The Biden - Harris Ticket...My 2 Cents

I haven't made it a secret that this November I'll be voting Democratic for the first time in my 80 years. Biden is right, Trump has turned the presidency into a reality show with him as the star. He has been disconnected and out of touch with the real issues he should be dealing with from day one. And the killer is I don't think he knows it. I think he really believes that he's doing a heroic job at saving the country from destruction...that he views himself as some sort of savior. I don't claim to be an expert on the political scene, but I am not aware of one single accomplishment Trump could point to, either nationally or internationally that he could say is a hallmark of his administration. In my view the opposite is true. He has done more to divide and antagonize on the national and international stage than any president in history. His complete mishandling of the Covid situation, mostly due to his wanting to call all the shots is going to occupy many pages of history books in the future. 

I will not be voting for Biden. I will be voting against Trump. I don't relish the thought of a Democrat in office, but I think Biden is intelligent enough to form policies based on reasonable judgement, and to be consistent in the application of those policies, none of which we have seen from Trump.  

I am disappointed that Biden chose Harris over Rice. I think Rice has more experience on a wider scope and would tend to view us as a total population, whereas Harris seems to me to have tunnel vision slanted to minorities. If I'm right I hope her influence will not be too great on Biden, if he wins the election. Most of my friends and acquaintances don't agree with my position. Their thinking seems to be that though Trump is not a great president, at least we have a conservative in office who is fending off the left. I don't see it that way. In my view he has hurt the conservative position badly. He's done more to unite the liberal factions than they could ever have done themselves. He's given them a banner to march under.

It seems to me that as the election gets closer Trump has toned down his foolish behavior and utterances, probably with the advice of his campaign advisers and in response to the negative polls. And that worries me. If he continues to keep quiet, and if there is progress made toward a Covid vaccine, which Trump would take credit for, my fear is that we'll forget his ineptitude and elect him again. 

I don't know if the White House has a presidential playground, but if Trump is reelected and there is a presidential playground with a sandbox, that sandbox is where he aught to serve the next four years. It would suit his style and ability.

Respect Your Local Old Person

We were in a large family style restaurant, Karl and me, and were eating lunch. I don't remember where we were but do remember we were on a business trip. Inside the restaurant was a very large group of senior citizens, and we assumed that they were associated with the bus parked outside which was very colorful and in big blazing letters read, "Holland Michigan Tulip Festival". When it appeared that everyone had finished eating, one of the younger people announced that it was time to board the bus. There were four or five young people; apparently serving as guides and caretakers for the old folks. As they filed out we could hear the caretakers asking each of them if they had remembered their purses, sweaters, caps and whatever else they had brought in with them, and cautioning them to be careful stepping down out of the restaurant and stepping up onto the bus. What struck me was the sing-song tone of everything the caretakers said. They weren't interacting with people. They were one-way communicating in much the same manner as you would communicate with a pet. As the last of them walked out I turned to Karl, who was some years younger than me and said, "If you ever see me getting on a bus going to the Holland Michigan Tulip Festival, please shoot me."

It seems to me that there are two times in out lives when we talk 'baby talk'. One is when we're confronted with a new born baby. It seems almost obligatory to say things like, "Did ooo have a good seeps? And the mandatory, "He's soooo cuette!! I never saw a new born that was cute. To me they all look like Winston Churchill. That includes my own son. I remember a nurse bringing him into the hospital room, and my wife and whoever else was there exclaiming how cute/precious/handsome he was. What I saw was a face with a cone shaped head, and at the very top it was pulsing. His head was pulsing! The nurse refused to listen to my denial that that was not our baby. So, while everyone else was oohing and awing I'm wondering where I'm going to get a cap to fit a head like that.

The other time we talk baby talk is to old people. Not everybody. Most people are able to look at an older person and not automatically assume they are senile. But there are some. I saw it and experienced it during my latest hospital stay. A couple of the younger staff members would come into my room for the first time, look at the patient information sheet attached to the foot of the bed, see I was near eighty and immediately go into the SSSP mode, meaning talk slow, simple, sing-song and plural. "How are we this morning? Did we sleep well last night? Are we hungry this morning?" I had hoped that my responses would have caused them to reevaluate but no, they were in the 'talking down to old folks' zone. 

There was one tactic I thought of trying but never did. I thought about asking if they had a few spare minutes they would like to come to my room and discuss Stephen Hawking's theory of the origin of the universe, or perhaps Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, or if those topics didn't interest them, how about William James essays on Pragmatism? But to what end? They probably would have left my room, went to the nurse's station and reported that the old guy in 312 is hallucinating or speaking in tongues. 

What I do now, and it seems to work for me, is that when someone starts to talk down to me I give them a steely-eyed stare while remaining silent. After a few awkward moments the person either leaves or reevaluates their initial judgement of my mental capabilities. If that doesn't work I step on their foot.

The Empty Room

Been livin' in Georgia for over three years now, and though we've furnished the house to our liking, except for new carpeting the guest room remains empty. Well, that's not quite true. There is a simple bed in the room, but only because I needed it to rehab following my knee replacement and recently the heart bypass. I didn't want to keep Maribel awake with my moaning and groaning. Anyway, we recently talked seriously about furnishing the room in the event that this Covid thing ever allows us to have overnight guests. We pretty much decided that if possible we'd like to furnish the room with vintage furniture, preferably from the 1940s or 50s.

