The View from the Hermitage, Day 298

It's been a very long day for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is concern about the events of yesterday. What can and will happen in the next 13 days? Will the Defense Department obey the Commander-in-Chief if he tries to declare martial law? What if he thinks it would be nice to go out after attacking another nation? Iran? What if he urges his supporters to the streets in more than one city? Every city possible? I'm not optimistic about using the 25th amendment. At least one Cabinet member, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, has already resigned effective Monday. Her husband happens to be Mitch McConnell, so perhaps she fears retaliation by proxy. Will others be following her out the door before the 20th? And with the House of Representatives saying they will not come back until after the 20th, impeachment would be difficult, not to mention holding a trial in the Senate.

The state health folks started to release details about the next waves of covid vaccinations, and my getting in is actually looking bleak. They're still working on details of what conditions put someone at high risk, but the lists out now do not include asthma. One list includes high blood pressure while another doesn't. And I supposedly have Stage 2 kidney disease (stages go from 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst), but I have no idea if that is considered "chronic kidney disease." I may end up waiting until the last wave and then fighting for a place in line. The Professor will get to go in the next wave, being over 65. At 64, I don't count. 

The governor held a covid briefing yesterday but it was all about vaccinations with nothing at all about the new case numbers that are setting records just about every other day. The percent positivity for the testing they're doing is 16.8, a number they were very worried about back in the spring. I guess now that the vaccinations are rolling out, the number of new cases no longer matters. 

So tomorrow I'll try to do better. Maybe I can even find some levity to inject into the proceedings. I hope to be in a better mood, but a lot of that depends on the world around me, unfortunately. I'm having trouble right now going with the flow.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 297

The Professor suggested a photograph of nothing but black. That's what the world feels like right now. I just watched a violent protest at the central legislative site of a third world country. Wait! That was my country. I saw and heard things today I would never have believed I would see and hear in this country. I am ashamed to see that it has come to this.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 296

I've been trying to stay busy today so that my mind doesn't wander to all the shit that may go down tomorrow up the road in Washington, DC. The police chief says everyone in the force will be on duty, and the mayor has requested National Guard troops to be on standby. The alt-right web presence is evidently full of calls to action tomorrow if the certification of Electoral College votes proceeds unchecked. The Lame Duck is saying that VP Pence can demonstrate loyalty by canceling or otherwise throwing a monkey wrench into the proceedings. No, The Duck has not read the Constitution recently or ever and so does not know that the role of the VP is ceremonial at best. I did like Nancy Pelosi's comment that "at the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night" Uncle Joe would officially be the Preseident-Elect no matter what else went down. 

The Lame Duck held a rally in Georgia last night to boost the campaigns of the two incumbent Republican Senators. He spent more time on his own electoral woes than he did on the Senate races. He promised to punish the Governor and Secretary of State for not doing as he asked or ordered. He also promised to campaign against them should they seek reelection. In terms of the weekend phone call and possible vote tampering, The Professor read the argument that central to tampering's being a crime was the intent of the perpetrator. If The Lame Duck's mental condition is such that he honestly believes he lost due to fraud, did what he was asking or ordering have "intent"? 

As for what might be coming for January 20, word is that The Lame Duck has reserved the Boeing 757 typically used by the Vice President or First Lady to fly to his resort in Scotland on January 19. It seems that the airport there is too small for the Boeing 747 that is typically used as Air Force One. US fighter planes have been doing patrols around the resort  just as they would for a planned and announced Duck visit. The Scottish government meanwhile says that Americans can't just show up there in the days of the pandemic. Of course, on January 19, The Lame Duck will still be a head of state, and heads of state are probably exempt from at least some of the restrictions on visitors. 

The pandemic quilt planning continues. Today I experimented with sewing two pieces of the striped fabric together and hiding the seam. One width of the fabric is 44 inches, and I need 46 plus whatever area I want around the chart itself. Tomorrow, I'll sew a bunch of bars of varying heights and see how they look. If they look okay, I may have no excuse other than packing and putting away for not starting on it. 

I did go through several boxes this afternoon. Two were filled with demo materials Son #1 developed and used for the semester he taught high school physics. That was spring 2012; I'm not sure he'll even remember what's in each box. If he no longer wants the stuff and there's nothing I can use, they will probably go into the trash; I don't think there's anything worth donating. I do need to figure out what to do with styrofoam coffee cups, paper bowls, and plastic utensils left over from decades of being a room mother or other organizer of social event such as going away cookouts. I think there are more plastic utensils than The Professor and I could use for three meals a day in a year, but I'm not going to count to make sure.

I did come across something yesterday that I shall use as needed. It was one of those motivational things people put up on social media. I've relocated the paper to which it is glued to the kitchen desk where I can look at it as needed.

Sometimes you just have to give yourself the pep talk like, "hello you badass, amazing human being, don't be sad, you're doing fucking great..keep going!"

