The View from the Hermitage, Day 322

Forty-six weeks, and we're about to enter the month of some "lasts" for me. Last trip away from Virginia not to mention last trip via airplane: a gathering of my Internet quilt guild in San Antonio, Texas, February 19 to 24. Last dinner in a restaurant: February 28, to mark our 35th wedding anniversary. We ate at the inn at which we held our wedding reception in 1985. I think it's the fanciest restaurant at which I've ever eaten. February held the last times I've seen a couple of dear friends. March holds several more lasts, but March won't be here for four weeks. 

As for the pandemic that has caused all of us to have various lasts, transmission of the novel coronavirus appears to be slowing. The average number of new cases on January 29 was 40 percent lower than three weeks earlier. Covid hospitalizations are the lowest they've been in two months. Let's not get complacent, though, since we could see 100,000 to 150,000 more deaths in the coming two months. The British variant form of coronavirus could become the prominent strain in the US in a mere six to 14 weeks. When that happens, one infectious disease specialist says, "...we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country."

As I said, we should not get complacent. We may now have multiple vaccines against the coronavirus, but we have few new treatments. All the attention and money went toward vaccine development rather than treatment such as antivirals to stop the disease early in its progression. Even after I get vaccinated, I plan to be obsessively careful. My knee replacement came about in large part because I fall into the 30 to 40 percent of people for whom hyaluronic acid will not work as an arthritis treatment. I really don't want to find out the hard way that I am also in the percentage of people in whom one coronavirus vaccine or another does not work. I'm living for the day there are decent treatments to go along with viable vaccines. 

Looking worldwide, I found a reference to an October 2019 document assessing the pandemic preparedness of 153 countries, Global Health Security Index: Building Collective Action and Accountability. You probably would not have been surprised to see that when the report came out, The US ranked first and the UK ranked second in terms of how prepared a nation was for a pandemic. Would it surprise you to learn that right now, only eight of the 153 countries have death rates worse than the US, and the UK is one of those? 

How did the pandemic get to the point it's now at? The two big factors (I am not coming up with these but borrowing them from today's Axios AM email) were the Chinese failure to contain the virus and their attempts to cover it up, and the failure of the US to take on a global leadership role. Perhaps Xpot's acknowledgement that the coronavirus was real and not likely to just disappear by April or any other time would have been a good starting point. Resistance to the notion that reopening the economy was more important than public health would have helped as well. New case rates were going in the right direction at least in the states where there was some nontrivial notion of a lockdown. Reopening even partway? We're in a worse place now than we were last spring. 

Finally as far as the pandemic goes, repeat after me: "No one is safe until everyone is safe." The US is not so far doing much to help vaccinate the third world. There have been reports that there may not be enough vaccine doses for true global coverage until 2023. I have no epidemiology training, but it seems to me that it would be harder for the first world to achieve herd immunity as long as a person with the virus is only a flight or a voyage away. I hope we don't get so involved in getting ourselves vaccinated that we make the third world wait until 2023, because we'd probably be waiting that long to be safe ourselves.

As for the current winner in the front page, above the fold contest, five of Xpot's lawyers for the second impeachment trial have quit, apparently over what strategy(ies) to use in his defense. One report cited Xpot's insistence on using only one argument, that he can't be impeached because he is no longer in office. Another report cited Xpot's insistence on using as a defense that he was the victim of a stolen election. Finally, just for chuckles, Xpot is supposed to have fumed in front of aides that the case is simple enough he could defend himself and save the money he'd have to pay lawyer(s). When the aides picked their jaws up off the floor, they apparently talked him out of this one for now ... they hope.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 321

If you haven't already suspected, I'm not going to post anything today. It's been a rough week, and I'm ready to shut my mind off life things and do a little weaving. I hoped my brother might email me, but I haven't heard from him. I may call him tomorrow. The thought of his being at home alone makes me wonder how I would feel were The Professor to be gone. I am used to his traveling for his research, but I know he's coming home. If I knew he wouldn't be ... I don't really want to think about that. Mind, disengage now.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 320

I found a quote from Lenin (the Communist, not the Beatle) the other day that sums up the pandemic pretty nicely:

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.

I think that describes the past year pretty well. It may explain why there are times I struggle to remember what month it is let alone what day of the week. I think we're working on a year in which centuries happened.

Mexico now has the third highest covid-19 death rate in the world. Canada has no desire to rise in terms of their case or death numbers. They've suspended flights between Canada and Mexico and Canada and the Caribbean through the month of April. They have also tightened the quarantine restrictions on people entering or returning to the country. The US still leads the pack, though. We're approaching 26 million cases. Almost 4,000 people died of covid019 yesterday.Mitigation measures are relaxing in some states. New York, for example, will resume indoor dining as of Valentine's Day, though only at 25 percent of capacity. 

The South African covid variant has now been found in over 30 countries. Epidemiologists say that the two cases found so far in the US are from community spread, meaning the variant has been here longer than we thought and probably spread more widely. Going back to all the dystopian literature I read in my youth (referring to "my youth" makes me feel old), I wonder when and where the vaccine-resistant variant will arise. We have bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics; it's not hard for me to see a viral strain being resistant to existing vaccines.

Speaking of the vaccines, availability and distribution continue to be of concern. The CDC says that it is safe for schools to reopen for in-person instruction; however, teachers in many places refuse to teach in person until they have been vaccinated. Vaccination of teachers lags, though; only 18 states have included teachers in early priority groups. I wonder how I would have reacted as a parent without knowing then what I learned later about the interaction between The Sons and schools. It is easy to say now that I would have home-schooled them, which in retrospect would have been better for them. I probably would have let them go back but only after looking at the science and the stats. 

Moving closer to home in terms of the coronavirus, The Professor sent me the news that the county in which we live is listed by The New York Times as "very high risk." That's actually an improvement; from December 30 to January 19, we were "extremely high risk" after having been "very high risk" since November 26. Neither risk level sounds good to me, especially since the county tightened mitigation measures over what the state was mandating. 

County schools go back to hybrid instruction on Monday. The local university will start their in-person classes then as well. Unless it is a practicum, lab, or some type of course requiring physical presence, and class listed as being "in person" can be taken virtually. It will be an interesting semester for The Professor, and that may not be in a good way. He was scheduled to teach two sessions of the same class, but since they were the same course, one taped lecture would work for both. I'm not sure how it happened, but two class sections became three and the student headcount in those three sections now exceeds 500. Last semester he was available for questions during class time so that if students wanted to, they could watch the lecture early and then ask questions. This was apart from weekly office hours. He's not sure that will work with class sizes hovering in the 150 range. No one in his department has ever taught so many students in one course in the same semester. I may have to start wearing my super-hero underpants on a regular basis.

Here's hoping he can get Monday's lecture taped tomorrow. We could have some icy precipitation Sunday which opens the door for power outages. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 319

In the vein of No News Is Good News, I'm going to skip the news today. Why risk spoiling what is left of the day? What shall I write about then? Let's start with the doing something every day that scares you, in other words, weaving. I have something of a history with weaving. When I was in the fourth grade, there was a rather large (to a fourth grader) loom that moved from classroom to classroom. At least in my classroom, when you finished your work you could go weave. I finally had to be barred from weaving. I always got my work done first; it seems that the other kids didn't like that I got to the loom first. I did relinquish it when someone else was ready to use it, but I usually managed to have it for a nice bit of time.     

Fast forward to adulthood. I always somewhat entertained the idea of getting a loom, but always talked myself out of it, money and space being the two counterarguments I used. I did not really know at that point that small looms were a thing. Sometime about 15 years ago, I learned that there was a fiber person who lived just over a mile from me who taught a weaving class twice a year. It was all day for five days and cost what seemed like an extraordinary amount. It was limited to four students. We started with a project for which the instructor had warped a small loom for each of us. I say "small" but the looms were not rigid heddle looms. Finishing that project took about a day and a half, after which we designed our own project, chose or brought yarn for it, and then did it. We used a warping board, about which I remembered very little, and went at it. By the end of the week, I had the first project and my own to take with me. I referred to the class as Weaving Boot Camp because it was pretty demanding. 

A few years ago, I learned about smaller, rigid heddle looms and put one on my Christmas wish list. The Professor and Son #2 got one for me. It's about a yard wide and can sit on a stand. And it sat, un-put-together and unused for a year. I was scared to do anything. Son #2 finally put it together and informed me that he wanted to see something I'd done. I put on my super-hero underpants, got The Professor to help with the warping, and wove something. As part of my merchandise payment for working at the Fall Fiber Festival, I got a small, SampleIt loom as a Christmas present for Son #2. He went crazy, weaving all sort of different types of yarn, planning how to make a jacket, and gave me a hard time for not using my loom as much as he used his. I noted that it sometimes seemed too big, and I couldn't really think of what to weave that wasn't just a sample. 

For my birthday in July he got me the same smaller loom I had given him. He also bought a larger one similar to the one he'd originally given me.  I did a couple of small things on it, and then it sat. I didn't want to bother The Professor to help me warp it; I was scared to try doing that by myself. Son #2 heard that and informed me he used a warping board and would make me one like the one he'd made for himself. And he did. I tried to harness my nerves by acquiring Weaving Made Easy, a book that claimed to be able to have you warping your loom in 20 minutes. Can you see where this is going?

