Covid update and more

Not to much going on around here. I'm trying to getting in the habit of posting more often, even if it's just everyday stuff. I've told you before (probably awhile ago) that I have a blog (not public) where I list everything in a daily format. For example, if you go to today's page, it starts with 2009 and lists a Facebook post that I did. In 2012, I posted a tweet and an Instagram photo along with 4 blog posts. I also went to work that day. I've gone back through my social media and Google maps and listed everything for each year that I have listed. I started this a couple of years ago and it's taking me that long to compile all the info. I've also added newer stuff like what TV shows I've watched, how many songs I've listened to, what I've eaten that day as well as when I woke up and went to bed. I also add any photos which some even predate social media as I have scanned older stuff and added them. I also have 2 quick journal spots. One is sports related, the other personal but I tend to just put quick bullet point type entries. So I want to start using this blog to get in more depth of what's going on in my life, even if it isn't much.

TV

I've been wanting to watch Star Trek: Discovery but I wasn't going to pay for CBS All Access. I just found out that they are playing it on CBS every week now so I'm finally watching it. I watched the first 2 episodes On Demand Friday night and the 3rd recorded on the DVR so I'll get to continue that week by week. I may be a couple years behind but at least I'm able to watch it now.

With the holidays and lack of stuff on TV, we're back to watching stuff off the streaming services or On Demand. Yesterday we watched Welcome to Plathville. My wife has seen previews and wanted to start watching it so we went back and watched season 1 and what's played of season 2 so far. Wow! I'm all for protecting my children because the world sucks but you also have to prepare them that it does suck. They aren't going to live in a bubble for the rest of their lives.

Last night we watched a couple Christmas movies on Netflix. We don't generally watch a lot of those but we liked the Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn and they just released the 2nd one. After it was over, they advertised another one called the Christmas Drop. It wasn't bad either and in the end we found out it was based on a true story and my wife likes those.

I also found out last night that HBO is free On Demand until the end of the month. Which is tomorrow. Would have been nice to know that sooner. I'm trying to catch up on some shows off of it that we like, or I should say, that I like. I watched an episode of Westworld last night and am watching more today. I had watched season 1 back when we watched Game of Thrones and I would use my daughter's boyfriends HBO Now account but I haven't had access to the channel since then. They cancelled it when Game of Thrones ended. I'll probably watch that most of today. At least until the Michigan basketball game comes on tonight.

I wanted to start Lovecraft Country but I'm not sure I'll have time before the free time ends.

You can track what movies I watch here.

Music

I mentioned that I'm pretty big into music now. I listen to around 120-150 songs a day when I work and sometimes when I don't, I can still get around 100 or so. Pretty much anytime I don't have a TV on, I have music on. My playlist has almost 4000 songs on it. I was content just adding songs here and there while building the playlist but now, I'm broadening my playlist by listening to stuff I've never heard before and adding stuff here or there. I use the discovery weekly playlist on Spotify to listen to stuff I haven't heard, plus I'm doing a random artists post once a week on my music blog and have added songs from artists that I already listen to.

You can track what music I'm listening to here.

Covid

I told you all my aunt, uncle and grandmother had Covid. Last I've heard, they are all improving or at least, not getting worse but I got a text from my mom, apparently my sort of nephew (my cousin's kid) is in the hospital with it and not doing well. He's only in his early 20's so it is pretty scary right now. He's not responding to treatment and is getting help breathing.

I'll be honest, when I got the text a day or two ago, even though he was in the hospital, my thought was he was young, no biggie, he'll get better. I got the text today about him worsening and it really kind of hit home. I'm truly worried about him and it's scary that we may lose him. I can't imagine being his parents and not even being able to see him.

I'm pretty safe as in I don't really go anywhere so I'm not in the public much. We do most of our shopping online or do curbside pick up. I could be safer at work, for the most part I'm by myself but I do have to sit in on meetings and such and am not always as safe as I should be. With the recent events, I plan on changing that. There are things I could do better.

That's all for today. I'm getting sleepy just sitting here and I have to work tomorrow so I need to avoid taking a nap so I can go to bed at a decent time. Until next time.

Thanksgiving

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

It's a weird holiday this year with the pandemic going on. A week ago we were planning on getting together at my mom's like we usually do but since then, my brother, aunt and uncle and my grandmother have all had positive tests for Covid. So we are all in our own homes today. My wife is still preparing a Thanksgiving feast for us so I'll still get the food but I won't get the time with the family and that's what I really love about the holidays. Just the hanging out and talking. I hope this gets better in the next month or so just so we can still have Christmas together.

My wife made all the sides yesterday so we could deliver food for some family yesterday. We took Cowboy (Damn) beans, Green Bean Casserole, Noodles and Sweet Potatoes to my grandmother, aunt and uncle, and my mom and dad. I put damn in there because that's what my wife calls them, damn beans. Mainly because after the first time she made them, my family now asks her every holiday to make them.