The View from the Hermitage, Day 295

We set yet another coronavirus record here in the US yesterday with 125,544 people in hospital with covid-19. The number of people dead from covid is now over 351,000. It could get much worse in the coming weeks; it is certainly not going to get any better. Are there any national mitigation measures here as there are in some other countries? Heck, no! The Lame Duck and his Toadies are too busy committing crimes connected with The Duck's call to the Georgia secretary of state telling him to find more Duck votes. Someone should give that secretary of state a medal, especially given that he's a Republican. Not very many of those are standing up to The Duck these days. 

England is entering another national lockdown, this one until at least February 15. People can leave home to procure food and medicine, seek essential care, or escape harm. People can also leave to go to work if they cannot work from home. People can also leave their home once daily for exercise which can be done with one other person from a different household. All non-essential businesses will close. 

The Senate runoff elections in Georgia happen tomorrow, though early voting has been open for a couple of weeks. I can't say that I've seen any polls indicating who might win each race. I have read that The Lame Duck's actions in regard to the presidential election may make some Republicans reluctant to vote. I'm not sure enough of them will stay home to let the two Democrats win. It would certainly be nice for the Senate to have an edge to the Democrat side. Otherwise, the Republicans could wreak havoc with Uncle Joe's Cabinet and court nominees. Should that be proposed, I'd like to think that a couple of the more level-headed Republicans such as Mitt Romney would refuse to go along and would vote with the Democrats. Should both Republicans win reelection in Georgia, it would only take two Republican Senators to throw any vote to Vice President Harris. I guess we'll know on Wednesday just as the Electoral College certification process begins.

But enough about the world outside my door. Having collected all the data I need, today I began working on my pandemic quilt. I plan to recreate Virginia's graph of the number of new covid-19 cases every day starting on my birthday, July1, and ending at year's end, December 31. On July 1, there were 532 new covid cases; the high point, 5,239 new cases, came on December 30 followed by 5,182 on the 31st. I'm using striped fabric on which the alternating white and grey stripes are 1/4 inch wide. For 184 days, that will be 46 inches width. The vertical scale will use approximations using 100. The 532 will be as close to 5 1/3 inches as I can get, while the 5,239 will be as close to 52 1/3 inches as I can get. Running across the bar chart will be a line showing the rolling 7-day average number of new cases. At least one border will be black. I'm figuring out how to do the bars; right now, I'm leaning toward using one of the decorative stitches on my Bernina. I'll do the bars before quilting, I think, since I don't really want to do that much decorative stitching as quilting. I also want to mark certain bars, though I'm not sure if those will be the first of each month, every Sunday as in this blog, holidays, or something else that comes to mind. The nerd factor is high with this one. 

I must admit that it was nice to focus on something creative today rather than go through boxes and deal with "stuff." Perhaps tomorrow I'll try for a healthy mixture of the two. 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 294

A bit of background to yesterday's news that I found the errant kindle. I had to work my way through several horizontal layers of boxes in the basement to get to a box labeled "kitchen desk." Since that was the usual location of my kindle when it was not in use, I was optimistic I might find it there, and, indeed, I did. I also found my Amazon fire tablet that can act as a kindle as can my iPhone. Since I broke down and bought a refurbished replacement kindle, I am sufficiently kindled for the rest of this pandemic not to mention the next.

We're 42 weeks along our wayward path through the pandemic. We're also at (I-17) days and counting or just 17 days from Uncle Joe's inauguration. First, though, we have to get through Wednesday's Congressional certification of the results of the Electoral College votes. Most years this is a fairly ceremonial thing, and many members of Congress don't bother to attend. This year will be quite different. Republican Senators are lining up behind Ted Cruz getting ready to challenge the results of at least some states along with some 140 of their counterparts in the House of Representatives. From  what I read of the procedure to be followed, it sounds as if challenges can be made to each state as its results are presented. Once a state is challenged, the Senate moves back to their chamber, after which each house has two hours in which to debate the challenge at which point they reconvene in the House chamber. Even if there are only challenges lodged against Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada, it could well take into the wee hours of the next morning for things to be wrapped up. Everything I've read claims that there is no way Uncle Joe's election will not be certified. I just hope I don't have to stay up to find out.

The Gallup folks just announced that The Lame Duck was 2020's "most admired man." Michelle Obama was the "most admired woman" for the third year in a row. How some people can admire The Lame Duck is beyond me. I could see him getting distinction for being the most newsworthy man, but admired? Puh-lease. Somewhat related, The Duck is said to be angry that no fashion magazine put Melania  on its cover during her four years as first lady. 

The numbers of covid-19 cases and deaths continue to rise. The total number of cases a day or two ago was 20,427,780, 2,574,049 of them in the preceding two weeks. Can 30 million be that far away? The 32,518 covid-19 deaths in the last two weeks contributed bigly to the 350,186 total deaths. It will be a while until we hit 400,000 deaths, but that number is on the horizon. 

