The View from the Hermitage, Day 197

Fortunately, the day got better after its beginning. The husband logged on to his email first thing to find a message thread from his department about one of the grad student lab instructors having tested positive for covid-19. Apparently, the student had recently had a meeting with the other three lab instructors, and the university would not test them. Also, these instructors teach the physics majors lab class, the only lab class being offered in-person. The husband got in on this since he is the faculty member responsible for assigning and overseeing the teaching assistants, which includes lab instructors. There were several directions this incident might take. By mid-morning, it was clear there was no real panic. The university would not test the other grad students because they were not together with the  one testing positive for more than 15 minutes. That appears to be, at least to the folks in charge here, a critical length of time. The lab sessions will be done via video for the next two weeks, just in case one of the other instructors develops covid-19. Before lunchtime, the husband said everything was hunky and dory, and all was well. 

Also on the covid-19 front, HWSNBN's new favorite advisor has been pushing for the US to go the same route as Sweden and try to hit herd immunity. Other more knowledgeable doctors are noting that because it has been demonstrated that people can get reinfected with covid-19, herd immunity cannot be attained. Does that matter to HWSNBN? Probably not a snowball's chance in hell.

We will not be watching the presidential debate tomorrow evening. It does not start until 9:00, which is when we're usually heading to bed. I have various friends planning debate bingo or some form of a debate drinking game. I suggested they take a shot of whisky every time HWSNBN misleads or lies. Several people said the problem was that they'd pass out before much of substance had happened. We will read about the debate Wednesday morning and discuss it with older son as we walk the family dog. That's about as close to the debate as I want to get. 

Last night, The New York Times began a series on HWSNBN's tax returns. In 2016 and 2017, he supposedly paid only $750 in federal income tax. He claims that that is an indication of how great a businessman he is; I would say it shows how much he's manipulating the system. It was heartening, though, to read that he has loans totaling in the hundreds of million dollars coming due in the next several years, all of which he personally guaranteed. In other words, if his businesses aren't generating enough income, the payments will come out of his own pocket if indeed there is enough spare change there. 

There was a photograph of the Bidens as a couple along with one of HWSNBN and his wife. HWSNBN was sitting on the bench of a grand piano dressed formally. Mrs. HWSNBN was lying seductively posed on the top of the piano, one leg raised, and wearing a formal gown. The Bidens were sitting on a garden bench with their two dogs sitting in front of them. I commented that what sealed the deal for me was that HWSNBN has no pets. That says a lot about his character, in my humble opinion.

I made a bit more progress unpacking and putting away. I think I have all my knitting, felting, and weaving books gathered and on shelves which likely means that this weekend, I will discover another box with enough books to require total reorganization. I have yet to find even one of the three more staplers I know we had. I still have not found certain t-shirts and sweaters. They may have been packed together in one box, but I don't recall for sure. It's probably more likely that the pandemic will pass than I finish the unpacking. Right now, finding one of the missing staplers would be golden.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 29

I was going to write something about last night's NBC Nightly News montage of first responders and health care people showing while Andrea Bocelli sang "Amazing Grace" a cappella. It brought tears to my eyes not to mention feelings of awe and total respect of the people putting themselves squarely in harm's way to help others. Can our debt to them ever be repaid? Doubtful.

And then this morning happened, closer to home and probably not pandemic-related. Older son went for his morning run in a rather hard rain. He came back way too soon and reported that there was a dead dog in front of one of the driveways in our subdivision. He did not recognize it but thought it looked like a couple of dogs in the subdivision. There were no signs of trauma, so it is not clear what might have killed it, though we can be pretty certain it was not another animal. The husband and older son drove back to retrieve the body. Knowing that the residents were up, they did stop at the house of one of the possible owners, so that older son could knock on their door and see if their dog were okay. It was.

While husband and son were out, I sent a y'all call email to all the neighbors describing the dog and asking if anyone knew to whom the dog belonged. It turns out that it was the other of the two families older son thought it might be. The mother owner was crying as I called to see if I should have the husband and older son bring the body to their house. She said no, her husband would come get it. And he did.

While we were out on the porch waiting for him, we saw emergency vehicles (ambulance and fire truck) arrive at the house of our next-door neighbors.  She is 80 and he is 84, so this was not a good sign. When we left the house to walk the family dog, we saw that their car was gone along with the emergency vehices. We did not take this as a good sign. The husband phoned them this afternoon and spoke with the woman. He said she sounded "real bad" so he did not press her for details. She just said that more tests would be needed; nothing was mentioned about this being covid-19 related. He told her, not for the first time, to call if they needed help or anything from town. Older son had already let them know he would be glad to bring them items as he's doing for us.

And so daily life happens in spite of the pandemic, distracting us from worry about the big picture and reminding us that family and friends, furry or human, are what matters most. If you have a pet, give it an extra scritchum. If you have elderly family members or friends, let them know you care and are there for them. We're all in this together after all.