Spontaneous Musings

It's getting darker earlier and earlier in my particular corner of the Universe. The sun is starting to sink now around 4:50 pm, if not before.

I feel as if I'm pulling myself through the day. Slept intermittently last night, plagued by nightmares.

1.) Online - via meetups or the Kesington Neighborhood Facebook page or a Facebook fan page - people are doing odd things. I see this in the news as well. Making me wonder - if I'm the only one who thinks there is a pandemic going on. Or rather, my idea of dealing with said pandemic is vastly different than others.

I discussed this with Mother tonight.

Mother: Your father is driving me crazy.
Me: I think sometimes I'm going crazy. Someone posted on my neighborhood Facebook page that they wanted to make friends and get a boyfriend, and was there a neighborhood meetup group. So people were saying oh - maybe we could get coffee sometime or take a walk -
Mother: What? That's akin to playing Russian Roulet. Please don't do that.
Me: I'm not. But I think maybe I'm being silly. All these people are going out to eat, taking hikes - etc. The Meetups have hikes with 40 people.
And folks are taking vacations to Mexico -
Mother: Russian Roulette. You have no idea what some stranger has been doing. You don't know where they've been. You'd be taking a huge risk.
Me: I haven't done it. But every once and a while I wonder...
Mother: I'm wondering if I should be wearing masks with the home health care workers. Also your father isn't wearing his properly, he keeps forgetting, it's uncomfortable and he can't do it - signs of the dementia, yes, but..
Me: I worried for a bit, but I've chosen not to, figuring you are safe enough -
Mother: You can't do anything. Worrying would get you nowhere.
Me: Hence the reason I've chosen not to.
Mother: Another of your cousin's has it now.

It continues to be the invisible enemy lurking outside the window. Today the stock market climbed because of Pfizer's announcement that their vaccine was proven to be 90% effective, they just had a few more test to run.

Told mother about the Four Seasons Landscaping press conference. She was amused. This was during our daily phone chats.

2.) New York has jumped up to the dreaded 2.68% infection rate now. The Microclusters are at 4.68% - most likely not helped by all the partying that happened over the weekend.

COVID fatigue is a dangerous disease.

I don't know why people are incapable of celebrating privately in their homes, but apparently they are. At this rate, maybe we'll eventually evolve into a bunch of introverts.

Although the true culprit is...well, weddings. Apparently folks are incapable of having small weddings? And small funerals for that matter.
The latest was a wedding out on Long Island with 113 people - that turned into a superspreader event resulting in 34 cases and 90% of the attendees under quarantine.

We're still lower than most of the country.

Of the 111,416 tests reported yesterday, 3,144, or 2.82 percent, were positive. Total hospitalizations were at 1,444. Sadly, we lost 26 New Yorkers to the virus.


Here's the plan regarding micro-clusters and zones. Instead of locking everyone down - they just lock down the infected areas..



Not sure that showed up - so go HERE.

3. The Doofus has decided to tour the country with rallies - to bolster support for his determination that the election was stolen from him.

Except he doesn't have any money. So he's basically trying to rise money from the tour. His campaign is in debt, and he's trying to drum up cash for the legal battles ahead - because he has no money for that either. Biden outspent him and out-raised him in donations. [I got all of this from mother - who keeps watching CNN and various news outlets, including PBS. They even watch Fox News to figure out their friends perspective. They are liberal, but live in South Carolina and have a lot of conservative friends.]

Meanwhile those closest to him are attempting to get him to concede. It's actually in his and our country's best interest if he does so. Obviously our country's - so I don't need to explain that one to anyone. But the 45 is broke - and NY is about to come after him with both barrels. The Attorney General of New York has been preparing for this for well over two years now, and has managed to gather enough evidence to indict the bastard. The only thing preventing that is well being the 45. What is she planning to indict him on? Income Tax fraud for starters. He owes New York - a heck of lot of money - that's why New York forced him to reveal his tax returns, so it could prove it. New York is broke - it plans on taking that money out of the 45th's hide in blood.

I foresee a lot of back-room deals taking place in the next few weeks and months. Or rather attempts at back-room deals by the Trump Administration.

So far this is playing out much the way Lando and I discussed way back in November of 2019, when we both decided the idiot wouldn't get impeached, but would lose the election and be plagued with lawsuits and financial problems for eternity. Lando and I had also figured out that the impeachment would happen in November of 2019. We're doing pretty well on the prediction scale. Where we screwed up was thinking the Doofus would take down the idiotic GOP, this turned out to be little more than wishful thinking on our part.

