Hello everyone and welcome to another weekly installment of my stay-at-home journal from Washington DC. Another week into Pandemic 2020 and I’m actually feeling pretty good this week. As I mentioned last week, I’ve begun looking at a longer term plan to get through the pandemic. It’s not what I wanted to be doing this year, but my life is only half-lived and I want the second half to be just as good as the first half. In order for that to happen, I need to keep myself and my people healthy and safe. Since I’ve come this far without getting sick, I’m going to just keep doing what I’ve been doing until one of four things happens – we find an effective treatment against the virus, we find a vaccine, we find a cure or the numbers actually drop to the minimal levels much of the rest of the developed world is looking at. Until one of those four things happens, I’m staying right where I am and I’m going to just keep on keeping on. It really bothers me that so many Americans are disparaging Dr. Fauci and the Center for Disease Control because neither is telling them what they want to hear. Dr. Fauci is one of the top infectious disease experts in the world and the CDC is a public health organization charged with keeping us safe and educated about infectious diseases. The CDC is staffed with highly educated experts in the field and Dr. Fauci is one of the foremost experts in the field and has served for many years under both parties. Why people are now choosing to listen to people who are not experts and distrusting those who are is painfully ignorant and really upsetting. If a doctor tells you you have cancer, you can keep looking until you find someone, perhaps a fortune-teller, who tells you it’s just indigestion, but that’s not going to change the facts. And our numbers continue to rise, and someone always comes along to discredit those numbers. I’m just throwing my hands in the air about this at this point. I’m really sorry that so many of my fellow Americans are dying and will continue to die when they don’t have to. With a plan and some national leadership we could get this whole thing under control.
One of the things I’ve been thinking about this week is an experience I’ve had more than once in Los Angeles. I’ve spent a lot of time in L.A. and especially in recent years they have experienced serious and severe droughts. And yet despite all the warnings and news stories, if you drive around you will still see people watering their lawns and washing their cars. In the middle of a drought. It occurred to me that the only way a drought will mean something to these people is if they go to turn on their faucet and nothing comes out. If they turn it on and water comes out then they must not be in a drought. When I see people washing their car in a drought, it makes me feel about how it makes me feel right now when people are crowding into bars and restaurants. Until you or someone you know gets sick and/or dies, apparently this won’t be real for you. I’ve had three close friends get sick with this disease, and a lot of people with an extra degree of separation (uncles of friends, parents of friends) who have died. Maybe that’s why I’m being cautious, but if everyone would come at this with the same sense of urgency, we, as a nation, would be doing better right now. As it is, we’re the laughing stock of the world, which I guess people are okay with. I hear people talk all the time about how we’re the “best country that’s ever existed on the face of the Earth” but we sure are proving otherwise. Remember when America was a leader and not just a bully with the biggest arsenal? We sure are Number 1 right now, but not in the way I would have hoped.
In big local news this week, my hometown Washington Redskins have officially dropped their name and logo and are hopefully going to announce a new one soon. I’ve seen many of the different suggestions and there are a few I would really love to see happen, Red Tails and Red Wolves being my two favorites. In my opinion, this change is long overdue. Even though the name wasn’t chosen with racist intentions, its time has come and gone. It reminds me of my high school history teacher who was really old and always referred to black people as “negroes”. In his time, that was the respectful term used and as a formal civil rights lawyer he clearly meant no harm in using it, but my friend Frank used to always raise an eyebrow every time he said it. I will say that I’ve heard people lay into the owner, Dan Snyder, about how he only changed it because of pressure from sponsors. While that may be true, he did choose to change it and I think it’s unfair to respond to that change with more negativity – it’s not what we need right now. Our culture has to learn when to call a win a win and back off for a while. Anyways, the Redskins were the last NFL team to integrate many years ago, and I’m glad we aren’t the last team to change our name. I look forward to this change and maybe a fresh start for our terrible team.
