Going Home Three Years Ago

(Note:  The point of the post is not to rehash The Plague or how we got here (if we could not, that would be eminently appreciated; lots of other people in other places are more than willing to do so); it is to denote one of those before and after moments that happens a great deal less in life than perhaps we think it would. )

Looking back into the historical files (e.g. blog postings and journals), I note that three years ago this week (technically 23 March 2020), I was sent home from the Office for the duration of "The Temporary Emergency".  

Although I often do not remember details about a great many things, I remember the details about this one - I suspect that somewhere in my giant e-mail archive that I have acquired over the last six+ years, the e-mail notification is there somewhere.  In my case I gathered everyone in the main conference room - at that time I was still nominally in charge of Quality Assurance and so had a number of people reporting to me - and made the announcement that we were all going home.

I remember the colors of the conference room and the looks of everyone looking at me for words - odd, because I had already announced I was "changing" positions I was still considered in charge of them.  I cannot remember the words I said - probably something bland and generic about not to worry, do good work, be safe, we will communicate when we know more, etc.  The sorts of things that one is expected to say in such circumstance.

I violated what would have been a number of "gospel" points in the coming days and weeks:  multiple people gathered in a space, not masked, etc. etc.  In retrospect had anyone known at the time, I likely would have been reprimanded for putting people's health at risk.  But that was all lost in the ensuing storm.

Since that time, I have not been formally recalled to on-site work.  My office - already forfeit as I been transferred out of my previous position - was gone and no work space ever reassigned to me.  I, like many many other people, became work nomads:  voices and words and 2-D faces on a screen.

It is odd to me how much of a before and after event this feels like now - even more so that something like 9/11, which created visible differences in how we conduct our lives (I am still reminded of this every time I fly).  The sense of time has been completely stretched and thinned and turned - The Ravishing Mrs. TB has noticed this as well:  she has often commented how three years ago seems like a lifetime ago and events in the interim seem either very close or very far away - or both, at the same time.

I had reason to go onsite earlier this month.  The conference room has now been converted into a lab; the bulk of the people that were there on that day are no longer with the company.   And yet looking into the lab, I can still see all of us gathered around that large conference table facing a future which none of us could have predicted the shape of.

How odd that one of those significant moments of my life - one of those "Gone With The Wind" moments occurred - in such an innocuous space.

Of Notifications And More Cases

 Now that Nighean Dhonn  has restarted high school, we are getting the now-familiar round of e-mails:  campus updates, newsletters, "opportunities for students" - all the things that fill my mailbox and I have to remind myself at graduation to unsubscribe from.

We are also almost daily getting notifications of The Plague.

This should probably not come as a surprise; after all:  packing in hundreds of children and young adults into an enclosed space with  not a lot of social distancing and The Plague still being active will lead to this sort of thing.  And in a perhaps not-unrelated note, notifications of confirmed cases from my employer have also been on the rise - driven, no doubt in some part, by the aforementioned returning school children.

From what we are continuing to find out, the vaccines issued under Emergency Use Authorization are not nearly as bullet proof as they were originally advertised:  at best now, they seem to modulate the severity of The Plague, not prevent it entirely.  It is as if we were hoping for a titanium answer and got a copper one instead:  still metal, but much more malleable and much less enduring.

Which makes me posit a question:  are we just all going to get it anyway?

I know this is heresy in certain circles, the suggestion that sooner or later we will all end up with a virus that we are supposedly in the process of defeating.  But reality seems to be that we are not nearly as far along as we thought we were.

(And yes, to be fair, there are still those nagging questions about the reproductive studies and long term safety studies the companies are going to get to here "any day now".  By count, in the recent Pfizer extension letter, they had committed to another ten.  And that was still without full approval.  Moderna and JNJ are not scheduled to complete their trials until Summer 2023.)

I know there are varying opinions of The Plague, even here; as is also widely known, at least here, I have lost two aunts to it as well as had a number of cousins come down with it.  It is not - from everything they have conveyed and the literature suggest - just the Flu.  And I would be the first in line to state that the initial "two weeks to flatten" was the most damaging thing I can think has been done to an economy since maybe 2008 and the "Shovel Ready" support package, if not the Stagflation of the Carter administration.  So anything like that is a non-starter (and, it seems, even government authorities, who are often in love with their grandiose "emergency powers", seem to not be suggesting that again).

But at what point does the plan change from "complete destruction" which seems impossible to "mitigation"?  There is some data that suggests that natural antibodies are far superior and longer lasting than chose generated by the vaccines (which again, should not surprise anyone); some enterprising young graduate student might make their name by performing a study tracking those with acquired immunity versus those with vaccinated immunity over the next five years and see what shakes out.

Is the strategy just to continue to let The Plague mutate until it becomes attenuated?  If that is the strategy, it seems a rather poor one:  I would imagine it could just as easily become stronger instead of weaker.

Am I calling for the equivalent of Chicken Pox Parties?  Hardly.  Any disease affects the individual quite differently and what I may shrug off, you may die from.  But we still seem to be stuck in this paradigm that we can completely prevent some portion of the population from ever getting The Plague.  My question is, knowing what we know now, is that still an actual or potential possibility or do we simply begin managing towards a different goal?

Flowing Underground

I have to confess that I am feeling not a little beaten down this week.

To be fair, it has been a long week. The election.  The continuance of The Plague (yes, I am aware of the news of the potential vaccine.  No, it does not work as quickly as the media is telling you.  There are still plenty of questions).  The oncoming dread of the annual review and the outcome of it (none of which, I assume, will really work in my favor).

But added to all of this is rather troubling realization that the era of the individual is over.

Communalism is ruling the day.  We are to care about others - not in the abstract way that is sometimes used or in the specific way that we as individuals may define it but (as I have noted about before) in specific, pre-authority approved ways.  The government, the group, the collective is telling us what constitutes "responsibility" and "caring".  "We" are responsible for "Us" with no more connection or relationship than simple existence.

And more and more, the collective is telling all what to think, what to feel, how to be involved and hip and "perceived" as caring.  

To be honest, the whole thing is a little dispiriting.

It is not depression.  Depression I am familiar with, know its feeling and ways.  It is not anger - there is no burning sense of rage that is fueling anything.  There is just a great sense of the loss of any value of myself an individual with opinions and preferences, replaced with a sort of blank numbness that sighs and only sees an endless run of group mandated approvals or disapprovals.

