Category: covid-19

I Forgot

I have kept track of Covid-19 case and death counts for the United States going all the way back to March 1, 2020. Originally I was pulling the national numbers from a CNN tweet thread, but after a couple of weeks I ended up on the Johns Hopkins dashboard.

Massachusetts has been releasing the state’s data once a day since the beginning so I pulled the national numbers at the same time I pulled the state’s numbers. There have been a few times when I didn’t get a chance to look things up until the next morning, so my numbers weren’t exactly “daily” but they were close enough. The totals all worked out in the end.

Yesterday was the first day since I started this back in March that I went a whole day without looking up national numbers. Massachusetts is posting at 5:00 PM now so I try to do everything then. Yesterday when 5:00 came I was up to my eyeballs in work and I missed it. For the rest of the night and most of today I was so stressed out by work that I didn’t even think of my Covid spreadsheets.

Around 4:00 today I realized my mistake. I pulled yesterday’s MA numbers and brought that spreadsheet up to date. The US numbers… why bother. For the first time since all of this insanity started, my US spreadsheet is missing a day. The numbers are accurate now as I updated today at 5:00. Today’s entry just has two days worth of numbers.

It doesn’t matter though. I feel like I let the country down. I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.

First Day Recap

It’s going to take a while for President Joe to undo all of the fascist shit that his nazi cheeto predecessor screwed up. In his first day in office though, he took some serious first steps.

He rejoined the World Health Organization because he’s not a moron. He instituted a mask mandate for all federal employees and anyone on federal property. He also created a covid response coordinator position. He signed an order preserving DACA, he reversed the muslim travel ban, he ended the idiotic ban on diversity training because he isn’t an idiot, he canceled the Keystone Pipeline permit and announced we will rejoin the Paris climate agreement.

As first days go… not bad, Joe. It’s definitely a good start.

President Biden

The world has been dealing with a global pandemic for about a year now. For the first time, the United States of America is actually going to take the situation seriously and implement a unified national response.

We’ve lost 400,000 lives so far and we are going to lose many more. For the first time though, we are going to do something about it.

What is that I’m feeling? Is it optimism?

Wow… I forgot about that one.

Memorial

We are watching the COVID-19 memorial from earlier today. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters…. the adults are about to be in charge again.

It’s a beautiful thing. Empathy. Compassion. Civility. It seems like it’s been a million years since our nation valued these things. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 71

When the COVID-19 craziness kicked off back in March, 10 months ago, one huge corner of our bedroom was completely empty. As the lock down progressed we bought a big cabinet for stuff and we inherited a great big dresser. Now that we’re thinking of rearranging the room we had to find new homes for those two giguntic pieces of furniture. Suddenly the room is looking empty again.

It’s weird that going back to what we had just a couple of months ago seems to be weird. It’s weird that it’s weird, right? Weird.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 70

This isn’t so much a stir crazy moment as it is a monthly check in. Consider it more like The State of the Lock Down.

Yesterday marked 10 months since the last time I was at my desk in Waltham. Ten. 10. 10 months. Unbelievable. So much for two or three weeks. I keep writing that same thing every month, but it’s true. Harry is half way through his senior year in high school. Bellana is a couple of weeks away from staring her fourth semester in college. Jen and I are still plugging away at working from home. Life inside the house is still going well. Life outside of the house is crashing and burning in spectacularly horrifying fashion. Jen just told me that Massachusetts is sending National Guard troops to Washington, DC. 2021 is a nightmare and it’s only two weeks old.

We binge watched The Queens Gambit and it was every bit as riveting as you’ve heard. The first Disney+ Marvel series, WandaVision, premiers tomorrow. I just read they are releasing two episodes, which means I probably won’t be caught up before work in the morning. Wonder Woman ’84 was probably not as bad as most people are saying, but it wasn’t very good. I’ve seen Pedro Pascal in three roles now. He was outstanding in Game of Thrones. He is perfect in The Mandalorian. He was horrendously awful in Wonder Woman. What the hell happened? As for Diana, wishing for her lost love? The goddess who hangs everything on some man? I don’t buy it. It’s clear what she would have wished for. She would have wished to be able to go home. Whatever. Bellana and I started watching The Stand. My favorite book by my favorite author (arguably, it’s either him or Clive Barker) has been turned into a television series and… we’re a few weeks behind now, but it’s not that good. Cobra Kai season three is out there but we haven’t started it yet. Bellana’s not interested so we’re holding off until she goes back to school at which time Jen and Harry and I will likely binge the whole season in a day.

Our Christmas decorations are down and put away. Everything except the lights outside. We had originally agreed to leave those up until inauguration day. Now we’re joining up with a little movement one of our local hospitals is pushing to leave them on for the month of January in honor of those risking their lives to fight Covid-19. Absolutely. We are on board.

