Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, September 13, 2020: The End is Nigh for the Weirdest Summer Ever

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Musings & Thoughts. It’s late morning here in my corner of Florida as I sit here in my writer’s study, but I had a rather sleepless night, so I’m tired and weary in both body and spirit.

Right now, the weather picture for today is rather dreary; the temperature is 78˚F (26˚C) and it is raining. Not torrentially, but it is dark, dank, and not pleasant outside. The forecast for the rest of today calls for a high of 83˚F (28˚C) with scattered rain showers throughout the day. We can also look forward to thunderstorm activity in the evening hours. Ick.

I suppose “Ick” is about as good as any expression to describe the summer of 2020, which will, in a few days’ time, give way to the autumn of 2020. A global pandemic has shut down much of what makes modern civilization modern; millions of people have lost jobs and their livelihoods as a result of COVID-19 shutdowns, and millions more are working and studying from home in an effort to avoid infection from the novel coronavirus. Worse than that, though, is the toll in human lives.

As of 9:25 AM Eastern Time, the COVID-19 statistics look like this:

• 28, 791, 708 Global Cases
• 6,486,469 U.S. Cases
• 920,847 Global Deaths
• 193,705 U.S. Deaths

I haven’t left the house where I live for anything fun or recreational since a friend and I went to Disney Hollywood Studios for my birthday in early March; I got to see the new attraction, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but even then my enjoyment of the experience was soured by the sense of “Oh, my gosh! Could that person have the coronavirus? Could she be a carrier? Could that guy in the Star Wars T-shirt and a porg on his shoulder be sick and not know it yet?” And this was about a week and a half before all of Florida’s theme parks closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, in six months, I have not:

• Gone to a movie in theaters
• Eaten a meal in a sit-down restaurant
• Had my hair cut at a barber shop
• Gone shopping at a mall (the latter activity isn’t that much of a loss since I prefer online shopping, but it is good to go out every so often)

But, hey, at least I’m not frozen in carbonite.

Speaking of carbonite, I was surprised last night when I checked my email sometime before midnight and saw a “Your order has shipped!’ notice from Amazon.

I was surprised for two reasons. First, I do have a few open orders in the Amazon Prime pipeline, including the Luke Skywalker & Yoda (Jedi Training) two-figures set and my copy of 1965’s The Sons of Katie Elder, which is due for release on Blu-ray on Tuesday.

Amazon never ships orders that have specific manufacturers’ release dates before the official release date, so I knew that it could not be The Sons of Katie Elder Blu-ray.

Second, the only other item I could think of, beyond the aforementioned Star Wars two-figures set and the movie, is a birthday present for a friend that I have on pre-order.

Nope. I was wrong. Amazon had shipped my Star Wars The Black Series Han Solo (Carbonite) (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary) six-inch scale figure with stand.

“Now,” you might be asking, “if you had that Star Wars collectible on pre-order, why are you surprised that Amazon shipped it out for delivery today?”

Well, simple. When I ordered my Star Wars The Black Series Han Solo (Carbonite) (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary) figure back in May, Amazon (to which this release is an exclusive) said it was slated for a December release. I was cool with that, and had adjusted my expectations accordingly.

Now, I didn’t exactly jump for joy when I read the email. Last night was not exactly a good one for me emotionally, so there wasn’t that
“high” that I sometimes get when I am expecting a new Star Wars collectible.

Now, I wasn’t upset in the sense of “Oh, geez. I was expecting this in December…can I afford the credit card bill for this collectible now?” I wasn’t upset at all…at least, not about that.

I was just like, “Oh, okay. I’m getting it earlier than I had thought.”

This morning I am a bit more jazzed up about it. Not quite to the point where I feel like jumping in the air and shouting, “Hey world! My Star Wars The Black Series Han Solo (Carbonite) (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary) figure is getting here today!”

But at least I do have something to look forward to on this late summer Sunday in September 2020.