Wednesday, May 6, 2020

I Just Want To Know

I'd like to know that there is a plan. 

Big Cuter tells me that the Bay Area is reopening in phases, permitting pets in parks and people with masks to enjoy the great outdoors, gently expanding the definition of safety while watching the numbers.

Ah, the numbers. 

Without the requisite decrease in cases (whatever that might really mean), without sufficient testing capacity, without anything resembling a sense that we have a handle on the contagion,  Arizona is reopening beauty parlors and restaurants and retail establishments over the next two weeks. 

In Indiana, Little Cuter's gigantic indoor mall reopened last weekend; the line was around the parking lots before the doors opened.

There's a Darwinian certainty to it all that seemed fairly comical until I listed to Our Commander In Chief.  I say Our because, in case you missed it, you've been enlisted... entrapped... impressed... drafted... drug-in-without-your-say-so. 

Private Bone Spurs says we are all warriors in this war to reopen our economy, because we have to reopen the economy, and sure, warriors die, but we're all in this together to get this economy going because that's what America does.

The estimates are 3,000 bodies a day to get this economy going and reelect Our President.

So I say: Fine.  Go.  Shop.  Dine. Spend time with many others, indoors, using plates and cutlery washed by someone who cannot afford to stay home, handling merchandise while remembering to keep your hands away from your face. 

As for me and mine, we're staying put, recognizing that we are lucky to be able to do so and glad to be part of the solution.  We're not eliminating the virus, we are managing the load on our medical system until a treatment or a vaccine is available. 

My grandchildren jump from the couch to the ottoman to the ground and leap back again as Little Cuter reminds them: Be Careful! No Hospitals!  

Giblet, with 22 months of life experience, shies away from the containers under the kitchen sink with an overly dramatic but absolutely appropriate OH NO!!!!

If they can understand it and you can't, I have no pity.

I am dodging the draft.  I'm staying home.

9 comments:

  1. People who don't like him should avoid reading what he's saying. Why let him into their head? I don't dislike him but hadn't heard he said that until reading it here. I avoid his speeches, stuff from him because I don't need it. I have long had a belief to stick to the things I can control in my life. Unfortunately, there is a long list of what is out of my control; so it doesn't solve the anxiety problem of our current times. I have read varying ideas on starting up but figured I'd not be doing it anyway. I feel no guilt in continuing to protect myself given I have like 4 points that would make me have a bad experience if I got the virus. But then I did the same things to avoid the flu every year.

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    1. Left to my own devices, I wouldn't have the tv on at all. But I don't live alone, and tho neither of us can stand him for more than a sentence or two, this was repeated enough that I heard it.

      Ignoring him is possible and I try... but there's also Know The Enemy.
      a/b

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    2. so many get so upset by him that I just don't think it helps right now. You know the candidate on the other side; so donate to him if so inclined.

      I think it's ironic that so many get their news from sites where only snippets are played; so they believe that's all there was. They then go to FB where they seem to feel writing nasty things about him will change someone's mind or it's their moral duty. I avoid that problem at FB also by snoozing people who post political stuff that is not about issues. I think it's good to read about the virus, what they are learning, but some want to avoid that there too. Some of them go beyond hate of he who must not be named and turn it to hate of anyone who does not also hate him. I think bubbles reinforce themselves but not sure what good it does.

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  2. I have been working from home since March 16th, when one of my co workers became ill with Covid 19 and we were put in quarantine. His case did not require hospitalization, but he was still pretty sick. No one else became ill. They have allowed us to continue to work from home since, and I doubled down with a letter from my doctor. I have asthma and do not want to risk this plague. Now, because we are considered an essential business, they want us back in the office, starting Monday. Even though they have discovered that we are more productive from home. I again have called my doctor for another letter, but have not heard back. I am very worried about returning. Several have already returned to the office and nobody is wearing a mask. I have several, my daughter-in-law made. Will I return to work? Not if I can help it, but if I do, I will wear my mask and stay confined to my work space. But I am still scared. Glad I'm not the only one.

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    1. Hopefully they will allow you all to self-distance. If they don't use reasonable safety measure, they will make a lot more people sick. I think the worst is for those with jobs where they are being forced back without reasonable precautions. Anybody who is reading on this thing is scared or should be as it's got a lot of unknowns with it.

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    2. I am continuing to stay home with a one or two days a week when I go out to shop and run whatever errands can be done. But, I am not going back to what it was before the shutdown. I will feel some sense of normalcy when the shelves in the stores are again stocked full of paper products and cleaning supplies. Until then, I know we are still in trouble.

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    3. So many unknowns and so many in power trying to keep their jobs rather than doing their jobs. My junior Senator flew on Air Force One yesterday to Phoenix... she's tarred with his brush.
      a/b

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  3. I cannot NOT listen to the head of this country. I have to hear what he is saying. I am so sad that this is affecting everyone on the planet and outraged at the way it is being talked about here. How many lives will be lost so we can rescue the economy? And just ignore the scientists.

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    1. My favorite meme: Hello. My name is Science. You killed my funding. Prepare to die.
      a/b

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