She's making a chicken today, no turkey because by the time we realized we would need one, they were hard to find. At least small enough for the 3 of us. She's making us mashed potatoes, stuffing and a pie for dessert. Plus the stuff listed in the previous paragraph that she made yesterday.

If you think we are over reacting by not getting together, I live in Elkhart county. Google it, we are very high in cases. We are the RV manufacturing capital and most of us have been back to work for awhile. I went and got tested yesterday after work. I'm not expecting a positive but I figured it doesn't hurt to get tested since a ton of people have had it so I've definitely been exposed. It'll be my 3rd Covid test but the other 2 were before a surgery, not because of exposure or symptoms.

It's really bad here and to be honest, it doesn't seem like anybody is doing anything about it. I don't know what they can do or not do, I'm not going to get into all that. All I know, is that it doesn't feel like they are doing enough.

I guess for Thanksgiving, I'm giving up thanks that I have been Covid free so far and that even though I work in a factory with a 150 or so people, that I pretty much stay to myself and work by myself. I'm thankful that my son hasn't had it because even though we kept him out of school and he's doing virtual learning, he does have a job at Dairy Queen so he works a few days a week. I think he's pretty good at keeping his mask on at work thought. Same goes for my daughters, both have jobs in the public and have been Covid free. Both have been tested multiple times because of exposure and they've all came back negative. I'm also extremely thankful that my wife pretty much stays home all the time. When she does go anywhere, she doesn't go in anywhere and is just picking up stuff they bring out to the car. While I do believe she is healthy enough to fight off Covid, I don't want to take the chance with all her other medical issues.

I'm also thankful that the family members I care about haven't gotten it or have had somewhat mild cases when they have. A few still have it so hopefully they don't get any worse. I'm definitely concerned about my grandmother having it but so far she's just been tired and is having sinus issues.

I'm extremely thankful for my wife. She didn't have to go through all the trouble of making this dinner for us. She knows Trevor and I would eat a frozen pizza if we needed to, we're not picky. I love the fact that she did, for us. I really love that she wanted to take my family all kinds of food yesterday as well. She really would do anything for anybody. You know she's a strong woman to put up with me on top of all her medical issues. She'll pay for the time in the kitchen and she knew that before she did it. I'm guessing a trip to the chiropractor will be in order for tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Random Artists #2

I actually got a post in this past weekend, so be shocked that you're getting 2 in a week. I enjoyed doing the Random Artist post last week so I though I'd hit you up with another one.

I've actually been listening to new music via the Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify so I'm adding quite a few new artists to my playlists. This week, the playlist is at 3,959 songs which is up 32 songs from last week and 1,107 artists which is up 11 artists.

Artist #1 - Random #541

Kid Rock - I've listened to 241 tracks since 2018.

The top 12 tracks are all on my playlists. I believe Cocky was on that Discover Weekly playlist and I ended up not adding it. The Devil Without a Cause album I had on CD which is why you'll see 5 songs off that album. These are all in order of how many times I've listened to the songs but they are pretty much all on the same playlist.

Artist #2 - Random #568

Lifehouse - I've listened to 78 tracks since 2018.

As you can see, I only have 3 tracks on my playlist but I listen to them all pretty regularly. There's only 4 play difference between the 1st and last song. All are pretty good songs, they are probably another artist that if I took the time to listen to them, I'd probably find a bunch more songs.

Artist #3 - Random #981

the Offspring - I've listened to 153 tracks since 2018.

These 6 tracks are all the Offspring that I have on my playlists and again, there is only 6 play difference between the top and the bottom which isn't bad considering I've listened to them 153 times in the last 3 years. Of course, when I think of the Offspring, the song Why Don't You Get a Job is the song that pops in my head.

Artist #4 - Random #373

Foreigner - I've listened to 218 tracks since 2018.

I've got 9 tracks listed under this 80's staple. I really like most of these songs but as you can see, 2 are marked as my favorites (currently 251 songs marked as favorites). There is quite a difference between the top to the bottom at 13 plays. It seems like I should probably know more of their songs as popular as they were but these are the ones I have so far.

Artist #5 - Random #932

the Beach Boys - I've listened to 187 tracks since 2018.

I don't know how you wouldn't know any Beach Boys songs. Depending on your mood, they are one of those bands that when they come on you don't want to hear it or you sing along with it. I have actually seen them in concert a whole lot of years ago. It was a free concert under the arch in St. Louis as part of the 4th of July celebration.

That's quite a group of 5 artists. I'm thinking about incoorporating something like this on my music blog, we'll see. The wheels are turning in my head. I may play around with the idea tonight.

Covid and work

Since I have some time, I'll try to throw in a Covid update post.

In case you haven't heard, there's a pandemic going on. We took a month off in March when this all started, than slowly brought back people to fill in positions. I was in the first wave back so I've been back since the beginning of April. We did a pretty good job at keeping the positive cases down in our plant, for awhile. It seems to be running rampant now.

There's a wall between our side of the plant and the other. The other had a few cases here and there but they all work side by side. On our side of the wall, we are pretty spread out so it took awhile for us to start getting cases. Now that we've had them, we can't seem to stop them. 

