I finished reading the book Orange Is The New Black, and now I’m reading Don Quixote. I found on the internet, that it is one of the most popular books ever written. It was originally published in 1605.

Had a little trouble with the title, at first I was pronouncing it “Don KwiX-otee“, but I discovered it’s properly pronounced “Don key Ho-tee“.

My wife was forced to read this book in high school, as were many I guess, but I had never heard of it before.

Let me tell you, it puts me right to sleep. It seems to me, that every sentence is at least half a page long, sometimes a whole page. Seriously, literally.

The book, and I’ve just started it, seems to be about a guy, probably hallucinating or schitzophrenic, who decides he wants to be a knight, gets his grandfathers old armor and an old nag of a horse and takes off. The first place he stops, an inn/bar which he seems to think is a castle. After conking a couple of mule keepers on the head, he gets knighted by the innkeeper and a couple of prostitutes, who he seems to think are a nobleman and damsels. I should point out that he can’t get his helmet off, and everyone is laughing at him behind his back.

So far it’s pretty terrible, and kinda funny. Like I said, it’s a forced high school reading, so I’ll probably choke it down and finish it, not like I did with Racing In The Rain, which I did not finish. Those poor kids, forced to read this book.

Yesterday, Sunday, hopefully, was our last lockdown day. Next Sunday, the beaches will be open for everyone, with no alphabetical last name restrictions. Restaurants and bars are opening outdoor seating only with group size and social distancing requirements. I’m ready to go order a meal, let me tell you.

Have a great week!

Watched the SpaceX / NASA launch yesterday. It is good to see the USA back in the launch game.

One thing that I noticed, is that one guy, I don’t know if he was a scientist, a reporter or some other NASA or SpaceX employee kept referring to the trip to orbit as “going uphill”, and “uphill”. Nobody called it that in the Apollo or Space Shuttle missiions. It was kinda cool and kinda annoying. Maybe annoying because I wish I’d have thought of calling it that. And everyone involved looked so young!

Speaking of the space shuttle, here’s a comparison of the Space Shuttle control panel VS the SpaceX control panel.

SpaceX had three wide-screen touchpanel TVs compared to Space Shuttle and millions of knobs and dials. On one hand, it’s modern, and on the other, what if something happens to the touchscreens?

Hope the astronauts complete the mission and return home safely and on schedule.

It’s a Sunday here, we had a good soaking rain this morning. Have a great day!

It’s Friday, my last name’s covid 19 restriction beach day. Work day. Last Friday of the month.

It’s one of those days, where I look at my weather app, and they give me no idea of what the weather is.

I’m trying to figure if I should drive or ride today. And I guess we’re entering the period of undeterminate weather. (Is it undeterminate or indeterminate? They mean about the same thing.)

I’m rambling.

The wife’s car needs a $2000 new computer.

I guess I’ll drive the van, that way I can stop and buy groceries of the way home if I need to.

Have a good weekend.

Got my oil changed yesterday. I was kind of upset with the service. I asked for an oil change, about $40, they did a whole “service”, about $190. If they’d have asked, I’d have said yes, but they didn’t ask. I didn’t really get upset about it til I was already gone. When I didn’t have enough cash for my new Kindle and they didn’t take American Express. Then, on my way to the beach, I called my wife and asked her if she wanted lunch from Wendy’s, and she said yes, so I took it home and then it got cloudy and I stayed home, reading on my old old Kindle

I was just plain ‘ol crabby yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday, I had the test, indeed it was a cotton swab stuck way up my nose to the point of discomfort. Got the results back last night in the email, negative. The way I see it is: big deal. Nothing changes. I still have to behave the same way I’ve been behaving since this all began. Hell, I mighta caught it there when I was getting tested.

Today I’m getting the oil changed in my van. I’m carrying my bicycle and dropping off the van before they open, and riding the rest of the way to work. Hope it’s done by the time I get off.

I picked a batch of bananas yesterday aternoon. I was sad to do it, the plant was straight and tall and strong. It is my best bunch of bananas ever. I hope they taste good!

Happy Humpday, Take care!

Tuesday today, the 26th. May has gone by fast.

I’m getting the lenses on my glasses replaced again. They scratched up really bad again. When I try to clean them, the surface of the lens turns to milky cream that doesn’t come off. When it does finally come off, the lenses are scratched. Using the optometrist supplied cleaner spray and cloth. My mother-in-law said it was the anti reflective coating. The owner of the glasses company mentioned the anti reflective coating while I was there. I told them to leave it off these new lenses. I’ve never had worse glasses.

