November 13th, 2021 Q15

Hey there,

Q15.  Today Is The Day

A song by my beloved Yo La Tengo performed on the late great John McEnroe show.  Two great tastes.

Britney Spears and I were both freed on the same day.  Coincidence?

Officially, it is tomorrow.  Betty is gonna pick me up at midnight, which is the earliest possible moment.  I would have been perfectly happy sleeping and getting picked up Sunday AM, but it was her call to come down with less traffic.  Betty drives here now.  I saw her drive one time in all the years we've been in Taipei and it was not a pleasant experience.  Cannot wait to see her in action.  She is a good driver and if I had some constructive criticism, she tailgates a bit too much for my taste.  I learned over the summer that I can extend my parking superpower bubble to another if I put my mind to it.  Looking forward to seeing how she deals with the drivers here.  She has defended them in the past and was noticeably critical of the American lunkhead equivalents this summer when she drove there so it'll be an interesting look inside her mind.

Started putting stuff into bags, packing up, etc. in anticipation of tonight's departure, and in every meal bag they put in a drink.  I have little interest in beverages other than water (still), milk, coffee, red wine and whisky.  It is a rare day when I drink something other than these 5 things and never touched any of the juice boxes.  Figure someone would love them later as they are all on sale at the 7-11 so have been collecting them.  Here is the haul.

It has been nice to have a balcony, and the first few days I left the door open to get fresh air in the room, but saw a couple of Taiwan's massive cucarachas patrolling the perimeter, and the lady upstairs says she hears a rat climbing on the roof above her, so ended my open door policy.  I noticed coming back inside yesterday that this room has an odor.  B.O. for sure...not terrible as I haven't sweated hardly at all, but just musty old Gomez smell.  Some of these quarantine rooms don't even have a window that opens and can't imagine what they must smell like at the end of the fortnight.  Betty's was like that, so I can imagine a little bit.  

Physically, feel OK.  My calves hurt when I wake up and am looking forward to going for a nice walk tomorrow.  Maybe will make a pot of sauce to eat next week.  What I won't be doing tomorrow is writing in this space.  Do want to try a weekly thing and will see how the schedule shakes out.  Hoping there is  a ton of baseball...start on Monday with a 3.5hr practice and am looking forward to seeing the fellas.  At this age, they can sprout so fast...height, facial hair, voice changes.  

Well I did it...posted every day.  I will avoid ever doing this quarantine thing again if possible. Seriously, I don't know how all y'all did it for a year.  Know it wasn't as confining as this two week stretch, but that you didn't see people socially for over a year still boggles my mind.  I enjoyed hearing all of your tales from that time and how you occupied it...teaching yourselves to cook, learning to work from home, all of it.  You amaze me.  Like to think I could have done it just as well, but after these two weeks, I just don't know.