Day 3836

It's hard to keep your eye on the ball. I've been around a long time and I don't think I've ever seen so many things going wrong at once. It seems inconceivable that the country doesn't seem capable of taking the coronavirus seriously. South Korea was able to control their outbreak quickly because the entire population was comfortable with the idea of universal surveillance. In a matter of weeks cell phone data, credit card transactions, and surveillance camera information were coordinated in a massive effort to track the entire population. It worked. People with the disease were quickly identified and isolated. China, Taiwan, and other asian countries had similar results.

This doesn't seem to work in the United States. People complain about contact tracing because of privacy issues. Everybody is clamoring for a vaccine but half the population already says that they will refuse to take it because they are suspicious of vaccines in general. There is a huge uproar over masks, which was partially created when the government initially said they were worthless and then changed their mind and said they were essential. Businesses desperately want to open up again, but customers aren't coming back because they still don't feel safe. It's a huge mess.

Add riots and civil unrest to a plague and you've got a recipe for disaster. If there is anything that should cause us to finally get our act together and come up with a unified plan to solve these problems it should be this. It's not happening though. We are not acting like South Korea at all. Every aspect of American life has become politicized, including virus mitigation, mask wearing, tearing down statues, and destroying vibrant American cities. Sadly, there are a lot of people in both political parties who think that this chaos will help them win the next election. Instead of getting together to fix things, they are strategizing on the most effective ways to blame the whole mess on the other side. At this point I think the winner will be ruling a pile of rubble.

I look at this whole situation with a certain amount of sadness. We have become a tribal society and I'm not a member of any tribe. I look at everything as an outsider and it gives me a different perspective on things. Democrats are quick to criticize fundamentalist Christians without acknowledging that they have become a religion themselves. Republicans have a leader who is trying to get rid of the deep state when his own political party actually is the deep state. It's all insane. You can't really blame the Russians and the Chinese for trying to destroy us with provocative memes on Facebook. It's so easy. We've already proved that we are willing to believe almost anything. I hate to throw my vote away in November but it's hard to get excited when both political parties have selected a senile, brain dead old man as their leader.

Oh, well. Life goes on. I've always been a survivor and as things continue to deteriorate, I'm inclined to become even more of a prepper than I was before. I'll continue to take long walks and work on getting stronger. I'll become even better at fixing things myself and will continue to favor the companionship of dogs. As soon as I can find an interesting long-term project I'll stop talking about current events. It's pointless and I certainly don't have a solution. Hey, I got the water off the roof today and took the trash out to the curb. I think that's enough for one day.

Shiner is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3834

Another rainy morning. This is getting old. Especially when I keep hearing from my astronomer friends that skies are clear out at McDonald Observatory. We managed to find time to give Dawn a shortened walk this morning. After getting caught in the rain a few too many times, I think we've finally learned not to tempt fate. Dawn was fine with the shorter walk. Not me. I had to go out later in the day to make up the lost steps.

When I went out again I passed a woman feeding the ducks with her children not more than twenty yards away from a crazy man wandering around shouting "My favorite is missing," over and over again. Occasionally he'd add "They're not all missing, but my favorite is gone." Was this guy talking about a loved one, a teddy bear, or maybe a sock? The woman feeding the ducks didn't seem alarmed. There were lots of runners on the trail and everyone ignored the crazy man. This strange tableau seemed to represent America today. We all want to keep feeding the ducks while the world is burning around us. It's pretty weird.

I wonder if the other NASCAR drivers are a little embarrassed after that noose in Bubba Wallace's garage turned out to be a garage door pull. The exact same rope was found in every other driver's garage and they had all been there since 2019. There was no hate crime. There was nothing at all. The media jumped all over this story before any investigation had been made. They did the same thing when Jussie Smollett said he had been assaulted in Chicago. Do you think the media is pushing a narrative? They love this stuff.

I don't love any of this. I don't know many members of the police force, but the few cops I do know are wonderful people. I'm pretty sure that the percentage of bad cops is about the same as the percentage of bad people in the general population. I used to live in Capitol Hill in Seattle. It was a great place back in the 1970's. If I was living there now, I would be outraged by a mayor that does nothing to stop the madness. I don't support tearing down monuments at all. If you think you can improve the future by erasing the past, you are wrong. It just doesn't work that way.

You can't defeat the virus by ignoring it either. I used to think that the Chinese were lying about their relatively low death rates during this pandemic. Now I'm more inclined to believe they were telling the truth. The Chinese had the liberty to impose draconian containment strategies. Jeez. These guys welded the doors shut to people's homes to keep them from moving about. We're so used to having our freedom that we just ignore anything that we don't like. It's not really a surprise that the United States has one of the highest death rates from the virus in the world.

I've thought for a long time that the Chinese would be the first to set foot on Mars. These guys play the long game and seem to have a thousand year plan for everything. We have trouble making a plan for next week. I wish we could get our act together as a country. There is so much potential here. We need more people like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and fewer people pulling down statues. You may not agree with me, but we'll see who's right soon enough. Chaos is not a winning strategy. Sooner or later the Chinese will just declare "game over."

Boo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3812

One of the best ways to make the world seem normal again is to visit the Dalmatian kennel. There were fewer dogs this week. Cinder has gone to her forever home. Her new owners renamed her Cinderella and from all we've heard she's enjoying her new surroundings. Murphy, Hank, and Charlie were all glad to see us. Each of these boys has their favorite toys and loves to play. They all seem remarkably well adjusted to life at the kennel, but I'm sure they look forward to finding their forever homes as well.

As usual, the day started with an early morning walk. It's always quiet and peaceful right around sunrise. We've started seeing lots of baby ducks near the lake. We also saw a young coyote running down a neighborhood street. Hopefully Mom can keep her ducklings safe until they learn to fly. The young owls I saw a few months ago have all learned to fly. I never see them any more, although I know they are nearby. I often hear them deep in the woods. This cycle of life repeats every Spring in the park. It's reassuring to see the wildflowers return right on schedule and a new generation of animals repopulate the park. If only civilization was as predictable as nature.

I continue to be amazed that nobody is talking about the virus anymore. Almost overnight we have gone from staying six feet apart to huge crowds milling about on city streets. It's almost as if the entire population has Attention Deficit Disorder. Apparently, we can only concentrate on one crisis at a time. The media certainly isn't helping. Everyone is still pushing their own narrative and suddenly all this unrest becomes about identity politics again. At any rate, it will be interesting to see if Dr. Fauci was right. If the virus is as contagious as he says it is, there are going to be a lot of sick people three weeks from now.

I think Dallas is still under a curfew. I wouldn't know. I haven't gone out at night in years. It's a shame to be nervous about going out at night when you are interested in astronomy. The park is a good place for star watching, but it also a popular place for drug deals. I'd be crazy to wander around in the park late at night. Police sirens routinely wake us up at night as they race down our busy street to deal with things that go bump in the night. All this is routine in a big city. One of the things I liked so much about Fort Davis in West Texas is that you felt completely safe walking down city streets at 11 PM. I can't say this about Dallas. Maybe I'm just a rural person at heart.

It's hard to believe it's June already. In early May, I thought that things wold be better by June. Now, I'm wondering what's next. At the rate we're going, there will be an alien invasion by August. I do wish that things would settle down. I'd like to go to the Mars 2020 launch at Kennedy Space Center in July and maybe head back to McDonald Observatory this Fall.

For now, travel is limited to visiting the Dalmatians on Monday afternoons. That's OK though. Murphy, Hank, and Charlie are all great dogs and we enjoyed spending time with them today.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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