Just a quickie I hope you can access

From the Washington Post's Fashion section (a place I never seek and am rarely directed to) comes a Covid-19 article with nattily dressed information. I want what she is wearing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/25/course-youve-noticed-deborah-birxs-style-thats-why-its-so-reassuring/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

If this is behind a content wall for you, I apologize.

My eco lawn at peak appeal

Lilac front door a bit faded

At any event, you should be able to enjoy signs of spring chez moi. 

Spring 2020 niche

The serene visage animated by a blank mind

Jared: the serenely empty suit

I have seen versions of this photo before, but today it's surreal quality hit me hard.

I woke up at 2 am today with a strange feeling in the back of my throat. It was a weird, dry quality that usually presages the dawn of a cold. So, I sucked on two previously effective Zinc lozenges while I worked some crosswords. About an hour later I felt sleepy (yah!) and want back to bed and slept until 8:30. However, I awoke this time feeling decidedly off. I called my trainer to cancel our Friday session, and then started my delayed coffee dosing, water drinking, pill taking, and first food of the day. An hour later I felt normal. I recall that I awoke on my back, which likely led to severe dehydration and other ills. I am not generally a hypochondriac except for the occasional deep bone pain I (mostly humorously) diagnose as either "left leg cancer" or "right leg cancer". But as level headed as I am (insert silly emoji here) I leapt to the worst case conclusion: I am Covid-19 Mary.

Maybe, who knows at this point. If we had drive-in testing available I would drive-in so upon the results I would know if I need to enter an extended self-quarantine. But of course in the mighty US of A, such basic control measures are weeks or months away nearly everywhere.

While the Fucking Moron is not at all responsible for the fact of this virus, he is ground zero for the current state of our slow, under prepared, and even deliberately stupid amplification of what was to come. When the FM was unaccountably anointed the Republican front runner, I saw his possible election as an extinction level event. At the time I was thinking of our political machine and the damage it could to achieve. Of course, I was unable to imagine the breadth, depth, and cravenness of the coming damage. Nor could I have imagined that in three years a toxic president, gutless senate, and two new supreme court judges (one stolen) would have Eviscerated democracy, national cohesion, national governmental efficacy, and amplified my rage at anyone who did not vote for Hillary (irrespective of their distaste for and/or delusional alternate solution) in order to preclude this future.

Here is what I am doing today* which is sadly all I really have to offer: I am sending additional financial support to local agencies doing the impossible work of supporting our tattered safety net that needs to catch those now barely making in addition to those who have been barely (or not) making it during the just ended economic heyday.

* Including maintaining a 6 foot social distance and touching nothing outside my home.

Oregon on slow speed

Schools are closed as are community recreation facilities. So begins a test of our (certainly my) patience, maturity, care for community, efficacy and supply of anti-anxiety/depression/psychotic medications, and apparently supply of toilet paper. For myself, I can guarantee passing only the final challenge.

One of my followers (by that I mean those I personally alert to postings, and who occasionally let me know they are still there) sent me this link. It was enormously satisfying on so many levels. TAKE THAT F--king Moron!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHEH3TnRmrQ

This prompted my second post within a 24 hour period from a sane voice in the whirlwind:

March 13, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson
Mar 14

“I don’t take responsibility at all.”
This quotation, from Trump’s answer when a reporter asked him if he took responsibility for the lag in testing for the novel coronavirus, will be in every single history book written about this era.
He went on. When PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked why he doesn’t take responsibility for the problems combatting Covid-19 when the White House got rid of the pandemic team in 2018, he answered “I just think that’s a nasty question…. When you say me, I didn’t do it…. I don’t know anything about it.” He followed up with “We’re doing a great job.”
This is the same man who said in his acceptance speech for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination: “I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” 

She writes a daily piece that I have emailed to me daily. Her expertise and context is historical, so it is useful as a measure of what is currently at "play" as it relates to prior periods of political of insanity.

Just wow

It has been ten days since my last post. Some things have devolved. But Covid-19 seems to be chugging along nicely. Who could have guessed that the one thing worse for this country than a bloated bureaucracy was a lean and MEAN collection of political hacks and toadies directed by a feral toddler with digestive issues (we can only assume)?

One possible atom-thick silver lining to this accelerating disaster is the possibility that a small percentage of FOX News hostages will discover they have been served cool-aid comprised of the bitterness of voting Republican and the sweetness that at least the libs are now suffering too. And those of us who still credit scientifically determined facts know that cool-aid will not support life indefinitely.

Pool Noodles Innocently at Rest

On the personal front, I am reveling in my several times a week hour long reprieve from 1 g. When I am in a deep water aerobics class with fellow (mostly) gray haired ladies I experience a lightness of body and spirit. I bring my silliest self to these gatherings, and delight in being able to start some and share many more group laughs. Wednesday's class was especially hilarity filled. I am not talented enough verbally to describe it effectively. To describe it inadequately: we colluded in some unscripted interaction with pool noodles resulting in a cavalcade of varied struggles which popped up around the assembly and likely had many of us peeing in the pool. (Don't worry, they test the water often and treat as needed. Surely it had less effect than one over- worked diaper from the toddler end of the pool. After all, pee is sterile (so the scientists say).

Real winter

OK everybody. Time to buck up about winter, just one of four seasons available to us, and no longer arguably horrific. Here is horrific:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/winter-storm-left-homes-encased-in-almost-a-metre-of-ice/sharevideo/6137652270001/most_popular

I was previously impressed with a Canadian weather channel video of  this snow of about 19 feet:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/videos/gallery/we-dont-know-which-one-is-our-home-town-digs-out-of-6-metres-of-snow/sharevideo/6135551786001

Which one would allow you to dig out? Would you even try? I am fairly sure I would just stay in my Bed Jet® equipped Tempur-Pedic® adjustable bed with my cat and a stack of puzzles. Assuming I still had power. If not, I would pile on all the down comforters I own (see disclaimer) and keep for such an emergency.

Little Blues (Aust./NZ penguins) in donated knit sweaters

So, put on your sweater and quite grumping.

Disclaimer: Only ever used while glamping: it must be VERY VERY cold before I dare trapping all my body heat.