Inevitability ll

This post got off to a very rocky start when I wrote the title before I started the post.  I had meant to tie it in with a previous post "Inevitability", posted a few days ago. Only, I wrote "Inevitable ll" instead of using "Inevitability" as I did in the previous post. As is often the case, this snafu with the words in the title caused me to lose my focus on just what I wanted to write in this post script of sorts to the earlier post.

Then I coughed up some really ugly semi solid clear crap and remembered why I came here today.

When my wife came down with Covid 10 days ago, I resigned myself to the inevitability of me catching it also. Most of the couples I knew around here seemed to have shared the experience. 

I was right. I did catch Covid. While not the often fatal ride of the original rounds of 2020 Covid, this watered down version is certainly no picnic. I have been this sick before, but it has been years. Once I finally scored a prescription for Paxlovid, by the second day of  pills, I was feeling almost human again. 

One of the worst parts of the experience was the accumulated sleeplessness. Next, would be the red nose syndrome which I have hated since childhood. But absolutely, without a doubt, the nastiest mind blowing nightmare of this disease for me has been the incessant 120 decibel sneezing I am experiencing.

Oddly, coughing has not been an issue really. It has not been that frustrating, no satisfaction coughing that leaves me with sore ribs and a shredded throat. So far, when I wind up to cough, I am rewarded early and not frustrated. But sneezing......... Well, sneezing has been so bad, so often, and so violent, I've had to change my drawers more than a few times. But since there has not been much food intake recently, the bathroom disasters did not amount to what could have happened.

I may be counting chickens that haven't hatched yet. After all, I am only into Day 2 of the prescription. But, the almost immediate turn around since Sunday night, well, I am feeling confident Life will become tolerable in a few days. 

As always, please keep it 'tween the ditches ..............................

__________________

Music today is a tune that always makes me stomp my feet. That is how much better I feel today. Please enjoy "Good Thing", by the Fine Young Cannibals.

Inevitability

I guess it was inevitable. People in my wife's working circle were dropping like flies. Okay, they may not have been dropping, but many people around my wife have recently tested positive for Covid. 

Day before yesterday, BA felt a cold coming on. She tested negative, so she went to her office. Monday night, she felt worse and yesterday morning she tested positive.

She did not go to work yesterday. She did not go to work today. That is the first time in a very long time I have witnessed her taking any kind of day off, let alone two in a row during Tax Season. So, besides a very sick wife, I am dealing with an angry one to boot. I look for no sympathy. This is my chance to rise to a new challenge and help my mate. She certainly deserves all that I can give her.

She called our doctor. He prescribed Paxlovid. I waited in a very long line at the Hannaford pharmacy, picked it up, and drove home. Now BA and I have done all we can do except make her as comfortable as she is willing to stand. Inactivity is not one of her strong suits. Me, well, I can get sloth-like in a heartbeat. Just give me a reason. No, I don't need a reason.

The big question I have at this point is will I fall to the evil Covid. So far, any symptoms I may have are safely hidden among all the minor old fart complaints that come with being, well, an old fart. I am not worried though. Whatever happens is beyond my control at this point. My primary concern is helping my wife get back to work.

My primary concern is getting her back to work? ..............  Without context, that might seem kind of cold I guess. In my defense though, cold was not what I was aiming for. Getting her back to work is what will make her happy. BA is a very focused lady. She has been as long as I have known her. She makes plans and then follows those plans to the end. Tax Season is the biggest annually occurring plan she has other than keeping me from driving her wacky. When a plan goes awry, or is interrupted, she can become testy. So, it is partly out of self interest that I will do what I can to help her get back to work, but more important, work makes her happy. And that's just fine with me.

Next up .......... Will Crum also get Covid? ...... Stay Tuned ..................

______________________________

My first thought about a musical companion to this post was:

"Covid? There ain't no music to go with Covid."

But I knew better. After many months in a row of chasing songs to include in my posts, I have determined there is a song out there about anything one could come up with. The question is do I care enough to chase down a suitable song? ...... Nah.

I defy anyone to not tap their feet once this tune gets up to speed. Here is "Killin Floor", by Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials. 

Factory Defects

On Facebook this morning I ran across the image to the right. My usual routine is to read a comment or two before moving on with the more important duty of finding something truly deserving to be righteously indignant about.

This comment from Daryl caught my eye:

" Without it we cannot think, ........ "

Daryl was right of course. At first I felt a twinge of annoyance at the fact he felt it necessary to point out the obvious.  

