As we face another week/month/lifetime of isolation, here at Chipalatta we will share with you a list of miscellaneous ways to fill in the time. Of course, this is far from an all-inclusive list, but if it helps just one person then it is worth it.
Binge-watching.
This is, of course, an easier thing to do if you have a service like Netflix or others that have whole series available for you to watch. Or if you are old school like Dan P and Mary P, you may have some old series on DVD. But this can be a fun time to re-watch something you love or watch something that you’ve never seen, but which others love. Some suggestions:
- The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66) – This is going back a long time, but this show helped drag comedy from the pure slapstick days to a little more sophisticated humor. The show stemmed from a pilot that show creator Carl Reiner starred in that did not make it, but which took off with a different leading man. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore were great as the show’s center and Rosemarie, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, Jerry Paris, Ann Guilbert and Reiner himself were a great supporting cast.
- The Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) – Never a big hit show because it aired on the WB, nevertheless worth a watch. The show is a dramedy and I guess some folks consider it the TV equivalent of a chick flick, but I loved the snappy 1940ish style dialog, the cultural references, the small town eccentricities, the in-family battles and the great cast led by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel (from Houston and St. Agnes High School).
- The Office (2005-2013) – I have to admit that the show seemed to lose its way after a while, but for the first 6+ seasons, it was just a fun show. You need to watch from the beginning to get a feel for the characters and to understand how you can have sympathy for the clueless non-PC Michael Scott (Steve Carrell).
- Big Bang Theory (2006-2019) – The show that made being a nerd, well not exactly cool, but understandable. Again this is a show that had terrific writing until it didn’t. About season 9 to 10 it starts running out of steam, but before that, there were a lot of gems. The ensemble cast led by Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki is pitch-perfect and funny.
- Breaking Bad (2008-13) – This may be the best-written show in the history of television. Yes, it will challenge your moral base as you cheer for and alternately abhor the anti-hero. Bryan Cranston and crew do a terrific job bringing this story to life. But it is the writing that is the star.
Baseball Movies.
- Go here – https://chipalatta.com/2019/01/19/top-10-baseball-movies-of-all-time/ – and between Dan P’s picks and the comments you should be able to find some fine movies to fill the time.
Other Movies.
There are lots of gems to watch out there…. here are a few favorites by genre….
- Dramas – 12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Few Good Men
- Suspense – Charade, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Psycho
- Musicals – Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, Meet Me in St. Louis, West Side Story
- Comedy – Groundhog Day, Breakfast Club, Caddyshack, Notting Hill
Clean up. It’s a great time to declutter – pick a drawer, a closet, or whatever floats your boat.
Board Games – Have a family game night – get reconnected with everyone
Try New Recipes – When every day is the same – it can be fun to try something new.
Reach out – Everybody else is at home – this may be a great time to touch base with those you haven’t seen in a while
Read – Have you always wanted to read some classic book – this is the time
Read Your Favorite Blog – Here are some big-time historical posts from Chipalatta
https://chipalatta.com/2017/10/26/game-2-insanity-the-greatest-win-in-astros-history/
https://chipalatta.com/2017/10/30/epic-there-are-no-words-for-the-best-game-in-ws-history/
https://chipalatta.com/2017/11/02/world-champion-houston-astros-wow-that-feels-good-to-type/
https://chipalatta.com/2017/12/07/astros-2017-recap-the-top-10-games-of-the-year/
https://chipalatta.com/2019/10/21/altuve-leads-the-astros-to-world-series-matchup-with-the-nats/
Write. Whether it is writing a blog or it is writing some person a long letter (when is the last time you did that?), give it a shot.
Pray. OK, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but prayers for our country, our world, our loved ones, etc….this might well be the time.
Surfin’. This is a good time to check out some web sites of interest. I like to go to….
Astros – https://www.mlb.com/astros
Baseball stuff – https://www.baseball-reference.com/
Disney stuff – https://allears.net/
Movie stuff – https://www.imdb.com/
And there are as many choices it seems as stars in the universe.
Sun and Exercise
Make sure you do get outside and get some sun to lighten your mood. We walk the parking garage ramps at our condo, but do something to get you moving a bit and to breathe the fresh air.
So, what suggestions do you have for filling in the time……
CHIPALATTA 
And Mr. Bill I did answer your question as best as I could on the last post….
