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 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 290

Yesterday we set another new record for the number of Americans dying of covid-19 in one day: 3,275. It's only going to get worse as 2021 sets in. It's three weeks until the inauguration given that there is no Wednesday surprise on January 6 when the House accepts the Electoral College results. January 20  could be our first day over 5,000 deaths. Republican Congressman-Elect Luke Letlow from Louisiana, who was to have been sworn in on Sunday, died yesterday of covid. Father of two young children, he was only 41 and had no underlying conditions. 

Google released data on things we googled during 2020. Excluding "coronavirus" and "election," the largest search of any single event was Kobe Bryant's death. The total number of searches for "coronavirus" over the entire year was more than 10 times the Kobe searches. And the spike in searches for "election" around November 3 was higher than any single "coronavirus" spike. My initial reaction to that was how could the death of a sports idol be more important than ... than ... I couldn't think of any other single event that might have competed with "coronavirus" or "election." It was a pretty weird year.

Workers are removing the parade reviewing stand that had been constructed in from of the White House. Uncle Joe will be sworn in outside, but it sounds as if there won't be the traditional inaugural parade and walk to the White House from the Capitol. It's going to be a mostly virtual day. I'm sure there will be complaints, but not from here. So much of Inauguration Day is for show, and this may not be the time for that. Still, I hope he and Aunt Jill, er, that is, Dr. Biden get to relax a bit and savor the day. I wonder if the couch in the family part of the White House is big enough for both of them as well as Champ and Major.

Argentina has legalized abortion up to 14 weeks in a pregnancy. I did not see that coming. And it's nice to see even if I don't expect many other predominantly Catholic countries to follow suit. I have not looked up how Pope Francis feels about this but probably well eventually.

We're taking down all the Christmas things tomorrow. Normally we do it on New Year's Day, but I'm in such a hurry to bid 2020 a not-so-fond farewell that I want Christmas 2020 over and done with before 2021 steps in. This means I need to get serious if I'm going to make any formal resolutions for the new year. Something other than get my hair cut and highlighted, call the hand clinic about my thumb and/or wrist issues, reschedule Monday's cancelled  otolaryngology appointment, go to the dentist, and so on. The life things put on hold for the months of the pandemic do not equal resolutions for the new year.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 253

Let's see if I can avoid distractions and finish what I start and get it posted even all in one fell swoop. The Family Dog will be leaving with The Professor shortly to get her annual bordetella aka kennel cough vaccination, so she should not offer any distraction. I have no idea where The Family Cat is hiding, but I don't expect her to distract me either. Now a butterfly or a shiny, those are different stories altogether. 

There were some good articles in The Washington Post today. There are more leading Republicans urging The Lame Duck to be done with all his conniving and challenges. As former New Jersey governor Chris Christie put it, the legal challenges are getting to be an embarrassment. 

Another good article noted the ways in which Uncle Joe's inauguration will be different from any that came before. At the top of the list is that The outgoing Lame Duck is not expected to attend, meaning there will be no formal meeting at the White House and riding together to the Capitol. And the gods forbid that The Lame Duck have to watch Uncle Joe's being sworn in. It's not clear at what place in or just outside the Capitol the swearing in will take place and to what extent crowds will be permitted to watch. Uncle Joe has said that he does not want to be sworn in while wearing a mask, so he and Aunt Jill may be standing apart from everyone else. And just as the clergyman baptized a babe using a water gun, the person swearing Uncle Joe in could be at a safe distance with or without a water gun. As for a parade and the normal roster of evening inaugural balls, the jury is still out. I'm betting there won't be either. 

Uncle Joe is starting to name his Cabinet members and senior advisors. I have not heard of more of them than I have heard of. John Kerry and Janet Yellen are two with whom I am familiar. While John Kerry has little that I know of personal experience with the science of climate change, his years as Secretary of State should serve him well in dealing with climate change matters internationally.

And speaking of international matters, how about Crown Prince MBS and Bibi Netanyahu meeting face-to-face with Mike Pompeo playing some role. Pompeo may have been there so that a connection to The Lame Duck could be established as a step toward that Nobel Peace Prize The Duck so desperately wants. He should bone up on his history and learn that Jimmy Carter did not get the Peace Prize for Camp David; Begin and Sadat did. Jimmy Carter did eventually get the Peace Prize, but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development," not for the specific Camp David accords.

