COVID

FOREWORD:

Haven't posted all summer. Summers have gotten to be particularly tough for me the last few - many - years. Generally I'm OK through the third week of June, basically to the Solstice. But after that point temperatures tend to spike, humidity soars, rain becomes an almost daily event. Blueberries and grapes ripen and sit on the bush or vine, to be eaten by birds or just wither. And I become a summertime hermit, staying inside with a fan on and the drapes drawn, hoping not to need the air conditioner.

This year, Summer ended abruptly on Labor Day. Suddenly it was Autumn, three full weeks before the equinox. Temperatures plummeted.  The air turned crisp. Leaves began to change color. And suddenly, I was released from my hermit status. I could go back outside and do things. Unless something else came up.

Something else came up.

PRELUDE:

Since we returned to the office full time earlier in the year, we've been looking for little things to boost morale. Potlucks have helped. Many people - not everybody, which is actually a good thing - bring in something, and we have a daylong feast. There is more than enough to go around, with plenty for everyone. If everybody brought in food the amount of food would be unmanageably excessive.  Offerings range from pizzas and chips to elaborate homemade meals and desserts. It's disappointing if your contribution doesn't get devoured, and everyone takes a wide sampling of foods.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2025

We had one of these last Wednesday, for the first night of football season. I brought in tortilla chips, queso, and salsa. I filled my plate with a huge variety of foods for both of my breaks and my lunch. At the end of the night I joked about calling an Uber to get to my car, and shared a concern that I would regret this in the morning.

I did.

My diet has become fairly simple and routine. Breakfast is a bowl of bran cereal in the morning half-filled with fruit - either chopped apples with cinnamon, or a sliced banana and strawberries, paired with a protein - plain Greek yogurt with honey, cottage cheese with grapes, or some eggs. A second lunch-ish meal usually featuring chicken, pork, or shrimp and potatoes or rice, or maybe spaghetti and meatballs with vegetables on the side. For "lunch" and snacks at work I take nutrition bars. I used to take ZonePerfect Chocolate Mint bars (which tasted just like Thin Mints) until the entire ZonePerfect line was discontinued last year. Since then I have experimented with many different replacements, but have settled on Clif Chocolate Mint bars (which contain caffeine) to keep me going at the start and end of the day, and a lemon zest Luna bar with tea for lunch. When I get home after work I treat myself to a before-bed snack of cheese or ice cream.

The party food disrupted all this, of course. I anticipated some digestive issues in the morning. I was not disappointed.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

I was extremely ill for several hours Thursday morning. Eventually it seemed I had purged the entire feast from the previous day from my system, and then some. 

Everything was back on track by Thursday afternoon.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 

On Friday, I advised my coworkers that I would be off on Monday to observe what would have been my mom's 92nd birthday, but I would be back on Tuesday.

RFKJr, the insane goblin in charge of health policy for the United States, decided to ban COVID-19 vaccines for most Americans, for insane goblin reasons. Within a week, Governor Josh Shapiro and Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature took action to re-establish the ability of Pennsylvanians to get the COVID vaccine. On September 3, 2025 the State Board of Pharmacy issued a press release announcing this. I planned to get mine over the weekend. Maybe Monday.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2025

I woke up Saturday with a fever.

I didn't think much of it. Saturday was a busy day. I did many loads of laundry. I made plans for the rest of the weekend. I ran out and cashed in my Weis rewards points, set to expire the next day, getting an 18 pack of eggs for just $2.99. I got a lot of stuff done.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2025

Sunday I woke up with a painfully sore throat. Oh crap, I thought. COVID. 

I dug out my stash of COVID tests . How old were they? I couldn't remember. The expiration dates indicated January 2023. We were told that they would still be good for a while after that. Every previous test I had taken came out negative. Could I trust a positive result on an old test?

I pulled out the kit and followed the steps. Waited fifteen minutes. Squinted to see if there was any hint of a little faint red line. If I looked at it juuust right and used my imagination a bit - yes, there it was. OK, now what?

I let my family know. My primary care physician retired a few months ago. If I wanted confirmation, treatment, or official documentation, I would need to go to an ER or a walk-in clinic on Monday.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2025

Monday morning I woke up with a runny nose, very sore throat, and laryngitis. I was feeling a general wooziness, and occasionally had a roaring sound in my ears, like driving with the windows down. Even though it was my day off, I let my supervisor know. I've never used sick days before, except for appointments, so I wasn't sure how they worked. She advised I could use up to three consecutive days before I needed a doctor's note. That would take me through Thursday without it. It didn't seem safe to come back Friday, so I decided I needed a note.

Monday afternoon I went to the local clinic for the regional megahospital. After some delays, it was finally my turn to be seen. I told the admissions nurse I was there because of COVID. She went in the back, and then came back and told me that they didn't do any testing for COVID. In fact, she advised me, there was no vaccine, no treatment, no cure, and I should just leave.

I really wasn't prepared for that. I asked if there was anything they could do for me, and she said no.

I walked out furious. I got on the family chat and raved a bit. I was going to go to the cemetery to calm down. My sister-in-law would drop off some fresh tests at my house. I resolved to go to a different clinic on Tuesday.

My at-home test Monday afternoon, courtesy of my sister-in-law, was a little less ambiguous.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2025

Monday night I slept very little. My nose was running all night, and I had to keep getting up to blow it. My pulse oximeter - purchased back in 2020 when COVID was spreading across the country - showed an O2 saturation level of 98%, so I wasn't panicking. On Tuesday afternoon, after some misadventures, I got to another clinic. As I walked in I was greeted with a sign advising that they did COVID-19 testing, but only by appointment. It gave a phone number to call for testing.

