November 12th, 2021 Q14

Hiya,

Q14 

As I type this, have 40 hours left before release, assuming my test comes back negative of course.  What happens if it doesn't is a mystery, but it is not gonna be good.  I will get mentioned in the local paper as imported case # whatever it is at this time (there were 10 imported cases today and the current total is 16,586  

What I do know is that if I have to look at the slop they bring 3 times a day much longer, I am gonna lose it.  Breakfast is usually OK, but I am mad at lunch and dinner before they ring the bell, and then am just disgusted to the point I sometimes don't even open the box.  I then go for a bowl of granola or a few spoonfulls of peanut butter.  So it has been 13 days times 3 meals a day, which is 39 doorbell rings, and there has been exactly one offering where I would voluntarily eat it on the outside.  Sorry...I know I'm a picky asshole, but the next wet meat I wanna see is after my next shower (or after using the lady button on the toilet).

Breaking news...lunch just came and had to share what the chicken(?) looked like.

Purposely blew that photo up so you could see how it glistens.  What made this one particularly unappetizing was that you can see the bumps on the skin.  It's like the feathers were freshly plucked, then boiled and served over rice.  Probably healthy and you'll live a long time if you eat your foul (misspelling intended) this way, but is it a life worth living?  After getting this, called Betty to have her order me up something nice for my last night here.  She found the Korean chicken place delivers and so some of the spicy stuff is about an hour away.  

One quick nice family moment to share.  B-doll joined a dance team at UVA this first semester and this weekend is their performances.  She's been stressing a bit cause she has a lot going on the first semester, what with tailgate parties, frat parties, Vietnamese Student Association parties, and this required a lot of rehearsal time, but she made it through to the end.  I offered that she must be in good shape and she says that she is a work out monster and immediately showed me her guns.  

I haven't missed a performance of hers and was sad to not be able to go, and they don't even have a way for us to live stream, but the Boy picked up the family mantle and drove up to watch opening night.  He missed her high school career and it was his first time going to any dance thing.  He was as confused as I was my first time, but was a good soldier and brought flowers.  Awwwwww.

One more thing...have heard through various grapevines that they both have special friends.  I don't know much more than that and it isn't right that I share here, but am happy they seem to be happy.  

Allrighty...a couple of US in review items.

Immediately, noticed that traffic was nearly non-existent.  Everyone kept saying that it is gonna change next blah-ba-de-blah when people go back to work.  Whether it be the rise of Delta and people not going back to work or them doing so from home, it never happened.  

Of the cars that were out and about, there is a new color that is sweeping the showroom floors.  It is a soft blue, like a sky.  Am sure they have clever names for it, but there were a lot of them.  Mostly Subaru, but there were Hyundais and Toyotas, etc.  This seems to be a PNW preference for now cause I didn't see them anywhere else, but it is one of those weird things that come out of nowhere and takes over.  Like poke.  I like them...great color.  I seem to be the only person to notice this as whenever I ranted/raved about it, no one had a clue

What I didn't like was the adoption of a thing they do in Taiwan that drives me insane.  Cars at a traffic light with no blinker on, then when the light turns green, that is when they immediately put the turning left light on.  If you want a sign of the inevitable deterioration of US society, that is it.  Are you just out of it or is there some reasoning for not indicating your intentions in advance.  Please tell if it is the latter cause I am willing to listen.

Inflation is a thing these days.  I'm not interested in economics much but it doesn't take a ton of thought to understand that so much has gone on that it makes total sense.  The first sticker shock we felt was going out to eat...all the prices were 1/3 to 1/2 as much more expensive.  I could not help but think back to a trip we took to Australia about 5 years ago.  Had the exact same sticker shock when eating out there and asked what was up to some locals.  They replied, somewhat condescendingly after hearing my accent or at least it felt that way, that "we pay our service workers a living wage here" and that it was based on a minimum wage that made that so.  Seemed absolutely reasonable at the time and those words echoed in my head all summer as I read stories about people not wanting to work for shit pay.  There is a lot going on in the economy, but that is one area where I am totally on the side of raising the minimum wage. 

OK...following up yesterday's question as to the extra money for the car repair.  I gave it all back to the guy...via Venmo of course.  I certainly could have kept it without any guilt as I had to take time to get two estimates and was without the vehicle for a week.  The reason I returned it was the dude was extremely easy to deal with and gave the money for the repair to us early without hesitation or hassle.  I was leaning this way at dinner when I asked the crowd, and it was an interesting hearing the rationale for keeping/giving the money back.  Then I mentioned that I thought giving it back was just good karma and that set off a discussion about karma as one of the participants said that there is no such thing.  It got a bit weird and dark but I'm gonna stick with doing things that bring good karma.  It has certainly worked well for me so far.