In more personal news, I’ve gotten through my writer’s block and begun working on my book again this week with a fresh outlook and hopefully a plan to really get it moving. I went back almost to the beginning and pushed past where I left off and feel good about where it’s going. With any luck, I can get it through to the end by December. The way I’m looking at it, a solid book is between three and four hundred pages which is only a couple of pages a day. I just need to get into a rhythm and keep my nose to the grindstone. We will see.
Other than that it hasn’t been a particularly stressful week. I’ve played my guitar and violin a lot and really enjoyed that. I’ve been trying to get up early enough to get a nice long walk in before it gets too hot out with some success. I’ve finished up some posts from my time in Richmond which I hope you enjoy. And in the most fun news of the week, I’ve approved the box design for the jigsaw puzzle which will have one of my photos on it and be available this fall.
Friday we had our weekly basement party, this week with an Irish Pub theme. My folks and I visited Ireland together many years ago now, and though we have no Irish blood it will always be a part of us. We enjoyed some Guinness and Irish music and had a good old time down there. As much as I’m enjoying this weekly festivity, I will really be looking forward to having a real night out, but not before it’s safe to do so.
Saturday I went over to my friend Pete’s house and we sat far apart and in his back yard. It was great to see a couple of my friends and their kids and chat and listen to music. We’ve kept it to just the 3 families and we’re all conscious of where we’ve been and how safe we’ve been. It’s our little trust pod and I’m grateful for it.
Sunday was a relaxed day, and in the evening we enjoyed watching Hamilton on Disney +. It was such a great show and definitely worth the $7 I paid for it, although I’m sure it is even better live. After I watched it I told one of my friends that I had and she listed her issues with the historic integrity of the show. She works for the Senate Historian’s office and is both brilliant and knowledgeable, so her points were all quite valid but a bit of a buzzkill too. I told her in my mind it was a musical with a historical theme, not a history lecture with dancing. I agree that things should be historically accurate whenever possible, but I enjoyed the costumes and music and performance and was able to enjoy it for what it was. I told her about when I had seen the movie 47 Meters Down, a movie that takes place underwater and which was so unbelievably technically incorrect that it bothered me (as a professional scuba diver), but it was a thriller not a documentary and so I enjoyed it with an asterisk.
We didn’t go out of town this week because my mother had an eye appointment on Tuesday. She got the all-clear, so we celebrated a clean check-up instead. Normally we do Taco Tuesday because we are coming back from a long day out and tacos are fast, easy and delicious. This week, because I had some time, I did Tapas Tuesday instead. We listened to Spanish guitar music and drank some wine and I laid out a wonderful spread of small plates, I really enjoyed putting this together and we had a lovely time.
Today I had a fun morning excursion. An old friend of mine who teaches at Wilson High School right up the street invited me to climb up to the clock tower to take some photos. It was awesome. The view from up there was spectacular and it was such a clear morning that I could see all the way across the city. I’ve walked and driven past that tower thousands of times, and it was a real treat to finally get up into it. Thank you, Dave, for the opportunity.
This afternoon I had my last tutoring session for the summer, and am super proud as to how well my student is doing. He’s really shown a lot of progress in the weeks we’ve been working together and I think he’s ready for the 8th Grade. Tonight, we have Dinner and a Movie planned and we’re looking forward to homemade pizza and Moonstruck.
It’s been a good week and I’m feeling more upbeat than I have in a while. I’ve dug in and accepted the situation for what it is and I’m ready to be here for the duration. I have plenty of things to do and work on, and I know that in another month and a half the leaves will start to change and things will start to cool off again. My van will be repaired and ready to roll before fall hits us. This coming week will be more of the same really. We are hoping to get to Appomattox this week and put the Civil War behind us for a while. We’ve got our next batch of beer ready to tap this weekend and then it’ll be time to brew again. I’ve got plenty of time to practice my instruments and do some reading and hopefully plenty of writing as well. Either way, it’s another week over and another week closer to whatever comes next. I hope y’all are keeping safe and sane out there. I’ll see you right back here next week. Have the best week you can, wherever you are, and thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike