Reese Kaplan -- Your New-Found Time W/O Baseball

So one of the things you have to decide during the current baseball hiatus is how to occupy the many hours you would otherwise have devoted to complaining about Robinson Cano, railing on the thus far bad trade for Edwin Diaz, drooling over the long balls off the bat of Pete Alonso and wondering whether or not Jeff McNeil has a batting title in his future.  The big debates of who is the 5th starter and who has a new bullpen role are off the table for now as well as who plays 3B and who takes temporary hold of RF.  So it's a Saturday or Sunday, you're off from work and there is no baseball to visit in person, to watch on TV, to see over the Internet or to hear on the radio.  What are you going to do with all that free time?

Well, for me the first issue that hits me is the number of hours I can devote to motorcycle rides.  I'd always reserved them for back and forth to work when the weather was cooperating and there was little that needed to be carried.  Weekends were for occasional treks up to places in New Mexico or out to the desert roads.  I have bikes for both on-road and off-road, so there's time and capability to devote to the freeways, the winding mountain roads and the sandy trails.

The next issue, of course, is spending more time with the family.  We tend to take for granted that partners, children, parents and other relatives are there for the visit anytime.  Nowadays we may be recycling some of the opposite feelings like, "Isn't there anyone else I can see?"  Chances are those homebodies with whom you might now feel imprisoned never before got so much of your quality time -- well, at least the time you can devote to them when you can pry yourself away from an electronic screen of one type or another.  

Then there are hobbies you've long neglected.  Mine include learning the Texas tradition of shooting.  I have no interest in hunting nor do I feel the need to protect myself from some great unknown potential invader.  I look at it as a more modern version of my childhood habit of mastering a bow and arrow against round targets.  Now with handguns and/or longer weapons the targets tend to be flatter and of interesting styles.  Many of my friends like ones that have simulated blood spurting out of them.  While some folks feel this kind of violence is reprehensible, others are quick to point out that the average movie, TV show or video games are much worse indeed.

Another hobby I sometimes neglect is cooking.  I was raised as a part-time chef at home due to parents both working evenings while I was young.  As a result I gravitated to restaurant jobs as a first form of employment.  There I learned more specific skills destined for preparing in much higher volumes and the love of cooking has carried over to monthly ethnic wine dinners with friends.  I have a reputation among them as a talented chef and folks always line up for whatever creativity I can bring to the party.

The third big hobby for me is kind of on the back burner right now -- travel.  I was supposed to have been in Asia for much fo the early part of February, but a an unexpected December brain injury that left me unconscious for most of a week curtailed my right to air travel.  Then when I got the green light to fly from the neurosurgeon the coronavirus had taken root in many of the places on my original cruise itinerary.  I filed for a refund.

On the heels of that debacle an art gallery with which I do business had offered me a free cruise in March, but there wasn't enough time between the lost February trip and the early March replacement mostly to South Pacific island nations to visit beaches just didn't seem tenable.  I said no but asked about other opportunities and they sent me a list.  I'd been to most of the places they offered, but there was one starting in Ireland and ending in the Netherlands that had some good ports though was a bit too civilized for my tastes.  I prefer nature and walking among wild animals.

I contacted the cruise line to book the trip and was told there was no room left on the ship.  Then apparently all the news of diseased cruises hit the potential customer list and space opened up.  I used miles to pay for the airfare to Europe for the July trip, but then the President revised his ban on European flights to include the previously neglected Ireland, Scotland and England.  Who knows whether or not this trip will happen?  

Come September I'm supposed to be celebrating my birthday on the back of camel exploring the Nile region of Egypt, but one of the small river cruise boats has already been found to have coronavirus like the larger ocean-bound vessels from Princess and other cruise lines.  Whether or not that trip takes place is still an open issue.  

Right now people are losing people they care about, losing income from not being able to go out to work and wasting way too much of their time seeking cleaning products and toilet paper.  Not being able to visit exotic locations doesn't rank up there with real life troubles.  However, with the weird work schedules, the off-site computer network monitoring and the lack of traffic in the office and on the streets, we wind up having a bunch of odd conversations.