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 211

Another gloomy, rainy day. The "rain" is as much sprinkles as it is rain. I walked seven miles this morning and only wore my rain jacket for about the first half mile. As I was closing in on seven, it seemed as if it were going to start to rain, but I quickly realized it was just water falling off the trees. It's supposed to stop tonight. Here's hoping it really does. 

Today's unpacking and putting away adventure was starting on my jewelry. No gems or fine metals here, just random things collected over forty or so years. Over that time, or at least over the 35 years in this house, it had gotten split up to various small jewelry boxes, boxes in which jewelry came, and other smallish containers. I need to get it all sorted out so that I can find something specific I want to wear. I have no idea how many pairs of earrings I have. Many I know I will never wear again. A lot are kid-themed from when the sons were in preschool and elementary school. I may keep some of those for random wearing, but I probably don't need all the pairs I have. Sitting on the floor going through it was not too comfortable, so I stopped at the point at which I had necklaces in one tray, pins in another, and bracelets in a third. I also had containers of pendants lacking chains, single earrings, and earring pairs in which one or both were missing the loop to go through my ear. Tomorrow I may do a first pass through the earrings. 

As I noted yesterday, I did read Ross Dhouthat's oped piece "There Will Be No Trump Coup." He makes a good case, but I am not totally convinced. The militias becoming more and more public scare the crap out of me. Living in Charlottesville, I've seen what can go down when militias and antifas and other liberal groups meet. It wasn't pretty then, and it won't be pretty if it happens again. I can't help but think that if a militia wanted to make a statement, they would see Charlottesville as a good place to do so. Younger son and his spouse equivalent plan to stay in place in Richmond, though they may very well relocate their parrot to the cabin the own north of town. They live close enough to where past protests have occurred that it is quite possible tear gas could reach their house. Just like the canary in the coal mine, EmmaJean could keel over from exposure. 

On the novel coronavirus front, Alaska, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wisconsin set records for the number of new covid-19 cases in the week that ended yesterday. Rates in many other states are rising, just not to record numbers ... yet. Too many people seem to think that we're out of the woods. News flash: We aren't. We're still fucked and will likely continue to be fucked for quite some time.

I guess we could all work to catch covid-19 so we could end up immune and with a protective glow just as has happened with HWSNBN. I doubt we could all get the same treatments he got even if we wanted to. I heard that he wants to hold a rally daily between now and November 2. He could be in trouble. People have made it as far as he has with no real crises then WHAM! They go downhill pretty fast. 

And on the downhill or death front, John McCain's mother has passed at the ripe old age of 108. I remember watching tape of her passing his coffin as he lay in state in the Capitol. Parents should not have to bury their children. I remember, in 2008, as McCain ran against Obama, critics kept saying McCain was too old. He brought his mom out on the campaign trail to attest to the genetic longevity he may have inherited. Damn cancer! It takes way too many people way too early.