“I know people talk about freedom, but I learned growing up … with freedom comes responsibility. The decision to be unvaccinated impacts someone else.”

It seems the President and I are of a mind on some things. That quote above is from his remarks on Thursday announcing new plans for stepping up the pace on vaccinations in this country, including the requirement for Federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated or submit to regular (one or twice weekly) COVID testing. It echoes my particular mantra about how citizenship involves both the rights that self-professed “patriots” shout about from the rooftops, but also the responsibilities to the collective whole; the public good. We organize as communities: local, national, global (there’s a reason the Boy Scouts of America require all three citizenship merit badges for Eagle rank) in order to improve the circumstances for the everyone; we’re stronger together than apart, and the Founders of this nation, flawed as they were, understood that concept and used it as a founding principle; read the primary sources-it’s pretty explicit. Given the positions the above-mentioned “patriots” crow on about, it’s clear that they haven’t done so.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but please, go get the shot if you haven’t. Take precautions. Wear the mask. Do the responsible thing for yourself and others.

Speaking of responsibilities, yesterday afternoon I paid a fairly tidy sum to get a new clutch for my car, and was able to do so without going (further) into debt because I do the responsible thing and save. You should do that. It still hurt a bit spending that much, but all the same, I’m glad to have my car back.

As for that last thing in today’s title, I’m planning to go play an open mic tonight at my neighborhood brewery because I need to shake off some more rust before next weekend’s concert gig, plus, I just want to play in my local. And, the excellent Boka Taco truck is going to be there, so I’m having tacos for dinner.

As for tunes this week, it’s pretty Canadian, which I’m perfectly cool with. Also, some interestin solo stuff from people you don’t often think of in a solo context, and it leads off with what I’m considering the official song of summer ’21 because every time I hear it on the radio, it earworms me for days:

1. “Chaise Longue” – Wet Leg
2. “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” – Bruce Cockburn
3. “Overkill” – Men At Work
4. “7 O’Clock” – The Quireboys
5. “Respect the Wind” – Eddie Van Halen
6. “Bodhisattva” – Steely Dan
7. “Take It So Hard” – Keith Richards
8. “Hollywood Nights” – Bob Seger
9. “Say What You Will” – Fastway
10. “Beautiful World” – DEVO
11. “No Myth” – Michael Penn
12. “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” – Crash Test Dummies (feat. Ellen Reid)

As I do most mornings after clearing out the inbox and before diving into the day’s litany of meetings and paperwork, I can the news headlines of the day, as being informed on the world around me is part of my responsibility as a citizen, as well as telling me what the weather’s going to be like, and give me an idea of what sort of things are going to get talked to death or blown out of proportion on social media the rest of the day.

What I’ve been seeing lately is not at all encouraging.

Amidst the continuing coverage of infrastructure packages and Olympics (which really shouldn’t be happening) coverage, I’m getting near-constant news of Covid spikes across the country and the world, as people, especially in certain areas (oh, hearing the tales of my friend currently trying to get out out of Mississippi where she’s currently teaching university), have basically given up considering pandemic conditions as a thing, dropping any sort of social preventative measures (not that they really picked them up) and refusing to get vaccinated, for bullshit reasons they learned by “doing the research” because they don’t trust the medical professionals as much as they do some YouTube influencer-slash-conspiracy-theorist going on about microchips and becoming magnetic because Bill Gates is working to advance the Illuminati agenda in support of the Lizard People within the Flat Earth (which isn’t as much of an exaggeration as it should be), or if not that, simply to “Own The Libs.”

It’s depressing.

Amidst stories about completely preventable viral spikes and drunk, unvaccinated idiots at Lake of the Ozarks, this morning’s big news is the latest CDC guidance recommending everyone start wearing masks inside again.

As I’ve mentioned before, above and in many other venues, this kind of thing wouldn’t be happening if Americans thought just as much about their responsibilities to their fellow citizens as they do their personal rights. Because a large segment of this country’s population made a once-in-a-century viral epidemic into a political issue (and while I appreciate the right changing their tune on vaccination, but I’m afraid it’s already “too little, too late”), which has led this whole situation go on for a year and a half now, and in that time, leading to ever-evolving new variants that seem likely to make things worse.

Personally, I never really stopped the masking indoors (I have, based on the science and my vaccination status, pared back my use outside), and it’s always encouraging when I see someone else doing the same, though there are far fewer of us every day. I really hope yesterday’s CDC advise brings the numbers back up, but I’m not confident, especially since the folks who are the most danger to themselves and others never really took precautions anyway.