The book arrived on Sunday or Monday, and I took a day or two to read and re-read the sections on direct as well as indirect warping. Yesterday, I got brave enough to give it a try. The warping board that Son #2 had made me looked very unlike the one shown in the book. It took me more time than I care to admit to figuring out how to wrap the yarn so as to get the necessary cross. On the way, I realized that the project I had in mind was above my current skill level, and I should pull some different yarn to work with. (I need to ask Son #2 how he warps with it, because it sounded as if he did it without the all-important or so they say cross.) I finished with the yarn wound on the warping board with the cross. Getting to that point had taken longer than I should admit, so I decided to leave the next part until today.

Today. Let's just say that of everything that could have gone wrong, I did at least half. In the process I decided that I may never again use a warping board. Warping using a warping peg on my own scared me because of keeping the threads straight after they come off the peg and need to be wound on to the rear beam. That is not going to scare me any longer. It beats trying the warping board again at least for now. The loom is ready to go, and I may or may not get to weaving this evening.

That's a very cumbersome description, and the regular commentator who is an excellent weaver has probably rolled her eyes a time of two. After wrestling with the warping for more than three hours this afternoon, I don't have the energy to go for coherence.

The other thing I've been pondering today comes from an article I read noting how the pandemic has made people reconsider friendships. The pandemic, or my reaction to it of self-isolation, has let me see which friends I most miss seeing. Friends versus acquaintances? A fellow quilter says she has friends and Friends; the capital F means they're the special ones. In thinking of the people with whom I had social interaction pre-pandemic, there are some that I would be quite all right staying isolated from. There are a few, though, whom I do miss seeing and want to see again once we're all vaccinated and as safe as we can be. I've been pondering what it is about certain people that puts them in the capital F or non-acquaintance categories. The best I've come up with is that those people understand me better, whether it be because we have similar tastes in various things, similar attitudes, or similar interests. Actually, we probably share more than one of those categories. I'll have to ponder this further.

Not a very thought-provoking post today. Being honest about it, my whole day has been colored by last night's call from my brother with the news that his wife had died. The advanced cancer diagnosis and her decision not to do chemo told them what the eventual outcome would be. They just thought they'd have a bit longer. A nurse did call my brother in the morning and told him not to wait until visiting hours, but to come then; the hospital was around 100 miles away. At least they had the last day together. He lives in Maine, which makes helping him directly difficult. I wish there were something I could do other than tell him to call me any time of day even if it's just to cry over the phone with me. 

Maybe I'll think more clearly tomorrow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 318

The Department of Homeland Security says that for the next several weeks we will face heightened threats from the extremist groups who carried out the Capitol insurrection. Possible (I hope not likely) targets are elected officials and government facilities. Evidently, during Xpot's reign, the use of the term "domestic terrorist" was discouraged. That's what these people would be, though, if they plan for the attacks to destabilize the government or Americans' daily lives. I'd say I would keep my eyes open for warning signs, but if terrorists or extremists attack my 20-house subdivision, they're pretty hard up for targets.

I talked with my mom today. She had her first coronavirus vaccination last week and will get the second one in two weeks. She said that while all the residents of her assisted living facility got vaccinated, only about half of the staff did. The staff members she sees daily are all aides who likely have no medical training per se. Still, I find it disconcerting that in a facility that several months ago had twenty-some covid cases, so many people are declining the only real path we have toward herd immunity. Mr. Biden has pledged or at least expressed the desire to have vaccinated 300 million people in the US by the end of summer or early fall. How the people who refuse the vaccinations figure into that plan I do not know.

Bill and Melinda Gates have issued their annual letter. In it, they warn of "immunity inequality," a widening gap between the wealthy and everyone else. If large areas such as those countries Xpot disparaged as a certain type of hole remain unvaccinated, we will not be able to get the pandemic under control. They also called for the creation of a "global alert system" to detect disease outbreaks as they happen, and proposed "germ games" to help train first responders.

The covid death toll is currently about 423,000. The CDC says we could have 508,000 by mid-February. Still, it was interesting to hear on the news this morning that the per capita death rate in England is higher than that in the US. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that. Might the population density of the two countries play a factor? There probably is some obvious reason that is escaping me at the moment. If I think of it, I'll let you know.

A psychology professor at the local university published a column in which he recommended mandatory K-12 summer school. He cited the number of IQ points children lose each year that they are in front of a screen and not in a classroom. He noted that this decline will have economic effects likely reaching into the next century. Mandatory summer school, mornings only, offers the chance to get students back to where they should be. It should not be limited to the kids who are behind the others. Kids who have not declined in ability could get enrichment rather than remediation. 

A few random pot-shots. Remember the wildfires in California? Areas cleared by fire now face flash floods and landslides. Talk about adding insult to injury. As many as 89,000 households have left San Francisco since March. People and companies are embracing the notion that for many jobs, people can work from anywhere. Miami, Florida and Austin, Texas are becoming the new tech hot spots. At the same time, working from home may raise interesting tax questions. If you work at home in one state for a company located in another state, which state gets your state income tax payment? Or do you have to pay tax in both states? 

I put on my super-hero underpants and practiced using a warping board today. The warping board I'm using was made by Son #2 and is what he said he uses to warp his loom. I need to inquire as to how he uses it, because one hard part was that there was no real space in which to cross the warp threads. I also need to figure out where to secure my small rigid heddle loom so that I can load the warp. The warping board is clamped to my sewing room work table, leaving not enough room to secure the look there with it. That's a tomorrow problem, though. By the time I finished winding the warp, I knew I'd likely screw something up if I kept at it then. I guess I'll need those super-hero underpants tomorrow as well.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 317

We've gone past 100 million (100,000,000) cases of covid-19 worldwide since February 29, 2020; more than 2 million (2,000,000) of those people died. Given testing limitations, those estimates are decidedly on the low side. The US is the big winner (or loser?) in terms of case level, followed by India, Brazil, and Russia. There are now multiple variants of the virus that may be more transmissible and/or more lethal. Each country has their own plan for dealing with the virus.

Americans complaining about the coronavirus mitigation measures here should be glad they don't live in many European countries. There has been rioting in various cities in the Netherlands for three nights in a row despite a 9:00 pm to 4:30 am curfew (and Virginians don't like a curfew that doesn't begin until midnight). Bars and restaurants have been closed since October. Schools and nonessential businesses have been closed since mid-December. There are advantages to not having a parallel to the tenth amendment to our Constitution:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

There may be some loophole that would let our national government impose a national curfew, lockdown, or other mitigation measure. Given that they're still figuring out how to implement Mr. Biden's executive order about wearing masks on interstate transportation, that loophole may be tricky.

As one might expect, remote island nations have been more successful at controlling the virus, though New Zealand may keep their borders closed for the rest of 2021. Island nations such as the UK in proximity to the European Union have a harder time restricting entry from outside. 

Scientists are preparing to upgrade the vaccines currently in use to address the viral variants. Moderna is developing a booster shot they hope will not be needed. Dr. Fauci has noted that the new variants don't respond well to the monoclonal antibodies that have been used as treatment for covid. He is especially concerned about the South African variant, noting that it is "different and more ominous than the one in the UK." There is also some evidence that the variant from Brazil could lead to reinfection because antibodies might not recognize it. The CDC predicts that the UK variant may become the dominant strain in the US in March. It will be the dominant strain in Denmark even sooner, in mid-February. 

Beginning next week, The Professor will only need to have a covid test once weekly rather than the twice he's had to for the last three weeks. Fortunately, all the tests have been negative. If he ever gets a positive result, things will get dicey since I probably will have been exposed before he got the test result. I'm not sure living separately in the same house will work then, though I would hate temporarily relocating to Son #1's house and leaving The Professor here on his own not to mention possibly exposing Son #1. I think I'll put that on my list of things to discuss sooner rather than later. 

In other news, Xpot has rebranded himself as occupying the "Office of the Former President" with seemingly official stationery and other office accoutrements. I'm getting pessimistic about the whole second impeachment thing. Republican Senators are lining up to say that it is unconstitutional to try someone after they have left office. I wonder if they would feel the same way had the rioters actually taken prisoners not even considering that they wanted to kill some of those people. We may well be back to the shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and still getting votes. It almost turns my stomach.

If you need to distract yourself, check this article out. It is not the biography one would expect of the new Director of National Intelligence and might take your mind off the fact that we're still on the way to being fucked.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 316

As we were walking The Family Dog this morning, Son #1 noted that we've had less to talk about on our walk with Mr. Biden in the White House and Xpot in hiding at Mar-a-Lago. He's right. There don't seem to be as many threads and sub-threads woven into our conversational tapestry. In thinking about this later, I realized how much it felt as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I feel lighter, not necessarily like dancin', but freer. The weight of the world is not as heavy as it was just a week ago.

There certainly is still news on the coronavirus front. The US has now passed 25 million cases. We're averaging more than 170,000 new infections each day and the number of total deaths is now over 419,000. Perhaps more noteworthy, we're averaging 3,088 deaths per day, more deaths than occurred in the September 11, 2001 attacks. I have trouble understanding how that fact can escape acknowledgement. How would we feel if that many people died each day from gun violence or drunk driving? A lot more people would demand answers and solutions. A large number of people still feel that the coronavirus is a hoax or that it will go away in its own. Maybe if I hung out more with these people, I would understand how they can ignore reality, but right now I'm not hanging out with anyone. There's a pandemic going on after all.

In the wake of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, 38 Capitol Police have tested positive for covid-19. It is not clear how many were on duty during the insurrection. I've heard multiple sources cite the insurrection as a super-spreader event. Given how many masks I did not see during the news coverage, I would believe that.

