Shinybass Journal Entry 04-15-20

Well hi.

This is an active blog, so I might as well get active, right? It’s been a strange time, don’t you think? The last time I checked in, we were finishing a very busy Christmas tour with our friends Lonestar (remember when we could go to concerts?) and our biggest problems were just trying to get home from a long run. Now that we’re home, the biggest problems we have are trying to go somewhere else. Ain’t life a peach?

So what have I been doing for the past few months? Oh, not much. OK, a lot. We’ve been getting Miles and Henry to school every day, and I’ve been doing everything from videos to blogs to writing new music. I have been asked by Advanced Bionics to blog for their website which can be found HERE. I am excited to be doing this. I hope our experiences will help others along the way.

There wasn’t a lot of touring going on for me, with Phil out doing acoustic runs, so I sort of shut the blog down. I’m kinda funny that way – are you here to listen to me ramble about pancakes, or do you want to hear about the music? Anyway, so that’s why I’ve been away a little bit.

Around the beginning of March, we had a tornado come through our area. The devastation was beyond words. We lost whole neighborhoods, and in the days after, as we drove around to see the damage, I am shocked that we didn’t have more loss of life. We lost power for a couple of days, but came through OK.

Then COVID-19 hits, which is just this anomaly wrapped in an enigma, and the idea of staying at home or sacrificing anything when there is no war on is just crazy talk. But here we are. So pair what you have going on and imagine losing your house and all your possessions just days before the lockdown. That’s what is going on around the corner from our house. Sobering, indeed.

Before all this went down, I would call friends and invite them and their kids over on Saturday or Sunday mornings for pancakes. I would just stand at the stove and cook, and we would want anyone to just come over and eat and converse. Hang and talk about nothing. It’s funny how the simple things seem so unimportant at the time.

I can’t wait to do that again.

Not The First Nor The Last

So the world is upside down and the things we thought were normal are no longer. I’m a student of history, and so I’ve been down the rabbit hole of pandemics, and you know, it is never pretty. The Plague of Justinian killed between 30-50 million people in the years 541-542, and may have sped up the fall of Rome. The worst part? They didn’t have Netflix to binge or TikTok videos to sit around and make. Black Plague. Enough said. My point is, there have been times much worse than these, and let’s face it, with the exception of a few rugged people in wilderness pockets around the world, we are soft. SOFT. Like Wall-E passenger soft.

But is it really a lesson? Are we going to all hit Preppers school and get to cross fit? No, no we won’t. And let’s look at more happy news: The Earth. We can see Los Angeles again! I can see the Himalayas! The water is so clear the dolphins are back! Wildlife roaming the streets!

Ok, first of all, those places are actually wildlife homes that we, as humans, took. Second of all, since we’ve been staying at home our nation’s use of single use plastic has gone through the roof, coming to a sea turtle’s nose near you soon. Our garbage manufacture has spiked as well. We are messy folks. 3 times the ‘normal’ tonnage is spilling from our homes. In our house, it’s mostly half-eaten bowls of cereal.

We are a polarized nation right now, and just as in politics, I try to see both sides of issues. As we see the happy pictures evolving of human kindness, let’s also remember there is a big, dirty world out here that needs our attention as well.

And Now The Good

One of the happy byproducts of this ‘stay at home’ time is the unequaled joy I am receiving by being with my family and literally watching my kids grow up in front of me. Miles is doing his therapy via Zoom, and Henry is getting some time with his classes as well on the computer, but mostly we just play and watch way too much Disney+. Is it the worst thing ever? Not really. Henry and I discuss makes of cars and learn biology and Miles’ vocabulary is exploding around us.

In a normal, no-pandemic school/work/make rent day, we see the kids for an hour in the morning, an hour or two at night, and boom, that’s our day. I’m sure the same is across the board for you all (homeschoolers may have this figured out?), and it sucks. We spend more time away from the ones we love than with them, then pair that with leaving every weekend to play for you all, and well, that time is cut to a slight fraction.

We are all at home now, and what are we learning about ourselves? That we can’t teach like a teacher, we certainly can’t keep up with the laundry, and that spending this time with the kids is not going to have a long-term negative effect on their progress or development. It all begins at home anyway…

But I am Human

As this thing wears on, I have good days and bad days. Most days I just need to take a minute and breathe. The kids will go back to school, and we’ll be able to get out again (what’s the over/under on number of DUI’s that first night out?), and, realistically in a year or so, we’ll be able to get back to concerts again. I hope I am wrong, but as we get back to ‘normal’, we’ll be trickling back, not flooding.

One of the things we have to keep in mind is that we, as musicians, have chosen a profession that is also a pretty fun hobby. When we can’t go somewhere and do what we love, that is a true problem. There are a lot of people flooding the live feeds trying to feel somewhat ‘normal’ (and make a little $ that has been lost in the midst of all this.) I feel for the people who love getting out and mingling with people. Being social is a great hobby, and sadly, one that we can’t do right now.

There are too many questions that we want answered, and I cannot give you any medical or government insight here, only what my gut tells me. And by not exercising as much, it’s telling me a LOT. We are here for a while, so let’s make adjustments accordingly. Even though I’m not on the road, I can still update this blog if that’s OK with everybody.

Stay safe and be nice to each other.

See you…on the road?