covid diary: day 49

Optimistic oriole feeder, waiting for
the first customers of the season.

Let's start with a question today.

If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?

Reporter Olivia Nuzzi asked Trump that at last night's coronavirus briefing. GET. IT. OLIVIA. NUZZI. Of course, he didn't answer the question, just babbled on about how the death count is "way down" from what was initially predicted blah blah sneeze. But she asked the question, and it needed to be asked. And obviously, the answer is no, absolutely not, and he didn't deserve to be elected in the first place.

Hey, remember when Trump said he was done with doing the coronavirus briefings after he suggested that we should inject disinfectants and possibly infrared light into human people to "clean" them of the "invisible enemy"? I do too, because it was Friday, and last night was Monday, and he was back to doing stupid self-congratulatory briefings. He lasted two whole days without doing a briefing. And yesterday's was on the schedule, then canceled, then reinstated, all at his whim. Cool way to run a country.

You know what else is cool? The Pentagon released videos of UFOs. I'm serious. They're calling them "unidentified aerial phenomena," but what they mean is UFOs. And the Navy has now issued official guidance for Americans who want to report UFO sightings. And it's not a big deal at all and is barely getting any attention in the media. Double cool. We're all stuck in our houses trying not to die from a brand-new virus we can't figure out, and now the aliens are coming for us too. Perfect.

This afternoon we had a special treat. Henry and I drove over to Riverside (where he'll go to school next year, circumstances willing) and went for a walk along the greenway trail with Bethany, Klaudia, Emeri, and Judah the dog. Henry walked Judah, or maybe Judah walked Henry. I got to meet my beautiful great-nephew (from afar; I didn't hold him or even get close to him) and see my sister and niece, and we all got to enjoy a little fresh air. We weren't out long, but it felt really nice. Judah is all of six days old now, and he had a checkup yesterday and was proclaimed very healthy. Klaudia is still super tired, but she seems to be really enjoying motherhood so far.

"Hi! I'm new."

After dinner, Mike and the boys went out and put up the rest of the birdhouses. It looks like a proper nature area back there now. It started raining as they were coming back inside, so I didn't get to go out and explore. Can't wait until it dries up.

And I ended the day with a long conversation with my aunt Pam in Boston. We haven't talked in a long time, and it was really, really nice to catch up. If there's one thing I've learned from this pandemic, it's that you really should tell your loved ones how much you appreciate them (and if possible, why you appreciate them!), so I'm glad I got a chance to do that tonight.

Nationwide cases: 1,012,583. Deaths: 58,355.