Just My Usual Curmudgeonly Self

[pshaw_raven]

I don't know about some people, but I honestly hope the whole thing with wearing masks continues for a while. I'm enjoying not having to worry about what my facial expression is doing when I'm out. The limiting of social interaction and doing things virtually when possible has been a real bonus for me, since it removes a lot of the anxiety I feel around social interactions. I even run through what to say to the vet when I take a cat in, or how to interact with a clerk in a store before I actually make it up to the register, so simply quietly doing my business and getting the hell out as quickly as possible is now being seen as simply good practice, and not incredibly rude. Huzzah.

Not saying I want Covid to stick around, or for more people to die. But I am actually happy about some of the changes. Besides, if wearing a mask when you're sick becomes more normalized I won't have diseased people breathing on me in public. Gross. Go blow your illness on someone else, man.

I'm enjoying finally getting cooler weather, even though tending a fire in the mornings means I don't get my AM yoga done. I missed almost all my sessions this week, but did manage to hit the mat this morning. That's honestly the only drawback, I feel. We're having a brief warm-up and it should rain quite a bit, but then it will get cold again, so it is probably time to get some extra firewood in.

I finally got the 3060 yesterday and it's all installed and running, but now I'm having other computer weirdness. The ethernet jack in the studio seems to be failing, which is easily fixed. But the machine doesn't sleep properly now because of some undetermined USB problem, and last night the Windows start menu wasn't responding. The not sleeping I can deal with since I've started shutting my computer down entirely every night, but if the start menu thing keeps up it'll require looking at. I haven't really been on it much lately except to play games, my brain isn't wanting to put its nose to the grindstone and draw for whatever reason. Actually I'm feeling "off" a lot lately, like a pond without any fish in it. Obviously I need to restock but at the moment I'm not sure what will help.

I have a six mile run today followed my an 11-miler tomorrow. The RunDisney virtuals can actually be done at any point - or not. I could just get my medals in the mail and hang 'em up. But there is a somewhat competitive element where you do your runs on the specified days and then send your Strava data in and Disney's going to post the times, or something. But I think you'll need to run on the four days of what would be Marathon Weekend to do it. I'm still going to run my Dopey Challenge, but without balloon ladies or time limits, if I walk more I'm not going to worry about it. Just get the miles in and call it good. We're considering doing the longer runs at Gold Head, since there would be a good place to park the truck and leave a cooler with water and snacks, and there are loops we can run and different things to see. Plus plenty of elevation changes. But we'll see what we feel like getting into. I might do mine on the treadmill otherwise - I can't run in the neighborhood because there are too many loose dogs. I tried to have a nice three mile run on Thursday and got attacked twice. The first pack backed off, but the second was kind of persistent and I wound up kicking one of the little fuckers in the face. Why people let these aggressive animals run around at large is beyond me.

Utterly off topic but I really want to find some place to hang up some gymnastics rings.

Comments

[8hyenas]

I will be happy to wear a mask pretty much forever now. I haven't had so much as a cold this year and I credit the constant hand-washing and kn95 mask wearing. In the future I may not wear one for 8 hrs a stretch at work, but for sure in the stores etc.

[pshaw_raven]

I saw an opinion piece about how America has "gone over to mask culture." While I don't think that's 100% true, I think a lot of people have really embraced the behavior and like you and I, they're going to continue doing it. And I think it'll be for the better!

[cdayzee]

I 100% related to what you said in paragraph 1!!

Ugh, I feel ya re the loose, aggressive dogs!! It's something I worry about myself, so I run/walk in a park. When I lived in GA, one of the first things I noticed was that people walked with some type of implement: a tennis racket, large stick, metal rod, etc. Then I discovered why. Thank goodness the husband was with me at the time. I always worry though with aggressive dogs that they're going to persist with new furor even after getting kicked in the face. It terrifies me.

One time I was walking my dogs with my kids when they were young through a neighborhood when a couple loose dogs came tearing after my littlest dog. The owners were nearby & didn't make any move to call them off; in fact, they thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a while. I ended up picking up my dog even though I was terrified the dogs would try to get me out of the way to get at him but there was no way I was going to stand by & watch him being mauled. Thankfully we got away without injury but that scene impacted me.

[pshaw_raven]

I don't understand at all why people do nothing to control or contain their dogs, then get upset when something happens to them. I can understand if a dog escapes - it will happen. But I have neighbors who make sure their fences are secure and I have never had trouble with their dogs, ever. And I have other neighbors who seem to think their dogs are fine running loose. The total lack of consideration is amazing, even after what we've seen go down this year.

[dorchadas]

I hope we settle on something similar to East Asia, where everyone wears masks when they're sick. And I might wear one out in the winter, especially if it's really cold--even with my glasses fogging it's still better than having my face exposed to the air.