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Wanna know who ain't high on the list? Directors of Engineering at TV stations. I was just at Sears Tower this morning. It, and the downtown area in general, are still weirdly quiet and empty. Like it actually depresses me to not have the hustle-n-bustle throng of humanity which I am accustomed to having to plow my way through. I have literally only shared an elevator with another person (with whom I was not meeting) twice in the past year. And I'm talking about the big express elevators that go from the ground floor up to the local-elevator exchange lobby on the 67th floor. Nobody is panhandling, nobody is flinging feces, nobody is shouting about how God hates [something], it's just ******* bizarre to be left alone. And I'm not being sarcastic when I say this. Being in the middle of a major city's downtown business district, on a weekday morning, and not being buried in a sea of humanity is something which I still have not gotten used to.
It's like those three movies where the person who is immune to the thing is the last non-zombie left alive, so far as they know.
I enjoy the hell out of hiking through canyons, trekking up cliffsides, and camping in the desert. In this environment, I expect to see nobody (or nearly nobody), and so that reality is appropriate to the experience.
Example from my most recent wilderness trek, a week in the Badlands of South Dakota late last year.
I hiked through a few miles of this:
And then I sat on this rock and looked at this view, without moving except for an occasional drink, for about six hours:
And that was glorious. I hardly saw another soul, except for an old man in a bathrobe and a farmboy who said they were looking for a droid.
Because, in that context, you expect a whole lotta nothin. And it delivers.
It got even better on days 3-4, but I don't have any "boots in view" photos from those, so it would seem like I'm just posting random photos I found on the web. But mein gott, what amazing country that is.
Bonus prairie-dog photo, because they're just so darn cute:
But when you're downtown, walking past the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (as seen on Trading Places), well... you expect food carts and panhandlers and confused tourists and people selling counterfeit handbags and, well... life! So, in that context, desolation is just downright odd and uncomfortable. I've been living this reality for a year now, and it still feels like being in some post-apocalyptic movie. The doorman is still there at his post, only there's no one else.
I understand that a lot of folks live in the middle-ground. Every day is the same suburban reality, with Wal-Marts and big lawns and streets where they have dedicated left-turn lanes and whatnot. I grew up in that exact environment (western-central Florida) and spent the first few years of my adult life in it as well (northern Cincinnati suburbs.) I didn't consciously choose to be thrust into city life, but now that I have that experience, I couldn't go back.
Those who know me well know that I tried. In mid 2017, I accepted a lucrative job offer, and moved to coastal North Carolina. That whole experience lasted about three months, during which time I learned a lot about myself, met an amazing woman with whom I shared a brief but intensely fulfilling relationship (she was a nurse in the cardiothoracic ward of the hospital where I wound up with a collapsed lung- long story), got to visit Moog, and ultimately realized that, for me, that kind of lifestyle was something which just didn't hold any appeal anymore. It was the past.
So I moved back to Chicago.
Would I rather be back in NYC? From a lifestyle perspective, absolutely yes. When your evening commute is a jog across Central Park, it's literally impossible to arrive home in a bad mood, no matter what's happened during the day. If someone were to offer me an equivalent job there tomorrow, I'd have the moving truck booked for Saturday. But the dynamics of the TV industry are weird, and it just so happens that this little spot which is almost completely surrounded by the midwest is the flagship of the Nexstar Broadcast fleet (despite the fact that they also own stations in NY and LA), and I'm in a really unique position where they're paying me a decent amount of money to suffer seemingly endless heartburn and insomnia while simultaneously building pretty much the most insanely misguided (and fun) broadcast facility since CNN first split off from WTBS in 1980.
You couldn't pay me enough to live in one of the big Yankee cities. I could survive Atlanta if I had to but it's quickly going the wrong direction as well.
Yeah, I live in liberal land but no way I could leave my proximity to warm ocean waters. I guess being born and living in this part of the world has made it hard to leave. I once briefly entertained the idea of living in the Ocala-Gainesville area since it was so much cheaper and obviously quiet but gladly never went that route.
But since South Florida is just one long metropolis, it's a little different than those big cities where it seems like all roads lead to Rome. Here, the majority of the sub's are west of I95 instead of the beltway systems other cities have. Luckily I'm just east of 95 so I forego that 30-45 minute drive west.
And the following pictures are my mountains. I wear steel toes for a living so I like to be shoeless when I can. The last one is obviously of a popular site on a weekend. Even with all the people around, it was an experience in tranquility, mostly due to the seas being so flat.
They didn't actually collect the data... this is just theory based on "common sense and experience". [I would like to add I think they analysis is bogus and I'd argue many of them]
Have you heard of any grocery store clerks, waiters, or flight attendants getting covid on the job over the last year? They were pretty much the only people going to work for the last year and had constant human contact [According to your source, however, they are all low risk]. They are touching credit cards, cash, and around hundreds to thousands of maskless people a daily...
Also the average wed developer is getting HELLA underpaid.
In 2020, I covered the impeachment trial and caucus night (that lasted a week) & the primaries & the covid pandemic & the economic crash & the racial justice protests & Lafayette square & so many rallies. the death of RBG & the president's 1AM coronavirus diagnosis & a supreme court confirmation hearing & an election night (that lasted a week) & firings by tweets & the recounts & the presidential transition & I have the commemorative shirt to prove it.
I have a friend who seems to be right on the same track as braineack and I realized while talking to him that 100% of his news comes from very biased sources.
Maybe it's just because I am getting older and starting to pay attention when I hadn't previously, but political discussions seem to turn toxic so easily lately. It doesn't even end up being a discussion most of the time, just a shouting match. I don't know what the cause is, but it definitely isn't productive.
03-30-2021, 10:20 PM
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