I was the only client there, so my wait was minimal. This time, instead of immediately stating I was there because of COVID, I described my symptoms, then added that I had tested positive for COVID. The admissions nurse told me that the information I had been given previously was accurate, they did not test. I told her about the sign, and she asked me where I had seen that. I told her it was just outside the door next to us. (After she got me checked in, she went out to see the sign for herself, and called over the rest of the staff to have a look. They considered taking it down, but in the end decided to defer to management.) She explained to me that they had just gotten a directive advising that they were not testing anymore because insurance is no longer paying for tests - something new from the Trump/RFKJr regime, I suppose. But they would be able to do a basic checkup and write me a note.

All of my vitals were perfect, as usual. Temperature 98.0 degrees. Oxygen saturation 98%. Blood pressure 118/68. Lungs sounded clear. No throat irritation visible. If I didn't know I was sick, and if I weren't so woozy and tired, I would think I was healthy. The PA wrote me a note taking me through Friday, told me to keep up with the regimen of fluids and the occasional Tylenol that I've been following, and go to the ER if things take a turn for the worse. I will retest on Sunday and if I am still positive, we will take things from there.

(I experienced another, very strange, possible symptom of COVID as I drove home from the clinic: a sudden love for everyone I saw. As a child I would play a game where I would try to slip into the consciousness of anyone I saw as we drove past, trying to imagine the world as they experienced it: who they were, how they happened to be standing there, what they were thinking, what they were planning, everything that had led up to that moment in their lives. Now I saw a couple walking past, a Hispanic couple in their late 30s, in another part of the country or another part of the state they might be worrying about Donald Trump's ICE bounty hunters pulling them off the street to make their daily quota, but here on Main Street in Wilkes-Barre they were smiling and laughing as they walked along, and I wanted to smile and wave at them, which seemed weird, so I just smiled and stared as much as I could without crashing the car, which was also weird; next was a guy in his early 20s, walking along, face buried in his phone, and I thought he's talking to a friend, God bless 'im, or maybe he's talking to his mom, what a lucky guy. This happened several more times on the way home.)  

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2025

Another fun symptom: I have completely lost track of the passing of time. Today could be Monday or Tuesday for all I know. I might have been sick for a day, a week, or a month. I am writing this account to try to organize my memories while they are still distinct.

It is possible that the digestive issues I experienced Thursday morning were a case of "something I ate," or "everything I ate," or "simple food poisoning." It is also possible that they were, along with the fever an sore throat, a symptom of this latest strain of COVID.

It is likely that I picked up COVID at work. Which means that at least one other person at work had COVID and was contagious. It is possible that I was also contagious while I was at work.

So. It finally got me, Five years and six months after the pandemic was declared, more than two and a half years after it killed my mom. All without so much as a cold, a bout of hayfever, anything. After all this time I have finally contracted COVID. We'll see how it goes from here.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2025

I've observed over the decades that one sure sign that I am sick is an increase in typos. Virtually every sentence that I have typed here has contained at least one typo. It just took four tries to spell the word "Virtually" correctly, and in this sentence I spelled the word "four" wrong. I have considered leaving all the typos in place, but that would render this generally unreadable. 

Even though I feel less sick today, I am still clearly sick.

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

Most of the Christmas lights in my neighborhood are off. Many of the houses have been undecorated. It is the Eleventh Day of Christmas.

Christmas was once broken into three parts: Advent, starting in the fourth Sunday before Christmas and running through the evening of December 24; Christmastide. starting with the Christmas Vigil the evening of December 24 and extending through January 5; and Epiphanytide, running from the feast of Epiphany on January 6 to various dates in January or even out to Candlemas Day on February 2.

Now? Culture Wars dictate that everyone must begin saying "Merry Christmas!" starting the day after Thanksgiving. Advent is forgotten. The whole season of preparation has been replaced by shopping season. The religious aspect of Christmas has been dumped in favor of pure commercialism, by the very people who claim to be fighting to "keep Christ in Christmas." And once the day is past, once the orgy of buying is over, Christmas must be quickly taken down, boxed up, and put away.

Not me. My lights are on today, and will be on tomorrow, and for Epiphany on the January 6, and for "Russian Christmas" on January 7. After the lights will go off, unless I choose to have them on - I like having lights, and may set something up year-round.

Poem: I'm glad my mother is dead

I'm glad my mother is dead

she never had to see this happen again

she never got to see how far we've fallen

she'll never have to look at her friends and neighbors

and wonder which of them chose this

I'm glad my mother is dead

I'll never have to worry about her insurance

or how any of this will affect her

I'll never have to worry about her

worrying about me, or my brother, or my sister, or her grandsons 

I'm glad my mother is dead

She's safe in her grave

or gone to her eternal reward

or experiencing the blissful nothingness of non-being

I don't have to worry about her saying "Why won't somebody just shoot the bastard?" in the wrong company

I'm glad my mother is dead

A beautiful day

I had another dental appointment yesterday. I'm catching up on all the dental work that should have been done over the last year, and most of the year before that - maybe even longer than that. After the appointment I drove half a mile to an ATM where I stood in a socially-distanced line with several other people - I was the only one masked, because I couldn't be sure of anyone else's vaccination status, and didn't want to take any chances. I noticed that the day, which had been crisp and clear when I left the house shortly before 10:00, had turned clear and somewhat less crisp. To me the cool temperature (probably in the low 60s F) and the low humidity were absolutely perfect, but others wore heavier clothes more appropriate for early Winter.

As I drove back down the hill to the supermarket, NPR announced that fully one-third of the U.S. adult population was now "fully vaccinated" (at least two weeks beyond their second shot of a two-dose vaccine, or at least two weeks beyond a single-shot vaccination), and two-thirds have had at least a single shot - and India was experiencing unprecedented COVID-19 rates.

I moseyed through the supermarket, not under any sort of time pressure. I got everything on my list plus one or two extras. I got home, began to unload the car, and was completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the day.