Given the attitude of the American people (I speak primarily of this country, though the whole planet is involved here to varying degrees), I just know that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Per the CDC data tracker site, my local community is in better shape than some, though it’s still in that “substantial risk” category in yesterday’s updated guidance.

It’s just really frustrating that the people of this country can’t come together and take the steps necessary to get past this; can’t let go of petty political shit to deal with a thing that transcends politics. Just as we’re starting to enjoy some semblance of life again; seeing friends, playing gigs, and whatever else we’ve been missing, the irresponsible behavior of a significant minority is going to lock things down again as cases rise; rising because that significant minority won’t recognize the severity because political tribalism and a lack of basic understanding of science (both elements brought on by movements in conservative thought over the last fifty years or so) are perhaps more transmittable than the virus.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

The work week itself has been exceedingly dull. Other than chasing around one of the data trading partners’ sending of a bunch of duplicate transactions and checking on the status of the few remaining FY21 requirement acquisitions, there’s not been a lot, because, as I said, my pile is largely worked through, and everyone else is rushing to get their last-minute stuff in, and although I’ve offered up, as is my job as the IT acquisition expert, my assistance in clearing the decks, no one’s taken me up on it or assigned anything.

Otherwise, it’s been dealing with the busted AC (which should be fixed today), and agonizing over the looming clutch replacement, which, as of last night’s interaction with the service techs, is coming in quite a bit more expensive than I’d planned for, based on all the research I’d done (because there’s only so much staring at the email inbox one can do before opening a browser and feeding one’s anxiety).

So yeah; it’s not going to break me, but my savings are definitely going to take a hit, though that’s why we save, right?

That said, if anyone reading this has been on the fence about buying any of the records I’ve put out over the last few years, now might be a good time to visit my humble BandCamp site and take a look. It’s all “Pay What You Want”, of course, and it’s up to you, though if anybody decided to invest in some indie music that I’m actually kind of proud of having made right about now, my savings account would definitely appreciate it.

That’s it, really. Honestly, it’s probably enough.

As for tunes this week, I can tell I’ve been listening to these “Best of Rock, 19xx” playlists on Spotify lately, because there’s a lot of cool ’80s stuff in there. Also, #7 is not nearly as dirty as the title suggests:

1. “Rain on the Scarecrow” – John Mellencamp
2. “This Beat Goes On” – The Kings
3. “Dirty Creature” – Split Enz
4. “Mental Hopscotch” – Missing Persons
5. “Kick Out The Jams” – MC5
6. “Starry Eyes” – The Records
7. “Can Your Pussy Do The Dog” – The Cramps
8. “Apollo 9” – Adam Ant
9. “I Wanna Destroy You” – The Soft Boys
10. “Doctor, Doctor” – UFO
11. “I Want A New Drug” – Huey Lewis & The News
12. “What We All Want” – Gang Of Four

A mixed bag for the weekend, honestly, but the good was a nice surprise, and the bad at least made some progress.

Finally had the poor, overworked A/C technician come by to address the A/C unit (poor guy is ridiculously overbooked and has way too large an area to cover); diagnosing was easy enough (bad fan and motor on the condensing unit), though it’s going to take another week to get the part to effect the fifteen minute fix. It’s hot, and we’re dealing with it, though the timing sucks. It’s one more stressor that’s leaving me a little on edge, especially since I’m still low-level stressing about the upcoming car repair bill.

To avoid some of that, I spent a heck of a lot of time outside this weekend; it was warm, but it was rather beautiful, and it was the weekend for Pokemon Go Fest, so on Sunday I walked about ten miles through some local parks doing raids with all the other people also out chasing little virtual monsters. It was fun, engaging, and better than sitting inside dwelling on how hot the house is.

On Sunday afternoon, I got a note from my friend Madison, who happened to be passing through town on her way home from a trip to Baltimore, so I met her for dinner at a biergarten in the city and we had a wonderful time catching up (we hadn’t seen each other in person in more than a year), and she let me play her beautiful 100 year old tenor guitar, which was quite nice of her. After she resumed her trip, I went and picked up my lovely spouse (she kindly let me use her car after I dropped her off with her localish ride-share friend to continue with my above-mentioned adventures) on the other side of town, where she was doing some Scottish dancing and socializing with some new friends, who were kind enough to let me join their s’mores circle in the backyard for a bit before we headed home to put the weekend to bed.

And now, it’s simply back to the usual for the coming week, apart from the scheduled fixing of the HVAC and the car. At least it’s going to cool off a bit today thanks to some welcome rain showers.

In most respects, this week has been pretty darned typical. Apart from my taking the day off Monday, it’s been work, bike, read, watch some stuff on TV. And Oh yeah, deal with the frustration of things breaking or wearing out…again.