The CDC is looking into claims that the UK covid variant, which could be the most prevalent covid form by mid-March, is more deadly than the original one. There is also some evidence that the vaccines currently in use are not as effective against the variant from South Africa that has yet to be found in the US. One expert described the current situation as a race between the variants and the vaccines. If the variants take hold first, things will get much, much worse. Just how much worse do things need to get before more people start taking mitigation measures such as masks or distancing seriously? 

Speaking of masks, a reporter asked Dr. Fauci whether two masks were better than one. Dr. Fauci explained that masks work by preventing the transmission or viral particles, and going through two layers would be more difficult than going through one. I can't help but wonder why someone needed Dr. Fauci to answer that question. When we would take The Family Dog to the park, I would often wear two masks, a fabric one over an N95 designed for use on construction sites. 

Other random, possibly humorous news items. A woman who won a $60 million lottery says that the winning numbers came from a dream her husband had. Might this become a new source of discord in a marriage? "You haven't had any numeric dreams lately, dear, so I'm outa here"? I wonder if that could be cited as grounds for a divorce.

Mar-a-Lago is suffering from declining membership. Many members have left because they want no connection with Xpot. One source noted that members were "very dispirited" and had cited disinterest in politics and the fact that the food "is no good." They've been paying $200,000 a year (the dues doubled when Xpot became ThenPot) for lousy food? They should have left a long time ago. I doubt that Xpot is staying in the family quarters and having the wife cooking. The question also remains as to whether Palm Beach will seek to evict Xpot. When he negotiated changin Mar-a-Lago from a private residence to a club in 1993, there were restrictions on how many nights anyone, including himself, could stay there. These were overlooked, ignored, or negotiated when he was ThenPot, but he's a mere Xpot now.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 315

I'm now at 45 weeks! In honor of that possible milestone, I'm taking a day off blogging to read about using a warping board with my rigid-heddle loom. I need a rigid-heddle weaving for weenies book.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 314

It's been a slow news day. In fact, the days since the inauguration all seem to have been slow news days compared to the days, weeks, and months before. Even the tenor of coronavirus reports seems muted. Is the world taking a collective deep breath in relief that the past has passed? Do we now suffer from politics fatigue as well as pandemic fatigue? Maybe it's just a slow weekend.

Xpot's impeachment trial will begin on February 9. What did you do after your term, Mr. President? Jimmy Carter embraced human rights. George W. Bush (Bush 43) took up painting and is actually quite good. Xpot will go on trial in the Senate accused of inciting insurrection. He's also the subject of four different investigations ... for now. There may be more yet to drop. Daughter Ivanka is supposedly a major figure in two of the investigations; it's a family affair!

Continuing with politics, The New York Times reports that Xpot plotted with a Department of Justice official to fire the acting Attorney General to clear the way to forcing Georgia Republicans to overturn Xpot's election defeat. Former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said that  when he took the job in November he set three goals: no military coup, no major war, and no troops in the street. To quote a Meat Loaf song, two out of three ain't bad.

Finally, in a combination of medical news and News of the Weird, an Icelandic man has received the world's first double-arm-and-shoulder transplant. He lost his arms some time ago after being struck by lightning. It is not known if the arms will actually be useful. It will take time and a lot of therapy to find out.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 313

The local health district says that The Professor and I will get vaccinated "hopefully sometime in the next two months." I can live with that. It's not as if I have places to go, things to do, and people to see. Yes, the list of appointments to make once I feel safe going out (which will be at least a month after my second vaccination) is growing, and the lag times will be long with many other people who have delayed visits to the same places I have. As before, I can live with that.

I watched clips of Dr. Fauci's press briefing yesterday. My god, but he looked relaxed at last. At least 10 years younger as well. He's too professional to dish on Xpot, but I'm sure there are stories he could tell. I especially liked his comment about now being able to admit you did not know something whereas before the encouragement was to make something up. And the health professionals may now follow the science not the science fiction. Dr. Fauci called it "a liberated feeling." We're in much better hands today than we were a week ago.

The Times of London reports that the Tokyo Olympics will soon be canceled. The games cannot again be postponed since 2022 is a Winter Olympics year. 2032 would be the next year Tokyo could get the summer games. Paris and Los Angeles are set for 2024 and 2028. The Japanese government is, as might be expected, denying the cancellation report. March 25 has been mentioned as the drop dead date for a final decision. 

The House of Representatives has announced that it will deliver a single article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, Senate rules say that once the article arrives, the Senate becomes a court of impeachment and must stop all other business until the case has been decided. As we all know, however, rules can be stretched, and the Senate may want to finish more of Mr. Biden's Cabinet appointments before hearing the case. Rudy Giuliani has withdrawn as attorney for Xpot given that he might well be a witness or unindicted co-conspirator. I of course want a verdict that ensures that Xpot cannot run again for any federal office. If only 17 Republican Senators feel the same way.

Mr. Biden may have to relinquish the Peloton bicycle he rides every morning because the interactive tablet could be hacked. Michelle Obama's Peloton was disconnected for the same reason. I would assume that they could connect a system of canned rides that offer the encouragement and competition without the live connection. No instructor to encourage the rider, but no prying eyes either. 

Barron was nowhere to be seen when Xpot and the Missus got on Air Force One on Wednesday. He had apparently been taken there earlier in the morning and was waiting for them aboard the plane. Xpot's having made a cameo in Home Alone 2, Son #1 imagined that the parents had left Barron behind so that when Mr. and Dr. Biden entered the family quarters, Barron wandered out of a bedroom clad in boxer shorts and asking what was going on. Funny as that is to imagine, I am very glad it did not happen that way. Barron, 10 years old when the Xpot regime began, has endured enough. 

On a non-pandemic, apolitical note, there's research showing that electric eels hunt in packs. Not too many fish do, so this is potentially a big thing. The eels herd groups of tetra fish into tightly packed balls and then synchronize their electric attacks before dining. There are three species of electric eels; the largest can grow to eight feet and produce an 860-volt shock. For comparison, electric chairs use in the neighborhood of 3,000 volts. 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 312

It was refreshing to awaken and not immediately wonder who had tweeted what or executively ordered something else. The front pages provide extensive coverage of yesterday's inaugural events, as well they should. The pandemic will now gain ground in the news cycle and, I hope, be taken more seriously. If it's not, we may never get out of it. I just finished a letter to a friend in which I opined that it could well be 2022 before some new normal appears and conditions aren't changing from day to day.

On the home front, I do not expect an invitation to schedule a vaccination any time soon. It seems that the local health district will now receive just under 3,000 doses each week, and those doses must be split between five or six counties and one city. At least my mom got her first shot today. Long-term care facilities are in the highest-priority group, which I hope means that their doses are allocated separately.

It turns out that Xpot and his minions had no coronavirus plan at all, meaning that Mr. Biden and his associates (Mr., Biden does not have minions) start from scratch in their efforts to handle it. We will remain in Xpot's darkness for quite some time, I'm afraid, before the dawn starts to break. I wonder what other areas Xpot will have left untouched. I know he's planted some land mines in terms of getting cronies hired to top-level civil service positions not requiring Senate confirmation. In other words, these folks can't be fired in the transition from one administration to another. Mr. Biden has signed 10 executive orders related to the coronavirus pandemic. Besides mandating that masks be work in federal buildings and on federal land, masks must now be worn by interstate travelers at airports and on buses, planes, and trains. 

The US set another record for covid deaths in one day yesterday, topping 4,400. As Mr. Biden noted in remarks made while signing executive actions, it's going to get worse before it gets better. It is nice to have someone at the top who respects the science and isn't expecting the virus to just disappear. We will pass 500,000 deaths all too soon, and probably 600,00 or more before things start to get  any better. While I'm more optimistic with Mr. Biden overseeing things, I still feel pessimism may be the better route. If I'm pessimistic, I can't be disappointed if things don't improve. If I'm an optimist, it could all go to hell at any moment opening the door to abject disappointment. 

As for how 2021 will compare to 2020, there are new wildfires in California at a time of year there are not usually such fires. Much of the state is under red flag warnings, the highest level of caution. Said one official, "We're not seeing 'fire season' any more. It's just one big fire year." What's next? A very late hurricane or a very early tornado?

The View from the Hermitage, Day 311

Note to self: In the rare event there is another event as critical as the one at noon today, it is not a good idea to celebrate by splitting a bottle of champagne with The Professor. Having managed to survive a 1.5-mile walk with The Family Dog leading to a session with the heating pad, reading a bit, then napping, I now feel somewhat human. Was it worth it? You bet!

I only saw a bit of The Lame Duck's (he was still President at 8:00 this morning) ceremony and departure from Joint Base Andrews. It did not sound as if there was a large crowd there. I can't help but wonder what was going through his mind, certainly nothing positive. His Narcissistic Personality Disorder won't let him think of all-day, every-day on the golf course and not needing to wear the heel lifts and girdle. He won't need to wear make-up or gel his hair into place. I guess he's not comfortable without all those trappings not to mention the toadies supporting his every utterance. Good riddance, Xpot (as in ex-POTUS or a play on being an expat in a foreign country). We look forward to seeing you at your Senate trial.

As I watched Kamala Harris sworn in as vice president, I kept expecting one of The Sons to phone and say what they used to say to me as we watched movies, "Don't cry, Mom." That was a powerful moment, and I was on the verge of tears. Little girls no longer have to assume they can't be vice president because no woman ever has. Who knows. Maybe in four years, Kamala Harris will be sworn in as President, no Vice attached.

