The View from the Hermitage, Day 260

As I typed the "260," I thought how close I'm getting to there only being 100 days left to get to one year. At times, it does not seem as if the hermitage has been occupied for as long as it has been. I've actually had days--and climate change isn't helping here--that I have to remind myself that it is not still summer, that it is, in fact, a month that ends in "ber." I'm getting better at knowing which day of the week it is; I guess the next accomplishment will be knowing which month it is. I certainly hope I don't have a head injury that means medical personnel will be asking me what the date is.

Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House's coronavirus task force basically said that Americans who gathered for Thanksgiving, especially if that gathering was in a large group, should assume they've been infected and get tested. That's not going to help the looming shortage of testing supplies. Can we please go back to the mentality we had in March or April, before corona fatigue set in, back to the days when people respected the virus? I wonder if corona fatigue started to set in with the suggestion that people wear masks, or was it about the time governors started reopening their economies. Did it hurt or help that the NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB were able to bubble and finish their seasons? I don't think the NFL read the after-action reports on those seasons to see what a difference the bubble made. It's not clear to me that the NFL will finish its season all the way through the playoffs and Super Bowl, and if so how big the asterisk will be by the name of the 2020-21Super Bowl winner. 

The number of new covid-19 cases and the seven-day rolling average in Virginia actually went down in the numbers posted overnight even as the percent positivity rose to 7.5 percent. Statistics from the local university have never seemed legitimate, and they may be more so now that students have left campus not to return until spring classes start on February 1. 

As for the federal executions mentioned in a previous post, I read today that there were only three federal executions in the previous 50 years. I know one was Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, but I have no idea who the other two were. The Lame Duck's administration, though, has managed to carry out eight executions in less than five months and are looking to carry out five more before the Duck's term ends. I'm not sure what the rationale is here. Does it make The Lame Duck feel as if he accomplished something real? Something there is no question about--the person was alive before the execution and dead after, no ifs, ands, or buts about it? If I had more time and were so inclined, I would see if I could find out whether the push for five more executions before January 21 was made before or after November 3. As Arte Johnson used to say on Laugh In, that's very interesting.

A volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia. I don't think there were any casualties. Does this omen foretell the earthquake and tsunami coming as icing on the cow-pie cake that is 2020. I really should put the earthquake and tsunami out of my mind before I will them into existence. 

On a more interesting and possibly humorous note, there have been anti-government rallies in Thailand lately. The symbol of the resistance is a giant yellow rubber duck. A discussion of how that came to be as well as how Ralph the Rex t-rex costumes figure can be found here. Somehow, rubber ducks seem a better thing for protestors to carry than bricks or Molotov cocktails. They also add a layer of levity at least when viewed from afar.

I continue to receive multiple daily text and email messages seeking funds for Democratic or left-wing political purposes, chiefly to help support the Democrats in the Senate run-off races in Georgia. We made several political donations during the fall, some to election winners and others, not. Can we have a moment of silence, please?

The View from the Hermitage, Day 259

Day 259, Week 37, call it what you will, there's still no real end in sight. It's not clear there will be by the time 2020 rides off into the sunset either. Will the old year leave in the same flaming dumpster it settled into last March? When I look ahead to 2021, I try not to think of the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 that killed nearly 230,000 people. Mother Nature does not observe holidays. If she gets in a bad mood, all bets are off. In other words, we are not out of the 2020 woods just yet.

On the very local, household, front, I have abandoned the search for curtains or drapes via retail establishments. Finding the same thing in different lengths became too vexing. We are also trying to patronize local businesses where possible, and there are several local custom window treatment places. I know that we'll pay exorbitantly more than we would at some place such as Wayfair or Lowe's, but we'll be supporting a local small business. Since I don't feel comfortable having someone come into the house right now, we'll put the old curtains back up for insulation and wait until life is more stable.

Locally but not at my house, the city had its third murder in a month yesterday morning. It's the fifth murder so far this year. I've heard few details, though it sounds as if around 30 shots were fired in the incident based on the number of shell casings recovered. We've got a month still to go, so a sixth would not be out of the picture. Also, the county school system reported its first student covid-19 cases, five at one elementary school. It sounded as if one student tested positive with contact tracing pointing to five other students with whom they had contact with away from school. Four of those students tested positive. All are isolating. A couple of adults at the school also tested positive, though it wasn't clear to me whether the adults were exposed to the student(s) or in some other way. 

The seven-day rolling average of new covid-19 cases in Virginia may go past 2,600 today after dropping a bit on Friday. Thanksgiving Day was, as might be expected, not a day for an overly large number of new cases to be reported. It sounded as if the governor did do a briefing last Tuesday, but it was more of the same be-careful-you-can-do-this song and dance. Other states are tightening what they can to lessen exposure. I don't view stopping alcohol sales at midnight as tight enough. It may be the the covid-19 cases the governor and his wife had were mild enough for him to think it's not that big of a deal. Guess what, Ralph? It is!

The Washington Post had an in-depth article this morning on what The Lame Duck has been doing in the time since the election. What was reported was not reassuring. I would compare it to something such as The Count of Monte Cristo but in that work the character wanted to leave his imprisonment. The Lame Duck is the opposite. He has no desire to leave the prison of the Presidency. Interestingly, I recall one mention of Jared Kushner in the article but no mention of The Lame Ducklings, Don, Eric, or Ivanka. Are they perhaps trying to distance themselves from Daddy Duck?

The Post also had an interesting column by Ruth Marcus on the pros and cons of prosecuting The Lame Duck once he is no longer President. Central to such consideration is whether pursuing charges would further divide an already-very-divided country. That consideration slowed by knee-jerk response of, "You have to ask? Of course we should nail his butt to the wall!" Would the Proud Boys stand back for that or are they standing by just in case that happens? What message does it send not to prosecute him, say, for crimes committed before he became President? That you really can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone? That having half the country support you absolves you from any and all offenses committed at any time? There's a lot to think about there, which I imagine various prosecutors are doing right now. 

Back to the here and now. I have lost track of the number of Facebook pages I have seen showing the Christmas trees and decorations people have put up (some before Thanksgiving!) or are putting up this weekend. It's not as if I'm hosting any visitors any time soon. We live somewhat off the main roads, so it's not as if people will be driving by and admiring our outside decorations which end at putting up icicle lights around the front porch. I have at least addresses ten envelopes for Christmas cards. I call that a good enough start at Christmas.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 258

I am hoping that the number of newCOVID-19 cases Virginia posted yesterday involves another computer downtime meaning some cases got counted on the wrong day. If that is not the case, then yesterday marked the highest number of new covid-19 cases in Virginia since when? Since ever! And it would not just be the highest number yet, but the highest by almost 500 cases. Our 3,183 new cases yesterday were but a ripple in the pond of the national total of 205,460, just as our 10 deaths contributed little to the nation's 1,412 deaths. The hot spots continue to be concentrated in the Midwest (Kansas, the Dakotas) or West (Idaho, Montana), though no state has been without a recent or current surge. 

In about a week we should seeing what effect, if any, Thanksgiving travel has on the pandemic. I day "if any" while rolling my eyes. I know there will be an effect and not in a good direction. Anyone who takes the pandemic seriously knows there will be an effect, an effect that will be compounded by the Christmas and New Year's holiday.If we could be seeing 3,000 deaths per day in mid-December, what will we be seeing at the end of January, keeping in mind that deaths lag cases sometimes by a nontrivial length of time.

The Lame Duck seems to have dropped off the radar after this Thanksgiving address given at a desk way too tiny for his large body. He looked like an adult sitting at the kids' table. Or perhaps I have done a more thorough job than usual of avoiding news. There have certainly been some newsworthy items coming out of The Duck's administration. They'd evidently like to execute five more federal prisoners before The Lame Duck is no longer Lame. To help speed things up, they're proposing to use new alternatives to lethal injection, including electrocution, nitrogen gas, and firing squad. They can only use a method that is in use in the same state for state capital offenses. For example, Utah allows firing squad as an option, so the feds could use it there as well.

Interestingly, The Professor and Son #1 informed me that of all the methods of execution, nitrogen gas is the most humane. Evidently, there is no sense of asphyxiation or not being able to breathe. Someone who inhales nitrogen immediately goes unconscious after which lack of oxygen kills. Death does not happen immediately, but there is no pain or discomfort. This is why cryogenics labs have oxygen meters all over the place with alerts if the oxygen level in the air drops too far relative to the nitrogen level. Too much nitrogen and, bam!, you drop to the ground unconscious, and that is all she wrote. Nitrogen gas is an acceptable form of capital punishment in Oklahoma and about three other states, though it has yet to be used in an execution. 

Amy Coney Barrett, the newbie on the Supreme Court, this week voted in the majority to overturn the size limits New York had imposed on religious gatherings. Much was made during her confirmation hearings of her Catholic faith. Interestingly, Pope Francis disagrees with her on this one. He has noted that while religion is important, keeping people alive is also important, so if limiting the gathering of religious services helps in that regard, limits are good. I'm not Catholic, but I'm with Francis on this one. 

My back is slowly getting better. I am my own worst enemy. By late afternoon Thursday, after spending the day on my feet, I was in tears and ready to seek medical attention. Yesterday, I did move around some, going on two walks with Son #1 and The Family Dog, but skipped any prolonged standing. I also made liberal use of the heating pad when sitting. Last night, my back felt just fine, no twinges at all. I'm hoping that little by little it's getting there. Most of the websites I looked at said that back pain is considered chronic after 12 weeks, and I'm just now at four weeks. 

