.. Virus pandemonium will cause me to not watch any television news anywhere mainstream media or minor-stream media. Too much like the weather report.

I quit watching the weather report years ago. What a great job — weatherman. Death by PowerPoint with a guy (gal) in the picture as part of the slide set. What is it going to do today? The answer is usually one word but talented weather guys can make that word last for several minutes. There is a teaser early in the society report to get you to stick around for the first set of commercial ads. Weather in 10 but first this…

I may have first noticed this sitting with my widowed mother who was an avid cable news fan. She was not discriminatory. She watched all the news channels. Soap operas were boring to her. She watched news shows. News shows are repetitive. The news outlets allowed opinion to creep in. The morning cable shows modeled themselves after the NBC Today show. three or four folks sitting on a couch or around a table yakking. Easy to let opinion in when folks are yakking around a table like folks do. Folksy.

Mom would say, “The world is going to hell in a hand basket.” I would answer, “Maybe. But it’s not that bad. What’s a hand basket anyway?” in a feeble attempt to distract her away from the stupid tube’s opinions. If you are house bound as many elderly are it sure seems like the world is going to hell in a hand basket especially if your only source of information is cable news outlets all of which come with the cable television package.

Our house did not have cable service until Cheryl started spending more time at home. Faster internet came as a fiber optic cable and with it a package deal with cable TV. And now we don’t really need TV since Big Bang Theory is off the schedule except as reruns. Parkies sometimes have a hard time following any story line. Things that may be inferred from opening scenes need further explanation. For Cheryl focus is hard so she rarely sits through any complete show.

This is Birthday card week. The last week of the month is birthday card week for getting together the batch of cards for the next month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU ALL! It is an elaborate task made harder by the fact that Cheryl automated her birthday list with Microsoft Access years ago. Now with the PD creeping into her cognition, it will take several days for her to print address labels and correct an address or two in the list. It is way faster now that it is more obscure to her parkie brain.

Birthday card week starts with a trip to the Dollar store for a batch of ten or fifteen cards for the next month. It ends with a memory test to remember which card was selected with care for which person. It is almost complete.

Last week was “Make a Mask” week, as in, I need a different mask so I can get my hair done. Some things take a little longer but they get done.

Life moves on. There is a lot going on or not so much.