This is going to hang around for the foreseeable future if it is anything like the first time I got COVID last September 30th. That time I didn’t test negative until a week before Christmas. It wasn’t until 12 weeks had gone by. So, perhaps I have another 8 weeks to go before I’m clean. FYI, that’s the first week in September…
Fruit Boxes
Donna and I had been paling around for a few months, watching movies at the base theater, going out for meals, etc. But for the Fourth of July weekend we planned a getaway trip to Pennsylvania to stay with Bob Brown, my old Class Leader at ‘B’ School, back in Millington, TN who was then stationed at Willow Grove. Bob and his wife Joanne had two teenaged daughters, so I slept on the couch and Donna bunked in with the girls.
I want to say it was on Saturday that all of us went out to see a movie. They have theorized that if you want to put your arm around a girl you would like to get closer to, just take her to a scary movie. That theorem proved true that day, because the movie we saw was Jaws. When Richard Dreyfuss’ character went down underwater to check on the boat he and Roy Scheider find and that dead guy’s head popped out, BINGO, she grabbed my hand.
We both credit seeing this movie with cementing what was to become an almost 50 year long love affair. We might have watched it a couple of times over the years, but it never was an annual thing. So today, it being the 50th anniversary and all, I rewatched it. I did kind of miss that hand though.
Oh, on a side note, a dozen years later we both ended up working at the place that supplied the solenoid valves that operated the shark’s jaws, Automatic Switch Co.
Sometime last December I started rewatching The West Wing again. Donna and I used to rewatch the series every couple years, hey we like the show. I got about to the end of Season 6 or the first couple of episodes in Season 7 before I disappeared for 2 months.
I didn’t miss it on the road trip and figured maybe when I got back I’d just stop and not do those last 20-25 shows. Then COVID hit me, so I really had nothing to do, but, watch TV so I picked it back up. As I’ve done the last few times rewatching the show, when I get done with the TV episode I listen to corresponding episode of the The West Wing Weekly podcast.
I was doing fine just watching one episode a day, but when I got down to the final 6 episodes of the show I accelerated. Two days ago I watched two episodes and yesterday I binged the last four. I’ve still got the last 2 podcast episodes to finish. I might listen to one of them when I get finished here.
The post title of “What’s Next?” comes from the show, it was President Martin Sheen’s catch phrase for when he was done with one problem and it was time to start solving the next problem. It is also how Josh Molina and Hrishikesh Hirway sign off at the end of a podcast.
So what’s next for me, TV-wise, don’t know, but reading-wise, I’m waiting on my copy of What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service to arrive from Amazon.
East Salish Pond
Can’t really blame it on the COVID, because after a 3 days I’ve felt normal. I just keep testing positive. Including today because I had a dentist appointment tomorrow. I have been out walking a mile or two for almost every day. The picture above was from Friday as well as the first two below and the third image is from Sunday.
I walked again this morning, but didn’t take the phone/camera out of my pocket. Before I took these last three walks I stopped in at the Stomping Grounds and picked up a 16oz Salted Carmel Latte to carry with me. Hypothetical question: Does my walking 2-1/2 miles in an hour, while drinking that latte, do I manage to burn enough calories to offset that tasty coffee consumption?