Day 3839

I had good intentions today. I was definitely going to mow the yard. I got out the mower, charged the battery, and was just starting to mow when a surprise storm appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't even supposed to rain today. I put the mower away and waited for things to dry, which of course they never did. So much for good intentions.

When we walked Dawn earlier in the day, we weren't even thinking about rain. It actually seemed like it was going to be a nice day. I could see patches of blue through the clouds and yesterday's big dust cloud appeared to have dissipated. It's amazing how quickly the weather can change in Texas.

I went back to the grocery store right after breakfast to test out a theory that I was just getting to the store too late for find blueberries and Clorox Wipes. This was a totally wasted effort. I didn't notice any difference at all and still couldn't find the things I wanted. I did get gas though. Yesterday, I forgot to bring a doggie poop bag with me so I could avoid touching the pump handle.  This is what social media has done to me. I have been grabbing gas station pump handles for most of my life with no adverse effects and now I've become convinced that they are riddled with disease. Who knows if the virus even lives on surfaces. Opinion seems to be changing on this. You literally don't know what to believe anymore when everything has the potential to either be fake news or an outdated medical opinion.

I've got a bad case of pandemic boredom, but for some reason I am unable to binge watch anything on TV. Janet can do it. Most of my friends can do it, but I just can't. I've tried watching podcasts on things I'm interested in like astronomy and rockets, but I quickly lose interest in these as well. It seems like the only thing I can stay focused on for any length of time is creating something myself. Mostly I'm a self-absorbed documentarian.

When I was younger, I wrote a lot of songs about my experiences. I still record my experiences photographically, but not as obsessively as I used to. Although I am fascinated with astronomy and space travel, all I really want to write about is how I personally interact with these things. I've basically just become a geeky travel writer. The blog, of course, is just an endless personal journal.

Does any of this even matter? Probably not. It does make me frightened when I see groups of people trying to do something for the "common good." How do they know what is good for everyone? They certainly don't know what is good for me. The whole notion of good is very subjective and has changed radically throughout history. To me the hive mind that social media has created is extremely dangerous. It's considered old fashioned in today's connected world, but I still believe in the individual. I'm convinced that if everyone concentrated on maximizing their own potential, instead of sticking their noses in other people's business, the world would be a much better place.

When I see people walking in the woods while obsessively looking at their phone, I think the whole concept of the individual doesn't even exist anymore. Critical thinking is a lost art. Young people just want to instantly know what everyone else is doing so they can do the same thing. When flash mobs first began to appear, people thought they were so creative. All the sudden an orchestra would appear and start playing in a shopping mall or something. I was one of the few people who found these things alarming. I saw flash mobs as a precursor to what is happening in our cities right now.
It's not good to be instantly connected to everything. You need time to think about things.

I've done a lot of critical thinking and somehow my plans all seem to involve turning off the Internet for a while. Don't you think that if Twitter, Facebook, and the ubiquitous 24/7 news cycle would just disappear, our world might actually start to heal? Talking to your neighbor over coffee is probably good. Getting mad at a Facebook post from someone you don't even know is probably bad. Just saying...

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day