💾 Archived View for zaibatsu.circumlunar.space › ~visiblink › phlog › 20200511 captured on 2023-03-20 at 18:41:21.
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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The weather is now warm enough that I was able to work out in our screened-in porch today. It was really quite nice and I enjoyed the day immensely. Usually, we change over the winter tires on the car some time in April. That didn't happen this year because of the COVID-19 business, so I dropped the car off at the shop and walked home this morning. It's about a half hour walk. I listened to the History of Japan podcast on the Buddhist monk Nichiren. I highly recommend the series. Isaac Meyer has done over 300 episodes and has covered almost every aspect of Japan's past. Unfortunately, the episode did not discuss the issue that I was interested in -- which was the apocalyptic variant of Nichiren followed by some of the officers of Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchuria, whose actions helped to trigger World War II in Asia. After lunch I walked back to the shop and picked up the vehicle. It's usually a very busy place, but it wasn't today. There was one guy waiting for his vehicle, watching the rather forlorn-looking shop TV. It probably hasn't been busy for some time. No one's driving. I've only put one tank of gas in the car since mid-April and I suspect most other people aren't using their cars nearly as much either. In fact, it seems that you can see evidence of the great slowdown everywhere you look. There are definitely fewer people out and about. But there's a lot more natural noise. The birds are back. They're everywhere. I've been noticing the declining bird populations for some time, so it's really nice to see -- and hear -- them again! The air is much clearer too and the sky seems to be a slightly different shade of blue. I think I might really miss some aspects of this when the world goes back to it's normal industrious self.