Corona Virus Diary #8

Corona Virus Diary #8

Since there are so few places to go it is more of a task to come up with new things to say about the pandemic. I am glad that cooler heads prevail here in our state capitals. South of me in Oregon where I do not vote, the state republicans have proven to be more vainglorious than they are leaders. It does seem obvious that they want to please POTUS so rather than work cooperatively and maybe do some compromising they ensure that votes cannot occur by boycotting the senate sessions. They are the minority so they win less votes and therefore take their marbles home. The governor however is strong and rational as is ours here in Washington. Our state legislative bodies are also less rancorous. That does not mean that we don't have extremists prodded by their party. Apparently they are less numerous than in Oregon or maybe our water is healthier.

The state that I grew up in-Michigan, certainly has its share of whack jobs-this is not new to that state. They show up armed and screaming along with confederate flags and other right wing symbols in order to intimidate the governor. That does not appear to be working as she has been resolute in maintaining social controls that hopefully will end the chaos of national quarantine.

Likewise in the state I adopted for 36 years-Maryland, the governor is not seeking to do any boneheaded lifting of the regulations with more evidence of that being safe. What makes him unique is that he is a rare republican who does not march to the song of the emperor and his new clothes.

So as dreary as it is, I am not going to be attending places and events simply because the lack of leadership at the federal level desires us to do so.

I miss a couple of things pretty dearly as a result of this quarantine. The first is that libraries are closed. These are a source mostly of periodicals for me. My own local library is a fairly new structure and so does not have much historical character. It does have the New York Review of Books, The Scientist, The New Yorker Magazine and other magazines that I am not going to subscribe to. I typically spend several hours over the course of a few days, reading such at the library.

The Portland 9^th Avenue Library has about 3 times as many periodicals as the one near me. It is also located in a beautiful, historical structure in the near downtown area near Portland State University. I can sit there for hours catching up on news. When I am done there are a slew of restaurants to check out and that is my routine when I am there.

I am not the baseball fan that I was in the 1970s but have annually got much succor that accompanies the end of winter by the box scores to read everyday and the chance to watch games. It is noticeably absent just like much of the joys of the new spring.

I did start my porch garden though more subdued than the previous two seasons. I'd rather do a better job with a few select plants than hope for success with abundance. Lets see how that works out.

I have been doing way more cooking than my waistline prefers. Apparently so are many others. I have seen articles about food shortages and have witnessed them myself as our stores which for the most part have robust supplies, also are curiously short on things I would not have guessed they would be. My local store was all out of corn starch the other day. Really? Corn starch? Maybe I'll organize a public protest.