Day 96 Nat'l Emergency: Tip-toeing to Normalcy

Seventeen weeks, exactly 119 days, from my last residence in a barber’s chair I had my hair cut Thursday. A few days earlier I visited my dentist to complete a crown restoration begun after a root canal procedure in pre-coronavirus lockdown March.

Am I abandoning Dr. Fauci’s safety first guidelines in favor of Trumpian bravado? Hell no, not on your life. My life, actually.

I won’t be dining at restaurants anytime soon, even those with outdoor seating. I will not engage in any activity attracting large groups. Attendance at synagogue services will have to wait. I’m sure God will understand. He or She does not require adherents to unnecessarily place themselves, and subsequently others, at risk.

I wonder about people who act as if they are immune from not only contracting COVID-19 but also unwittingly spreading it. 

I also wonder why people wear masks while driving alone in their cars. 

Makes no sense to me. Then again, there are lots of people out there who lack common sense. Take, for example, those who apparently think swigging diluted bleach could kill the coronavirus, rather than perhaps killing them or scarring their insides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in an online study that 39% of 502 adults surveyed had misused a cleaning product (https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/05/cdc-misusing-bleach-try-kill-coronavirus/). 

Now, there is reason to question the conclusions of such a small study, but it does make one wonder why anyone would subject their bodies to such an out-of-the-box, er, bottle, treatment. 

Medical Update: My full face smile is back. The Bell’s palsy is almost all gone, a remarkably rapid recovery, my doctor exclaimed.

Bear Facts: Four times in the last week a black bear has been sighted within a few miles of our home. Over the years wild turkeys, lots of deer and a coyote or two have crossed our paths as we’ve walked in our neighborhood which is down the block from Saxon Woods Park. 

One of the walks Gilda and I take meanders for a mile up Saxon Wood Road. Several years ago during an early spring afternoon we stopped about halfway up the trek so Gilda could look through the windows of a house under renovation. As she walked around the home I looked out onto Saxon Wood Golf Course. Some 500 or more yards away I observed either a very large, I mean a very large, dog or what I immediately presumed was a bear sauntering across a fairway. 

I called 911. From local to county to state police I was dispatched from one constabulary to the next in a vain attempt to alert authorities. 

The recent rash of bear sightings has not elicited any signs of panic from officials. A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has advised, “Never run from a bear; stay calm, speak in a loud and calm voice, and slowly back away from a safe distance. Make loud noises by shouting or banging pots to scare the bear away.”

Aside from our water bottle, I guess Gilda and I will have to start toting pots along on our walks. 

NY, NY: I’ve lived in the New York City metropolitan area for 66 of my 71 years. I grew up in Brooklyn. Before COVID-19 I’d go to the theater more than a dozen times a year, usually preceded by dinner in a theater district restaurant. I went to museums. I walked Manhattan and Brooklyn streets. I took the subway. I drove with ease through every borough enjoying the architecture that flew by my windshield.

I consider myself a New Yorker.

But as I read the Thursday New York Times Styles article “Checkout Time Might be Early” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/style/hotels.html), I lost confidence in that appellation. 

Never a hipster (if that is still a moniker used by trendsetters), I at least professed some knowledge of the city that never sleeps. To say I was confounded, astounded, overwhelmed by all that I did not know even existed would be an understatement. 

Well, I guess not too many people enjoying their eighth decade of life are attuned to the shifting “New York scene.” I’m quite content with my bite of the Big Apple and long for a post-pandemic time to enjoy it fully once more.

Day 77 of Nat'l Emergency: More Voices, Some Amusing, Mostly Reasonable

Not everyone sees the same Facebook and Twitter feeds I do, so here are some of my favorite postings from the last few days:

A former colleague, Barbara Hochberg, who just celebrated a birthday Sunday, posted on Facebook: 

Not Everything is Cancelled

sunshine is not cancelled

spring is not cancelled

love is not cancelled

relationships are not cancelled

reading is not cancelled

naps are not cancelled

devotion is not cancelled

music is not cancelled

dancing is not cancelled

imagination is not cancelled

kindness is not cancelled

conversations are not cancelled

hope is not cancelled

Speaking of birthdays, I share a birthdate down to the month, day and year with Maxine Clark, founder of Build-a-Bear Workshop. She cited Dr. Lisa Welch, Democrat running for Congress in Texas, addressing naysayers who believe the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax: “Who thinks it is a Hoax? Not Trump. He is tested every day, those around him are tested, the White House staff is required to wear masks, he is taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent him from getting it. All elaborate measures for someone that thinks it is all a hoax.”

