I must admit I’ve been avoiding this. It’s become rather depressing. Day after day awful news bombards us to numbness. The statistics for total cases have become about meaningless. There are a great deal more infected than these figures indicate. Also, to some extent the death figures are understated. Health systems are overwhelmed and counting bodies is not the top priority. Finding places to bury the dead takes precedence. The figures for the poorer areas of the world are frightening and endless. That said, the US has the most deaths due to the clumsy, greed-infested response from our government. Donald Trump is one of the most effective mass murderers in history. We can only hope that his fans will begin to understand this. But instead, many of his more moronic supporters like to carry guns around and complain about government tyranny. Those fools have no concept of real tyranny. They should transport back in time to the Spanish Inquisition as Islamists.
I’ll check the news to get an updated, although under-counted, figure as of today, May 11, 2020.
Worldwide DEAD: 282,636
United States DEAD: 79,552
We’ve lost more Americans to the coronavirus than we lost in The Korean War, The Vietnam War, and all of our other generally stupid wars since (Afghanistan, Iraq, Grenada, Somalia, and so on.) More than a quarter million people worldwide and there’s no end in sight. We’re losing ten plane loads of Americans to this virus every day.
I have been somewhat buoyed at times, reading about how lessened human activity is restoring the planet, but even this news can be somewhat grim – the amount of plastic waste from the pandemic is astounding – billions of plastic masks, gowns, and other materials needed to fight this disease all must be disposed. As is usual, a large percent will wind up in our oceans where it will kill millions of fish, birds, turtles, and all manner of sea life. We seem blind to the fact that the human race is destroying it’s own planet. What could be stupider?
So anyway, we had a beautiful salad from our Victory Garden for Mother’s Day.
We couldn’t stand the idea of not being at the beach this summer, so we escaped. Loaded the dogs into the camper and headed west. Drove 8 hours the first day. Camped near Twin Falls in the midst of quite a few cows. Stopped only for gas, being cautious and using a plastic sheet to insulate against the gas pump. Drove 12 hours the second day, arriving at the beach late evening. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and have some food. We never entered a building. Before leaving I arranged for someone to take care of my grapes. They are also beneficiaries of the garden produce. First day here I walked to Seal Rocks. It was a beautiful day yet the beach was empty. I walked miles without encountering a sole. Charged my batteries.
In keeping with the gardening theme – I just can’t stop myself – I went right to work weeding and cleaning the yard. Drove to my favorite nursery in the world and selected five new columbines for the Paul Klee hillside project. https://petrifiedwood.rocks/paul-klee-window/