How many days ago did I mention the number of new covid-19 cases in the country hitting 150,000? It happened yesterday, with 153,400. Should I just go out on a limb here and say that next week we'll see 200,000 in one day? Why not? Next week we'll see 200,000 new cases in one day at least once.
Uncle Joe has been declared the winner in Georgia subject to the planned recount, while The Orange Foolius is the winner in North Carolina. The projected margin in the Electoral College then? Uncle Joe, 306; The Orange Foolius, 232. That's certainly not a landslide or a mandate, but it is certainly a victory. Can we just get on with a transition now? That's probably wishful thinking. There are all sorts of rumors, stories, innuendo going around about what The Foolius will do when. Some say that he will never concede but will instead say that the voting was unfair but he will step aside and leave the way clear to run again in four years. Some say that he is again raising the question of whether he can pardon himself. How sad, but he can only pardon himself or be pardoned for federal indiscretions, and the Manhattan DA will be charging him at the state level. He may be in jail when the 2024 election looms, but I doubt it. He'll manage to string the pre-trial process out as long as possible.
John Berman, co-host of New Day on CNN, every morning notes how many days it has been since The Foolius's voice has been heard in public. The silence concerns him. Given the visceral reaction of The Professor to the sounds made by The Orange Foolius, I'm just as happy to have him stay on mute. I will get concerned if he stops tweeting, bigly concerned. We have taken to watching the BBC news on PBS every night and PBS NewsHour some nights. They offer more insightful and in-depth analysis and fewer hyped headlines. The Professor watches CNN as he does his morning stretching, though I often can persuade him to switch to a music channel instead. I don't want his blood pressure getting too high.
I have been trying so far unsuccessfully to find some form of handwork that does not aggravate the DeQuervain's syndrome in my right wrist. I had to put away the knitting I'd been doing each evening. I'd be going to bed with a painful wrist that would still be painful in the morning despite spending the night in a brace to keep it in a neutral position. It seemed okay with needle felting until I started trying to finish a Christmas present I've been working on for a couple of weeks. Putting in a couple of hours a day is now setting off the pain. I know I could do less, but if I do, it won't be done in time to be mailed and arrive for Christmas. And since I can't leave anything related to it out in the open thanks to the wool-loving resident feline aka The Family Cat, it's not worth it to get everything out and then just do it for a little while before packing everything back up. That pretty much leaves using my sewing and felting machines or warping my loom and seeing how weaving affects a wrist. I probably should break down and email my trusty hand doctor and ask whether I could get cortisone for it a time or two before considering surgery or, given how often it's happening is surgery my only option.
The Professor only has three more lectures to tape. There are four more class sessions before the Thanksgiving holiday, but one of those sessions will be a midterm. Once the little darlings go home for Thanksgiving, they don't come back until February 1. They will all supposedly be tested for covid-19 before they go home. They will probably have to be tested before they come back, but that has yet to be announced.
We are finally have fall-like weather even if it's just been a day or two in a row. Winter is coming even if it's more than a month away. We started the pandemic and I started this blogging last winter. How can another winter be coming? It seems too soon to approach being able to say it's been a year. I think about how I like to spend the autumn to winter transformation cocooning and reconnecting with the small family I have. The authoritative "they" are counseling against that this year. What cocooning and reconnecting I do will be masked, socially distant, and without the hugs I have so missed these past 243-plus days. I hope The Professor and Son #1 don't mind being hugged because they may be standing in for a lot of other people on the hug front.