I survived the morning's Homeowners Association meeting conducted via Zoom. I would not be averse to having all our future meetings via Zoom.We have meetings once a year because our status as an official HOA requires at least one meeting per year. Last year's was the only one that I would say was more friendly than whiney; we met outside and one neighbor brought home-churned peach ice cream. This morning we were back to whiney. I tried not to make too many facial expressions that conveyed my distaste for certain people. As one of the few residents who has actually read the covenants of the subdivision, I was left to remind people that certain things could not be done or how certain things had been amended. At least reading sections of the covenants kept me from mouthing off as I might otherwise have done.

I go now to the kitchen to turn the heavy cream and condensed milk I did not end up using on Thursday into ice cream. It's a rough job, but someone has to do it.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 257

I hope that those celebrating it had a nice Thanksgiving without too much excess in the food and/or drink department. We Zoomed with Son #2 and D-i-L Equivalent, but it wasn't the same as having them across the deck or room would have been. On the other hand, they did Act I (the call was split into two sessions) in Emma's room, Emma being their parrot. [As an interesting side comment, they have 11 animals so far--four rabbits, three snakes, two cats, one parrot, and one tortoise. One of the snakes is a Burmese python, the kind that is overrunning the Everglades because the people who did no realize how large they got have been letting them go there.] When it got to be Emma's bedtime, they moved to a different room to let her get her beauty sleep.

As for the menu, it was pretty much the usual except for no sweet potatoes. Of note is that I made the best gravy I have ever made, hands down. The challenge now will be to replicate it for Christmas dinner. Since Son #1 comes here every morning to run, I expect most of the leftovers will be gone by Sunday, with the exception of the cheesecake, which Son #1 would only be caught eating during or after an ultra-marathon. 

On the political front, The Lame Duck finally said that he would vacate the White House should the Electoral College elect Uncle Joe. The election, though, would be invalid due to the massive voter fraud still being investigated. This makes me wonder if, after the inauguration, The Lame Duck (I will need a new name for him then) will still claim to be President and present Uncle Joe as being illegitimate. How this would fly when it comes to Congress might be worth considering. Assuming the Republicans win both Georgia seats--or even one--what might the Senate do? Refuse to confirm Uncle Joe's Cabinet and any advisors requiring confirmation? Refuse to even meet given the person acting as President is an imposter? We could have one hell of a constitutional crisis on our hands. 

I wonder how people in other countries view the US, champion of covid, celebrating Thanksgiving. I'm not sure we should even be allowed to sit at a children's table. The Washington Post ran a photo taken at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) showing a flight crew walking through what appeared to be the lobby with the entry counters at which a traveler might check a bag. Those counters are all empty. Members of the flight crew are wearing full PPE. No mention was made of this fact, so I can't say whether the crew would continue to wear the PPE while underway. How many science fiction or fantasy films have included such a scene? Seeing a scene like that associated with an Ebola outbreak in a jungle setting would seem perfectly normal. Seeing a scene like that in a modern public airport setting boggles my mind. 

The Virginia case numbers and seven-day rolling average released this morning were down, which did not surprise me given the holiday. I expect they will be on the way back up in tomorrow morning's data dump. The picture is going to become unreliable, though, when the expected shortage of tests happens. As The Lame Duck says, we have more cases because we test more people. This does not mean that we will have fewer cases when we test fewer people. We just won't know any longer how far afield the virus has spread. I read one report that by mid-December we could be seeing, nationally, 3,000 deaths per day. Per day!?!? Remember when 2,977 people died on September 11, 2001? We're on the verge of a September 11 death toll every single day. This really should upset more people than it does.

As for today's being Black Friday, I, as usual, stayed home. I did, however, make two online purchases. One was a 2020 ornament with the arms of the snowflake being the word "fuck." The other was a set of masks featuring the Bangor, Maine Police Department's Duck of Justice. I figured I should have one "theme" mask to wear if I even venture into public beyond the confines of the subdivision. 

Happy start of the Christmas season!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 256

Happy Day of Giving Thanks! I'm way behind schedule here thanks to a nap with a heating pad. I may actually seek medical attention for my back tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll report on the rest of my day tomorrow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 255

The day before Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cook as Much as Possible Day or Wednesday. I had the list ready! After the morning walk with The Family Dog and showering, I accomplished Item 1: Pie crust with no problem. Washed all the dishes from that adventure and proceeded to Item 2: Cheesecake: 2A Graham cracker crust; 2B Cheesecake. The Professor handled the crust while I worked on the cheesecake filling. We were nearing the end of the filling, adding four lightly beaten eggs one at a time, when the phone rang. It was Son #2 informing us that he was feeling fine but he was running a bit of a temperature, not high but higher than his temperature usually is. Daughter-in-Law Equivalent said he was noticeably pale, so they had decided that they shouldn't come tomorrow. I thanked them for not putting us, well, me at increased risk. We'll Zoom around dinnertime just as we Zoomed for my birthday pancake breakfast. We can think about getting together at Christmas, though we will likely need heaters if we want to eat on the deck. Still, I remember more than one Christmas here when shorts could have been worn comfortably.

On the national front, there were more than 2,200 deaths yesterday, the highest since May 6. New cases numbered north of 250,000 again. There have been more than 2 million new cases in only two weeks. And the seven-day rolling average number of new cases went over 175,000 for the first time. Our seven-day rolling average in Virginia is knocking on 2,500's door and may be getting in and over that today. The slope of that line right now is the steepest it has been. I have heard nothing lately about contact tracing in Virginia; I don't know if that's good or bad. Contact tracing for the nation as a whole is dropping according to the CDC. In some states, cases are rising so fast that contact tracing is simply not possible. In North Dakota, people testing positive are told to do their own contact tracing and just let everyone they were with in a certain time period that they'd been in contact with someone who tested positive. Do-It-Yourself contact tracing. Does Lowe's or Home Depot sell a how-to manual for that?

At least with the official start of the Presidential transition, Uncle Joe's pandemic people can now talk with Dr. Fauci. Uncle Joe is, I think, giving a speech today about the pandemic. The Lame Duck, who yesterday pardoned a turkey, was supposed to go to a voter fraud rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with Rudy Giuliani, but the trip was cancelled after Giuliani was exposed to someone with covid-19 for the second time in a week. It looks as if now he will be quarantining at a Washington, DC hotel, something he should have started doing after the first exposure. 

The Lame Duck's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have not really been seen since the election. I've read several articles positing just what they'll do next. Pundits tend to think that they will not go back to New York City because they won't be able to enjoy the same social status they had before 2016. There are big-time renovations being made to a house they have on the grounds of The Lame Duck's New Jersey golf course, so perhaps they plan to move there. There's also word that they might relocate to Mar-a-Lago with Daddy. I don't really care where they go to live as long as it is not on the grounds of the Trump Winery which happens to be not that far from here. While I've seen a couple of the well-known people who live around here--John Grisham and Sissy Spacek--I would not want to see Jared and Ivanka walking on our Downtown (pedestrian) Mall. 

While I am disappointed at not being able to see Son #2 and Daughter-in-Law Equivalent tomorrow, I am glad they had the sense to cancel. The Professor said he would have expected no less from them. Maybe I've been reading too many horror stories about people doing dumb things such as going to a large gathering when they know better, putting their own lives and the lives of other in jeopardy. 

The Health & Science section of yesterday's Washington Post contained an article I may find myself reading daily. In the Perspective piece "Don't waste time pining for pre-covid life," Steven Petrow reflected on how people might waste the time the pandemic has given us to slow down and reflect. Beginning with a friend's question, "How do you think we'll adjust to life when it starts up again?" he reflected on several earlier periods in his own life. He noted having read a book on mindfulness and meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh that contained a passage on washing dishes. He noted that at one stage in his life he would never have recognized the wisdom he now sees in the passage: 

“I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to eat dessert sooner, the time of washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and that fact that I am here washing them are miracles!”

Over the summer, Petrow practiced washing his dishes mindfully and carefully, feeling "the warmth of the water and the slipperiness of the suds." It brought back memories of his grandmother using the same dishes he was washing. Memories of the past blended into the present. He then tried to be mindful about other things in his life. He concludes with offering his answer to his friend's question. I'd share that here, but I don't want to keep you from reading the whole article. It is worth the time.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 254

Let the official transition begin! Even as The Lame Duck continues to say that the results of the election will not stand, he is at least permitting formal transition to start to take place. I wonder if it was the sheer number of Republican officials saying he should step back or some particular Republican who has The Lame Duck's ear. It doesn't matter. Uncle Joe's transition is up and running; the official website is buildbackbetter.gov. No subtlety there at all, not one little bit. 

Word is that the Secret Service is looking for agents who don't mind moving to Florida. The trick is that with the sunshine and beaches will come protection for The Lame Duck and First Duckess (the best I could do without stopping typing). Renovations are supposedly in progress on living quarters for the Ducks at Mar-a-Lago. Back when The Lame Duck was not lame and transferred his residency from New York to Florida, I read an article that stated the agreement with local government to create Mar-a-Lago out of whoever's mansion it was before that included as one of the terms that no one would use it as a residence. I wonder if someone found a loophole or work-around or if The Lame Duck is doing as he usually does, looking out for number one and not giving a rip about law or decency. I did hear yesterday that to maintain residency in Florida, one must live there at least six months of the year. 

New York City is likely cheering silently or not that The Lame Duck appears not to be moving back to The Lame Duck Tower for good. Evidently the security required for it to be used as a principal residence would really louse up some of the streets around it. The Sons never argued for different or bigger bedrooms, plus they never had to share one, but they probably would have been jealous of Barron's having not a bedroom but a floor of the tower to call his. A floor! I cannot wrap my head around a tween then teen essentially having his own apartment. 