The colleges and universities that did not send their students home for the holidays last week are sending them home this week. They are following a variety of testing protocols to ensure that students don't have the virus stowing away with them. There are some schools letting students return next week and then go home for Christmas a couple weeks later, but it sounds as if most schools are telling students to stay home. December classes and final exams will be done virtually. Several schools, including the local university, are not having students return until the very end of January. Who knows what the case numbers might be by then with Christmas infections feeding off the post-Thanksgiving surges.

I did a "holy shit" at the Virginia numbers this morning and was relieved later to see that the system was down for a while over the weekend, and yesterday's number was inflated. The disconcerting thing is that the seven-day rolling average set another record, and it's independent of which day cases are counted. I checked to see if the governor held a briefing this afternoon, and he did not. He did post this on the Governor of Virginia's Facebook page:

As the holiday week begins, we are seeing new #COVID19 cases and hospitalizations rise throughout Virginia.

Virginians have been doing a great job over these last nine months, and we cannot let up now. We can turn this around if we all work together to stay safe.

I love this! If you behave, children, then Bad Santa will not bring germs to our house. And as for "we cannot let up now," how does he think we got such an increase in new cases? By letting up of course!

A friend of long standing ("old friend" seems to emphasize age, though in this case the person is 84) sent an e-card yesterday for Thanksgiving. It was the first thing I read on my phone after the temperature (weather comes first so I know what sort of workout clothes to don), and the music and images were a great way to start the day. This person is very important to me, not to be traded for anything or body. There are a few other such friends, or Friends as someone I know refers to such people in her life. I should be thankful for these people more than one day a year. It is too easy to tell myself that we'll get together again someday when who can say when someday will be. I'm hoping to make the time in the coming week to write these people and thank them for being in my life. 

And to those who read this blog, thank you for being in my life. Knowing that someone reads this helps me keep going day after day after ....

The View from the Hermitage, Day 239

The in-house computer problems have, I hope, been resolved. That doesn't mean I could figure out how to do what I wanted to do with my quilt guild's website, though. There really should be a Weebly for Dummies book out there. I am not paying $50 for the closest thing I could find. The Help FAQ yielded nothing, so I now await an email response from the help folks. When that might arrive is anyone's best guess.

Virginia's covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, with the seven-day rolling average number of cases hitting a new high of 1,437. These are the highest the Virginia numbers have ever been, and they're showing no sign of slowing down. Dr. Fauci says if most or all folks would wear masks, the number of cases could be brought down without an economic lockdown. How many more people have to die before the powers that be try this, or must we just sit and wait until January 20? 

We may have a second covid-19 superspreader White House event in the works. HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, MD, has tested positive for covid-19 along with another person who was, like Carson, in a crowd of people at the White House on election night. It's not clear that anyone there was wearing a mask. Will these people never understand how little it takes to be safe?

I have heard that Uncle Joe does not want to be sworn in while wearing a mask. I figure Dr. Biden (I guess if he is Uncle Joe, she should be Aunt Jill) can be up close and personal holding the Bible, while the Chief Justice handling the swearing-in can be a safe distance away. What I don't know is what the plan, if there is one, might be for the inauguration ceremony crowds, parade, and parties. If there is no parade, Uncle Joe could get sworn in then go back to the White House to get right to work on the various executive orders he has planned to start undoing what The Foolius has done. I do not expect that The Foolius and First Lady will welcome Uncle Joe and Aunt Jill to the White House and then go with them to the ceremony as has been done for the last I don't know how many inaugurations. I can't see The Foolius doing a 180-degree turn and being polite for once.

The Orange Foolius is not conceding quickly. On that front, I saw a meme of Obama asking The Foolius how his concession speech was coming along and noting that he (Obama) had never had to give one. The head of the General Services Administration has to sign off on funds and space for the transition team of the president-elect, and Trump's appointee to that position is refusing to do so because it's not clear that Uncle Joe won. It's not clear if she's waiting for the Electoral College to vote or for Congress to formally accept that vote. They're not going to make this easy for Uncle Joe.

The Professor's covid-19 test was negative, resulting in a huge exhalation of relief. It seems that my mom is still in isolation. The facility admin said that just to be safe, they're keeping residents who test positive isolated for 20 days rather than the 14 that the CDC and state health department recommend. I can't say I blame them. Three residents there have now died. They keep saying that they do not know if the deaths were related to the people's having covid-19. I say that in people of a certain age, covid-19 can get you in any number of ways by contributing to preexisting conditions. I can't say for sure if "old age" counts as a preexisting condition, but it probably should.

I'm feeling a lack of levity lately. I'll have to see what I can do about that.