Progress?

Last night's US statistics:  605,000+ covid 19 cases. 29,000+ deaths. Courtesy of MSNBC. CBS shows lower numbers.Either set will of course be outdated by the time this posts.

Everybody said even just last month that expected deaths would be perhaps 2 or 3%. I did the math. We're looking at 5%. (World stats show 7%.) There are caveats. Testing is way too low to be able to "count" on those figures. Local news reports often show more cases/deaths than states or the federal government provide. Additionally, they are discovering that covid 19 is way nastier in terms of how it attacks the body than we first knew. It's not "just" a respiratory bug. It's being shown to affect hearts, blood clotting (too much or too little? - they never say), kidneys, and.... Well, they haven't gone all the way there yet. And it's not just us geezers getting knocked off. We already knew not everybody gets the same symptoms or the same level of disease. It doesn't even always matter if somebody has pre-existing health conditions.

If that's not bad enough, earlier speculation that recovery equals immunity seem to be just a wish. Cases are resurging in China and Japan, leading us to believe we all are likely to see the same thing around the globe. Even in countries who are not also plagued by grift, stupidity, and lies from those "in charge". Of course, this begs the question: how would we know? We can't just assume not everybody is as idiotically obvious and Trump Inc. But still....

Meat plants are shutting down due to large numbers of cases among employees. Haven't been to the grocery store since that was announced, but will bacon be the next impossible thing to buy? Bread is still plentiful, but yesterday I spent twenty minutes searching the kitchen trying to find a loaf of bread which I'd forgotten I'd given to Steve so he wouldn't have another reason to shop right then. What I do have left will last another week with planning.

My hand sanitizer order still has not been delivered. Looks like paper towels (the GOOD ones, sturdy and perforated in half-sheets), TP, and a variety of other things will have to be ordered online. I checked out the local grocery store's website for ordering, but found it a nightmare. Might give WalMart a go for pick-up, but that still won't get me ice cream, will it?  I spent time on line, eBay and Amazon, this afternoon looking for TP and paper towels. After weeding through batched of offers with shipping costs as outrageous as $90 - each pack - on top of prices double what any store could charge, I finally found one selection of each that didn't offend me mortally. By the time I put 1 of each in my cart and clicked over to pay, I watched the number of items in my cart flip from 2 to 1 to 0!

I've been trying to maintain my calm about the supply chain being gobbled up by hoarders, but now I'm actually starting to be concerned about it. The last roll of towels hangs over the kitchen counter. TP is still visible under the sink, but....

Starting to noodle around the idea of packing all food for that hoped for trip north. Way I see it, pop top cans of single meal servings could play a big part. This would be a major contrast to our usual, where everything but coffee (my special blend) involves drive-throughs at major chains. May even be just as costly. The cheap motels we use nearly never have a microwave or mini fridge, some of them actually require going to the lobby for coffee, so Steve and I are discussing upgrading our stays. Now that we're not likely hitting the national parks where everything is more expensive, I find myself reluctant to spend any extra money. Besides, I believe we would not be welcomed without bringing our own bundle of TP!

Yes, I know gas right now is much cheaper, folks, but with my 41 mpg on the highway car, it almost doesn't factor in. I filled my tank for $18 this week, just before it went dry, and am quite confident it will last until sometime in May. Unless....

Skies are clearing. We all, as a country, are polluting less. And down here there are numerous "dark sky" locations, where one could again spot those stars invisible since childhood. I still recall clearly finding 9 of the "Seven Sisters." More hinted at their existence if I just looked a bit sideways at the cluster. I'm getting an itch to head out one evening, finding a place to park, and getting out to see if I can again. Milky Way too. I just need to find one closer than the Grand Canyon. It was a plan to give it a go somewhere along the first leg of out trip north, say Monument Valley to Moab leg, but that's not looking likely and it's a two-day excursion requiring a motel visit. So thinking caps on, and some internet searching in the near future.

Now if that would only stop me from eating too. Steve read me a joke from one of his internet buddies: "When this is over, half of us are going to be pregnant. The other half is going to look like it."