The Covid Diaries, Day 2...what is a Postquel?

Well, instead of a litany of complaints, symptoms and pains, i will try and spare you those and see if I can come up with something a little more optimistic. I have found, that when you have to stay home, you start to once again notice things you may not have before. You remember things you should have done a long time ago, and you actually do them. For once, because you're here.

Day 2 is actually the 3rd official day of COVID for me, and I have no idea if I'm improving or not. It seems very different for each person, but in any case you have enough to feel like shit over without counting off all of it.

Suffice to say, the only real problem I have is my voice. The feeling of getting a knife-edge chop to the throat is ugly, and it makes you feel like you can't swallow let alone speak properly. Too many years of dealing with voice and throat issues, and I've still managed to maintain a "radio voice" that doesn't sound like it was destroyed by Chesterfields and rot-gut. Old school journalists loved to grouse that was what they lived on and the generation that followed them drank wine spritzers (whatever those were).

Well, the old guys are all pretty much dead and gone, and I was fortunate to be sideways-mentored by a curmudgeonly SOB named Peter Freyne. He actually was a nice guy, but for whatever reason didn't always like to show it. He was grumpy, moody, smoked a lot, drank gin and tonics (I bought a reciprocal round for the man way back in the day), and he got me stoned late one night on Main Street in Burlington, VT across from Nector's. What does that tell you?

Wonder why I'm thinking about the man, and other fellows I grew up listening to, and in some cases working with. Most, like Peter have passed away but a few still are out there in the ether.

Irwin Gratz is one of them. Dr. Irwin Gratz, mind I worked with in Maine while going to school in the 80's. He's been the Morning Edition man at Maine Public Radio for a very long time, and they are damned lucky to have him. Quiet, calm, detailed, and got the job done, whereas Freyne would not stop questioning you until he got the answer.

Main thing, both of them were fair.

Okay, so after eight hours of staring at this screen in my studio, and then two more hours of programming my Friday afternoon music program (The Music Club, 3-6 pm Eastern, radio-airwaves.co.uk -- do listen), and trying to figure out all the other stuff, what is left?

Oh, I met my neighbor--one of 'em anyway. A young fellow has moved in next door, and for the first time in two years, the two rowhouses will be rightly occupied. He hasn't threatened to call the cops yet, so we're good.

Actually, he is a nice guy, have not met his housemate yet, but all good.

Speaking is not an easy thing right now, and I'm trying to not speak to my cat or to the air people that populate my house. Hoping this mess clears up so I can get on with things.

Let's just say I'll be back out there! I'm joining authors, creators, performers, costumers, gamers, you name it, they will be there! We will speak on panels, crawl about the site, and buttonhole anyone who wants to talk. Everything written will be in the bookstore, and we'll do signings, too.

Excited I am.

Book stuff...I've been diving deep into recent books, and I have a question...what do you call a book that is after the series began, but does a lot of flashbacks?

There are prequels...is there a postquel?

Book 4 of the Sweet Dreams Series could well be that. It's written...but is it compelling enough...I don't know yet. Aki and the gang need to grow up, and yes they are kind of, but Aki has been through enough shit in three books to make her look like Maki Asakawa after a long night of smoking, boozing and performing in a Shinjuku backstreet bar.

Which is actually pretty damn cool, if you ever heard Asakawa.

Okay...I'm a little better, maybe...a little less weird, a little less numb, a little less in need of meds...let's hope for more, shall we?

Peace, Dafuq Out.