I took a couple of days off work this week just to relax, which I did accomplish! It should have been a cruise week with Wendy, to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, but we'll have to do that at a later time. We also cancelled plans that we had to see the kids in May - I was going to see my daughter get her Associates degree. That was a robbed opportunity, in so many ways. During the time off, I took a look through the 1940 census for my grandparents, which I found both sets, but no luck for my Mom and Dad. I'll keep looking - they are out there somewhere. Last week, Wendy cut my hair! We bought a small hair trimmer and it works great. Of course, my haircut is very simple - #1 all over! My hair had gotten kind of long, in my opinion, and having it cut was awesome! I also found time to soak my feet. They needed it - we haven't been to the pool for a couple of years, so it felt good to immerse the puppies in some soothing H2O. Speaking of work, my employer informed us this Wednesday that the office building closures will continue through May 31st. So, I will become a more permanent fixture at home for the time being. Personally, I don't think that I will return to the office this year unless required. The corona virus causes an autoimmune reaction, and it's attack site is cells with the lungs. So, it finds a home, infects the dickens out of all the cells that it can find while cutting off interferon messages back to the immune system. It's the immune system that causes the widespread damage, when it eventually receives messages to engage the virus. Since I have COPD, you can bet your bottom dollar that I have kept a close eye on my pulse oximetry.
I'll use that as a segue into the numbers. Worldwide: 2,280,787 cases with 156,345 deaths; US: 712,844 cases with 37,289 deaths; Florida: 25,269 cases with 740 deaths; Pinellas county: 577 cases with 16 deaths. In the US, the number of cases are increasing at a rate of 5% day over day, with the deaths increasing at a rate of 7% day over day. The decade factor for the US is out to 23 days now. That's the time that it takes the number of cases to multiply by a factor of ten. I remember back in the days when I was at International Paper, the "Safety Guy" (sorry, I can't recall his name for the life of me) performed a demonstration with a jar of marbles. In it were various colors. He had each of us close our eyes and pull a marble out of the jar. If it was white, then you were okay, green meant that you had an accident, red and yellow were lost time accidents, and the black marble meant that you died. I didn't "die" during that demonstration, but I can parallel that to what we have with COVID-19. In a jar of four hundred marbles, make 380 white, nineteen red, and one black. Every day that you go out and interact with people, you are pulling from that jar. If you pull white, then you are okay; red - you are infected; and black means that you are infected and you will die. There's a 60% chance that you will be okay after 10 attempts, with only a 2% chance that you will die. How many times will you pull from that jar?
Just today, I saw gas at $1.71/gal. The DJIA started the week at 23817 and ended it at 24238, for a good uptick over the week. I did get the stimulus check this past week, which I am thankful for. However, this works out to the same math as basic income - it devalues the currency that is used. This makes imports more expensive, so it promotes domestic growth. It promotes this growth at a higher price. The stipend given will need to be increased so that the same basket remains affordable, which repeats the cycle. Once the entitlement is started, it is very difficult to wean the population off of it. The economy is in rough shape, with over 20 million people out of work. The unemployment rate for March increased from 3.5% to 4.4% and April is looking much worse than that. Unemployment has become so bad that people in some states, backed by right-winged donors, are protesting! Well, that's like taking a whole bunch of marbles from the jar! I guarantee that the donors are nowhere to be found during those protests, and they don't care how many of them die. They want their money - simple greed and using COVID-19 as a hit-man; cowards. On another note, I've seen a share of memes about the president being responsible for the stimulus check. My questions: 1. how did he create the corona virus, and 2. where's the rest of my money? Seems to me, I've paid 8 to 9% tax to the federal government all of my life. That should be well over a million dollars! Memes - can't live with them, can't live without them!
People,
People who need people,
Are the luckiest people in the world
We're children, needing other children
And yet letting a grown-up pride
Hide all the need inside
Acting more like children than children
- Barbara Streisand, People, People, 1964