Our son’s mother-in-law, Lolly Mixter, reacted to Trump’s push to re-open churches and other houses of worship: “Just to be clear, the Church has not been closed, so it doesn’t need to be re-opened. We have simply stopped worshipping in our buildings for a time to protect the health and well-being of our people & our communities. The Church does not require a building in order to be the Church. What is required is love, compassion & the presence of God.”

Marie Graham posted a sign from the Briarcliff Congregational Church: “In God we trust. Dr. Fauci runs a close second!”

My sister Lee liked a message board at Trinity Baptist Church: “Trump or God. Pick One. You can’t follow both.” 

Not all my contacts are liberal progressives. Here are two reposts from John H. O’Brien, another former colleague: “I got pulled over in the HOV lane for driving alone. I said that was due to social distancing, my passenger was in the car behind me!”

“So if the governor sees his shadow—will there be 6 more weeks of lockdown?”

My sister posts lots of interesting stuff. Here are several more I enjoyed:

Attributed to Linda Friedlander Imhof—“Would you love to see Anthony Fauci voted as Time’s Person of the Year? Trump would go insane!”

Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressional candidate: “Donald Trump votes by mail. Melania, Ivanka, and Jared Kushner all vote by mail. But when regular Americans want to vote by mail to stay safe during a pandemic, Trump calls it ‘voter fraud’ and opposes it strongly? This is what hypocrisy looks like.”

Delving further into the debate on voting by mail, Lee reposted, “If it’s safe to mail Tax Refunds, Social Security checks, Stimulus Checks, Draft Registrations, Prescription Drugs, Passports, your Driver’s License or the actual ID you’d use to vote…then it’s safe to vote by mail.”

To those who argue unemployment relief reduces the incentive of staff to return to work, Lee favored this comment from The Other 98%: “If your employees make more on unemployment you’re not a job creator you’re a poverty exploiter.”

To mask or not to mask—Lee lands firmly on the side of masking. She reposted Victoria Thomas: “I’m not asking you to drop behind enemy lines & fight your way to Paris. I’m not asking you to ration food. Or hide Jews, gays or Catholics in your basement. I’m asking you to cover your mouth & not stand so close to others. It’s embarrassing so many can’t handle that.”

She also liked Mar Toby Hartson’s comment: “Remember ‘Click it or Ticket’? Morons hated seatbelts but it saved lives! Maybe we’ll start ‘Mask it or Casket’ for same reason?”

Lee also reposted Jay McDowell: “I don’t understand some people’s problem with wearing a mask.

“I grew up with no shoes, no shirt, no service. Nobody turned that into a civil rights issue as far as I know.

“When I go to a fancy restaurant and they require a sports coat I don’t spit in their face. I wear a sport coat.

When I go golfing and they require a collar, I don’t yell and scream and turn it into something political. I wear a shirt with a collar like I was asked to do.

“When I walk into a place of worship if they ask me to wear a head covering, I am polite and wear a head covering. I don’t rant about my god given right not to wear a head covering.

“Right now we are being asked to wear a mask to make everyone feel more comfortable about restarting society. I don’t understand all of the anger about that. I will wear a mask for the benefit of everyone. It’s what I am being asked to do. And just like in the other instances, I will do it because I don’t consider it an infringement of any of my basic human rights. It is simply the polite thing to do for the common good.”

Day 29 of Nat’l Emergency: Daily Trump Show Is Best PR for Biden

Did you watch Thursday night’s “Jeopardy”? Specifically, did you marvel at Beni Keown’s orange-fro? Now that was some head of hair atop the Northwestern University freshman. It has even garnered its own Twitter feed.

