The View from the Hermitage, Day 121

We've now squared eleven days stumbling though this pandemic. Can 144 be that far off?

The husband informs me that both the federal and state tax returns have been completed. I imagine he will want me to sign something before they go out in the mail. I know he could e-file, especially given that he does the taxes using TurboTax, but if he wants to mail them, it's fine by me as long as they get mailed in time.

Story related to husband's mailing tax forms on time. He once went on a trip to Europe with a return date of April 15. He had me sign the federal form before he left. Complete them and mail them from across the pond? Yeah, right! He completed them on the seat-back table on the return flight that I think landed at Dulles Airport. Wherever it was that he landed, he managed to get a copy of the forms made and put them in a mailbox with pickup that would get the desired postmark of April 15. The man lives a charmed life.

Lots of action on the covid-19 front. Last night, I sent older son a link to a couple of articles about the local mayor saying the university's bringing students back  was "a recipe for disaster." She noted that the city had no real say in what the university did. Older son emailed back to me that while the city had no official say in the matter, they could strategically place city cops so as to do a serious number on underage drinking, public drunkenness, and so on. I told him he should email that suggestion to the mayor. He replied not too long later with a draft of a lengthy email to the mayor with that suggestion backed up with photos of rooftop frat parties being held when such gatherings were supposedly illegal and the results of a survey of undergraduate students about how they might behave while here. Older son noted that even if 85 percent of the students agreed or somewhat agreed with a statement about following certain procedures, the 15 percent who disagreed amounted to a formidable number. He also noted that his undergrad and master's degrees from the local university meant he'd seen first-hand many times how the undergrads behave or misbehave.  Needless to say, I felt a good dose of maternal pride when he bcc'ed me on the final email.

This afternoon the governor gave his first briefing on the pandemic in several weeks. As expected, he devoted significant time to the situation in the beach communities. He did not, however, change any of the Phase 3 dos and don'ts. He merely encouraged local officials to more closely monitor and, where needed, enforce them. He told business owners that it was now "no shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service." If someone refused to wear a mask in a business and refused to leave, that person was trespassing and the police could be called. I'm not sure if that will end well or not. When asked about a Phase 4 that would allow gyms and some other types of businesses to operate at full capacity and would allow patrons to sit at the bar in a restaurant and not order food, he basically said that was not in the foreseeable future, especially not with people not following the mask and social distancing requirements.

I got an email from the senior care facility where my mother lives. The covid-19 tests came back negative for all residents and staff members. They'll test again next week, two weeks after the first test, to confirm that everyone remains covid-19-free. That was good to learn. It gives me one less thing about which I can worry. There's certainly no shortage of worrisome things these days.