It is, in a sense I suppose, the final "Going Galt" of the soul, the final removal of anything that will reveal success or interest or support in a system which seems to have become on the one hand highly embracing of the individual, but only in the approved formats and forms.   

It pushes me more and more to find my expression and my life here amongst my writing friends, in the quiet of my own home and mind, among the very few whom are kindred souls and in the flesh, and hopefully in some place that is not an Urban Jungle. 

Maybe I could have made a difference in the larger system.  It is unknown now and will never again be a question.  The power and torrent of myself and my individuality and preferences and tastes is pouring underground like a river which, having broken through the crust at some point, creates caves of wonders and ecosystems of magic under the surface.

Minus the water, of course, the surface will eventually bake and dry away.  But the surface dwellers never seem to notice that until too late.

Some Thoughts On The Continuing New Normal

 Last week, for the first time since March, we had a gathering (socially distanced and masked, of course) of our men's group.  It was a pleasant evening on the back porch (they usually are here in November), and as we sat and talked, we of course brushed up against the concept of "The New Normal".

Sitting there chatting on the back porch, running the past week through my mind, I realized that my view of life going forward has changed. Pretty drastically.

At work and based on where we are, I suspect that the minimal staff onsite continues now through June and possibly through the end of 2021.  Given the fact we are just entering the Winter season now, I cannot see anywhere that plunging in for what would typically be the height of the cold and flu season makes any sort of sense.  I also suspect that mask wearing (or other versions of it) may be with us forever; the legal issues of infection from commercial locations (or even workplaces) have yet to be broached.  No company is legally going to want to be responsible for an employee that dies because the encouraged people to come in to the office too soon.

What this means, as I thought about it, was that at least for me, things are going to be maintaining pretty radically from what they were a mere 9 months ago.

Going out anywhere, at least for me, gives something of a level of discomfort now.  I was surprised how uncomfortable I felt just in the presence of two individuals whom I had known but not seen in some months.  The joy of interpersonal conversation for me, at least, is largely gone.  One is always watching, out of the corner of one's eye, if everyone is wearing one's mask appropriately and precisely how close (or far) they are.  And where they have been recently, and who they have been associate with, and were they wearing their masks and distancing.

That flows across lots of things, of course.  Any major social event where there are people, including both entertainment and social events (like church).  Any sort of shopping or commercial expedition which is not a specific need and requirement.  Anything where there is a going to be a group of people.

Even now, my expeditions are largely to specifically known places:  Iai training.  The gym.  The grocery store.  The book store (although these continue to fall as well as stock has decreased).  The Rabbit Shelter.  But this is really about it.

Travel is another thing that I am looking askance on long term.  Yes, I am continuing to travel back and forth to my parents as long as I am able, but that is part of a longer term plan.  Travel for personal pleasure - at least flying - is probably also on a long term hold.  I would really have to want to go somewhere to contemplate going through an airport and flying (yes, I know there is evidence suggesting that airplane filtration systems are effective,  but as the airports become more full the risks go up.  And travelers are, on the whole, not terribly smart creatures).

This really means two things from a practical point of view.  The first is that I am will be spending a great deal of time at two locations:  New Home and The Ranch.  It probably means less and less travel by plane and much more by automobile.  It also means that I am going be become less and less of an economic contributor, both in travel and in goods purchased, to the economy as a whole.

Yes, I understand that at some point this gets solved (Hopefully.  But that is unknown as well).  But even then, the reality is that communicable diseases are always there.  The flu and cold season so far, so much as we can tell, has largely disappeared.  It makes sense of course:   people who are masked up and avoiding contact with each other are less likely to transmit any number of diseases.  Add in other fun diseases like tuberculosis.  All of this does not go away just because The Plague is managed.

This is the unwitting thing that those that pushed so hard for these measures will likely have to try and unwind:  once people have started down this path, it will be very hard to get them off it.  For some (like me) they will not want to get off it. 

I do not often make predictions, but I suspect at some point in the not too distant future the refrain will be completely changed from begging people to mask up and stay away to getting back out and stay close.  

I suspect that, at least for me, it will fall on deaf ears.

On Writing A Manifesto And Being Intentional

 I have been toying with the idea of a Manifesto for The New Normal.

As we slog through the implications of The Plague of 2020 and the outcome of the continuing economic ruin caused by actions taken to halt its spread, what I think should be obvious to anyone is that 2020 is going to represent a seismic shift in the way we live, the way we do business, the way we interact with each other, the way we live  (To be clear:  Yes it exists, Yes many people recover from it, No we do not know the long term health implications from it or what and how it will mutate during the "High Sick Season" of Winter.  Color me "talk to me in three years when the data is in".)  The more I read and ponder, the more I believe this will ultimately be as seismic a shift in either of the Two World Wars of the last century.

Having said that, I have to also note that this is not always a bad thing; things are usually all not one sided in that respect.  But it can take a lot longer for those things to make themselves evident:  deaths and job losses are easily seen and quickly felt.  Shoots of new ways of living or new economic changes are much slower to manifest themselves.

But I want to capture these changes now, as I see them coming, and embed them in my life rather than quickly gloss over them into the areas of The New Normal.

The other reason to consider a Manifesto - which to be clear how I am using the word, is simply a declaration of my views of the world and how I intend to live in it - is that without a conscious decision on my part, others will make that decision for me.  The world, to appropriate a Christian metaphor, will attempt to squeeze me into its mold instead of the other way around.

Over my years of blogging, I have been exposed to a number of very good effective manifestos, people living out their intentions in life (to be fair, most of them live them without ever really thinking to write them down).  And perhaps therein lies the secret and the discussion:  intentionality. They are living their lives intentionally. 

For me, something written down is the place to start (it always is, for me.  I do not perform quite as well with thought exercises only).

I have no particular idea when this will come out as I am picking through my ideas and thoughts - but part of the reason of speaking of this at all is by writing it here, I am now committing to do it.

And perhaps that is the great lesson of this new age:  that more so than ever, we need to be intentional in how we live, how we speak, how we spend our money and time and our lives.  

Before it is determined how we should act and react.

The Decline And Fall Of The Service Economy

 If The Plague of 2020 has demonstrated anything to us, it is the inherent weakness of the Service based economy.

