The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 102 (602)

A federal court has temporarily blocked POTUS's vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. This might raise a Constitutional issue. Who has the authority in this case? A Labor Department official claims that OSHA's authority trumps that of the states, but is that correct? Reading about the court action immediately brought the tenth amendment to the US Constitution to mind:

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.

So, is the right to issue such a mandate one that would be delegated by the Constitution, because unless it is, it sounds as if each state can do as they please. There is the phrase "nor prohibited by it to the States" in there. If the Constitution does not grant this particular power to the federal government, does it say that the states can't do it? 

Today seems to be a Number Day, or perhaps there just wasn't any new news. On Saturday, there were 411,296 cases and 6,306 deaths worldwide. The most deaths were recorded in Russia (1,179), India (506), and Ukraine (449). Over the course of the pandemic, cases and deaths break down as follows:

                                                        Cases                           Deaths

United States                               46,461,779                    754,279

Brazil                                           21,874,324                    609,388

India                                             34,355,536                    460,791

Mexico                                          3,825,404                     289,674

Russia                                            8,795,095                     246,814

Peru leads the world in deaths per capita with 608 deaths per 100,000 people. Following Peru are Bulgaria with 359, Bosnia Herzegovina with 357, the Republic of North Macedonia with 346, Montenegro with 342, and Hungary with 323. After Peru, it's all eastern European countries that are lagging behind other European countries in terms of vaccinations.

How are deaths and cases spread over continents or regions of the world? The developed areas really are being hit harder than the developing countries.

Latin American & Caribbean

    Deaths:        1,525,388

    Cases:        46,084,819

Europe

    Deaths:        1,424,434

    Cases:        76,202,176

Asia

    Deaths:        876,875

    Cases:        56,130,911

US & Canada

    Deaths:        783,411

    Cases:        48,189,463

Africa

    Deaths:        219,336

    Cases:        8,531,449

Mideast

    Deaths:        209,980

    Cases:        14,024,411

Oceania

    Deaths:        2,906

    Cases:        267,951

Australia

    Deaths:        1,597

    Cases:        just over 180,000

Things are looking up in Australia. Sydney is loosening more restrictions. Fully vaccinated people have no limits on house guests or outdoor gatherings. Cases are down in Victoria. The Northern Territory is about to end a snap lockdown it issued to deal with a small outbreak. Some 80 percent of the country is fully vaccinated. Western Australia will re-open with it reaches 90 percent fully vaccinated. 

Now, in the spirit of the approval of vaccinations for children between the ages of five and 11, a tweet from Big Bird:

I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it'll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.

Ms. @EricaRHill even said I've been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!

In the spirit of the times, though, the tweet has already drawn criticism claiming that Sesame Street should not be political. I try not to get discouraged about such comments, but it's easier some days than others. 

Finally, a reader remembered my comments some months ago on picking out new curtains to go with the same furniture we've always had. Just as I tell people that I do not make heirloom quilts, I do not stage my house. Ease and functionality rule here. The grommeted curtains are so easy to open and close, and the blackout backing on the curtains means we do not also need shades for insulation. Here are the dining and living rooms.

There was also a question about the room filled floor to ceiling with furniture. I'll try to remember to take a shot of it tomorrow. The furniture has been replaced by boxes that don't go quite as high as the furniture did. Most of the contents of those boxes belong to The Sons who say they will go through them someday. I I need to warn them that someday I may want the space in that room and will deal with the boxes myself. Someday will come one way or another.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 259

Day 259, Week 37, call it what you will, there's still no real end in sight. It's not clear there will be by the time 2020 rides off into the sunset either. Will the old year leave in the same flaming dumpster it settled into last March? When I look ahead to 2021, I try not to think of the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 that killed nearly 230,000 people. Mother Nature does not observe holidays. If she gets in a bad mood, all bets are off. In other words, we are not out of the 2020 woods just yet.

