The View from the Hermitage, Day 215

The Professor and I didn't go to bed until 9:00 last night, but we spent the hour from 8:00 to 9:00 watching an old rerun of Perry Mason rather than either town hall. We did read various reports about the town halls over breakfast this morning. The winner was the columnist who noted that changing the channel from the Orange Foolius's town hall to Uncle Joe's was like switching from Ancient Aliens to PBS NewsHour. Most reports were complimentary of the way Savannah Guthrie handled the Orage Foolius town hall. One said she was better than either moderator of the two earlier debates.

I find it interesting that even though the case numbers now are, in many cases, higher or almost as high as they were in March, when the pandemic was first declared, people seem to be so much more lackadaisical about it now than they were then. Instead of picking up restaurant food or having it delivered, too many people now want to eat inside the restaurant. Even with tables widely spaced, there's likely a nontrivial risk. And I cannot at all imagine going to a gym right now. I know that the looming cooler or cold weather will be a deterrent to working out outside for many people. Even with exercise-induced asthma made worse by working out outdoors, I still prefer that to a gym right now. I walked just over eight miles this morning, or 96 laps of the small indoor track at the gym I was going to most frequently. Ninety-six laps? Fuhgeddabout it!

As for schools being virtual or in-person, I can see both sides there, at least a little. Most kids would, I imagine, learn better in person than online. Both Sons did several online classes that counted toward their middle or high school graduations, but then the Sons are, shall we say, a bit different. The courses they took were also designed to be delivered online, which I am sure had a real impact on the quality of the finished product. Given my hermitting, I have not spoken with any neighbors who have school-aged kids about how their kids are doing. This morning, Son #1 and I watched a school bus deliver a large ziploc bag of materials to a neighbor's child who is, I think, in first grade. I did not know the schools were doing that, but I like it.

The Sons did sign up for a 2021 ultra-marathon. It's in mid-March and is the last one they ran before everything shut down in 2020. As Son #1 said, if this one ends up cancelled, we're going to be in pretty deep shit then. The advantage of ultra-marathoning is that the runners naturally separate into solo runners or very small clusters. It's not like the local Ten Miler that has a gazillion entrants meaning that it's pretty much a steady stream of runners the whole way. There are also few spectators lining an ultra-marathon course, unlike a road race in a city. 

 I'm not working as an election official this year, but The Professor is. As such, he was sent a link to a map showing potential absentee ballot action across the state, by precinct. At the local precinct, 37 percent of voters have returned or requested absentee ballots. There are several local precincts over 50 percent. It is shaping up to be a totally new type of election. The Professor said he might have a slow day; they've extended the hours the polls are open from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm to 6:00 am to 8:00 pm. They've also made election day a state holiday which may or may not affect turnout. I expect that The Professor's face when he walks in the door will tell me how things went in our home precinct. The totals he would see, though, are only for the people voting on election day at the precinct. Absentee ballots get counted as if they are a separate precinct, the Central Absentee precinct. 

The Orange Foolius has refused disaster aid for California's 1.9 million acres of wildfires that destroyed over 3,300 homes, and killed at least three people. I'm willing to bet that if the governor of California were a Republican, aid would have been forthcoming quickly. The Orange Foolius at one point blamed the wildfires on Governor Newsom. I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type that. How do people vote for the Foolius? Do they see him as a god who can do no wrong? I do not understand it. 

Given the eight miles I walked this morning, tomorrow and Sunday will be recovery days. I will walk both days, but I will not be compulsive about how far or how fast. I earned that right this morning.