For those of you that have been in some sort of economics class in the last 35 years, you will remember the progression:  herding, agriculture, handcrafting, guilds, industrial, service.  The service economy represented the upper echelon of development for any economy.  It was the apotheosis of the worker:  freed from the drudgery of blue collar and farm labor and relieved of having to do everything by hand, the worker would enjoy the fruits of modern technology, avoiding risk of injury and burnout so prevalent with those other "old fashioned" models.

 And then The Plague of 2020 arrived with all the subtlety of a hurricane.

 We have learned a few things about the nature the Service economy now.  The first, and perhaps most important, is the word "service" can easily be redefined as "non-essential".  This was discovered by (literally) millions as their jobs, effectively determined to be "likely to spread disease" by the way the were treated, were summarily removed from their ability to work by their companies or their local and state governments.  Apparently, their services were not required.

The second thing we learned - which in fact, I suspect we secretly knew all along - was that the service economy was very dependent on people desiring and being able to access services.  Take away the ability to spend on services - like restaurants and entertainment - or prevent them from using them by locking customers and clients away from each other and while the need and desire may still have been there, the ability to actuate that need or desire was gone.  And without access to those services, those services went out of business.

The third thing we learned - which I do not think many people anticipated - is how many services are really desires more than needs.  Entertainment comes to mind as the clearest example of how when the service was shut down, people realized they did not need it.  The decline in the ability to go out and shop has been replaced by the ability to order our shopping in.  Even I occasionally need new articles of clothing:  I do not need to go to the store to get them anymore as they can be delightfully delivered to my door.

Which brings us to the things most people have not learned - but will.

The first thing that people will learn - well, really be reminded of more than learn for most - is that the future belongs to people who are considered either "essential"  or in a position where the question of "essential/non-essential" no longer applies.  If you provide a skill or service or item that is needed, you have a greater change of retaining an income (not guaranteed of course, just greater).  And if you do so in a way that is not dependent on someone else providing you the ability to exercise that skill or service or make that item, so much the better.

The second thing that people will learn - and the lesson is already out there for anyone paying attention - is that in the question of essential and non-essential, service and non-service, automation is supreme and more and more coming into its own.

Industrial robots have been around long enough that most of us take them for granted.  But more and more now, service related "robots" are coming into our daily lives.  For a great many on-line activities now, an algorithm - a form of robot - will answer basic questions for you, track your packages, allow you to make reservations, give you cash at an ATM.  And now, with the rise of The Plague and a desire reduce the risk of transmission, I predict (to be fair, it is not a stretch) that this trend will continue.  The food server, already on the decline, may very well be replaced by a combination of ordering via a tablet or online and being brought to you via robot.  And I predict (again, not a stretch) that I will see a fully automated restaurant in my lifetime.  The great thing about robots is that they work through night, day, disease, and will likely never be considered "non-essential".

There are, of course, ways to exploit all of this:  career paths that will continue to be useful or new ones based on trends such as these, learning to simply live more by what we can make and trade and barter and less by what we need to purchase, or simply becoming indispensable to someone or some organization.  But the writing, I think, is clearly on the wall:  If we have not entered the Post-Service economy, we are on the brink of doing so.

Sadly, like most economic changes, I fear many will be caught in the headlights.

 

Changing Relationships

 As I was out walking the dog yesterday morning (our mornings have cooled off considerably and I truly need to get back into the habit), I was taking a quick inventory of groups of people that have effectively fallen off of the list of the people I see on a regular basis.

The larger Church group, of course - our church has just restarted in person services at 25% (and I have no great desire to force my way back into that yet).  The smaller group - faith group, community group, life group, they have various names - that we had been a part of for the last 4 years or so (they do meet electronically, but it now feels much more like just another work meeting).  The coffee ministry I served on periodically at Church.

Work acquaintances of course - either by physical separation or (more and more) as they have left the company to move on.  A lesser host of characters that were part of my regular stops at the grocery store or used book stores.  And I have not thrown since November of last year and have scarcely spoken physically to anyone in that realm.

What that has left - beyond my immediate family - is my Iai group and the regulars at the rabbit shelter I volunteer at.  Or in other words, effectively, 66% of my regular connections are in abeyance.

 How do I feel about this, I wondered as Poppy and I kept pace around the neighborhood with its flickering outdoor lights as the sky slowly lost its starry cast?

Not as bad as I might have anticipated six months ago.

The Church, as you know if you are reader here, is something I have been struggling with off and on in terms of their direction and my spiritual growth (or lack thereof) over the last year or so, so this has been less of a "loss" and more of a distancing period, along with those sub groups (community group and coffee) that went along with it.  The fact that both of these have disappeared with little fanfare should tell me something about where I am with all of that (to be fair, I do miss serving coffee.  That was a very easy way to be of service).

The work acquaintances have been hard - but honestly, given Hammerfall and the change in position, were something that was going to occur anyway.  And perhaps, needed to - there is never anything so hard for a new leader as for an old leader to still be in the background, no matter how non-threatening the presence.  And people have always moved on.  The Plague has just accelerated this process.

The Highland Games I have missed for the camaraderie (I am really not that good) but frankly has not been a focus as I have turned more of my attention to Iai.  I surely miss the people but it is like a family group you only see periodically during the year; you learn to adjust. 

For the groups I do see - Iai and the Rabbit Shelter - the cadence seems about right:  about two and a half hours a week in total, split between actually work and the few minutes of talking before and after.  Enough to stay involved and interact but not uncomfortable to worry about overspending the time.

Going home more regularly has helped in this regard as well, of course:  seeing old friends and my parents on a more regular basis with more meaningful conversation has filled a gap that was somewhat left open by the larger spread but less deep relationships I had here.

Fumbling with my keys to get back into the warmth of the house and the coffee I knew was present, I realized that while there have been many difficult things about The Plague, the slow rearrangement of relationships had not been one of them.

Almost, it seems, as if they were being remodeled for a purpose.

Let Your Plans: A Follow Up Comment

 So in the comments from my Monday blog, Leigh from Five Acres and A Dream had one of those comments that makes sit back and think for a moment:

"I've come to the conclusion that nobody (except my like-minded blogging friends) really gives a fig for what I think and what I do.  But I'm okay with that, since their world is increasingly foreign and non-desirable to me.  Of course, I'm not forced to interact with others through the workforce, which you must still endure.  That necessitates selective communication, doesn't it?"

A response in the "Comments" section did not seem to do justice to the thought.

1) I would concur - in my own life, no-one with the exception of three to five people (my father being one, Uisdean Ruadh my very old friend being another) cares what I think or what I do.  If  mention something like making yogurt or blacksmithing, that would be thought cool of course - but it is not the sort of communication that happens a great deal lately.