On the very local, household, front, I have abandoned the search for curtains or drapes via retail establishments. Finding the same thing in different lengths became too vexing. We are also trying to patronize local businesses where possible, and there are several local custom window treatment places. I know that we'll pay exorbitantly more than we would at some place such as Wayfair or Lowe's, but we'll be supporting a local small business. Since I don't feel comfortable having someone come into the house right now, we'll put the old curtains back up for insulation and wait until life is more stable.

Locally but not at my house, the city had its third murder in a month yesterday morning. It's the fifth murder so far this year. I've heard few details, though it sounds as if around 30 shots were fired in the incident based on the number of shell casings recovered. We've got a month still to go, so a sixth would not be out of the picture. Also, the county school system reported its first student covid-19 cases, five at one elementary school. It sounded as if one student tested positive with contact tracing pointing to five other students with whom they had contact with away from school. Four of those students tested positive. All are isolating. A couple of adults at the school also tested positive, though it wasn't clear to me whether the adults were exposed to the student(s) or in some other way. 

The seven-day rolling average of new covid-19 cases in Virginia may go past 2,600 today after dropping a bit on Friday. Thanksgiving Day was, as might be expected, not a day for an overly large number of new cases to be reported. It sounded as if the governor did do a briefing last Tuesday, but it was more of the same be-careful-you-can-do-this song and dance. Other states are tightening what they can to lessen exposure. I don't view stopping alcohol sales at midnight as tight enough. It may be the the covid-19 cases the governor and his wife had were mild enough for him to think it's not that big of a deal. Guess what, Ralph? It is!

The Washington Post had an in-depth article this morning on what The Lame Duck has been doing in the time since the election. What was reported was not reassuring. I would compare it to something such as The Count of Monte Cristo but in that work the character wanted to leave his imprisonment. The Lame Duck is the opposite. He has no desire to leave the prison of the Presidency. Interestingly, I recall one mention of Jared Kushner in the article but no mention of The Lame Ducklings, Don, Eric, or Ivanka. Are they perhaps trying to distance themselves from Daddy Duck?

The Post also had an interesting column by Ruth Marcus on the pros and cons of prosecuting The Lame Duck once he is no longer President. Central to such consideration is whether pursuing charges would further divide an already-very-divided country. That consideration slowed by knee-jerk response of, "You have to ask? Of course we should nail his butt to the wall!" Would the Proud Boys stand back for that or are they standing by just in case that happens? What message does it send not to prosecute him, say, for crimes committed before he became President? That you really can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone? That having half the country support you absolves you from any and all offenses committed at any time? There's a lot to think about there, which I imagine various prosecutors are doing right now. 

Back to the here and now. I have lost track of the number of Facebook pages I have seen showing the Christmas trees and decorations people have put up (some before Thanksgiving!) or are putting up this weekend. It's not as if I'm hosting any visitors any time soon. We live somewhat off the main roads, so it's not as if people will be driving by and admiring our outside decorations which end at putting up icicle lights around the front porch. I have at least addresses ten envelopes for Christmas cards. I call that a good enough start at Christmas.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 234

One day after the election, all hail President ... well, we don't yet know for sure just who that might be. The Orange Foolius did, in the wee hours, declare himself the victor and said he would be asking the Supreme Court to stop vote counting in the states still counting. I liked that every news outlet I checked openly declared his victory announcement as misleading, false, a lie, or words to that effect. Several governors announced back at The Foolius that their states would follow the procedures set by that state and keep counting until they'd counted every eligible ballot. 

So where do things stand at the immediate moment? Well, if the several media outlets that have projected Uncle Joe as the winner in Arizona are correct, then winning Nevada and Michigan--he is slightly ahead in each--will give Uncle Joe precisely 270 electoral votes and make him the 46th President of the United States. The Orange Foolius, though, will not go down without a fight. He has said he will request a recount in Wisconsin; the margin of victory there is small enough that he is entitled to a recount. I don't think, though, what the margin has to be for the state to pay for the recount. If the gap is too big, The Foolius and his campaign minions will have to do that.

