Neo

I did, and I erred.

I would like status updates ...

If you are awarding me a patent for the drive by post, I’ll cynically accept if royalties are involved. Absent royalties, I’ll push back and say I hardly invented it, nor am I its most frequent practitioner. I do, however, love the language and get your point! I have no idea what heavily armed men tried to kill whom or what porterhouse limits exist where. Truly. My post was inspired by a montage of officials, all levels, all parties, describing their powers and rationales. I was, and am, struck by what I called unfamiliarity with civil liberties in my post. “I am doing this because it’s effective, says me and science and medicine.” I call that a good start, not a finish. Walk me through the next steps in the context of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and I’ll think about it. I have never been much for “cuz I said so” government. I am not at all rejecting the strategy. I have self quarantined for 51 days. My wife’s joined me. I think we’ve done things mostly right. We have gone grocery shopping, to the pharmacy, to restaurants for curbside pickup (no porterhouse) and I’ve gone to my office six times. I have an “essential service” letter in my car! We’ve done this because we believe it makes sense, as best we can figure. We don’t want to get sick. We don’t want to be conduits for sickness to find others. In short, we’re all in. I am not, however, prepared to have my location tracked and traced, nor to be surveilled by drones. I am also not prepared to tell others they can’t have friends over, arrange play dates for their kids, or go to church if their assessment of risk differs from mine. As you’ve seen over the years, my skin gets itchy when I get close to the “tell others they should” zone, no matter how compelling I think my argument is. I get itchier when I see others in the “should” zone, too. This isn’t about boat launches and inconvenience. It is precisely about not recognizing that this isn’t about boat launches and inconvenience. Now, you may have noticed over the years that I am fiscally conservative. I acknowledged the pandemic is different and adjusted my views to capture an extraordinary time. I pushed back on the characterization that this is a rainy day businesses should have been prepared for and wrote “print, baby, print” somewhere in these pages. I’m aware of what’s going on. I’d welcome a debate over authority, liberty, lockdown and consequence. It would have to be thorough, however, and not lost in the din of “should, cuz science, and boat slips”. Lastly, if you believe I’m a little late to the game, you’d be correct. It’s the minor frictions around re-opening that brought my attention back to the topic. In other words, while I was all in, I didn’t give it much thought beyond health care workers and the devastation of the economy and working families. The drones, the ramifications of tracing, are news stories I’m seeing now. Forgive me if I have a wary, dystopian, view of the government and the future. Crises, Patriot Act, it’s good for us, crises, movement tracking, it’s good for us, crises, drones in the intersection, it’s good for us ... and all that. The problem with criticism of me worrying about us blindly surrendering freedoms is our history of doing just that. I behaved. I was good. There are those that propose that there will be a record of everywhere I went in some data base. My web searches and purchases can be catalogued, too. I mean, how perfect for Google. The marriage of big government and big data. My medical records can be scrubbed so that appropriate lifestyle choices can be “encouraged” by the single payer. Makes sense, no? I mean, if the government is providing my health care, how can I be allowed to drink soda, or smoke, or enjoy red meat? China has social credit, why can’t we? Life’s beautiful and risky. I won’t surrender the former to shrink the latter without a rationale and a fight. I don’t own a boat.

I know science. I have common sense. The extent to which our leaders are unfamiliar with civil liberties, and the extent to which our citizens do not care, saddens me. (The latter allows the former). Sentences one, two and three do not contradict one another.

I look forward to the antibody test (who don’t). One week apart, Mrs. Neo and I developed a dry cough in mid-late January. It lasted four weeks for each of us. We had mild aches and pains and felt lethargic. She’s convinced we had it (she rarely gets ill and her family’s life expectancy is, like, 137 years). I’m convinced we didn’t have it (I don’t get ill often but I’m Type I, IDD and overweight, if not obese). In short, she believes she may may had it, and lived. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have lived, had I had it. Our memories are a little fuzzy regarding onset and duration. We sure are “inter-actors” and would have spread the contagion, despite good hygiene, coughing into our elbows, etc. We may have been well regarded, well liked, spreaders of disease. When you take our personal uncertainties, and consider them alongside those of seven billion other people over six months, and work your combinations and permutations, well .... I have sympathy for individuals making decisions and for leaders making decisions for them. I’m not prepared to blame or criticize, yet. The man in the arena, and all that. But, of course, exactly that is happening. And so it goes, human nature and a virus of another sort that’s been among us for tens of thousands of years. By the way ... anyone following the dust-up between AMC Theaters, Regal Cinema and Universal Pictures? An inevitable clash had its arrival date moved up by a virus. We will emerge into a different world.