Typing that last statement reminded me of recent reading about Will and Jada Pinkettt Smith's kids and how they were raised. The parents did some real loose oversight, tending to let the kids do whatever and then learn from the consequences. Son Jaden told them when he was 15 that he was going to move out, and they let him. I assume that he had his own money in the bank from acting; I can't imagine they would fund that sort of choice. So maybe Barron isn't the only teenager who essentially has his own residence. 

On the coronavirus front, a third vaccine candidate has shown great promise just as I read that the speed with which the Stage 1-3 trials has been done means that it will not be clear right away whether the vaccine is blocking the actual infection or merely preventing the onset of the disease. Under the latter, vaccinated people could still contract the virus and pass it on to others but would not develop any aspect of the disease. Sounds kinda like a vaccine to make you have asymptomatic covid-19. And it's not clear any of this will matter if, as one poll showed, 40 percent of people refuse to be vaccinated. If you don't believe the disease exists, why worry about preventing it?

And Dolly Parton helped kick-start vaccine research at Vanderbilt University by making a million dollar donation on April 1, before it was clear just how bad things might get. Recovering in the Vanderbilt University Hospital from a car accident, she struck up a friendship with a doctor from Lebanon who immigrated to the US at the age of seven. As the virus was beginning to take up speed, she asked him if a donation would help. It would, and did, helping to get some of the foundational research done. Not bad, Dolly, not bad at all.

Pi Day may be March 14, but today was a pie day of sorts here. When Son #1 was looking for a realtor to help him look for a house, he asked around for suggestions. Several people recommended a specific realtor noting that he gave clients past and present pies right before Thanksgiving. The choice is between apple, pecan, or pumpkin; they're made by an excellent local bakery. Son #1 does not eat pie unless he is running or has just run an ultra-marathon, so we get the pie each year. The Professor loves apple, so apple pie it is. Son #1 brought it with him this morning, and The Professor and I had apple pie for breakfast. Interestingly, Son #2 says that the realtor they used in purchasing their land and cabin also gives an annual pie. Might be worth checking the next time you need to hire a real estate agent. 

We spoke with Son #2 and Daughter-in-law Equivalent last night and set everything up for Thursday. In the past, they come down and we're all in the kitchen chatting as we cook. Not gonna happen this year. They'll bring side dishes already cooked and let the dinner rolls rise in the car on the drive here. I'll do the bird and it's vegan cousin plus mashed potatoes and dressing. Tomorrow I'll make a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake with berry sauce with which we shall mark birthdays not celebrated in person this past year. Dinner will either be outside or with The Professor, Son #1, and I in the dining room with our two guests at a table in the living room. We'll set up fans and open windows so that the flow of air is from us to them then out the window rather than the reverse. Not as safe as a Zoom dinner, but as safe as we can make it.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 253

Let's see if I can avoid distractions and finish what I start and get it posted even all in one fell swoop. The Family Dog will be leaving with The Professor shortly to get her annual bordetella aka kennel cough vaccination, so she should not offer any distraction. I have no idea where The Family Cat is hiding, but I don't expect her to distract me either. Now a butterfly or a shiny, those are different stories altogether. 

There were some good articles in The Washington Post today. There are more leading Republicans urging The Lame Duck to be done with all his conniving and challenges. As former New Jersey governor Chris Christie put it, the legal challenges are getting to be an embarrassment. 

Another good article noted the ways in which Uncle Joe's inauguration will be different from any that came before. At the top of the list is that The outgoing Lame Duck is not expected to attend, meaning there will be no formal meeting at the White House and riding together to the Capitol. And the gods forbid that The Lame Duck have to watch Uncle Joe's being sworn in. It's not clear at what place in or just outside the Capitol the swearing in will take place and to what extent crowds will be permitted to watch. Uncle Joe has said that he does not want to be sworn in while wearing a mask, so he and Aunt Jill may be standing apart from everyone else. And just as the clergyman baptized a babe using a water gun, the person swearing Uncle Joe in could be at a safe distance with or without a water gun. As for a parade and the normal roster of evening inaugural balls, the jury is still out. I'm betting there won't be either. 

Uncle Joe is starting to name his Cabinet members and senior advisors. I have not heard of more of them than I have heard of. John Kerry and Janet Yellen are two with whom I am familiar. While John Kerry has little that I know of personal experience with the science of climate change, his years as Secretary of State should serve him well in dealing with climate change matters internationally.

And speaking of international matters, how about Crown Prince MBS and Bibi Netanyahu meeting face-to-face with Mike Pompeo playing some role. Pompeo may have been there so that a connection to The Lame Duck could be established as a step toward that Nobel Peace Prize The Duck so desperately wants. He should bone up on his history and learn that Jimmy Carter did not get the Peace Prize for Camp David; Begin and Sadat did. Jimmy Carter did eventually get the Peace Prize, but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development," not for the specific Camp David accords.

The colleges and universities that did not send their students home for the holidays last week are sending them home this week. They are following a variety of testing protocols to ensure that students don't have the virus stowing away with them. There are some schools letting students return next week and then go home for Christmas a couple weeks later, but it sounds as if most schools are telling students to stay home. December classes and final exams will be done virtually. Several schools, including the local university, are not having students return until the very end of January. Who knows what the case numbers might be by then with Christmas infections feeding off the post-Thanksgiving surges.

I did a "holy shit" at the Virginia numbers this morning and was relieved later to see that the system was down for a while over the weekend, and yesterday's number was inflated. The disconcerting thing is that the seven-day rolling average set another record, and it's independent of which day cases are counted. I checked to see if the governor held a briefing this afternoon, and he did not. He did post this on the Governor of Virginia's Facebook page:

As the holiday week begins, we are seeing new #COVID19 cases and hospitalizations rise throughout Virginia.

Virginians have been doing a great job over these last nine months, and we cannot let up now. We can turn this around if we all work together to stay safe.

I love this! If you behave, children, then Bad Santa will not bring germs to our house. And as for "we cannot let up now," how does he think we got such an increase in new cases? By letting up of course!

A friend of long standing ("old friend" seems to emphasize age, though in this case the person is 84) sent an e-card yesterday for Thanksgiving. It was the first thing I read on my phone after the temperature (weather comes first so I know what sort of workout clothes to don), and the music and images were a great way to start the day. This person is very important to me, not to be traded for anything or body. There are a few other such friends, or Friends as someone I know refers to such people in her life. I should be thankful for these people more than one day a year. It is too easy to tell myself that we'll get together again someday when who can say when someday will be. I'm hoping to make the time in the coming week to write these people and thank them for being in my life. 

And to those who read this blog, thank you for being in my life. Knowing that someone reads this helps me keep going day after day after ....

The View from the Hermitage, Day 252

Another pandemic week checked off--we're at 36 and counting. Noteworthy in the past week: The Lame Duck went golfing for the 303rd time in his term of office. The US had over 250,000 new cases Thursday. We passed 250,000 total deaths during the past week; keep in mind that this number is an undercount given people dying from things such as heart attacks that were the result of a covid-19 infection. We had over one million new cases in less than the past week. Finally (not really, but for the purposes of this blog, yes), there's been a fourth covid-19 outbreak at the White House, this one including The Junior Lame Duck and Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy. As an aside, I read recently that Andrew is a frequent golf partner of The Lame Duck, who supposedly is, to Andrew, a bit of a father figure.  

Yes, The Lame Duck went golfing this morning rather than attend the virtual meeting of the G-20, "hosted" by his buddies in Saudi Arabia. The first session was on "pandemic preparedness," something we know The Lame Duck already knows. And he did participate in the greetings offered by each country attending. In his remarks, he noted that the US will "meet America's needs first" when in comes to distribution and administration of vaccines. He also noted that he looked forward to working with the G-20 for years to come. Really, Lame Duck? Really?

The Lame Duck's legal challenges to the results of the November 3 election continue to be dismissed. I remain pessimistic, though, that he will ever say that enough is enough and at the very least let the formal transition begin. The press secretary said that the transition The Lame Duck's people had gone through was very disorganized and not valuable. Interestingly, the way I remember it is that The Lame Duck's "team" did not realize that there would be a formal transition and scrambled to find people to take part in it. The sounds to me as if the disorganization was on their end. 

Speaking of the transition, Uncle Joe supposedly has picked his Treasury Secretary and is close to decisions on several others. One source said that announcements would start on Tuesday. For the picks requiring Senate confirmation, the lack of a formal transition means that the FBI cannot begin the background checks required for officials needing confirmation. Given the way that The Lame Duck has handled Cabinet vacancies, I wonder if Uncle Joe can name his picks as "acting" secretaries until background checks are complete.

Life distracted me, and I was getting ready for bed when it hit me that I had not posted this. Apologies for leaving any ending hanging. Better luck tomorrow, I wish myself.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 251

I cleared a wee bit of a flowerbed and repotted some shoots I'd rooted, and my back is telling me that enough is enough. There's a heating pad and book on the couch with my name on them. Tomorrow, I'll see about writing before I do something I shouldn't.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 250

I'd say, "TGIF!" but then it doesn't really matter, at least not to me. One day really is pretty much like the previous and the next. The Professor puts in significant office time even on weekends, so that makes Saturday and Sunday a lot like any weekday. Things may change, though, given that Monday's lecture is his last of this semester. The final exam is sometime in early December, after which he's not teaching again until February 1. He'll be able to work on his research without the distractions of teaching or office hours. He's going to get spoiled, so I will need to brace myself when he has to prepare and tape his first lecture of the spring semester. He is likely not going to be happy about it.