And to see Mr. Biden (I figured "Mr. Biden" went well with "Dr. Biden") sworn in as President was incredible. As was hearing an inaugural address that acknowledged the hard times we face but held out hope for a much better future. No name calling. Nothing said in all caps. Thoughtful, sensitive, encouraging. He has his work cut out for  him, but he appears to be assembling a good team with which to work. Now we must work with him, too.

Other random thoughts about the event. Lady Gaga did not butcher the national anthem as a lot of people singing it at events do. Garth Brooks sang "Amazing Grace" so much better than the Detroit nurse at last night's covid memorial service. She butchered it the way the national anthem often is. I actually muted the TV until she was done singing. I loved it when Brooks invited the audience to sing along on the last verse. We did standing in our own living room. It felt very right to do so. Finally, the poet laureate. Whoa! I am not a big fan of free verse type poetry with no real meter nor rhyme scheme, but I loved what she wrote for the inauguration. I found online that she is 22. Profound words from someone so young. 

Maybe tomorrow we can put politics on the side table and start on the main course of fixing what's broken and leaving alone what isn't.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 310

The end may be in sight. This evening will be Inauguration Eve. Uncle Joe has bid farewell to Delaware; he and Dr, Biden will spend tonight in Blair House. There will be no morning meeting with The Lame Duck (I shall have to come up with a new name for him once noon tomorrow passes), nor will Dr. Biden meet with Mrs. Duck. I still remember when The Ducks arrived at the White House for tea with the Obamas. The Lame Duck stepped out of the car to ascend the porch steps, leaving Mrs. Duck to exit the car, walk around the tail end of it alone, to arrive a small bit late for the greetings. I cannot imagine The Ducks greeting Uncle Joe and Dr. Biden. I can't even imaging The Ducks greeting them rudely, turning their backs, and walking hack indoors without have said anything. 

The Lame Duck should be releasing his list of pardons and clemency actions later today. The latest word on the street is that he will not be preemptively pardoning family members and friends, nor will he pardon himself. He did note a while back that he did not need to pardon himself because he had done nothing wrong. He may be using similar logic in terms of his family. It will be interesting to see who besides Lil Wayne is on the list. 

Twelve National Guard members have been relieved of duty at the Inauguration because of their possible ties to far-right groups. Two were removed due to "inappropriate comments." One was outed by fellow troops; an anonymous tip identified the other. The ten others were removed for a variety of reasons. Considering 12 out of 25,000, yeah, they missed some. It may not be an issue if the Guard members are at the perimeter fence around the Capitol grounds. They'd be pretty far from the inauguration action. 

There were armed protestors at the Virginia state capitol yesterday. There always are on Martin Luther King Day. If they're there tomorrow, there may be something afoot. Virginia is an open-carry state, so showing up somewhere with a gun is legal except in specific types of buildings or when "no firearms" is prominently posted. 

The Professor normally refuses to watch any political event such as State of the Union addresses, campaign debates, and so on. He has, however, agreed to watch the Inauguration with me tomorrow. Champagne is cooling in the refrigerator, to be opened once Uncle Joe becomes President Uncle Joe. (I should probably come up with a better name than "President Uncle Joe.") I do not plan to watch any of the Duck's military ceremony. It will likely be replayed many times, perhaps even as part of the inauguration coverage. 

And may the gods and goddesses have mercy on all of us tomorrow.

We have passed 400,000 cases of covid here in the US, with 100,000 of those being in just the last month. More than 60 percent of covid case sin the US have been reported since Election Day, November 3. Los Angeles County has lifted air-quality limits for cremations; covid has doubled the death rate. Covid has now killed nearly 1 percent of all Americans older than 75. News coverage has been noticeably light lately, but I can understand the emphasis on the Inauguration. Still, there is a definite sense of out-of-sight, out-of-mind when it comes to covid.

A friend posted on Facebook that her husband had received an email telling him how to make an appointment for his first shot. He's getting it Friday. It was good to hear that the registration systems do work. I may be checking my email with new fervor for a while. The Virginia numbers were down to numbers similar to a week or so ago. The governor has said nothing about the weekend spikes; he may figure that inaugural news trumps (ouch!) covid news. I hope he has something to say later in the week. I don't want to think he's ignoring just how prevalent covid is right now. 

Again, may the deities have mercy on us.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 309

It's been a day for reflection, something it took me a while to realize I needed. I've been walking around for a couple of days feeling as if I've been in a cloud of random emotions. One root of this is undoubtedly my sister-in-law's sudden diagnosis. My brother and I have never been what would pass for close, but he is my brother and a good counterweight to some of the traits I've inherited from our parents. I usually glance at the obituaries in the local paper just to see if anyone I know is listed. Lately, I've been reading the obits, interested in if anyone I knew or didn't died of covid-19. Some very interesting people have died recently; at least there have been some interesting obituaries. I sometimes wonder if I should draft my obit. My father did that, and included that he had a PhD in organic chemistry. I wonder if that was intentional. He did have a doctorate, but it was an EdD in biology education. Somewhere around here is a copy of his dissertation. I've got a copy of my mom's around here, too. 

And part of the need to reflect comes from the general anxiety about what could have happened this past weekend and what could happen this week. Let us please get through this week without the hate and violence simmering beneath the surface. The next four years may be even harder than the four just passed. It's going to take longer than four years to straighten up the mess this country has become. This morning my graduate supervisor sent me a link his daughter had sent him, https://youtu.be/2qzAt3pA780  . If you don't have time to watch it, it's a musical performance of "The President Sang Amazing Grace." Remember when we had a President who believed in healing, a President who did not use nicknames or insults, a President we could respect? I remember those days that seem so very long ago now. How can I wax nostalgic about a period that really just happened? I'm thankful The Sons are old enough that I do not have to explain to them why the past four years have been so trying. 

In a back-and-forth with my graduate supervisor, he sent me a summary of a talk he'd given that included a summary of the teachers who had had the most impact on him. He would be on my own list of such teachers. The problem is that I can't think of many if any other such teachers along my own educational journey. Does the math professor whose name I can't recall and whose refusal to let me do an independent study for the second quarter topology class for which I was the only student registered count? He's the reason my math major became a math minor and I switched my major to psychology. I actually recall very few of my teachers by name. Does that mean that the ones whose names I do recall had some impact on me that I may be overlooking? I do remember Mrs. Sorenson, my first grade teacher who had trouble with the fact that I already knew how to read. I remember that in the reading group I was forced to join, she once asked what got wet when you were using an umbrella. I replied that the soles of your footwear got wet. She refused to accept that answer and therein may lie the roots of my future discounting of most teachers.

I can, however, think of people who have taught me things outside a classroom, people who might be called role models or mentors or Friends (The capital F makes these people extra-special friends). I can think of several who have had a real impact. These people know who they are, so I won't out them here. They are people I do not want to lose from my life, which may be one reason I worry about how fast and far he coronavirus is spreading. I pray often that these people stay safe. I have much more to learn from them, I think. I'll reflect on them and their impacts as I chop veggies for tonight's (and tomorrow's) salad.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 308

Here we are at Sunday, the day on which there were supposed to be demonstrations at every state capitol. I just check The Washington Post website, and other than a brief mention of a crowd starting to form outside the Texas state capitol in Austin, there was no news of demonstrations. I do not know if this bodes well or not for Wednesday; I can argue it both ways. 

We're 44 weeks into the pandemic as measured by this blog, and things are not looking good here in Virginia. There were 6,757 new cases of covid-19 on Friday, and 9,914 yesterday. There could have been some sort of data malfunction that moved cases from one day to another, but the average for those two days is approaching 8,500. The seven-day rolling average of the number of new cases has increased to 5,778. That's more than two 9-11s! If the governor does a briefing on Tuesday and brushes this off because we now have vaccinations ongoing, it will be a major dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, I know that new or reimposed mitigation measures would not be well received and would probably not be observed by a majority of people.

Son #1 was as upset about this case number as I was. I told him that I will now be even more nervous every time The Professor has to go to his office or lab. As for me, I don't expect that I will leave the subdivision unless it is to take the dog on an early morning park walk or to get vaccinated. Son #1 suggested that I add "get a flu shot for 2021" to that list just in case things aren't better by then. I'd like to say that I poo-pooed that possibility, but given how things have gone so far, poo-pooing may well be the incorrect response. 

I don't know that all the jobs lost in December were due to the pandemic, but I do know that women accounted for 100 percent of the US jobs lost in December. There was a net loss of 140,000 jobs that month. Women lost a total of 156,000 jobs. The 16,000 jobs gained went to men. It is not surprising that women of color were harder hit than white women. Looking beyond the US, women are 39 percent of the global labor force but account for 54 percent of the pandemic-related job loss. 

The record of The Lame Duck's presidency will be an incomplete one. He has a habit of tearing up pieces of paper he no longer needs. For a couple of years, there were staff members with the job of taping the pieces together to recreate the documents. In one case--a private meeting with Vladimir Putin--The Lame Duck took the notes kept by the interpreter; those notes have not been seen since. Many administration figures used private email servers. Government ones would have stored the messages that end up "hidden" on private servers. This point is particularly frustrating given the negative attention paid to Hillary Clinton's use of private email during the 2016 campaign.

The Lame Duck has but three more days in which he can issue pardons. A number of the Capitol rioters are pleading with The Duck for pardons. (There are others whose defense is that the President told them to do it.) A headline in this morning's New York Times: "Prospect of Pardons in Final Days Fuels Market to Buy Access to Trump." People are not paying The Lame Duck directly; that would be bribery.  Whether he will pardon family members or even himself remains to be seen. It's going to be an interesting three days, days likely full of surprises. 