It was one of those rare early-Spring days. The day had gotten warmer but was still quite cool with low humidity. The sky was cloudless, and the shade of blue that poets and artists term cerulean. The birds were singing, flowers were blooming, trees were leafing out  or showing blossoms. But there was something else...something I knew, but couldn't quite...

Yes. Donald Trump was no longer occupying the White House. We once again had a sane, decent President. Joseph Robinette Biden. The sort of guy who will pluck a dandelion gone to seed out of a lawn and hand it to his wife to blow on and make a wish. A President elected with more votes than any other President in history.

Suddenly the sky seemed to get brighter, the air sweeter, the birds more exuberant in their song.

Trump hasn't gone away. He's still ensconced in his lair at Mar-a-Lago. He still has his supporters, the people who engaged in the violent attempt to stop the counting of Electoral votes on January 6, 2021, and the people who vigorously deny any such thing happened. Five out of eight of my neighbors voted for him, including the people across the street, the ones who have friends visit every Sunday in an SUV with a TRUMP 2024 bumper sticker, and the people down the street who flew a TRUMP flag and a COME AND TAKE IT flag and now fly a new flag, a mockery of the flag of the United States where the stars representing the fifty states have been replaced with a Roman III representing the right-wing "Three Percenters" movement. They're out there on Parler and Gab, talking about the things they'll do after they're in charge again, how they'll execute all members of the media (except for the ones from propaganda outlets like OANN and Newsmax, and maybe a select few Trump loyalists from Fox News), how Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and many other Democrats have in fact already been executed and replaced with clones. They're insane, they're dangerous, and they still have the vote. They have a very good chance of taking back one or both houses of Congress in 2022, especially if they are successful in their legislative efforts to make voter suppression official state policy in dozens of states. They have a real chance to take back the White House in 2024.

But for the moment, a brief moment at midday on the first day of May, all seemed to be right with the world. It wasn't. All that would be dealt with in the moments that followed. Yesterday I allowed myself a little time to feel relief, gratitude, and joy.

  

(Note: After I unloaded the groceries I realized I hadn't stopped at the drugstore to pick up some prescription refills for my mom. I was able to persuade her to leave the house for a brief outing. We stopped at the drugstore, the cemetery, the dollar store, and a chocolate store, and then headed home to attend church online.)

The Pandemic: Year One

Yellow crocus at cemetery, March 13, 2021

One year. One lost year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for longer than that. The dying started in late 2019. The early epicenter was Wuhan, China. By the time the world knew what was happening, it was too late to stop it from spreading across the world, and probably had been for some time.

COVID-19 is unusual. Highly contagious, yes, as any good virus should be. Kills quite a few of the people who get it and develop symptoms - not ideal for a virus, but acceptable as long as infected individuals do their job of spreading the virus before they die. Asymptomatic spread is a hallmark of COVID-19, and that's unusual. 

In the past, asymptomatic carriers of disease (like "Typhoid Mary") were unusual enough to make their way into the history books and national lore. Now the standard operating procedure for COVID-19 is: an individual gets infected by breathing in virus particles that an infected person has breathed out, the virus infects them, they spend about two weeks being contagious without showing any symptoms, and then they develop symptoms while continuing to be contagious. Some of the people who develop symptoms die. Some recover completely. Some recover and suffer lifetime consequences. 

And the symptoms! The consequences! Roll the dice, see what you get: lungs that look like frosted glass on an X-ray, "COVID toes," intense generalized pain, chronic cough,  difficulty breathing, loss of smell and taste, hair loss, and lots more. Maybe you'll get some. Maybe you'll get only a few. Maybe you'll die in just a few days. Maybe you'll hang in for weeks, months even, and then you'll recover. Or die.

In the first year, over 2.6 million people have died of COVID-19 worldwide, more than 530,000 in the United States alone.* The United States had an increase in deaths of 15%. in 2020 compared to previous years. In some countries, the rate of "excess deaths" for 2020, the number of deaths in excess of what would be expected based on past data, exceeds 50%.

And there are people who will dispute every one of these things. They will tell you that COVID is "just the flu." They will tell you that masks don't work. That no one has actually died of COVID. That it's the vaccines that are actually killing people.

Oh, we have vaccines now. Two, by Pfizer and Moderna, were developed during the Trump administration, though Pfizer was developed independently of the Federal government. The Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine was approved just a few weeks ago, and teachers began receiving it this week. There are other vaccines in use throughout the world. Mass vaccination programs are taking place worldwide.

We also have a plan now. A plan passed without a single Republican vote. During the Trump occupation, Trump pitted states against each other in competition for critical resources. Chaos was the order of the day. That day is over.

Joe Biden pledged to get 100 million shots into arms in his first 100 days as President. He got us there in his first 50.

We're not done yet. We can still snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The "new cases" graph may** reflect certain societal movements: the final campaign rally push in September through early November 2020, Thanksgiving gatherings in late November, Christmas in late December. It's undeniable that since mid-January 2021, new cases have dropped dramatically, though the rate of decline has leveled out since mid-February. The CDC is advising a cautious approach, maintaining the rules of masking and social distancing, avoiding crowds and indoor events. Texas and Missisippi have essentially ended all COVID-related restrictions - and the Texas Attorney General is threatening legal action against cities like Austin that have chosen to adhere to CDC guidelines. St. Patrick's Day weekend is upon us. Spring is coming, and Summer is not far behind. The same people who demanded "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! REOPEN NOW!" a year ago are making that same demand again, after nearly one on every 600 Americans has died of COVID-19. New variations of COVID-19 have emerged. Small but significant portions of the population are rejecting vaccination, while larger numbers of people are trying to get vaccinated and cannot, either because they do not yet qualify in their state or they qualify but there are not enough vaccines available for everyone.*** 

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Or will things once again get worse before they get better? Time will tell.

*Last Spring, a friend who was involved in COVID response predicted 500,000 U.S. deaths by the end of 2020. His prediction was off by about seven weeks. My post-election prediction of 400,000 U.S deaths by Inauguration Day was almost exactly correct.

