time to Freak the F'out

Maybe not for you but for your friends and relatives who are entertainers or in the service industry who don't have any income or savings to fall back on.

Buying those gift certificates to your restaurant keeps the owner's pockets lined and gets him through this, not the staff who aren't cooking taking or serving your order.

The musicians who rely on live concerts? Who don't have the social media or internet presence to leverage or monetize or the money or skills to get there? They are hurting. This is peak cash flow for most of the Celtic musicians out there. They are kind of f'd.

Did you go stock up? Lucky you. What if you can't, maybe you've got some serious dietary issues and can't do the whole closet full of pasta and more or less rely on buying fresh food to prep once a week or so. Can't stock up, but also old enough to be in an at risk group.



I'm lucky too. I kind of stocked up. I fucked up tho and went to a crowded store with everyone else on Saturday morning. Place was packed at 8:45. By the time I got the items, the normal weekend shopping with only an extra couple cans of beans and some more rice (already had some), there were six lines that went down the aisles from the front to the back. I was in line for 40 minutes. Shopping cart spacing for the most part. So not terribly packed. Cashiers all wearing PPE (just gloves mostly). I was the exception amidst the chaos. The person in front of me had a $581.35 total. Cashier said the one before's was double that. And those two had typical carts for the lines. Once I got through the lines were not more than two people deep down the aisles instead of a dozen plus but the shelves were way lighter. If you weren't lucky and couldn't get to the stores early, you were stuck. They did have two pallets (literally parked in the store) of canned organic garbanzo beans. I resisted getting a case (12) for the discount. Where to put it, also optimistic that stores will stay open and eventually get restocked. But there were a few comments that somethings were not coming in. The meat case for example, def hadn't been restocked and the guys were chatting about what didn't come in that normally does.

If food really does go on the scarce list, well that's gonna really suck. And people are going to realize they don't have everything even the ones with the doomsday list. It is encouraging that China is almost back to normal, however travel and gathering is still not totally allowed. I'm going to guess that they keep it all locked down until the rest of the world finishes the first wave.

If the rest of the world does.

Each country is turning into a cruise ship with an outbreak on board and out to sea. Not much to do but carry on and hope for the best. The skittles analogy out there is good. Here's a 100 skittles, three of them will kill you. Will you eat them? Probably not, but people, and esp the gung ho Tea party types and those who are not educated well in how science works will say fuck it - i'm young (or old) i'm not going to get it, while most of them wont eat the skittles, they don't see this as the same. I've seen people pull out "winning the lottery" statistics as to dying from Covid-19. I'm sure you've seen them too, all of this probably. I've seen it and have massively curtailed any internet/social app browsing.

Also - hand sanitizer,,, as a gap measure? not really... More mentally assuring than potentially decontaminating.

But there is a direct link to immune function and anxiety and other mental chemical shitstorms. But the overconfident can still get it. I guess maybe unless you're sprayed orange everyday, maybe the lack of alive skin cells or lack of motor function to touch your face or the tiny hands with low surface area just don't allow infection? or lying is lying - i love the progression "It is a HOAX" all the way to - fuck it - Zero interest rate.

Who the fuck benefits from that? No one I started this post talking about. Credit Card companies aren't going to help them, probably can't get a loan, hell if they did get one it isn't like they have an extra to pay it off.

So where are we at? Who knows.

The mutation rate will determine the vaccine. Will one get developed in time? When is "in time"

Lots of unknowns still.

I really don't like them, but at least EVERYONE ELSE ON THE WHOLE FUCKING PLANET is in the same boat, even if they don't think they are or even if they don't know anything about what is going on.

On the science side? THIS IS FUCKING FASCINATING. Very literally, it is really exciting, Both in the response and the rolling outcome.

Probably similar to the weather event that happened in PVD in 2005 during CX Nats. That weather event was STILL being studied and discussed 10 years after the fact. Similar in that the weather nerds geeked out about it.

There's a rush to figure this virus out. More than pretty much any other virus...

ever

Unfortunately it is currently commercially driven, sure there are probably a few Universities working on it, but not even the best Ivy's have kept pace with industry research. And for every 10 scientists really working their ass off to solve this problem there's a CEO and a board behind them driving them harder thinking about how much money they will make selling the vaccine to the world. Hell they'd almost rather not create a vaccine, a therapy would be far more lucrative. If you cure it you've wasted all that time and money with only a single windfall and fame to rest on... until the next novel RNA virus pandemic. Which probably won't be quite as bad, unless it has a higher RD and a longer incubation time but with worse symptoms.

Hell the person who can probably figure this out, come up with the solution because this is how they were wired, got burned out, disillusioned and walked away from it all and is now just hoping to not run out of food before they can get another paycheck.

That's the reality of science right now. Fortunately there are enough pigheaded super smart people willing to stick it out...  it isn't all dire but the system is as fucked up and broken as society is right now. ***####**** edit: But, as with society, there are LOTS of people working to hold it together, support those that need it, try to break the cycle, to help keep those with passion and talent in the places they can do the most good for themselves and the world...  I'm deep in the trenches but just a guy with a shovel, all I can do is be careful where I place the blade and where I toss the dirt, think about others and help them figure it out. It is broken, but not destroyed ****####*****

We can fix it. The pandemic, society and science. Probably all at once to be honest. But we'll see what happens.

If we wind up all mad max - lemme know if you need shit fixed. until them I'm going to both feel incredibly lucky to be in the place I am now, while still freaking the fuck out.

Also - REALLY thankful that I'm not drinking anymore. If I was the alcohol quantity needed on hand would be hard to hide and there'd be nothing stopping me from starting first thing in the morning. I am drinking/needing too much coffee right now but that's very different (and I have LOTS of extra coffee on hand and a plan to us this event to begin to taper - I'll start tomorrow, maybe - actually - just not being at work with the fancy coffee machine -mine and the one upstairs- will help).

I skipped dirt church this morning - prep'd house to go back to being really full. Giving up a bit of space, but also with the barn coming down and the forced sorting through the shit, we're def on an organize and purge trajectory. No, the basement isn't totally organized or cleaned up yet, but it will be if this thing lasts more than a week. The drive to Boston and back wasn't terrible. The crowds of homeless there on Mass ave just south of the Hospital kind of was terrible, and a few isolated assholes, but for the most part it was up and back w/o stress. The event and the rest is causing major stress in the house. Somehow I've got a bit of clarity and have not really let it all get to me, but I am very concerned for those around me, near and far.

I'm going to keep riding my bike - alone or with a few others, nothing formal, advertised or anything close to looking like a group ride or a race. Which, in reality is what I have been doing all year. Closest I got to a group ride was when I hitched on to the JRA ride. Oh - well there was that race. But after a few miles I was alone there too, thanks blo'd up wheel.

Life, it happens. Unpredictable, live the story as it unfolds. Make the right choices. Try to make them with everyone else in mind. It is better that way, even if it kind of feels like it sucks for you much of the time. It is okay, it is worth it.

Amor Fati Motherfuckers

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