Question about Scariest Stephen King Villain

 There was an open question posted on my Facebook news feed: which Stephen King villain character is deservedly the scariest?  The comments varied, but the one that resonated with me the most was Randall Flagg, the murderous manipulator from his epic The Stand.  Donald Trump, who speaks and acts like he thinks he's the Supreme Dictator and expects his lapdogs to obediently follow suit, to me seems to pattern his entire presence on the King antagonist.  In that novel Flagg takes advantage of a deadly pandemic in order to establish absolute tyranny over a stricken planet.  i wonder just how far he is willing to go as he attacks civil order here, vulnerable internationals, and even entire nations.  "Our" Trump mentioned in passing that Cuba is "next"...I wonder what unprovoked violence he is about to inflict on a place that, in a more peaceful, reasonable world, could have become a very prosperous, attractive tourist destination.  When I was growing up, Fidel Castro and Krushchev were scapegoated for being America's Cold War antagonists.  But now that they're gone, the Playground Bully seeks only to incite passions and fury. When is he going to turn against his own people? He's already been vilifying our erstwhile allies in the last several days.Where are Hegseth, Noem and Bondi going on all this?  It makes me want to switch to all-day, live Major League Baseball.  I recently watched the Dodgers play Arizona, the Yankees play San Fran, Milwaukee play the Chicago White Sox, the Rockies versus the Marlins, the Reds against the Red Sox, and Philadelphia against the Chicago Cubs.  In viewing the MLB Channel, I'm getting to know each team by their players and staff. 

I can't stand our so-called leader going off at the mouth with his brash, offensive remarks and dismissals: he sounds just like the guy on Twilight Zone (Sounds and Silences episode) who wouldn't shut up. Now it's 4:30 AM and time for me to sign off and get our sweet Peewee Daisy all riled up....

Looking Forward to Watching 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

Are you looking forward to watching the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics later this year? I am...because of COVID-19, the 2020 Tokyo games were delayed until July 2021, exactly the time I was in the hospital recovering from my open-heart surgery (aortic aneurysm repair and heart valve replacement).  I'm looking forward to seeing how NBC covers it all...they disappointed me, to put it most diplomatically, with the recent NFL playoffs when they put "my" Miami Dolphins game against Kansas City with their paid-subscriber channel Peacock.  I'm suspecting they will be up to the same high jinks, only on a much grander scale.  No problem, I'll watch the "free" stuff and leave Peacock to the suckers...hope it fails.  The Paris Olympics begin on July 26, when Melissa and I are finishing up our next cruise, and last until August 11. Should be fun to follow, Peacock notwithstanding...

Sad About Loss of Late-Night Business in Gainesville

My work shift ends at 10 PM, and sometimes I like to chill out a bit at a coffee shop before heading on home.  Unfortunately, my hometown of Gainesville, Florida has, ever since COVID-19 hit us in 2020, become one of those places that roll up the sidewalks in mid-evening, with very few late-night spots left open.  I used to frequent a couple of Starbucks on the southwest, UF student-intense part of town that is close to my workplace.  Now they're closed by the time I get off from work, although rumor has it that the Target store on Archer Road has a Starbucks in it that still stays open late...I'll have to check it out.  Gainesville used to be known as an all-night kind of city, especially with its tens of thousands of University of Florida students as well as a sizeable Santa Fe College population.  When I was a student at UF in the late 1970's I spent many late hours studying at the 24-hour Krystal on University across from the library.  Except for Waffle House, though, in the northern part of Gainesville where I live everyone closes up shop far earlier than before.  There used to be a 24-hour district just north of Gainesville High School on NW 13th Street (US 441) that had all-night restaurants, a pharmacy, a doughnut shop and a couple of grocers...none of the places there now stay open late except convenience stores.  It's a shame, because that's one of the things I liked living here.  I'm not greedy about places staying open late: just give me to 11 o'clock and I'm out of there! Shoot, before COVID I could slip over to a Publix on Archer right near where I worked and replenish groceries, but no longer.  Now, not even the WalMart where I live, formerly 24 hours, stays open past 11...