Not much to post about today. I started re-reading Orange Is the New Black, the book. During this covid thing, I broke out my old KIndle, and have been reading a lot. I was thinking about buying a new Kindle, as mind is a second generation. I haven’t smoked any cigars in over a onth, and a Kindle costs way less than I spent on cigars in a month. The only thing stopping me is that there’s nothing wrong with the old Kindle. And they’re marked up way high. Here on the island, they’re $189 CI, which is over $200 US. And they’re supposed to cost $129 US. I heard it said, “That’s What Money Is For”..

I slept good, woke up a little early, but I feel lacking in energy and enthusiasm today. I rekkon I’ll get a q-tip shoved way up my nose this morning at precisely 10:12 AM for my covid test. Mike told me that’s how they do it. I guess the throat version I saw on TV was fiction, are they? Think about it. On TV, they’re not gonna show somebody shoving a q-tip way up somebody else’s nose, are they? There’d be riots. Mayhem. Protests. Revolt. The throat version was fake news, I figure.

Have a good day!

This weekend I finished the book 1984, by George Orwell. I gotta say, I liked the first half quite well, from 50 to about 65% was an interesting, but overly long, explanation of how society’s classes work. Basically the upper class wants to remain upper class, the middle class wants to become upper class, and the lower class wants everything to be equal for everyone.

The final 35% is about his getting caught by the Thought Police, his breaking down and being rebuilt in captivity.

The book, while reading it, repeatedly reminded me of the movie Brazil, a weird movie where everyone pretty much works for the government and everyone always tattles on everyone else. This movie truly reminds me of someone rom the 1940’s or 1950’s view of the future. The clothes, architecture and style was 1940-50’s, computers looked like an antique typewriter with a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube, like in an old television) attached, and the user had to look into the CRT through what looks like a magnifying glass. Cosmetic surgery for was like a hobby for the upper class, and the main characters mother kept getting younger and younger throughout the movie.

The movie, I thought was a 1940’s person’s real view of what things would be like in the future.

We finally had some good rain Saturday, a whole lot. Good flooding everywhere. I have bananas almost ready to pick and the rain is what they needed. Sunday was cloudy, with a threat of rain, but not none that I saw. We even had an hour of sun, shining through a tiny hole in the clouds on the Caribbean radar picture on the Weatherbug app.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, at precisely 10:12 AM, I’m getting a covid 19 test at work. 10:12 is the scheduled time for me, as it takes three minutes to do the test and they want to efficiently test a lot of people. My friend had the test and they stuck a q-tip way up his nose, but I saw some people on TV get tested and they shoved it way down their throats. I prefer the throat over the nose.

Have a good week!

It’s Friday, again. It”s my last names beach day and shopping day. I could use a trip to the grocery store, the hardware store and the beach. And an airplane ride somewhere for a while.

I feel tired right now, not body tired, but the tired feeling in the eyes, like I just want to close them.

It’s still mostly cloudy, with no mentionable rain. If it’s not going to rain, I should be sunny.

I’m reading the book, 1984, by George Orwell. I find it quite good. My wife said she hated the movie. I didn’t know there was a movie.

Have a good weekend!

Over the last two evenings, my wife and I have watched season one of the TV show on Amazon called “Upload“. It’s a show where, if you can afford it, right before you die, you can be uploaded and maintained indefinitely in computer servers, and exist in a virtual world, the quality of which also depends on what you can afford.

In the show, this guy is in a serious car crash. Right before he dies (It’s questionable if he would have died) he gets uploaded. But his girlfriend has the account on his “files”, so in a way, he’s like her prisoner. He starts developing feelings for has service rep, a non-dead girl.

And apparently he may have been murdered, because, for one reason, self-driving cars don’t crash.

One odd thing I noticed about the show, is they move files a lot of time when it would be better to copy them.

IMDB has it listed as a comedy, which it’s not really, but it is light, has good special effects and is worth a watch. Hopefully there’ll be a season two.

In other news, I didn’t swim yesterday. I went to the beach and it was cloudy and windy and lugubrious and nobody was there, so I didn’t. I came home an weed-whacked.

Today, alphabetically, is my Beach day. I get to go for the first time in a long time. I’m looking forward to going today, But I’m not sure which beach to go to. Probably more than one…

There’s thick, heavy clouds, 100% of the sky is covered.

Maybe I’ll swim out to the little island…

Enjoy your day!