To be frank, people are not talking - or not talking much, anyway.  If you are not on the social media, the chances (at least at my age and stage of life) that you are interacting with people on a regular basis is pretty slender because that is not how things are done any more.  Social exchanges in other places - work, church, out and about - have largely disappeared due to The Plague; small talk prior to or during meetings, for example, has essentially disappeared.  There is no gathering to chat before or after church or class:  you go, you do your business, and you go home.

Add to this the zest and excitement of an election year and a rather frightening polarization and it turns out that most people have very little to discuss, at least in a civilized manner.  It would seem - more and more - that anyone you do not fully know, or even those that you may know, are potentially someone who holds an opinion different from yours and would consider you to be a complete fool if they did not know you as a friend. 

I wonder if there is also an element of protecting ourselves for the future:  no matter what happens there will be screaming and unpleasantness; do I really want to give out an opinion or information on myself to someone who may remember it later?

2)  "But I'm okay with that, since their world is increasingly foreign and non-desirable to me."

This is the thought that really rocked me back. 

One does not think of the place one lives as becoming "foreign" to them.  One thinks of foreign as countries and cultures far away, places that are exotic and have amazing pictures (not withstanding that in many ways, we have blended everything into a consumerism that makes everywhere look like here).  Home is, well, home.  Not foreign.

But not so much any more.

I can sense this in my discussion with certain folks - older than myself usually - that express they simply do not understand why what is happening is happening.  I can see it and read it for myself, where people who live geographically in the same locale use thoughts and language that is as foreign to me as any language I have studied.  I can realize it in the way that my interests and activities do not match with where things are announced as to where the future lies (e.g., I like blacksmithing and making things with hands, others are looking at Mars for colonization).

This place, too, is becoming foreign to me as well.

I do not wish so many of their things any more; the stores and InterWeb market places are filled with items that I have no need of.  I do not wish for their words and their entertainment, which has become vulgar and crass.  I do not wish for their spirituality, which in so many ways is wholly divorced from God and is based on how it makes them feel.  I do not wish their morals and mores, which lead to nothing but emptiness, violence, and sadness.

I had expected none of this, but all of this is here.  Perhaps the best thing to do - like, thankfully Leigh has been able to - is recognize that this is so and accept it rather than somehow pretend things are other than they are.

How odd to say, this world is becoming more foreign and undesirable to me as well.  And yet, how relieving to be able to say it.

The Plague of 2020: A Travel Update

Having traveled a bit via air over the last two months and looking at continuing to do so over the upcoming months, I thought I might give you an update on what the proverbial lay of the land (or air, in this case) looks like.  

For background:  my travels are between two "International" airports (so named because non-U.S. flights land at them - but not a lot of them) of similar sized urban areas.  Both are within 1 to 3 hours of actual international airports; thus, they are as much transit points for other destinations as they are actual terminal destinations (to be fair, New Home could be considered a terminal destination).  I fly on Saturdays as that is the least expensive day and allows me to preserve the work week.  I also fly on Southwest, which is by far the most reasonable airline for such travel.

(A note:  Yes, I know that not everyone is a fan of Southwest.  For me, they provide a reasonable service for the price they charge.  Also, given the current environment I suspect that they will be one of the airlines that will at least be able to operate the longest given their business model.  And, I actually do kind of like their snacks).

The airports - both coming and going - were only slightly more busy than they were in July.  In all checking in and going through security took 15 minutes or so.  Interestingly, at both airports there are only a few airlines flying:  At New Home Airport it is Southwest, Alaska, and American and at Old Home Airport it is Southwest, Spirit, and Delta.  

The airport terminals post-security are 50 to 75% closed down in terms of commercial offerings.  A few restaurants are open (I have no idea how they determine which ones) and those small shops which offer both magazines and highly over priced snacks as well (but again, not all of them).  Anything resembling just an actual store is closed.  People are spacing themselves out amongst the chairs.

In terms of actual flying, the middle seat is still verboten for sitting (which works for me, of course).  Cloth masks remain required for all flights but masks with vent filters are now not allowed on flights.  I also started to see face shields being worn by several passengers (I am hoping this does not become a requirement).  In-flight service has been reduced to a snack pack and water (instead of the previously delightful snack pack and your choice of drink).  You can bring any food and drink purchased in the terminal onto the flight you want - with the exception, oddly enough, of alcohol (because apparently alcohol purchased on the flight does not have the same impact as alcohol purchased off the flight).

Getting picked up at the airport remains completely different than pre-Plague:  The lack of traffic makes it a 5 minute operation, not a 20 minute one.

The one outstanding question I have (in general) is how these airports are continuing to be going concerns.  I am not quite sure how they are funded, but the air travel is not near what I saw in February when I traveled to Japan.  I am sure they are doing a little better now, but if this level of travel remains as it is I cannot see that smaller regional airports and perhaps even some larger ones will be able to stay open.

On Tribes

 Claire Wilson over at Living Freedom has an excellent post about Our Tribal Future, which is a thoughtful ramble about our essentially ongoing devolution into a tribal sort of society and the kinds of "tribes" that actually work (Tribes, Monastics, Communities).  It is a rather fascinating and thoughtful read and well worth the 10 minutes or so you will invest in it.

As a preface to this consideration, she laments how the tribes in her own life have been breaking down over the last few months - and how rather surprised and saddened she is by this.
It is certainly a thought that has been on my own mind of late as well.

It is interesting - when we moved here 11 years ago I do not know that I would have said I had a "tribe".  I had a few friends, not as a collective whole group but a series of individuals I did things with.  Moving to New Home, as I slowly found activities that I became involved in - Iai, Highland Games - I thought I had found my tribe, both in the physical sense with the individuals I saw physically as well as the connections I made online.  Life felt good: I had friends, I had support, I had a bulwark to weather the storm.

But that feels that it has slipped away over the last few months.

The Plague of 2020 has helped nothing, of course.  I have not thrown since November of last year and it is quite possible I will not throw again until next year.  Iai continues, but due to the Plague we train and then get out as quickly as possible from the Dojo.  And online social media connections have become fraught with the danger of the modern era:  on the one hand, saying anything is likely to lead to issues; on the other, many people do make comments and suddenly the 10% of things you shared in common becomes buried beneath the 90% that you realize you do not agree on.

