covid diary: day 77

artist's depiction by Chase Stone

mike here again. i'll be your coronablogger for the evening.

i was reading this interesting post on gizmodo today, and it discussed the asteroid that created the 150-mile-wide chicxulub impact crater off the yucatan coast 66 million years ago, directly leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. a study led by Imperial College London ran a bunch of computer simulations, and it determined that the impactor hit the earth at the worst possible angle, causing the maximum amount of destruction and environmental calamity. geophysicist and lead researcher Gareth Collins described it as a "worst-case scenario," saying that "the asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs...this was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles." that's some seriously bad luck for those poor dinosaurs. not that they had a choice.

so at this point you may be saying: "mike, why are you talking about asteroids and extinctions and impact angles?" oooohhh, i'm so glad you asked! i saw this earlier today, and it made me laugh:

from amazon, could not find an artist attribution, because amazon

i highly doubt that anybody really wants all human life to be wiped out by an enormous asteroid or comet. this kind of thing shows up every four years, and everybody has a good chuckle. you may be wondering what this has to do with the coronavirus, and the answer is: nothing. absolutely nothing. the coronavirus is not going to wipe out humanity (as far as we know), although one could argue that it's putting a significant dent into it. nevertheless, society (such as it is) will continue in some form or another.

however, we (you, me, your family, the people at the store, and all the other members of society, which is everyone) have an enormous amount of influence on 1) how much this pandemic affects us right now, and 2) how much this pandemic will affect us into the future. so when various governments (federal, state, local) talk about "opening up" and "back to business," that does not mean "all clear, the pandemic is over!" holli touched on this in yesterday's post, describing memorial day activities and the staggering lack of common sense on display. lake of the ozarks in missouri, and the beaches in florida, and lake geneva in wisconsin, and the promenade in venice in california, and myrtle beach in south carolina, and on and on and on, and the martin's supermarket in plymouth in indiana. people have started acting like the pandemic is gone. it is not. it is still here and spreading. if you think it is okay to let your guard down now, then you are a fool.

i know our wet baby president is leading the "open up" chants and mocking people for doing the things that health professionals strenuously recommend, like wearing a mask in public and practicing social distancing. be aware that he is not a health professional. he ignores and belittles those people. what you need to understand, on both a deeply intellectual and visceral level, is that the president is a fucking idiot. he is only concerned with his public image and his poll numbers, and he is stupid on a level that has not been previously experienced or even contemplated by rational-thinking individuals. he doesn't care about you, unless you lie to cover for him or donate a bunch of money to him.

please wear a mask when you go out in public. please practice social distancing. please wash your hands frequently. please don't go to places or attend events that expose you to dozens or hundreds of other people. this is to protect yourself, and also everyone else. we will get through this, but only if we actually try. and based on what people are doing in the last week or so, we are not trying.

did anything happen in the news today? i have no clue, as i spent the day outside putting the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and seeds in the garden. i have some amazing spots of sunburn, as i apparently missed with the sunscreen in a variety of places. but the garden is finally in. i should have gotten it done two weeks ago, but at this point in my life, if it's done by june 1, i consider myself ahead of the game. i still have about 10 pepper and tomato plants left over, so i'm not sure what to do with those. anybody need any?

i just saw that the impeached popular-vote-loser president has threatened to shut down twitter because twitter put a link on his anti-vote-by-mail tweets that leads to articles showing that the president's tweets are total bullshit. nevermind that drumpf (that's how his name was spelled in the old country) has absolutely no power or authority to enforce such a proclamation. or that he clearly doesn't understand the first amendment of the Constitution, which he swore (hahahahaha) to protect, so help him god (hahahahaha). or that twitter should have shut him down years ago. or that twitter hasn't shut him down for falsely accusing a media critic of murder. supposedly he's going to release an executive order tomorrow (thursday) to "regulate" social media, and i'm sure that won't be a total shitshow and also outside his power. anything to distract from the 100,000 dead americans. and let's be honest, do you really think the impeached popular-vote-loser would shut down twitter? he'd spontaneously combust.

like i said, i was out working in the garden all day. i kept hearing a bird call from all over the yard, but i didn't recognize it. eventually i caught sight of one of the birds in question mid-call, and it was a baltimore oriole. judging by the number of individuals i heard singing, there must be dozens of those birds in our yard. this makes me happy. however, my favorite birds are the tree swallows, which are occupying the slot bird house in the pasture. they fly formation with me when i mow the yard, feasting on the bugs i scare up with the mower. so awesome, so pretty.

my source is different from holli's. nationwide cases: 1,739,517. deaths: 101,904.