My department only has 3 or 4 people on each shift so we're not a big department by any means and up until 2 weeks ago, we hadn't had any positive cases. As of today, 2nd shift has been decimated. 2 positives and the 3rd went home Saturday with symptoms. Her sister works 1st and also went home but she hasn't show signs yet. Our boss called in Saturday with possible symptoms as well so we're waiting to see how his test comes back. If he has it, I'm guessing it came from his boss who has been out for 2 weeks and is coming back tomorrow. If my boss comes back positive, there's a good chance all of us on 1st were exposed.

My chances are narrowing as they are shutting down the breakroom again on Monday. I have a microwave and fridge in my office so guess where most of my department will be going for breaks? I got some disinfectant spray from the cleaning lady and I spray my office down a few times a shift. Pretty much every time I go in there to spend some time. I don't know how much that helps but I'm doing it. I also have a sink in my office so I wash my hands a whole lot more than I used to.

I read an article in the Washington post that said that where I live was hit hard in June but squashed it pretty well and stopped it from becoming bad. Now, we are among the top cities in growing cases. In the article, I read it a few weeks ago, it said that the reason we aren't able to squash it this time was with the elections coming up, we couldn't get the help that we had gotten in June. The elected officials didn't want to make mistakes and hurt their chances of getting elected again. Don't even get me started on politics but the fact that it even comes up when there is a pandemic going on and them worrying about their jobs instead of helping their constituents says a lot of what you need to know.

Honestly, I keep waiting for the county to completely shut down again like it did in March, it's gotten that bad, but yet, nothing happens. I read where the governor was trying to hold off moving up another stage, I don't know why. To be honest, I never know if what I'm reading is even real or not anymore.

I'll keep going to work and taking what precautions I need to take to hopefully keeps myself clean of the virus, but to be honest, it feels like the Hunger Games, or rather, the Covid Games. Just waiting to see who the last one standing is.

Random Artists #1

I don't have much to post about anymore, kids are growing up and I don't do much. Really the only thing I could post about is work and I try not to post about work so it can't be held against me. I've seen plenty of times where people get in trouble for what they post on social media. What I do do (I said doodoo) is listen to a lot of music. You can see that here. So I've been trying to come up with some posts over here.

On my sports blog, on some Sunday's, I post random cards from my collections. So I thought, maybe I could do a random post here of some kind, only with music. So I randomed all the artist on my playlist of 3,927 songs (1,096 artists) and we'll see if I have anything to say about them.

Artist #1 - Random #1036

Tommy Lee - Listened to 33 times since 2018.

These are the only 2 tracks of his that I have listened to in the last year or so. Hold Me Down is on my playlist so I know that one, I believe Good Times was probably on the "Discovery" playlist on Spotify which is supposed to give you songs that you may like. Apparently I didn't, because I didn't add it.

Obviously, Tommy Lee was a part of Motley Crue of which I have some songs of but this track is the only one I listen to from his solo career. I don't know that I've even heard others so I probably heard Hold Me Down on the radio as it came out 10 years ago and that was pre-streaming music. I don't listen to the radio anymore.

Artist #2 - Random #623

Megadeath - Listened to 29 times since 2018.

Megadeath has been around forever so I probably know more of their music (I may not) but I haven't taken the time to listen to anything else. This is the only song I listen to regularly. I heard this song back when I used to watch wrestling and I believe this was Goldberg's song at some point.

Artist #3 - Random #832

Sharon Van Etten - Listened to 22 times since 2018.

Again, only one song with the 3rd artist. I don't really know anything about this artist but I do know where I picked up the song and added it to my playlist. It was on the Man in the High Castle, it may even be the song during the opening credit but I'm not positive on that. I haven't watched it in awhile. I also know it's a cover but I don't know if I've ever heard the original or not.

Artist #4 - Random #916

Tesla - Listened to 36 times since 2018.

I finally got an artist with more than 1 song on my playlist, even though it's only 2. This is probably another artist that I probably know more of their songs but I haven't taken the time to look. I generally add songs when I hear them or think about them. Both of these songs were pretty popular in their day.

Anytime I hear the song Signs, I think of the skit that Bob & Tom (radio show) played. When it gets to the line that says "and I jumped over the fence and said, what gives you the r..." next thing you hear are gun shots and the song is over.

Artist #5 - Random #680

Nine Inch Nails - Listened to 88 times since 2018.

This is the first artist with 3 songs and also the first artist that I have streamed over 50 times in the last 3 years. Which is surprising because I've streamed 33% of those artists more than 50 times. So maybe it's not as surprising that 1 out of 5 has over 50 when only 1 of 3 has done it. Anyways, enough of the math. The songs are listed in order of amount of listens since October of last year.

I know of Nine Inch Nails, they've been around awhile as well but I don't believe I really know a lot of their music. I believe all 3 of these tracks I used to hear on the radio when I listened to it.

That's it for today, we'll see if this becomes a regular thing or not.

Until next time...