Suddenly, those tribes you built have essentially evaporated.

My choices are threefold.  The first is simply to continue on as if nothing has happened, that those tribes still exist as they did - difficult, because I know that to not be true.  The second option is to let those tribes go and possibly build another one based on actual needs and interests, not the perceived ones - although I question how much more successful this would be than before.  The third, of course, is simply accept the isolation and prepare to go it alone.

I am not  yet clear on which makes the most sense.

The one thing that I can come out of this with that makes me a bit happy is that I have discovered a tribe of sorts - you, gentle readers, and those that write the blogs that read and follow.  We are certainly much more of the same mindset than many others in the past, and although all of you are far away, we still manage to give some form of moral support and practical advice.

So maybe the choice is a bit easier:  a form of going it alone in the immediate vicinity but knowing that there is a community, out there, backing me up.

In a world of dissolution and abandonment, maybe this is the best we can do.

A Bibliophile's Inconvenience

For almost a month now, I have had the most First World Problem of First World Problems:  I cannot find a book to buy at my local used bookstores.

You might think that, given everything that is going on, this is the silliest of silly problems.  And you would be correct - except, of course, if you are bibliophile (lover of books).  In that case, this is near to a major crisis.

I know what you are thinking:  "TB, do you really need another book?"  It is a legitimate question, one that (on her behalf) The Ravishing Mrs. TB wishes you would ask of me more often.  We have a great many books in our house - in fact, one might argue our own personal library - of which I am the chief architect and current record holder.  It all started innocently enough, as these things always do:  I had book interests that could not be found in my local library and thus, had to buy my books (mind you, this was in the days before The InterWeb existed so it took some doing).  Before long, I kept expanding my interests to new areas or needed additional materials for particular subjects.

In going to my local used bookstores, I have (heretofore) had little to no issue finding something that was interesting to me (and the prices could always generate my interest a bit more).  But for a month running, I have found nothing I am willing to invest even my loose change in.

Part of it, of course, is The Plague of 2020.  The bookstores simply do not have the stock they used to have because they are buying books much more infrequently now (and shipping them out all the more). As I have continued to go and look, the shelves become more empty, not less.

Part of it as well is the fact that my area of purchasing has shrunk.  I do not just buy "any book".  It has to fall within specific subject parameters and in some genre types (Science Fiction and Fantasy, for example) specific authors.  I find that I am largely done with books that I will read once and then move on from.  I want books that I will revisit multiple times (which essentially seems to rule out a great deal of current fiction).

The final part, also interestingly enough, is that I seem to be willing to spend less money overall - after all, a "good" deal on something you do not need is really not a good deal at all, no matter how inexpensive it was.

This whole thing - not finding a book - has become a strange annoyance to me.  I cannot put it out of my mind.

Understand, this does not mean "there are no books out there".  There are - all through the InterWeb (which I have been purchasing, as coupons allow).  I have a list.  I am still acquiring, although more slowly (and always paying shipping).

But - and this is the part that gnaws at my mind - it feels like there is something more significant here.

Let us say - pretend with me here for a moment - that the InterWeb went away.  My book selection would now be limited to whatever I can find locally.  Most of the titles I am looking for - trust me, none of them are "subversive" or "questionable" and thus being withheld or suppressed - are no longer available.  And that selection would be dwindling every day.

I suspect what I am seeing here, now, is a very small vignette of stories that is and will continue to play themselves out all over the world as in minor ways supply chains and the supply and demand of the local market manifest themselves.

For now, a bibliophile's inconvenience.  Given all that seems to be going on, coming to an economy near you.

The Plague of 2020: Economic Impacts III (Winners)

In every economic downturn, there are always winners.  Even in the worst of the worst, some things still do better - or merely "less badly"  than others.

1)  Grocery Stores: Up to the point that a supply chain completely collapses, grocery stores and grocery store like stores (the Big Box Supply Stores) are critical as almost no-one can supply their own food anymore.  Even when almost everything else was shut down, grocery stores stayed open.  These stores and the chains that support them - trucking, warehouses - will continue to work as long as there is food to supply and fuel to move the goods.

2)  Food Suppliers:  This takes any number of different forms, be they chicken processors or farms or bakeries.  But just like with grocery stores, they have a desired good and as long as there is a market and fuel to get it there, they will be a demand.

3)  Used Cars Sales:  Not really a company but a portion of an industry, the spreading of any number of plagues via close quarters make public transit a less desirable option.  Add to this the fact that for many, new cars have rapidly been priced out of the market, and suddenly used cars become an item of interest and value - perhaps not at the market price they once commanded, but surely more than new automobiles.

4)  Streaming Entertainment:  As many were/are trapped in their homes, they did the 20th and 21st Century quick reaction:  They reached for their remote controls and turned on their devices to watch shows.  Suddenly, the great transfer from movies theaters to streaming seems like a reality.  This works, of course - as long as the streaming services continue to have new content to offer (like many other industries, much of the movie and television industry is localized in certain areas and shut down as well).   This will work until, like the sports stations currently, all there is to watch is the equivalent of championships that occurred 7 years ago.  Right up to that point (or a complete loss of power), people will turn to their streaming devices much as Americans once turned to the movie theaters, to forget their troubles for a while.

5) Hardware and Home Improvement Stores:  People now have lots of time at home and an inability to go places (or lack the income to do so).  Improving where you live at at time like this is one of the activities that can be done with only the cost of the materials (and your labor).  We have certainly done so here, painting several rooms.

6)  Independent Living Companies:  This is a category (invented by me) to cover things as varied as seed companies, rural living companies (like Lehman's), and any sort of company that provides products or services that help one live in some way by becoming less dependent on the grid. As the economy continues to do poorly (and in my opinion, this will take years to dig out from), more and more people will - by necessity if not choice - have to start learning to do such things for themselves.

The Plague of 2020: Economic Impacts II (Sports)

More prophetical prognostication (Is that a phrase?  It should be, and I hereby claim it) of The Plague of 2020 on Sports:

Sports, at least on the professional scale, is an ingrained, assumed part of our culture.  Its tendrils go into so much:  live events, radio, television, the InterWeb, retail (both brick and mortar and InterWeb).  It is ubiquitous in our conversations and in our lives.