Uncle Joe's winning in Pennsylvania is evidently still within the realm of possibility. The votes yet to be counted are expected to lean Democratic, though it may be several days before all of them are counted. Nevada is expected to announce its final results this evening. I think Michigan may have its counting done tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed that Michigan and Nevada will end with Uncle Joe victorious, making Pennsylvania icing on the cake but not the cake itself. The more electoral votes, the better, though, since The Orange Foolius will, I expect, challenge anything he can, and probably a thing or two he can't technically challenge.

The bedroom curtains continue to be an enigma. The Professor was as mystified as I was by the number of curtain panels left after the two single windows were taken care of. Since The Professor is currently taping his Friday lecture, we will not address the curtain issue before this evening. As a result, I began a task I have been putting off over and over again, going through my earrings. I am not going to count how many pairs of earrings I possess; let's just say that I could probably have made it this far into the pandemic wearing a different pair every day. So far, I have four "piles." One is earrings I want to keep but which need a small repair such as a replacement hook. Another is earrings that are still in good shape but that I know I will never again wear. Those will be donated. There are some that I will simply toss; they need some repair that is not worth doing. Finally, there are the ones I think I want to keep. Those will get at least one more review.

News flash: As I've been typing this, two news outlets, CNN and NBC, have projected Uncle Joe as the winner in Michigan. If they follow the outlets that have projected Uncle Joe the winner in Arizona, Uncle Joe could hit 270 if Nevada announces their totals tonight. I must not get my hopes up, though, because even with Uncle Joe's 270 or more electoral votes, The Orange Foolius will not stop charging fraud or miscounting or whatever else he thinks might change the results in his favor. 

Finally, note to self: Make sure that The Professor turned off the alarm on his clock radio after it went off at 4:00 am on election day. The Professor was sleeping in the guest room so as to sleep in, but his alarm woke me up at 4:00 am. 

Finally finally, note to others: The champagne is ready for cork-popping as soon as enough media outlets are declaring that Uncle Joe has the 270 votes needed to make him number 46 and to make Kamala Harris our first female VP as well as our first VP of color.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 233

Election Day! I have turned on the television, but it's playing reruns of Law and Order. I will probably turn to some form of election coverage but not until early evening. There will be a bottle of wine involved, I can assure you. I do not expect any network will project an outcome, though it is entirely possible that The Orange Foolius will declare victory while I am still watching. That watching will likely end when The Professor returns home and has showered and joined me. I may be wrong, but he typically refuses to watch anything such as the State of the Union address or candidate debates. I was surprised when he wanted to watch Lesley Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with The Foolius.

Dropping The Professor off at the precinct at 5:00 was hard and not because I have not driven in the dark in over six months. It felt strange not to be getting out of the car myself. I felt as if I were letting the team down despite the Precinct Chief's telling me I was doing the right thing by not being there. I don't like feeling afraid, but that's pretty much what it comes down to. My 88-year-old mother can get covid-19 with no symptoms. I could get it and end up on a ventilator or worse. That's frightening.

I've tried to get a few unpacking type things done today. I managed to rehang a metal design we had over the fireplace. We had two similar ones on each side, but those flummoxed me. The two are basically the same, but there was one picture hanger on one side and two on the other. I also wanted to rehang the curtains in the bedroom. There are three windows there, one with two panes and two with one pane each. When I unpacked the curtains, there were three valances. Fine. There were two types of curtain panels, four of one type and six of the other. I used the four of one type on the two narrower windows, but six panels for the wider window? That seems excessive. I have no memory of using those curtains on the one-pane window in the walk-in closet, which is the only other window there. I did consider using one pair on the wide window and then use the other pairs on the two one-pane windows in the master bathroom. I wasn't sure what The Professor would think about that.

I do want to get curtains for the bathroom soon given that one of the windows looks out to the driveway. I found some I liked and in looking for those, found something I liked for the wide window in the dining room. I showed them to The Professor and got a very "meh" reaction. I'll spend another morning looking, I guess, which is about the length of time it took me to find the first sets I liked. If he's still "meh," he may be the one choosing curtains. He has wanted to put up the ones we took down despite the fact that they will no longer look good with an accent wall and different rugs. I know, though, that if those go up, they will not come down easily.

