Monday, December 7, 2020

The View from the Hermitage, Day 267

I did Christmas songs yesterday, so let's do winter songs today. "Let It Snow" anyone? Yes, we had our first snowfall this morning, albeit a very small one. At its peak, there was a white dusting on mulch and grass, and a black car turned white. Son #1 and I enjoyed it while walking The Family Dog. I think she enjoyed it, too, even though we had not put her red flannel coat on her. We put that on her for her second walk and watched it collect a dusting of snow until she decided that shaking was called for. 

The snow at least helped it feel a bit more as if Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. It did not bother me as much this morning to see decorated trees shining through windows. They had looked out of place yesterday, but not today. The Professor even hung the icicle lights on the porch yesterday. Last year, he put it off until a couple of days before Christmas, and it just wasn't the same. It only took him four or five nights to go through all the little bulbs and make sure all worked. Son #1 and I are getting him LED icicle lights to use next year. It's the least we can do. 

We have been discussing whether or not to get an artificial Christmas tree. It would save a tree's life year after year. Getting a real tree was a bit of a family tradition. The Professor and Sons would go look for a tree while I cleared the space in which it would be put. Once at the tree lot--they tried to go to one operated as a Boy Scout fundraiser since Son #2 was a Scout--the Sons engaged in verbal battle over which tree should be chosen. Some years this took longer than others. Damned covid! If I'd known we might go the artificial tree route, I would have suggested we wait until next year and gotten both Sons in on doing one final tree selection trip for a semi-formal end to a family tradition out-grown. 

More than 280,000 people have died from covid-19. More people die each day than died on September 11, 2001. That date took us into a war in Afghanistan. Why can't we declare war on the novel coronavirus and do the things we know work, such as wear masks? Uncle Joe says he'll ask all Americans to wear masks for 100 days as part of his inauguration. That sounds good, Uncle Joe, but do you really think enough people will do it? It sounds as if only 60 percent of Americans plan to be vaccinated, and that's not going to be enough to approach herd immunity. If only 60 percent of Americans wear masks for 100 days. that may not be enough to slow transmission down enough.

It sounds as if Attorney General Bill Barr is contemplating quitting before The Lame Duck can fire him. We know The Lame Duck will fire him because Barr veered off the party line with his statement that no investigation had shown there was election fraud. Son #1 hopes that a movie about The Lame Duck's days in office is cast soon enough that John Goodman can put on Bill-Barr-type glasses and play the role with no other makeup or facial altering. I wonder why Barr is only growing a pair now given how many of The Lame Duck's falsehoods he's accepted in the past. Was voter fraud the straw that broke the camel's back?

Rudy Giuliani remains in hospital suffering "mild symptoms." I, of course, wonder what those mild symptoms are and why would he be hospitalized if they're really that mild. I also wonder if he's getting the special pharmaceutical treatment that The Lame Duck got back in October. Might The Duck pull some strings for his buddy Rudy? Rudy might want a preemptive parson instead. 

There is no snow in the forecast for tomorrow; Mother Nature might now wait until the first day of winter to give us another snowfall. To stay with a musical theme, how about a white Christmas. I honestly cannot recall one that I've seen here in Virginia. I have worn shorts on Christmas, though.

2 comments:

Janet said...

John Goodman would need a fat suit (he's lost a lot of weight recently!), but otherwise I agree with you and son about the resemblance to Barr.

We've had zero snow here. Then again, your area had three feet of snow one year where we had a few inches.

Anonymous said...

We had enough snow to settle on a car last Friday but it had gone in an hour. I am on team FakeTree because it's the same size and shape every year which fits with my perfectionist streak. We bought it in the January sales about thirty years ago and at the time it was so expensive that we told my inlaws it cost half what we paid for it and they still threw a fit. It has now cost less than £3 a year. In a normal year mine would not be up yet but we're a long way from normal. I have the lights on a voice activated plug which is the best use of technology ever because the socket is behind the tree and I would have to crawl under the bottom branches. Ho, ho, no.