October 4

Really wet today so no gardening. Things should dry out over this next week and we have only one outside errand so I should have plenty of time to get some of my chores done.

David Kaiser has an interesting post today contrasting the front pages of the New York Times just after President Dwight Eisenhower had a serious stroke and a couple of days ago just after it was revealed #45 had Covid-19 and had been admitted to Walter Reed.

I haven't spent much time (any time really) thinking about poor #45 except to note that his behavior pretty much ensured he would contract the virus "que sera sera" as the song said or as #45 said "it is what it is." We have spent much more time thinking and talking about how we deal with the situation we have been handed. I feel somewhat like Hecate Demeter on her blog but we watched the early reports we found on Wuhan and said, between ourselves, "this is coming and it isn't going to be pretty." We always listened to the medical experts and I made our masks well before extensive masking recommendations came on line. I remember (and I think I have recounted this occurrence before on this blog) encountering a store clerk shortly after the state mandated masks and distancing in the stores that were deemed "necessary". She thought (and fervently hoped) given what she had been hearing that everything would be back to "normal" real soon. I asked her if she knew how long the 1918 flu pandemic lasted. She didn't and I told her: two years. She wasn't at all happy with that thought. I just read a piece on three epidemics that changed history and all of those were pre-1900: the Antonine Plague of 165 to 179 ce, the Justinian plague in the 540s ce, and, of course, the Black Death of the 14th century. One part of it surprised me: the Antonine Plague (possibly measles or smallpox) killed about a third of the population in repeated waves over 15 years. So much for "heard immunity."

October 5

Sunny today so I may get some of my fall jungle cut today. I don't take plants out any more because the remains act as a ground cover and letting the stubble and roots decay in the pots puts at least some of the nutrients back into the containers. I will take one completely out because I have one more mum I want to put in hoping it and the other will survive the winter.

Concerning #45's COVID John Beckett has this post and it says about all that needs to be said.