My response were the first words that came to me after my knee jerked:

"Apparently there are many of us walking around with it either not installed or not turned on."

I would not normally share the off the cuff remarks I made on some social media site, but my words stuck with me. 

This meme helped me find some clarity regarding the current period of rampant stupidity that has apparently befallen the Human Race. I decided four decades ago that while technology was always going to innovate, the Human Species was not.  We were trapped in an evil spiral of devolution which has created a revolving scenario that causes us to make the same mistakes time and time again.

And now finally, I know why. We are re-populating the species with factory defects. Many are being born with no brains installed or the brains installed are not turned on before deployment. Either way means disaster unless headquarters gets it shit together. Time is running out.

Later ............................................

Covidiots

 

Biting Off Their Nose to Spite Their Face

So, I have tried hard to not lose myself in a rant about anything Covid. It was easy at first. I just blew off any extended focus on the ring of stupidity that surrounded the pandemic. It was just more mindless madness kept in play by the Trump Death Cult.

You know them. They are the bozos who insist on using stupidity to make a point that will somehow own us. They would rather own us and put us in our place by using their right to be stupid. Common Sense has long since vacated their cranial voids. Getting over on the rest of us is more important than their own health, their loved one's health, or the health of the community they exist in. An almost “Kill us all, God will sort us out later" kind of mentality.

What it shows me, well, I gave up trying to figure that out. They are now just selfish lunatics on the wrong side of the fence as far as I am concerned.

For too long I have tolerated Covidiots with their stupidity, their embracing of hearsay bullshit, and general Fuck You selfishness over communal health. My tolerance and understanding quiver is now empty. I can no longer concern myself with what happens to the No Vaxers. Any trouble, pain, or disrespect they receive now is their own fault. They are brain dead to me.

Day in and day out, common sense information saturates the many media platforms pointing out the obvious benefits to everyone if everyone gets vaccinated. Other than extreme cases, there is no reason that even approaches being a sane reason to not be vaccinated.

So what reasoning does that leave the Typhoid Trumpers for their resistance? What is left is a disorganized cluster fuck of idiotic mealy mouthed claims of rights violations and unproven conspiratorial allegations. What is really going on is that being stubbornly stupid is in their minds their path to religious and patriotic Heaven. God and/or Trump have shown them the way.

What a bunch of rubes.

It does appear there is an easing of the Anti-Vaxers inflexible grip on Stupidity as it relates to Covid. The Delta Variant of Covid 19 is winning converts among the empty minded minions of the Right. The Delta Variant is ripping the unvaccinated a new asshole. And now the foxhole they were sure only God existed in is making room for Bill Nye the science guy. The result is a rise in vaccinations over the previous plateau stubbornly supported by the stupid. And this a good thing, but I am past handing out any "atta boy's". Stupid does not deserve any kind of reward or encouragement.

I know, I know. Existing here on the empathetic side, the do gooder side, the limp wristed, pinko commie and PC side, I should respect the Stupid's right to be stupid. Respect from me needs to be earned. Being stupid does not make the grade.

Keep it 'tween the Ditches ...................................

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CRUM's Official 2020 Seasonal Salutation

I have never been a big fan of the Christmas season.  As a child, I learned to dread it's coming.  My father, who struggled with depression and alcoholism, ramped up his pain at this time of the year.  I inherited his tendency for both the demon rum and the depression. I tried to break the chain, but was only able to rein in the alcoholic overloading. Depression is part of me year round, but worse in December.

So here we are in a year tailor made for me to wallow in more depression than ever before in my life. Covid sucks, Trump sucks, and I discovered that what I suspected is actually true.  The planet has been allowed to be run by self serving jerkwads proving that the average slob, peon, serf, or drooling minion is getting what they deserve.  So yeah, I should be in depression heaven here.

Oddly, I feel more upbeat than Christmases from my recent past.  For all the lousy and hateful things we have done to ourselves this past year, there has been a tidal wave of care sharing, as average folks coast to coast rose up to meet the various challenges of 2020.  Against many odds and nattering idiots, millions of good people put nose to grindstone and carried our load. 

Their existence has re-confirmed my faith in Humanity and I see lights at the ends of our tunnels.

HO!

Democracy is Cracking Apart

I have had it with lies from the Right, especially the lies from election fraud idiots, Covid deniers, Evangelical wackos and their brain dead idol, D. Trump. We will be years getting over the damage Trump and the spineless leadership of the Right has done to our country.