**Europe shows similar increases in the final months of 2020, without Presidential elections or Thanksgiving gatherings, so who the hell knows.

***My mom received her second Moderna shot on March 4, 2021. I received mine on March 6. My brother's entire family has already received both shots, some of Pfizer, some of Moderna. A librarian at a local school district, who also teaches classes and qualifies as an educator, received her Johnson & Johnson shot on Friday, while a librarian at the local library does not yet qualify. My sister, who lives in another state and has multiple health conditions, does not yest qualify for a shot, and other friends who live in the same state as me and who qualify are unable to sign up because of availability.

2021: Our story so far

Welp.

"Trump still has nineteen days in office, and can still do some damage." I wrote those words sixteen days ago. They seem so quaint and naive now.

Donald Trump has simply refused to accept that he lost the election. Cannot believe it, so it must not be true, or he can make it be not true. Two weeks ago he tried to convince the Lieutenant Governor of Georgia - a Republican - to "find" for him enough votes to win the state, two months after the election. The Lieutenant Governor refused. Trump threatened him, stating that by accepting the results of the election, he was acting illegally. The Lieutenant Governor promptly released a recording of the call.

Trump had been rallying his troops on Facebook, on Twitter, summoning them to one big gathering in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, the day that the Electoral Votes would be officially counted and certified by Vice President Mike Pence. Immediately the word got around: prepare for civil war. This is it, this is what they'd been waiting for. The votes from swing states that had gone for Biden would be challenged. Mike Pence would overturn the results of the election. Trump would be certified as President. Or else.

They came. They came in great numbers, from all around the country. Local political gadfly and frequent candidate for public office Frank Scavo ran a bus trip down from Pittston with over 200 participants. The people who showed up in Washington, D.C. weren't bound by the rules that had applied to other gatherings that had taken place there. Many of them carried weapons, and flags, and signs. Many wore combat armor, helmets and bulletproof vests. Many of them looked ready for war.

Trump addressed his troops. He expressed hope that Mike Pence would do his job and overturn the election. He then directed his troops to march down from their gathering spot on the National Mall to the Capitol itself. He would be marching with them - in spirit, anyway.

The counting began, barely. The votes were announced from Alabama. From Alaska. From Arizona - and there came the first objection. Minutes after the counting began it was stopped for two hours so the House and Senate could separately debate whether to accept the votes from Arizona.

That, apparently, was the signal.

The gathered crowd surged on the Capitol. They knocked down the barriers keeping them away - in some cases, the barriers were moved aside for them by Capitol Police. They stormed the Capitol steps, off-limits to visitors since September 11, 2001. They scaled walls. They rushed the doors and battered them in. They smashed windows and poured into the Capitol. Some looked like excited tourists caught up in the moment. Others looked like soldiers on a mission to infiltrate enemy headquarters and assassinate the general staff.

Frank Scavo posted excitedly:

The next day, Frank Scavo would tell his story to all the local newspapers and TV stations: he was there, but not so close to the action as to see what exactly was going on - despite his photo from the off-limits steps above. He had heard about the incursion into the Capitol, but such a thing surely must be the work of ANTIFA disguised as Trump supporters - no true patriot would defile the Capitol in the way that these people had! A day later, photos emerged of Scavo inside the Capitol as part of a mob. Over the next few days, the news stations would publish the photographic evidence. Scavo hasn't had much to say about the incident since then, not that anyone would believe anything he had to say anyway.

Each day, more and more photos and videos of the Capitol Insurrection have emerged, many shared by members of the mob itself in generous acts of self-incrimination. Parents have identified and reported their children, and children have identified and reported their parents. One was identified by an old high school classmate. The FBI have begun making arrests. Many of the members of the insurrection had fairly obvious intent, equipped with police-issue zip-cuffs. In the videos you see them going from room to room, looking for members of Congress, Nancy Pelosi in particular (though they had also chanted "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!", clearly upset at his failure to overturn the results of the election.) 

While some members of the Capitol Police - the only force in position to defend the Capitol that day - welcomed the insurrectionists as friends and comrades, others did their jobs. One played Pied Piper, carefully leading a mob away from unsecured doors that would have allowed them access directly to the Senate. Others were severely beaten. One was killed, beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. Four members of the mob died - one, an Air Force veteran who smashed her way through a door and was shot by the police defending a secure position; another, a woman carrying a Gadsden "DON'T TREAD ON ME" flag, was trampled to death by the mob; two others died of heart attacks, including another local arranger of buses (and purveyor of the "Trumparoo," an adorable Trump/kangaroo hybrid.) Another member of the Capitol Police died by suicide a few days after the event.

Members of Congress and their staffers and family members engaged in an active shooter response - Nancy Pelosi ruefully noted that many of her staffers had learned how to respond in school. QAnon cult member Representative Lauren Boebert helpfully tweeted out the positions and movements of members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi. 

Hours passed before Trump allowed the National Guard to go in. Reportedly he was watching everything unfold on TV, and enjoying it tremendously. Joseph Biden wasted no time declaring the insurrectionists "domestic terrorists."

Congress reconvened at 8:00 PM. There were several more delays, including one over the validity of the votes from Pennsylvania. But eventually all objections were overruled. Despite Frank Scavo's excited assertion, the Electoral Vote was certified, and Joseph R. Biden was officially declared the winner.

Within days Donald Trump, in recognition of his incitement of the gathered mob to storm the Capitol in an act of insurrection, became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. He has been permanently banned from Twitter and Facebook, perhaps a greater personal blow.

A social media site, Parler, which was extremely popular with right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists, was shut down after they lost both their hosting and the right to continue to use the "free trial" versions of software they used to run much of their site. Some enterprising soul managed to archive all Parler content while it was still available - which is where much of the video and photographic evidence from the insurrection was housed.

December 7, 1941. September 11, 2001. January 6, 2021.

