Birthday parades and how life has changed, part 2
I knew I would forget something. Here's more on how life has changed:
--Most of my meals have been taken in my room. It started so I could avoid my family when I was really sick, but then we dismantled the first floor and we haven't really been able to use the kitchen table in weeks, so yeah, my bedside table has become my de facto dining table as well. Sometimes, for breakfast, I'll pull one of the chairs into the doorway between the kitchen and dining room so I can watch the news in there (we don't eat in the dining room, silly) since I'm only eating a bowl of cereal. Or sometimes I just eat standing up at the counter, but that's rare.
--TV ads are almost all virus-related. Either they're discussing how a company has responded to C-19 ("We don't touch our pizzas after they come out of the oven!" or "No payments for X months if you buy a new car!"), or they're talking about what to do if you have symptoms, or what have you. Businesses are making all sorts of accommodations in order to keep customers and make money.
--Did I mention how talk shows are originating out of the hosts' homes? (We love the Fallons. I love that Jimmy got his wife on camera. There would have been a time when I would have not felt that way, to say the least, but Nancy is pretty cool and the girls are cute. Their dad may be at the helm of the most storied late night talk show of all time, but they bring him down to earth pretty quickly. Plus, I mean, they have a slide in their house. And Gary the dog. My mom was super confused as to why a girl dog has a boy's name. Just go with it, mom.)
--The news is also originating out of people's homes. Channel 9 may be rare in that they have both anchors sitting at the anchor desk, though they are at least 6' apart, if not farther. It's kind of amazing to see the Around Town person, Ana, doing everything from her house. Actually, most people are. It's really interesting to see everyone's houses--and family members, because at some point they tend to wander into frame. On Channel 5, Brant Miller has a full-on green screen in his house for his weather segments, which I figured out early on. The quality of the picture is a little different, otherwise you might have thought he was still in the studio. Also on Channel 5, they're having the two lead anchors take turns. One will be at the studio, while the other is at home. They're set up with backdrops to keep it classy, I suppose. We had bad weather a couple weeks ago now, and the 4 PM weatherman had been keeping us informed as to what was going on; then the president came on with his daily press conference (another recent thing). Channel 5 then cut back to the anchor desk and apparently didn't warn the weather guy they'd be going to him, so they were like "And here's Paul with a check on the weather," and he's sitting there, wearing shorts, with his leg propped up on something, so that his knee is in the shot. He clearly was not expecting that to happen, and when he realized he was on camera, he simply reached over and turned the camera off. NICE. It was unexpectedly hilarious, but also a reminder that if there's a camera in front of you, maybe expect to be on camera at any and all times. I've not seen that happen again. And good thing that it was nothing untoward.
One thing I mentioned yesterday was the birthday parades, except I realized I never wrote up the first one. This happened on Wednesday. Around 20 to 4 PM, mom asked why there were a bunch of trucks in front of the house. I looked out the window and sure enough, there are five tow trucks starting in front of our house and going down the street to the corner, including blocking our neighbors' driveway. A sixth car came behind them with balloons sticking out. It was clear they were waiting for something to happen, as I could see a girl, maybe teens or early 20s, in the passenger seat of one of the trucks, fiddling with her phone, not sitting up expecting anything to happen soon. When they kept sitting there and sitting there, I wondered if whatever was going on would be happening at 4. Sure enough, about 4 o'clock, the tow trucks all turned on their lights, and one of them started playing this generic version of "Happy Birthday." (I actually got some of this on my camera.) It took a while for the caravan to start going, but there were cars getting in front of the trucks, cars coming down the street in the other direction trying to join the back of the line, which then had to go around the corner. Eventually they drove, with all the cars and trucks honking; some people had signs. I have no idea what house this was for, but obviously it was someone down the block. Hey, if this is what you can do, so be it. It seemed like some of the cars went around a second time, and I also saw a vehicle with a sunroof, which was open, and a girl wearing a party hat was standing through it. I wondered if she was the birthday girl. Anyway, it added some excitement to the day. I just felt bad that she was born on Tax Day of all days, heh.