Hoping that a new year with Joe Biden leading an often clueless and fractured Liberal Cavalry will somehow fix it is using an overly optimistic dose of wishful thinking. The light at the end of the tunnel is but a fading glimmer.  Like the McCarthyism of the 1950's, the Trumpism of the 2020's will most likely have to burn itself out over time.  How much time is anyone's guess.

A sizable chunk of our dumb ass population has allowed itself to be sucked in by baseless conspiracy theories and lies fomented by morally corrupt mouthpieces operating with the support by authoritarian leaning One Percenter's.  These insensitive money grubbing mercenaries have no ethics and care little what form of government we have as long as their coffers and interests are in front of everyone else's. But they do seem to find the Representative Democracy we supposedly exist in now particularly problematic and loathsome as it actually relies on the very people they want to exploit. To them its like herding cats.  Doable, but it would be so much easier if we all were brain dead drones. Sadly, because the Right has lost its mind, their goal seems to be in site.

In short, the USA appears to be headed for Banana Republic status and I do not see any way out of it unless the Right blows itself up.

Later .........................................

The Asian Century

I hear folks whining about the poor choices we have for President this time around.  I agree. Neither one of the top contenders are ideal.  But we need to step back from the disaster we created for ourselves in 2016 when we allowed a complete idiot take over the White House.  The damage he has done will take years to clean up.

Right now, we need a responsible gatekeeper, a practical man who will work to restore sanity to the national insanity that currently has our nation in its grip.  Joe Biden does that for us.  He is our check valve, our pausing moment while we figure out just how much damage Trump and the Right have done to our country.  Once Trump is gone, we can begin bickering over the details of putting us back on track.  

Regardless, the US is no longer the power that it was through the last half of the 20th century.  Trump and Covid19 have made sure of that.  As part of our healing process Americans will need to own this reality and do it quickly.  We keep floundering and thrashing around wasting time pissing on each other's feet while the rest of the World is already months ahead of us in what is now the Asian Century.

Stop wasting time worrying about what we once were and focus on what we want to become.  Because the days of being the only big dog in the dog park are over.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ..............................................

Drunk & Disorderly

Turning a deaf ear to the obnoxious noises coming from south of here down there inside the DC Beltway where the empty suits reign, I have decided that tonight I would sip Evan Williams whiskey from my 100th anniversary Stainless Steel Stanley Flask.  And to fill those empty moments between swigs, I'll slow scroll through my FB feed and listen to music turned up to Wow.  I will know I have reached full on, in your face inebriation when the music is no longer heard but rather felt through the hairs standing up straight on the back of my neck.

More than a few swigs later, I realize I just don't care anymore.  The alcohol has done its job.  Tomorrow, I'll pick up where I left off, restack the worry, the fret, pack up my anger, and fall back into line like the rest of the citizens who don't dare to guess but still worry what tomorrow might bring.

My new normal is starting to fit me now.  I am coming to grips with a different Reality packing different rules than the ones that ran things not even a year ago.

I think we have finally arrived in the 21st century.

Buckle up ..................

And BTW - the image has nothing to do with the post.  I just liked it.  It's a close up of a personal custom build I put together over a decade ago now.  I loved that bike.

Screaming Fire in a Crowded Theater

I am in a quandary as to why some Trump official idiot decided to add fuel to the panic fire of Covid-19 by warning us that this week will be "our Pearl Harbor Moment"?

Okay, I get it that this week could be some kind of peak and that we should acknowledge the possibility of a worse week than last week.  But if the absolute lack of real knowledge shown so far is any indication, the so called experts are working with incomplete data and best guesses based on previous situations that do not cleanly dove tail with Covid-19.

Use of common sense seems the only accurate advice we have.  Stay the fuck home.  Keep people away and sit tight.

What really bothers me is the use of the term, "Pearl Harbor Moment".  Covid-19 was not a sneak attack.  The Trump administration saw it coming and did next to nothing to address it in the absolute crucial early stages. They even called it a hoax.  But, if we have any faith in our outrageously expensive and massive intelligence industry, someone in government had to know about Covid-19 at least by mid to late December of 2019.   Some analyst nerd buried deep in the bowels of Fort Meade or Langley, VA was watching this and writing reports back then.  If they weren't, we should shit can the whole intelligence network.

