FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18
7 PM: There was just so much that I wanted to accomplish this week. Last Sunday I opened a fresh page in my chore book, laid it out on my rolltop desk, then carefully printed a list on that page in bright, bold, green ink, which was as you guessed, a ‘shit to do’ list. So … like … anyway … as of right now I’ve completed exactly one task … since Sunday. I did however watch most of ‘Shogun’ on Disney +, check out lots of hockey and baseball as well as tuning into a few documentaries on Netflix and reading a book.
And tonight, I’m chilling on the couch sipping Darjeeling tea (with a teaspoon of honey) while listening to the wind rattle our windows (Wind Warning issued earlier today – 100 km/hr+ winds expected) and for the moment anyway I am ALMOST comfortable in my slippers, fuzzy lined sweatpants and over-sized hoody. I say ALMOST because it’s hard to be comfortable when my ears haven’t popped in a couple of days, my eyes feel like someone is trying to gouge them out and they won’t stop watering, my nose is raw from blowing it and when I do blow I get dizzy and almost fall over, don’t forget the epic sneeze fests, aches everywhere and in an hour I’ll probably be stripped down to gym shorts and tee shirt when the fever takes another run at me. That’s right Dudes and Dudettes – we got the VID! It’s Day 4!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
6:30 AM: I am back on the couch wrapped in a Pendleton throw blanket and sipping a Nespresso. It wasn’t a bad night as far as nights go but didn’t last as long as I would have liked. I’ve been sleeping downstairs the past few nights with Franklin The Dink, our homicidal maniac cat, but I close him out of the bedroom because … he’s homicidal!
Oh, did I mention that Max has the VID too? Yeah, don’t come round here for a visit, but she’s not as sick as I am because we all know that men suffer way worse than women, right? There are intensive scientific studies conducted somewhere or other to back me up on this. Anyway, great efforts are being made on our parts to not cross-contaminate each other and its a struggle due to me being a walking germ and filth machine who in all likelihood is cross-contaminating myself, if that makes any sense.
3 pm: I gotta say, “I’m feeling positively hideous!” Earlier today I took BodhiBoy MegaStar out for a ride mostly because I needed to just get out of the house for a half hour, but it did me in!
So, I’m back on the couch again, this time downstairs. The hockey has been on tv since 11 am and it will stay on for the next 12 hours (4 games). I sometimes watch with one eye closed lol.
8:30 pm: No more hockey for me tonight. The only game left is Calgary / Seattle and yeah … sorry … but I just can’t watch the Flames, so now I’m back upstairs for a bit, on my upstairs couch with my upstairs blanket, sipping a decaf Nespresso with caramel sauce and making an almost passable effort at not going about spreading pestilence and plague. You know what they say, “nobody moves, nobody gets infected.”
The book I read? “Ghost Rider: Travels On The Healing Road” by Neil Peart, the drummer from the Canadian rock band ‘Rush.’ It was one of those randomly picked up books that you start reading and go “holy shit” over and over again. I am most decidedly NOT a Rush fan and had no idea that it was their drummer who was the author of this magnificent piece of work but man, this dude was my soul brother… yeah … and then I looked him up and saw that he died in 2020 and it broke my fucking heart.
10:00 pm: I’m still on my upstairs couch with my upstairs blanket but I did drink the decaf Nespresso with caramel sauce, so I’d say we’re making headway, on what exactly I do not know. Oh, and I took some ‘nighttime’ cold and flu medicine which means within the hour I should be ‘zonked.’ Oh, let us be so lucky, eh?
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20
8 AM: Not likely that anything of value is going to be accomplished today but I do think that I am better, other than my eyes are still watering, and my ears haven’t popped and when I blow my nose you can hear the pressure release from across the room. I am going to sit here on my upstairs couch with my upstairs blanket and feel very sorry for myself while reading The Sunday Times.
2 PM: I think perhaps that maybe I am on the mend. Now I’m not 100% certain on this because my head still feels like a bomb about to go off but there’s definitely some positive vibe shit happening here. Let’s nap!!!
8 PM: It’s the bottom of the 5th inning, the Dodgers lead the Mets 6-3 and that humungous hunk of awesomeness Magic Johnson is chest bumping fans in the stands. Super cool that Magic Man, and my head isn’t hurting as bad, maybe because the Dodgers are winning or the fact that I threatened my headache with a Sativa Smash if it didn’t start behaving.
10 PM: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Mets 10-5 and are National League Champions and will now play the New York Yankees in the World Series – I have no idea why but my headache is gone lol!
LET’S GO DODGERS! World Series starts Friday!
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21
6 AM: I carry my vehicle keys around on a lanyard. In the summer that lanyard is blue, Los Angeles Dodgers and in Winter it’s orange Philadelphia Flyers. Yeah I know, they are very cool lanyards. When the Dodgers went down 2 games to 1 to the San Diego Padres last week in the NLDS I declared to everyone in the house that “I fucking hate baseball” before taking off the LA lanyard and demonstrably throwing it to the back of the desk drawer and replacing it with the Flyers. It was a very emotional moment, okay? Anyway, I also then announced to Max and BodhiBoy MegaStar (Franklin the Dink was probably out murdering something) that “it’s now hockey season” before barking out “GO FLYERS” and finishing with “I fucking hate baseball!” Yes I know, these are not the actions of a rational, reasonable, mature human. Yeah … anyway …!!!
I didn’t sleep much last night and I don’t think it had anything to do with me being sick, because I’m not that sick anymore (we are like a week into this Covid shit so I think I’m very much on the mend). No, I didn’t sleep last night because the Dodgers are playing the Yankees in the World Series and I’m absolutely wired, and yes again, I am very aware that these are not the actions of a rational, reasonable, mature human.
Wanna know why? Because it’s DODGERS / YANKEES! Let me explain …
When I was like 9 or 10 my friend Alex and I saved up some money and ordered tee shirts from some ad in a magazine. His said “I HATE THE COWBOYS” and mine was “I HATE THE YANKEES” because my dad and my uncle were both BIG Yankees fans (That’s right, this is intergenerational, and historical. Between 1951 and 1981 these two teams met in the World Series roughly once every three years.). In both 1977 and 1978 those bastards from the Bronx crushed my Dodgers in the World Series and I remember watching those games at my uncle’s house; the living room being packed, and lots of drinking and smoking and dogs and profanity and WOW right? For a 9-year-old this was some crazy shit! In 1981 the Dodgers got retribution, but it wasn’t the same, because my uncle had died the year before and was no longer around to share this moment with. Then they never met in the World Series again, until now.
My dad is gone now too. In 2008 I was watching late October baseball and the commentators were talking about the 1963 World Series when the Dodgers swept the Yankees in 4 straight games and I actually picked up the phone to call and razz him about it, but he had died the month before, and I only realized that as I was about to dial the number.
This morning in the very early pre-dawn darkness I was awake in bed with my mind just whirling with all these emotions and boyhood memories and it was so amazing, because in the end it’s not just the baseball you remember, is it? No, it’s fishing with my dad and uncle and them yelling at me because they are trying to fish a hole and me tossing a pop can into the river upstream of them and throwing rocks at the can as it floated through the hole, ruining their fishing. And I remember the campfire talk after the fishing was over, the baseball stories and other stories too that I probably shouldn’t have heard, and yeah … it’s DODGERS / YANKEES and for me it’s a really big deal!
8 AM: Has anyone noticed that there is a SNOWFALL WARNING for our area? Oh, and I am feeling quite a bit better by the way!
GO DODGERS!