--Most of my meals have been taken in my room. It started so I could avoid my family when I was really sick, but then we dismantled the first floor and we haven't really been able to use the kitchen table in weeks, so yeah, my bedside table has become my de facto dining table as well. Sometimes, for breakfast, I'll pull one of the chairs into the doorway between the kitchen and dining room so I can watch the news in there (we don't eat in the dining room, silly) since I'm only eating a bowl of cereal. Or sometimes I just eat standing up at the counter, but that's rare.
--TV ads are almost all virus-related. Either they're discussing how a company has responded to C-19 ("We don't touch our pizzas after they come out of the oven!" or "No payments for X months if you buy a new car!"), or they're talking about what to do if you have symptoms, or what have you. Businesses are making all sorts of accommodations in order to keep customers and make money.
--Did I mention how talk shows are originating out of the hosts' homes? (We love the Fallons. I love that Jimmy got his wife on camera. There would have been a time when I would have not felt that way, to say the least, but Nancy is pretty cool and the girls are cute. Their dad may be at the helm of the most storied late night talk show of all time, but they bring him down to earth pretty quickly. Plus, I mean, they have a slide in their house. And Gary the dog. My mom was super confused as to why a girl dog has a boy's name. Just go with it, mom.)
--The news is also originating out of people's homes. Channel 9 may be rare in that they have both anchors sitting at the anchor desk, though they are at least 6' apart, if not farther. It's kind of amazing to see the Around Town person, Ana, doing everything from her house. Actually, most people are. It's really interesting to see everyone's houses--and family members, because at some point they tend to wander into frame. On Channel 5, Brant Miller has a full-on green screen in his house for his weather segments, which I figured out early on. The quality of the picture is a little different, otherwise you might have thought he was still in the studio. Also on Channel 5, they're having the two lead anchors take turns. One will be at the studio, while the other is at home. They're set up with backdrops to keep it classy, I suppose. We had bad weather a couple weeks ago now, and the 4 PM weatherman had been keeping us informed as to what was going on; then the president came on with his daily press conference (another recent thing). Channel 5 then cut back to the anchor desk and apparently didn't warn the weather guy they'd be going to him, so they were like "And here's Paul with a check on the weather," and he's sitting there, wearing shorts, with his leg propped up on something, so that his knee is in the shot. He clearly was not expecting that to happen, and when he realized he was on camera, he simply reached over and turned the camera off. NICE. It was unexpectedly hilarious, but also a reminder that if there's a camera in front of you, maybe expect to be on camera at any and all times. I've not seen that happen again. And good thing that it was nothing untoward.
One thing I mentioned yesterday was the birthday parades, except I realized I never wrote up the first one. This happened on Wednesday. Around 20 to 4 PM, mom asked why there were a bunch of trucks in front of the house. I looked out the window and sure enough, there are five tow trucks starting in front of our house and going down the street to the corner, including blocking our neighbors' driveway. A sixth car came behind them with balloons sticking out. It was clear they were waiting for something to happen, as I could see a girl, maybe teens or early 20s, in the passenger seat of one of the trucks, fiddling with her phone, not sitting up expecting anything to happen soon. When they kept sitting there and sitting there, I wondered if whatever was going on would be happening at 4. Sure enough, about 4 o'clock, the tow trucks all turned on their lights, and one of them started playing this generic version of "Happy Birthday." (I actually got some of this on my camera.) It took a while for the caravan to start going, but there were cars getting in front of the trucks, cars coming down the street in the other direction trying to join the back of the line, which then had to go around the corner. Eventually they drove, with all the cars and trucks honking; some people had signs. I have no idea what house this was for, but obviously it was someone down the block. Hey, if this is what you can do, so be it. It seemed like some of the cars went around a second time, and I also saw a vehicle with a sunroof, which was open, and a girl wearing a party hat was standing through it. I wondered if she was the birthday girl. Anyway, it added some excitement to the day. I just felt bad that she was born on Tax Day of all days, heh.