We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It is immature to blame anybody for Acts of God, like hurricanes and diseases, but I'll go immature here to blame that guy Ferguson, and especially China for closing China to Wuhan city but letting the Wuhan people fly all over the world. Ferguson cried Fire in a crowded theater, and China seeded the world. "Accidentally on purpose?" We'll never know. Regardless, governments destroying our economies, I've decided, was an overreaction. This is not The Plague.
I will not bore or annoy you all with what I am doing, but it's good, not perfect, but daily. Heavy deads this morning, in a pal's dark, cold garage. Watch the food intake!
I wonder how our readers are dealing with maintaining fitness and strength during this crazy time.
We should not be angered by what now seems like a panic-based response. Our leaders wanted to save lives because of apocalyptic predictions of a corona-carnage. But now we can’t seem to find the off switch — to find a way from transitioning from a national emergency that largely never came, thank God, to what should be a state of hard-nosed crisis management.
We’ll see what happens in the summer, then in the fall. For now, pandemic deaths are falling sharply, and we attribute this to our lockdown. That the rise, crest, and decline of these deaths has followed roughly the same statistical pattern, whether there was a lockdown or not, is interesting. Not having tried such an act of tyranny before, we can have nothing to compare with that lockdown. Still we can say that the virus is indifferent to our measures, and speculate that future waves will not consult our wishes, either.
Ever since I graduated from grad school I have kept a major medical plan. Yes, it it portable.
Over my lifetime, medical costs have expanded enormously, mainly because of what medical science in the the US is able to do. Miraculous things. All worth doing? I do not know, but the USA has the best medical options in the world, however expensive. Among many other problems with Obamacare (a stalking horse for government medical care) was the absence of a regular cheap major medical plan like the one I still have.
Shop around. These policies still exist.
Speaking personally, I am not afraid of dying if I am in bad shape, but I think life is a kick and I'd be glad to stick with it for a while, working, making a living, and having an interesting life.
Really? That could take a year or more. Possibly never. Of course, everybody wants a vaccine today, but no vaccine has ever been made for any viruses in the corona family despite many efforts.
By the end of March, most of the United States had been locked down. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs. More than $6 trillion has been spent to save society from complete collapse. Relentless warnings have whipped the populace into frenzies of fear. All of this to contain a disease that, as far as we can tell at this point, is not significantly more fatal than the flu. Moreover, given how rapidly the coronavirus spreads, it seems likely that the radical and untested method of lockdown does little to control it.
In other words, the science increasingly shows that the measures we have taken in the last few weeks have been both harmful—with freedoms lost, money spent, livelihoods destroyed—and pointless.
Maybe not more fatal, but more infectious. It is unavoidable. Like death and taxes.
Debate is good. New facts are useful too. As I understand it, though, lockdowns are not so much designed to prevent death as they were to slow the rate of serious infection - to extend the epidemic at a less intense rate.
We have a rather soft-quarantine going on here. Soft quarantine meaning pushing the limits of what is allowed. Not by choice, but because there are few places to go outdoors other than road hikes with friends, Costco, market, drug store. An hour of morning calisthenics in the living room before breakfast, of course, with adult music, is a good way to begin a day.
Rainy day with the goal of emptying two closets. So much crap that will never be used, and that Good Will would never want. (They are fussy about your old stuff - nobody wants it.)
I have a prosperous friend who added a 35X35' laundry room on the second floor when his four kids were young, above a new kitchen addition. Two washers, two driers, linen/blanket shelves on all the walls, and dedicated rolling racks all around: one for ski gear, one for hunting gear, one for bad-weather gear, etc. etc.
I praised him for this, but was green with envy.
Mrs. B and I are cleaning out two closets today. It feels good. Much of it is good stuff, but nobody would want it. The garbage man will need a $20 tip on Tues to get rid of it all.
"When in doubt, throw it out." The Collier Brothers never learned that. I have learned, over time, that most of our stuff is dumpster fodder.
What to do? Surfing in the intertube is a complete waste of life, like counting flowers on the wall. Reading Maggie's doesn't count.
It is not exactly a disease of the immune system, but some supposedly strong immune systems over-react, as I posted yesterday. Cytokine Storm.
It continues to be apparent that the elderly, overweight, or pre-diabetic/diabetic seem to be most likely to face death with this virus. Those people ought to be protected as best we can, but that's difficult. Most people weather it just fine, if miserable for a while. The luckiest ones (most people) get the sniffles and a headache for a few days and then feel fine.
Colorado River Delta Ecosystem Blooms 
Photo: 5th Ave, 1880s 
Image: The 2020 Trikini 
Ants Can Do