Covid19

Today (well, tomorrow) makes it a year. On 3/13 last year I left my office, picked up my kids from Grace Academy for Spring Break…and the great upside down world of CoViD 2020 happened. Example: WFH Day 2

I was a reliable journalist for awhile, then in June I just…stopped. Overwhelmed didn’t really cut it; I was paralyzed by how much the world was changing.

The 2015-era computer I wrote those blogs on is gone, replaced by another coporate laptop from my employer after the battery decided to die. The house I wrote those in is gone, replaced by a 10.11 acre rance property with cows, rabbits, a tractor, and a new (LEASED!) Toyota tundra.

It was going to be something.

Something was going to wake a nation of people who’ve been quarantined for 80+ days. People are bored, anxious, afraid, and simply tired.

Turns out, that something was the death of George Floyd on 25 May, a week ago today. Today, an independent autopsy indicates he died of asphyxiation

One week. In that time, protests have broken-out in 140 cities, in particular in Louisville, Kentucky, my wife’s hometown. Each day, there are protests, and as night falls, they turn violent. Last night, police in Lousiville felt they were fired upon, and returned fire with live rounds, killing restaurant-owner David McAtee.

The world went to hell on 13 March 2020.

We’d been watching a slow-motion tidal wave from China come our way since January. We’d hoped it’d stop like SARS in mainland China, and we’d get to say “Whew! Close one.” Nope.

We saw it bloom in Europe, but hey–we’re still an ocean away from this thing, right? No.

On March 13, I got the email saying “Work from Home until further notice.” Then a few weeks later, it became “We’ll evaluate but stay home until May 1st at least.”

If the “Great Lockdown” or whatever history calls this thing had sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel, what would they be?

Feel is easy: Tired. The feel of a not-so-early morning after a long night of binge-watching whatever (Mandalorian, Picard, Friends). Being tired for no particular reason, like the tired of a long road trip or transcontinental flight: You haven’t exerted yourself, but you’re exhausted, disoriented, and cranky.

CoVid19 tastes like bad breath, that cottonmouth you get from dehydration after too late a night or far too early a morning. It also tastes like the Diet Coke® I secret away in my gun safe so my kids won’t drink any.

So, phase one (shock/denial) appears to be over.

Over 20 million people are out of work, roughly a 20% unemployment rate.

There are almost 700k total cases, and 32k deaths. This is just from people we know had the disease.

Whatever “rainy day funds” most people had are exhausting. Quickly.

It seems clear, this is going to be somewhere between the “Great Recession” and the “Great Depression.” And honestly: There’s no end in sight.

So, it’s official as of today

(Source. As an aside, this ‘worldometers.info’ site is a clinic on how to present and visualize data at scale.)

Eight-three thousand cases, and no sign of let-up after 2 solid weeks of “shelter-in-place” or “stay-home-pretty-please”

New York is simply exploding, especially The City.

I’ve taken to following a former member of disaster preparedness for Obama, @JeremyKonyndyk. Here’s his take as of today:

We’re not “flattening the curve.” We’re accelerating. We’re fighting our health care system.

Well, at least yesterday was good, right?

The stock market went up by 2,000 points. The Congress seemed to agree on–depending how you count it–a SIX TRILLION DOLLAR (!) bailout package, that represents a quarter of the US annual GDP. This comprises:

• 2 Trillion in relief for businesses and regular Folksy
• 4 Trillion in authority for the Fed to buy….stuff. REITs, ETF, Bonds, etc.

Today has been less rosy.

Last night, I was up with grace in immense pain until 11 or so, then I just collapsed in my bed. I finally got to work by 9am…only to find that I had a mandatory 45-minute Mac OS Catalina upgrade (10.15.4, if you’r scoring at home) to do.

“You’re choosing to watch the news. You can choose not to.”

Yesterday, made an excursion to Randall’s to get some supplies after I got my daughter’s medication in Cedar Park. The store had more than I expected, but the necessities had evaporated. Bottled water, paper goods, bread, milk. I saw a yuppie buying all the individual cereal containers, bragging about how he had “Fifteen Gallons of Milk” at home.

For himself.

It continues today. Every day feels like a week.

As of this writing, stocks are down 8%, just today. This a snapshot of the cnn.com headlines:

Not good.

There’s news the executive is invoking War Emergency provisions to get priority production for necessities. Per my recollection, the last time that happened was in World War 2.

Yesterday was a better day; I was able to work a bit. Today has just been staring at headlines. I must stop. I must work.

And so it begins

As I write this, it’s 5pm on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not wearing green. I’m sitting at home in our spare bedroom, with a 24" monitor ahead of me, and Amazon Basics® Keyboard instead of my beloved CODE Keyboard, and the world aflame.

I agree with this tweet:

Basically, the news since last week has been Through-the-Looking-Glass bad. A Quick rundown for posterity:

• Starting mid February, the stock market is down a third from its highs. February 19th, the Dow closed at 29,386. Today, it closed 21,237. Earlier today, it was under 20,000, briefly. Trillions of dollars of market value have been erased in six weeks. Yeterday in particular, the Dow lost 12% of its value, or about 3000 points. In one day.