Dinner prep calls!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 307

I've had better days. I heard from my brother this morning that his wife's just-discovered cancer is at such an advanced level it's not clear if the side effects of chemo are worth it in terms of the quality or length of life it might give her. I responded to his email noting that I wasn't sure there were words for this situation. 2021 was supposed to be better than 2020, but last year's suck is continuing smoothly into the new year. An insurrection at the Capitol. Sister-in-law's cancer. The very real threat of violence tomorrow into the Inauguration on Wednesday. 2021's first two weeks and two days leave a hell of a lot to be desired. 

On the coronavirus in Virginia front, the numbers from yesterday elicited a gasping, "Holy shit!" when I checked them this morning. The number of new cases yesterday was the highest yet, and by almost a thousand. They need to change the y-axis on their chart. I fully expect yesterday's number of 6,757 to be exceeded this coming week; 7,000+ is coming. The question is if this is the New Year's bump or the second generation of Christmas bump. I hope the governor and his minions are paying attention to this, but now that we have vaccines.... Actually, I would expect them to be thinking about insurrection violence right now rather than covid.

The Professor and I have registered with our local health district to be notified when they are ready to start vaccinating the group we're in, the 1B folks. There was nothing on the registration form about whether I need to take any proof of my underlying condition(s); I imagine they will tell me before I show up whether I should bring something. 

One in three residents of Los Angeles County, California has been infected with covid-19. Not a place I would want to be living right now. The national death toll is over 389,000; I expect we'll go over half a million in February. Globally, the death toll now exceeds 2 million. We're at the top of the list in terms of how much each country contributes to the total. Yes, America has been made great again. We're followed by Brazil, India, Mexico, and the UK. 

The Lame Duck will now depart the White House on the morning of January 20. He would like a military sendoff. The Professor expressed hope that the aim of a military sendoff was not to spark a massive demonstration that offered an excuse for declaring a national state of emergency that required martial law to put down. The My Pillow founder was at the White House yesterday. A Washington Post photographer got a photo showing the papers he was carrying. Magical magnification revealed that they did cover the imposition of martial law. Any other year I would likely tell The Professor that he was overreacting, but not this year, or should I say "decade"?

Last night's sweet potato soup from the Instant Pot was delicious. Son #1 had the leftovers this morning and requested the recipe. I'll definitely make it again. I'll also make it using other vegetables which was actually the draw of the recipe. The recipe calls for "2 pounds vegetable or combination of vegetables of your choice." A lemon meringue pie is in the refrigerator. I'll do the meringue right before we want to partake of it. I've made lemon meringue pie before, but this recipe, from the book Pie Academy, was simpler. I expect I would use this recipe again, though I won't know for sure until we've sampled it.

I gave my lower back a bit more rest than planned, but today I went for a walk without the dog. This means I can walk faster and with no pauses for smell or bodily functions. I only went 1.5 miles and I did it slowly, but it felt good. I'm not going to rush my way up to the six or seven I was doing every day before the back issues started, but I am going to try to walk some most days now. There's a lemon meringue pie in the refrigerator for incentive.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 306

We appear to be fucked in both a pandemic and a politics way. Federal prosecutors have said that the people storming the Capitol wanted "to capture and assassinate elected officials." Really? some of the Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted to impeach The Lame Duck are hiring armed escorts and buying body armor. Peter Meijer, from Michigan, explained, "Our expectation is that somebody may try to kill us."

If that's not enough, this afternoon I read an article in The New Yorker that flat-out scared me, "Among the Insurrectionists." (The link should work if you haven't read your limit of free articles for the month.) After reading the article, I wondered what the death total might have been had the insurrectionists been more organized with plans for who was going where when, in other words that I hate to say about my home country, death squads. Would someone have yelled, "Stop!"? And if so, would they have stopped? I hope we never find out the answer to those questions. 

As the weekend begins, I worry about Son #2 and DiL= who live in our state capitol, Richmond. I am not sure how close they are to the capitol building, but I know they aren't far from the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue. I hope the weekend turns out to be, as some say, a big nothing-burger. I don't want to get my hopes up that nothing will happen, nor do I want to assume the worst. We are floating on an ocean of unknown and will be, I fear, for quite some time. 

To take my mind off things political and pandemical, today and tomorrow are for my New Years' resolutions to make a monthly pie and to use my Instant Pot monthly. I plan to make sweet potato soup in the Instant Pot, based on a recipe in Wednesday's Washington Post Food section. In the case of the pie, I amended the resolution to hold that I do not use a recipe I have used before. In that vein, January's pit will be lemon meringue. Not typically a winter pie, but The Professor loves it. Besides that, there is the meringue on the top that will require attention with a small blow-torch. I'm not sure it gets any better than that without thermite.

A short post, I know, but I do not want to dwell too long on things about which I am worrying. Sometimes a hole in the sand is the best place to lay one's head.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 305

It appears that Virginia is following the national guidance to move people 65-74 or with risk factors up in terms of when they might get vaccinated against covid-19. This puts me in Virginia Group 1B rather than 1C. Given that the local county is still handling Group 1A, it will likely be a while. Still, it's nice to know I might get vaccinated sooner than expected.

In my skimming of news sites this morning, I actually had to scroll way further down to get to any coronavirus news. Between impeachment and inauguration, there wasn't much room for covid. For some impeachment humor, The Lame Duck has now been impeached more times than he has been elected to office, and the same number of times as he has lost the popular vote in a presidential election. I gather he is not laughing about any of this, which is as it should be. It had been announced that Rudy Giuliani and Alan Dershowitz would defend him in any impeachment trial, but it appears that Rudy is not in The Duck's good graces at the moment. The Duck has stopped repayment of the expenses Rudy incurred traveling around the country challenging election results. Ouch!

It appears that a couple of House of Representatives Republicans may have taken organizers of the Capitol demonstration/protest/insurrection on private tours of the Capitol the day before the shit went down. If that can be proven, it's a big thing, a very big thing. I would hope that the House would at least censure them if not impeach them. Or perhaps Justice can lay some federal charges on them.

The fact that 10 House Republicans voted for impeachment is seen positively by a lot of people. However, 93 percent of the House Republicans voted against impeachment. And two-thirds of  House Republicans voted against certifying Uncle Joe's election even after the Capitol insurrection. (I think I like the sound of that better than "riot.") And in other, wider polling, 64 percent of Republicans say that they support The Lame Duck's recent behavior. Did I put enough stress on "recent"? And 57 percent think he should be the Republican candidate for President in 2024. Only 17 percent think that he should be removed from office.

As long as we're on polling results, people were asked if they would agree that America is falling apart. I was actually a bit surprised that more Republicans agreed than Democrats, 83 percent to 78 percent. Seventy-nine percent of Independents agreed. 

Info is coming out about the events of Inauguration Day. I was particularly interested in Lady Gaga's singing the National Anthem. I really hope she doesn't glam it up as some artists do. I think it's safe to say that she won't do the Roseanne crotch grab.

As I said, it was actually difficult to wade through the politics to get to the pandemic. As evidence that it takes a while for a vaccine to be effective and/or two doses might be critical, the Representatives who got covid from hiding with unmasked colleagues had gotten their first of two vaccine doses in the two days before the insurrection. With needing a second dose comes remembering which vaccine you got. The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine should be given 21 days after the first, while for the Moderna vaccine, it's 28 days from first to second. 

In general coronavirus news, we're still fucked, possibly more than ever. There may be a variant strain of covid in the US, slightly different from the one in England. Pandemic fatigue appears to be growing. People are tired of masks and social distancing. Some will still keep practicing those, but more will toss the mask and get shoulder-to-shoulder or, worse, face-to-face with each other. That there is now a vaccine may be a factor as well. It may not matter to some that a vaccine only works after it's given (in the right dose, on the right schedule), and there's no real treatment other than treating whatever symptoms with which someone presents. 

And to take your mind off politics and pandemics, the CIA says that it has opened all its UFO documents on theblackvault.com. I'm not sure I need to clear my mind that badly ... yet.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 304

One week until Inauguration Day. The intervening weekend could reveal much about what might happen on Inauguration Day, but then again it might not. Will the type of gatherings--peaceful or not--in state capitols this weekend mean that the same is coming for the inauguration? Not that I'm thinking the weekend will be peaceful. Already various states are contending with a level of behavior not seen before in this country. A guillotine was erected outside Arizona's state capitol. Lawmakers evacuated capitol buildings in Georgia and New Mexico as crowds gathered outside. Crowds in Idaho cheered as reports of the Capitol riot came in a week ago. Oregon's governor was burned in effigy. Some demonstrations, though, were peaceful including the one in Kansas. And in Nevada, supporters of The Lame Duck drank beer and listened to rock music. 

The FBI has said that some of the Capitol rioters arrested will face sedition charges. To be clear about what that meant, I looked up "sedition." Dictionary.com gave two definitions. First, "incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government." Second, "any action, especially in speech or writing, promoting such discontent or rebellion. The way I read the second one, The Lame Duck did commit an act of sedition in his pre-riot remarks last week.

The latest report I heard said that 20,000 National Guard troops would provide security around the Capitol for the inauguration. They will be armed. The crowds will not be as large as they were when The Lame Duck was inaugurated. Between the threat of violence and the pandemic, crowd size in the hundreds makes much more sense than that in the thousands or millions. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is turning on The Lame Duck. He is backing impeachment in part because impeachment will make it easier to purge The Lame Duck from the Republican party. 

