College Town At Christmas 2020: The Five Stages of Hope In Bowling Green, Ky.

BOWLING GREEN, KY _ I remember the last Catholic mass I attended at my church this year was on March 7th. And I remember talking to one of my fellow parishioners about this strange "virus" getting ready to hit our college town and he was talking about the stocking up of toilet paper?  Honestly, I thought he was joking about the toilet paper. I couldn't imagine why everybody was going to need so much toilet paper.  I had some weird thoughts in my head at the time but I won't describe them in this blog entry. Lol. But I did not pay much attention to what he said about it really. All I remember that it was hard for me to believe something of this magnitude was going to take place in good ole Bowling Green as well as the State of Kentucky and the United States of America.  In my mind, killer viruses only happened in places like China and other far away foreign countries like that.

   Originally, I was in denial.  With my wife being a housewife, she would give me reports about what was happening across the country and in Washington DC with President Trump and his administration and how they were handling things with their medical task force regarding the virus.  I would get these reports when I came home from work for lunch because she had been watching TV. And sure enough, eventually, the toilet paper frenzy and shortage started happening in our community and everybody began to stock up on the toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, wipes, cleaning products, ammo, guns, survival items and can goods among many other items. It was ridiculous and crazy but a necessity at the same time that hundreds of people were rushing to do in our community. And it was happening all across the country also!

   Then the anger hit.  Everybody went to war on Facebook and social media all over the political spectrum on the different aspects of the virus whether or not that the virus was a hoax or not which many thought it was brought into American on purpose by the global socialists and communists.  Then it became a liberal vs. conservative thing.  A Republican vs. Democrat thing.  One by one, people started being alienating and blocking friends, neighbors and family members.  The divide in America over politics got even deeper and wider over issues of having to wear masks mandated by the Kentucky governor, the quarantines, the school closings, travel restrictions, shut downs of businesses and the limitations of gathering of people among tons of other restrictions. And over the things you could do and could not do. Many citizens felt that we were becoming a socialists country over the virus was occuring in America. Not to mention the riots that were happening in the streets again in America this summer and fall over racial tensions and the rise Black Lives Matters and how many people were turned off over the fact that the NFL and NBA took a stand with BLM.

Then people began bargaining with the fact that wearing masks into public buildings was being mandated by the governor and that the Covid-19 virus was real.  We realized that there was not much we could do about it and yes, hundreds of people were dying as they said.  Also, we began to bargain with the fact that this was going to be our way of life for a while until the vaccinations began to arrive and people we're given their shots. And then maybe, things would get better eventually. We hoped.

Then the depression hit.  People who were not essential workers in society began to get depress because they were staying home all the time, not enough money to live on because of unemployment or not wanting to go back to work because they were making more money drawing unemployment rather than going back to work.  Also a lot of small businesses in the community folded and collapsed because of the virus restrictions eventually causing them to go out of business for good.  Also, lots people lost their jobs because of the virus and a lot of people ended up filing bankruptcy.  And then it was being reported that a lot people have avoided going to the doctor altogether because the lack of money or no health insurance.

And finally, acceptance.  Fortunately, I was able to avoid the depression part and jumped from the bargaining part straight into acceptance.  This is where hope comes into the picture for me. So it is my hope this Christmas Eve, that all citizens in our college town of Bowling Green, Ky., finds peace and happiness in their lives in the final stage of acceptance of the virus.  In order to survive, we have to have faith and hope this Christmas season no matter what. We have to look deep inside of ourselves. I feel very blessed that I have my faith, a job, a home, a family, a dog and my health. Mainly, we have to have hope and faith in our medical professionals and the new vaccinations and we must have hope and faith in each other and work together towards a common goal in our college town-getting back to normal in 2021!  God Bless and Merry Christmas!

The Popular Facebook Group, "Dad Rocks" Is All About The Music And Building A Positive Community On Social Media

      Covid-19 had hit pretty us hard here in Bowling Green and Southcentral Kentucky during the Spring and Summer of 2020 with everything basically shutdown.  Public gatherings such as churches, weddings, parties, concerts and movie theaters came to a standstill with a limited amount of seating at restaurants and bars here in Kentucky as well as other places across the country.

      In order for me to cope with the sense of isolation when I was not working at my job as an "essential worker," I ended up spending a lot of time on my backyard deck grilling out and listening to rock music on my JBL bluetooth speaker during those cool spring evenings and hot summer nights. I had also developed an original playlist on my Apple Music app of rock songs which I played quite often while grilling out.  And I played the music loud during those decent hours of the early evenings of course where it did not disturb my neighbors.  If it did, I never heard any complaints out of anyone.     In the meantime, while I was looking at my Facebook app on my iPhone, I noticed that some of my friends like to do the same thing I was doing too. They were also grilling out on their backyard decks and patios and listening to music by themselves or with small groups of people.  Mainly, they would be with their own family members and of course their dogs and cats too while outside. And I would always have my Australian Shepherd, "Jude" with me and sometimes my wife and son also.

