Exile on Corona Street, Day 3

(you can find the original of the above HERE)

"I saw the decade in, when it seemed

the world could change at the blink of an eye

And if anything

then there's your sign of the times"

- Jesus Jones: Right Here, Right Now

It's Day 3, and among other things, the number of cases in Pennsylvania increased by something like 40 between lunchtime and 5:30pm today.  This is with testing results just starting to come in.  We also had the Governor of Pennsylvania declare that businesses have been forced to close today at 8pm.  From what I read in the order though, there are a lot of exceptions.  You can find the full list HERE.  More on that in a moment.

High drama?  When all is said and done, this is going to make Macbeth look like an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

On a more contemplative note, Ms. Rivers and I were talking about how we would manage if one of us fell ill.  Right off the bat, there's something of a flaw in that logic, in that if one of us got sick, the other one wouldn't be far behind anyway.  Regardless, we are fortunate (in many ways) that our second floor has a kind of master suite to it that can be closed off and which has its own bathroom...and my office.  If it were me, well, just slide some Oreos under the door and I think I would be fine for 14 days.

Getting back to the news of the day, namely the Pennsylvania Governor's closing of businesses, I've officially learned that my employer is exempt under the order (we manufacture things out of purchased Steel...yes, that's how it's worded in the official guidance).  The jury is still out on Ms. River's day (and evening, and night, and early morning) job, although regardless of physical locations closing, she's more than capable of working from home for an extended period of time.  I'm personally relieved that my employer isn't impacted...not so much for me, in that we could weather an extended closing financially...but more so for those folks have less in the way of savings and more in the way of relative financial resources.  That's the thing, by the way, about growing up poor:  You never forget how it felt. 

A Final Thought

On the above note, it's getting late and it seems like I've spent days in front of a computer screen.  That can't be good for me, but given the real danger faced by, say, healthcare workers, I have little room to complain.  I'll end this note by talking about heroes...real heroes...who are out there right now saving lives.  This includes just about everyone on the front lines of healthcare.  It includes public safety personnel who can't shirk away from those in need, pandemic or not.  It includes truck drivers and supermarket employees who are making sure that there is always something on the shelves.  Maybe one of the outcomes of this whole thing will be a recognition that sometimes heroes look suspiciously like normal people.

Be careful out there.

Exile on Corona Street, Day 2

Preface

Where does the title come from?  Click HERE.  The intent here is to document what's going on during this time of the coronavirus pandemic.  As the more urban folks would say, "$hit got real".  Maybe 10 years from now I'll look back, read this, and be inspired.  Maybe I'll be amused.  Maybe I'll simply be confused.  Regardless, the intent is to be here 10 years from now to actually read this.

On to the posting.

* * * * * *

It's day 2 of the new normal, for as long as the new normal lasts.  For those that noticed, my "Day 1" posting has disappeared.  Illuminati?  Bilderbergs?  Nope...I accidentally over-wrote it.

What's in a Name?

In the news today, among other things, we had the President of the United States refer to the Covid-19 Virus as the "Chinese Virus", not once, but at least twice.  Here's why that's a problem:

• By tagging this outbreak with a racial term, the President is giving the worst of our society, also known as racist swine, license to act against Asians in general, Chinese people in particular.  
• The virus itself is not actually Chinese.  The idea of race is a categorization we use for humans, not pathogens.
• The virus may have jumped species in China, but "from China" is different than "Chinese".  For example, I read a defense of the President's name for Covid-19 that went along the lines of "yeah, well what about Lyme Disease...that's named after a place!  Is that racist too?"...which is actually an incredibly stupid defense of an incredibly bad name.  Why?  Well yes, Lyme Disease is named after a real place, Lyme Connecticut.  However, for the comparison/racist-excuse to work, the disease would have to be called something like "Connecticuter Disease".  You see, "Lyme" is the name of a place.  "Chinese" is the name of a group of people.
• Even if you buy some incredibly far-fetched 2am talk-radio inspired conspiracy about the origins of Covid-19, not every single person who is Chinese could possibly be in on it.