Maribel and I have developed an affinity for vintage/antique things. I'm not talking about big ticket items. We look for things like paintings, decorative items and minor pieces of furniture that would enhance the decor of the house. Our goal is to find things that are hopefully unique, in reasonable condition and don't have a break-the-bank price tag. Two examples we purchased are a 50s telephone table and a hall mirror probably dating before that. They make a nice grouping and cost $45 total.

   

Another example is a painting we spotted in a small Ringgold, GA antique shop. The art work is not great but the arrangement of the objects plus the colors, the near mint condition of the frame and large size appealed to both of us. And it is a signed original that is now mounted above our sofa. 

 The artist has an unusual name so out of curiosity I did a search; located her in Chattanooga and phoned her. She is a 91 year old retired teacher and has authored two books. She said this is the only painting she ever completed and thought it was done in about 1985. She lost track of it years ago and was surprised to hear that it had found its way to an antique shop. She was happy to learn that it was hanging in our living room and was, "...giving someone else pleasure." She didn't ask and I didn't tell her that we paid $20 for it.

Okay...back to that empty guest room.

A couple of Sundays ago we were taking a drive on a scenic road atop Lookout Mountain when we passed a typical modest mountain home with an older couple sitting outside amidst a collection of various vintage items including furniture. I turned around and pulling into their driveway both of us spotted a matching pair of 3-drawer night stands. The exteriors had many scratches, some gouges and a few chips. A rear foot on one of them was broken off. These pieces had obviously been abused and had seen better days, but upon opening the drawers we were surprised to see that they looked unused. Inside the top drawer of each night stand was this tag:

The tag confirmed that the wood was mahogany, that they were manufactured sometime after 1984 and were initially quality pieces of furniture. In our experience in antique stores a pair of matching mahogany night stands, even in the condition these were in would sell for $80 - $120. As we were looking at them the man came over, pointed out the broken foot and said that he'd, "...take $5 for both of them." I couldn't reach for my wallet quickly enough. Just the 12 brass drawer pulls would sell for $2 each. 

After arriving home and removing all the spider webs and grime they didn't look like it would take too much effort to make them serviceable. And so, after building a new leg out of a piece of 2x4, some sanding and a coat of stain, the outcome exceeded our expectations.

The mirror was purchased at the same time. It was leaning on its side against a tree and was also covered with grime, but the mirror was unblemished and the oak frame had a few minor scratches. Maribel suggested that we could mount the mirror on one of the night stands to make sort of a mini dresser. When measured it turned out to be the exact width of the night stands. So who cares if the colors don't match?

I asked the woman what she wanted for the mirror, expecting to hear anywhere from $25 to $65. I was prepared to go $30. She thought for a second and then asked, "What would you say if I said........$3? So we drove home with two night stands and a mirror for a total of $8.

Here are the finished pieces in place.

The 'mini-dresser' is we think functional and attractive. The matching piece is in a corner next to the bed doing its night stand duty. To finish off the room we need to find a vintage queen size bed, or at least the headboard, and we want a lamp for the night stand. We were out today looking around. No luck on the headboard but there are a ton of vintage lamps out there. All we have to do is decide which one we want. We usually never buy anything, no matter how inexpensive without taking a day or two to think about it. The night stands and mirror were an exception.

Finding the right vintage items is for us entertaining, challenging and rewarding. We like the sense of history and the feeling that we've rescued something and given it new life and in turn have something that provides a service and will be with us for years. We occasionally watch American Pickers on television and are confounded when those guys pay $1000 for an oil can. I really believe that some day the nostalgia craze bubble will burst and those guys will wake up one morning to discover that their $1000 oil can is worthless. When that day arrives we'll just look at our $2.50 night stands and $3 mirror and smile.

A Surefire Cure for Covid

The anxiety in the US brought about by the Covid-19 virus is dominating this country. There is no clear consensus on the state of the virus, what to do about it or how long it will last. The divisiveness regarding what to do as individuals and organizations (schools, retail businesses, sports, etc) has gotten ugly. The real problem is that except for the hope of a vaccine, which won't be available for many months and which many people wont take anyway, there is no end in sight. Given that there is no clear plan to end this nightmare and 50% of the people don't seem to care anyway, maybe it's time to look at another approach...maybe it's time to let mother nature do her thing.

What would happen if we discouraged, no, make that prohibited the wearing of masks, social distancing, and the constant washing of hands? What if we encouraged mass gatherings; the bigger the crowd the better? The result should be that nearly everyone would contract Covid, that we would have achieved total 'herd immunity' and the virus would disappear within weeks.

But what would be the price?

The present population of the US is 331,000,000 people. We don't know how many of us have the virus, but we do know from the John Hopkins University Resource Center that there are 4,826,861 confirmed cases. According to this site there have been 319,686 Covid hospitalizations, or 6.2% of all confirmed cases. Applying that same percentage to the total population would result in 20,522,000 hospitalizations. There aren't enough medical facilities or personal in the solar system to handle that case load. Those requiring hospitalization would find the doors closed and have to become familiar with new concepts of self-suffering and self-dying.

Based on numbers from the John Hopkins University Resource Center there are 4,826,861 confirmed cases, and 158,300 Covid deaths, resulting in a death percentage of 3.28%. Applying that same percentage to the total population yields 10,856,000 deaths.

So...our medical system would have completely collapsed and there would be 11 million +/- dead Americans. But the virus would be gone and the economy would be on its way to recovery, allowing us to get onto important matters like..........