Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Friday, September 18th, 2020

Sad

Today started great. Very productive work morning. I then proceeded to make the desert for tomorrow’s dinner. Checking on it in the fridge just now it has deflated to 50% of its original size and is completely liquid! A disaster. Maybe I can convert it into a trifel tomorrow; I shall need to check the recipes I have and identify still needed ingredients. What a bit of luck I at least noticed this tonight as I will give me time to plan for alternatives. Also, a cold front is moving in supposedly bringing really cold temperatures tomorrow night. This will be the test for the outdoor heating system and I guess for the also the new fire pit!

I then dedicated some of the afternoon to help EM with her CAS project; mainly identifying content for her to upload and edit.

Late in the afternoon I had a date. Robin joined me for my Friday afternoon sail. It did not turn out to be the relaxing sail with time to talk I had anticipated. I do not think I have ever had this much wind before! I had to really work and focus to not capsize my date; though he did get plenty of the spray!

Initially I thought it was a good idea to let Robin operate the jib – until the ropes got all tangled up and while I tried to direct him how to fix this I managed to tear the sail at basically the only sign standing in the water. I did think we could go on, but far from. The tear was just getting bigger as the gusts kept coming; so I had him hold the tiller while I took down the main intending to sail back to the marina with the jib only. Bless Chip. He must have seen something was wrong and towed us in, claiming the sail had long outlived is durability. We switched boats and of we went again, speeding across the Potomac. Given it was super gusty, which the picture does not give justice to, I had to really focus on managing the boat and did not relent controll on either the joib, the main or the tiller this time. It was fun, but we were reasonably soaked by the time we got of the boat and while chatting in the park I turned into a popsicle.

However, the company was entertaining enough for me to miss my lap lane. Now that rarely happens. Just after I was done with my very hot shower, I saw the breaking news flash.

Ruth Barder Ginsburg has died at the age of 87. This is extremly sad news. She was an amazing woman and a voice of reason in the US Supreme Court. In addition to losing a great human being I am convinced that the moron in chief will be enabled by the evil head of the Senate to appoint one more judge, changing the dynamics of the supreme court for the next two generations at least. No matter what policies future governments try to enforce, going forward it will be the courts who will decide the political fate of this country; never mind what elected governments may want. You can bet your house on it, whatever Mitch McConnel said about sitting presidents not appointing supreme court judges in an election year, he will have forgotten. It is just disgusting beyond believe how two faced the GoP is. I have no words. A very sad day for the nation.

In the meantime, Virus infections have topped 30 million globally and have reached 6.92 million reported cases counting more than 203k dead. The president admits to having lied about when a vaccine would be available, the distribution of which would pose a major headache seeing it needs to be stored at -110F. Over a thousand casino employees have tested positive in Las Vegas two days ahead of reopening casinos (I guess that will not happen) and now firefighters on the Westcoast are infected and many have to isolate making a terrible situation dire.

Not a good day for this country.