Day 3849

I had to run some errands today and when I came home I noticed that there were blood stains all over the sidewalk next to the driveway. What the hell was this? When I got out of the car, I noticed a large dead rabbit underneath the car. The rabbit wasn't there when I left a little earlier, so whatever killed it must have done so recently. To make matters worse, I'd run over the rabbit and squashed it while I was parking the car. Yuk. I cleaned up the mess and asked Janet if she'd seen or heard anything strange while I was gone. "Well, there was a really large cat running away when I checked the mail," she said. "Did it look anything like a Bobcat," I asked? Yep. It probably was a Bobcat. We've seen Bobcats in the park before. They've been spotted in a dense grove of trees behind our house frequently. This was the first time they'd killed anything in our yard though. Hey, it's 2020.

It was cool enough to take our regular long walk this morning. Every once in a while there would be a breeze and we'd feel OK and then the breeze would stop and it was instantly humid and felt ten degrees warmer. The forecast says that it is going to be even warmer in the days ahead. I'm not looking forward to this.

I vacuumed the house today, mostly because Janet was cleaning everything else. I've more or less given up on household chores, but can still be shamed into action. I kind of wish we still had our old vacuum. The Dyson cleans great but it is such a pain to clean. Once I empty the canister it is still so dusty that I have to take it outside and use a leaf blower to get rid of all the dust. Old fashioned vacuum cleaner bags were so much easier.

I've got a dental appointment tomorrow. I'm a little apprehensive about going since Dallas has become a virus hotspot in recent days, but I'll go ahead and keep the appointment. Janet has already gone to this same dentist recently and says they are incredibly careful. They've eliminated certain procedures and do a simplified cleaning now. It's pretty safe sitting in the chair, but I still wouldn't want to be a dental hygienist. Even with a mask, gloves, and face shield, some of the patients are still going to cough on you. It's a simple rule of dentistry that you can't be sitting in the dentist's chair with a mask covering your face. They took my temperature when I went to the dermatologist and I'm sure they will here as well. What does this prove though? If it is the asymptomatic person with no fever and no symptoms that everyone is worried about, how are you ever going to effectively screen your patients?

I'm sure everybody has seen the charts that show the United States has plateaued with a high rate of infections, while all the other countries have reduced their infection rates to zero. How can this be? It seems to me like everyone did a good job of isolating for at least two or three months. I don't think Italy or South Korea isolated for longer than this. The current spike couldn't have just come from Memorial Day weekend. Even all the big city protests don't explain why the virus is now surging in places as remote as Wyoming and Montana. All I can think of is that the United States is a very large country and individual states didn't seal their borders the way most of the European countries did. Maybe it just took a long time for the virus to slowly travel from the coast to the heartland. It's just weird when the wild conspiracy theories actually make more sense than what passes for science these days. The scientists don't have many answers yet and seem to change their minds every week. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision of school or no school in the Fall.  It could turn out bad either way.

I'm also glad I'm retired and have been able to enjoy a lot of good years when the world was a much different place. When I was a kid I always thought that 2020 would be kind of like the Jetsons. Nope. Not even close.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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