May 31

Another nice sunny but cool day. Yesterday I got sage and thyme transplanted and convolvulus seeds planted. I also placed some other pots outside to harden before finding them permanent homes. I have several pots I need to add some soil to but I am actually not in any hurry to do that. I cleaned out the dried herbs I put up every year and discarded any over two years old or that we tried but didn't use. The only jar of aged discards that still had any potency was the rosemary.

Found this at Jacobin this morning and the author asks a very good question: who is doing the looting and who is being looted?

Random observation: I think we were ripe for some form of explosion. We have basically combined the frustrations resulting from the coronavirus restrictions (large and small) with the uncertainty going forward as the restrictions loosen, growing unemployment and the stress that entails, with the rage resulting from the murders of three black citizens by police.

The economic pain mentioned above won't end any time soon no matter what swill the politicians are trying to sell us. This article clearly indicates why the economy won't rebound the way #45 and his sycophants tell us it will. I have been reading similar articles from other authors--some anecdotal and others surveys. If the small businesses aren't around the jobs won't come back and the people they employed won't have jobs to g back to. That doesn't even address the large business that are dying or laying off huge numbers of workers.

May 29

Well, I guess Twitter has upped the ante in its dispute with #45. They have masked one of his tweets on the Minneapolis riots. I hope they stand pat. He may be the President, however unPresidential he behaves, but that doesn't mean rules don't apply to him. The situation doesn't need him adding gasoline to the fire.

Found this item from the Smithsonian this morning. The contrast is mind blowing. The last sentence makes a very good point: one irony of public health is that the more successful experts are, the more people forget about the dangers. 

May 30

Sunny but cool today. Already five months of this year gone. Given what has gone on so far I 
am somewhat apprehensive about the rest of the year.

Oh, well. I found this just a bit ago. Sounds like last year's nasty fire season in the high latitudes is about to rise from the dead.

For a bit of gallows humor head over to the Onion. There is, indeed, a right way and a wrong way to loot businesses.

May 26

I saw this interview when it was first broadcast. Don't you just love being described as human capital stock. It is what I would expect from the current administration: insensitive, narcissistic, cruel. And by the way, given that half of the 90k+ who have died are not over 65, some 45k+ of the dead are working age and so part of that "human capital stock." So that asset was not as intact as Hassett claimed.

I still wonder if this isn't a joke but considering how innane so many of the people are who refuse to wear a mask or social distance while demanding their "right" to get a haircut or a manicure or party hearty, it may not be.

May 27

May 28

We have a bit of sun now but I would guess not for long. The weather forecast is for scattered storms all day. No problem. I got our trash out for pick up and swept the patio. The maple seeds are falling so that needs to be done periodically. At least I won't have to water.

I went through the jars on our tea shelf and gathered up the empty ones. Our local bulk tea/spice/grains shop isn't going to be allowed to reopen until late in June. The health department classifies it with buffets so the opening is delayed. I don't feel comfortable calling in an order so we will wait. We generally go in and stock up about every three or four months and it is well beyond that now. We will pick up some alternatives at the supermarket next week. Damn!

The U.S. tally is now 100k+ deaths. How much higher that goes is anyone's guess. Given what we saw over the weekend and the number of protests and outright defiance of medical advice, I think we might be lucky if we don't hit 200k by September. The news this morning had a piece about a recently released research paper which claims that the virus is airborne not just droplet borne. That would be a nasty game changer. Think about how many of our buildings are pretty much self-contained environments where air is circulated inside but not much comes in from outside.

May 25--Memorial Day

Actually, if it weren't for the constant reminders over the weekend, I would probably not have remembered. A couple of the commentators on the various morning shows remarked that it certainly hasn't been like any Memorial Day weekend in their memory. For the first time in decades AAA didn't release a prediction of the traffic they expected to see on the roads. Though some cabin fever stricken people have decided to travel, or visit parks or beaches (most not minding social distancing or masking), a large number of us haven't. That a lot of us aren't indulging is probably a good thing considering other news from the "opening" front: a hairdresser in Arkansas exposed as many as 60 of her patrons and 2 in Missouri exposed 140 while symptomatic.

I can see so many things that can go wrong with this. The blogger who included the link indicated that she is allergic to oats and soy and the wrong substitution could kill her. We have gone more and more to cooking from scratch. And we do watch the labels. We thankfully don't have any allergies or other conditions that involve food. I am also aware that whatever is "temporary" often turns out to be permanent.

I finished my gardening for the day about an hour ago. The temperature on the patio was near 90F, probably much higher than the 81F the Weather Channel list currently. I have said before that the white fence around our small patio makes the area an oven in the summer. But before giving up I transplanted my lavender, tomato, pepper, 3 of the 4 remaining marigolds, and the spearmint. I also put in the seeds for the morning glory and sunflower. I will get some more done tomorrow. I know said  I wouldn't put in any pepper or tomato but those are somewhat like an itch and putting in one of each is a good way to scratch without investing too much space or energy into the project.

May 23

Found this right off the bat. We, on this side of the Atlantic, are already (and have been for some tine) dealing with this. I hope the Boris Johnson's government isn't so desperate for a trade deal with the U.S. that they won't knuckle under to U.S. pressure. However, ever since Bush II proclaimed the ambition to create an "ownership society" I thought he really meant an "you're on your ownership society." In almost every aspect of our lives we can't rely on the "protections" and "advice" we had trusted because it has been corrupted, diluted or dismantled. Throughout the pandemic business interests have succeeded in getting the administration to "ease" regulations. We do have to do much more research when deciding what we will do and buy.