You’d have a pretty good “all time” team with this list.

I am a man of limited capacity ..... exhibit 2,711 I could never tell if Tretiak was a great goaltender, or the goaltender on a great team.

https://youtu.be/tkt63NNoRr8

I canoed Algonquin, twice. Later in life I honeymooned on Baptiste Lake and visited Bancroft and Highland Grove. There was a coed camp on Baptiste. My son did a summer at Langskib.

Langskib?

Ovechkin is my answer. Too much, too many, too long ... and with an edge, while having fun. Now, if you got Ovechkin and I got Datsyuk or Federov, I'd not lose a minute's sleep. Different style, same "highest of high" result. The real tough question is how do you choose between these two. Federov, because of playoff success? Datsyuk, because he played hockey like Karpov played chess? Datsyuk, it is. And ... all of those old timer names from the 1970s. The truly greats, the Titans. KLM (Larianov was nearly 30 before entering the NHL; Markov 31), Helmut Balderis (Great Name HOF), Fetisov 31 years old at entry!. SO many, so many. As I read the names together, the impact these guys had as 30 to 40 year olds is a topic, itself.

Perfect ... I know you “see” the moment.

No .... but, but. The glee I find here is Dudacek’s premise of building the best team. That’s not naming the best players, necessarily. I tried to list my best six Sabres defensemen and always found myself trying to add Hajt as six or seven. I still do. Here’s my problem ... just like my list of top ten movies has 27 entries, my list of top six defensemen has ten.

And Your tanning photo

Hard ... Some of these guys are favorites. Bottom line ... Housley and Ramsey .. but Bill Hajt’s gotta make the team!

TFW No GF ... A glimpse into an aimless, lonely, soulless, empty world ... is there a generation, a demographic? If so, how do we rescue a generation, a demographic? I’m going to need time with this one. Thought starter ... is it better to have become a whole human being without the internet, and find it later .. or is it better to have become a whole human being with the internet, given that it’s here. First conclusion ... it is a starkly different developmental path. Adding ... there is some redemption at the end. These are some well read young men. Joyless, but well read.

I’m prepared to say something silly ... doesn’t he have a military commitment?

I shave my head. The good news is, I look the same after nearly seven weeks of quarantine. The bad new is, I look the same after nearly seven weeks ... Mrs. Neo dyed her own hair over the weekend. Plastic hats and the smell of chemicals. The Madison Reed kit arrived by mail. She’s a “monthly touch up” person when there aren’t pandemics and visited the home the same hairdresser for years. Frugal, humble and modest, her monthly visit is her only real indulgence, if hair coloring can be considered a treat. She’s lovely, and I told her so. Soon, I will be at the bar sipping Manhattans with Chrissy, Clay and Carol. She’ll be head in the sink, chatting with Heather. Shrek and Fiona, Beauty and Beast ...

That ‘s the final straw .... JB must go.

I cannot see or download that picture.

Oh, what a night .. After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down.After midnight, we're gonna chug-a-lug and shout.We're gonna stimulate some action;We're gonna get some satisfaction.We're gonna find out what it is all about.After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down. One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rockFive, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock.Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rockWe're gonna rock around the clock tonight.

My right hand is 9 1/8, measured the NFL way. A pro sized football is very hard for me to grip with easy comfort or confidence. I’ve googled articles that say the pro ball is larger than the college ball, but when measurements are given they’re ranges and seem to mostly overlap. Add cold, ice and snow, and I think a pro hand needs to be a lot larger than mine. I am an L in mens gloves. Those boys have some mitts.

Sweden .... institutional green painted plasterboard wall. The United States ... Pablo Picasso on LSD mural painted brick wall. We learn wherever we look. It ain’t gonna be easy to learn correctly.

YES! The guy laying on his back .... “sunning”

^ I am without words imagining the insomnia-maniacal 2 a.m. cerebral heat blister that led to ... that. You were surfing Cosmo Sex and Love, man. And the photo!