Rant #2,386: Will It Go Round In Circles?

Just another day at my house during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the morning I woke up, showered, got dressed, went outside to get the newspapers and take the garbage barrels to the curb.

I brought the newspapers in, took the dishes out of the dishwasher, made and ate breakfast as my wife got up to go to work, I read some of the newspaper, and when I finished, I started to type out my Rant for the day.

It was raining cats and dogs outside, and mix that with gale force winds, and I was just happy to stay inside and do my thing. I was, of course, unhappy that my wife had to work yesterday, and had to venture out into this mess.

But for me, I would type out my Rant, look for jobs--I actually applied for one or two yesterday--and then, after doing my exercises, I would have to find something to do, which is never too difficult when there are so many things to keep me busy.

So after a while, I typed out my Rant, than I looked on the job boards--much thinner since the virus hit, with plenty of listings regurgitated day after day to keep the boards full--did what I had to do, and when I did my due diligence up to that point--I look at the job boards on and off all day--I decided that it was time to get back to writing my novel.

Right now, I am up to beyond 27,000 words and 30 some-odd chapters. Let me just say that I have created something of a fantasy world for my characters to live in, and even if it amounts to absolutely nothing, it has kept me occupied since I started writing it months ago. I write about one of two chapters a week, and maybe I have something here, maybe I don't, but it has been fun.

Anyway, I get about two sentences written, and my mother--my family lives above my parents in the same dwelling in a legal mother-daughter home--comes up the stairs and comes into the room where all I want to do is write the next chapter of my novel, and she tells me that she has to go shopping today, and would I go with her?

As I said, yesterday looked like a replication of the day that Noah built the ark, with just about everything happening outside, but my mother--an intrepid 89 year old who has never let anything stand in her way--decided that since she was out of fruit and salad ingredients, she absolutely needed to go shopping.

To heck with the elements! My mother needed to go shopping, and if she needed to go shopping, I was going to brave the rain and the wind and whatever else was happening out there and I was going to go with her, to assist her in her quest!

So I saved what little I had written, and went with her to do shopping. We wore our masks, so the government claims that we were protected from getting the coronavirus while shopping, and while there, to while away the time, I bought a couple of things my own family needed, but things that simply could have waited until my wife and I went shopping later in the week.

My mother found what she needed, we both checked out, and we loaded the car up, drove back home, got the items out of the car, and put them away. I was soaked beyond belief from the rain and wind, and I was happy to be home.

My wife had left for work when we were gone, and with my son still sleeping in bed, the house was as quiet as could be, giving me ample time to get back to what I was doing before I left for my jaunt to the supermarket.

Then the unthinkable happened, or at least the unthinkable in my situation.

I went online, checked my email as I always do, and lo and behold, I was asked if I could call up a job I applied for last week for a telephone job interview!

Yes, in the midst of a pandemic, I actually had an offer of a job interview over the phone! I emailed the party back, saying I would call at the appointed time of 11:30 a.m. I then happily went back to my novel, wrote my weekly chapter, and did some other things leading up to the appointment time.

It finally hit 11:30, and I called the number.

The phone rang ... and rang ... and rang ... probably 10 times, but no one answered.

Finally, the other side's answering machine clicked on, and I left a message.

I was not too happy. How many job interviews, by phone or otherwise, have I had in the past six-plus months? I can count them on one hand, and even if I was missing a digit, I could still count them on one hand.

Anyway, I emailed the party back, saying I did call at the appointed time, and basically said you know where I am if you need me.

I then made myself some lunch, and sat down and read the newspaper.

Sometime close to 12 noon I got a phone call, and yes! It was the party I was supposed to speak to earlier.

The person apologized to me, stating that an earlier interview had gone longer than expected, and that is why he did not pick up the phone at 11:30.

So we had the interview--he told me that he was overloaded with response to his job ad, and that he wanted to make this a "preliminary interview," and to keep it short, and after about five or six minutes, it was over.

And he actually knew what a military commissary and exchange was--he is a former military man--so that made me feel good.

Anyway, he said if he was interested, he would call me back, and that was that. I went on with my day, and he presumably went back to doing phone interviews.

The job is right up my alley, based right here on Long Island, and I thought the short interview went pretty well.

Let's see what happens.

And then the day settled back into the same old, same old.

I finished lunch and read to newspaper, did my exercises, got my son up from sleep, and continued to check out the job ads for the rest of the day. I did some digitizing of a few albums--cassettes this time around--and I watched TV.

My wife came home from work, and within time, the three of us ate dinner and prepared for the evening.

I watched Monday Night Raw wrestling with my son, fell asleep at about 9:30 p.m., went into bed by 11 p.m., and woke up today at my customary 6:00 a.m.

I showered, dressed, went outside to retrieve the garbage pails and put out a new one for recycling, picked up the newspapers, put the dishes in the dishwasher away, and prepared to eat breakfast--

Wait! Is this day a rerun of yesterday? Is it "Groundhog Day" again?

Not if I don't have to go to the supermarket or if I have a phone interview it isn't!

And I don't expect either to happen today ...

But I didn't expect either to happen yesterday, either.

However, as I type out this Rant, the sun seems to be coming up, there is no rain or wind to talk about, and everything seems so much different than yesterday.

Good.