I have two meetings today, so I feel all grownup. They aren't real things. Both are intended to exchange information, which I guess is another way to define "meeting" in this scenario, but you know? It feels good to have something on the schedule.

I'm currently passing the time amusing myself by calculating how many days have passed since I last did laundry. I actually passed some time writing that sentence. This is working out well.

It's fun to test the laundry schedule, since I'm aware that I have a lot of essentials folded up in my dresser. I've got lots of T-shirts and gym socks, and apparently two weeks' worth of underwear. It's an experiment in raiding the laundry pantry and seeing how long I can endure clean clothes with stretched-out waistbands. It's an adventure.

It brought up a funny question, though. As I pulled a pair of frayed boxers from the back of the drawer, I wondered how long I'd had them.

"Hey!" I said to Julie and John. "Do you guys remember when I was fat?"

It sounds like a funny question to me, anyway. I was just wondering if the waistbands were stretched out for a reason other than time, but the calendar puts the kibosh on that. I don't have underwear that's 15 years old.

The answer was affirmative, by the way, with qualifications. We've just got a lot of photos, including one of me with John when he was around 9 and I was around 250 pounds hanging in the hallway.

I could have just asked them if they remember when I was younger. Other than being grateful for better health and exercise endurance, I'm not sure it makes much of a difference. I guess my knees are in better shape than they would have been.

It was just a funny thought. I've outlasted my fat clothes. I don't own anything I could have comfortably worn 20 years ago. Lots of us can say that, obviously. Just noting that I'm apparently aging.

I'm also enjoying this current Jeremiah Johnson grooming period. I can't manage to let the beard go wild, and I run a trimmer through it every couple of days to keep it neat, best I can do.

My hair, though, has been untouched by scissors since November, I think. I tend to let it go anyway, as older men tend to do, enjoying some length where hair exists because in some places, it doesn't. It's not bothering me at the moment, and my wife has cut my hair a bunch of times over the past 37 years. She'll tell me when she needs another shot at it, but in the meantime I'm happy to be a mountain man.

...

I said I wasn't going to do it, then maybe, then I did. After sitting down to watch Contagion, and surprising myself by making it through the whole thing and enjoying the experience, I went ahead and saw Outbreak last night. It was just sitting there on the Netflix shelf, taunting me.

First, I should note that Kevin Spacey has a supporting role. I have no interest in revisiting one of his starring roles, but I suppose he's going to pop up from time to time. He was always an oily actor and this was no exception, although the performance is fine. It's just sort of creepy to see him now.

It's a dumb movie, a write-by-numbers screenplay, predictable and not really relevant to Covid-19. The virus in this film is deadly but along the lines of Ebola, augmented by a stowaway monkey from Zaire who ends up in Marin County. There's an evil general played by Donald Sutherland, a morally compromised one played by Morgan Freeman, and a noble scientist played by Dustin Hoffman, and there are absolutely no surprises and no moments of eloquence or humanity.

It's just a thriller, programmed entertainment, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And I got an answer, apparently, to jumpstarting my focus and concentration, if only to watch a movie to pass the time. I might help to have some artificial tension and suspense built into the mix, even as I roll my eyes at the cookie-cutter nature of it.

I may not be looking for cultural enlightenment, in other words. I may just want popcorn and conspiracy theories, some swooping helicopters and Rene Russo, always luminous, in a hazmat suit.

There is a possibility I may just want Rene Russo. Will research this and get back to you. I may watch some more movies. This is all so unpredictable, unlike Outbreak, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.