The Times We Live In

This decade in our nation's history has not exactly been one to inspire my confidence in its future.  The COVID-19 pandemic was one of those crises that hit us from time to time, testing the resolve of our people to confront it. Sad to say, in much of the country it was a failed effort, with folks flipping out over the notion of simply wearing a mask around others and refusing to accept freely given, safe and potentially life-saving vaccines.  Then there was the 2020 presidential election, when a sitting president, for the first time in United States history, adamantly refused to acknowledge the results of his defeat and encouraged a violent insurrection against Congress to prevent the electoral votes from being officially counted.  Worse, two thirds of his party in the House of Representatives...including its current Speaker...supported overturning a free and fair election, and a majority of Americans polled in the same party agreed that the losing incumbent president, who recently said he wants to institute firing squads, guillotines and mass executions, should have stayed in office.  Rabble-pandering politicians like my own state's governor are tripping over each other in a race to see who can seem the most reactionary and intolerant with their edicts and laws.  Mass shootings claiming innocent lives have become commonplace in America...but don't offend the gun-worshippers by suggesting any meaningful firearms regulation laws. And now, for nearly a year in running, another fascist leader...this one in Russia...is threatening nuclear war as his military seems hopelessly bogged down in neighboring Ukraine, a country that, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, gave up its own nuclear weapons in exchange for an assurance that Russia would never invade it.  So, these are the times we live in...can't wait to see what happens next...

Mass Rallies Creep Me Out

Back in the fall of 2020, when COVID-19 was going full blast, then-Florida Gator football coach Dan Mullen praised the over-full College Station, Texas stadium of his rival Texas A&M following a close loss to them, stating that UF needed to "pack the Swamp [their stadium]" as well.  Soon thereafter the next game against Missouri was moved back because of several positive COVID test results among the team.  Now, although this scourge is still raging unabated, there are no crowd restrictions, and the expectation is full stadiums in every football game out there...at least the college ones.  Just a few months earlier in '20, news outlets like CNN were meticulously filming...often using zoom lenses to distort the effect...beaches that were beginning to draw crowds following their reopening, trying to create the impression that assemblages were still improper.  Then, suddenly, mass protests started after the police killing of George Floyd and, just like the snap of a finger, the emphasis on avoiding crowds changed to embracing them...for the protest demonstrations across the nation, that is.  And so have mass rallies, protests and sporting events been used to manipulate public opinion even to the point of brainwashing people along a certain narrative.  I like to watch sporting events, but the tens of thousands of yelling fans creep me out almost as much as do those Trump rallies with all the head-bobbing grinning zombies pictured together behind the Orange Man as he blathers on.  I have attended a church in which a pastor got up in front of the congregation and acted as if we had all been doing something wrong by previously staying at home and watching online services in 2020, and then pronouncing it all over (even though it wasn't).  Packed churches, rallies, demonstrations, stadiums, concerts, whatever...getting a bunch of people together in a concentrated, noisy mass to parrot whatever happens to be the organizers' intended narrative...is the opposite of democracy, where people can individually calmly, quietly, and anonymously select their own leaders and vote on referenda.  I remember in 2016 immediately following Trump's election (which I recognized although I didn't vote for him), demonstrations against him were organized with the ongoing mantra "NOT MY PRESIDENT!".  I thought that was a bit over the top, but four years later it paled in contrast to Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election and his call to Washington for militant groups like the Proud Boys to swarm the Washington Mall in protest of the Electoral Vote official certification by Congress, resulting in the violent storming of the US Capitol building.  If you derive a sense of legitimacy about anything by seeing masses of assembled people agreeing with you, then I believe you are a part of a serious problem that is only growing in this country.  Sure, I get it at sporting events...it's fun for everybody to get together and root for their team.  On the other hand, I was watching the baseball playoffs the other day and the home crowd, whenever their pitcher was on the mound, would loudly boo whenever the umpire called a ball on a pitch that was clearly far outside the strike zone...there's a difference between being passionate for your cause and being a dishonest, sore loser...did you get that, all you Trumpies?  I didn't think so..

Is LifeSouth Finished Holding Half-Marathons in Gainesville?