At noon on January 20, 2021, Donald Trump will be handing President Joseph R. Biden a country in flames. A collapsed economy. Over 400,000 dead of COVID-19. Trump himself won't be there; having broken the longstanding tradition of peaceful transitions of power, he intends to slink off early. He wants to be honored with a military sendoff, complete with a band and a twenty-one gun salute.

And he still has two and a half days to go.

We'll see what happens between now and then.

2020: A brief review

We knew it was coming.

I wish I had saved the tweet. That tweet that someone posted from when the news was just starting to leak out of China in December or early January, news about a highly contagious respiratory disease, a sort of superflu with deadly consequences, rapidly spreading beyond the major city (and international airline hub) of Wuhan. Someone wrote "THERE. That's it. THAT'S what was missing."

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 I was coming back to Nanticoke from a quick afternoon shopping trip. I decided to come through the newly-reopened new road that runs between Route 29 and Kosciuszko Street. Driving past all the newly-built warehouse distribution centers, I thought about all the low-to-middling-wage jobs that had been brought to the area, and wondered how long we would be able to hold onto them - and what it would take to disrupt them. I got home and was greeted with the news that Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and several others were killed in a helicopter crash. The next day, USA Today ran this on their front page:

Even then, we knew. 

We watched through February as the disease raged through Seattle, and New York, and Los Angeles, and San Francisco. We heard about the special affinity had for nursing homes, chewing its way through the captive resident populations. Prisons, too. We watched the first cases appear in Philadelphia, and then in the counties bordering New Jersey. We knew it was here in Pennsylvania. It would just be a matter of time.

One of the first deaths in the area was a man from Hanover Township - or was it the Hanover section of Nanticoke? - who had just come back from a trip to Italy, where the disease was burning through the highly sociable population. 

Saint Patrick's Day weekend came, and suddenly people realized there was a stark choice to be made:  go out like nothing was wrong, or stay home. A lot of people made one choice, a lot of people chose another. Everybody went back to the office on Monday, one big happy workplace family.

Las Vegas shut down, and we knew things were very serious.

Later that week we had a meeting. We would be leaving the building, going home to await further instructions. As I left the office on that last night, I told my friends we would be seeing each other in two weeks to eighteen months. I whistled "The End of the World" by Bob Geldof as I hobbled out on my slowly-healing stress-fractured leg. 

Two weeks later we were back to pick up our computers and headsets. We would be working from home for the indefinite future.

The Spring ground on, became Summer, all feeling like a unending slog - the Long March, some called it, because the world seemed to be frozen as it was when last we had believed ourselves safe and secure. Racial conflicts arose, fueled by a series of police abuses and outright murders. Protests were met with more abuse of authority, and the use of what could generously be called "irregulars" to supplement official forces. The police and their mercenary allies took particular delight in exercising their abuse against members of the media. News crews were attacked and arrested. A photographer was shot in the eye and blinded with a rubber bullet.  A Navy veteran who approached a line of mercenaries in Police gear to ask them on whose authority they were engaging in their unlawful behavior was beaten and pepper-sprayed for his audacity. An assault rifle-toting teenager who had crossed state lines in the hope of engaging in conflict shot and killed several protesters during a confrontation. Another individual was shot and killed by a private security guard for a media group after he attacked the guard and the reporters.

John Lewis died. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Over 345,000 Americans died of COVID-19. 

COVID-19 forced a rethinking of how elections would be run. Paper absentee ballots became the norm. But at the same time, Trump appointee Louis DeJoy took steps to destabilize the US Postal Service and reduce its ability to handle mail in a timely manner. Millions of voters took their votes to drop boxes. Hundreds of thousands of votes, perhaps more, were likely lost or delayed in the USPS system and never got where they were going. (DeJoy's trumpery would have long-lasting repercussions: I sent out three packages on December 14. One got to Florida on December 18. One got to Columbia, MD on December 26. And one did not get to Dover, PA until December 30.)

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by the same electoral margin that Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton. Biden also received the largest number of popular votes in history, and defeated Trump by a margin of over seven million votes. Trump, who had declared his defeat of Clinton to be a "landslide," refused to accept (and still refuses to accept) the results of the election.

...and that's pretty much it. Working from home. Ordering what we need online. Making furtive trips to the grocery store and elsewhere to buy the things we can't get online. Going to church online. Not letting my mom out of the house except for trips to the doctor and visits to the cemetery. My leg got better, since I wasn't hiking from the parking lot to my desk every day anymore, and was able to give it time to heal. 

The dying keeps going on. The Trump administration's response to COVID-19 has been a series of failures and disasters. Trump's failure to provide leadership has turned mask wearing into a political issue. The same people who are denying that COVID-19 is a real disease are also furiously denying that Joe Biden won the Presidential election.

The best guesses at when things might return to some sort of normal range from July to October. Other countries have been able to wrestle the disease into submission through stopping social transmission, through the use of bubbles and masks and public compliance with scientific guidance. Not the United States. Our spread is out of control. And still millions had no problem going out and partying to see in the New Year.

The dying isn't over. Trump still has nineteen days in office, and can still do some damage. Things won't magically change January 20, any more than they changed January 1. But we have hope.

Sometimes it feels like that's all we have.

Fourth week of Advent

 

Saturn and Jupiter, December 19, 2020. Jupiter says PEW PEW PEW PEW

No Advent Wreath image this week, again - I guess that first one was a fluke. Meanwhile, Saturn and Jupiter move toward their tightest appearance for the next 800 years on Monday, December 21, 2020, but we will likely be clouded out then, just as we were tonight. These images from Saturday, December 19 may be the best shots I'll get.

In this image, taken as soon as the sky got dark enough to see the planets, the shape of Saturn can be clearly seen.

It snowed Wednesday, a lot. We had nearly two feet of relatively dry, light stuff, though in other areas the snow is wetter and heavier. Binghamton, NY had nearly four feet, which will eventually melt and flow into the Susquehanna River.

