It's been three months

Still here. Still alive and COVID-Free. Still maintaining amid death, batshit crazy and being in place. My father in law died earlier this month of a non-COVID condition and that's taken a lot of good emotions away from us. 

I was referred for cataract surgery in September, had the surgeries in November and that has changed my life significantly. Now I can see distance but need readers for up close. It's been a profound adjustment. 

Still buying music, listening to it when I can. It's hard to focus and my guitar playing time has suffered.

Here's the list of what I bought this year. The stars mean I really liked it. My two faves are Bob Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways and Emma Swift's Blonde on the Tracks. It's been a Bob year. 

Have not bought much vinyl due to COVID, but my recent nothing else to do but buy shit during COVID phase brought me some wonderful Japanese pressings, and the Dave Clark Five record is a revelation of rock and roll energy.

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas, and I'll probably post a movies I watched entry next week. Be safe. 

1. Bobby Rush - Sittin’ on Top of the Blues
2. Rough Guide to World Guitar Music
3. Algiers - There is No Year
4. Bill Fay - Countless Branches
5. Basic Plumbing - Keeping Up Appearances *
6. Ben Watt - Storm Damage
7. Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again *
8. Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain
9. Guided By Voices - Surrender Your Poppy Field
10. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues
11. Nadia Reid - Out of My Province
12. Maria McKee - La Vita Nuova
13. Lily Hiatt - Walking Proof *
14. John Prine
15. John Prine - The Missing Years
16. Dan Berggren in Concert (CD)
17. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
18. The Jam - The Gift (LP)
19. The Amazing Nina Simone (LP)
20. Lucinda Williams - Good Souls, Better Angels
21. Ric Napoli
22. Ric Napoli - The Atlanta Sessions
23. Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit
24. Tony Allen - NEPA
25. COVAID-614
26. Cherry Chrome - Place of Love *
27. Nick Tolford & Company - Lost My Mind
28. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Reunions
29. Badly Drawn Boy - Banana Skin Shoes
30. Nicole Atkins - Italian Ice (LP) *
31. Sondre Lerche -Patience
32. The Explorer’s Club
33. The Explorer’s Club - To Sing and Be Born Again
34. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways *
35. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
36. Eccentric Soul - The CapSoul Label (Vinyl)
37. The Jayhawks - Xoxo
38. Freddie King - Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away
39. Pretenders - Hate For Sale
40. Gillian Welch - Boots No. 2. The Lost Songs Vol. 1
41. Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Upstairs: Demos and Rarities
42. Davey Horne
43. Emma Swift - Blonde on the Tracks (download and LP) *
44. Bebel Gilberto - Agora
45. Feargal Sharkey
46. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blue 
47.  The Who - Odds & Sods (RDS vinyl)
48.  Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (Vinyl)
49. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry’s Dream
50. P.J. Harvey - To Bring You My Live (demos)
51. Toots & the Maytalls - Best of
52. Lydia Loveless - Daughter
53. Denise Johnson - Where Does It Go *
54. Jeffrey David DiCicca - The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures
55. Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler - In Memory of My Feelings *
56. Betty Davis - They Say I’m Different
57. Tom Petty - Wildflowers & the Rest (3LP & download)
58. Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You
59. Busta Rhymes - Extinction Level Event Two: The Wrath of God *
60. The Dirty Knobs - Wreckless Abandon
61. Deep Sea Diver - Impossible Weight
62. Straight Scared: A Columbus Tribute to New Bomb Turks
63.  Jill Lorean - Not Your First
64. Belle and Sebastian - What To Look For In Summer (2-LP)

 Used Vinyl

1. Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
2. XTC - Skylarking
3. The Marachi Brass featuring Chet Baker - Double Shot
4. Beatles For Sale (Japanese pressing)
5. Rabbit - Broken Arrows
6. Beatles - Abbey Road (Japanese pressing)
7. Beatles - Help! (Japanese pressing)
8. Issac Hayes - For the Sake of Love
9. Dave Clark Five - 16 Greatest Hits (Japanese pressing)

In deep as the walls thicken

This pandemic has been a tough thing to keep any focus throughout. From working at home and missing the Hell out of physical materials to a bored as Hell special needs teenager whose life has been upended overnight - decisions are hard. 

I'm supposed to be going back to work on a half day basis later this month, and I'm ok with that. Again, I really miss books, maps and I do not think either of them are going to kill me. Hell is other people though and there will be maybe a third of normal staffing in the building so there will be social distances. My son's school is set to be distance learning later this month and full time in early September. He does not take well to distance learning and needs a lot of one on one education. I'm really torn. If there was a wsy for him to go a couple of days a week I'd be more accepting. 

