Starting the fifth week of staying at home due to COVID-19. Here are my thoughts:
- I’ve gotten a lot done around the house. Repaired a rotted window, rebuilt my firewood crib that had partially collapsed, fenced in an area and started planting vegetables, raked out all beds, fashioned a new door for my Little Free Library.
- Also getting a lot of exercise, although none of it is playing tennis. My club is closed, the town park courts are closed. But my garage is open and I have dumbells and a yoga mat and a pull-up bar and I still know how to run and jump rope.
- Although I’m a writer and work from home, and therefore accustomed to being home, I’m beginning to feel the longing to get out and go. Almost anywhere. I’d like to visit my siblings or go out for a drink or get up to Canada or . . .
- An estimated 8 million people are losing their health insurance, but the Trump administration won’t open the ACA markets. Why? Cruelty, plain and simple. Is there a lesson to be learned? Perhaps tying health insurance to employment status isn’t such a smart idea, but if the United States does it and no other country does, then it must be a good idea.
- I made a no-sew mask out of a camouflage bandanna and it looks pretty good. Add my baseball cap and I’m unrecognizable.
- Acting Secretary Thomas Modly — What a Trump sycophant that fucker is. He fires Captain Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for backchanneling efforts to save his coronavirus-infected crew, then he spends a quarter of a million dollars flying to Guam to board the ship and yell at the crew because they cheered for Crozier. He thought his course of action would please Trump and get him nominated to be the permanent secretary. He has resigned. What a shitshow.
- Doing quite well in the bunker with spouse and two kids (adults, actually). Celebrated Owen’s 20th birthday yesterday as a family. We’re all watching out for each other. I really am lucky.
- My sources of news, in order of preference: New York Times, AP News, Reuters. I do look at the Fox news website everyday just to better understand state propaganda and the behavior of even more sycophants (that’s the word of the day).
- I’m using my writing time to take another run at a novel I worked on a few years ago that hasn’t made it to publication yet: A SERIOUS LAPSE. If I take a dispassionate look (don’t know if that’s possible), I’d say I’m 75 percent of the way there, with the other 25 percent still an enigma to me. The first chapter is largely intact and can be read here. Update: I’ve been working on this novel, it’s new title is FLIGHT RISK.
- Almost finished rereading LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA. It was on my list of the 25 most important books in my life. I think it deserves a spot in the top ten. Review to come soon. Next on the reread list is THE HOURS. On the new list: THE GLASS HOTEL.
