9 April 2020
Just finished a walk. Today is so very different from yesterday. As I headed out yesterday the warmth of the weather was apparent everywhere. Daffodils and hyacinths abounded in blooming yellow and purple glory. A short sleeve shirt was all that I needed to be comfortable.
Truth be told it was 65F. Most of my walk yesterday was in full sun. I walked very sluggishly due to some drugs that were in my system. Took me three separate walks of 20 minutes each to get the 30-minute exercise ring to complete on my Apple watch. I did get all of the circles to close yesterday on the damn thing. I don’t care which one you use, Fitbit or Apple watch, use something to be a task master that will not allow you to sit in front of the TV as a total slug during these days of unplanned house arrest.
Today my experience was very different. A front moved in last night. The temperature is 20 degrees colder today than yesterday. At 45F comfortably walking required a down vest and a fleece pullover. Today, I did my 30 minutes of exercise in one walk. The sky changed from sunny to totally grey in the course of thirty-two minutes. By the time I arrived home were we being smacked by ice pellets. Got to love the great state of Michigan. Tap the video above to see what I mean by ice pellets.
My life these days is comparable to a very lenient house arrest. I mostly stay inside my house and interact only with my family. Occasionally I will do a Facetime call to somebody, just to see how they are and to keep the faith. Francie and I walk, and we walk a great deal. We will speak to people when we are out but we insist on doing that from the other side of the street’s right of way. In essence we are using a forty-foot barrier between us and third parties.
I do dishes. I do laundry. I read online. I binge watch TV. (Nota Bene: If you have Apple TV plus watch Home Before Dark.) I don’t go to coffee shops. I don’t go to church. I don’t go into stores. Yes, it is a very different life, it is a life under arrest. However, balancing the short-term deprivations versus the risk from silent carriers of the coronavirus and the percentage of deaths in my age group should I get it, I CAN ABOSOLUTELY LIVE WITH THIS.
One trend I see emerging about governmental response to the outbreak is this. All over the world that is a very undemocratic response that seems to be evolving. Hungary and the Philippines stand out as the worst-case scenarios. However, we have some troubling things occurring here. The Wisconsin election stands out as a case in point. If you want to see a fairly detailed article on this, I would recommend the following link to the Politico article on the topic. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/09/wisconsin-supreme-court-partisan-battleground-176292
Additionally, I would urge you to watch where the money goes from the second stimulus package. Note that Trump is virtually refusing to allow any meaningful oversight of the monies to be expended. He has sacked a well-respected Inspector General that had been chosen to act as the overseer of the disbursal and use of the funds. In times of mass crisis, it is important to have a central authority involved. However, democracy requires that hand been monitored very closely, because freedoms die when one person is given too much power. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/09/trump-removes-inspectors-general-blatant-corruption-column/2973535001/
A short note on why there have been no posts recently. On Monday I cleared scrub trees from around my backyard. Using some big assed Whiskas loppers, I took out about 20 one-inch thick buck thorns. Later that day and the next morning I chopped those up for use in the firepit at some point in the future. Lots of little scrubby stuff for kindling was set off to the side. I still have about half of it to deal with.
When I went to bed, I became painfully aware I had overdone it. I could not lie comfortably on my right shoulder in almost any position. I tried Tylenol to deal with it, then asper crème, but neither brought relief. In the end I took some Flexeril and it sent me off to sleep. I had to take some the next morning too. Flexeril messes me up.
When I take a muscle relaxant, I find that anything I type tends to be a lightening bolt thought that gets covered in mud when I try to capture it. Trust me I did stare at the screen for a number of minutes and had a hundred great thoughts. If I had put them down on paper, they would sound like the crazed ravings of a lunatic. (I know most of what I write sounds like the crazed ravings of a lunatic.
I cried when I heard John Prine had died.
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