The rains have stopped, at least for now. Temperature is 53 degrees (at a little before 1 in the afternoon), skies are overcast, but it's rapidly burning off, and will give way to Mostly sunny by 5 pm. The expected high, then will be 57, and will cool to a brisk low-40-ish, with the prevailing breeze from the SW at less than 10 miles per hour.
Funny how that sh*t becomes important when you "self-isolate" (thanks to a governor who's in way over his head). I don't mind, though, I can still do my morning routine, I just have to use the drive-thru at Starbucks. I can still go out to my morning "spot," read my scriptures, and do a crossword puzzle on my iPad. This is a habit I am reluctant to give up, because it goes back a long way, back to my Navy days...
It's hard to say when it started, it was something I did, once, enjoyed, and did again, a couple of days later. I would go to a quiet place, a parking lot, a park parking lot, the Cabrillo Monument, some place that wasn't overrun with people (at five am. in San Diego, in the late 1970's,there was an abundance of choices). I would go to a place with a coffee, a pack of cigarettes, listen to the morning talk shows on the radio, and mentally prepare myself for my day. Some times, it involved reading something. It varied. Sometimes, to prop up my knowledge of the computer system I was teaching to a group of Marines.
Okay, I could digress into some of my favorite Marine Corps jokes, but I've always, down deep, had nothing but respect for the guys we used to call "Jarheads". Sort of the same respect you'd pay a rabid dog, but respect nonetheless. We'd exchange "insults" every morning, and some how, I'd have a comeback that "scored" against some very senior Marine NCO's and Officers. As is most inter-service rivalry, the ones between the Navy and the Marines is all done in fun. We know, if the call to battle comes, we will pull together, and accomplish the mission. But until then...
See, I did digress, but the classes that were most challenging were the ones with the Marines, so I had to find answers to questions that, apparently, no one ever thought of. I started reading tech manuals on the AN/UYK-7 computer system which was jointly used as a tactical and clerical main-frame. I learned more about the whole system, the software, and programming routines that could be accessed by a computer terminal. And got a great deal of enjoyment from waking up, and having some quiet time to think.
In college, I'd sit in the parking lot, reading, trying to catch-up on the five classes I was taking. The bulk of my studies were at my work, I had an agreement that I could work on homework, but I had to drop the studies, and respond to calls in the back-end of a bowling alley as quickly as possible. I started as the Night Mechanic at Vaca Bowl, going to Solano Community College during the day, and working 4 to Midnight Tuesdays thru Sunday. The head mechanic would leave me a project, or two, I'd work on them until 5, do the pre-league lane preparations, and go back to the back around 6. I had, at most, 25 minutes between lane prep and practice time, so I'd order food and go back to work on the projects. A few minutes before practice started, I'd go out, get my food, and go back to the shop to eat and finish my assigned projects. Depending on the number of calls (ball returns, re-spots, deadwood, or worst, blackout) and how quickly they could be responded to, I'd finish my projects about 7:30 - 8, and have 4 hours of study time. When machinery malfunctions occurred to the point of closing a pair of lanes, it would, whichever league it was, cause a loss of study time.
That first semester at Solano almost killed me, but that was before they hired a new head mechanic, Mike, who kept my deal in place, but kept me bussier than a one-armed paper hanger... It took a while to realize that the stuff he had me doing at night had a direct effect on the number of calls, jams, and blackouts, so that by the end of my third semester, I was back to having 4 hours of study time, just about every night, actually quite a bit more. I got up early fairly often during the Summer of '92, and the end of the Fall semester in December.
When we moved to Paradise in the Summer of '94, and I'd go early to classes, go to the coffee shop on the way, and sit in the shade in the parking lot at Butte College for two semesters, finishing AA degrees in both Language Arts and Social and Behavioral Science (with honors). At Chico State, there's a coffee shop that is directly across the street from Taylor Hall, the English Department building, and you could find me there around 7:30 every morning from '95 - '97, book propped up, reading as rapidly as possible for someone who's never taken speed reading classes. Somewhere in that time-frame, I had the "Semester From Hell"... four classes, three of them literature classes. Of the three classes, one had a reading list of five novels, one had a list of four, the other had a list of seven Shakespearean plays and a number of sonnets. The barista would see me coming, and have my cup ready when I hit the door. We got on a first name basis, he called me "Steve," I called him "Mnmmf".
When we moved to Paradise, I had a job with Orchard Lanes (yes, another bowling alley), in Chico. I didn't work as a mechanic, I was the night deskman, and night manager. I had, at any one time, 5 customer service people, 2 bartenders, a short-order cook, and two gameroom supervisors that worked for me, all fellow students at Chico State, all but two under 21. We had a great team, I was "Pops" to everybody, the lead bartender was "Mama," and everyone else were our kids. It was a great working environment, and business soared.
Dale, the guy who owned the lanes, had made enough to offer profit-sharing to the employees, build a laser tag room, and set up a sound an light set up that became "Rock 'N Bowl," "Christian Rock 'N Bowl," and "Country 'N Bowl" nights. People would pay a flat $10 to enter, 5 people to each lane, and bowl from 9 pm. to 2 am. Of all the nights, the least favorite was the Country night. Despite the agricultural tradition of Butte County, there just weren't that many "cowboys" around. College kids liked rock and roll, and would even tolerate Christian rock if it had a good beat. If you say the word "Country," however, all you hear are frogs belching and crickets chirping.
After work there was a 15-minute drive up to Paradise, usually arriving home and getting to bed around 3 am. In the three semesters I was at Chico State, I had no classes before 10 am., so I got some sleep. I actually worked my schedule around to have Sunday's off, so I'd have one day a week to catch up on sleep. And yet, I'd still get to the coffee shop across from Taylor hall by 9, book in hand, but by that time Mnmmf had gotten a different job, so I had to waste time ordering...
When I started teaching, I started getting up at 5 am., getting my coffee, and moving close to the school, where I could sit, listen to the "Mark and Brian," or "Bob and Tom" radio shows, so I could go into class with a smile on my face. I'd also smoke enough cigarettes bring my nicotine level up enough to last me through til lunch.
So, you see, I've done this for a long time, and I don't know if I even want to break this habit for some silly virus. According to my information, COVID-19 effects 6,223 Americans (out of 330,000,000 people) with 103 deaths. So, to begin with, the percentage of Americans WITH the disease represents 0.0002 percent of the population, meaning that you have a 2 in 10,000 chance of actually catching the disease. On top of that, 103 deaths, among 6,223 cases means that it's fatal to 19% of those who catch it, at least in America. 19% of two, is somewhere around .4 deaths per 10,000 population. That means, if everyone in America caught COVID-19, there would be a little over 13,000 deaths nation wide. 13,000 people is a lot of people, but it's hardly the "Black Death" that the media paints it to be.
I will be cautious. I will be vigilant. I will not be "sent to my room" by a government that is paniced by the looming loss of power they will suffer come November.
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