From what I can gather at this time, LifeSouth, which is the main nonprofit blood donor organization here in Gainesville, isn't planning to stage their annual Five Points of Life race weekend in February any more...I hope I'm wrong.  I keep checking the race calendars on the Internet and, while other races are scheduled in February, Five Points is nowhere to be seen.  While waiting for me at the finish line this past February at their last half-marathon, Melissa heard one of the volunteers express that this may well be their last race.  I hope it isn't so, as since 2010 I've run the Five Points Half-Marathon six different times.  Before this year and last (canceled due to Covid) they also staged a 26.2-mile marathon event, something that I've played around with doing ever since I hobbled to the finish line with an IT-band injury in the only marathon race I ever ran, in 2011 in Ocala. By the way, that event, the Ocala Marathon/Half-Marathon, has already been relegated to the past...I ran one of my best half-marathons in it in 2013.  I wonder if we're entering a different social climate that is more hostile toward these open, public running races...I'm guessing that there had to be a considerable expense involved in just having the police regulate traffic during the Gainesville and Ocala races, and most likely many folks were unhappy at the traffic interruptions.  Also, the Covid-19 pandemic turned the public away from crowded events and many are reticent to resume things as before until it's over...which may never happen. The 10K Turkey Trot Thanksgiving run at Tacachale here in Gainesville, which I've enjoyed participating in a number of times, may be a permanent casualty of the disease. I see on Facebook where a number of informal running groups have sprung up and have runs in various locations...but I'm more of a solitary than social runner unless there's an actual race involved.  The Florida Track Club is still involved with two long-distance runs: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon in November and its own marathon/half-marathon event along the Hawthorne Trail in January.  Plus, there is something called the Cupcake Run that takes place along the same trail but originates from nearby Hawthorne.  There are still plenty of racing opportunities, but I'll miss the Five Points half-marathon if it is truly at the end of its "run"... 

Wimbledon Tournament Begins with, You Guessed It, Controversy

The 2022 Wimbledon tennis tournament began yesterday with the first round of play. It's one of four Grand Slam tournaments in professional tennis...Rafael Nadal won the men's singles in the Australian and French Opens earlier this year while Ashleigh Barty (now retired) won the women's Australian Open and Iga Swiatek the French.  Although Nadal is still in the running for a Grand Slams sweep, he has chronic foot pain and Novak Djokovic is in the Wimbledon tournament, having dominated it in recent years.  Djokovic was banned from the Australian Open earlier this year because he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine.  Now the controversy at Wimbledon lies with players from Russia and Belarus, mainly Daniil Medvedev and Aryna Sabalenka, banned from participation due to those countries' brutal invasion of Ukraine.  As for me, I'd just like to see the best players out there playing each other in their best physical form without regard to their national origins...not gonna happen, though.  Yesterday I enjoyed watching Djokovic play and defeat Kwon Swon-woo in the first round.  Roger Federer is still out recovering from his knee injury, but Serena Williams is in it with a match today...hooray!  ESPN and ABC are covering Wimbledon...which should be a marked improvement in television coverage after NBC relegated most of the French Open action last month to its premium Peacock channel: what a rip-off that was!  I don't plan to spend my time 24/7 watching tennis, but I do tend to have my mornings open and that's when a lot of the live play is going on. Should be fun...

Podcaster Talks About Things We Cannot Change

On a recent Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial explored the notion of things we have no control over, and why reacting to them as if we did is counterproductive to what we're trying to accomplish in our lives.  He cited some personal examples, such as someone stealing a TV set from his office years earlier or a harrowing plane flight he was on in which one of the engines caught fire.  In both situations he noted that ultimately, his control over them rested in the responses he made, giving the Victor Frankl quote about the space in time between a stimulus and response being the opportunity for personal growth, depending on the choices we make therein.  For me it's important...after considering a particular situation as to its actual possibilities for change...to come to a conclusion about the elements that are beyond my powers to influence and then be at peace with it other after doing what I can do to make things better.  I couldn't change the fact that significant issues were discovered about my heart back in 2012...after nine years of annual testing my physician finally, strongly recommended corrective surgery: I couldn't change the situation but decided to be at peace with it and undergo a pretty involved procedure.  I see the way many people around me reacted to the recent (and still ongoing) Covid-19 pandemic as they refused to wear masks or even socially distance, some of them (including a wonderful couple I had worked with for many years) succumbing to this horrid pestilence...but other than protecting myself around them and practicing my own consideration for others by masking up, to continually browbeat others about what I perceived to be their utter callousness on the subject would not have done myself, them, or anyone else any good.  I could go down a list of grievances about this issue or that and ultimately conclude that I have little to no control over them, beyond public protests (I'm skeptical about the value of that strategy) or casting my one single vote among millions.  Think of the ongoing news stories about war, mass shootings, the price of gas and the upsurge of fascism...other than writing some criticisms about them and expressing my opinions to others from time to time, there is little point in me allowing them to destroy my composure and react as if everything in life is horrible.  Life is wonderful and precious...let's honor it by making choices of love and encouragement in the midst of the pandemonium...

