Everybody is healthy and happy and has jobs or decent pensions and kids are doing great in great schools with no debt and the Eagles have won the Super Bowl many times and war is a thing of the past and the credit card companies blew up like in "Fight Club" (sorry, but spoiler alerts expire after a decade). Yay! We're ready to do stuff!

What would you do first? Don't worry - you have the money, the time, and the vigor!

The Eagles?? Nonsense. The Seahawks.

Actually, my life is pretty much like that. I am retired, I no longer am enslaved by an alarm clock.

Before the Plague hit, we were talking about taking a trip back to see some historic spots in and around Massachusetts. We both enjoy historic places. Last time we were in Virginia, I insisted that DH stop at Colonial Williamsburg. I had been there before, and loved it. Turned out he enjoyed it very much too.

I've heard that there is a reconstructed Colonial-Era place like that in Massachusetts. That would be fun to see.

:)

I'm planning on finding a mistake fare to Reykjavík for about $30. I'll stay in a bubble hotel unless I'm afraid something will crawl out of the woods to eat me. It's possible.

I'll go somewhere with hot springs that you're allowed to sit in, and I'll learn archery.

*Then* I'm going to turn my shed into a sauna.

There's always Elwa & Sol Duc hot springs (on the north OP, just off the 101). Elwa - long hike but worth it. Sol Duc - resort but generally alright.

Oregon has good hot springs. I soaked at Babgy (Mt. Hood) last Christmas.

California...

Idaho - has many - this spring.

Hot Springs this winter!

ANYBODY?

I grew up near Williamsburg and spent my youth visiting and working in that historic town. I miss it. I haven't been "home" to Virginia in six years. Won't be going back anytime soon, though.

I've been really fortunate in that I've been able to spend the last few years traveling a lot. I'll probably go back to that once we're no longer locked down.

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...we were talking about
> taking a trip back to see some historic spots in
> and around Massachusetts.
>
> I've heard that there is a reconstructed
> Colonial-Era place like that in Massachusetts.
> That would be fun to see.

There are two. Sturbridge is mid-state, and portrays early Federal America, circa 1830. Plymouth Plantation (on Cape Cod Bay) portrays the Pilgrim settlement. Both have period dressed actors who explain things.

Should that transpire, Catnip, ask CZ for my contact info. I'd love to show you around! In my NOT humble opinion, I put on a pretty good tour, a lot more than your basic Freedom Walk.

(That applies to any RfM'ers, too!)

Come and visit you!

There would be less people and pollution and potholes...

And more beauty and bubbles and balloons...

Gosh, when does it start?
I Can't Wait. Wait...

I'm not sure what I'd do.
I'm not that good at dreaming-
Until I get to sleep...
And I may not remember.

Well, honestly, I'd probably DANCE (&) Party My Ass Off the first day.

I'd wave to everyone I met...
And Kiss and Hug EVERYONE I met again.
Wait, I do that now. W○W.

I'd GET OFF line and back out Into The Wild, child!

I think I'd like that. We'll need proper supervision. tumwater?

supervision by nature

Hard to say. My top choices of what to do are:

1. Work on my Japanese and go to Kyoto. It's a beautiful place I've been meaning to go to and I keep thinking I might run into an old friend who moved there with her husband.

2. Go to Germany in time for Wacken Open Air, the biggest annual metal festival in the world.

3. Move to a coastal city and start working as a sailor again. The work is hard, but seeing the stars at sea again would make up for it.

Oh! I'm down with Wacken! I do not mosh. I imagine the whole place is a giant mosh pit. Still. I'm down.

Sailors. :-) You jogged loose a memory that turned into another stream of consciousness post, so deleted I it, and I'm working on making it more linear. I'll be back to tell you why this song is important:

https://youtu.be/5f0ET_2f2IQ

ETA: I'm trapped in the YouTube rabbit hole. Ugh. The link above - I went to the San Diego concert of that tour. That's a completely different story. My whole thing for a pompous single-name kinda crap voice musician is embarrassing. But I have a thing for that pompous single-name kinda crap voice musician. Maybe it started because Sting taught me about tantric sex when he started yapping about it in Rolling Stone. And then I bought a book. And then my mother found it. I was 24, but still. No one wants their mother finding their book about tantric sex.

https://youtu.be/ZmdzjDgflSk?t=2156. <-- if the link takes you to the beginning, go to 35:56 His voice doesn't crack in this one.

EATA: OH SNAP! Remastered unplugged! https://youtu.be/vfI9M-2tNYc?t=2056 34:15



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 03:15AM by Beth.

Okay, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I have never heard that song by Sting before today. Thanks for the link Beth!

And don't worry, the only thing to be remotely embarrassed about liking Sting is watching him in "Dune."

IIRC, his father was a sailor of some sort, and they didn't have a good relationship. "The Soul Cages" is all about his da.

ETA: Never saw Dune. Mom says I should watch it because Sting.