The first shipments of COVID-19 vaccine have started going out, and the first shots are going into arms. Many of those arms belong to politicians who have downplayed and dismissed the seriousness of this virus or even the existence of a pandemic - they now say they want to set a good example. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is considering declaring martial law to try to stay in power. The consequences of the Great American Fuck-Up of 2016 will continue to reverberate for decades.

Romeo died this week. I will pick up his ashes in a few days. Homer has some weird swelling on one side of his face which may be affecting his eye. I took him to the vet on Friday, and we have a follow-up Christmas Eve. Ray also needs to go into the vet soon for a swelling in his ear.

After some effort, we have our Christmas tree up and decorated.

Christmas is almost here!

Third Sunday of Advent

On Gaudete Sunday, we wear pink. Well, rose. 

No Advent Wreath image this week, so we'll have to make due with an image of Father Shawn Simchock, the new assistant pastor of Saint Fausrina Kowalska in Nanticoke, PA wearing the rose vestments that are worn twice a year - Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent.

The Third Sunday of Advent tells us that Christmas is almost here, and we'd better have our preparations well under way. It can be as early as December 11 (if Christmas is on a Sunday)  or as late as December 17 (if Christmas is on a Monday.) This year Christmas is on a Friday, so it falls on December 13.

Now things are reaching a frantic pitch. And the world isn't stopping or slowing down, not even during a pandemic. Personally, I received a bit of terrifyingly bad (not health-related) news earlier this week, something I haven't really been able to fully grasp yet, but something that will be waiting for me in the new year. Also: One of our cats appears to be dying. He is the last of the three animals we inherited from a neighbor, and is probably between sixteen and eighteen years old. Two other cats appear to have conditions that need to be looked at by a vet sooner rather than later. Bills past due are reaching their final due date. Things that have been put off too long need attending to. Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to have the Supreme Court overturn the election was rejected, 9-0, and tomorrow the Electoral College vote will make the Biden/Harris victory official.

Though that's not keeping Trump from ranting and raving. Looking forward to seeing his Twitter account shut down for TOS violations on the afternoon of January 20, 2021. (UPDATE: Trump was actually permanently banned from Twitter for repeated TOS violations on January 8, 2021.)

The pandemic is ramping up. Shutdown restrictions have increased, but so has resistance to them. The UK has started getting vaccines in arms. The first vaccines in the US have started shipping and administration is expected in two weeks.

I made Rocks yesterday, for the first time in about ten years, using whiskey from a bottle from my friend Marc's stash, four years and a day after he died.

I am shipping Christmas gifts tomorrow. Delivery is expected to be late. They may not be arriving before Christmas.

Saturn and Jupiter are moving closer together in the post-sunset sky, but visibility is getting more difficult. The weather isn't helping. I had two clear seeing days last week, December 10th and 11th. Maximum approach will be December 21. After that, they will quickly be lost in the glare of the Sun.

December 10, 2020, 6:16 PM. Moons of Jupiter: Left: Io (lost in glare of Jupiter); Right: Ganymede, Europa, Callisto

December 11, 2020, 6:00 PM. Moons of Jupiter:  Left: Ganymede, Europa; Right: Io, Callisto (distant, faint)

Christmas is coming, and coming fast.

First snow, November 17, 2020

November 17, 2020. Nearly 250,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept the results of the U.S. Presidential Election (he lost, for the record), refuses to allow transition activities to begin, and is in fact manipulating U.S. troops to create a crisis for Joe Biden the moment he enters office. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Thousands are lining up for food handouts.

And it snowed in Northeastern Pennsylvania for the first time this season.

Mission semi-accomplished

Today I got done most of the things I meant to get done yesterday. I picked up a new hydration kit for Thor, consisting of a bag of Lactated Ringer's Solution, an I.V. drip line, and some needle tips. I also picked up three and a half months of comic books from Rubber Mallet Comics in West Pittston - the last time I was there was the day before Thanksgiving. I bought a variety of cat food from Pet Supplies Plus using a 10% off coupon. I bought mostly non-essentials from Walmart and paid for them with a $25 gift card my sister gave me for Christmas, plus a dollar and some change.  I did a grocery run and kept the bill to just over $105.00. I bought some half-price day-after-Valentine's Day chocolate. I changed my door decorations from hearts to shamrocks. I made this week's oven-fried chicken lunches and did several loads of laundry. And I read a bunch of my comic books.

I didn't get an overdue oil change, nor did I return the empty bottle from eggnog I purchased during my eggnog shake quest to Hillside Farms. Those can both wait until next weekend.

And today Donald Trump declared a NATIONAL EMERGENCY because he didn't get his way. Fuck that guy.

Seriously, fuck that guy.

Grim anniversary

In a week it will be Valentine's Day.

A year ago, a bunch of high school kids were looking forward to the day, doing whatever it is that is done by high schoolers for Valentine's Day these days. But someone else had other plans. And Valentine's Day was changed into something else entirely for the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

You could fill a calendar with commemorations for the victims of mass shootings in America.  Virginia Tech, April 16. Columbine, April 20. Santa Fe High School, May 18. Pulse, June 12. Aurora, July 20. Tree of Life, October 27. Borderline Bar and Grill, November 7. Sandy Hook, December 14. Some of the days would commemorate multiple mass shootings.

And the hits just keep on coming. We thought after a white male U.S. citizen walked into and elementary school and shot a bunch of children, that would be it. Nope. When a white male U.S. citizen opened fire with a weapon converted to semi-automatic mode with an inexpensive plastic accessory opened fore on the crowd at a country music festival, surely that would move people to action? LOL, no. What would it take for Congress to act, someone directly opening fire on a bunch of members of Congress? It happened, June 14, 2017. (The shooter was once again a white male U.S. citizen.) And still the puppets of the N.R.A. in Congress did nothing.