As a large public event, of course, sports is doomed as long as The Plague is here.  Perhaps one can go with a social distancing aspect of the game or - as has been proposed - without any fans at all (based on the social distancing requirements, it would be something like every other row and every other seat, not ideal from a financial point of view.  Plus, of course, longer lines and wearing a mask outdoors for 3-5 hours at a time.  Hardly enticing).  And that is the Tier 1 Professional sports - Tier 2, amateur leagues and minor leagues, would be in even worse shape. 

Who is impacted?  The players, not so much (at least immediately).  But everyone associated with the players:  coaches, trainers, sports doctors, those people that carry the water bottles around on the sidelines.  Anyone involved with the media sporting aspect - writers, producers, announcers, camera and sound folk, commentators - after all, how long can you discuss sports that happened two years ago?  And for the venues themselves, those that man the parking lots, food stands, stairways as ushers, groundskeepers, janitorial staff, those nice people in the jackets that I can never figure out precisely what they do but are obviously employed by the venue - again, all impacted by no sports occurring.

College programs are impacted as well, both directly by the Plague itself (colleges are already calling their fall seasons or greatly reducing them) and by the longer term impacts:  if this goes on long enough, there will be no drafts, or they will decrease in their importance.  Without a professional league, where will these players go (I sincerely hope that they have been diligently studying as well)?  And lest you think this is merely a sports problem, popular college sports can fund entire departments at a college for a year.  What happens when that money disappears?

Yet another impacted group is the local tax payers, who have (in many places) funded these very large sports venues with tax dollars.  If these were bonds, the tax payers will continue to pay for years on a depreciating asset in a time of decreased income and inflation.  If loans, the tax payers will continue to pay interest to a lender for an asset that they will not use or benefit from (unless they refuse to pay - which then impacts the lender...).

Another impacted area is that of all other sports not at the professional or college level. I cannot read this as well as I am not sure how it is being implemented.  In a true "social distancing" situation, any sport that involves any sort of physical contact would be discontinued.  This includes, in no particular order, football, baseball, basketball, soccer.  Other sports - volleyball, track and field - would not be as impacted but would require some additional safeguards (for example, having fixed locations in volleyball or running races being "timed" victories by sending the runners out in individual packets or all other track and field athletes moving through a line and then retreating to their socially distanced waiting areas).  Golf might fall into this as well, with single players out on the links, one per hole (groups, of course, only with socially distancing and masks - and how fun is 4-5 hours in the sun in masks going to be?).

So much of sports relies on close contact, something which is intrinsic to the nature of competition and risky in the nature of the Plague.

Taken to its logical extreme, lock downs, social distancing, and personal protection requirements will to some extent - partially or completely - enervate almost all sports to the point that at best they become much smaller in number and operation (to remain economically viable) or effectively disappear completely.

There is another mitigating factor, something which sports has not fully accounted for either:  we have been (at least in the US) without professional sports for some 4 months now.  And for the most part, we have managed to survive and find other things to fill our time.  I wonder if, having broken the habit, many are going to be willing to reinvest their time and energy in something that that they have replaced or - given the cost of packages to watch and listen to such events - will be able to afford it.

The Plague of 2020: Economic Impacts I

One of the websites I have followed for some years now is dailyjobcuts.com, which is an aggregator of layoffs, closings, and bankruptcies.  As you can imagine, it has been rather populated with bad news over the last few months.

As I have been following this and the continuing economic wreckage that is The Plague of 2020, I got to thinking about when - and if - we finally "come out" of this, what the world of business and economics will look like based on what we have seen so far.  I do not know that this qualifies as "fun", but for me it is an interesting thought exercise.  So my thoughts, or even semi-guesses, on what the world of business will look like next year (Warning:  I am not a trained economist, merely an observer):

1)  Offices - Office space will be widely available through two reasons.  The first (and most unfortunate) is lay offs due to decreased business needs.  The second is that many companies have discovered that many people can work from home.  This not only reduces the company's overhead for office space, but also reduces the company's spend on those common items like electricity, water, common area expenses, and things as minor as coffee and supplies (which are all passed on to the employee working at home, by the by).  Commercial Real Estate Investment companies and landlords will suffer as a result of this.

2)  Restaurants - If this goes on long enough and we continue with the "on again, off again" model for indoor activities, continue to look for restaurants to shut down.  But a potential additional outcome is the growth of the "Storefront" restaurant (also the take out restaurant, although I prefer the British term "Take Away").  Why should  restaurant pay for costly real estate, utilities, and employees when they can just pay for a kitchen and an area to pay and pick up?  Yes, many locales still allow patio or outdoor dining, but that only works when people want to be outdoors:  no good in the summer in the American Southwest or in the Winter almost anywhere not in the American Southwest.  Again, costly real estate.  Commercial Real Estate Investment companies, landlords, servers/dishwashers, and certain kinds of suppliers (I cannot imagine the high end alcohol restaurant suppliers are doing well in this) will suffer.

3)  Personal care (hair salons, nail salons, sports massage) - these may very well start to move towards smaller, private institutions with people beginning to work out of their home or just smaller footprints overall .  The 10 stall hair salon may become a thing of the past (again, paying for real estate); the storefront hair salon where an appointment is made for a single operator (like the old style barbershops) or someone converting their garage into a small salon seems more likely.  Again, Commercial Real Estate Investment companies and landlords most at risk, those hair/nail experts or masseuses that cannot find a way to flex most at risk.

4)  Retail - This has seemingly become a complete wasteland, if you have at all been tracking the stores that are going away.  Lots of large name companies are going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which here (in the US), means that they are reorganizing, not necessarily going out of business (but lots of folks just going out of business).  Shopping is no longer a social activity and given the environment of economic uncertainty, lots of people are just not shopping (but are paying down their credit card debts, so good on everone).  Also, depending on the industry, demand has dried up (not a lot of call for business suits or evening gowns at the moment).

In my own household, the model is very much if someone is going to a store, it is because they know exactly what they are going for (e.g., they now all shop like me).  No more just rambling to see what is out there.  Out, into the store to collect what is needed, and then straight back home - or online, shopping, of course.

Hard to say that there will be any good news here.  Commercial Real Estate companies, landlords, property managers, retail employees, shipping companies - everyone is impacted here.  There will be a growth in order fulfillment and delivery services for online companies of course (we can argue what that means later), but I suspect that this will not offset the other.

5) Group Activities - Here I am thinking about things that are largely entertainment based:  bars, restaurants (but discussed above), indoor activity venues (bowling/arcades/movie theaters/general theaters/concert halls/trampoline parks), that sort of thing.  And here, again, the news will not be good.

