Into the Breach Again

Today was another retail excursion after two weeks of being sequestered. That's about our interval, based on the last two forays. Again, prescription refills triggered our trip into town.

This time we were short on chicken and fresh produce. We have plenty of everything else for the most part, except for a couple of deliveries of paper products that are en route. Overall, the only things we're lacking are disinfectant wipes. They seem to be impossible to get these days. We can't even get put on a waiting list anywhere. It's very frustrating.

The stores were not as tapped out in certain of the aisles, though the usual suspects (again, paper products, bread flour, pasta) are MIA. The stores weren't too crowded, but I would say more than half the people in the five stores we went to wore masks. The rest, well, just let's say they are dumber than dirt and that insults dirt...in other words, covidiots.

Why wouldn't people (perfectly healthy, mind you) not wear face masks unless they were so dense or so arrogant that they don't care whether they may be infecting other people?

Today was the last day we used improvised face masks. We bought a couple of cloth ones made by a lady in our community for five dollars each. And talk about well-made! She has a nice little studio in her golf cart garage where she does all her sewing and such. Quite a set-up, my wife said.

Now we're set for our next retail excursion, which will be in a little over a week when my wife has to go get her blood test. Being a cancer survivor, she has to routinely make sure her cancer markers aren't off. While they're not a perfect indicator, they are definitely an important part of her diagnostics.

More than likely, she'll do a teleconference with her oncologist to go over the results instead of going in. That's currently scheduled for a week after her blood test. After that, we'll probably make a stop or two, but it won't be a major shopping day.

Yours from the front,

Michael

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

The title reflects one of my favorite sayings these days and it's so true.

Here we have the alleged President of the United State routinely speaking falsehoods under the guise of daily briefings, which we all know are just replacements for his rallies we taxpayers fund in myriad ways. The true experts in the Administration are either muzzled or fired outright.

And Trump's base, those God-fearing covidiots are getting louder and more kinetic in their protests, many of whom are now threatening store clerks who are just doing their jobs to enforce social distancing.

Imagine going to a Costco, standing in line for hours, only to be shot by some maniac with a semi-automatic rifle because he wasn't able to get into the store when he wanted to. It could likely happen. Hell, there have been mass shootings for less "justification" than that.

In our little community, the right-wing, Trump-loving lunatics are getting more and more boisterous in their demand that all the amenities we have here open up no matter what the Governor's orders are.

We're seeing here (and in other parts of the country) citizens going head to head with cops, spraying their COVID-19 breath everywhere, demanding to have their freedoms "restored." There are also some county law enforcement officials who declare they will not enforce the social distancing orders and there work for the damn state!

My wife and I have talked about moving out of here to be closer to our families. We actually had a loose timetable to do this since we visited them last year. But because of the novel coronavirus, our plans are on hold. We have no idea when we'll be able to travel to look at a new home, let alone get everything all ready to move.

So, my wife had enough today when we saw on Nextdoor.com veiled threats from some members toward the vocal liberals among us. It was disturbing enough. Check this one:

This kind of thing is more than discouraging. Considering how these people love their guns here, is it that out of the realm of possibility that someone will step up the assault and shoot one of us? So we're stuck here until we'll be able to travel freely again. Until then, we just have to remain vigilant.

Yours from the nuthouse,

Michae.

The problem with committing to writing a blog every day is you sometimes have nothing noteworthy to discuss, at least something that will fill a short article space. Sure, I can rant on about the latest stupid thing that Trump and his minions did, but that gets old. Every day is a new insult to our country and to analyze every single one of those instances is better left to the journalists.


So, here's a brief list of things on my mind this day.

SNL At Home

Have you had a chance to watch the two episodes of SNL produced all from within the cast's homes? Despite the lack of a studio audience, it's been pretty inspired comedy. It demonstrates the professionalism of those involved with the product, from the writers all the way to the video editors and everyone in between.


I've been a fan of SNL since it first aired back in the 70s. I was in high school then and I thought their comedy was edgy and a bit dangerous, as compared to the way TV was back then. Over the years, the quality came and went, but I hung in there as so many fans did.


Sure, their episodes are uneven. Some skits are funny as hell, others are just bombs. Sketch comedy is a brutal business and the way SNL's process seems to lend itself to disasters sometimes.


To be able to see new episodes in this stay-at-home format really has increased my appreciation for what they do. Bravo, Lorne Michaels and the entire team!

Nextdoor.com

I've already ranted about the people using this platform in our neighborhood but their complaints have grown both more strident and more ridiculous since I began posting there regularly.


The number of in-house epidemiologists we have here is simply astounding! These self-described experts (really covidiots) cite their sources as some idiot they saw on Fox News or some You-tube video they saw. They attack the true medical experts like Fauci, even questioning his motives, his background, and everything else.


Yet, these same morons think that everything that spills from Trump's lips is like words from the Lord himself. Talk about a bunch of delusional twits.


And the complaints? Don't get me started. Besides the constant whining about the amenities still being closed, they bitch they're "rights" are being taken away because they post stupid and misleading stuff on Nextdoor, and then the posts are removed.


The First Amendment's intention was to prevent the government from abridging the right to free speech. It was not written to allow anyone to write/say anything on any platform completely unfettered. NextDoor.com isn't run by the government; users must follow the guidelines prescribed by the moderators. The same goes for Twitter and all other social media.

Hot Peppers

Do you like spicy food? I mean really like spicy food? I do. And having grown up in a household of pepper-eaters (my mother's Italian), I grew up eating the stuff, the hotter the better.


When I met my wife, she wasn't a big fan of spicy food but over the years, she's learned to love it almost as much as I do. Every once in a while we buy chilis japones, those hot red peppers you get in kung pao style food at Chinese restaurants. We fry them up in vegetable oil until they just a little crisp and then put the result in a glass bowl with a spoon, where we apply it to any/all food we eat.


Without getting graphic, of course there's the natural digestive result that comes with eating hot food. But anyone who loves the burning going down to the point of an addiction tolerates the results with a modicum of acceptance. Even when it hurts, you still crave more.


I won't admit to the number of hot chili sauces I have in our refrigerator, either. Just know I regularly have to replace empty bottles of the stuff.


Yours in miscellanea,


Michael