Solitude Times

sweetfights · Mar 29, 2020

Bfd70 said:
@sweetfights you guys doin ok otj?

Shut down at all stations.
We only leave for calls and are not accepting visits from the public.
We allow paramedics to take all medical calls and only enter the scene if absolutely required to limit redundant exposure.
Spirits are high though !
Crazy times....

nick123 · Mar 29, 2020

Besides counting the cracks on my ceiling in bed, I have done a few cool things. I finally got to typing out my grandfather's childhood history in war-torn WWII Croatia.

El Marro · Mar 29, 2020

Cool idea for a thread AeroFan!
So this is something I have been thinking about doing for awhile myself. Back in the days when we had coffee shops and restaurants I just never found the time. With far fewer things to distract me these days I got out to Ford Point in Richmond, CA to snap some photos this morning.

This is a shot looking out across the bay at San Francisco, Treasure Island, and the Bay Bridge. It was a drizzly foggy morning but still quite lovely to be out on the shoreline.
Here are a couple photos of me and my 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. LW Ryder on top, Left Field Atlas fit jeans, and Wesco 7500 boots in British Tan.

On my left in the last photo you can see the corner of the old Ford Plant. Ford built this building in 1936 and it was used to produce tanks during the Second World War. After closing in 1955 it fell into disrepair until the early 2000’s when a developer purchased and restored it.
Ford Point is also the site of the Rosie the Riveter Museum. Very cool spot to check out and learn a bit of the history of the wartime industry and resourcefulness that went on up and down the West Coast of the United States during that time.

Lebowski · Mar 29, 2020

El Marro said:
Cool idea for a thread AeroFan!
So this is something I have been thinking about doing for awhile myself. Back in the days when we had coffee shops and restaurants I just never found the time. With far fewer things to distract me these days I got out to Ford Point in Richmond, CA to snap some photos this morning. View attachment 223613
This is a shot looking out across the bay at San Francisco, Treasure Island, and the Bay Bridge. It was a drizzly foggy morning but still quite lovely to be out on the shoreline.
Here are a couple photos of me and my 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. LW Ryder on top, Left Field Atlas fit jeans, and Wesco 7500 boots in British Tan.
View attachment 223614
View attachment 223615
On my left in the last photo you can see the corner of the old Ford Plant. Ford built this building in 1936 and it was used to produce tanks during the Second World War. After closing in 1955 it fell into disrepair until the early 2000’s when a developer purchased and restored it.
Ford Point is also the site of the Rosie the Riveter Museum. Very cool spot to check out and learn a bit of the history of the wartime industry and resourcefulness that went on up and down the West Coast of the United States during that time.

Interesting photos, thanks! Deep green Chevy - mate, it does deserves starting a good new autos-dedicated thread, seriously, what a muscle beast!

Dav · Mar 29, 2020

I must say we've had some beautiful sunsets the last week, lovely natural vapour trail free skys.

Monitor · Mar 29, 2020

zebedee said:
On Alpha Centauri there is one mystery that remains unsolved despite advances in infinite energy, telepathy, immortality and phase-shifting. It's why anyone would need more than one high-end leather jacket and a decent pair of boots. Information can only be gleaned by way of a rectal probe and even then it's partial, fragmentary.

Animal abductions are actually a cover for attempts to replicate 'fit jackets' to cajole answers out of reticent abductees, but the trance-slurred responses always dry up if the grain and patina isn't right.

If you don't publish something, you ought to get tried for crimes against humanity. Dad jeans post still has me chuckle to this they when I randomly recall it.

zebedee · Mar 29, 2020

Monitor said:
If you don't publish something, you ought to get tried for crimes against humanity. Dad jeans post still has me chuckle to this they when I randomly recall it.

I think about it from time to time- 'Literature and Charming Dissolution - Ten Years in Shanghai' or somesuch. I knew a guy in Hong Kong - I also worked with him in Shanghai - who finally went home for his own health. Some people go to parties and get drunk, but he got drunk and went to parties.

