Report by Trentin Quarantino
We sleep until 10.30am, and it's quickly clear that neither of us is really in the mood to go outside today. Harley has another phone call with her friend - just a couple of hours today - while I post yesterdays update. If it seems that I'm bitching about how long Harley and her friend talk on the phone, I'm really not. Her friend is able to calm her down in ways that I cannot, and that's the most important thing right now.
We eat lunch in the early afternoon, and indications so far are that we're going to have a pretty lethargic day and not do much. I chat onlune to a friend in Pakistan for a while, and start to really hope that this crisis can blow over sooner rather than later as I really don't want to cancel my summer plans, especially my annual rafting trip.
This probably seems selfish, and I guess it is a little. But I think I'm entitled to hope the restrictions end - it's not like I'm one of the people organising grill parties in the park or anything still, although these are the people that are likely to cause worse restrictions in the short term by being so selfish and stupid.
At least I'm just selfish.
I spend a big part of the afternoon reading while Harley writes a song to her lost mind asking it to come home again. By the time her song - which I really like - is written it's almost 6pm, and we settle down to try to watch a music show being broadcast online by the same people that did the disastrous comedy show the other night.
We have a bit of difficulty getting the computer to wake up, then more difficulty finding an actual link to the show, but once we do we settle down to a couple of hours of semi-live music, and it is far, far superior to the comedy show - although is spoiled somewhat at one point by the person actually broadcasting the gig receiving a Facebook call and not having the first clue how to turn the ringing off.
The show is so good, in fact, that Harley starts dancing around the bedroom for a while. The joy I feel in my heart when I see her having fun is indescribable - I just wish there were a way to make her feel this way more often.
After the show I make a late dinner, while Harley talks to one of her sisters on the phone. I don't speak Czech, but even I can tell that Harley is getting frustrated with her sister about something, and once the conversation is over she rails against the stupidty of people for a while. Then orders me to re-write Imagine by John Lennon tomorrow.
After dinner Harley settles down to write her memoirs of the day, and I finish the book I'm reading and get started on another one. At around 11.30pm we're distracted by ominous blue lights outside, and a look out of the window confirms that there is an ambulance there, and that they are coming into our building for some reason.
My guess is that it's something to do with the old guy that lives upstairs, but neither of us is curious or morbid enough to go and stand in the hallway to see what's going on. I hope that whoever they are here for is okay though.
This seems a pretty shit way to end the day, so we head to bed with the computer and watch idiots drop heavy things from a high tower to see what happens for a while - this is always guaranteed to lighten the mood, and we go to sleep feeling, if not happy, at least better than an hour ago.
Additional reporting by Harley Quarantinova
Sleep sucked.
I talked to Sue briefly after I woke up (in this case "briefly" means 2,5 hours) and, as proper psychiatric patients, we pseudophilosophised about everything that's wrong with this country's education system and all the things we're going to do to fix that. I love my cuckoo brutally intelligent friends.
There was no point in trying to go outside today as the weather is cold and windy and generally unpleasant.
I had another call with a different friend who's getting understandably lonely and a bit claustrophobic in my opinion. This forced house confinement is not doing any good to people's mental health, and the fact that she won't be able to meet her family probably at least until mid-Summer is not helping either. And the way all conversations I have with people these days sooner or later touch the damn virus topic starts playing on my nerves.
Trentin tried to make it all better by googling up the worldwide statistics and calm me down by pointing out that none of the 950+ cases of covid infections in this country were lethal so far but to me all the numbers were just a bit too scary.
I went and turned one of the Days N' Daze songs into a blues about how much I miss my sanity. It helped a bit.
At 6pm we gave live-streamed culture another chance - two country musicians I met a couple of years ago when I was working for an NGO that was trying to save all the third-country immigrants of this city played a show that lifted my spirit to a point when I ended up dancing naked in the middle of our bedroom. Trentin enjoyed it and eventually joined me (in his underwear, coward). The black "clubs" were involved at one point as well, not at all in a violent manner this time.
I still felt musical after the streamed concert ended so played and sang for some time before one of my sisters called. She's the only one who still occasionally feels like talking to me.
After having a yelling contest with her and her partner about whether coronavirus (as well as SARS) was developed by American/Chinese armies to help the imperials conquer the rest of the world, and realising that it's probably best to leave them to their conspiracies, I learnt some details from the last months of their lives and ended up pissed off with human nature once again.
The talk also reminded me of the existence of our father, which I'm sure is going to come back and bite me in the ass. Me and my sister had quite a different upbringing and don't have much in common, (except for some paternal DNA), but I speak to her from time to time because it's polite to stay in contact with my family, and it also gives me a wonderful perspective on the life I built for myself.
After a short talk about siblings with Trentin I gave up being angry, and we decided to spend the rest of the evening watching the most recent video of the silly Australians bouncing things off a giant trampoline from 45m height. This time it was couches and assorted big machines. I picked some more of their stuff to watch and we laughed at them trying to catch eggs and getting showered in jelly beans until we felt sleepy.
Sue messaged me, disappointed with herself as she realised we forgot to celebrate yesterday's equinox. Remembering our hours-long productive brainstorming and emerging plans I think we actually did quite a nice job paying the Spring a tribute without even noticing.
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