This, by the way, is what happens when I have time to think about things.

How Was YOUR Day?

Today was day 2 of working from home for me.  As I mentioned in the day 1 posting...if it still existed...I really don't like working from home.  That noted I'm making the best of it.  What helped the day improve was the fact that we visited our favorite ice cream parlor (Ballyhoo) for some take-out after dinner.  If you can, please make an extra effort to patronize local businesses during this crisis.  The WalMarts of the world will weather this fine, but small businesses may not be so lucky.

A Final Thought

More so than any time in my life, it's clear to me that how we end up after this crisis has ended will have far more to do with how we have acted as individuals than any kind of government policy or edict.  This literally could be something of a re-set button for us, a chance to take a step back and appreciate the value of kindness and helping each other.  We desperately need that in this country.

Update, From (sort of) Introvert Paradise

A follow-up, of sorts, to THIS posting.

I hope anyone reading this is doing well, given the circumstances.  I say this knowing full well that things are going to get worse before they get better.  I also know that's the epitome of negativity, but when it comes to a serious business such as this, well, valuing facts is more important than any kind of spin, positive or otherwise.

Just how bad will it get?  Here's an interesting and informative article on that very subject.

Time Magazine:  Coronavirus Spread

As for myself and my wife, well, we're in good shape.  Fortunately, we began making preparations since mid-February, so we have more than enough of the essentials to last a while, including cat food.  Granted that there will very likely be some inconveniences coming up...for everyone...but sometimes being inconvenienced is better than being sick (or worse).  We're both working on behavior changes as well, including being careful what we touch and avoiding large crowds.  We even have hand sanitizer in our cars so that we can even disinfect a bit after being out.

By the way, there's a lot of misinformation about the use of hand sanitizer out there.  For example, I was in a store checkout line and the 50's-ish woman in front of me was loudly proclaiming that hand sanitizer only killed bacteria.  While washing your hands is the best defense against picking up a virus, hand sanitizer can help.  Just ask the Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic:  Does Hand Sanitizer Kill Cold and Flu Germs?

Changing behavior is difficult.  I am notorious for touching my face and rubbing my eyes.  That's something I am working on changing.  It's not easy, but I try to remind myself of just utterly ridiculous it would be for me to get sick because of a compulsion. When it comes to times like this, sometimes the little things are big things.

An area where I am admittedly at something of an advantage is social distancing.  I don't really enjoy socializing all that much, and in fact, the places were I spend most of my time (my home and work offices) are decidedly low-traffic affairs.  In fact, my work office is at the end of a hallway, and the nearest office that's regularly used is a good 20 feet away.  For once in my life, appearing to be anti-social is actually an advantage (of sorts).  With Spring nearly here, I've also started doing some yard-work, which I both enjoy and which is about one of the seemingly lowest risk endeavors out there these days.

Granted, I do have worries:

• I worry about parents who have to face children being home from school without any child-care arrangements available.
• I worry about the healthcare workers we depend on...especially now...who will be at a far greater risk of infection than the rest of us.  
• I worry about people who truly live paycheck-to-paycheck that may struggle with basic necessities as this drags on.
• I worry about the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions who will suffer the most from this outbreak.

I'll do my best to help where I can.

Lastly, we should also think about what happens after this outbreak.  There could be enormous good resulting from all of this...such as a national realization that healthcare is a fundamental right, and that there should be a universal standard of sorts for sick-time.  No one should be forced to go to work and possibly infect others purely on the basis of personal finances.  I also hope that this re-focuses our national attention away from lying politicians and sensational media and towards rational decision-making grounded in both compassion and a healthy respect for what science teaching us.  

Be careful out there.  Don't take unnecessary chances.  Make rational decisions.  Rely on a preponderance of the evidence, not what some talking head on TV reads from a teleprompter or what some social media Russian Bot posts on-line.  Question those would have you believe that everything is okay or that this is the end of the world as we know it (the truth is somewhere in the middle; in fact, let's hope that the word does change).