This morning's Guardian laid out just what the UK's "Tier 4" restrictions are. Nonessential shops, hairdressers, and leisure or entertainment venues are closed. No travel with the exception of education, childcare, or exercise. One may also travel to work if it is not possible to work from home. Households cannot mix, but one person can meet one other person outdoors in a public place. Support bubbles and childcare are exempt from this restriction. Clinically extremely vulnerable people should not go to work and should limit the time spent outside the home. Finally, residents must not stay away overnight, and cannot travel abroad. I cannot imagine the reaction to those restrictions here in the US of A. It might help but only a wee bit in the US that nowhere in those restrictions is there mention of wearing masks. Perhaps it's assumed that masks will be work outside the home. 

As the owner and occasional wearer of an inflatable, air-powered tyrannosaurus rex costume, I wish the following item were funny rather than sobering. A hospital in California say that a staff member wearing an inflatable, air-powered costume for a short time on Christmas Day may have sickened about four dozen other staffers. Such costumes have now been banned. There was no mention of what type of costume it was, though I'm hoping it might have been Santa Claus rather than a rex.

I don't know if my final item qualifies as "funny" as much as it is just plain "unusual." A small item on page A2 of this morning's Washington Post reported that a vessel carrying 20 people had disappeared between Bimini in the Bahamas and Lake Worth. I'm assuming that Lake Worth is in Florida, but either way the vessel vanished in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle. I had not thought about the Bermuda Triangle in years. The triangle is some 500,000 square miles of ocean between Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico. Many vessels go into the Triangle and are never heard from again. One school of thought is that this is because there is so much air traffic over and boat traffic in the Triangle that of course a large number of disappearances is to be expected. The other school of thought has unknown forces at work. I said I had not thought of the Bermuda Triangle in years. I wonder if that is because there is less attention paid to such anomalies now or if the attention is there and I am not paying it.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 293

Just a quickie today. The Professor decided that it was a day to go through stuff. I did not have that on my list of things to do today, but went along with it since one of my resolutions is to get rid of a certain amount each month. I can now check January off, and any more I do this month is gravy.

More importantly, going through some things on my own before The Professor's proclamation,

I found my Kindle!!!

The View from the Pandemic, Day 292

Happy New Year! Broken any resolutions yet? While I haven't made a pie or used the Instant Pot, I have decided on a fitness goal for January. It turns out I was wrong on what I thought the challenge set by my Apple watch would be, and the new, corrected one is doable. It's rack up 820 minutes of exercise in the month, or 26 per day. Now the watch times some activities better than others. If I swim, it gives pretty much the same time I get using the poolside timer. For walking, though, it seems to get confused by how fast I'm walking or where, and the time that shows up is not the actual number of minutes I was walking. I can put up with that and may even end up walking more one day.

The US surpassed 20 million covid-19 cases in December which just happened to be the deadliest and most infectious month yet. The stated goal for vaccinations given before the end of 2020 was 20 million. Attaining that would have been impossible since only 14 million doses were distributed. Only 2.1 million people were actually vaccinated, and states handled their vaccination programs very differently. Florida, for example, said they would vaccinate anyone over the age of 65, first-come, first-served. People showed up at ungodly early times, and the lines stretched so far people needed the chairs they'd brought with them. To add insult to injury, one person who waited all day in line said she would not be surprised if the wait in line ended up being a superspreader event. 

Should the government be handling vaccinations at the national level? I'm not sure that would have been better given that the level of detail required to set up specific programs is probably better handled at the state or local level. Whereas at one point I was anxious about vaccinations, worrying how I would document my underlying conditions, I'm now more they'll get to me when they get to me. They may have worked most of the wrinkles out of things by then. 

It's not clear whether the Olympic Games will happen in Tokyo this summer. They're getting the same surge in infections being seen elsewhere. In response to the new variant strain of coronavirus, they've now banned all non-resident arrivals. I know the Games would not be until July, but there likely are a number of details that would have to be set well in advance. I can't say I'd miss them if they weren't held. I actually find the Winter Games to be more interesting. 

Less than three weeks from Inauguration Day, the Secret Service is swapping out members of the detail that guards Uncle Joe and Dr. Biden. Evidently, some of those agents may be more in favor of The Lame Duck than desired. In some cases, agents have discouraged mask-wearing by people around the Bidens. The new agents being assigned to them are mostly senior agents many of whom were in the Bidens' detail when Uncle Joe was Vice President. 

It's been a quiet start to the new year. I did a wee bit of organizing and sorting. I copied about 20 posts from the blog view to a Word file. I figured finding something specific would be easier that way. That document is now over 300 pages long and contains more than 180,000 words. I don't think I'll ever print it out given how much paper it would take. I don't want to kill more trees than absolutely necessary. I can't use the excuse that I'm not doing much because we stayed up too late last night. We headed to bed at the normal 9:00 so as to get close to eight hours of sleep before the alarm at 5:00.