These require the same sorts of things that restaurants need: foot traffic, a reliable environment that always allows them to be open, disposable income that allows people to go there, and a willingness for people to be in close proximity to each other.  The first three of those are at risk and the fourth in varying degrees, depending on where you are.  Additionally, there is a fifth issue:  these sorts of venues typically involve large capital upfront outlays and maintenance so their overall costs would tend to be higher.

I suspect the longer this goes, the more and more of these we will see disappear without anything to replace them (the risk of reopening by a new owner will be too high).  They may never completely disappear, but what will undoubtedly be the new social distancing regime will mean that they can have fewer folks overall and those folks will have to plan ahead far more in advance.  Most people will not make the effort.

Again, Commercial Real Estate companies, landlords, line employees, suppliers (largely food and alcohol suppliers I suspect) most impacted.

This is not meant to be a complete list but it is telling to me that certain groups - Real Estate Holders and those involved with real estate, retail/entry level employees, and supply chains - are possibly the most impacted.  If I was in those industries, I would be seriously looking for a new career.

What do you think?  Any impacts I missed?  Any sub-groups I failed to call out?

The Plague of 2020 And Schedules

One of the great changes - perhaps the greatest change - since the arrival of The Plague and its accompanying change in schedule - is the fact that my actual life schedule is approaching that of a "normal" human being.

The Cistercian Order had (and perhaps still has) a rather logical breakdown in the way a person should live their lives:  8 hours of prayer, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep.  Substitute "living" for "prayer" for we non-religious, and you have the makings of a good life.

So where has my schedule fallen apart in the past?  Work.  It has always been work. 

The minimum full time workday for anyone in modern society, hourly or salary, is 8 hours.  Add to that - for the salaried - that one is paid to complete tasks, not just for hours work.  Without almost any effort at all, that 8 hours immediately spreads out.

My typical work day - pre- Plague - saw me leaving home at 0700, commuting to work (shortest commute in 24 years, only 20 minutes) - and working until 1800 or so.  Lunch, once upon a time a separate endeavor, was crammed into the actual work day at my desk.  Commuting - if I left at 1800 - took another 20-30 minutes, so we will say 1830.  For those counting along at home, that is a little more than 8 hours.

This of course, impacted everything else.  I would then try to have a life outside of work, which would then eat into my time allocated for sleep.  On the whole I ended up tired and unrewarded in my personal life.

The Plague has brought things much closer to a form of balance.

The commute time has been the greatest change - it has changed to < 1 minute from 20 minutes as I amble my way to my new workspace, a hastily converted craft table which is now my effective "home office".  That alone has given me back an hour of my day.  Additionally, not being in the office has helped in another aspect as it is much more difficult for people to just call in or pop in for a quick question.  All contact is completely managed through a computer, which is there for my convenience - it is much easier to manage communication through a screen.

My work day is not quite 8 hours yet on a regular basis - although there are days that it has been! -, but it looks a great deal closer to the ideal - and that has included a period of time which we can call "lunch" but now includes a period set aside every day for training or literature review.  It is also forcing me to work more efficiently, which is in itself also not a bad development.

Now, to actually intake into my consciousness that I am one of those people that really requires 8 hours of sleep a night...

My Life's Schedule In The Plague of 2020

We have now passed week 15 of Isolation in The Plague of 2020.

Our lives have taken a certain sort of schedule to them.  The Ravishing Mrs. TB goes in to the office twice a week for work.  I have set up shop in the craft area with my computer, where I type away unless I have a meeting in which case I go into the bedroom to converse.  

Na Clann wander through the kitchen at various times of the morning (ah, the joy of being a student on a rather prolonged summer break) for coffee and then food.

Grocery shopping did happen weekly on Mondays until it was realized that Sunday evenings were the less crowded day to shop and thus that now seem to be the schedule.  At least one other time a week, one or more venture out for some other sort of supply -clothing, crafts - that was not available at the grocery store.

I venture out to the gym and for Iai class and come straight home.  Once a week I go to my volunteer job, get fuel, and perhaps venture out to my local used bookstore.  Beyond that, I never leave home except for walks around the neighborhood.

It strikes me as odd that this has become the sum total of my traveling existence.

When do I think things will change?  I really have not the slightest clue.  My best estimate at this point is that we will not be returning to the office before the end of the year if at that, and most likely not after that (I suspect the Winter season will see a resurgence of The Plague.  Add that to the Flu and no sensible company will want anyone back in the office).  So maybe call it next March or April.  All of the precautions will like stay in place until then.  To the mind's eye, in such an environment everyone that is out there becomes a potential vector of infection.  

But would I change?  In reality this sort of life - with only the change of not working in the office - was one that I had already embraced before any of this happened. I might run out to the store a little more frequently for this or that, but that was all.  This sort of living encompasses all of my life as it is was currently configured.  And very little has changed beyond that.

In reviewing this, I realize how much I was already pulling away from the larger social world.  The Plague of 2020 just accelerated a trend that already existed.

Dating The Plague of 2020, Round Two

Did you ever have one of those dating relationships where you felt like things were not going well and were not going to end well, but somehow you stuck with it in the unsustainable hope that things were somehow - dare I use the word "magically" - going to get better?  That is what the world feels like right now to me:  this constant sense that things are somehow just not quite right and are not getting "more right" any time in the future.

The lurch back and forth between opening and non-opening is one example.  Things are going fine - wait, things are not going so fine so hold on.  We are not sure when things are really going to go fine, so plan - but do not really plan (if you are business that depends on knowing what the situation will be, this is a killer, and something that will quickly convince you to just stay out of business).  And oh, once we decide to open things up, better get out there and spend, spend, spend because you know - support your local economy and all.

Or the reality that the shutdowns continue to have an impact.  Borepatch has a rather interesting simple state of the world note, where a bike shop that has been in business for 50 years is going out of business simply because they can no longer get any parts because the supply chain has given out from the shutdowns world wide.  And another contributor on his site, notes the same things in home improvement store.  These are the sorts of things you do not notice until you go to use them yourselves.

People have asked when I think I am going "back to the office".  I tell them I sincerely doubt it will be before next year.  My math is simple:  We are now at July.  We are in a place that has just gone back under the lock down so I expect that we will continue to "work from home" for much longer - and if we reach November, that is practically the end of the year with vacations.  And although the death rate from The Plague seems to be sinking, it still has potential long term impacts we are continuing to come to understand so who wants to take the risk?  (Add to that the fact that by the time Winter comes back around we will have perhaps the second wave to deal with as well as our regularly scheduled flu season.)

