr. Fauci says. When this is over, I'll go back to following the 2020 race to the White House.