Who names themselves "Sting" anyway?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 03:13AM by Beth.

Who names themselves Sting? Someone whose real name is the decidedly un-rock'n'roll Gordon Sumner...

<3

If his name has anything to do with a hobbit sword, imma cry.

ARGH! I just have to do the stream of consciousness thing. I'm just going to write how I talk. Maybe subjects and verbs will agree. Maybe they won't. Maybe verb tenses will remain the same. Maybe they won't. Let's see, shall we? Okay!

In middle school, three of us shared albums. We pooled our money for Pat Benatar and passed the album around. We didn't live near each other. Kim was in Wynnewood, Lea was in Havertown, and I was in West Philly. So we'd carry the album to school and pass it around when we remembered to bring the album to school. We didn't have allowances, so we babysat or cat sat or water the plants sat, and sometimes we passed around the sitees' albums like "Thick as a Brick."

I used to take two buses and the El to get to school. It took *forever*. The only cool thing was that I would pass a record store in the 69th St Terminal, and sometimes I'd go in and look at the devil music record covers.

I think my mother and I had already destroyed all of her albums that weren't of a religious nature. I don't remember us melting and breaking mine, so I'm pretty sure her records were gone when I started buying my own. It took me about two months to buy "Dirty Deeds." I was *terrified* that my mother would beat my ass, destroy my record, and then beat my ass again. She went through my stuff very, very thoroughly. Eventually she found it, but I guess she was at a different level of piety when she did - she thought "Big Balls" was hilarious. We bonded over Big Balls. Bizarre.

Lea was Catholic and Kim was Baptist, so there was no way in hell they were bringing any AC/DC to their homes. I had "Paradise Theater," "Central Heating," and all of DEVO's albums. I can't remember what Lea and Kim had, but I *do* remember when Lea bought "Breakfast in America" ON TAPE!

What the hell, Lea? My tape player looked like a beat up version of this: https://imagescdn.juno.co.uk/full/IS717533-01-01-BIG.jpg

The hell? Lea? Why did she have to go fancy on us?

There weren't enough children to sit on for me to afford a Walkman and then Boom! It seemed like four Police albums came out at the same time: "Outlandos d'Amor," "Zenyatta Mondatta," "Regatta de Blanc," and "Ghost in the Machine." That's too many albums to be toting to and from school. I begged my father for a Walkman until I got one. I probably had to guilt him into it. I'm not ashamed.

So. Cassettes! Walkmen! Police! Prison!

When I was 16 and my baby brother was about three months old, my stepfather was arrested for skipping out on bail in Virginia several years earlier. He was stopped for some sort of traffic infraction, he didn't have a drivers license, he was functionally illiterate - a HS grad yet illiterate - they ran his name, and Hello! Off to Graterford!

(Looking back, I think he didn't have a license because he'd go to jail if he tried to get one, but I just went on what my mother told me. I think she also dreamed about teaching him how to read.)

Anyway, I've got this infant brother who's 16 years and 13 days younger than me, a laid-off mom, and a felon stepfather and I'm like WTF is going on here? Where are the adults? Although I probably didn't ask myself where the adults were because they'd been MIA for *years* and unlikely to return.

My stepfather was being held in Graterford, and my mother worked the phones and her connections like crazy trying to get him extradited to Virginia ASAP. Graterford was that. bad.

I have to stop here and say that my stepfather never, ever laid a hand on me or said anything mean to me. He was the only person in my life who told my mother to stop hitting me. In the face. He told her to never hit me in the face, which I guess is better than no one telling her not to hit me at all, which was how things basically were. No one cared. I have no beef with my stepdad. Plus he's dead.

So, stepdad went to god-knows-what prison in Virginia, and I slogged through my junior year of high school. I was going to a different school closer to home, and I babysat my ass off in addition to taking care of my brother after I came home from school. Mom found under-the-table gigs here and there, and once in a while she went to Virginia. I remember going down with her right after my stepfather was extradited to Suffolk. We saw him in the county jail. Then away he went. (All of this will matter later.)

...



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 05:02AM by Beth.

I’m reading...

Cool.

This is a PSA for people who hire babysitters: If you hire a babysitter so you can go out to dinner, chances are your babysitter got there before their dinner time and is going to get hungry. Give her permission to raid your fridge, or better yet, give her money for a pizza. I can state with 100% certainty that a hungry babysitter will look in your fridge and pantry again, and again, and again until they think they've found something that you won't miss. And it will probably be disgusting, and they'll hate it. If they aren't paid well, they will hate *you*, get on the Babysitter Hotline and tell the crew that you are sucktacular people and you will be blacklisted.

Where was I? Okay - stepfather in jail in Virginia. Mom unemployed.

They raised our rent, Mom's unemployment ran out, and I made a new friend.