Then the idea occurred to me one evening while grilling out that I should create a private Facebook group where all my friends can join in and we can post of favorite rock videos, pics, stories and share memories in order to communicate with each in regards to our mutual love for rock music.  And we would only have one main rule: "No fighting, no arguing or no bullshit." Now, we have over 1,000 group members since I created the group in April of this year. The key to the fast growth of our group is because I have a great co-admin, Britt Moore of North Mississippi, who is a former classmate of mine from Hernando High School in Hernando, Miss., where I graduated in the early 80's and because everybody is tired of all the bullshit going on in the world especially on social media. Such as the 2020 presidential election and all of this Covid-19 crap. Then this awesome documentary on Netflix comes along called, "The Social Dilemma."  It's about the flip side of this wonderful modern invention called the "internet' and all of the social media sites such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram among many others. The creators and inventors of some of these sites are interviewed and they talk about the dark side or the flip side of social media and how it's created a lot of chaos in the world and divisions among groups of people whether it was intentional or not.  However, they claim that it was not to suppose be this way originally.  But it just grew and grew into this monstrous thing so quickly with millions and millions of people jumping on board which has become all about money and the collection of data.  Nowadays, the social media companies are some of the wealthiest companies out there in the world because they are selling "targeted, precise and direct advertising," to their clients.  Also these social media companies such as Facebook and Google have collected tons and tons of info on their users through the years and have even created profiles on them using computer algorithms in order to target ads for their clients.  They know what we like and what we hate that's for damn sure.

So with my new profound knowledge from watching this documentary on Netflix, I decided to take our private Facebook group one step even further and start proclaiming that we are "bucking the trend of negativity on social media and Facebook where there is no fighting, arguing or bullshit."  Dad Rocks is a happy and safe place where you can go to relax and post your favorites songs, videos and share your personal stories and memories without the worry of criticism while grilling out on the backyard deck or patio or sitting inside in your own home during the wintertime by the fireplace.  Or no matter where you are at in the world during the current moment. Dad Rocks helps you escape what happening in the world today especially during this very nasty election year along with all the Covid-19 worries. And I encourage all of our members to keep inviting their friends and family member too on daily basis and remind everyone what our group is about on my monthly podcast that I created over a month ago also called, "Dad Rocks."  In the Netflix documentary, it said that human beings since their evolution have always had that innate desire to have communication with each other and create communities.  So with the invention of the internet and social media apps and websites, we are now riding that wave of the future by building a better social media community that is positive, fun and safe.  We are looking forward to continue to build our social media rock music community and create new friendships where nobody is criticize for their taste in their music or rock videos. Because we all realize that music is a very powerful thing that touches every human being in a positive way, one way or another.  Mainly, we all know too well that music heals the human soul also! Which is an awesome thing!
 

Millions Of Americans Have Stepped Into "The Tiger King" Trap On Netflix During Their "Stay-At-Home" Quarantine

     I guess you can say I got "caught" up in it watching "The Tiger King" on Netflix during my three and half day "staycation" recently.  I was "hooked" as they also say.

     And so are millions of other Americans who are working on their third week of doing time during their self-imposed, stay-at-home quarantine because of the COVID-19 or Coronavirus that's attacking people all over the world.  But some people still have to work and I am one of them.  However, I did have a little time off recently and all I accomplished while being home besides walking the dog around the neighborhood a bunch, cleaning the gutters out on the house, was finish watching the seven part, "ride wide" series of "The Tiger King."

  Everybody has been raving about this crazy documentary on social media lately especially on Facebook.  This attention grabbing documentary on Netflix is about an eccentric character named Joe Exotic who is really out there and who owns a bunch of tigers and wild animals on some land in Oklahoma. He's gay and married to two guys.  Lots of drugs and guns were involved too apparently. He ran a zoo, had a very successful reality internet show and was making a lot of money.  But then comes this cat loving lady named Carol Baskin of "Big Cat Rescue" located  in Tampa, Fla.  She is an animal rights activist who was trying to put Joe and some other tiger owners out of business across the country. But then Joe goes to war with her.  I'll leave the rest to your imagination as to what happens. Here's are some of my comments that I posted about the documentary on Facebook.


"I think it’s the perfect case study where somebody started out small and humble and then money and ego went to their head. Also, greed and narcissism got the best of Joe Exotic. When Carol of Big Cat Rescue started threatening his livelihood, he started attacking her back and digging dirt up on her on his internet reality show. Then he found the mother load. He found out about her second husband going missing and he started accusing and attacking her of that in public on his show. He should have just left her alone I think."


"Also, I am no psychiatrist but it appears to me that Joe most likely has some sort of mental illness such as bi-polar because of his severe mood swings portrayed on the series. Maybe he was already diagnosed but wasn’t taking his meds and drinking alcohol and using street drugs. Or he was taking his meds but drinking alcohol and using street drugs on top of the meds. Who knows for sure though."

    So I hope I didn't spoil the documentary for you in this blog.  If you haven't watched the "The Tiger King," you need too.  You'll step into a trap like millions of Americans have currently while they are sitting at home basically doing nothing except walking the dog, cleaning the gutters out and binge watching Netflix.