Was it yesterday that I mentioned Virginia could soon have a seven-day rolling average number of new covid-19 cases of at least 2,000? We made it yesterday, though I wouldn't call it something to yell in a positive tone of voice. The only positive side would be if it motivated people to take the currently prescribed mitigation measures seriously or if it motivated state or local leaders of the value of tightening them or more carefully enforcing them. 

I try not to think about The Lame Duck's persistent efforts to undo the election results too deeply or too often. I find myself shaking my head and wondering why anyone would take him seriously. I must then remind myself that the popular vote in the election was not a landslide, and The Lame Duck has many supporters. I then move to shaking my head and wondering how every Republican in the Senate essentially backs what the Lame Duck has done or is doing. How can they look at themselves in the mirror? 

My back is feeling a lot better, and I am still taking things very easy. We've had two nights of frost, though, and I wonder if this weekend would be a good time to pull up the existing plants (mostly weeds) in the bed in which I want to plant my fall bulbs. Would taking a step-stool out there upon which to sit work to take bending over out of the picture? I do not want to do something stupid and end up looking at three more weeks of involuntary inactivity.

And so ends a quickie post. I have junk to play with in search of sculptures for Son #2's garden at the cabin. Photos to come. 

View from the Hermitage, Day 249

I hid from the news this morning by deleting work emails from as far back as 2016. Along the way< I also deleted too many messages from Amazon.com that I'd failed to delete after the package shipped or arrived. I also found several emails related to the Homeowners Association that I really should read. "Should read" means that they are now in Twiggy's HOA folder for later perusal. Or not. I have to be honest here. I also put in time on finding photographs for the holiday photo deal for my mom. The ones from my brother should be coming in the next couple of days, which is good since the facility would like the photos by Monday. Now I have to pick the ones to send. I've sent an email to the facility's Activities Director asking if 12 photos would be too many. I can get the human photos down to four (two kids and two grandkids, with significant others in pictures with kids or grandkid), but there are also about eight animals I know Mom would enjoy seeing. Twelve may be more photos that they're expecting, so I just wanted to know up front. 

I realized that the amount of time needed to finish the needle felted scene for my brother-in-law was really not that long. So I finished it with no increased pain to my wrist. It's ready to send, and I'm ready to try to find some other hand work that's easier on wrists. Here's the scene I was doing; it's based on a greeting card showing the aurora.

This was my first attempt at doing an actual scene in felt, and I learned a lot. I got a compliment from a friend who, in retirement, has become a full-time fabric artist. She said it showed the movement of the lights. Barrie will like it more than the Lee Valley Tools gift card he's gotten from his brother the past couple of years. 

The CDC and just about everyone else is recommending people not plan or cancel family get-togethers for Thanksgiving. Every time I hear that, I run through that two people are coming here, one of whom has had covid-19, after both have been quarantining for 14 days, and we'll be eating outside or in separate spaces. If one of them brings it in, and I get it, it will be my own fault. I can vow, though, that should I get it, no one else will get it from me. I'm going right back to extreme hermiting as of Black Friday. That said, I've lost track of the "Black Friday Starts Now" sales I've seen advertised; there have been quite a few already.

The Lame Duck is inviting Michiganers with some say in the electoral process to the White House. If he thinks he can beg, borrow, or steal enough electoral votes to overturn Uncle Joe's victory, he can't if we don't let him. If he's inviting them to lay some groundwork for a run in 2024, while despicable, that would be legal. I wish he would follow the prediction of one pundit and go to Mar-A-Lago for the weekend but not return. He can try to "rule" from there until January 20. And there is always the 25th amendment to fall back on. I wonder if Pence could pardon him if Pence rose to the Presidency as a result of the 25th amendment's "the president is not doing his job" rationale. 

Virginia covid-19 numbers just keep giving. The seven-day rolling average of number of new cases now exceeds 1,800. Do I hear 2,000? And it's looking as though my predicted 250,000 new cases in one day won't be met this week. I bet it will be sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, though, sad as it is to say that.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 248

Continuing on the pottering front, I can report that the contents of the hair and make-up drawer were not nearly as varied or as interesting as the contents of the drawer of miscellaneous items I cleaned up yesterday. The only make-up I wear is lip gloss. I gave up mascara because I wore it so rarely that the tube of it usually hit its expiration date after only one wearing. There were a couple tubes of pinkish or reddish lip gloss that I must have bought when considering what it would take to make me look like an adult. I trashed those and kept the more neutral mocha colored one. I kept the brush I use daily as well as a couple of combs with differing densities of teeth. I put all the stray bobby pins back on the bobby pin card and tossed all the clips for holding long hair in place in a bag for donation. Actually I put them in a deluxe shower cap saved from some hotel some time ago. 

I spent more morning time going through a box of papers and stuff. This would go faster if I didn't have to read various things and recall from whence they came. The earrings are giving me side eyes from my left daring me to get back to sorting them. Maybe tomorrow, earrings, maybe tomorrow.

Dr. Fauci was speaking, virtually of course, at the weekly Medical Center Hour held at the local university. The Professor and I live-streamed it as we ate lunch. Dr. Fauci said nothing new or earth-shaking but gave a very nice summary of coronaviruses in general and SARS-CoV-2 in particular. He also explained what the bases of the different vaccine candidates were. He had said earlier that he would take the one from Pfizer. He said that before the Moderna results came out, so I don't know whether he would take that instead. I've said more than once that I won't get vaccinated until Dr. Fauci gets vaccinated, and I want whatever vaccine he got.

The Virginia covid-19 numbers continue to rise. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is now over 1,700. The governor did a briefing this afternoon. He was big on the fact that cases were rising in all the states and territories, but that Virginia was fourth from the bottom in terms of how quickly cases were increasing. I guess that's good news. He did not add any new mitigation measures but reminded listeners of the ones that started overnight Sunday into Monday. When he moved from the virus to the state budget, I stopped paying attention. 

It has occurred to me that The Orange Foolius should get a new name befitting his new status. If I can figure out a way to shorten it, I'd like to go with one I found on that TrumpNicknames subreddit, Lame Duck a l'Orange. That seems to capture the relevant point which is that he lost the election and is on his way out. He may have been hopeful when the board that should certify the vote in Wayne County, Michigan, home of Detroit, deadlocked over the certification.The state board will now be the entity deciding the validity of the votes. Still in Michigan, there are Republicans urging the majority-Republican state legislators to try to appoint their own electors who would, of course, vote for The Lame Duck. I'm thinking that ain't gonna happen.

The card in the mail yesterday was a Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years card from a friend who had retired and moved from New York to Chicago. He figured that people might like the new address before they addressed their holiday cards. I was motivated, though, to bring up the Christmas card box. As it turns out, I apparently did not buy several boxes of cards at a post-holiday sale last year. I think I'll have enough, though, since I have a box of cards that could pass for Christmas cards and are blank inside. I can figure out something seasonal to write there. 

Also on the holiday front, Son #1 managed to get every item on my holiday shopping list including a fresh turkey. I should be set, or will be until I realize on Wednesday that I for got something. I'll not worry about that now and will deal with it when it happens.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 247

As if my anxiety over The Orange Foolius's refusal to let things transition to Uncle Joe weren't high enough, it was reported yesterday that The Foolius wanted to go to war with Iran until a few of his advisors talked him out of it. I wonder if he thought that the country couldn't switch presidents in the middle of a conflict. Not so! Bush 43 started wars with Iraq and Afghanistan; Obama took over just as The Foolius took over from him. Son #1 opined that the rationale may have been that the US has made multiple arms sales to Saudi Arabia and another Arab country or two, and a war with Iran would give them a chance to use those weapons. Whatever the reason might have been, I'm glad there were people mature and sane enough to hold him back. I hope they're in the room the next time he wants to do something like this. 

The pandemic whirls around us. The high case number in Virginia that I reported yesterday was inflated a bit by the data system's having been down for maintenance over the weekend meaning that some cases got posted to Sunday that should have been posted the day before. That error does not, unfortunately, affect the seven-day moving average of number of cases which is approaching 1,700. The percent positivity rate was up to 7.4 percent. Further out in the world, the Republican governor of Iowa who until now has been against any sort of mask mandate announced one for Iowa last night. How serious is this? The mandate was announced yesterday evening and took effect at midnight. There may have been lots of Iowans shopping for masks this morning. 

I managed to go through the top drawer of the three that sit between my sink and The Professor's. It was enlightening. I now know why we were never able to find tweezers when we needed them. There were six in the drawer. They were mingling with three nail files, one (large) toenail clipper, and five (small) fingernail clippers. After an inventory, I kept the 18 (yes, 18) emery boards that appeared never to have been used. I relocated some bobby pins to the drawer beneath but rescued 19 safety pins and nine paper clips, of which five were small and four, large. I then got rid of the dust and scum what had taken up residence there in the years since I last cleaned it. That assumes that I ever have cleaned it; I really don't recall. The drawer now has shelf paper on the bottom and is inhabited by one of my albuterol inhalers, a subset of the nail devices recovered on the first pass, and various creams or ointments--hydrocortisone cream, athlete's foot cream, antibacterial cream, and a couple more. Having conquered that drawer, I rewarded myself by leaving the drawer beneath, the hair and makeup drawer, for tomorrow.

