Category: Strange News

Life During The Wuhan Virus

This morning, I woke up and I turned on the TV.  On CBS, I was shocked to see a college basketball game being played.  Thinking that maybe these were two teams who were playing in defiance to the cancellation of their season, I then saw that the stands were full of cheering fans.

“Are they crazy!?” I thought.  Usually, I’ll defend college students against the argument that they’re all entitled and irresponsible but considering what’s going on in the world, this seemed like peak entitlement….

Just as I was reaching total outrage, I realized that I was watching an old game.  CBS is currently showing a Michigan State/Wisconsin game from 2015.  I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of this.  With so many big sporting events being cancelled and so many tv shows and movies suspending publication because of the Wuhan Virus, I imagine a lot of networks will be turning towards the archives.

What a time!  Last week, around this time, Lisa & I were on an airplane flying back to the U.S. after spending two weeks in the UK and France.  That seems like a year ago.

Right now, due to the Wuhan Virus, life is on hold in many places of the world.  That’s certainly the case down here in Texas.  I’m going to be working from home until at least the end of this month.  Lisa’s office is going to be closed until at least April 13th.

I’m not panicking about the Wuhan Virus.  I’m taking all the necessary precautions because that’s all you really can do.  These are scary times but we’ll get through it.  America is a much stronger country than a lot of people are willing to admit.

As for me, I got groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days.  No worries for me.

This ain’t no disco.  This ain’t no fooling around.  But we’ll survive.

Do Something With Your Clocks Tonight

We get an extra hour tonight so be sure to turn your clocks either backwards or forwards.  It’s hard to remember which.  Since I never reset my clock the last time that daylight savings time kicked in, I’m in good shape.

On this day, I’m reminded of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer decided to jump into the future by setting his watch an hour ahead a week earlier than everyone else, which naturally led to chaos for everyone but Kramer.  (Wasn’t that always the way?)  When I was growing up, the excuse that I always heard for daylight savings time was that it was to prevent children from having to walk to school in the dark.  I always thought a better solution would have been to just start school later in the day.

As for what I’ll use my extra hour for, I’m getting older so I’ll probably sleep right through it.  Daylight savings time is wasted on the young.

Waiting For The End In The Netherlands

This story is getting a lot of play right now so I’m going to share it here before the inevitable movie comes out:

Dutch family ‘waiting for end of time’ discovered in basement

To summarize: A long-haired, bearded man walked into a pub in Ruinerworld, a village in the Netherlands.  He ordered and drank five beers.  He then told the bartender that he needed help because he and his siblings had spent the last nine years living in a basement with an older man (who, apparently, was not related to them) who told them that the world was going to end and that everyone else was dead.  Authorities investigated and discovered that the young man was apparently telling the truth!

This is an amazing story, so amazing that I still keep expecting to hear that it’s some sort of hoax.  Everything about the story is just too strange and the film version pretty much writes itself.  Imagine spending nine years thinking that you and your family are the last people on Earth, just to then step into a pub.  The fact that he reacted to all of this by drinking five beers only makes the story all the more …  I don’t want to say perfect because,  actually, this is a very disturbing story and it seems probable that, as we learn more about it, the details will become much less humorous.

For now, my favorite quote comes from the local postman, who never delivered a single letter to the farm: “It’s actually pretty strange, now I come to think about it.”