If you’ve been paying attention to my posts the last couple of weeks (especially this week), you’ve probably gotten the impression that things are decidedly not good.

That perception’s not entirely wrong, of course – one merely needs to look out the window or to the television to see that: the White House is is blatantly denying basic science and trying to distract people with big trucks, and people are risking lives and crashing school board meetings in Utah because masks are inconvenient, but you know what? I’m going to try not to focus on that today, because there have been some Nice Things™ that have happened as well, at least on a personal level in the last week or so, and I want to look at those objectively, and not through the common lens of clinical depression and existential despair.

For example, my biking experience has been pretty great recently. I finished the Quarantine Challenge last Saturday, knocking out a 19 mile run in record time, and, oddly, passing more people than I was passed by. Now, while I wait for my certificate and t-shirt, I keep riding, having 40 miles on dirt under me since Monday, and I’m going to aim to blow past 60 by Sunday, just to see if I can, and likely will, because I’ve gotten past one of those physical plateaus you occasionally hit, and am seeing a real increase in strength and stamina in the last week or so. I’ll take it.

Even if I wasn’t able to host open mic this month (or any of the last five months), and honestly, have barely picked up a guitar recently, I’ve made some progress in my semi-pro music career, finally getting off my duff and working on arranging digital distribution for my work. As of this week, World’s Okayest… is starting to trickle out to the various digital sales and streaming platforms. Thus far, I can currently confirm sightings in the iTunes store, Google Music, and Amazon, with more popping up regularly. Once Spotify hits (I hear it takes a little longer there than other places), I’ll feel like I’ve “made it.”

Also cool, though it’s not a done deal quite yet, I was approached by the Dragoncon Filk Track to maybe do a solo set sometime during this year’s “virtual” convention. It helps that the folks what run things are friends, and that I’ve played the event the last however many years with the Humdingers, but it’s nice to be thought of, and especially nice to be reassured that I was firmly on the list before the con left the physical plane of existence.

One more music-related thing worth noting is the new (to me) toy I acquired. A while back, my friend Alyssa of Rhiannon’s Lark mentioned that she was looking to unload her venerable TC Helicon Harmony Singer vocal effects pedal after scoring an upgrade. Having seen one of these in action in the past (one of my open mic-ers has one, and it’s *awesome*), I kind of jumped at the chance, we coordinated, and as of Thursday afternoon, it’s in my hands. I’m looking forward to finding some time this weekend to experiment with it.

Finally, tomorrow is my Twenty-Second wedding anniversary. The lovely spouse and I have been through a lot in the last two decades and change, but we keep on going, and it’s still cool. Given the General State of Things™, we’re going to play it low-key; one of our favorite food trucks is going to be out at Steam Bell tomorrow afternoon, so we’re going to go have a delicious and pandemic-safe dinner and drinks to celebrate.

Anyway….it’s kind of reassuring to see that I can fill just as much space with talk of good things as I can with frustration with Life, the Universe, and Everything when I put my mind to it. Maybe stuff isn’t so bad after all. We can hope.

It is, however, Friday, and that means I play some tunes in the background and list them here for folks to discover and/or judge. This week looks relatively typical; indie rock and alt-country bookended by 80s alternative icons. Cool:

1. “Six Different Ways” – The Cure
2. “I Just Threw Out the Love Of My Dreams” – Weezer
3. “Ninety Bucks” – Craig Finn
4. “Gun” – Uncle Tupelo
5. “Union Jack” – Big Audio Dynamite
6. “Hard to Kill” – Bleached
7. “Car Song” – Elastica
8. “Dream All Day” – The Posies
9. “The Death Of Pop” – The Rub
10. “Teenage Wasteland” – Wussy
11. “Alone Again Or” – The Damned
12. “Wave of Mutilation” – Pixies