So it's now been over 52 hours since I had my second injection of Moderna's Magical Kovid-Killing Potion and I've had no side effects. I slept an unusually-high number of hours last night and again, this afternoon…but that's probably not the vaccination doing that. Throughout The Pandemic, I've been sleeping odd hours and odder numbers of hours. Since I don't have that many appointments, I occasionally work nights and sleep days, largely untethered to any notion of a normal bedtime or a proper hour to rise 'n' shine. As the world slowly opens up in the months to come, I will have to do something about that.
This morning, I did something I haven't done in over a year. I went and got my hair cut. I was double-masked and double-vaccinated and my hair-cutting guy was glad to see me even though I'd had some interim trimming — the kind done by a non-barber lady friend. It probably made it more of a challenge to send me out of his salon looking presentable.
In the last week or so, we've had an unusually-high number of televised car chases on Los Angeles TV. I dunno if that's an unusual number of police pursuits or an unusual number of decisions by our local stations to cover them…but almost all of them were very long and very uneventful. Some guy or gal in a car — probably a stolen one — led the cops on a long, long chase with high speeds and high risks of harming innocent folks…and then the fleeing driver finally pulled over and surrendered. Or in one case the other night, the police (possibly sheriffs, possibly California Highway Patrol) just decided to abandon the chase and let the guy get away.
What originally fascinated me about these televised events was, first of all, the utter reality of it all. That chase was really happening as we watched and the newsfolks covering the event had no clue as to how long it would last, what would happen, how it would end, etc. In most so-called "reality shows," the producers know all that…or at least know it'll be Scenario A, Scenario B or Scenario C.
I was also interested in the difficult challenge of the person or persons who had to narrate the game for the home audience. They have to keep saying something even if they don't know anything or even if all they know are things they've already said dozens of times. They also have to keep throwing in words like "alleged" and acknowledging that they often don't know if the "he" they're assuming the fleeing driver to be could be a "she."
Certain phrases keep being repeated. If you'd invented "This is an extremely dangerous situation" or "He's driving with no concern for the safety of others" and you got a royalty each time those phrases were uttered, you could retire to your private island.
The reporter providing play-by-play coverage might be in a TV studio somewhere with not much more knowledge of what the hell's going on than what's obvious on the screen. Or he or she might be in a copter overhead, looking out the window or at a little monitor, simultaneously listening to police scanners and other feeds. That's gotta be a stressful job. And every so often, I think the person taking to us is also trying to fly the helicopter and/or aim the camera.
I'm getting bored with car chases…and I'm not suggesting I want to see more collisions or shoot-outs. I think they just may be another thing on television that can easily wear out its welcome. Or maybe I'm just getting so used to fast-forwarding or skipping ahead when something I'm watching gets boring that I'm losing my patience with watching police cars following the same vehicle for twenty minutes. Live TV has its disadvantages.