Lastly, and most importantly in my mind, be kind.  Simply be kind.  Help people.  Show compassion.  Reject anger and those who push a blame-agenda.

To end on a more positive note, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. George Harrison.

James Lipton's Quiz

In honor of the late James Lipton

What is your favorite word?
Grow

What is your least favorite word? Demand What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? People who are kind (to themselves, others, animals, etc.). What turns you off? Large egos. What is your favorite curse word? Sh*t What sound or noise do you love? A baby giggling. What sound or noise do you hate? Anything techno. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? An architect or an electrician. What profession would you not like to do? A dentist; I just couldn't ever see myself sticking my fingers in different mouths. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Welcome, Steve. Let me take you to your brother...he's over there with all the cats."*

(*) This pre-supposes that I will die before my wife, which is likely a good bet.

Coronavirus - Ignore the Talking Heads, Listen to the Scientists & Medical Professionals

(What some would have you believe; note that it apparently stinks to be Hawaii & Alaska)

Preface:  Right off the bat I will confess to the fact that I have a conflict of interest when it comes to this topic.  Specifically, I have a daughter, Dr. Albert, who is a real-life scientist.  This is in addition to my bias against bull$hit, especially as spread by politicians and the opinion media.  On to the post.

* * * * * *

We live in an interesting age, one where truth can attempt to be re-written by a Sharpie and science marginalized because it provides truths that some voters may just as soon not want to hear.  As if ignoring a fact somehow changes it into a fiction.  Anyway, you can find some rational, non-politicized advice from scientists and medical professionals about the coronavirus HERE.   A key point or two is noted directly below.

"A mask that you have never used before and wear all day long, that gets damp, is not going to help you. You may touch it a lot because it is uncomfortable, lowering its effectiveness.

Quite simply, good hand hygiene and face hygiene will protect you from a lot of illnesses, including Covid-19.

Risk is dependent on exposure. Some people will have an increased risk of infection, such as health care workers caring for patients with Covid-19 and other close contacts. For the general public in the US, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus, the immediate health risk from Covid-19 is considered low at this time."

This is a serious, nasty business.  As someone with asthma, I dread just getting a cold, as it takes forever for me to kick and inevitably ends up with me taking steroids that make me both bouncy and greasy (which, admittedly, is better than not actually breathing).  Needless to say, I want to limit my exposure to the virus, and quite frankly, you should too, especially if you or a family member is at heightened risk for infection.  Please take this seriously!

For the record, you will not get good information about the virus from talk radio or any single source, including (unfortunately) the United States government.  I just want to put that out there, in case anyone wants to believe that coronavirus is no worse than the common cold.

Here are some additional sources of information that are not tainted by the political lens.

World Health Organization (WHO) Facebook Page

WHO Webpage

Coronavirus Live Map (New York Times)

BBC Coronavirus Tracking (BBC)

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Information

Wall Street Journal, What We Know...

Center for Disease Control (CDC)*


Again, please take this seriously by staying informed.  Spend less time listening to politicians and more time listening to scientists and medical professionals.  Have a plan for how you will manage your affairs if, for example, schools and other public places are closed.  Stock up on medications.  Have plenty of extra non-perishable food on hand.  Avoid traveling if at all possible, especially by airplane.

Mostly though, be careful out there.

(*) Note that increasingly, it seems that attempts are being made to politicize information coming out of the CDC, including placing Vice President Mike Pence in charge of coronavirus communications (reference HERE). I am not suggesting that CDC information is unreliable, but I am stating that I would not solely rely on medical/scientific communications coming through someone who doesn't have a great track record when it comes to actual science (reference HERE).

Ash Wednesday

True stories:  When I was a kid, I found three experiences to be particularly traumatic.

#1) Dental Work
As a very young kid, we went to a dentist who didn't believe in using Novocain.  Not a drop.  As I type this, I still have a memory of that drill going into my baby teeth...the pressure...the pain...the smell.  Fortunately, by the time reached about age 12, the old Dentist stopped practicing (that or Simon Wiesenthal finally caught up with him) so we started seeing a new dentist.  This one was far more compassionate.

