Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, October 7, 2020: My Day in New Hometown, Florida…So Far

Hello there, Dear Reader. It’s Wednesday, October 7, 2020 (what, already?) and in New Hometown, Florida, it’s late morning. It looks as though today will be hot and muggy; according to my phone’s AccuWeather app, it’s 80˚F under mostly cloudy skies; with 88% humidity and a slight 3 MPH breeze (with gusts of 8 MPH) blowing from the east northeast, the feel-like temperatures are 88˚F in the shade and 91˚F in the open. No rain is expected in the short term, but with Hurricane Delta out in the Gulf of Mexico and the sheer amount of moisture saturating the air, AccuWeather’s succinct forecast is “Expect showers today.”

This morning I managed to write and publish a Life in the Time of COVID-19 post before my caregiver had to log on to her remote office’s Internet connection. How I was able to pick a topic, write a coherent piece without making too many errors on the first draft, and post it in one-hour, barely awake and without even the aid of a cup of café con leche, I haven’t a clue. Of course, once I was offline and had to check the post (Life in the Time of COVID-19: Trump Says He ‘Had To’ Get Infected by Virus in Order to Lead) on my phone’s WordPress app, I had to fix the headline and add a missing word. On a second re-reading, I found a small typo and had to delete that.  I’m sure that if I read that post again once I take a shower and change into “street clothes,” I will find more mistakes and be compelled to correct them.

But, hey. I managed to post an op-ed piece that is getting views. That’s the important part.

In other news, tomorrow I finally get to watch Star Trek: Picard. On Blu-ray, natch; Paramount released the physical media set yesterday and my copy was shipped – from Texas – late last night. If Amazon shipped it to Florida by air, it should avoid any bad weather from Hurricane Delta and is scheduled for delivery sometime tomorrow.

As a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation (and Star Trek in general), I’m looking forward to seeing this follow-up series, which streams on CBS All-Access, a pay-to-watch service that I don’t really have an interest in subscribing to. It’s sad, I think, to see that the traditional TV networks have adopted a business model that emphasizes “reality TV shows” and cheap-to-produce crap for cable, satellite, or old-school “over the air” TV viewers and hoards good dramas and comedies for “premium” services like CBS All-Access and Peacock. CBS could air Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Picard on the original CBS network if it so desired, but no….

Thank the Force for physical media. I know that Blu-ray and DVD discs might soon go the way of the dodo thanks to high speed Internet and streaming services, but I’ll continue to get them until I no longer can. I live in a house with four other persons, and the layout, the router’s location, and the shortage of bandwidth play havoc with the house’s Wi-Fi.

So…yep. I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow, even if it’s for no other reason than the receipt of another Amazon purchase.

As for the rest of my Wednesday….if all goes well, I’ll be able to post this shortly after 11 AM (it’s only 20 minutes away as I type this), then take a shower and change into clean clothes. I’m not sure if I’ll go out for a brief walk then; it’s usually hot and muggy in the late morning and early afternoon, but if the forecast says, “Expect showers today,” my choices are limited to:

• Go for a quick walk anyway
• Stay indoors and not get fresh air and sunshine – yet again

And, of course, it is more than likely that I will write a third post for A Certain Point of View, Too. I haven’t a clue as to what Post Three will be about, but I think the odds are better than 50-50 that you will hear again from me sometime after 5 PM Eastern.

On that note, I’ll wrap this up so I can post it as soon as my caregiver goes on her lunch break. I really wish I had my own place – or that we had a better Wi-Fi situation – so I could be a bit more connected and productive. In the meantime, Dear Reader, have a pleasant Wednesday, stay safe and healthy, and I’ll catch you later.