The folks planning security have to consider every possible scenario. Some of the worst ones being considered are people with firearms trying to attack dignitaries, "suicide type aircraft," and drone attacks on the crowds. I'm sure they're considering suicide bombers as well as a dirty bomb, too. I wonder if there's a table around which people sit and throw out ideas of what might transpire. I'd really like to be a fly on the wall if that's the case.

On the coronavirus front, the US set a new record for the number of people dying in one day. I saw several numbers, but all were in the neighborhood of 4,400. This number of deaths in one day exceed the total number of deaths in South Korea or Japan since the pandemic began. The national death total is over 380,000. Could we have 400,000 by the end of the month? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Japan has widened its state of emergency due to the coronavirus, and there is real concern over the Olympic Games set for July. If the Games cannot be held this summer, they will not be held at all. One concern is whether overseas visitors can be allowed. This decision needs to be made by March to give adequate time for travel plans to be made. Even with no spectators or no spectators from overseas, there is the question of whether the Olympic Village could become another super-spreading event. With no overseas visitors, might they spread the athletes out more? They could put some in the Village and the others in the empty hotels. It might be interesting to be a fly on the wall when the go or no-go decision is being discussed.

Fasten your seat belts and shoulder straps. It's going to be one hell of a week.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 303

There seems to be more political than coronavirus news right now, but the two can and do overlap. Three Congresspeople have now tested positive for covid-19 in the wake of the Capitol riot. One was quite up front about blaming Republican colleagues who, when offered masks, declined and expressed scorn toward those wearing them. I'm not sure what number or percent of cases is needed for super-spreader status, but it sounds as if the Capitol riot is on the way.

In other coronavirus news, three gorillas at the San Diego Zoo have tested positive for covid-19. They are believed to have caught it from an asymptomatic zookeeper. Both gorillas and zookeeper are expected to survive. These are the first covid cases reported among great apes. 

Random other news before digging in to the political pile: I never thought I'd be saying positive things about Bill Belichick, the coach of the NFL's New England Patriots, but that was before he declined to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from The Lame Duck, saying that he had to stay "true for the people, team, and country I love." He cited the summer's racial equity protests as opening the door to new and needed dialog for his team.

On the political front, only the gods and goddesses know what the next eight days hold. The state capitols are on high alert after calls for actions in all 50 capitols on Sunday, January 17. The attorney general of Michigan has already declared the state capitol to be unsafe and advised the public to stay away from it. The FBI has distributed a bulletin warning of armed protests at all capitols. January 17 also opens several days of protests, culminating in the Million Militia March in Washington, DC on Inauguration Day. Heide Bierich, co-founder of the Global Project against Hate and Extremism said, "I don't want to be an alarmist, but I worry about a mass casualty event at the Inauguration."  She's not the only one. I think the chosen inaugural theme of "America United" may be very wishful thinking. 

The responsible powers that be are considering various scenarios for the days around the inauguration. One of the more troubling ones being considered is insurrectionists forming perimeters around the Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court, blocking Democrats from entering. I can see how this could quickly evolve or devolve into the mass casualty event mentioned above. 

Further complicating planning for the unknown is that several Capitol Police officers have been suspended, and more than a dozen others are under eight separate investigations for things such as social media messages of support for the rally turned riot. One officer allegedly posted "inappropriate" images of Uncle Joe that have now been deleted. Rumor has it that some military personnel are also being investigated. In other words, there may be foxes guarding the chicken coop. 

I spent the summer of 1975 on a study-abroad program in Madrid, Spain. Taking a walk on my first night there, I was taken aback by the sight of soldiers or police patrolling the streets carrying uzis. This was when Basque terrorism was a very real concern. In Vietnam, there were soldiers in guard kiosks outside government buildings with rifle barrels visible sticking out of the windows. Taking photographs, even of something across the street from a government building, will get you up close and personal with one of the soldiers (don't ask me how I know this). I am not ready for those sights here. The Capitol surrounded by a chain link fence--or a functional rather than decorative fence of any kind--makes me wonder if we will ever recover from these past four years. What happens in the next eight days will tell us a lot.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 302

Yesterday I said I would have some photos of my infamous (well, to The Professor and Son #1) pandemic quilt. Here's the inspiration:

The Virginia Department of Health updates this chart by 10:00 every morning. It reflect numbers reported by each health district by 5:00 the evening before. I check the numbers every morning. Somewhere along the way I decided that this should be a quilt. There are limits, though, so I decided I would just do the six months between my July 1 birthday and December 31. That's 184 days, so I decided to do four days to one inch. That means the bars will take up 46 inches. The counts range from just over 500 to a ways over 5,000, so I decided to go with 50 cases to one inch. My bars will then range from 5+inches to 50+ inches.

I knew that if I tried to just sew lines, they would not be straight and while I can handle a bit of wonkiness, that would be too much. I found striped fabric with quarter-inch stripes on Etsy and have been playing around with it. Here's the current model: 

I wanted to see just how difficult the lines were going to be. I tried straight machine stitching, hand embroidery, and, finally, fancy machine stitching. The Xs above worked best. I need to go slow and not stop along the way since that bunches two Xs together. I've got a few more lines to do here, after which I'll add the yellow line that represents the seven-day rolling average number of new cases. I'll then add batting and backing and see if my idea of quilting the outline of each bar works. I also want to figure a way to mark select dates such as the first of each month and holidays. 

It may end up looking like crap and not be at all noteworthy, but it will remind me of checking the counts every morning and seeing just how much we were going to be fucked. I'll hope that the quilt names itself without using the f-word. This is unlike anything else I've done, so it will at least be an interesting challenge.

Speaking of the state health department (well, I did up near the beginning), there is now a registration system for covid vaccinations. Both The Professor and I will be in the 1C group; the health department will let us know when that is beginning locally and how to make an appointment. In terms of underlying medical conditions, asthma was listed but with the detail of "moderate to severe." Since mine is not in that range, I went with hypertension or high blood pressure. There was nothing to indicate how I would prove that, but I could always show them the prescription drug I take for it.

In news of The Lame Duck, the PGA has moved its 2022 PGA Championship (one of golf's fouir major tournaments) to somewhere other than New Jersey's Bedminster Golf Course owned by The Lame Duck. The business organization bearing The Lame Duck's surname is, as expected, upset and threatening to sue for damages to cover the work they say they've done to get the course ready. I'm glad the PGA was willing to take the risk of doing this. Once The Lame Duck flies out of office, the less attention he gets, the better.

Two oddities with which to end this post. I'll start with the coronavirus one. The covid relief bill passed in December included a clause that gives US intelligence agencies 180 days to tell Congress what they know about " unidentified aerial phenomena" otherwise known as UFOs. The article in which this gem was included ended with "A spokesperson for the Office of National Intelligence confirmed the news to the fact-checking website Scopes." So, yes, this is real even if the unidentified aerial phenomena might not be.

They found a fossil that suggests baby megalodons (giant prehistoric sharks) were as big as human adults if not bigger. There was also evidence that the species practiced oophagy, in which embryos get stronger by feeding on the unhatched eggs of siblings in the womb. "Oophagy" is pronounced oh-OFF-schwa-jee. I wasn't sure how to use the upside-down-backwards lower case e that is the character for the schwa. Besides megalodons, great white, thresher, and mako sharks practice oophagy. I now pronounce you ready to make small talk at a future social engagement. 

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 301

I meant to start writing this over an hour ago, but my Apple watch decided to play mind games in terms of storage space and software updates. Then The Family Dog requested an outdoor walk. Then the watch needed more attention. Life can certainly get in the way of life at times. But I apparently have my watch under control now, and The Family Dog has been walked and fed. The Family Cat does not go outside, but she too has been fed.

On the home covid front, The Professor heard today that he'll get more and official chances to be exposed. All people who conduct a certain type of research that The Professor happens to do have to be tested twice weekly for the next three weeks. Once the semester starts on February 1, the required frequency drops to once weekly. The Professor has been limiting his trips to his lab to once weekly at most. Now he gets to go to the university twice and, in the process, be around a lot more people than he otherwise would be. Even more frustrating to The Professor is that one of his collaborators is a retired professor in his 80s who only darkens the door of the lab every so many weeks when his presence is required in person. That no longer matters; he, too, must go in twice weekly for the next three weeks and once weekly after that.

On the home quilt front, I am making progress on the sample for my pandemic quilt. I am learning something new with each session. The amount of top stitching required is incredible, as is the attention required to keep the lines for each day straight. I'll try to remember to take a photo of it tomorrow to put up here, along with a screen shot of the inspiration. 

No news is good news on the national political front. All that means is that I have not read or listened to news since first thing this morning. The Lame Duck may well have done something newsworthy, but if he has, I haven't learned about it. Ignorance really can be bliss. Unless The Professor wants to watch the evening news, I can stay in blissful ignorance even longer. My morning read of select news outlets did tell me that The Lame Duck has yet to call the family of the police officer killed in the Capitol riot. VP Pence has called, though. I've never really liked VP Pence, but he's been redeeming himself lately. He has not spoken with The Duck since Wednesday morning, before the Capitol riot. Finally, a second Republican Senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsykvania, has joined Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in calling for The Lame Duck's resignation.