I wish the Doofus would just go away. I'm looking forward to the year in which I don't have to hear anything about him - at all. Hopefully that will be 2021. I'm apparently not alone in this sentiment.

I've been wishing that he would just disappear for a very long time.

I'm tired of waiting.

4. At least three people who attended an election party at the White House have test positive for the virus, including the White House Chief of Staff and Ben Carson.

You'd think they'd have learned their lesson by now and not gone to the White House for parties of any sort. But apparently not.

Party = Coronavirus. Indoor Party in particular. Hello.

Biden may want to fumigate the White House before he moves in with his wife and rescue dogs.

5. I've been hearing more sirens of late. I don't know if that means anything or not.

Somewhat annoyed by the news that the NY State Board of Elections was going to begin counting the mail-in absentee ballots today. Uhm. They received mine on October 30. Why wait? I better have my vote counted. I'll be frigging furious if its not.

Actually I'll be furious if the mail in's aren't counted. Every vote should be counted. We worked hard to get everyone to vote.

Also, the fact that more people voted in this election than ever before is an astounding achievement - if you consider we did it during a pandemic. The last time we had a pandemic, hardly anyone voted. They had the lowest voter turnout during the Spainish Flu Pandemic in 1918. Then again, it was 1918, we didn't have the ability to do mail in ballots and early voting back then.
Although I don't know why - they did have a mail service.

149 million voted to date, and the absentee haven't been counted yet. I have a feeling that the gap between Biden and Trump is about to widen a bit more, and we're going to be able to win the House Majority, at least. We have 216/217 to 199. All we need is two more, and it's signed sealed and delivered for the House. The Senate will most likely be more narrow.

6. Apparently My Niece died her hair blond. (She inherited my brother's copper penny hair...so why she feels the need to die it is beyond my mother and I.
Also she looks Asian, which is interesting. We're not sure why. My sisterinlaw isn't Asian, nor does she look it, and the almond shaped disappearing eyes come from brother or our side of the family. We're not Asian either. But people keep thinking she's Asian. Which I guess proves how ridiculous it is to judge anyone based on their looks - isn't it?)

Anyhow...

Mother: Did you or anyone die their hair back in Junior High and High School?
Me: No. I didn't really do it in college either. The most I did was get highlights.
Mother: So kids didn't die their hair colors...back in the 1980s?
Me: Not that I remember. It didn't really become a thing until the 1990s to be honest. Weird, I need to die mine - but I'm afraid to do it myself, and I don't want to deal with the hair stylist. I don't enjoy going to begin with - and with COVID, it'll be ...
Mother (who has done it and recently): A special kind of torture.

Yes, sitting for two hours indoors, in a salon, with a mask, while they wear a mask and a shield, and do my hair, and I wait - only to be less than thrilled with the result, and have to brush it out of my face for two months? Not to mention paying over $175 for the privilege? I'll pass. It's not like anyone is seeing me at the moment but me. Oh there's Zoom on occasion and work, but they don't care and I can get away with hiding the video component.


7. The picture below is from yesterday's walk - even though I did take a brief walk to the pharmacy this morning - only to discover my debit card wasn't working - apparently the banks systems were down. The woman answering the phone sounded a bit like a robot.

I also got yet another phone call from the car warranty folks. They keep calling me. I keep pushing "2" - add me to the do not call list. Only to get called again. The message is the same - "this is your finale notice regarding the extension of your car warranty" - I should be so lucky. It's clearly not. Because I've gotten this notice at least twice a week for well over a few months now. I got fed up and pushed one to talk to a rep.

Sales rep: Since your car warranty is now up, we can extend it for several months if you -
Me: I'm going to interrupt you right there. I'm curious about something.
Sales Rep: Well, if you would let me finish -
Me: How are you going to extend a limited warranty on a car that doesn't exist? I do not own a car and haven't for at least twenty years now -
Sales Rep: Uh..you had the option -
Me: I've pushed 2 - asking you to stop calling me over and over again. But you keep calling, always saying it is the final notice. Clearly it's not. Are you stupid? Or maybe a scam and I should report you.
Sales Rep: Mam!
Me: what?
Sales Rep: Goodbye Mam, have a nice day.

I blocked the call. And reported it to the FCC. Yes, I know, on cell phones you don't answer. But this is a landline - that I use mainly to talk to mother, and I had no clue who was calling.