The VPN at work has been crashing hard all week, especially on Thursday. There’s nothing I can do about this, apart from the occasional reboot/reset, as the entire Department is on centralized services now; if it’s down for me, it’s mostly down for everyone. Email, collaboration applications, calendars, access to the office network itself? All constantly up and down; usually up just long enough for an email to come out telling everyone email’s not working. Luckily, it didn’t crash during any of my online meetings, and I got the stuff done I needed to get done.

More immediately concerning is the house air conditioning unit showing itself struggling during this, perhaps the hottest week of the summer thus far. It’s struggling to keep up with the heat, and needs some maintenance – parts? recharge? I don’t know – I’m not an HVAC technician. Thankfully, it’s under service warranty for another year; it’s not going to cost me anything to have the guy fix it, which he will do tomorrow, unless the service appointment gets postponed again. Ugh.

Finally, there’s my car. On the NC trip this past weekend, I noticed the clutch slipping a bit at highway speeds. Since then, it’s only gotten worse; lots of revs, less than amazing acceleration. I’m going to need a new clutch, which is one of those things that does occasionally wear out, and I’ve been on the original one for 100k miles now, which is a pretty good run. It sucks, but it’s time. I’ve got that appointment for Thursday, as it was the soonest I could get it into the shop. I can only assume that this lead time is due to the fact that the auto industry is absolutely crazy at the moment and everybody’s fixing their cars instead of buying new (or new to them) cars, because there’s not much on the lots, and what’s there is crazy expensive.

In the meantime, I’m just limiting my driving and being glad I have savings banked for this sort of thing.

Oh well – tunes. Pretty standard with some cool stuff, though the tunes on either end are definitely outliers, but that’s just how I roll:

1. “Driver’s License” – Olivia Rodrigo
2. “Hazy Shade of Winter” – The Bangles
3. That is Why” – Jellyfish
4. “Graveyard Shift” – Uncle Tupelo
5. “The Good Life” – Weezer
6. “Birds Fly (Whispers from a Scream)” – The Icicle Works
7. “In Bloom” – Nirvana
8. “Beat’s So Lonely” – Charlie Sexton
9. “To Live And Die In L.A.” – Wang Chung
10. “Kelly’s Heroes” – Black Grape
11. “So It Goes” – Nick Lowe
12. “Two Little Men In A Flying Saucer” – Ella Fitzgerald

Congregate was a pretty decent time, all told. I saw plenty of friends, played some music, including getting my own reasonably well-attended (in comparison to average attendance for musical performances for the weekend) last minute set when I filled in for my friend Keith on Friday afternoon (which went way better than my impulsive open mic set at the brewery on Thursday night), and generally enjoyed spending time in the company of nerds with my lovely spouse, even if we didn’t get out for our desired anniversary dinner.

As is my general pattern, I took the Monday after the convention off of work, to get some rest, and get all the other life stuff I didn’t get done over the weekend done. I did the shopping, got some laundry done, and picked up my bike from the shop, freshly adjusted and re-shod with new tires.

The new tires are slightly different than the old ones, a few milimeters narrower and edging a little closer to road tires than gravel, since that’s mostly what I’m riding these days. I took a quick eight mile ride around the village in the afternoon, and they seem to handle just fine; a little differently than the old ones, but well within tolerances.

They do, however, look weird right now. Apart from the different profile owing to the differences in tread pattern, they’ve got a reflective strip along the lower edge near the rim that the old tires didn’t, and all I see are whitewalls. Here’s a photo from the marketing materials for the tire brand (I haven’t photographed the bike as of yet):

It’s going to take some getting used to while I go ride the Miracle Mile with Billy Joel in my too-wide tie.

Doing this today, as I’m making a long weekend of it and heading down to Winston-Salem NC this weekend for Con-Gregate to see some friends and play some music, as one is wont to do at these sorts of things.

As for where one can catch me doing those things, here’s my tentative schedule:

• Friday, 5:30pm – Open Filking – Hearn C-D
• Saturday, 11:30am – Open Filking/Filk Circle – Winston
• Saturay, 2:30pm – Blibbering Humdingers show – Hearn C-D
• Saturday, 4:00pm – Open Filking – Winston
• Sunday, 1:00pm – Round Robin Filking – Hearn C-D

The above is tentative, because of course it is, but also because things are a little fluid than usual with this event, as I’ll be there as a guest with the Humdingers (the rest of whom will only be on site Saturday), though I’ve also been invited as a guest as myself, though I don’t officially have a solo set on the schedule; as I understand it, I’m “in reserve” in case someone else can’t fulfill their duties as Miss America; which is actually rather likely for reasons I’m hearing on the grapevine. We shall see, though I’ve got a setlist lined up should I need to step up and serve. If that happens, I’ll try to get the word out on social media with as much notice as I can manage.

