I was washing my hands in the pantry sink this morning and peering out the window that faces the back of our property with all the trees and underbrush and wilderness, and I noticed that our lone (and struggling) Dogwood is leafing out. And it brought tears. The Earth keeps sliding into Spring and it’s been hard to notice. Until that moment.
Because I’ve been sick with that godawful flu (yes, flu), I haven’t been outside our house for nearly three weeks. Most of the reason is because I’ve felt like shit, but the other reason is because the weather has been shit. If the sun has peeked out at all, it’s still been 42° and windy, so no thank you. But it sounds like this upcoming week may have days reaching into the 60s, and I sense I will have a hankering to head to the beach. I need AIR. I need some Vitamin D. I need some MOVEMENT. I need a CHANGE OF SCENERY.
I NEED TO FIND ME SOME AGATES.
Mostly, the days just blend into each other. Here, it’s very quiet, and I wonder what it’s like in towns and cities. I know that the big cities have a constant cacophony of emergency sirens and I’m so thankful that isn’t the case here. I believe that would send me over the edge. I also know there is a lot of sadness in the neighborhood, because of kids/grandkids not able to visit and long-planned trips kaput.
Current Stats:
Worldwide confirmed cases: 1,200,000
U.S. confirmed cases: 310,000
Worldwide deaths: 64,600
U.S. deaths: 8,450
The numbers increase—a lot—by the hour.
The “official” word is another month of shelter-in-place. I suspect it will then be extended again. There are still states (with republican idiot governors) who have not established shelter-in-place rules, even though their cases are climbing. It infuriates me because their lack of action will affect all of us, and slow down the recovery for ALL OF US. I cannot believe that there isn’t a national order so that the behavior countrywide is consistent. But then, there’s an idiot at the helm.
Nate sent me this meme today:
I would add another line: “I blame the previous captain for the iceberg!”
Thankfully, we don’t personally know of anybody who has contracted the virus (although I had a big scare this past week with someone close to me). And I want to keep it that way. People need to be serious about this social distancing. This, from an epidemiologist, really hit it home:
“Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming speed.
If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son's girlfriend's mother shook hands with.”
What I worry about is that trump has been having hissy fits, screaming, “We’ve gotta get back to work! We’ve gotta end this and open everything up!” He is desperate to grab “his” economy [plus go golfing], which was his only lifeline for his re-election. I fear that he will stupidly demand that the CDC guidelines and state lockdowns be lifted far, FAR too soon, and the result would be catastrophic. I know the governors are ultimately in control of that, but his republican sycophants will readily comply and he will use his vicious vindictiveness to punish the rest.
And here are some cat pics!
These two are not buddies. Nikki in particular is a relentless antagonizer.
And while Nikki was attacking Wylie’s tail, Wylie was doing THIS:
This has now become a regular thing, having to share my water glass with CATS. (Yeah, both of them).