I realized as I was typing that paragraph that it was making me smile. A moment of levity! Thanks, self, I needed that. It hit me this morning that Thanksgiving is next week. Ordinarily, I would already have purchased many of the needed supplies. I would have bought cranberries as soon as they appeared in the stores, getting enough for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would already have potatoes and sweet potatoes. I do have supplies for pumpkin pie save the cream for whipping. I usually buy a fresh turkey, so that would have been on the list to obtain over the weekend. I also had the cushion of knowing that should I realize on the day before Thanksgiving that I had forgotten something, a quick trip to the nearest grocery store was no big deal. This morning I passed a lengthy grocery list to Son #1 who has been procuring groceries for us. I'll learn tomorrow morning how he did. 

It hit me the other day that November is also known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 or more word novel in one month of 30 days. If you get your novel finished during the month, you are a "winner" and get a link to a PDF certificate on which you can enter your name. I am a three-time winner at NaNoWriMo, those years being 15 or so years ago. I was struggling the first year, in which I had a real premise that might have worked for a better writer, when Son #2 informed me that everything went better with zombies. He was right. I added a zombie angle, and it all flowed from there. I also incorporated zombies the next two years, with the third based loosely on what I had happen in the second. Will I ever do it again? Probably not, since Bond, James Bond told me to never say never again. My favorite one was the second. I populated it with characters based on the young people with whom I was doing martial arts and even gave each of them a copy on a CD.

In viewing my USPS Informed Delivery email of snail mail to come today, there is something that I hope is not a Christmas card. It is too early for Christmas cards, though this is the time of year that I usually address them. I think I used labels in 2014, the year in which I had my torn right rotator cuff and labrum repaired in October. Otherwise, I'm sort of an old fogy and like to address them by hand. I do use return address labels. I also need to write the yearly recount of things that may bore most people but that some people might want to know. I for one like getting yearly recaps in Christmas cards. Otherwise, I'm looking at the card's signature and wondering just what that person is up to these days. I have retrieved the box of Christmas cards from its secure location for perusal this evening. I often buy cards post-holiday when they are on sale. I do hope I bought enough back in January of the year we may or may not laugh about someday.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 246

The Orange Foolius evidently tweeted that Uncle Joe wast the winner of the recent election. He of course quickly corrected himself to note that Uncle Joe won the rigged Fake News election. Maybe he's edging himself to being able not to concede but at least to say that Uncle Joe would be inaugurated as President in January. The longer The Foolius keeps up the facade of his having been cheated out of office, the more stupid he looks. Well, at least to me. To his base he likely looks strong and resolute.

Virginia's covid-19 case numbers reached new heights. I really, REALLY hope that the new case count from yesterday had some extra cases added because it was roughly twice the day before, about 2,600 as opposed to about 1,300. The seven-day moving average, which would be the same no matter whether cases are counted on the correct date, hit a new high coming too close to 1,600. Perhaps more disturbing, the percent positivity rate for tests is up to 7.3, with testing supplies running short. It's not clear whether the local university will have all the tests it needs to test students before they go home next week.  

The Orange Foolius's principal coronavirus person, a Dr. Atlas, has no experience with infectious diseases but has managed to work his way into The Foolius's inner circle. He responded to the tightening of covid-19 mitigation measures in Michigan by urging residents there to rise up and stop those unfair measures. I wonder what state he'll go after next. Clearly, it will not be one with a Republican governor because they will all be toeing the party line. I want to just shake my head and try to leave this incident alone, but it's one of the more frightening things to come recently.

On the novel coronavirus good news front, though, Moderna has announced that its vaccine has a 94.5 percent effectiveness rate. Two possible vaccines are obviously better than one. I don't know if the Moderna one requires the deep, deep freeze temperatures that the Pfizer one does. It would certainly be easier to distribute a vaccine not requiring dry ice or liquid nitrogen storage.

I never got to those drawers yesterday. My current read sucked me back in, so I went ahead and finished it. It was The Kingdom, the latest crime novel from Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. Interestingly, The Washington Post today ran a review of it which you can access here. The reviewer nailed it in my opinion, particularly in noting that the end might be a hair disappointing to some readers. I will admit to being one of those. It just didn't feel right, not in a major way, but enough to make me sit back and ponder what I might have been missing. If you like noir fiction, you can't get much better than Scandinavian or Icelandic literature. 

I spent the morning preparing materials for the upcoming meeting of our Homeowners Association. I volunteered to be the secretary/treasurer as a way of not being asked to be president or vice president. On general principle, I will never again agree to be vice president of anything. When the sons were in a cooperative preschool, I let myself be elected vice president. With less than a month left in the summer, the president resigned. He had not done the summer tasks that he was supposed to do such as updating the parent manual outlining things that needed to be done, who was responsible for what, etc. No more being a veep for me, thank you very much. 

I was going to get to work on those drawers after lunch, but an email came in from my mom's assisted living facility. They want photos of residents and their families to use in decorating a small Christmas tree for each resident's room. I've pulled together what I could from the backups of my last three or four laptops and requested photos from my brother and sister-in-law, Son #2 and his spouse-equivalent, and Son #1for photos of Mom's cat he adopted when it was clear Mom was not going to be able to move back to her condo. I'm not sure what it says that of the original 13 photos I found before requesting the others, five were of people and eight were of animals.

And so has passed the day. There may still be time for a drawer or two since I haven't started a new book to distract me.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 245

Thirty-five weeks! Let the revelry begin! I'm not sure what there is to revel about, though. The number of cases gets higher every day, and the Dakotas may be the worst covid-19 site in the world. Doctors Without Borders has entered the picture, citing the US as a major outbreak. Let that sink in. Doctors Without Borders. The NGO that we think of as responding to outbreaks in the third world, such as the Ebola outbreaks in Africa. Have we become one of the shithole countries The Orange Foolius ranted about earlier in his reign, er, presidency? I'm not sure there's any other way to look at it all. 

I've read that doctors are scared of the covid-19 outbreaks they will see in the ten days or so following Thanksgiving, and whatever Christmas/New Years outbreaks will arise in January. The people who refuse to do even a minimum of mitigation really piss me off. Is it really that hard to wear a mask or stay at fingertip-to-fingertip distance with other people? I can see many people not caring whether they infect other people or not, but the masks and distancing protects the person wearing or keeping it as well. You may not want to look out for others, but at least look out for yourself!

The Presidential transition or lack thereof continues. It did occur to me that if Uncle Joe is not getting daily intelligence briefings, isn't Cousin Kamala getting them? She is, after all, on the Senate Intelligence Committee and will be until she is sworn in as Veep on January 20. I think that at least in terms of the campaign her security clearance is higher than Uncle Joe's. Someone on the incoming side need to know what's going on where. 

I have not pottered today, but there is still time for a bit. I did move Twiggy (my ultra-thin Lenovo laptop) back to the standing desk in my basement office. My back was getting worse every day I was using it upstairs, sitting. This feels much better. I wanted a small but heavy table moved from the basement to the living room, a task that fell to Son #1. I need to see if I really like it where I had him put it. I'll think about that when I'm sitting in the living room reading tonight. 

No word from my mom's assisted living facility on Friday. I have my fingers crossed that that means all the covid-19 tests done on Wednesday came back negative. If so and all of them this week come back negative, the facility may be able to loosen things up a bit. I know from a chat with the receptionist that the thing most residents wanted back was the beauty shop. I know my mom would like to get her hair cut. She's had short hair all of her adult life that I can remember, so having hair start to really grow out feels strange. I've gone back and forth from short to long to in-between, so once the bangs grow out about a half inch more, I'll be fine.

It may be time to tackle a drawer or two. Speaking of which, I misspoke yesterday when I said I'd done three drawers. I did do three drawers, but I also went through and organized a kitchen shelf holding first aid supplies. There are two drawers that need attention in the master bathroom. If I can get past my book that's lying on the table, I should get at least one of those done.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 244

Son #1 informed me this morning that my prediction of 200,000 cases on at least one day this coming week was betting on a certain outcome. He's probably right given that yesterday's new case count exceeded 160,000. What the hay! One quarter of one million new cases at least one day in the coming week. Every couple of days I look at the countries and the states stats on endcoronavirus.com. They sort countries and states and territories into three groups: those who are getting it right, those on the way there, and those that are tanking. As of today, only one state or territory is listed as getting it right--the Virgin Islands. There are no states listed as on the way; at one point there were around ten listed there. Not any longer--right now, all 50 states are tanking, some more than others. 

Virginia is getting tightened mitigation measures as of midnight tomorrow. The governor put out a video last night outlining the changes, some of which sound better than others. Restaurants already are supposed to have closed seating at the bar and reduced inside seating. New is that alcohol sales must stop at 10:00 pm with establishments closing by midnight. Maximum size of gatherings was cut from 250 to 25. Restaurants (which includes breweries and wineries) cannot host or serve parties larger than 25 inside or outside. If there is enough space between tables, there can be more than 25 patrons in a restaurant, but they can't be there as a unit. Masks that up til tomorrow had to be worn by kids 10 and over will have to be worn starting at age 5. These restrictions apply to the entire state since cases are rising in all the regions. I give the governor credit for doing something at the same time as I think he should have done more.

The Orange Foolius yesterday put politics front and center in the pandemic. If he is still President when a vaccine is ready for distribution, he's not letting it be sent to the state of New York. He doesn't like the governor there saying that they will be doing their own research on the safety of any vaccine. There are a lot of other things he doesn't like about the governor of New York; I expect all of them are figuring into his not sending the vaccine to New York, not just the governor wanting to do his due diligence. 