#2) Needles
Like most kids, I hated needles.  What made me particularly bad with the pointy things was the fact that I had surgery three times between the ages of 5 and 7, so I got stuck a lot.  It honestly wasn't until my 20's before that fear started to wain.  Nowadays?  Heck, I give instructions on the placement of an IV (top of the hand, thank you very much).

#3) Ash Wednesday
I loathed Ash Wednesday as a kid.  I literally hated it.  In fact, on more than one occasion I would become sick...real or imaginary...when the day came around.  Why?  Well, there are probably a few reasons, but three come to mind...

• I simply didn't like someone smearing dirt on me.  It made me feel filthy.  Just writing that brings back memories of that gritty feeling as the dirty was spread on my all-too-large forehead.  It reminded me of filled ashtrays at home. 
• Reminding me, as a young kid, that I was going to die seemed cruel, especially given my incredibly fertile imagination.
• The exercise seemed so insincere, what with normally mean-spirited people walking around with this mark on their heads, saying "look at me, I'm so pious (in all of the wrong ways)".  It was a kind of "black badge of insincerity". 

What's kind of ironic is the fact that the first two items have completely turned around on me as I've grown older.  I am border-line fanatical about my teeth these days, and I even had a dental implant done.  As for needles, well, see above...I really don't mind.  In fact, if it's something that will help me, well, bring it on.  Ash Wednesday, it still skeeves me out.  Luckily for me, nowadays I no longer have to pretend to be sick when the day comes around every year.  I still don't, however, like to look at people with it on their foreheads.  

IKEA Smell

I make no secret of the fact that I really like IKEA.  In fact, it's about the only retail experience these days that I find the least bit interesting.  Simply put, IKEA turns shopping for things into an event.  In my case, that would be an event that is worth driving 90 or so minutes to experience two or three times a year.  Among the many reasons I enjoy about IKEA?  The smell.

The Internet tells me that IKEA smells like cinnamon buns (reference HERE), but I don't buy it.  I know the smell of cinnamon buns.  I like the smell of cinnamon buns.  IKEA does not smell like cinnamon buns.

If I had to describe the smell, it would be something that's a combination of:

• A light cleaning solution/disinfectant of some type
• 3,000 tons of laminate
• The cafeteria, although not a particular food
• Something sweet
• Slightly herbal
• Slightly floral

Maybe this is part of some greater Swedish conspiracy to get folks like me to buy more reasonably priced but yet stylish self-assembled furniture*.  Maybe it's all in my head.  But the smell is there, I swear it is.

I could rant on and on about how much I enjoy going to IKEA and why it's a terrific business (including their composting of cafeteria scraps).  In fact, over the course of the 11+ years of the blog I probably already have, but I am too un-motivated to check at the moment.  I will note though that I do have one IKEA complaint:  The don't sell ribs in the cafeteria anymore.  When I first went to IKEA, something like a dozen years ago, the cafeteria had ribs that were among the best I have ever had in my entire life.  Bar none, I swear.  Alas, the ribs are gone, and I have to make do with the Swedish meatballs (which are pretty good).

To end on a high note, some IKEA humor.

(*) All of the furniture in my home office is from IKEA, including two work surfaces, a bookcase, a dresser, a cube unit, a rolling file storage unit, and a Symfonisk speaker lamp.

Valentine's Day

"Let us be lovers, 

we'll marry our fortunes together"

(Paul Simon, "America")

I was trying to ponder the best way to describe a sentiment suitable for Valentine's Day, and for some reason the Simon & Garfunkel song "America" came to mind.  In particular, the line "Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together" stands out as one of those deceptively simple but yet incredibly poignant thoughts that I think requires a genius to come up with.  Put another way, I could probably write 600 words that wouldn't mean a tenth of what Paul Simon wrote in 9.  

In the old days...and I mean really old days...people would literally marry their fortunes together, putting all they had into something else, something bigger, something important and worthy.  It's not necessarily a romantic or love inspired thought, but when you think about it, that does almost perfectly describe the meaning of true love.  I mean what is true love if it isn't putting all you have into something greater, something where two become one?