One of our cars has it’s check engine light on. I am assuming it’s something to do with air leaking into the gas line, but messing with the gas cap hasn’t helped. It’s low on gas right now so hopefully it will resolve when I fill it again. Unfortunately the car also has an expired inspection sticker and I just don’t want to risk exposure for it. The other car doesn’t expire for a couple of months. That one had tire pressure warnings so I did go to a gas station to top them off. I didn’t run into anyone. It was safe.

Obligatory thank yous to folks on the ground from amazon and grubhub and instacart. You’re all helping to keep my family safe and I will never stop appreciating it.

Jen and I are still lighting candles in every room in the house for no reason at all. Amazon just delivered a big box of fresh supplies. We’ll be telecommuting by candle light for a while longer.

I’m really tired of all of this crap. The upside is that we’re about a week away from having an actual government Covid-19 response plan. It’s probably too late, but maybe it will straighten out the bullshit we’re seeing with vaccine distribution so far. Fingers crossed.

Mostly, fingers crossed that this ends soon.

Blue

I’ve got the COVID/coup blues tonight. I’m not sure what set it off, apart from the obvious, but I’m just feeling more depressed than usual.

Normally when I feel like this I play guitar and I feel better. It didn’t work tonight. I think I feel worse.

Removing Cheeto McClownshoes might help. A vaccine might help too.

I really hate COVID. I really hate trump.

Screw you guys, I’m going to bed. G’night everyone. Better day tomorrow.

Covid-19 Case Counts

I’m still updating my Covid-19 spreadsheets every day. Infection and death counts every day for both the United States and Massachusetts.

Today is day #316.

I really want to stop. I really do. I just can’t bring myself to do it. It’s devastating to watch the US go from 21 million cases to 22 million cases in four days. It’s heartbreaking to see the 375,000 deaths creep closer and closer to 380,000.

Still… I can’t stop. I feel like I owe it to the people who are sick. It’s stupid, but I do sort of feel that way. I owe it to the people who’ve died. It’s literally the least I can do.

Wear a damn mask and wash your damn hands.

Volume Four… and Five

So the United States is crumbling all around us. The president was impeached 11 months ago and guess what! He’s likely going to be impeached again either today or tomorrow, depending on whether or not the vice president grows a set of balls and removes him from office via the 25th amendment. Life is pretty strange here in the good ol’ USA.

So here we are, trying to go about our normal day to day as our little baby 245 year old nation implodes. What’s a red head to do to keep from just screaming 24/7?

Well, he works on The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, of course. Also, he pretends to work on a January album in a month. I’ve done almost nothing on that one. Just a couple of little bass riffs. I need to get back onto that but I have a ton of work still to do on volume four of the re-recordings. For some dumb reason my plan to redo old songs in batches of eight has turned into a batch of 14. Oops. One of those songs is done, eight more have the vocals done and are ready for lead guitar. Two of those eight will need to have the rhythm guitars done over. I used some effects that I thought were cool at the time, but now listening back they were mistakes. After that, there are still five songs waiting to start.

So I’m calling it. The nine songs underway are now the total of volume four, and the remaining five will be the start of volume five. I’ll dig through the piles of awful songs and pull three more for a total of eight, and then I’ll wait until after RPM in February to work on them. This is the way. I have spoken.

Now, back to the source of stress that sits on top of the mountain of stress that is Covid-19… will Pence do his fucking job today or will he let trump get away with LITERALLY SENDING HIS CULT TO ASSASSINATE HIM. Do your job, Mikey boy. Cut the crap and grow a pair. Then Nancy can impeach the prick at her leisure. There are only nine days left in Cheeto McClownshoes’ term and nine days is too long to wait. He and the cult cannot get away with this. No unity without repercussions. This is the way. The people have spoken.

Home Workspace Update

I had to go in to the office and swap my little desktop computer for a shiny new laptop. The guy in charge of the process was kind enough to bring the new box out to me so I didn’t have to go into the building. I did, however, have to drive an hour each way. Yikes!

I straightened out my desk a little. It definitely doesn’t meet my wife’s very high workspace standards, but it’s okay for me. The headset, mouse, keyboard, and GIGANTIC monitor are all Jen’s and I’m just using them during the lock down work from home zaniness. The closed laptop underneath the laptop stand is actually my pre-Covid work-from-home box. These days it’s my watching Netflix while doing my 30 minutes of exercise box. The iPad is not for work use. It’s for listening to music or podcasts (not books) and sometimes youtube streams (like when trump’s terrorist mob attacked the US Capital two days ago) while I work.

How long until I go back to the office? Who knows. Do I want to go back to the office? Nope.