“Remoted” – Day 125 (Sunday)

Life might have been better when I didn’t read any news. Of course, I was probably ten or eleven at the time. It’s easy for things to seem better when there are no adult responsibilities, limited awareness of the world at large, and the biggest worries on my mind were if any boys thought I was cute and to what degree the girls in my class were going to torment me on any given day.

The recent extended staying at home plus living alone have me scrolling news outlets and too many news subscriptions and consuming more news that I have since 9/11. Recent political and world health headlines seen on various news shares from Facebook have me unsettled and basically freaking the f%$& out.

"No more lives."
Again.

With the June demise of the old format Facebook online Scrabble, distractions, diversions, and intellectual stimulation are limited. There are loads of books here, but I’ve either already read them, or, more often, they just don’t seem appealing. Chances are good I’ll be totally brain dead by Labor Day, if I live that long.

My Candy Crush strategic talents are sporadic and limited, and more time is spent with “No more lives” than actually playing. Instead of juggling multiple Scrabble games I now find myself scrolling news outlets and Facebook posts and stressing out reading the squabbles and fights of various friends and family members over politics, the pandemic, and face masks. It isn’t even debate most of the time, which I enjoy for the learning opportunity, it’s a lot of nasty name calling, insults, and people whining with their knickers in a twist, which is a different type of education. The lack of civility and the level of venom is about the only thing that surprises me any more.

Sorry ... problems.

Tragically, the inventory of cute kitten and puppy videos seems to have disappeared along with the patience and manners of far too many people. And TV/Cable/Streaming is not always an option. For some reason, I still have to reboot the Comcast box every few days. Today's issue is with Netflix and Prime and neither one is loading. Prime bailed in the middle of a movie I was half watching and got stuck on the screen with the streaming options. No commands on the remote worked and I finally had to unplug the TV and force everything to restart. This is usually how it goes. 

There was a post from the local weather site that the Neowise Comet would be visible around 9:15 “NW below the Big Dipper,” so I went outside to look. I know where the Big Dipper sits lately. Again tonight, there was cloud cover and not a single star was visible. It wasn't even a surprise.