By that time we will have been "out of the office" for 9 months - can anyone, given what time of year it will be, think that coming back together in the depths of winter will be a good idea?

Add to this the general unrest, uncertainty around personal economics ("Do I have a job?  Will I have a job?"), the eventual inflation that will hit when our propensity to invent money out of thin air catches up with us and the counter-strike when someone suggests we need to "raise taxes" to pay for all this, and all of a sudden that highly uncomfortable relationship becomes one that we cannot dump quickly enough.

I will not say it will not be interesting, because as someone who observes the folly of nations and states this will be writing grist for the mill for years to come.  I will say that, if we are so fortunate to come out of it, it will scar generations the way that one bad relationship scars our love life for ever.

Dealer In Hope

As I survey the landscape of the first six months of 2020 - and what a first six months it has been! - what strikes me most of the entire situation - not just locally, or as a state or province level, or nationally, or even globally - is a complete and total lack of hope.

Quite a lot is being peddled today:  anger, rage, shame, despair, guilt, fear, hate, covetousness.  If you look at that list, you might think it favorably compares with the Seven Deadly Sins - which it does, to a point.  Voices are raised, fists are raised about what has not been done, what needs to be done, how all are failing all.

Amidst all of the above, there is simply no-one offering hope.

Groups are not offering it.  They only offer their view of the world and how others need to conform to  it or attempt to impose their moral standing upon others.

Government is not offering it.  It offers only more laws or more arguments as two sides engage in a battle of brinkmanship to seize the reins of power, titans engaged in a struggle while the rock on which the fight crumbles.

Interestingly enough, no religion is offering it either.  You would think of all groups, this would be their time to shine.  But they seem to fall into two camps:  those that have essentially become indistinguishable from the culture around them and thus only offer the view of the culture and those who may actually want to offer hope but seem very ineffectual in doing it. 

Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the above quote - something which, frankly, surprised me as I do not typically think of him as someone who would say such a thing - but to be fair, he appeared after the Terror of The French Revolution and the Directory.  To his soldiers and the French nation, he offered hope:  Hope of a restored France (and then, of course, a French Empire, a bit less hopeful for everyone that was conquered by him). 

Where are our leaders of hope today?  To what realm have the fled?  Or is not that that they have fled, is it instead that that have reserved their message of hope for themselves and those directly around them and abandoned the larger world to its rage and wrath and violence and shame and guilt?

Or is it simply that hope is much like a butterfly that scorns the fires of wrath and violence and the hurricanes of shame and guilt and will only appear in the quiet spring of peace and quiet?  If so, I fear we will find such times will be long in coming.

The Plague of 2020: Observational notes

So where we live, they have been going through a limited reopening - although oddly enough, both by state and county by county (we live in one county, and I work in another).  I was out and about a bit over the weekend - some general observations on the state of things.

1)  Traffic has definitely been increasing over the last two weeks from my limited trips out.  Still nowhere near pre-Plague traffic levels though.

2)  I visited my favorite local used book stores (three in my driving range).  All three are requiring masks and are laid out with flow arrows and other certain rules (such as one person in an alcove, etc.).  One of the three had a customer limit that once hit, asked for 30 minutes of shopping (they all had a limit).  People were generally well mannered and one of the store personnel recognized me from last week.  "It is weird" she said, "I am recognizing people with their masks on where before I was not."

Their stocks were definitely down.  Interestingly enough, almost all Role Playing Games were completely wiped out.

3)  Driving around the edge of commercial centers, some are open but there are still gaps where things (such as restaurants) are closed.  There was a 6 foot distancing line to get into Ross (discount clothing store).  I cannot imagine waiting in line just to get in there.

4)  My gym is in its second week of opening.  I went for the first time in almost two months on Monday.  No requirement for a mask (but I wore one, habit now I guess) and an hour limit on a workout.  As it was Memorial Day, there were more people than are normally there when I go.  It was the largest crowd I had been around in 9 weeks.  It was weird and a bit uncomfortable.

5)  Gasoline has become the climb back up the price chart.  It got as low as $1.19 a gallon but is back up near the $1.40 a gallon.  I still have not used a whole tank in the last two months.

6)  My work (anyway) had made no move to restore onsite operations - in fact, due to construction, they are decreasing onsite staff even more.  I am easily betting there is no return to work until the end of July at this point.

Of Eggs And Rice

Growing up amidst three square meals a day, we had a multitude of different meals.  Breakfasts were always eggs (scrambled except the days they were softboiled) and Fridays, which were cereal.  Lunches - at least into high school, were almost inevitably a sandwich of some kind (in the time before lunch tupperware, this was the way of the world), chips or crackers, apple, and a cookie.  Dinner ran the gauntlet but mostly (that I recall) consisted of pasta, beef, or chicken.

But from this melange of 18 + years of meals, there are a few that stick with me even now.  Meatloaf and baked red potatoes (both which were from my maternal grandmother and which we still make at the Toridhealbheach Beucail household to this day), spaghetti, waffles off a real waffle maker, and fried rice cakes.

I am sure that fried rice cakes are not really what they were (or are) called.  It consisted of white rice which was left over from previous dinners, combined with egg (as a binder) and fried for breakfast.  We had them with syrup (not the maple kind, which we never had growing up but rather the sugar syrup with maple flavoring, which we {again} still have to this day).

I cannot tell you what made these so memorable to me.  Maybe it was the fact that they were rare (seldom do I recall us having leftover rice).  Maybe it was because it was one of the few non pancake and waffle meals where loading something up with syrup was allowed.  Maybe it was the texture (they are very different from anything else that I have eaten).  But they continue to stand out my memory as a delicious memory.

The pictures you see above are my attempts from this weekend to make them.  My recipe is not that original:  add leftover rice (about three cups) and eggs (I eyeballed it and adding two), and mix together.  As you can see, my sizing is all that good and my ability to judge how long to fry them got better as I cooked.

Having them this weekend, with my non-maple syrup maple syrup, I had a double helping of satisfaction.  The first was that rather than having rice that ended up not being used, I was re-use it.  The second was a reasonable approximation of a food I enjoyed growing up.

Good use of resources, good memories, good practices.  All cleverly disguised in eggs and rice.