The View from the Hermitage, Day 261

On the morning walks, I see more and more outdoor Christmas decor going up as well as decorated, lighted trees inside, visible through a window. I addressed more Christmas cards yesterday and even put some international ones in the mail. Today, I've put a Christmas tablecloth on an end table in the corner in which we usually put the tree. The Professor is at his office at the moment and said he might actually look at tree lots on his drive home. Probably the highest priority item right now is wrapping and packing The Professor's brother's Christmas present, a needle-felted scene of the Northern Lights. I'd left it unwrapped to show to Son #2 and D-i-L Equivalent on Thanksgiving, but did not wrap it on learning they would not be coming. 

On the quirky Christmas side, I retrieved the pieces of a wreath I'd made from dismembered doll parts. The paint on some had been chipped away, and the glue was weakening to the point of not holding them on. I've repainted all the parts green. Tomorrow I will paint fingernails and toenails gold and eyes, red. Then it will be time to glue the body parts back onto the light wooden wreath circle, affix a bow to the bottom, and hand it outside the door. Some people, upon learning I do this or having seen a photo of the wreath, "get it." Others, unfortunately, don't. I do enjoy the looks on their faces, though.

The interior decorations are up at the White House. The First Duckess coordinates the interior decor every year. I've seen excerpts from a book written by a (now) former friend of the First Duckess in which she said the First Duckess really had no interest in this aspect of First Ladyency. I can't say I blame her. Decorating a large public space would not be high on the list of things I'd enjoy doing. I would never want to be married into that sort of "job" description. I often told The Professor that it was probably best that he was never appointed department chair or any other administrative position that might require me to be more adult than I am comfortable being. 

From FLOTUS to POTUS, the Attorney General has said publicly that there was no election fraud. I pondered how long the AG might have before The Lame Duck fires him, until I read the suggestion that the AG might have info related the Jeffrey Epstein's supposed suicide that The Lame Duck might not want known. Blackmail of a sort. With no evidence of electoral fraud, will people finally stop donating money to The Duck? He's evidently taken in something like $170 million. Now he could use that money to pay off the debts he has outstanding from various rallies, but that doesn't fit with everything I've read or heard about his business practices. 

What do Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida have in common? That's a too-easy question. None have a statewide mask mandate. Some do allow municipal governments to impose mask mandates of their own, but there are no restrictions or guidelines that cover the entire state. I would say that these states are the current covid-19 hot spots, but looking at counties nationwide, it might be more accurate to say that the US is a hot spot. 

And what do Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Utah have in common with Denmark? Outbreaks of coronavirus at mink farms. In Oregon both minks and humans who work with them have tested positive. There is no word on zombieminks in the US, but they did worry about those in Denmark. A zombiemink is one that rises from the ground after being buried improperly. You may have thought 2020 could not get much weirder, but I can't think of too many things weirder than zombieminks.