Today's unpacking and putting away has been something The Guardian calls "pottering" or rearranging the contents of a drawer or cupboard. Every house has a junk drawer, right, except for a couple of places I've seen with a junk room. Today I attacked three such drawers.  Nothing went into a donation pile, but the garbage ate its share of items. Unraveling some of the power cords presented a dexterity challenge. I discovered several things I'd forgotten I had and others that I had more of than I thought. It was an easy-on-the-back-and-wrist activity that I probably would not have done otherwise. The challenge now is to keep them from relapsing into junk receptacles. 

Dastardly 2020 has taken Sean Connery and, more recently, Alex Trebek. Jeopardy will not be the same without him. His last episode will air on Christmas Day after which.... No new host has been announced though I have seen several lists of possible ones. I actually knew who two of the people on one list were, Ken Jennings and Levar Burton. I'd be okay with either of them, preferring Ken over Levar by just a hair, said hair being that I automatically connect Ken with Jeopardy. I automatically connect Levar with Reading Rainbow or Star Trek: The Next Generation. I would imagine that the new host would be announced soon given that they need to tape a few episodes to follow Christmas into the new year. Then maybe they can start adding categories centering on the dumpster fire that 2020 has been.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 243

How many days ago did I mention the number of new covid-19 cases in the country hitting 150,000? It happened yesterday, with 153,400. Should I just go out on a limb here and say that next week we'll see 200,000 in one day? Why not? Next week we'll see 200,000 new cases in one day at least once. 

Uncle Joe has been declared the winner in Georgia subject to the planned recount, while The Orange Foolius is the winner in North Carolina. The projected margin in the Electoral College then? Uncle Joe, 306; The Orange Foolius, 232. That's certainly not a landslide or a mandate, but it is certainly a victory. Can we just get on with a transition now? That's probably wishful thinking. There are all sorts of rumors, stories, innuendo going around about what The Foolius will do when. Some say that he will never concede but will instead say that the voting was unfair but he will step aside and leave the way clear to run again in four years. Some say that he is again raising the question of whether he can pardon himself. How sad, but he can only pardon himself or be pardoned for federal indiscretions, and the Manhattan DA will be charging him at the state level. He may be in jail when the 2024 election looms, but I doubt it. He'll manage to string the pre-trial process out as long as possible. 

John Berman, co-host of New Day on CNN, every morning notes how many days it has been since The Foolius's voice has been heard in public. The silence concerns him. Given the visceral reaction of The Professor to the sounds made by The Orange Foolius, I'm just as happy to have him stay on mute. I will get concerned if he stops tweeting, bigly concerned. We have taken to watching the BBC news on PBS every night and PBS NewsHour some nights. They offer more insightful and in-depth analysis and fewer hyped headlines. The Professor watches CNN as he does his morning stretching, though I often can persuade him to switch to a music channel instead. I don't want his blood pressure getting too high.

I have been trying so far unsuccessfully to find some form of handwork that does not aggravate the DeQuervain's syndrome in my right wrist. I had to put away the knitting I'd been doing each evening. I'd be going to bed with a painful wrist that would still be painful in the morning despite spending the night in a brace to keep it in a neutral position. It seemed okay with needle felting until I started trying to finish a Christmas present I've been working on for a couple of weeks. Putting in a couple of hours a day is now setting off the pain. I know I could do less, but if I do, it won't be done in time to be mailed and arrive for Christmas. And since I can't leave anything related to it out in the open thanks to the wool-loving resident feline aka The Family Cat, it's not worth it to get everything out and then just do it for a little while before packing everything back up. That pretty much leaves using my sewing and felting machines or warping my loom and seeing how weaving affects a wrist. I probably should break down and email my trusty hand doctor and ask whether I could get cortisone for it a time or two before considering surgery or, given how often it's happening is surgery my only option. 

The Professor only has three more lectures to tape. There are four more class sessions before the Thanksgiving holiday, but one of those sessions will be a midterm. Once the little darlings go home for Thanksgiving, they don't come back until February 1. They will all supposedly be tested for covid-19 before they go home. They will probably have to be tested before they come back, but that has yet to be announced. 

We are finally have fall-like weather even if it's just been a day or two in a row. Winter is coming even if it's more than a month away. We started the pandemic and I started this blogging last winter. How can another winter be coming? It seems too soon to approach being able to say it's been a year. I think about how I like to spend the autumn to winter transformation cocooning and reconnecting with the small family I have. The authoritative "they" are counseling against that this year. What cocooning and reconnecting I do will be masked, socially distant, and without the hugs I have so missed these past 243-plus days. I hope The Professor and Son #1 don't mind being hugged because they may be standing in for a lot of other people on the hug front.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 242

I just got an alert from ABC News informing me that 1 in 378 Americans tested positive for covid-19 this week. The Professor reacted to that by noting that he had tested negative. The Virginia number of cases, seven-day rolling average number of cases, and percent positivity continue to rise. My mom's assisted living facility continues to find a positive case or two in its weekly point prevalence screenings. The last email from the director said that last week's testing found only one positive resident. They did another screening yesterday; I'll probably hear the results of that tomorrow. They have had some additional deaths, though there is no way of knowing to what extent covid-19 contributed to those passings. I did learn that Virginia's definition of an outbreak is having two cases in the same time and location. So the facility has more than met that criterion.

I threw in the towel on finding my kindle and took advantage of a Woot.com special on refurbished ones. I figured that as soon as the Woot kindle arrived, I would find mine. That hasn't happened yet, but then I have yet to be able to make my way to the back of one room of boxes. My kindle is probably still out there, but while I await its finding, I can read The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo, a kindle book I pre-ordered that just dropped. 

I did make it partway through my earring stash. I'm going to end up with a pile of ones I just don't know about, and that's when I involve The Professor in the process. When I worked full-time and had to dress as an adult, I would take him clothes shopping with me. The outfits that he helped me pick out always drew more compliments than the ones I picked out on my own. 

The Masters golf tournament started today. When I talked with my mom yesterday, she said she might not watch it this year even though her number one favorite golfer, Tiger Woods, is the defending champion. (He has finished the first round and is currently tied for third, thought that could change as other golfers finish their rounds.) That comment was a bit disconcerting; I cannot remember her ever not watching it when Woods was playing. It's actually the only golf tournament I will willingly watch, especially the final round. There always seems to be some huge shot or comeback or collapse that makes watching it worthwhile. It does seem strange to have them playing in fall rather than spring and for there to be no galleries. 

So far, eight college football games scheduled for this weekend have been postponed or cancelled due to covid-19 cases on one team, the other, or both. I still have mixed feelings about bringing back sports in which players are in close contact. Cross country or swimming where there is a natural distance between competitors are one thing. Sports in which two people get in each other's faces are another. But with colleges and universities hurting financially, I can see why they would want to keep as many sports as possible.

On the money for colleges and universities front, New Mexico State University is bringing out its own brand of whiskey. Gotta love their ingenuity. I'm not a big whiskey drinker, or I'd try to order a bottle.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 241

"Listen to the rhythm of the fallin' rain..." would make a good tag line for today as would "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...." It's been raining all day, at times harder than others. The Family Dog wanted none of it but agreed not to turn around until she'd done her morning business. We had to go out to begin with in order to take the neighbors' newspapers from the top of their driveway to their front door. They're both in their eighties with mobility issues, so every morning we take their paper down and hang it on a binder clip hanging from a cut-down plastic clothes hanger on their front doorknob. They don't even need to step out onto their porch landing to get it.

I know I kept harping about how many days it would take for there to have been 1,000,000 new cases once the daily total started to exceed 100,000. Yesterday was November 10, and we passed 1,000,000 new cases in the month of November. And each day, the excess over the base of 100,000 grows larger. It's not going to be long before it hits 150,000 in one day. The state numbers continue to rise as well. The seven-day rolling average number of new cases was 1,524 this morning. The percent positivity rate for the tests done yesterday was 6.2; this rate is also on the way up.

I will admit that my stomach turned a bit when I read about Mike Pompeo's mention of a smooth transition to the second Trump administration. I did not expect there to be a smooth transition between The Orange Foolius and Uncle Joe, but I did not expect to hear crap such as that. I thought The Professor would cool off once the Electoral College votes indicated one or the other candidate as the winner. There was steam coming out of The Professor's ears this morning at the breakfast table as he read Pompeo's comment. I really need to keep him off Facebook and CNN first thing in the morning. 

The online Fox News account of Pompeo's comment included: 'Later in the interview, Pompeo stated that "if I'm an adversary [of the U.S.], I would not think for a moment that in this time between now and January, that this was the moment that they might have an opportunity. It's simply not the case. President Trump and our team are on watch."' The Orange Foolius and cronies are on watch? Really? The team that schedules a presser for a garden shop in between a crematorium and a sex shop in the neighborhood of a jail? We're supposed to trust them to keep us safe. I can easily see them allowing no formal transition, leaving the country essentially unprotected on January 20 and the days that closely follow. 

And even The Foolius's autocratic friends are sending Uncle Joe their congratulations. While, Vlad Putin has yet to do so, even MBS in Saudi Arabia and Erdogan in Turkey have communicated with Uncle Joe. I can see how The Foolius is so dense as to ignore world opinion, but I have trouble believing his Cabinet members such as Pompeo are accompanying him on his ego trip. The Foolius did, I know, fire the Secretary of Defense, and some high-level, non-Cabinet officers are said to be next on the chopping block, but how does it hurt to get fired by The Foolius in the wake of an electoral defeat. The officials standing with The Foolius are only hurting themselves. Who would want to hire one of them?