There's a new Congress in town. A House of Representatives dominated by Democrats. more diverse and less beholden to the deep-pocketed gun lobby than ever before. Will things be different now?

We'll find out.

Super Blood Wolf Moon

Sunday, January 20 will mark the second anniversary of the start of the Trump occupation of the White House - which, thanks to the historically tacky banquet served there earlier this week, will have a lingering stench of Big Macs and Filets-O-Fish for years to come.

Coincidentally, that evening everyone in the United States (and all of the Americas, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, England, Norway, and other parts of Europe and Africa) will have an opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse. (See here for details and timings.) Like all lunar eclipses, it takes place during a Full Moon, and like all Full Moons, this one bears a special name bequeathed upon it by folk tradition - the "Full Wolf Moon." Because it is happening at a time when the Moon is close to its closest approach to Earth in its monthly orbit, it will appear larger than most Full Moons - hence the unofficial designation as a "Super Moon." And because it is a total lunar eclipse, the Moon will move through the central part of the Earth's shadow, vanishing more and more into darkness, until, at the point of totality, it will be bathed the light of every sunrise and sunset taking place during the eclipse, causing it to brighten into a color that can range from rosy pink to brick red to deep purple - though in the popular imagination (and sometimes in reality) it takes on the color of blood, which is why total lunar eclipses are sometimes called "Blood Moons." Put them all together and you get a Super Wolf Blood Moon.

Which sounds pretty damned ominous for someone.

Space.com: Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse of January 2019: Complete Guide

NPR.com: Heads-Up For Sunday, A Super 'Blood Moon' Is On The Way

National Geographic: How to see the last 'blood moon' eclipse of the decade

So much winning

Click to enlarge.

Note for future historians: This is during the longest shutdown of the Federal government in U.S. history, a shutdown being forced by Donald Trump, who refuses to end it until congress agrees to provide more than five billion dollars in funding for a little more than two hundred miles of border wall. This is also shortly after news broke that Trump had, to no one's surprise,been under FBI investigation for potentially being a Russian "asset." Trump is now serving fast food in the White House.

Dial-A-Moon 2019

I wrote about NASA's Dial-A-Moon a while back. It's a very useful site for knowing the phase of the Moon at any hour of any day. The site is only set to cover a single calendar year, and a new version is released every year. I knew that the waning crescent Moon had vanished in the morning sky a few days ago, and wanted to see if I might have a chance of seeing a thin sliver of the very young Moon in this evening's clear sky. I peeked out the front door and saw nothing. So I went to the site - the new, 2019 Dial-A-Moon site - and saw this:

...the hell? Has the Trump Shutdown (the third one of his time of occupying the White House, and the third one that he entered into with Republican control of Congress) extended even here? Will there be no Dial-A-Moon as long as Trump continues to hold the Federal government hostage over his wall fetish?

No. I just happened to hit the site when the Moon was at 0.0% illumination. New Moon = "no Moon." Some parts of the world actually experienced a partial solar eclipse today, the first of the new year. And because of the way these things work, this will be followed by a lunar eclipse in just over two weeks, the evening of January 20 and morning of January 21. This will be a total lunar eclipse, and will be visible from all of North and South America. I hope I can get pictures like I did in September 2015!

Long day, clear night

Today wasn't a bad day of training. During my last break I saw the end of of George W. Bush's eulogy at his father's funeral, and I was fairly impressed. He also did something at the end that I often do at poetry readings - he closed the book on his prepared notes as he was about to deliver his last line.

Donald Trump looked like he couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. In the clips I've seen tonight, I got the impression that Trump wasn't particularly interested in being somewhere where he wasn't the center of attention.

We've had two clear, sunny days in a row, I actually saw the Moon this morning - a thin, waning crescent, just about to vanish entirely into the "New" phase. Tonight was garbage night, which is always a hassle. But the sky is still clear, so I got to see Orion, the Pleiades, and quite a few other stars, constellations, and asterisms. (Also Mars, I think,low in the west around 10:00.)

Tomorrow is supposed to be another cold morning. I'm going to let the car warm up a bit more before I head out - the frost cover kept the windshield from frosting over, but the cold meant that frost started to form as soon as I pulled it off. Tomorrow night I'll do some "Secret Santa" shopping. I also promised to bring in some pies and cookies for our Christmas party. I think I'll try out the Eggnog Pie recipe.

The Blue Wave of 2018

In the aftermath of the midterm elections of 2014, I wrote a post which, for various reasons, I never got around to publishing until I found it lurking in my drafts file in May 2018. In the sixth year of Barack Obama's presidency, Democratic candidates had just gotten trounced in a midterm election that featured the lowest voter turnout in decades.

Turnout was high in 2008. Many people who had never cast a vote before, despite being eligible for many years, went out and voted for the very first time. For a lot of people the motivating factor here was the opportunity to vote for the FIRST! BLACK! PRESIDENT! It worked: As you may be aware, Barack Obama became President. 

In 2010, just two years later, turnout was low again. Many of the people who were excited about voting in 2008 had other priorities on Election Day in 2010. Besides, for the most part the elections were either for one bland late-middle-aged white guy running against another bland late-middle-aged white guy, or were being held in districts so gerrymandered that the outcome was a foregone conclusion. What was there to get excited about? The Democratic get-out-the-vote machine that had been in action in 2008 was mostly silent. 

...Which brings us to 2014. The economy is recovering, we are told, though most of us do not feel it; in fact, most of the gains from the improving economy are going to the wealthiest strata of society. War and pestilence are everywhere, with ISIS waiting to chop off our heads and spread Ebola through illegal immigrants. Congress is historically inactive, engaging in partisan bickering and the occasional grand but meaningless gestures doomed to failure. Approval for the President's performance is low, but approval for Congressional performance is barely in the double digits. 

