Soon You Will Know That You Are Sane, And You Know You're on Top of the World Again

So, today you all get a quick random post.

The county I live in currently has 3,095 cases of Covid with 334 new cases in just 24 hours. We are wearing our masks and staying home as much as possible, but we still have to work outside of our home. I have to help college students, many of whom have been hanging out in crowded bars, not wearing masks. Who knew an office job could be so dangerous?

We live about a block from one of the high schools, and lately the boy's Cross Country team has been having their practices there. Our poor cat Heidi told me she feels like she's living at the beginning of the movie, "Juno".

It's hardly rained here since the land hurricane we had on the 10th of August, and this week it got so damn hot and humid. I believe it got to 100 degrees here with humidity percentages of not much less than that. At least the corn is happy...

 Speaking of the Derecho...While we did lose a lot of our sunflowers, we still have some that survived. Sure, they're a little bent, but they're still beautiful and resilient. I think there is a lesson in there about weathering storms, but I don't want to sound TOO much like a motivational poster, so I'll let it go. 

As usual, try to hang in there through this stupid pandemic. Wear your masks, and try to socially distance yourself from other people. Contrary to what Fox News watchers will tell you, that isn't living in fear, that's practicing good common sense.

With the Furies Breathing Down Your Neck

Well, Kids. It's been a while. First I was busy, but then 2020 kept on serving up shit sandwich after shit sandwich. and we got hit with that land hurricane, which meant we didn't have power for over four and a half days and then didn't have internet for over 10 days. So, thank jeebus I have an excuse for not blogging this time. Whew!

So, yeah. The storm went down like this. A little minute before I was supposed to go to lunch the sirens went off, and I was like, "WTF! What now? There's not a cloud in the sky." And since we were all still working from home because of the pandemic, I IM'ed my co-workers and one of them said that there was supposed to be a storm coming with 80 mile per hour winds, and I was still, like "WTF! There's not a cloud in the sky."

So, then I made myself a BLT, because I had all of these amazing garden tomatoes and I heated up some corn on the cob, which is about my favorite meal, especially if you throw in some fried potatoes. I went with the kitten out on the back porch to eat, and then I was like "WTF! There is suddenly a scary line of clouds in the sky." I decided it was time to go inside. Then the storm hit. Bam! I ran to the window to coax Gus into the house. It was weird that he wasn't even scared.

After the cats were safely in the house, the electricity went out and I made myself a little nest in the hallway and read my book and tried to stay safe. It turns out Stinky was driving to Iowa City when the storm hit and she kept slowing down on the interstate, until she couldn't see and she finally pulled off in Grinnell. Don't think I didn't have a couple of heart attacks when she was telling me that charming tale.

Anyway, after 40 minutes or so, the storm finally stopped. I went outside to survey the damage, but at the time I couldn't see that down the street there was such a huge snarl of trees and power lines, that we wouldn't be able to drive down it for four days, and I had no idea that we would be out of electricity for four and a half days, or that we wouldn't have internet for over 10 days, or that I would have to go into work when we really weren't supposed to, because I had already used three and a half vacation days, and the semester was starting in a week and a half and we still had to admit people and I couldn't work from home without power or internet.

Of course, it was all way worse in Cedar Rapids. Yes, I was inconvenienced, but people North of us lost their homes and  had to camp out in tents or stay in gyms. After the tornado in 2006, the roof was off of our apartment and we had to stay at a friend's house for two weeks. So, compared to all of that, I am one lucky so-and-so. Mostly, I'm just tired, like I'm sure you all are. I'd love not to have to have well over a hundred people test positive for Corona virus in the last couple of days in our town. I would love for cops to quit killing Black people for minor offenses or no offenses, I would love to not have horrible storms and wild fires happening all over our country. I would really, really, love to be bored for a little while. I'd love for someone to say, "Hey. How's it going?" and to honestly answer, "You know, not too much."

 

 Luckily, we made the best decision to adopt a kitten this Summer. He really is the sweetest pet I've ever owned. He let's me pick him up and hold him and kiss him whenever I want to, and some days I take full advantage of that.

I'm hoping for all of us that 2020 suddenly becomes tediously boring. Also, make sure you vote in November.