On the national coronavirus front, the concern remains about front line workers choosing not to get vaccinated. Up to 40 percent of frontline workers in hard-hit Los Angeles County are refusing the vaccine as are 60 percent of the care home workers in Ohio. In December, 55 percent of New York City firefighters surveyed said they would not consent to be vaccinated. The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association (the union) collected questions from 8,200 members and had a virologist friend answer the questions in a 50-minute video. That video has now been viewed some 2,000 times, and the union has received several dozen phone calls and messages from members that say the video has changed their minds about the vaccine. It seems that ometimes ignorance is not bliss. Pope Francis has called covid vaccinations an ethical obligation and said that refusal to be vaccinated is suicidal. Given that the Catholic Church views suicide as a major sin, the Pope's statements are noteworthy. 

I expect to pay more attention to news local and beyond tomorrow. Even though I'm retired, there's something about the weekend that makes me want to ignore things. Ignore as in ignorance as in staying in bliss a wee while longer.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 300

In news we should have heard or read long, long ago, Twitter has banned The Lame Duck permanently. His followers and/or minions will no longer be able to hang on his every word, capitalized or not. He will have to find new means of venting, which I guess might not be a good thing. Can he be encouraged just to play golf for the next 12 days? Golf may be why he is now supposedly heading to Mar-a-Lago rather than Scotland on January 19. January is not golf season in Scotland even if you own the course. 

The Democrats in the House of Representatives are still talking about impeaching The Lame Duck on Monday. I assume that they would dispense with hearings such as they heard the first time The Duck was impeached and forward articles of impeachment to the Senate as quickly as they can. Moscow Mitch McConnell has said, however, that the Senate's schedule would not allow for a trial before the Inauguration. Could they even hold a trial once The Lame Duck is no longer President?The Lame Duck's remaining as President until Inauguration Day frightens me, as do thoughts of what havoc his minions might try to wreak in conjunction with the Inauguration. I seriously hope someone, anyone can keep him from pushing the wrong buttons.

One priority for the Senate before the Inauguration should be confirming some of Uncle Joe's Cabinet picks. I'd never really thought about it, but most Presidents have several Cabinet members confirmed and ready to go on Inauguration Day. I think Uncle Joe has now named all of his choices. I would say that State, Defense, and Justice would be the most important to have confirmed as early as possible, with Health and Human Services following closely given the pandemic.

Moving away from politics for now, 2020 was not a good year in terms of climate-driven catastrophe in the US. There were 22 major disasters, a major disaster being defined as one causing $1 billion or more in damages. Those 22 major disasters caused at least 262 deaths and more than $95 billion in damages. The previous record was 16 major disasters. 

Lots of numbers in that last paragraph. I like numbers, and have been called a data nerd. Speaking of data, The Professor and I cheered out loud last night seeing a clip in which Dr. Fauci said, "The data indicate ..." It probably dates me, but I grew up with "data" as the plural of "datum" and still cringe when I hear "data" used as a singular noun. 

I'm not sure I'd want to own stock in Boeing right now. A Boeing 737--not a 737-Max--went down in the sea off Jakarta, Indonesia only minutes after takeoff. Debris has been spotted though it has not been confirmed as having come from the plane. There were also reports of an explosion heard about the time to plan went down. As The Professor just noted, Boeing has its fingers crossed that terrorism rather than mechanics was the cause of the accident. 

Probably because I ordered bulbs this fall, I received the Prairie Moon Nursery catalog yesterday. Prairie Moon specializes in "native seeds and plants--wildflowers and grasses for restoration and gardening." Perusing the contents of said catalog, I discovered a plant named Hairy Beardtongue. Its Latin name is penstemon hirsutus. Hairy Beardtongue sounds like a Tolkien character or someone in a Dungeons and Dragons game. If I could draw decently, I'd see what I could make Hairy Beardtongue look like. 

No unpacking and putting away today, but I did make bread and work on a small prototype of my pandemic quilt. It's going to be sufficiently detailed that I want to make mistakes now so that I will know how to avoid them when I start on the real thing. I made several of them today and hope to make more when next I work on it. Much as I prefer somewhat "liberated" designs in which the goal can be less than perfect, this is going to require more attention to detail than I am used to paying.

I do like Hairy Beardtongue as a character name.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 299

Yowza! Tomorrow will be Day 300. Since they're now saying that people in group 1C for the covid vaccine are looking at late spring for their shots, I should hit Day 400 before we're through. I'm being optimistic that I'll get into the 1C group given that I just printed a list of my "Ongoing Health Issues" from the medical records site, and it clearly lists Hypertension and Stage 2 chronic kidney disease. It also lists Asthma, but I don't think that will count for anything. Four hundred days? I'll say it again. Yowza!

I just came in from walking The Family Dog and retrieving a mysterious envelope from the mailbox. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I subscribed to a magazine called Welcome Home. Its aim was to support women staying at home with their kids. They ran a pen pal thing one issue, and I started corresponding with a woman in Evanston, Illinois, who was also at home with her kid(s). Our correspondence became less regular as our kids grew and our lives expanded. She's worked in costume design, teaching elementary school, and religious education fits in there somewhere. She ran the Chicago Marathon one year, and I considered going up to meet and cheer for her. I can't recall why I didn't. It seems that she saves  everything which included all of the letters she got from me. She thought I might like to take a trip down Memory Lane. Wow! I did not see these coming. I have no idea if I will have the courage to read the letters. If I do, I'll start with the first and work my way up as our kids grew. Another Yowza moment.

The fallout from Wednesday continues. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos resigned. She, like Elaine Chao, was in the Cabinet from start to, well, almost finish. The authorities are using video footage to identify and arrest as many of the domestic terrorists (Uncle Joe said they were not demonstrators or protesters but were domestic terrorists) as possible. They arrested the man who was photographed relaxing at Nancy Pelosi's desk. It will be interesting to see what they're charged with. There are going to be a lot of trials, though The Professor figured they would have a couple of trials and let the convictions and sentences motivate the other people charged to plea bargain. Some of the rioters have been fired from their jobs after their employers learned that they'd been there. They get no sympathy from me. Finally, a fifth person, a police officer, has died as a result of the riot. Son #1 said he heard that the officer had been struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. If that is the case, I hope they can find the perpetrator. 

It seems that VP Pence does not want to use the 25th amendment to move The Lame Duck out sooner than the 20th. There's talk of an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives on Monday. If they impeach The Duck, any trial in the Senate would have to be short and sweet. If it stretched to January 20, there would be no reason to do it in the first place. Nancy Pelosi said she has called the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about what is being done to prevent The Lame Duck from going nuclear. The possibility he might be able to do that is a very good reason to get him out of office immediately rather than in a couple of days.

The Lame Duck has said that he will not attend Uncle Joe's inauguration. The last time the exiting president skipped the Inauguration was in 1869. Incoming President Ulysses S. Grant refused to share a carriage with outgoing President Andrew Johnson. Johnson stayed at the White House. I can't imagine The Lame Duck just staying there. I'm agreeing with the pundits who suggest he will fly to Mar-a-Lag on January 19. If he does, let's hope he plays golf on Inauguration Day rather than holds a rally. He could still pardon family, friends, and himself that morning, taking some of the attention away from Uncle Joe.

And covid-19 continues to surge. Wednesday's little insurrection at the Capitol could be the most super spreader event since Sturgis, South Dakota and its motorcycle rally. Yesterday, 4,085 people died in the US the highest number yet. It's going to go higher, too. We're just starting to see the post-Christmas surge, with the post-New Year's one yet to come. Our governor seems to think that because there are now vaccines available, the numbers no longer matter. He doesn't seem to consider the fact that it may take the rest of 2021 if not longer for everyone who is going to get vaccinated to do so. 

I emptied several boxes of stuff this afternoon and shall now rest on my laurels until The Professor makes a trip for curbside pickup Mexican food. Haven't had that in almost a year.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 298

It's been a very long day for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is concern about the events of yesterday. What can and will happen in the next 13 days? Will the Defense Department obey the Commander-in-Chief if he tries to declare martial law? What if he thinks it would be nice to go out after attacking another nation? Iran? What if he urges his supporters to the streets in more than one city? Every city possible? I'm not optimistic about using the 25th amendment. At least one Cabinet member, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, has already resigned effective Monday. Her husband happens to be Mitch McConnell, so perhaps she fears retaliation by proxy. Will others be following her out the door before the 20th? And with the House of Representatives saying they will not come back until after the 20th, impeachment would be difficult, not to mention holding a trial in the Senate.

The state health folks started to release details about the next waves of covid vaccinations, and my getting in is actually looking bleak. They're still working on details of what conditions put someone at high risk, but the lists out now do not include asthma. One list includes high blood pressure while another doesn't. And I supposedly have Stage 2 kidney disease (stages go from 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst), but I have no idea if that is considered "chronic kidney disease." I may end up waiting until the last wave and then fighting for a place in line. The Professor will get to go in the next wave, being over 65. At 64, I don't count. 

The governor held a covid briefing yesterday but it was all about vaccinations with nothing at all about the new case numbers that are setting records just about every other day. The percent positivity for the testing they're doing is 16.8, a number they were very worried about back in the spring. I guess now that the vaccinations are rolling out, the number of new cases no longer matters. 