Finally, on a note with some levity, it turns out that my Halloween dinosaur costume was noted. One of the neighborhood kids sent a message out thanking the neighbors who had candy out for trick-or-treaters. The message noted that I had been wandering around in a dinosaur costume. I really should put it on more often and practice walking in it. Moving around in the dark was sort of scary in terms of not being able to see sidewalk steps or, in the yard, branches ready to trip the unwary. T-rex arms aren't really long enough to reach out and use a railing or a tree for support. 

And now, to the earrings!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 240

Still feeling a major lack of levity lately. I've seen things that are humorous such as a phony ad for Four Seasons Total Landscaping, but they're more single shots of wit and not reflective of the whole environment. It would probably help if The Orange Foolius would admit that his base eroded and failed him--there is no way he would ever view it as a failure on his part. I worry when I hear that Uncle Joe is not being given daily intelligence briefings. If that persists, what is the best day on which to do something nasty? January 20 or 21, of course. And hit the ground running with a anti-pandemic plan? It may take a while to get up to speed on just what numbers Health and Human Services might have been hiding. 

The Virginia covid-19 numbers continue to rise, setting new records almost every day. The governor did a briefing this afternoon. He reported just how bad things were and asked everyone to do more in terms of wearing a mask, keeping social distance, etc. He reminded his audience that Virginia does have a mask mandate which sometimes gets ignored or forgotten. He went so far as to say, essentially, that Virginia could lead the nation with the slowest covid-19 transmission rate if people were just more careful. 

I got back to work on jewelry sorting, painful though it might have been. It turns out that I have a couple of silver rings the origin of which I do not recall. They even fit me. There are others with probably paste gems in them that are too big for my fingers which leads me to wonder whose they originally were. I found necklaces I knew I had but pretty much had never worn. Several of them came from a local consignment shop. If I had not worn it in a time period measured in years, it went into the donation bag. In a couple of cases, what I found was something I'd been wondering about and will be wearing again now that I know where it is. Ditto on the bracelet front. Most of the pins I kept because I do wear those whenever I wear a suit jacket. A couple of things went into the donation bag, but not many. I arranged them on a sample quilt block so I can see them all at once, a definite help when it comes to deciding which one suite my mood or the to-be-attended event. 

And the earrings await. For the second day, I am wearing a pair of non-silver-stud earrings. Today's are glow-in-the-dark aliens; yesterday's were diamond shapes made of seed beads. I'm not sure what I'll be in the mood for tomorrow, but I will likely have something that fits. I have that many pairs of earrings collected in the 38 years since I got my ears pierced so as to look a bit more adult when I went on job interviews after grad school. 

Forty-five minutes later, I return to the keyboard. I had a phone call to discuss items related to the quilt guild website which morphed into what we were each working on creatively with side dishes of how our dogs were handling having owners home 24-7 and what crazy things had our husbands been doing. Not a huge dose of levity, but enough. Let's see if it lasts until tomorrow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 239

The in-house computer problems have, I hope, been resolved. That doesn't mean I could figure out how to do what I wanted to do with my quilt guild's website, though. There really should be a Weebly for Dummies book out there. I am not paying $50 for the closest thing I could find. The Help FAQ yielded nothing, so I now await an email response from the help folks. When that might arrive is anyone's best guess.

Virginia's covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, with the seven-day rolling average number of cases hitting a new high of 1,437. These are the highest the Virginia numbers have ever been, and they're showing no sign of slowing down. Dr. Fauci says if most or all folks would wear masks, the number of cases could be brought down without an economic lockdown. How many more people have to die before the powers that be try this, or must we just sit and wait until January 20? 

We may have a second covid-19 superspreader White House event in the works. HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, MD, has tested positive for covid-19 along with another person who was, like Carson, in a crowd of people at the White House on election night. It's not clear that anyone there was wearing a mask. Will these people never understand how little it takes to be safe?

I have heard that Uncle Joe does not want to be sworn in while wearing a mask. I figure Dr. Biden (I guess if he is Uncle Joe, she should be Aunt Jill) can be up close and personal holding the Bible, while the Chief Justice handling the swearing-in can be a safe distance away. What I don't know is what the plan, if there is one, might be for the inauguration ceremony crowds, parade, and parties. If there is no parade, Uncle Joe could get sworn in then go back to the White House to get right to work on the various executive orders he has planned to start undoing what The Foolius has done. I do not expect that The Foolius and First Lady will welcome Uncle Joe and Aunt Jill to the White House and then go with them to the ceremony as has been done for the last I don't know how many inaugurations. I can't see The Foolius doing a 180-degree turn and being polite for once.

The Orange Foolius is not conceding quickly. On that front, I saw a meme of Obama asking The Foolius how his concession speech was coming along and noting that he (Obama) had never had to give one. The head of the General Services Administration has to sign off on funds and space for the transition team of the president-elect, and Trump's appointee to that position is refusing to do so because it's not clear that Uncle Joe won. It's not clear if she's waiting for the Electoral College to vote or for Congress to formally accept that vote. They're not going to make this easy for Uncle Joe.

The Professor's covid-19 test was negative, resulting in a huge exhalation of relief. It seems that my mom is still in isolation. The facility admin said that just to be safe, they're keeping residents who test positive isolated for 20 days rather than the 14 that the CDC and state health department recommend. I can't say I blame them. Three residents there have now died. They keep saying that they do not know if the deaths were related to the people's having covid-19. I say that in people of a certain age, covid-19 can get you in any number of ways by contributing to preexisting conditions. I can't say for sure if "old age" counts as a preexisting condition, but it probably should.

I'm feeling a lack of levity lately. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 238

I'm calling a time-out on today's post. It seems that The Professor is having some computer problems. On the off chance that other devices being logged on is contributing to the mess, I'm going to pass on blogging and instead go work on my latest needle felting project. Photos to come. 

Oh, yeah, we're at week 34. And Son #2 and his SE (spouse-equivalent) are starting a two-week quarantine in order to come for Thanksgiving dinner. This makes me very happy. I have missed seeing them.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 237

I popped the cork on the first bottle of champagne (the second one may wait until January 20, 2021) late this morning when Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes gave Uncle Joe a compelling lead. The Professor was dallying in his home office until I told him I couldn't wait any longer. Nevada was added to Uncle Joe's total a bit later, giving a nice cushion. I expect that Arizona will be put in Uncle Joe's total soon if it has not already. Georgia is going to a deserved recount. Anything that close given the number of people casting votes has to be recounted; it doesn't matter if the apparent winner is your person or the opponent. The Orange Foolius is, as expected, saying the Pennsylvania result is bogus and he lost only because of illegally cast votes. I read this morning that no one on his staff wants to be the person to tell him he really did lose, and that's not going to change.  

So how will the next two months play out? I liked the suggestion I saw on Twitter that The Foolius would go to Mar-a-Lago for a getaway and just not come back. No greeting the President-Elect on the steps of the White House on the morning of the inauguration. Do you remember how The Foolius left Melania hanging, not waiting for her to walk around from her side of the limo but bounding up the front steps without her? I can't remember and am too lazy to check for video, but she may have even had to open the door of the limo herself. Melania and Barron stayed in New York City in 2017 so that he could finish the year at the school he was attending. Do you think that will happen now? Will they stay in Washington so he can finish the school year at his school there? The sooner Melania and The Foolius are no longer living together, the quicker a divorce might go through. I wonder if the British bookies are taking bets on that already. 

Should I be more respectful now in what I call Uncle Joe? Would Uncle President carry an appropriate amount of respect? Nope. Too long to type. I'm sticking with Uncle Joe for now. Whatever he is called, he is going to have his work cut out for him on the novel coronavirus front. Mark Meadows, chief of staff to The Foolius, has tested positive along with four other White House aides. He's the one who said the White House wasn't going to deal with the pandemic. I guess he can deal with it on this own then. Meanwhile, the US new covid-19 case count went over 130,000 yesterday. Given the 120,000-plus the day before, that's a quarter of a million cases in two days. We are going down the toilet fast here, people.

When I checked the Virginia covid-19 case count this morning, the first words leaving my mouth were "holy" and "shit." The number of new cases yesterday was a new record, 2,103. Th seven-day rolling average also set a record, at 1,383. The governor may be ignoring this because one-third of the cases are in Southwest Virginia, and he figures new restrictions there will fix things all over the state, but that ain't gonna happen. Maybe I should email or Facebook him and tell him that we're fucked. Now, that may be the champagne talking, but then again, it may be the cup of coffee sitting next to the empty wine glass. (At one point we had "real" champagne flutes. If we still have them, they are in a box in the garage that may not be excavated until The Sons are clearing out after we've sailed on that ship with Gandalf and Frodo.)

A letter to the editor in this morning's Washington Post suggested that they should go back to putting covid-19 case numbers on the front page. Right now, they could easily replace the electoral vote tables that may no longer be needed. If that would help people focus on the fact that the novel coronavirus is not going anywhere around a corner or elsewhere and realize that mitigation measures such as mask-wearing are indeed necessary. 

Speaking of mask-wearing, will The Orange Foolius now fire Dr. Fauci just for yucks or out of spite? If so, will Uncle Joe call Dr. Fauci and offer him his position back as of January 20, 2021? Who knows? I wonder if the British bookmakers are taking bets on that one as well.

