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March 31, 2020

During the virus adventure... what to do...

I decided to call it the virus adventure, a title that has some irony baked in it, as I am having to work from home and spend all of my time here minus a little outdoors hour here and there.
I enjoy being at home but there is something changed in the experience when staying home is required rather than chosen freely.
I've been going to a spot on the local river and paddling some.  Flatwater.  A couple friends in the vicinity but practicing more than required social distance.  We know we must self-rescue.  I did so the other day - took out a playboat and carped 2 roll attempts and wet exited. That translates to: I swam.  I started walking my boat to a rock and my legs sunk knee deep into mud.  I worried I would lose my shoes!   I decided to float/swim instead of walk.  More incentive to roll.
It's the EZG-50, a boat I would describe as extremely easy to roll, so I have no idea what is going on.  Maybe it's the edge?  Maybe it's my brain chewing on other worries, extended worries?  I dunno.  

Some of us went down the Mulberry Saturday.  We used pickup trucks and did a double shuttle, what this means is the pickup trucks drove us in the back, two people per truckbed, sitting catty-corner so we never touched the same surface or each other.  Again, self-rescue required but nobody swam.  It will probably be the last trip I do on that run for a long time, because the logistics were tough to arrange and execute.  The level was 2 ft on the bridges and 2.5 online;  Training wheels wave was in as a glassy green wave for short boats; I surfed it over and over and didn't want to stop.
Some friends are doing a bicycle shuttle on the Mulberry so they can run solo.  I have pondered this but I doubt I will do it.  With the Cahaba nearby I can just attain flatwater for a fix.
At home, resigned to my fate, I dyed my hair purple.  I used Overtone.  I don't know if it will fade quickly or not.  I last dyed my hair about 20 years ago.  A friend from the fountain days commented on FB.  Was a fun topic, a diversion needed.


What else to do?  I can practice piano.  I can practice guitar.  I have a piano lesson via Zoom but I haven't set up the scenario to pull it off.  I can get in arguments on facebook.  
What I can't do is see my sister.  We have cut off all visitation to her except her caregivers and the hospice nurses.   I drop off supplies at the doorstep.  She is unaware any of this virus pandemic is happening, and we intend to keep it that way.  In her condition I am not sure she would understand what it meant, but still.
And all of this virus adventure happened right as my friend Eric and I discovered, and discussed, something we had both long suspected; our non-neurotypical natures.  On the spectrum.  As well as my finding a way to memorize the fretboard that, after over 30 years of playing guitar, appears to be working.  So there are magical, amazing things happening, and after I make this giant leap in proficiency on my favorite instrument, combined with the relief of knowing I am not from another planet, the global pandemic will kill off the audience.
that was sarcasm
Meanwhile, many of my friends are fascinated by the "Tiger King" documentary on Netflix.  I tried to watch it but I cannot stand to see animals treated like that.   The show opens with a scene that includes a snow or clouded leopard in a cage, in a van.   I knew then that I couldn't deal.

Questions remain. What regrets would I have if this is near the end of civilization as we knew it?   Should I buy a dirt bike... if I did, would I wear all of that armor to go putter about on a trail?  Should I go to Poland and get a tattoo by my favorite tattoo artist in the whole world? I don't have any tattoos btw.  Should I buy the electronic drum set?  Should I buy another boat?  That last one is easy to answer. 



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