So tomorrow I'll try to do better. Maybe I can even find some levity to inject into the proceedings. I hope to be in a better mood, but a lot of that depends on the world around me, unfortunately. I'm having trouble right now going with the flow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 297

The Professor suggested a photograph of nothing but black. That's what the world feels like right now. I just watched a violent protest at the central legislative site of a third world country. Wait! That was my country. I saw and heard things today I would never have believed I would see and hear in this country. I am ashamed to see that it has come to this.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 296

I've been trying to stay busy today so that my mind doesn't wander to all the shit that may go down tomorrow up the road in Washington, DC. The police chief says everyone in the force will be on duty, and the mayor has requested National Guard troops to be on standby. The alt-right web presence is evidently full of calls to action tomorrow if the certification of Electoral College votes proceeds unchecked. The Lame Duck is saying that VP Pence can demonstrate loyalty by canceling or otherwise throwing a monkey wrench into the proceedings. No, The Duck has not read the Constitution recently or ever and so does not know that the role of the VP is ceremonial at best. I did like Nancy Pelosi's comment that "at the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night" Uncle Joe would officially be the Preseident-Elect no matter what else went down. 

The Lame Duck held a rally in Georgia last night to boost the campaigns of the two incumbent Republican Senators. He spent more time on his own electoral woes than he did on the Senate races. He promised to punish the Governor and Secretary of State for not doing as he asked or ordered. He also promised to campaign against them should they seek reelection. In terms of the weekend phone call and possible vote tampering, The Professor read the argument that central to tampering's being a crime was the intent of the perpetrator. If The Lame Duck's mental condition is such that he honestly believes he lost due to fraud, did what he was asking or ordering have "intent"? 

As for what might be coming for January 20, word is that The Lame Duck has reserved the Boeing 757 typically used by the Vice President or First Lady to fly to his resort in Scotland on January 19. It seems that the airport there is too small for the Boeing 747 that is typically used as Air Force One. US fighter planes have been doing patrols around the resort  just as they would for a planned and announced Duck visit. The Scottish government meanwhile says that Americans can't just show up there in the days of the pandemic. Of course, on January 19, The Lame Duck will still be a head of state, and heads of state are probably exempt from at least some of the restrictions on visitors. 

The pandemic quilt planning continues. Today I experimented with sewing two pieces of the striped fabric together and hiding the seam. One width of the fabric is 44 inches, and I need 46 plus whatever area I want around the chart itself. Tomorrow, I'll sew a bunch of bars of varying heights and see how they look. If they look okay, I may have no excuse other than packing and putting away for not starting on it. 

I did go through several boxes this afternoon. Two were filled with demo materials Son #1 developed and used for the semester he taught high school physics. That was spring 2012; I'm not sure he'll even remember what's in each box. If he no longer wants the stuff and there's nothing I can use, they will probably go into the trash; I don't think there's anything worth donating. I do need to figure out what to do with styrofoam coffee cups, paper bowls, and plastic utensils left over from decades of being a room mother or other organizer of social event such as going away cookouts. I think there are more plastic utensils than The Professor and I could use for three meals a day in a year, but I'm not going to count to make sure.

I did come across something yesterday that I shall use as needed. It was one of those motivational things people put up on social media. I've relocated the paper to which it is glued to the kitchen desk where I can look at it as needed.

Sometimes you just have to give yourself the pep talk like, "hello you badass, amazing human being, don't be sad, you're doing fucking great..keep going!"

The View from the Hermitage, Day 295

We set yet another coronavirus record here in the US yesterday with 125,544 people in hospital with covid-19. The number of people dead from covid is now over 351,000. It could get much worse in the coming weeks; it is certainly not going to get any better. Are there any national mitigation measures here as there are in some other countries? Heck, no! The Lame Duck and his Toadies are too busy committing crimes connected with The Duck's call to the Georgia secretary of state telling him to find more Duck votes. Someone should give that secretary of state a medal, especially given that he's a Republican. Not very many of those are standing up to The Duck these days. 

England is entering another national lockdown, this one until at least February 15. People can leave home to procure food and medicine, seek essential care, or escape harm. People can also leave to go to work if they cannot work from home. People can also leave their home once daily for exercise which can be done with one other person from a different household. All non-essential businesses will close. 

The Senate runoff elections in Georgia happen tomorrow, though early voting has been open for a couple of weeks. I can't say that I've seen any polls indicating who might win each race. I have read that The Lame Duck's actions in regard to the presidential election may make some Republicans reluctant to vote. I'm not sure enough of them will stay home to let the two Democrats win. It would certainly be nice for the Senate to have an edge to the Democrat side. Otherwise, the Republicans could wreak havoc with Uncle Joe's Cabinet and court nominees. Should that be proposed, I'd like to think that a couple of the more level-headed Republicans such as Mitt Romney would refuse to go along and would vote with the Democrats. Should both Republicans win reelection in Georgia, it would only take two Republican Senators to throw any vote to Vice President Harris. I guess we'll know on Wednesday just as the Electoral College certification process begins.

But enough about the world outside my door. Having collected all the data I need, today I began working on my pandemic quilt. I plan to recreate Virginia's graph of the number of new covid-19 cases every day starting on my birthday, July1, and ending at year's end, December 31. On July 1, there were 532 new covid cases; the high point, 5,239 new cases, came on December 30 followed by 5,182 on the 31st. I'm using striped fabric on which the alternating white and grey stripes are 1/4 inch wide. For 184 days, that will be 46 inches width. The vertical scale will use approximations using 100. The 532 will be as close to 5 1/3 inches as I can get, while the 5,239 will be as close to 52 1/3 inches as I can get. Running across the bar chart will be a line showing the rolling 7-day average number of new cases. At least one border will be black. I'm figuring out how to do the bars; right now, I'm leaning toward using one of the decorative stitches on my Bernina. I'll do the bars before quilting, I think, since I don't really want to do that much decorative stitching as quilting. I also want to mark certain bars, though I'm not sure if those will be the first of each month, every Sunday as in this blog, holidays, or something else that comes to mind. The nerd factor is high with this one. 

I must admit that it was nice to focus on something creative today rather than go through boxes and deal with "stuff." Perhaps tomorrow I'll try for a healthy mixture of the two. 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 294

A bit of background to yesterday's news that I found the errant kindle. I had to work my way through several horizontal layers of boxes in the basement to get to a box labeled "kitchen desk." Since that was the usual location of my kindle when it was not in use, I was optimistic I might find it there, and, indeed, I did. I also found my Amazon fire tablet that can act as a kindle as can my iPhone. Since I broke down and bought a refurbished replacement kindle, I am sufficiently kindled for the rest of this pandemic not to mention the next.

We're 42 weeks along our wayward path through the pandemic. We're also at (I-17) days and counting or just 17 days from Uncle Joe's inauguration. First, though, we have to get through Wednesday's Congressional certification of the results of the Electoral College votes. Most years this is a fairly ceremonial thing, and many members of Congress don't bother to attend. This year will be quite different. Republican Senators are lining up behind Ted Cruz getting ready to challenge the results of at least some states along with some 140 of their counterparts in the House of Representatives. From  what I read of the procedure to be followed, it sounds as if challenges can be made to each state as its results are presented. Once a state is challenged, the Senate moves back to their chamber, after which each house has two hours in which to debate the challenge at which point they reconvene in the House chamber. Even if there are only challenges lodged against Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada, it could well take into the wee hours of the next morning for things to be wrapped up. Everything I've read claims that there is no way Uncle Joe's election will not be certified. I just hope I don't have to stay up to find out.

The Gallup folks just announced that The Lame Duck was 2020's "most admired man." Michelle Obama was the "most admired woman" for the third year in a row. How some people can admire The Lame Duck is beyond me. I could see him getting distinction for being the most newsworthy man, but admired? Puh-lease. Somewhat related, The Duck is said to be angry that no fashion magazine put Melania  on its cover during her four years as first lady. 

The numbers of covid-19 cases and deaths continue to rise. The total number of cases a day or two ago was 20,427,780, 2,574,049 of them in the preceding two weeks. Can 30 million be that far away? The 32,518 covid-19 deaths in the last two weeks contributed bigly to the 350,186 total deaths. It will be a while until we hit 400,000 deaths, but that number is on the horizon. 

This morning's Guardian laid out just what the UK's "Tier 4" restrictions are. Nonessential shops, hairdressers, and leisure or entertainment venues are closed. No travel with the exception of education, childcare, or exercise. One may also travel to work if it is not possible to work from home. Households cannot mix, but one person can meet one other person outdoors in a public place. Support bubbles and childcare are exempt from this restriction. Clinically extremely vulnerable people should not go to work and should limit the time spent outside the home. Finally, residents must not stay away overnight, and cannot travel abroad. I cannot imagine the reaction to those restrictions here in the US of A. It might help but only a wee bit in the US that nowhere in those restrictions is there mention of wearing masks. Perhaps it's assumed that masks will be work outside the home. 

As the owner and occasional wearer of an inflatable, air-powered tyrannosaurus rex costume, I wish the following item were funny rather than sobering. A hospital in California say that a staff member wearing an inflatable, air-powered costume for a short time on Christmas Day may have sickened about four dozen other staffers. Such costumes have now been banned. There was no mention of what type of costume it was, though I'm hoping it might have been Santa Claus rather than a rex.

I don't know if my final item qualifies as "funny" as much as it is just plain "unusual." A small item on page A2 of this morning's Washington Post reported that a vessel carrying 20 people had disappeared between Bimini in the Bahamas and Lake Worth. I'm assuming that Lake Worth is in Florida, but either way the vessel vanished in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle. I had not thought about the Bermuda Triangle in years. The triangle is some 500,000 square miles of ocean between Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico. Many vessels go into the Triangle and are never heard from again. One school of thought is that this is because there is so much air traffic over and boat traffic in the Triangle that of course a large number of disappearances is to be expected. The other school of thought has unknown forces at work. I said I had not thought of the Bermuda Triangle in years. I wonder if that is because there is less attention paid to such anomalies now or if the attention is there and I am not paying it.