Back on the covid-19 front, the number of new cases in Virginia yesterday was back up. The seven-day rolling average went up as well. Every increase is to a new record at this point, and it's been rising for over a week. I can't find any notice that the governor will hold a briefing in the near future. I certainly hope that the powers that be are considering some sort of mitigation measures. Things are looking worse now than they did when everything was locked down to begin with. The local university has been touting their low numbers, but they only count tests that they give. What will be interesting are the numbers a week from now. There were photos from Friday night showing a crown of university students waiting to enter a local nightspot. They were shoulder-to-shoulder, with nary a mask in sight.

I just did my first election check of the day, calling up cnn.com. It appears that The Orange Foolius has neither an acceptance now a concession speech ready for tonight. If you believe that, I've got some swamp land in Florida I'd like to sell you. Do I think we might have a possible winner tonight? Only if it's an avalanche as opposed to a mere landslide.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 207

It sounds as if the real winner in last night's vice presidential debate was the fly who spent some minutes sitting on Mike Pence;s white hair. I did see one headline that spoke of what a brazen liar Pence has become. This, I suppose, was in response to his defending HWSNBN. Speaking of HWSNBN, he says he will not participate in the virtual debate planned for next week because the format makes it possible for his microphone to be turned off. I really hope the Presidential Debate Committee does hold a debate with only Joe Biden present so that it becomes pretty much a Biden town hall. And because HWSNBN declines participating, I don't think the equal time rules would apply. This just adds to my amazement that there are people who would vote for such a thug. 

I saw an article reporting that Nancy Pelosi is looking into the 25th amendment, worrying that HWSNBN is not in good shape to carry out the duties of the presidency. I doubt she can get Mike Pence to go along with it given his statements in last night's debate. I seem to remember that the VP is required to sign on to any declaration that the President in unfit to serve. And then there are Cabinet members to line up. Still, it's about time someone raised the question.

On the covid-19 front, I hope that the number of new cases put up today in Virginia is not for real. At 1,844, it was second only to the 2,015 that turned out to have some cases from two or three other days added in. If it's a real number, things are worse than I thought. Also on the covid-19 front, it appears that while the local university has a number of student cases, they have not really transmitted those to members of the local communities. Two of the women's sports teams--volleyball and soccer--have had to cancel or postpone matches due to covid-19 and, at least in the case of one, injuries. I heard rumors of a wild party held by the soccer team but do not know how true said rumor was.

The temperature was in the 80sF again yesterday. Although I in general prefer hot days to cold ones, yesterday's heat made my morning walk harder. I cut it short to be available for a call from the vet and ended up not going back out. I made up for a bit of it today, walking 7.65 miles. If the seventh mile weren't didn't seem so hard, I'd go for eight. Not right now though. The upside to the walking is that I've now managed to lose the extra weight I put on in the aftermath of three major joint surgeries in 2014, 2016, and 2018. I at several points have joked that my goal for 2020 was to not need a major joint surgery. So far, I've been good and given the pandemic wouldn't go into a hospital now except for emergency care.

I ordered curtains for the two windows in the kitchen. It's my trial run before I order them for the dining room and living room. Fortunately, nothing was repainted in the bedroom, so I don't need to replace those curtains. I am going to get new curtains for the master bathroom since the ones I had there for 30-plue years were cheap plastic ones, sort of like the material a shower curtain might be. Those may be the next ones I order. I'm not brave enough yet to order everything at once. 

On the unpacking front, I have cleared off enough of the desk in my office that the standing desk I used to have there but gave to the husband can to back. The husband decided that his home office desk was too small for the standing desk unit, so it's been sitting in the hallway between his home office and the bedroom. I also moved some more books to try to consolidate my fabric books. I have four bankers' boxes of books pulled out of the storage bedroom that need new shelves. It maybe a while before those get done, so I need to find a new place to stack them. There's always something. I should go do that now while I'm thinking of it. Otherwise, I will next think of it at a most inconvenient time.