Cassandra's Legacy has this interesting post. No one really knows how the COVID-19 moves. My guess, as a literate, non-expert, is that the number of contacts leads to increased exposure and increased chances of infection. The stay-at-home orders and shutdown of "non-essential" businesses (in quotes because that term is very different in different areas and for different people) leads to fewer contacts, fewer chances for exposure, and lower chances of infection.

Sunny right now and nearing 70F. So I am getting transplants into permanent pots. I put two marigolds in small pots in front of the large pot with the begonia by the front door. I will put more marigolds around the begonia arrangement by the back door. I will continue working outside, slowly with frequent rests, until either it gets too hot or until the expected afternoon thunderstorms come. I should be able to do the same tomorrow and Monday but without the threat of storms.

Charles Hugh Smith at Of Two Minds says some things I have thought about what our post-COVID world will look like. I have long thought that rarity provided much of the value of educational attainments (degrees, certifications, etc.) As long as the proportion of people with those credentials was low they had value. When they were no longer rare--you had PhDs driving cabs and Master's Degree holders unemployed. Another blogger once commented that she thought the real purpose of the yearly physical the medical establishment was to search for something, however trivial, they could treat. The condition may not bother you, might even go away on its own, but it was an income stream and kept you coming back regularly. I wonder how much we have been accustomed to buying we will suddenly realizee don't need, don't really want, and won't do what we thought it would.

May 21

Our state is 2 days away from the next stage of "re-opening" when more businesses will be able to open including some of the personal services outlets like hair salons/barber shops. I hope the little bulk tea/grains/spices store will be able to open up to in store customers. I was surprised that it wasn't allowed to have in store customers as food sellers were considered essential. The owner posted on their Facebook site that the health department ruled against them because they are basically "self-serve" since customers scoop out their own orders from the bins.

We did our usual shopping on two days two days because we hoped to get up to the tea/etc. store. Most of the grocery was filled at the only "big-box" store we go to (not Target or Walmart). We saw more cars in the parking lot though not nearly as many as we would have before the the shutdown. The store was not at all crowded and customers were merely "urged" to wear masks or face coverings. About 1/3 of customers weren't wearing either but all were trying to stay clear of each other. The baking aisle had big gaps in the flour area. We got our 5lb bag of flour. They still had a few of them. The cat litter aisle was also somewhat sparse but we did get the two 20# boxes we usually get.

The dairy had everything though the meat freezer was still very light. They had 1# packages of breakfast sausage but not the links we had been getting. The sign said "2 to a customer" and Mom asked it we could get 4 since there were 2 of us. The clerk laughed and told us to go ahead. The limit was to curb the customers they had been getting in from Illinois because Indiana was loosening up earlier. They had a problem with those customers coming in and buying everything in sight leaving little for the regular, local customers. She said our local meat market had the same problem and a person she knows who works there described a man who came in from Illinois each week and took out a very large order. I hope he was shopping for several families. We have noticed a couple of places urging families to send one person in to shop. We have basically ignored those suggestions because Mom and I go together just in case something happens and one of us needs help. That is something we have to consider since she is 88 and I am 71.

Instead of going to the tea shop we went to the local garden store I prefer and started picking up plants. I have most of the herbs we use in cooking and for tea. I have planted the two begonia arrangements and set the pots by the doors. They are my "show" pieces. I also planted the two spearmint cuttings that I found taking root under a bed of leaves where the runner had hidden over the winter. I hesitated transplanting because they didn't seem to be growing above the soil so I wasn't sure how the root systems were doing. However they were doing very well. I will transplant the rest of the seedlings as I get to them. That will be slow going, however, because I simply don't have the energy to do a sustained hours long stint of gardening.

May 17

The weather predictions were right. We had rain overnight and have had more so far today. We aren't far behind last May for rain and it was the wettest on record. No gardening today.

Instead I am trying out another Tunisian stitch pattern to, hopefully, reduce my scrap stash.

Two things have been absolutely unavoidable over the last almost five months: the coronavirus and politics. I try to limit my exposure for my own sanity but, even so, I feel like I am drowning in information, misinformation, outright lies and bombast. I will give you a few random thoughts on the matter.

Random thought 1: there are a number of good reasons to open up the economy bit just because you want to get get your hair cut/styled, your nails done or other such frippery is not a good reason. I don't know how many of the "protesters" really feel that those things are important or if the news media focuses on them making them seem more numerous than they are. The local news made a big deal out of Chicago's mayor getting her hair cut about a month ago and asked the Illinois governor if he also planned to go for a hair cut, and just last week asked again because his hair looked neatly trimmed. This is all in the "gotcha" spirit that seems to permeate news these days. (Note: Pritzker said he did his own hair cut with help from his son.) Frankly, this trivializes the pandemic which has cost nearly 90k Americans their lives.

Random thought 2: No one, repeat no one, was prepared for the pandemic. Not on any level, though some of us were better prepared than others. The politicians could be put in two categories: those who could think creatively about  how to deal with the situation and those who tried to magically wish it away. At the individual level some of us were more resilient and adaptable while others were more brittle and simply wanted things to go back to what they were before we even knew the pandemic was here. A character in a book I like described cats as furry little Republicans who don't like change at all. Whether they vote Republican or not people are much the same just without the fur.

Random thought 3: The pandemic put us in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, socially, economically, and politically. No one is really happy with how politicians have handled the problems whether they vigorously attacked or kept hands off. Every state is split between those who think the politicians did too much for too long and those who think the stay-at-home orders and other measures should be maintained/extended/strongly enforced. People are in the same situation. If your employer is deemed essential and you go to work you risk getting the virus but if you don't you will lose income if not your job. If your employer is non-essential you may not have a job at all and a good many of those businesses won't be coming back. What about child care? With schools out the kids are at home whether you have a job to go to or not.

That is enough random musing.