My lovely spouse and I are making a date weekend of it, and are aiming to turn it into an early celebration of our anniversary, which is coming up later this month anyway, and this event was convenient. We’re hoping for a good time, and not too much ‘rona weirdness.

As for this week’s playlist, the Spotify “Discover Weekly” algorithm is on kind of a journey this week, starting out with some old-school folkie stuff, becoming edgier and louder as it progresses into full-on riot grrl:

1. “The Hell Of It” – Paul Williams
2. “Chest Fever” – The Band
3. “Baby Blue” – Badfinger, Matthew Sweet
4. “Save It For Later” – Special Beat
5. “Prisoners” – John Denver
6. “Back It Up” – Nils Lofgren
7. “Sleepwalk” – The Brian Setzer Orchestra
8. “Ohio” – CSN&Y
9. “Heaven’s In Here” – Tin Machine
10. “Turn To Hate” – Orville Peck
11. “Club Zero” – The Go-Go’s
12. “Bet My Brains” – Starcrawler

Been another week. Work. Bike. Play a little guitar. Standard in this time when half the world has decided that the pandemic’s over, and the other half is focusing on rising infections of the Delta Variant, especially because a good third of this country (and a much larger percentage of the localities surrounding mine, even if the Commonwealth itself is looking good) can’t be bothered to get vaccinated.

It ain’t over folks; stay safe.

It’s raining heading into the holiday weekend, which is fine with me, as it’s cooling things off, and I took my bike to the shop yesterday for new tires and a 1500 mile check-up, and it’ll be tied up for a week or so. Oh well, gives me more time to work through some musical issues for ConGregate next weekend.

Anyway, tunes. All over the place, with a few virtuoso players interspersed throughout, which is cool:

1. “Saddle in the Rain” – John Prine
2. “Life is Suffering” – Deerhoof
3. “Ahmad’s Waltz” – Ahmad Jamal Quintet
4. “Torn” – Edna Swap
5. “Hocus Pocus” – Gary Hoey
6. “Give Blood” – Pete Townsend
7. “Something in my Eye” – Matt “God Damn These Electric Sex Pants” Berry
8. “The Attitude Song” – Steve Vai
9. “Forever Now” – The Psychedelic Furs
10. “Spiderwebs” – No Doubt
11. “Modern Pressure” – Daniel Romano
12. “Corner Painter” – Tal Wikenfeld

This week’s been, shall we say…slow. As I indicated earlier this week, I’ve been feeling a little off-kilter, in large part, I think, due to how slow things have been. Things got a little better as the week went on, I suppose, as the weather the last couple of days has been gorgeous, and I’ve gotten a lot of saddle time on the VCT, and all those miles in the sun through the forests and cornfields of the Rt. 5 corridor have done quite a bit to bring me back into some sort of alignment.

Honestly, not much else to say.

As for tunes this week, it’s kind of all over the place, and that’s really okay:

1. “Open Invitation” – Santana
2. “California” – Wax
3. “Mr. Spaceman” – The Byrds
4. “Avenging Annie” – Andy Pratt
5. “Do Right” – Jimmie’s Chicken Shack
6. “Freaked (Long Version)” – Blind Idiot God, Henry Rollins
7. “Keep It Dark” – Genesis
8. “Me and The Boys” – NRBQ
9. “The Death of Pop” – The Rub
10. “I Wish You Were A Beer” – Cycle Sluts from Hell
11. “Here for the Beer” – The Sloppy Boys
12. “Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad” – The Rentals

Felt yesterday that I’d been lagging a little behind the curve on most things. Even though I’m objectively ahead of the game at work, with all my projects in their proper places with time to spare, so it’s not necessary for me to participate in the current crazy sprint to get things lined up for fiscal year end.

Might be just that, honestly. I’m out of step with my remote co-workers, and my efficiency, even though it’s a net benefit to keeping my programs running, is the source of some anxiety. Dunning and Kreuger can bite me.

Then, last night, I dreamt about this guy. Who the hell knows what that’s about:

Yeah, some days I long for neurotypicality. Life would be so much more simple if I was as confident and sure of myself and my importance as the average mediocre white man. I’m lucky enough to have logged into life on the lowest difficulty setting, and a few crossed neuron wires won’t even let me truly appreciate the benefits (or, y’know, maybe it’s empathy; the thing that so many of those mediocre white men seem to lack in abundance). It just kind of sucks that I can’t be content to simply enjoy the silence.

Oh well, my brokenness occasionally inspires creativity; I guess I need to take the wins where I can find them.