My December 2021 Running and Walking Report

In December 2021 I ran a total of 148 miles, running on every day of the month with 14.4 miles being my longest single run...albeit accomplished very slowly.  I managed to enter and finish my first race since my July heart surgery: Gainesville's weekly Depot Parkrun 5K on the 4th.  With walking I didn't need to be as intentional as with running...my job automatically involves much of it, and I finished the month with 142 miles.  As for January, I'd like to continue with this level of running and walking while participating in two races: another Depot Parkrun early in the month and the Newnan's Lake 15K in far eastern Gainesville on the 29th...I've run both multiple times before.  This, of course, hinges on the new Omicron upsurge in Covid-19 and whether or not the event organizers follow through with holding them or decide to cancel out.  Regardless, I want to continue with my running and walking even if they are more or less solitary endeavors...

New Omicron Covid-19 Outbreak

Amid reports that COVID-19 cases are spiking, both in seasonal terms and due to the rise of the highly contagious Omicron variant, I'm getting two diametrically opposed narratives from the media.  One is that hospitals are filling up and we're entering another period of sickness and death through mass infection, with the voluntarily unvaccinated suffering the worst effects of the disease...just as it happened this past summer with the Delta variant.  The other narrative states that we're over Covid and are returning to our pre-pandemic lifestyles.  And then there is the third narrative: yes, here comes a new sweep of the virus through our population, both vaccinated and unvaccinated...but that this will bring about the "herd immunity" that had been the distant dream of just about everyone.  Not being an expert in the field, I have to react to all this noise by staying current on my Covid-19 vaccines (the first two Pfizer shots and the later booster) and avoid mass assemblies.  My mask usage had gone down, but with this flu season and the Covid resurgence I intend to go back to earlier adherence.  The reason is not to protect myself...I have the flu shot as well...but to protect those around me who for whatever rational or irrational reason have refused the Covid-19 vaccination, in spite of the fact that it's free, safe, effective, and convenient.  I wonder whether we'll start seeing shutdowns and event cancellations if the Omicron outbreak is as strong early in 2022 as some suggest.  I suppose the most bizarre thing I take from the media is how pandemic denial and the anti-vaccination movement has become a conservative political cause, with former president Trump even being criticized by his own fans for supporting vaccination...are you kidding me?

Omicron Covid Variant Reported

Surfing around the TV this morning I hit upon CNN...the big news story there is the Omicron Strain...no it's not a Michael Crichton novel or movie, but the latest mutant Covid-19 variant, apparently arising out of South Africa, where the vaccination rate is low because it's not widely available, unlike here where millions upon millions of people willfully perpetuate the virus by refusing it although the vaccine is convenient, free, safe and effective.  Omicron is definitely more contagious then the other Covid strains and has already spread throughout Europe and is expected to hit the U.S. soon.  But as it is newly discovered, not enough is yet known as to whether it is more virulent than its horrid predecessor, the  Delta variant.  Neither is there yet sufficient information about how effective the current vaccinations are against it: the major companies are engaged in testing as I write this and we should know in a couple of weeks.  In any event it's clear to me that Covid-19 is here to stay, both because of the worldwide vaccine production, distribution and inoculation logistics and because so many of us seem to have decided that they kind of like having this scourge around, as perverse as that may sound... 

Dan Mullen Fired from Coaching Florida Gators Football

Back in 2018, when Mississippi State head football coach Dan Mullen was sought and hired to replace erratic Jim McElwain at the University of Florida, trumpets were practically sounding that he was a Spurrier/Meyer-caliber coach that would lead the Gators back to their glory days of Southeastern Conference titles and National Championship contention.  The first two seasons, in which Mullen capitalized on players recruited by his predecessor, were great successes and last year's was as well...until the season's end when UF lost three straight games (although in two of them they were playing for the SEC championship (46-52 against Alabama) and in the Cotton Bowl (20-55 against Oklahoma).  This year their roster reflected Mullen's recruiting efforts for Florida, but it became clear early on that the wide-open passing attack and a fast, aggressive defense that defined the Gators in its recent history would be lacking.  Their games in 2021 were marked by inconsistency from week to week, with the offense and defense alternating between good and awful.  For me, I am more supportive of a head coach being given more time to develop his team, and sometimes the season just doesn't go your way.  But with Dan Mullen, although I give him credit for promoting Covid-19 vaccination recently, I can't get it out of my mind that last fall he, in the middle of a deadly upsurge of the virus in the general population...and no vaccines yet available...advocated that Florida "pack the Swamp [its home stadium]" for a game after losing a close road contest at Texas A&M where the home school practiced lax safety protocols for its own stadium.  Until that moment I had been a supporter of Mullen...afterwards I realized that winning was his only yardstick for success.  Well, you win by your yardstick and in turn lose by your yardstick: his team has lost four out of their last five games and in their only victory over that span they gave up a record 42 points in one half (at home) against a small college.  Running and special teams coach Greg Knox will fill the Florida head coaching vacancy against Florida State this week...if the Gators win then they will be bowl-eligible.  I'm not one of those Florida fans who expect them to compete for the National Championship every year, and sometimes you have years like this one and have to shake it off and move on to the next.  Normally I'd say that the coach should be given more time, but after Mullen's tone-death pandemic denial last season my patience with him was gone long before 2021...