I also do not think Ohio's numbers are going to be low enough for anyone to go back to school. Naturally I'm concerned for my son's health. I am also concerned for the health of his teachers, the school's staff, other students and so on. This is really hard. It's been hard to plan and it's going to be very difficult to implement. No one is going to come out ahead. 

All the while legal documents are now in place to assist with the inevitable turning of 18 by the soon to be legal adult. It's a weird time. 

What would have been my 35th wedding anniversary was last week. Twelve years ago she said to never contact her again, I have not done so. Meanwhile she blocks me on Facebook even as she liked one of my tweets a few weeks ago. 

Another result of the lack of courage this country has is that the U.S. Passport has become a useless document, we're the shithole country now. It did not have to happen this way and I blame the GOP cultists in the senate. 

So we sit at home, watching the sparrows and house finches out the window. While I Aimlessly play the new acoustic I traded up for, and wait for what?

Still in place

Trying to maintain it all. Some days are easier than others. Hope you are all as well as you can be.

Writers Block has been holding online readings during the pandemic. I put a poem out there last night.

Here it is.

Pandemic travel

Well, a lot has changed in the world since I posted here last month. I do hope you are all healthy, safe and trying to stay intact during this tumultuous time in history.

We booked our trip to Scotland back in January, and left for Glasgow the night of 3/11. The flight from Columbus to Charlotte went without incident. After we boarded our flight to London, there was a band on board who just found out their tour of Europe was cancelled and they asked to get off the plane. Their request was granted and our flight was delayed while all of their luggage/equipment was taken out of the hold.

Mid-flight, I was watching CNN and the dipshit in chief was giving the initial travel ban speech which effected all European travel, but not the UK. Felt horrible because there were people and school groups who had connecting flights to other places in Europe. They essentially had to turn right around. We had a connection to Glasgow.

After we all boarded that flight, the Captain announced that there was a scratch on front of the plane and we had to switch planes. After talking to my brother-in-law pilot, this is something that does happen. A drone or bird could have hit the plane and they cause damage. I did see what looked like a deep gouge where they said the scratch was, so better safe than dead.

When we got to Glasgow, our room was not ready. It was a crazy trip there.

We met up with my wife's sister, and her husband flew in from Dubai on his working flight. So we got to see him for a bit before he had to fly back to Dubai the next day.

Glasgow was cautious, but people were going about their lives. Places were open, but crowds and business were down in most places. We still had a flight home the next Friday.

Oh, toilet paper hoarding is universal.

That all changed Saturday morning when the UK travel ban was announced. My airline (American) and agent (Expedia) were no help at all in trying to get us home. We are very lucky we could simply afford to buy a one way ticket out of Glasgow for Monday morning on Delta.

(I still have heard nothing from American or Expedia in making good on the cancelled flight)

We were able to spend a few hours with my wife's father, who is not in the best of health, before we left.

The flight from Glasgow to Amsterdam on Monday morning was fine, about two thirds full maybe.

Schiphol Airport is one of the busiest in Europe, it was a ghost town. Flights were cancelled and very few people were traveling. It was almost as people were preparing for a hurricane, or war.

They said our flight was full, but there were a few empty seats, as we left for Detroit.

I had seen pictures of absolute horror shows at customs in O'Hare, Dallas, and other US airports and was prepared for the worst. I expected to miss our connection and was prepared to find a hotel room and drive back to Columbus if there was no connecting flight the next day.

Even the pilot was not sure what we were coming into, but he said lines were minimal, about 25-30 minutes.

When we entered Customs Hall, it was very quiet in comparison to other customs we've been to that have been loud and had shouting agents (You, Philadelphia). There were plenty of agents and we got through line one with no real difficulty.

When we left the plane, I'm pretty sure CDC personnel looked inside and I saw one fully masked person in CDC gear after we got out.

On the plane, we had to fill out a health screening form which essentially asked where we had been and how we were feeling. We got in the health check line and masked personnel checked off our forms. Everything was handled very professionally and calmly.

We entered another room and our forehead temperatures were taken, then we were grouped in about 8-10 and given a brief lecture about symptoms of the virus and that we had to self quarantine for 14 days. Then we were sent to another line when an agent took our names and typed things on his computer and sent on our way.

Security was a breeze and after a lengthy trek through the Detroit Airport we arrived at our gate just in time for the pre-boarding announcement. We were going to get home that night. It was a surreal and numbing five days, but I have no regrets about making this journey.

Detroit got it right, it took roughly an hour and a half to get off the plane, to go through customs and screening and to our gate. Impressive.

My wife and I are fine, symptom free and registering our vitals with the County Board of Health twice a day. We both will be working from home until the end of April, at the least. My son is well, and his mother agreed that we go back to his normal schedule so I will pick him up in the morning and drop him off with her on Wednesday morning.

We're in uncharted territory. I hope we can get through this one without too many deaths or damage.

Be well everyone.