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My wife and I like to work in our garden this time of year.
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Sounds nice Larry – before it gets 200 degrees outside….
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Yes Sir, Double L. Already eaten most of the lettuce and onions. Should have bush beans next week. Love to watch the miracle of a garden.
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https://www.mlb.com/prospects/2020/astros/
just saw this. a short scouting report on each with their ranking.
i think we should extend ‘ask dan’ to a year long service.
for you ‘breaking bad’ fans out there, try ‘better call saul’. its a prequel to breaking bad and has some of the same main characters. writing and story are good, but a notch below breaking bad. a notch below breaking bad is still pretty good though.
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Better Call Saul is darned good – I think it would mean more after watching Breaking Bad.
I also like Young Sheldon the prequel to Big Bang Theory
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And I may bring back “Ask Dan” every month or so
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These are the best notes on players I’ve found, rj.
Hopefully, you can open the copy, as Dan wasn’t able to previously.
https://www.prospectslive.com/lists/2020/3/16/astros-2020-top-30-prospects
You can see some of the differences of opinion with Jim Callis (or my own ranks). Two misses, imo on the MLB site are; Tyler Ivey should be higher, and Freudis Nova should be lower. I think Ralph is missing Blake Taylor, and I mentioned to him that Cionel is no longer a prospect. He should’ve added Jairo Lopez, then. Enjoy!
And plz, no rocks. You’re not going to die of covid-19, my friend. Relax [smile]
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Alex B and his fiancée to be interviewed on Channel 2 during this hour on “Houston Life” for those who need to know. (Between now and 2 pm)
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Raises $1,000,000 for Food bank, then hand delivers.
Who does that?!
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People who’ve never lived in Houston sure like to dump on the city at any chance, but I’m having a hard time finding another city with more celebrities/athletes/mattress salespeople out there trying to help people.
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There are good and bad people everywhere – but sure seems like there have always been more than our fair share here in Houston
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The Mrs. watches The Lone Ranger, Perry Mason, and the British “who-done-its” as well as I Dream of Jennie, Bewitched and the Stargate type shows.
Myself, I can’t hear very well so I sit at the computer and read. If I do watch television, it is to watch SciFi like, How Its Made or Ancient Aliens or other space stuff. Sometimes, I watch Motor Trend.
At work, we watch movies on the 20′ x 8′ television matrix. At least the closed captions are on.
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During this time of watching, I just want to say how proud I am to be an American. 90 days ago, we knew almost nothing of this virus. No vaccines, no tests, etc. During that time the American people stepped up and did what we thought we had to do. There are too many companies and people to thank but when My Pillow guy takes his company and makes masks instead of pillows, General Motors took 11 days to learn and manufacture ventilators, Abbott Labs and their testing equipment, and all the others that dropped their business into a war time production, it is just amazing. We are not out of the woods, but had these and several government agencies such as the Corp of Engineers not stepped up, we would be in much, much worse shape. What a great country we have. (And that doesn’t begin to talk about the first responders and medical staffs that went about their duties with total disregard for their safety and lives.)
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I don’t think you can heap enough praise on the people who are in the trenches on this – first responders and the medical community, AC. I’m not a big government person, but the government has known enough to engage the private sector to jump into the areas of need and produce what has been lacking. America is a country of “can do”.
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There is always the computer. I read a lot there because it is easier to filter news from propaganda on the computer.
I help with dishes and I help with laundry. I go through TV listings and set up to record what we want to watch so that we don’t have watch commercials.
It still amazes me how many Bloomberg commercials we didn’t have to watch.
Our daughter and her husband bought and put up a greenhouse. It is 90’x30′.
Do you believe how big that is? We helped them finish it. They are self quarantining, as are we, but we still practiced social distancing, which was pretty easy with something that big. When we finished and closed it up, the temperature jumped from 72 degrees inside to 92 degrees in a matter of seconds. The outside temp was 67 degrees. It was very difficult to be around our granddaughter and not be able to cuddle.
We bought our tomato plants and will plant 28 of them on Thursday. There was a freeze last week and every leaf on the pecans and crepe myrtles turned brown and shriveled up.
