October 3, 2020 – Saturday (Covid-19 running rampant = nearly 7.4 million cases in US w/209,000 dead, wildfires still raging, election going off the rails, you name it … )
It’s been a week.
And that’s putting it mildly.
If the best part of the week was me swallowing my temporary crown … yeah, it’s been one for the books. Read on!
We are now at nearly 7.4 million Covid-19 cases in the US with more than 209,000 deaths. Worldwide there are nearly 35 million cases and 1,000,000 deaths. Disgusting. Upsetting. Completely heartbreaking.
The wildfires continue raging making this “fire season” in the western US (OR/CA/WA) the worst in at least 70 years. I don’t know the size of an acre but I can visualize how big a football field is … and in these states, to date, over 5.7 MILLION football fields of homes, businesses, forests and land have gone up in flames. That is roughly the same size of the state of New Jersey. What is left is a blackened landscape of charred dreams, towns and wilderness.
Aside from the horrific personal tragedies of people and lives lost and all the animals and wildlife lost … and complete towns being decimated … the air quality has been, at times, the worst on the planet and the drinking water supplies are now having issues meaning health issues for all in these states as well as across the globe. If you have not seen the photos of the apocalyptic skies in San Francisco – please Google them. This affects everyone. Shall we continue to deny that there is climate change? I’m thinking we should all send brooms to Trump so he can come to these areas and start sweeping the forests once the election is over.
Schools are opening and realizing that they are incubators for this virus. Elementary schools to universities are fighting hard to come to terms with a new normal for this school year. Either way – it’s not pretty nor easy. How does a Kindergarten teacher, any normal year, teach 30 little 5 year old bodies? How does one teach them NOW?
Businesses continue to be closed … citizens continue to need assistance with food, shelter, meds, childcare, health and safety issues … and times, for so many, are so difficult. People are getting tired of this virus and are getting complacent … spawning new hot spots of the virus and the numbers of cases keep increasing. Despite this, government officials keep “opening up” in areas that really should not be. And still no federal assistance or mask mandate.
Election woes continue to plague the voting process with venomous spewing from the President, himself, concerning voter and ballot fraud, a rigged election, and his continuation in office. He wants to make us all think that this election’s results will be the decision of SCOTUS … possibly bullying people into NOT voting as a “why bother” ploy.
This week was the first (and possibly only) Presidential debate (debacle). If you watched it, you know how difficult it was not to have a stroke while doing so. I’m thankful I ended the night unscathed … though, there were moments when I wasn’t sure what would explode first … the TV or me. Thank God for Lamaze breathing techniques! Trump’s behavior was a pathetic display of a grown adult behaving like a 3-year-old having a tantrum in the toy aisle at Target – exceptionally undignified and behavior not representative of nor becoming the leader of our country. He was rude, demeaning and callous. He called Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’ … lied about Biden’s son. Hunter … had no moral or empathetic morsel for Biden about his dead son, Beau … ridiculed the military … incited violence and intimidation against voters and on and on. He broke the rules of convention and interrupted the moderator and his opponent – continuously. He bullied and lied his way through 90 minutes never answering a question and refused to disassociate himself from the violent, White Supremacist far-right and instead told them to ‘stand back and stand by.’ In my opinion, the debate should have ended at that point and he should have been escorted off the stage. His words and actions was overly offensive, exhausting, disheartening to watch and listen to … and embarrassing, at a global level, that this was the behavior of our President. I don’t think anyone was a winner that evening but I certainly think all Americans were losers.
And that was only Tuesday!
As we marched through the week my pre-op Covid test induced quarantining was lifted because someone at the hospital tested positive for the virus. It was not me. All elective surgeries were canceled and my cataract/eyeball renewal now won’t be til mid-month. Fine by me – I get to have a sparkling clean OR when I go in! My appointment to attach my permanent crown (on the molar I broke last week) was moved up a few days due to the tasty snack I had on Thursday … yes, that’s when I swallowed my temporary crown! Yep – right down the gullet! Let’s just say I won’t be needing that anymore.
Later that night, after a full week of events/the debate/travel, Trump (and wife, Melania) announced they had tested positive for Covid-19. I have to admit I was a little elated. I don’t want him to die – because ultimately I’d love to see him in jail. But, I do want him to be sick enough to realize that this is a SERIOUS issue. That this is not a political “thing” … that it’s a non-partisan health crisis and that everyone should be doing everything they possibly can to avoid spreading it so we can get people back to work, our economy stimulated, and our country back up and running in some sort of normal fashion – as soon as possible.
I don’t want to send him an email saying, “YOU’RE AN IDIOT – SERVES YOU RIGHT!” but when one plays with fire – ultimately one gets burned. Mask wearing shows that it helps prevent the spread of the virus. It’s that simple. Add in washing your hands and having social distancing of at least 6 feet and no physical contact – you are doing your part in helping to keep that virus away and at bay. And yet, this President has been avoiding and politicizing it and mocking those that do since the beginning of the pandemic and when it was stated that mask wearing was beneficial. Stupid is as stupid does.
Apparently, the Rose Garden ceremony (when he nominated to fill the seat that RBG left by her passing) was a high-spreading event. How many times fast can you say Super Spreader? And think back to everyone he was in contact with this week (mask-less, of course) and all the places, homes, events, airplanes, he’s been in and of all of the people he’s been in contact with … I’m sure we’ll be hearing of more and more cases of Covid-19 due to this week. As of today, there have been 13 confirmed Covid-19 cases of White House personnel and journalists who were at the events this week … with thousands more now needing to be tested and quarantined.
Friday kept up with the garbage of the week with Trump being admitted to the hospital for observation as well as being administered a trial drug (controversial at best). The WH and hospital are being rather mum on his condition – but how can we expect anything like truthfulness, communication or transparency with this administration? We will all be following this closely as the next few days unfold.
If that wasn’t enough, the Texas gov’r demanded the removal of all but one ballot drop-off box per county. Meaning that one box is to be sufficient for all residents of Harris County which is roughly 2000 square miles. Many states have mail-in voting (as well as absentee ballot voting) and the military votes by mail … and there is NO evidence of fraudulent voting by this means. This is a tactic, by this gov’r and whomever else is doing similar things, to lessen the amount of Democratic ballots/voting (more dems vote by mail).
What happened to “let the best candidate win”? What happened to fairness? What happened to decency? I can’t take much more. Maybe it’s a good thing we’ve only got 30 days left before the election.
I don’t know about you – but I’m exhausted! Today, here in the NW, it is our third day of fog, gray skies and chilly temps. Earlier today I was sure the Creature from the Black Lagoon was hiding in the swirling fog on my deck. I wanted to get my mail but I’ll wait til later as I didn’t dare – cuz, ya know, I didn’t want to risk anything else happening.
After all, it’s been a week!