Sunday, April 19, 2020

28 Days Later...

Hello fellow inmates (I borrowed that from my friend, Marty who recently sent me a couple links for funny ways to pass the time during this Covid confinement).

Well, it’s now been 28 days since we arrived back from Australia and we’re extremely lucky that very little has changed for us. We both still have our jobs (and I worked from home previously, so that hasn’t changed), our families are still healthy and doing well (at least I presume so since I haven’t heard otherwise from anyone), and that life pretty much goes on as normal for us. The only change for me has been no church-related activities on my calendar except for monthly St. Vincent DePaul meetings (held via conference call now), and I bowed out of Easter decorating. I had also planned on signing up for a few classes being held through the Upper Arlington Senior Center (which holds classes for the entire community, not just seniors), but that was obviously a no go.
Because I’m still working I don’t have oodles of free time, but in what little extra time I have I’ve been choosing the most obvious escape, and that’s television. I was a little sad to say good-bye to “Modern Family” which had been one of my favorites for the past 11 years. My favorite two characters were Mitch & Cam and their sharp-witted daughter, Lily. I hope they make a spin-off show since it ended with them adopting a son and moving to Missouri so Cam could work his dream job as a college football coach there.
My husband and I are also nearly done with “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix) as we’re currently streaming season 6 (out of seven seasons). We’re at the stage where there’s some new characters now because some of the prisoners have been moved to the maximum security section of the prison. This new dynamic makes for some very compelling viewing.
We’re also streaming some new programs like “Tales from the Loop” (Amazon Prime) where the show is set in the fictitious town of Mersa, right here in Ohio. Each episode involves different (and some of the same) residents of the town, some of whom work for this mysterious place called The Loop which houses “a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe - making things previously relegated to science fiction, possible.” So far each episode has been equally thought-provoking and you definitely find yourself thinking about them for the rest of the week.
Probably my favorite has been “Picard,” which we’re streaming via a free one-month trial of CBS all-access. If you’re not a Trekkie then you might not be familiar with Capt. Picard (now Admiral) who once helmed the Starship Enterprise back in the 90s. That was also where Wil Wheaton was before he guest-starred on “Big Bang Theory” (he played academy student, and Enterprise crew trainee, Wesley Crusher). Anyway, Picard has been in retirement as owner of a vineyard in France (an interesting possibility to consider…)

A mysterious visitor shows up at the vineyard who sadly gets murdered right in front of him a day or two later, which sets events in motion when Picard decides to seek out the murdered girl’s sister in hopes of saving her from the same fate. This involves him recruiting a crew and securing use of a (space) ship to travel to the outer regions of space to find the sister. Along the way he meets up with various Enterprise alumni, one of whom makes repeat appearances. I love reunions and a good plot that involves a bit more than just a lot of fighting scenes (if I wanted that I’d just rent a “Star Wars” movie). The theme song is also quite likeable (it’s a classical violin tune with just a hint of melancholy that perfectly matches the theme of the show).
Sunday nights are when several of us sit down and watch “Call the Midwife” which airs on various PBS affiliates around 8 or 9pm. I have been a fan for the entirety of its run because of my admiration for the nuns and nurses, which is why I have been happy to serve my church in various capacities over the years and why I enjoy my job as much as I do. I love exchanging texted comments after every episode, so it’s certainly been a pleasant way to spend Sunday evenings.

Because we’re obviously not able to travel anywhere for the foreseeable future we’ve been enjoying watching Brit, Kevin Shelley’s “Travels by Narrowboat.” (Amazon Prime) Although we’re familiar with much of the geography of my husband’s home country of Great Britain, neither of us has really traveled on any of the canals, so that’s a whole other perspective we’ve never experienced. As a result of watching Kevin’s travel logs, I can honestly say I wouldn’t mind renting a narrowboat for about a week and maybe travel the canals up in Yorkshire, which, so far, seem like the most scenic.

Coming next week….

What I am reading…What projects I have been working on…cat photos? (who doesn’t like a cute kitty?)

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