Last Tuesday, a smaller percentage of America's eligible voters came out to vote. The Republicans won handily, and now control both branches of Congress. 

The people who voted for these Republicans will share in the blame for their actions. That's a given. But the people who were so excited to vote in 2008, and who turned out again in 2012, but didn't bother to vote in 2014 - those people let it happen. As did everyone who sat at home on Election Day 2014 and didn't bother to vote.

Apathy. Hopelessness in the face of gerrymandering. And a lack of enthusiasm when faced with the choice of one bland late-middle-aged white guy vs. another bland late-middle-aged white guy. And maybe, just maybe, a populace that felt pretty OK with the way things were going, and didn't mind seeing Barack Obama in the White House countered by a bunch of Republicans in Congress.

Things are different in 2018. Donald Trump is the most insanely unpopular and divisive president (that term used to be spelled with a capital "P", but not anymore, not for the duration) in generations, possibly ever. Pennsylvania, at least, took on the issue of gerrymandering, and a redistricted map was eventually decided upon which made almost no one completely happy, but more closely met the requirements for fair representation than the previous design. People were enthusiastic and excited about the election, and the get-out-the-vote effort was relentless. And, on the Democratic side at least, a lot fewer of the candidates were bland late-middle-aged white guys.

(Source)

Democrats took the House. That wasn't a sure thing going into the election, despite Nancy Pelosi's expressions of certainty. Republicans held the Senate and slightly increased their majority, but by less than was expected - and no one seriously expected the Democrats to win a majority in the Senate. (Hoped, maybe, but not expected.) Democrats also took or held important gubernatorial positions.

Democrats taking the House is the most important outcome of the election. Had Republicans held both houses of Congress, we could expect to see things continue as they are, with an emboldened Donald Trump continuing to ram through his agenda without any restriction. But a Democratic House presents a check on his presidency, a check that was absent for its first two years. Let's see what they can accomplish in the next two years.

The day after, and all the days after that

I keep seeing these posts that express sentiments along the lines of "I'm so glad the elections are over. Now we can forget about these things that divide us and get back to normal."

That is, to put it politely, nonsense. Unlike Trump's army of illegal aliens coming to invade us ("caravan after caravan!"), the real issues that divided us during the election aren't things that just go away the day after the election. Trump is still in office, and the once-proud Republican party is now entirely in thrall to him.

Democrats did well, as well as I dared to hope, and maybe a little better. They took the House. Pennsylvania kept its Democratic governor (Wolf, who defeated the Trump-backed Scott Wagner, who had pledged to stomp on Wolf's face with golf spikes), its Democratic Senator (Casey, who defeated Trump-supported Representative Lou Barletta, who now will be neither a Senator nor a Representative), and my redistricted district got to hold onto its Democratic Representative (Matt Cartwright,who defeated longtime New Jersey resident John Chrin, who managed to lose even without Trump's support.)

Voting irregularities abounded. Native Americans in North Dakota were effectively disenfranchised by new voter ID laws. Voters in one precinct in Detroit arrived to find their voting machines locked up and inaccessible. Early voters in Florida found that their precincts had run out of ballots. On election day, other voters in Florida discovered that their polling places had been moved to inside gated communities - and while no ID was required to vote, it was required to get access to the polling place. In Georgia voters arrived to find that someone had forgotten to provide power cords for their voting machines.

Georgia's voting irregularities were the most egregious. The person in charge of making sure the election was free and fair - the Secretary of State - was also one of the candidates for governor. Unsurprisingly, he has declared himself the winner. His opponent has not conceded.

The survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas traveled the country and organized and rallied. In the end their efforts paid off: numerous NRA-backed candidates went down in defeat. But in their home state of Florida, they found that the majority of voters - more than half, at least - just didn't care, and voted for the same politicians whose policies helped make the mass killing of seventeen of their fellow students, teachers, and coaches possible. In the end I fear that they will be faced with the same choice that anyone born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania must eventually make: leave for brighter opportunities and greener pastures, or stay and fight to try to make things better at home.

Trump is in full panic mode, knowing full well that Democrats in charge of House investigative committees will not give him the free ride that he has had from the Republican house for the last two years. He fired his Attorney General and placed a political crony in charge of the Mueller investigation. He held an epic, rambling, eighty-seven minute long news conference today, with he opened by using the term "we" to refer to Republicans and "they" to refer to Democrats and members of the media - making it clear that he does not consider himself to be president of all of the United States, but only the bits that support him unquestioningly. He also lashed out at CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta in an imperious tantrum that ended (as of this writing) with Jim Acosta's access to the White House being revoked.

We now face an uncertain future, more uncertain than when Republicans controlled everything, and we could only be certain that nothing would be investigated. Trump is a cornered rat, lashing out viciously. Things are going to get a lot worse before they will get any better.

So please don't imagine that now that the mid-term election is over, everyone will just forget about all the things they care about.

VOTE

Voter #304 at 12:55 PM

I voted today. Did you?

Pennsylvania doesn't have early voting. Early November weather is always a crapshoot - some years it's fine, some years there are snowstorms bad enough to close roads. This year it rained, at least for the first half of the day. I wonder if the rain was enough to convince some people to stay home?

My precinct in Nanticoke introduced some new technology this year. Instead of signing your name on a line in a book upside-down next to a record of your signature, this year you signed with a stylus on an electronic pad. (How well will that work? How long until it breaks down and shuts down the voting process?) Then it prints out a slip which you hand to the next person, who leads you to one of the decade-old (at least) touchscreen voting machines. You tell the machine you want to vote, then you vote, then you tell the machine that you voted and it should count your vote. (Actually, now that I think of it, maybe these were new touchscreen machines - I didn't see the big "VOTE" button that flashes at the end.)

And that was it. In and out in five minutes.

If you didn't vote yet, you still have a few hours left as of this writing.

THIS IS IT

VOTE

November 6, 2018

It's really, really important.