covid diary: day 76

Mount Baldy's backside, Indiana Dunes NP

All across the country, people celebrated the long holiday weekend in very stupid ways. In Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, the pools and bars and yacht clubs were so crowded that St. Louis County issued a travel advisory warning people not to go there and calling it "an international example of bad judgment." You got that right, St. Louis County executive!

Even locally, we watched some of our neighbors across the street have a big party that lasted all day and well into the night. Sure, they were outdoors (hence the watching) but it's a small yard, and there were a LOT of people there, and they were all yelling and drinking and carousing, so I don't imagine there were many good decisions happening there. All the stores and restaurants were extremely crowded, and at most places people weren't even wearing masks (or purposely weren't wearing masks).

The death toll is almost at 100,000 Americans, and the president spent the long weekend golfing (without a mask, of course). Does he have zero idea of optics? I thought he was supposed to be some master manipulator of imaging. Oh, forgot to mention: between rounds of golf, he found time to go on Twitter and call Hillary Clinton a "skank," mock Stacey Abrams for her weight, and threaten to move the entire Republican National Convention to "a hotel ballroom in Florida" (gee, I wonder if he has a particular hotel in mind?) if North Carolina's governor won't commit now to allowing full attendance at the events scheduled in Charlotte, coronavirus be damned.

In contrast, Joe Biden emerged from his isolation for the first time in months to lay a wreath for Memorial Day. He wore a mask, as did his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. He came out of isolation to honor others (including, of course, his late son Beau, who served in the Gulf War), and to model leadership. Thanks, Joe Biden.

great blue heron

wood duck

I spent most of the weekend working, though I did put on a mask and go to the farmer's market Saturday morning with Bethany. Sunday morning, I convinced Mike to get up super early (5 a.m.) to drive to the heron rookery near Indiana Dunes so we could do some birding, but it turns out the entire area was flooded by heavy storms the past few days, so we couldn't access anything, and it was a real letdown, so we turned around and came back home. We managed to see a couple of great blue herons, and a wood duck up in a tree, but that's about it. Monday morning, Henry was up early (he said it was too hot to sleep) so he and I went for a walk on the greenway trail, hoping to spot some birds. Unfortunately for me, silence is Henry's sworn enemy, so he doesn't make the best birding partner, but it was a nice (if muggy) walk.

the mighty Yellow River

frightener of birds

And while I was working inside, Mike was working outside on the yard. He's got a couple of big projects going on, including the annual expansion of the garden beds (he does a little more every year; if we stay in this house long enough maybe he'll take over the whole yard ... which I wouldn't complain about). He made the boys go out and help him a little bit each day, and there was much complaining about the unfairness of it all. It's a hard-knock life, y'all.

Nationwide cases: 1,680,625. Deaths: 98,902.