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 ....