Day: April 4, 2020

The Before Times and the After Times

Fandango19 Comments

CDB77FB9-BC64-4E27-B9B0-FF54EB94DD93I wonder if, at some point in the future, historians will use “BC” and “AC” to refer to “Before COVID-19” and “After COVID-19.”

My blog buddy, Rory, over at A Guy Called Bloke, posed two interesting questions today.

Who will you be after C19 Lockdown?

Will your old life still be your new life?

So who will I be in the “After Times” once this whole ordeal is over? I will still be me, but likely an even more cynical version of myself. I will be cynical when it comes to my belief that, when push comes to shove, our government and our leaders will rise to the occasion and will do everything they can do to protect the citizens of the country. In the face of this pandemic, Donald Trump and his administration have failed miserably to adequately recognize and respond to this health crisis. And what little they are doing seems to further demonstrate how inept they are at managing anything, much less an effective response to a pandemic.

Will my old life still be my new life? I hope so. That said, though, I will no longer take for granted that I live in the land of plenty and that I can run out to the grocery store and find a virtually unlimited supply of food and household good, including toilet paper, for crissake. I will not take for granted the ability to spend up close and personal time with family and friends, whether at their homes or at mine. I will no longer take for granted being able to go out to see a movie, a live show, or a concert.

I honestly never thought anything like this could happen in the United States in the 21st century. But it has. And we will all, in some way, large or small, be different in the after times.

SoCS — Deep Doo Doo

Fandango10 Comments

Well, my post for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill is not exactly a stream of consciousness post. But when I saw that Linda wanted us to use the word “deep,” all I could think of is how, thanks to Donald Trump and all of his Republican enablers, our American democracy is in deep doo doo.

Then I had a little déjà vu experience and realized that I’d written a post back on August 1, 2018 titled “Deep Doo Doo.” So, I decided that I would just go ahead and repost that and hope that by doing so I’m not going to put myself on Linda’s shit list (i.e., in deep doo doo) for reposting a non-stream of consciousness post for today’s SoCS response.

So here’s that post from August 2018.

c3fefdc0-072d-43ae-8d39-57a6bf55df58.jpeg“Oh my God,” Jeff exclaimed. “Are you really that gullible?”

“What are you talking about?” Josh asked. I’m not at all gullible.”

“The man is spewing out a monsoon of lies, for crissake,” Jeff said. “He’s told more lies than any president in the history of the United States and you’re buying it all hook, line, and sinker.”

“Look at the facts, dude,” Josh countered. “Since his election our country is going through a renewal. The economy is booming, North Korea is disarming, we’re normalizing relations with Russia, jobs are coming back to America, our borders are being protected, our taxes have gone down. He truly is making America great again.”

“Facts?” Jeff said. “He’s made more than four thousand false or misleading statements since he became president. That’s an average of eight lies a day, Josh.”

Josh shook his head. “You’re being duped by the fake news, dude,” he said. “Don’t you know by now that the reporters for the mainstream media are the enemy of the American people?”

Now it was time for Jeff to shake his head. “We are in deep doo doo.”

On the Street Where You Live

Fandango26 Comments

In these days of mandatory stay-at-home and shelter-in-place, the only sights I see anymore are the inside of my home and the street where I live when we go out multiple times a day to walk our dog.

As I was thinking about this, I recalled a post I wrote in August 2018 titled On the Street Where I Live. In that post, I included a photo of the street where I lived at the time and I invited other bloggers “to take a picture (or pictures) on the street where you live and post it/them on your blog.”

A number of bloggers did just that and so, since many of us are stuck at home and on our own block, I thought it might be time to bring back the “On the Street Where You Live” challenge.

So go ahead and step outside and take a picture of your street and add it to your own post on your blog. Then link back to this post.

I’ll start. This first image is standing in front of my house facing East.7C35169F-CED4-40A3-B731-63BB1447F23BThis next image is facing west.691F1EA1-3FEA-4DD3-814E-DD21293A0118Okay, now it’s your turn. Let’s see the street where you live.

Also includes today’s WordPress Discover Prompt word, “street.”

D is for Damned

Fandango15 Comments

A2Z2020For this year’s A to Z Challenge I’m going to attempt to post an old saying or adage each day of the month of April (except for Sundays). I’m going through the alphabet, with the first letter of the adage beginning with the first letter of the alphabet (A) and continuing for 26 adages in alphabetical order until I get through the entire alphabet by April 30 — from A to Z.

I don’t know if it can be done, but I’m going to give it the old college try. Here’s my April 4th adage and it starts with the letter D.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

FOWC with Fandango — Tonight

Fandango29 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 4, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “tonight.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

  1. And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.