For my part, it is now 13 weeks since my last haircut. My record is 15 weeks which I am sure to beat given the shelter-in-place command from Governor Cuomo. In case you’re wondering, no way will I allow Gilda to trim my locks. Last time I let an unlicensed female play with my hair I was about three years old. My five-year-old sister promised she wouldn’t hurt me but ever since then, I swear, my once straight hair has been curly. 

The Weather Channel app cautioned Friday’s forecast included gale warnings. It wasn’t kidding. There were whitecaps on the water of our birdbath on the patio.

Speaking of the great outdoors, Gilda says her flowers and vegetables will be among the most educated anywhere. Seems her planting preparations include placing copies of The New York Times in the covered beddings to ward off weeds by blocking sunlight from reaching them. When the newspaper breaks down it becomes good compost. 

I don’t know about you but I am fighting anxiety and depression by largely ignoring the detailed reporting on the new coronavirus. Call it avoidance therapy. If I don’t obsess over every last detail of our collective predicament it won’t go away, I know that, but at least I will not be imprisoned by it. Gilda, on the other hand, reads far more about the pandemic. Perhaps it’s because of her medical background as a nurse practitioner and her decades-ago experience as research coordinator of infectious diseases at New York Medical College.

We are lucky to have each other for company. I cannot fathom how single people are able to stay sane inside their residences. Gilda and I can detach for hours at a time, she in the garden or in searching the Internet for recipes or by sewing; I by writing blogs. But most of the time we have the reassurance of partnership.

We take daily walks, usually at least three miles. Six rotations of our housing development equals three miles. Or we drive to different neighborhoods. Last weekend we walked around Manor Park in Larchmont, a picturesque promontory along Long Island Sound surrounded by breathtaking turn of the 20th century mansions. We couldn’t believe that in 42 years of living in Westchester we had never previously discovered Manor  Park. 

From such simple discoveries sanity sustains itself.

We restrict our viewing to the evening news (NBC or CBS) and “Antiques Roadshow” during dinner. “Jeopardy” and either a movie or an episode of a drama like “Better Call Saul” or “My Brilliant Friend” in our refurnished den, made all the more cozy by our propane gas-powered freestanding stove still fired up on chilly evenings, complete the day. 

We rarely watch television or a movie during the daytime, though we might make an exception today. It’s too depressing to see “The Plot Against America” before we go to bed. 

The HBO adaption of Philip Roth’s book is a portrayal of what might have transpired in America had Nazi-loving, America First-cheering Charles Lindbergh defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. For those who shiver at the prospect of an autocratic presidency that exults in racial superiority and the diminution of rights thought to be enshrined in- and protected by the Constitution, the series is traumatizing for its relevance to the politics of today.

Under the cover of emergency powers declared to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump and his gang are tightening their grip on the nation. While most of the public is consumed consuming news on the virus, environmental protections are being shelved, asylum seekers are being deported without hearings, government watchdogs are being canned. The ability to vote is being suppressed.

Daily Trump media briefings have drawn criticism for their obvious politicization of the crisis and the seeming indifference Trump has to facts, medical advice and his administration’s culpability in failing to respond early and effectively. The central complaint is bewilderment that the media is providing a platform for his prevarications and mendacity. 

I take a contrary view. Trump on the stump is one of the best agents of change available to Democrats, Independents and thoughtful Republicans who want to see a change of leadership. By denying responsibility, by denigrating anyone who criticizes federal actions, by withholding supplies from states whose governors have spoken out, by showing his almost complete ignorance of the subject, by displaying almost zero compassion for those affected by the illness or unemployment, by caring only about big business and his television ratings, by pushing for an unproven treatment using a drug he is reported to have a financial interest in, Trump reinforces the reasons he needs to be replaced. 

“Democracy dies in darkness,” is the official slogan of The Washington Post. Trump is doing us a favor exposing himself every day. Rather than being lulled into a sense of security by Drs. Fauci and Birx explaining the evolution of the crisis and its treatment, Trump reminds us how nasty, how self-centered, how vindictive he is. 

Joe Biden has no means of securing equal air time to cement his claim to the presidency. His vision will not come into focus until closer to the election. Meanwhile, though Trump’s core supporters have not wavered, the “wartime” president has not been able to sustain new backers as his ineptitude becomes apparent. How fortunate that he is not getting a wartime bump but rather is being shown to be a wartime chump.