Having decided that the problem with my lower back in all probability came from moving heavy boxes on my own rather than interrupt The Professor's workday to move them for me, I spent much of the morning finishing the first pass through my earrings. I actually managed to re-unite several pairs of which I thought I had lost one. I had just managed to separate the two into different boxes or cases. I wrestle now with the question of whether I should count the number of pairs. Part of me wants to, and part of me is embarrassed to. I'll report here on what I finally decide.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 236

Come on, people counting votes! I'd really like to pop a champagne cork tonight. I know there will be recounts in several states, but I don't think those will change things.  The Orange Foolius will mount multiple legal challenges that--fingers crossed--will be thrown out due to misinformation in what is filed. 

Speaking of misinformation, I almost wish I had been watching last night when the three major networks (Fox is not a major network) all cut away from The Foolius's speech within minutes due to the number of falsehoods he was spouting. It is about time they did that. I know that they did it now because this country is basically on edge, and that edge is a sharp one. I fully expect some sort of rioting in the streets before all is resolved, and I think the networks knew that keeping the Foolius on the air might bring that to pass sooner. 

The local newspaper this morning carried an article saying that 93 percent of the counties with the most rapidly increasing covid-19 rates went for The Orange Foolius rather than Uncle Joe. I have not the slightest idea why that is so. Do these people not follow what is going on in their own home places? Do they believe that despite how many people are catching it right now the end really is just around some corner? Do they just not follow any news source other than Fox or the One American News Network? Or do they just not care?

As the votes were being counted yesterday, the US set a new record number of new covid-19 cases. Some 120,000 people joined the overall count of people suffering from covid-19. The previous day was in the neighborhood of 100,000. How many more will we see before Thanksgiving which, for my international readers, is in 20 days. Twenty days with 100,000-plus daily is 2,000,000, that is, two million new cases.

The Professor today swabbed himself and submitted a self-test covid-19 kit he got free from the local university. He figured that since he worked the election on Tuesday, he should check just to be safe. I didn't have the heart to point out to him that his testing positive now, after he's been home in close contact with me for several days would mean I'm shit out of luck should his test come back positive. I just keep thinking that 2020 needs another way or two to wreak havoc in my world, and this could be one of them. I'll feel better when he gets the results back and some of the uncertainty is lifted.

Remember former Foolius advisor Steve Bannon? He's been banned from Twitter forever and ever I think after posting that he'd like to see Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray beheaded with their heads placed on pikes outside the White House. When did we apparate to somewhere like Saudi Arabia where beheading is the legitimate form of capital punishment? The man who would like to see this was at one point an adviser to the President of the United States? That may be a good way to summarize the last four years under President Foolius. Sad, but also accurate.

Word on the Internet is that Uncle Joe will address the nation tonight, though I have not yet been able to find the time of that address. I also do not know if that is contingent on his having amassed 270 or more electoral votes in the eyes of multiple media outlets. I do not expect that the networks will cut away from his remarks. I expect an speech rather than a tantrum, something like the high school valedictorian as opposed to the kindergarten bully.

I moved my principal laptop back to my basement office. I'm finding the standing desk more to my back's liking than the dining room table. I have printed off various articles on treating lower back pain, and it appears that standing and moving are often much better than sitting or lying down. I just wish it would stop coming and going. It will feel fine and, then, bam, it's sore again. I think that overall it is probably better than it was when it started last week. I also know that I did not help it by walking absurd distances for three days in a row to complete a fitness challenge set by my watch. That's really stupid when it comes right down to it, but I knew it was while I was doing it. I can't blame anyone but myself.

Will we have a presumptive president-elect by this time tomorrow? Hell if I know! It's 2020 after all.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 235

And the counting continues. Arizona is now up for grabs despite the Associated Press, Fox News, and The Guardian having already awarded it to Uncle Joe. Nevada may be pivotal. If Uncle Joe gets Arizona, Nevada will give him the magic 270 electors ... as long as they all remain faithful. Uncle Joe is gaining on The Orange Foolius in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania would make Arizona and Nevada superfluous, good but not necessary. Georgia alone would not be enough, but Georgia plus Nevada would give Uncle Joe a nice cushion. All we can do is wait and hope. We might also channel the thoughts and prayers we would normally be using on classroom shooting incidents except that there haven't been any since around February. 

It looks as if the country will again have 100,000-plus new covid cases. That number boggles the mind. Ten days of that would be one million new cases. We could get that before Thanksgiving and the spikes that will follow it. To make things even more interesting, Denmark is killing all the minks they have in mink farms. Evidently, they have and might potentially transfer to humans a new strain of the novel coronavirus. That's all we need! 2020 just won't stop giving, will it?

Unpacking and putting away has slowed a bit. My lower back continues to dislike me. Interestingly, sitting with heat on it makes it very dicey when I stand up. Moving seems to make it feel better unless I move in the wrong manner, something I discovered going through some boxes this afternoon. I refuse, of course, to go visit a medical person in person, though if I get desperate I might try the Teladoc option I have on our health insurance. I'm not sure how much a doc could tell without seeing me, but they might at least be able to offer some treatment options. Cold? Hot? Alternating cold and hot? Sleep on my back? Side? I refuse to sleep on my stomach. 

Tomorrow is Son #1's birthday. In the old normal, we would celebrate it next weekend. Son #1 would go to Son #2's house in Richmond on Friday night. They would get up at some ungodly hour and run the Richmond marathon course backwards with the aim of arriving at the starting line about the time the marathon starts. They would then run the marathon, ending up having run some 52-plus-change miles. Then they'd all drive back here, and we'd do a family dinner at the Aberdeen Barn restaurant. Son #2 is vegetarian, but he is okay watching the rest of us eat meat. He'd get a baked potato or fries, steamed broccoli, and maybe a salad. Damn pandemic!

The earring inventory is on hold until Son #1 brings me some more tiny plastic bags into which I can put a pair of earrings. I thought I had enough, but that number only got me through one box of earrings, and I have another one to sort. And then there are the ones I was occasionally wearing that migrated into a regular jewelry box or a box with a particular necklace with which they went. Part of me wants to just sweep the whole lot of them into a wastebasket, but that would be the easy way out. I may complain as I do it, but I will feel better in the end doing it this way.

The champagne remains corked. Son #1 says we should not pop the cork until Uncle Joe has 273 electoral votes a number giving a cushion against possibly unfaithful electors. The election should not have turned out to be this close. That is did means that the division in this country is much deeper and wider than I thought, or at least wanted to think. I'm more spiritual than religious, but I find it especially troubling that evangelical Christians can and will back The Orange Foolius. I see that as an argument against evangelicalism. And I should not start down this chain of thought or the dishwasher won't get emptied nor the dryer. And the salmon in the refrigerator will hardly cook itself. Ah life! Gotta love it given the alternative.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 234

One day after the election, all hail President ... well, we don't yet know for sure just who that might be. The Orange Foolius did, in the wee hours, declare himself the victor and said he would be asking the Supreme Court to stop vote counting in the states still counting. I liked that every news outlet I checked openly declared his victory announcement as misleading, false, a lie, or words to that effect. Several governors announced back at The Foolius that their states would follow the procedures set by that state and keep counting until they'd counted every eligible ballot. 

So where do things stand at the immediate moment? Well, if the several media outlets that have projected Uncle Joe as the winner in Arizona are correct, then winning Nevada and Michigan--he is slightly ahead in each--will give Uncle Joe precisely 270 electoral votes and make him the 46th President of the United States. The Orange Foolius, though, will not go down without a fight. He has said he will request a recount in Wisconsin; the margin of victory there is small enough that he is entitled to a recount. I don't think, though, what the margin has to be for the state to pay for the recount. If the gap is too big, The Foolius and his campaign minions will have to do that.

Uncle Joe's winning in Pennsylvania is evidently still within the realm of possibility. The votes yet to be counted are expected to lean Democratic, though it may be several days before all of them are counted. Nevada is expected to announce its final results this evening. I think Michigan may have its counting done tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed that Michigan and Nevada will end with Uncle Joe victorious, making Pennsylvania icing on the cake but not the cake itself. The more electoral votes, the better, though, since The Orange Foolius will, I expect, challenge anything he can, and probably a thing or two he can't technically challenge.

The bedroom curtains continue to be an enigma. The Professor was as mystified as I was by the number of curtain panels left after the two single windows were taken care of. Since The Professor is currently taping his Friday lecture, we will not address the curtain issue before this evening. As a result, I began a task I have been putting off over and over again, going through my earrings. I am not going to count how many pairs of earrings I possess; let's just say that I could probably have made it this far into the pandemic wearing a different pair every day. So far, I have four "piles." One is earrings I want to keep but which need a small repair such as a replacement hook. Another is earrings that are still in good shape but that I know I will never again wear. Those will be donated. There are some that I will simply toss; they need some repair that is not worth doing. Finally, there are the ones I think I want to keep. Those will get at least one more review.

News flash: As I've been typing this, two news outlets, CNN and NBC, have projected Uncle Joe as the winner in Michigan. If they follow the outlets that have projected Uncle Joe the winner in Arizona, Uncle Joe could hit 270 if Nevada announces their totals tonight. I must not get my hopes up, though, because even with Uncle Joe's 270 or more electoral votes, The Orange Foolius will not stop charging fraud or miscounting or whatever else he thinks might change the results in his favor. 

Finally, note to self: Make sure that The Professor turned off the alarm on his clock radio after it went off at 4:00 am on election day. The Professor was sleeping in the guest room so as to sleep in, but his alarm woke me up at 4:00 am. 

Finally finally, note to others: The champagne is ready for cork-popping as soon as enough media outlets are declaring that Uncle Joe has the 270 votes needed to make him number 46 and to make Kamala Harris our first female VP as well as our first VP of color.