Tomorrow morning I will grocery shop for the first time in a month. The local grocery is 16 miles away and they dedicate the hours of 7:30 am-9:00 am for seniors, to separate them from younger patrons. I will wear a mask and gloves and take advantage of the reserved time. They are having trouble getting inventory, but have fresh produce, which is what we need.
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I’d love to see those 2700 square feet bursting with growth at some point soon!
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Man that is a heck of a greenhouse
Yes I wish I could give my granddaughter a squeeze right now, too
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1OP, talk to your youngest grandchild. Have him/her take a photo of your greenhouse. Then post it to Instagram and then copy it to Snap Chat, and then use it on Tik Tok, and well they know how to do it. Then put it here on Chipalatta for us to see.
I don’t know what I am talking about, but they seem to know how to do stuff like that.
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Had my garden (planter boxes) seeded and the squirrels dug up the seeds so today I bought a BB gun to pop ’em in the butt. Just have to remember to set it on “stun” Captain. I thought my AK47 might be a little bit of an overkill (just kidding). Planted seeds again so we shall see.
On a brighter note two old submarine movies to watch are “Run Silent, Run Deep” with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster and “The Enemy Below” with Robert Mitchum and Karl Jurgins. If you like Westerns there are numerous ones to choose from but I like “Valdez is Coming” with Burt Lancaster, “Big Jake” and “The Shootist” with John Wayne, “The Professionals” with Lee Marvin, Jack Palance and Burt Lancaster, “The Wild Bunch” with Robert Ryan, William Holden, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson, and finally, “Tom Horn” with Steve McQueen. One more good one is “Bad Day at Black Rock” with Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.
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Yeah Bad Day at Black Rock is one of my favorites – and while we are talking about Spencer Tracey – to lift your mood – It’s a Mad Mad Mad World
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Recorded “Run Silent Run Deep” last week and watched it today. Both of us were very entertained. Directed by Robert Wise. No credited member of that cast is alive today. Don Rickles died in 2017.
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Those old WWII submarine movies were really good.
For lighter fare I like the WWII dramedies like Operation Petticoat and Father Goose.
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A movie I like is Final Countdown. I am still trying to figure out how a man canbe in two eras at once and then in the same one as well.
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That was an interesting paradigm. As Elton John once sang, I’ve seen that movie too.”
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We had a rude awakening last night. There was a pop up ad to tell us which Netflix series were not renewed. We went through the list of about 40 and had never heard of any of them. The next pop up had the ones renewed. Another 40 or so and we had watched episode of two I think. So if you binge watch for 35 straight days of about 6 hours a day, you still don’t know what the cool people know. It is hopeless.
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Went to the grocery early this morn and I was one of about a half dozen senior shoppers, all of whom practiced social distancing to the ultra-max.
I cannot stand grocery stores which have narrow aisles anyway, so this was a real treat for me. The prices were high, compared to Aldi, but I saved on gas and had the luxury of almost private shopping.
I will definitely go back in a couple of weeks for more produce.
I hope all of you are doing well and being very careful.
I looked into the MLB draft earlier and it seems the Astros will have the #73 pick, the #103 pick, the #133 pick, the #163 pick and so on down the line. The #73 pick is from the Gerrit Cole free agency. Nobody knows when or where or how many rounds the draft will be, pretty much like everything else in the world.
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It appears changes will happen!
https://apnews.com/0f4779c5e306b2aea711d8793e648270
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It is wrist slapping for the Red Sox!!!
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/04/red-sox-sign-stealing-investigation-second-round-pick-alex-cora-ban.html
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If anyone can not get to that site or has decided to not go to mlbtraderumors – they took away a 2nd round pick from the Red Sox in 2020 and have banned Cora until after the 2020 playoffs – but he was suspended for his actions with the Astros.
They are basically only punishing the Red Sox guy who deciphered signs off videos during the game and then signaled to a Red Sox on 2nd base only. They say Cora and Red Sox front office did nothing wrong in 2018.
Manfred’s statement stinks.
This means most of the Red Sox and former Red Sox must have stonewalled this investigation in my opinion.
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Well, it would be a shame if MLB allowed an MVP, batting champion, and World Series champion’s accomplishments in Boston be tainted by a cheating scandal…
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What a travesty!! But then, the Red Sox are one of the league’s premier teams.
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https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/red-sox-sign-stealing-investigation-mlb-strips-draft-pick-pins-wrongdoing-on-replay-operator/
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