To assign a term like "Pearl Harbor Moment" in my opinion is trying to subliminally place in our minds that they, the Trump administration,  were caught with their pants down.  They weren't, but the citizens were.

The term "Pearl Harbor Moment" should have never left the lips of the Trump lackey who used it.  The Media should not have latched onto it as a "sky is falling" moment.  What I like to see from our leaders, including the press, is factual transparency and deliberate calm without hyperbole that amounts to screaming "Fire" in a crowded theater.

Maintaining calm wherever possible is almost more important than the pandemic itself.  We will live through this.  But how we act while it is here is what will determine much of what we end up with in our future.

Later ...........................................................

Another Covid-19 Diary - Nothing to Say

Many people are using their FB page  and/or their blogs to keep a "Corona Virus Log".  Titles like "Covid Log- Day 12" or "Quarantine Diary - 2020" fill us in on all the boredom someone else wants to share with us via the InterWebs.  When we had no virus, many, if not most of us, skipped the boring existences of others and chased down cat and dog videos, cute as pie baby vlogs, and righteous indignation meme's that disrespected their views on current affairs.  Are these virus histories really just a way to show others they are more bored than anyone else?

I wonder if I should start one and write down all the excitement that is now my life living in the southwestern pucker of Maine.  Okay.

So here goes.  Hmm .......................................................  Hold on.  I burned my hand on a pan handle two days ago and it hurt like Hell.  What's next?

Hmm ......................................................Uh,  My wife and I have begun making up Covid Gift bags with toilet paper and Kleenex in them.   ..................................................  Oh yeah, began some limited yard clean up.  Not because of the physical distancing thing, more because I am coming off some health issues and my stamina is, well, nonexistent.

Gas prices have plummeted.  A local Mom and Pop, Boonies, has gas at 1.49 /gal.  In Sanford, its $1.99 to 2.49.

Try as I might, I really have nothing to say. Yet, I still found a way to put nothing into words.

Ya'll stay safe, keep your distances, and stop believing any news that comes from the Administration or any Republican for that matter.  They are all full of shit.

Later ...................................................

Panic in the Pucker

I was confident I had not gotten sucked into the over the top panic that has our country and the World by the short hairs. I was sure I was being cool and aloof, totally resistant to the out of control anxiety sweeping the land.  Then I saw a Facebook post from a local creamery that offered five pounds of butter for $20. That's all it took for me to become " that guy ", the guy who throws common sense out the window and drive miles to score something he may not now need, but will surely need in his not too distant future.

The offer was simple enough.  Drive 30 miles to the creamery on Sunday noonish and between the hours of 1:00 and 2:00 PM , the nice folks there will give me a five pound bucket of lightly salted butter for $20, cash only, thank you very much.

A no brainer, right?  What could go wrong?  Polite civilized folks coagulating under the bright afternoon Sun would be surely be a pleasant encounter.  And who knows, new friends might be found.  The problem, as it turned out, was the creamery and myself did not consider that panicked folks are not prone to being sensible or pleasant at any given moment.

So happy as if I had a brain, I gathered up Maggie and we headed to Arundel, Maine.  All the way there I congratulated myself on getting over on the system.  Yeah, I was full of myself until I rounded the last sweeping curve on Rte. 111 before the creamery and was stopped dead in my tracks.  300 yards up at the creamery entrance, east and westbound traffic was at a standstill. Bumper to Bumper as far as the eye could see.   Rte 111, a crucial east-west artery in our parts, was clogged hard.  All in the name of butter.

I immediately came out of my panic driven haze and said, "To Hell with this.  I want no part of it."  And I performed the perfect 3 point turn around and headed the 30 miles back from whence I came.

Oddly I did not berate myself.  Usual stupidity on my part is followed by several moments of self flagellation and colorful recriminations.  Instead, as I was on the road, I parked self abuse for future fun and games.  I decided to stop off at Hannaford's, a regional supermarket chain, on my way home.  Just a short detour. I wanted to verify that the empty shelves I saw on Saturday were still empty on Sunday.

Imagine my delight when I walked into a store that had seriously re-stocked.  There was still no toilet paper, Kleenex, or disinfectant wipes, but I picked up bread, canned beans, lots of fresh chicken, and last but not least, 4 pounds of butter in a cold case that on Saturday was barren.  As it turned out, I found 90% of what was on the shopping list.  It dawned on me as I put butter in my cart, my panic driven 60 mile quest for butter was a fool's errand that emphasized the need to remain calm when all others have lost their shit.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ...........................................