I lived in an apartment building in University City. Most of the people who lived there were older folks or grad students at Penn. Not UPenn. That is not a thing. Penn. There is Penn, and there is Penn State, but there is no UPenn. Some people were already annoyed that they went to a lesser Ivy (not my description), so they got even more torqued when people kept thinking they went to Penn State. New Flash! PEOPLE DO THAT TO ANNOY YOU, QUAKERS! And apparently it worked because now there's all of this UPenn nonsense. You go to an Ivy League school which is really nothing more than a member of an old school football conference of terrible football teams. You're in Philly, act accordingly. We didn't make you come here.

...

ETA: It's almost 2am. I'm going to bed.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 04:59AM by Beth.

Loving your writing, Beth!

And sorry you mom beat you.

And if I do ever have kids and need to hire a babysitter, I will be sure to leave either decent leftovers or an advance for pizza. I don't want to be sucktacular for that reason.

Feed the babysitters!

So, a lot of stuff happened. Most of it wasn't great.

When I finished my junior year and they raised our rent, my father gave me the choice of staying in our apartment - he would pay the rent - or moving in with him, my stepmother and my brothers and finish my senior year in Philly. We didn't discuss these options as a group. Dad asked me what I wanted to do - in effect I could force my mother to stay in Philly, but I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to move to Virginia, and I'd always wanted to live with my father.

Things went straight to hell pretty quickly. Bad things happened in Philly. I ran away (for a weekend, okay! It was only three days!), Mom came up from VA, I went back to VA with Mom. Bad things happened in VA so we moved back to Philly and lived in my aunt's empty dilapidated house that she'd split into two apartments. My stepfather was still in jail in VA. My father didn't want to talk to me. Things were just bad.

I did love one thing that summer. When we were in Suffolk, we were staying on a farm. Most of my stepfather's relatives live on one long road. Some were still farmers, and some worked in the city. We stayed with Uncle James Thomas. There was a screened in front porch with a rusty old porch glider thing. It wasn't a swing. It was one of these: https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/6174113/il_570xN.325632004.jpg

I slept out there when I could. It was so dark, and the stars were so bright. I had my Walkman and my Police. Those were good nights.

ETA: I might flesh out that summer at some point in the future. I don't have the energy to do it now. A lot happened.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2020 01:46AM by Beth.

Glad you had some good moments in that horrorshow.

Thanks :)

There will always be magical experiences, even in the worst geographical or mental places. Sometimes I think, "There is no other place I'd rather be than right here. Right now." If I'm lucky, I say, "There's no other place I'd rather be than right here. Right now. With you."

I think I'll drive to the coast tomorrow. I don't want to drive the Aberdeen route. I'll find another way. I'm glad that waterproof pants are a thing. :)

Yeah but you probably won't need them today. I want to go to the coast today... and not come back. I'll probably just go before/ around the Solstice. It's rough, rainy cold and windy sometimes, and oh so quiet, relaxing, and beautiful at others, and sometimes at the same time, depending on you, and your viewpoint/ mood.

Have a great time Beth

... And my, mother beat me too, but never in the face. She had a university degree....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 06:51AM by Soft Machine.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

I'm glad you're not dead. Very.

That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me for a long time ;-)

I'm sorry, too. For both of you.

Beth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who names themselves "Sting" anyway?


A bee.

A Bay Bee.

What do you think?
Not a baby, for sure.

in a post-covid world. I fear the ducks and I may be the only ones left almost like an 'I am legend' situation possibly haha. I'd last a week.

And also, ziller and I become penpals post-covid hahaha.


We will discuss important matters like which style of pole dancing is the best and why haha. Life changing topics.

In a post-covid world, pole dancers are paid residuals.

Yep.

Is a post-covid world even possible with deranged health officials on staff? A real 21st-century ETBenson, this one.

"A Wyoming Department of Health official involved in the state's response to the coronavirus questioned the legitimacy of the pandemic and described a forthcoming vaccine as a biological weapon at a recent event.

"The 'so-called pandemic' and efforts to develop a vaccine are plots by Russia and China to spread communism worldwide, department readiness and countermeasures manager Igor Shepherd said at the Nov. 10 event held by the group Keep Colorado Free and Open."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wyoming-health-official-calls-so-called-pandemic-communist-plot-n1250096

In a post-covid world, people like that will disappear in a quiet puff of smoke the very moment their addled brain tells their lips to start forming idiotic words. The *poof* will be gentle and quiet - no one will remember the addled person's existence.

They will all go poof. They will not be missed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2020 03:10AM by Beth.

Everyone is different.

There will be those who think, "You just never know when your life can be turned upside down. It can happen in a moment. You can't take anything for granted." They will live better, happier, more generous lives.

There will be those who are upset and angry. Their sense of security has been shaken. Those are the people we will read about in the news who will create some sort of violence against society. They will have snapped.

There are those who will suffer from long-term depression because they will no longer feel safe.

There are those who will live carelessly and dangerously, because you only live once. Things can end in a moment, so you might as well live life to the max, safety be damned.

Everyone is different. Reactions to the crisis will vary.