WE NEED MORE SPIRITS!

It has taken me over a year to finish a 200ml bottle of whiskey. Not because I'm a slow drinker, but because I do not drink at all; it might interfere with my medication, and we can't have that. The whiskey is used for cleaning briar smoking equipment, and obviously another bottle must be acquired. Fortunately, in a city like SF, whiskey can be found easily. It has been a beloved recreational substance here for over one hundred and seventy years.

During the last year some people have recreated more than others.

Sanity maintenance sometimes requires insanity.

Temporary, and induced.


The way I and most of my friends have staved off burn-out and melt-down has been by becoming more of what we were to begin with. Opinionated, obsessive compulsive, neurotic, and pre-occupied with certain things. I've enjoyed smoking my pipes a lot more, as well as discovering the things you can do with the paint program on the computer. Plus slagging bumpkins, Christians, red states, and non-liberals. All of which could perhaps be seen as 'virtue signaling', except I do not claim any virtues, just a modicum of common sense and a basic informed background from reading.

I realize that I need to do the complete opposite of slagging for certain people. My apartment mate, who has held it together quite well. Our landlords, who are still sane and stable. The waitresses at some of my favourite restaurants, the two ladies who run the grocery store where I purchase noodles, sambal, and strange Asian snackies. The various ladies connected with bakeries in Chinatown where I sometimes enjoy hot milk tea and pastries. The staff at the hospital, catering to an ornery demographic. My coworkers for not going berserk.

HOLDING IT TOGETHER

Except for the last named bunch, everyone is Chinese American. Because my universe has shrunk. On my days off, I stroll around this neighborhood a few times with a pipe in my mouth, or head over the hill to Chinatown to do a bit of essential shopping. Largely, I avoid the nearby main drag, because it's crowded with non-mask wearers, which I assume to be the case out in the avenues also, and from what little I've seen of Market Street, the Financial District, and the Union Square area, non-mask wearing is common there too.

The elderly Cantonese who live in this neighborhood all wear masks.
As do the people I mentioned in the un-slag category.
Who have kept their acts together.
Kudos.




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