El Marro · Mar 29, 2020

Monitor said:
If you don't publish something, you ought to get tried for crimes against humanity. Dad jeans post still has me chuckle to this they when I randomly recall it.

I agree wholeheartedly. my favorite Zebedee post was in the thread about the lady who makes those one of a kind haute couture leather jackets and never uses the same leather or color twice...
You definitely have a way with words my friend and I always look forward to reading your next post.

Will Zach · Mar 29, 2020

I greatly admire people who can write - because I can't. Not sure it can be learned either. Always looking forward to some creative prose on TFL, particularly in these weird and sometimes depressing times!

jonesy86 · Mar 29, 2020

Dav said:
I must say we've had some beautiful sunsets the last week, lovely natural vapour trail free skys.
View attachment 223619

The ocean turned brown here after recent heavy rains.

Monitor · Mar 29, 2020

I tried writing a coupla times but nothing good ever came out of it. Actually gotten some 15 pages into what was supposed to be a short story and then my good friend asked him if I'd read his story he wrote about his two months at a mental institution, thinking I'm qualified to tell him if it's good. Realized there and then I'm not cut out to write. The story was great, but the way he told it... He is natural storyteller. I am not.

He never pursued publishing it, though. Dunno why. Couldn't ever convince him it's what he should be doing so he's just playing video-games and stuffing himself with pretty much every anti-depressant and hypnotic on the market. All prescribed, too.

Will Zach · Mar 29, 2020

Creativity and depression often go hand in hand.

zebedee · Mar 30, 2020

Monitor said:
I tried writing a coupla times but nothing good ever came out of it. Actually gotten some 15 pages into what was supposed to be a short story and then my good friend asked him if I'd read his story he wrote about his two months at a mental institution, thinking I'm qualified to tell him if it's good. Realized there and then I'm not cut out to write. The story was great, but the way he told it... He is natural storyteller. I am not.

He never pursued publishing it, though. Dunno why. Couldn't ever convince him it's what he should be doing so he's just playing video-games and stuffing himself with pretty much every anti-depressant and hypnotic on the market. All prescribed, too.

I reckon that good writing comes out of good reading - when you look at great novelists they tended to be great readers. Writers who made an early impression on me were Burroughs, Ballard and Conrad, although all for very different reasons. 'Heart of Darkness' I re-read every few years. When I wasn't even 20, I was leant Burroughs' 'Cities of the Red Night' at the same time that I was listening to Bowie's '1. Outside', and the combination did something to my brain. I still rate the Bowie album, but Burroughs I think hasn't stood the test of time as much in my estimation. I reckon that Henry Miller surpassed most of the Beat writers 20 years before they'd even started typing and I am constantly and repeatedly impressed by Don DeLillo - a collection of his short stories 'Angel Esmerelda' contains some incredibly economical, affecting work. If I had a guaranteed income and could spend all of my time writing, I think I'd write something (maybe, eventually).

Writing is probably like anything else - if you want to get better at it than you are, do it every day. Anything you do repeatedly, you get better at (writing, cooking, push-ups, depression, whatever- so choose something constructive...). I had a buddy years ago who took up boxing at 31, knowing that he'd never spar professionally and kept at it. He encouraged me to do the same and his rationale was this: 'If you take up boxing, you might never win a bout or a belt or anything at all. But the you that's boxed for six months will be able to beat the sh*t out of you now.' That's probably the best thing I've ever heard, and the truest, too.

AeroFan_07 · Mar 30, 2020

El Marrio - some great shots there! That Monte Carlos looks fantastic, great to see you getting it out & about.

Really like the intrest this thread seems to have picked up. I am also myself a reader, working through books number 5 and 6 presently for the year. I enjoy the aspect of people and cultures in life. I desire to travel broadly (poat Covid-19) and am also in the midst of National Geographic's "Great Course" in Photography, which was a gift from my parents back at Christmas.

