Rant #2,402: Vertigo

Some days when I put together this blog, I have a direct line to what I am going to write about.

The words just pour out of me, and it is like the blog writes itself.

Case in point was yesterday, when I wrote about professional baseball coming back in South Korea.

I barely had to think about it, and before you knew it, I had a full story to tell.

Today is one of those days that I simply do not have a clear path to a specific story, so just hear (or read) me out ... I'ms sure this "train of thought" story will come out just fine.

Today I have to do a chore that usually isn't much of one, but because of what is going on, it has become not only a chore, but something of a nuisance.

I have to go to the bank, actually two banks: one to take out some money, the other to put some money in.

Weeks and weeks ago, due to some medical costs that I had that were extreme, to say the least, I had to nearly wipe out my savings to pay for them. And I am not talking $50 her, $75 dollars there ... one of my bills was nearly $1,000, and more if you put together the accumulation of bills I received from this one doctor.

Anyway, in the aftermath, when i could do it, I have tried to replace that money that I had to take out, and lately, I have been going from one bank--the bank that my wife works at, but not her branch--and I have taken money out of one account I have there, and then, I have put that money into a savings account I have at another bank.

The original destination isn't too bad. I go up to the cash machine, take out the money, and generally, I am gone in a flash. A few times there were people ahead of me, so I waited.

No big deal.

But what has become a big deal is going to the second bank.

The second bank has one drive-through window, and a line of cars looking to use the bank's services that you would not believe.

The first time I waited, it took about an hour to get to the window to make my deposit. I also got stuck behind someone who was making multiple transactions at the window, including doing some banking business that he really should not have done at the window--you can make appointments to meet with bank personnel--and that held up the line, too.

Of course, it was the guy right ahead of me.

Since then, I have gotten there a little bit early, and the last time, it took me about a half hour to do what I needed to do, so it was a pain in the neck, but not as big a pain in the neck as it was previously.

At least people don't honk and get hysterical like at my mother's bank, where patience is not valued in any way, shape or form. I have to take my mother to her bank again next week, and I am not looking forward to it.

Before I venture to the banks, like every day of the week, I have a list of things to do, and I do them without fail.

I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, bring the garbage pails back from the curb and put new garbage pails out there, pick up the newspaper, and then I eat breakfast, and read maybe one story in the newspaper, the bulk of which I leave for lunch time to read from cover to cover.

Then I go right on the computer, and write my daily blog first. When that is done--the writing, the upload to Facebook--I begin my quest to look for a job, and that has become the albatross on my back that I knew it would become all along, even before I lost my job.

Currently, there isn't much out there. Yes, I apply for at least one job each day, but with what is going on, there really isn't much doing on the job front in my field. Yesterday and on other days, I have gone out of the field, but when your resume shows that you have been in one field basically your entire career, it is really difficult to convince employers that you are fully out of it, and can do anything else.

And there simply isn't much to choose from right now. With what is going on, I would say listings have dropped by at least one-third, and the listings that are up are often times old, outdated, and yes, some even are bogus. I ran into a scam the other day, where I completely wasted my time filling out the application, only later to learn that it was not for a job, per se, but to gain a listing on a site where people can hire you if they have a need to. I don't even know if this site is real or bogus, but when I saw what the original listing was, and what it led to--nothing--I did not go further.

So I go through the listings, try to find something, and then move on to do other things that I need to do. Today, I will go to the bank, tomorrow, I will do food shopping, and on Friday, probably not do much of anything.

I keep occupied at home by digitizing my recordings, which has extended to cassette tapes, of both albums and singles ... yes, you might remember "cassingles," that short-term recording format where record labels offered the old-style singles, but in a cassette format. This lasted about nine or 10 years, and I have about 70 or so of these cassingles from 1990 up through about 1998 or so, so I am digitizing all of them.

There is a lot of good music that was still being offered during the years after vinyl petered out and the CD format was rising, and you don't hear a lot of this on the radio anymore. So for the first time in a while, I have heard music from this virtually forgotten period from acts like R.E.M., John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and yes, even the Rolling Stones.

It has been fun going through this stuff for the first time in decades, and I am nearly at the end of digitizing all of this.

Next, CD singles, of which I must have at least the same amount of music as I do with cassingles. CD singles were another unwieldy format, the link between cassingles and the rise, and fall, of the CD format that has since been replaced, but not totally, of course, by streaming, as well as the resurgence of vinyl. More vinyl sold in 2019 than CDs, so the CD format isn't dead, but it is certainly on ventilators.

After I do that sporadically during the day, I also check the job listings throughout the day, just in case something new comes in. Again, very hit or miss.

There does come a point when I am pretty much done for the day, and I do watch some television, but at least I watch things that exercise my mind.

I have re-fallen in love with the original Password, and I watch it every weekday on the Buzzr channel. Before it got all dolled up for newer audiences, it was really quite a mind-exercising show, and I just love to see the guest celebrities on the show, many of whom have passed.

And as I remembered correctly, some of the best players of the game were Peter Lswford, John Forsythe and Carol Burnett. On this week's shows, Lawford is joined by still to this day one of the world's most beautiful women, Barbara Eden, and she is a pretty good player herself.

And you cannot escape Allen Ludden. He is the perfect game show host, letting the celebrities do their thing while he keeps the game moving. And yes, there are plenty of references to his wife, Betty White, on the show, and while Ludden left us pretty suddenly decades ago, thankfully, Betty White is still with us, still vibrant and still kicking butt. And yes, they have shown episodes with her playing Password, and she is also quite a good player in her own right.

And as I watch some other things, keeping my phone near me so I can check the new job listings, we move on to later in the day, where my family has dinner, and we have it together, what with my wife the only one of the three of us working.

After dinner, we watch some more TV, I usually watch professional wrestling with my son, and invariably fall asleep on it, because it is not Password, and it does not exercise my mind too much.

I usually stagger into bed, and the several hours later, I do it all over again.

So there we have it, today's Blog entry, and it unfolded--or unraveled, your choice of verb--as I said it would.

Some days you feel like a nut, some days you don't, and today, I guess I was the latter.

I hope you enjoyed what I had to say anyway.

Thanks for staying with me to the last words of this blog entry.

Speak to you again tomorrow.