Here's to everyone who has managed to find someone to marry their fortunes with on this Valentine's Day.  And if you're still looking, well, keep at it.  There is always something bigger on the horizon.

PS - The best version, ever, of this song was performed by David Bowie during the Concert for New York.  Just Bowie sitting on a stage with a small keyboard.  Another example of genius wrapped in a deceptively simple package.  

In the Living Years

I have a posting on a relevant, timely topic all ready to go, but I'm not going to do it.  I'm just not feeling it.  Instead, this feels more important.

This was at my brother Rich's wedding, probably 1988 or so.  In case you can't tell, I'm the one wearing the stylish hot pink tie.  That seems like it was a lifetime ago.  Or longer.  And so very, very much has changed since then.  

Time, it seems, is a funny thing.  We measure time in terms of our planet's rotation on its axis and rotation around the sun.  Those would seem to be relatively constant things.  In reality, though, they are not.  In fact, they seem relative.  

When I was a child, time passed incredibly slowly.

Now, at age 55, time seems to fly by.  Except for the fact that, for example, it seems like only yesterday when my brother Chris (first on the left in the picture above) passed away in January 2017. Conversely, looking forward, my plan is to work until about age 65 and then retire.  That, in spite of how time at age 55 seems to pass by quickly, seems so very far away.

Maybe time isn't so constant at all.  Or more precisely, maybe the thing being measured is constant, but the person doing the measuring isn't.  Regardless, these are heady questions that far exceed my pay-grade.

What does seem abundantly true, but yet hard to fully appreciate, is that regardless of how fast (or slow) time passes by, it's probably most important (and for me, the most difficult) to appreciate the moment that we are in, not dwelling on the past or worried about the future.  I know this intellectually (I've pretty much read every book written by Eckhart Tolle), but actually practicing it is a different story.  I'd like to say that "I've got time to learn that", but who knows if that's actually true.  Unlike half-gallon jugs of milk, our expiration dates aren't printed on our side.  

In any event, here's to the living years.

What the Leadership of the Scranton School District Fails to Grasp

The screen grab, above, comes from a Tweet regarding this evening's Scranton School District (SSD) board meeting.  You can follow the reporter's Twitter feed HERE.  This is another chapter in the story of buried and ignored lead and asbestos findings in district buildings.  By way of backstory, click on THIS link.  Here's one key point of that article:

"Scranton first tested its water in 2016, after the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, drew national attention to the issue. That June, the district announced it had shut off eight water fountains and 11 sinks after test results revealed elevated lead levels in the water. Officials had planned to replace the brass or bronze fittings in the affected places that summer, but the district has been unable to find any proof the issues were addressed."

What Superintendent McTiernan fails to grasp by her comment is the perception that things are never actually taken care of in the SSD.  No one is held accountable.  The examples are legion, and some have been chronicled in this blog over the years, from an egregiously ridiculous no-bid busing contract that was actually renewed with no objections, to school board directors failing to attend meetings, to nepotism so bad that it boarders on shameful. 

Case in point:  The felon former business administrator of the SSD, who pleaded guilty to getting free auto repairs from the district for himself and his "family", and received probation for his efforts.  Oh, and his wife (a.k.a. his "family") still works for the SSD.  Reference HERE and HERE.  You can't make this up.

As someone who attended the SSD myself and who had children attend as well, I have to ask if I was exposed to lead and asbestos.  The harmful effects of these things have been known for decades, so why it even took until 2016 for this to come to light escapes me.  It should be shocking to no one that, for example, a 114 or so year old building might have asbestos issues.  In fact, the truly shocking part is the fact that no one bothered to look into it until 2016...and then they did nothing about it.

The people involved in hiding the  2016 testing results should be held criminally responsible for their actions.  They intentionally put children and staff in SSD buildings in harm's way.  Scranton residents, current and past (including me) will have to make due with the heaping of shame upon prior administrations for yet another example of their gross incompetence.