Two quick "disclaimers" here: First, I do not encouarge people to be out and about if they risk more exposre to the virus, or other possible ills. Do not take un-needed risks, however if you are well, do enjoy a walk periodically, it helps a lot.

Secondly - if you suspect that by going out a lonely place away from Civilization may cause you to be snapped up by the extra-terrestrials, take along a dog. At least you'll stand a better chance that your pup will go after them, or you can at least get snapped up together.

One more shot from yesturday:

zebedee · Mar 30, 2020

Dav said:
I must say we've had some beautiful sunsets the last week, lovely natural vapour trail free skys.
View attachment 223619

Edward · Mar 30, 2020

zebedee said:
I was also going to watch 'The Irishman', but I don't have that much time on my hands.

I'm going to watch it on my phone, just to wind Scorsese up.

PrettySquareGal said:
Despite a CDC travel advisory this NYC "Influencer" bragged about leaving the city last night in a camper with her five little kids and husband so they could head to the hills in Utah. When will this insanity and reckless behavior end?!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-SjTReD-ml/

That sort of thing should be a criminal offence. Actually, the current law probably could take her down if it were to be proven that she or her brood had carried the virus and spread it to someone else. This is the biggest threat to beating coronovirus: the cult of the individual, with no care for the community.

zebedee · Mar 30, 2020

Edward said:
I'm going to watch it on my phone, just to wind Scorsese up.

That sort of thing should be a criminal offence. Actually, the current law probably could take her down if it were to be proven that she or her brood had carried the virus and spread it to someone else. This is the biggest threat to beating coronovirus: the cult of the individual, with no care for the community.

There is still a misconception that this only affects the elderly or chronically ill, even though current figures dictate that that is not the whole story. As weeks go by, the chief risk is boredom followed swiftly by a secondary frustration with how long this will go on for. China faces another wave of infections and many foreigners are now seen as being to blame (the Chinese is a convenient term: they comprise 50 different ethnicities and there may well be tribal backlashes as well as political resentment of foreigners due to the press); returnee expats to Hong Kong are not always quarantining (getting massively intoxicated in Wan Chai instead) and this has led to cluster outbreaks which are affecting non-native Hong Kongers socially (a friend of mine has described their status as 'suspected leper'). The model of effective containment is South Korea: rigorous testing and retesting until figures approach manageability- the West has lagged catastrophically in this regard and I suspect a rolling fatigue with Brexit's drama/non-drama has had an influence, too. 'Boomer-Remover' has entered the the vocabulary and we may need to face up to a hard truth in that sizeable numbers of people cannot imagine themselves as old or much care for the elderly. If we have entered an age where the new threat is that of the pandemic, it will need to be drummed in to the societal imagination that this is a substantial threat in any given year and therefore of relevance to them, too.

Seb Lucas · Mar 31, 2020

Monitor said:
What possible use would aliens have by abducting people, anyway? They have the technology to reach Earth from light-years away but not to study people without physically abducting and exposing them to long, primitive and basic examinations? Lol, alien medical tech is pretty backwards if they need to probe people in order to learn about us. I'd think one quick scan from the orbit'd tell 'em all they need to know.

Not to mention they survive thousands of years worth of travel (provided they haven't figured out how to travel FTL and I'm willing to bet they haven't) only to crash here!

Your inferences are probably spot on assuming aliens actually exist, which is far from settled. All we are have claims and beliefs. I personally don't give a shit unless they can do something good for us.

navetsea · Mar 31, 2020

alien abducts us for lulz and giggles.

seriously though comparing from our own habit, if you climb a mountain or visit a beach, you might bring home an interesting rock or shell just as souvenir

AeroFan_07 · May 3, 2020

Took a drive back out to this same spot this evening. Been a partly cloudy day, 70F and some peaks of a sunset happening. No jackets this time, just some White's Packer boots, Selvedge denim, and a white T-shirt. Corona virus needs to move on.

Some good news, it's planting season in Iowa, so everthing is greening up. It's a welcome change of pace.

Sunsets out here are part of what make living in the midwest so enjoyable...

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