Nearby Starbucks (Again) Reopens Indoor Seating

This past Thursday I went to my favorite Starbucks in northern Gainesville, only to discover that they had reopened the indoor seating...awesome.  I went up to the counter, picked up my decaf iced caffè americano that I had ordered online...and then proceeded outdoors to sit.  Although I've had both Covid Pfizer vaccines earlier in the year and my booster shot a week ago (along with my annual flu vaccine), I'm still a little uncomfortable in cramped public spaces... but I think it'll get better in time.  I'm still confounded by the widespread refusal of millions to get vaccinated and greatly dismayed by supposed role models Kyrie Irving and Eric Clapton for steadfastly opposing it in a public way...I'm not surprised that Ted Nugent is also on the wrong side of the issue. It looks like, though, that the coronavirus's Delta variant has run most of its course through the unvaccinated "community", killing and debilitating so, so many: what a tragic, COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE waste! Well, humanity is never short of foolish beliefs and behavior...what kind of idiocy will we see next? I don't imagine the wait will be long...

About 9/11 and Our Country, Then and Now

Twenty years after the horrendous terror attack on our country on September 11, 2001 there are numerous ceremonies nationwide...and in particular on those sites of the villainous acts...honoring and remembering those who lost their lives.  America is unified in this, and the 3000 lives snuffed out on that day, along with the heroism of many who made that final sacrifice, should never be forgotten.  Arab extremist terrorists from Al-Qaeda plotted and carried out their scheme, which involved hijacking and piloting four passenger jets and flying them into the World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and either the Capitol or White House...the last foiled when passengers and crew revolted and that plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field.  It's a shame that my country today is so divided about a different...but much deadlier...attack: that of a little virus, COVID-19, that so far in the past year and a half here has claimed nearly 660,000 lives.  Yet millions of people, many of whom were rightfully outraged at the 9/11 carnage and who expressed the willingness for our government...however intrusively...to drastically enhance its surveillance and security measures to protect us from future attacks, are hopelessly lost in a tangle of misinformation about the usefulness of masks and vaccines to save lives and curtail the pandemic.  I get it: comparing death figures can get a bit impersonal, and every one of those who perished on 9/11 should be treasured...especially those first responders who never hesitated to put themselves in harm's way to save others then.  But today's 660,000 number of COVID deaths (which is steadily climbing) is 220 times the fatalities from twenty years ago, yet these people all around me are sickly obsessed with losing their "liberty" from just wearing a flimsy little cloth mask to protect others around them from their exhaled germs, a common measure taken during epidemics that predates today by much longer than twenty years.  When the COVID vaccines came out a few months ago I thought good, now these bizarre anti-maskers can get inoculated and won't be such a threat to me, my family, friends, and society at-large.  But no, too many of them had to get themselves all hung up over the vaccine and refuse it as well...the resulting overcrowded hospitals with COVID patients, most of them by far unvaccinated, and the universal upsurge of the much more virulent Delta variant has prevented others with different life-threatening conditions from receiving their needed treatment. I myself came within days of having my own scheduled open heart surgery cancelled a few weeks ago, just because so many refused their civic duty to mask up and get vaccinated, easy and convenient measures that pose no danger to them.  I contrast this with the brave, sacrificial behavior of those 9/11 firefighters and others who laid down their own lives to save others and I cringe at the disparity between then and now...and it makes me much more apprehensive about our future than it ever did on that fateful day in September, 2001...

The Recent "We Love NYC" Concert in Central Park

Saturday evening there was a big, open concert...open for those vaccinated against Covid, that is...in Central Park, New York.  Dubbed the "We Love NYC" concert, CNN for weeks touted it extensively, even toward the end showing an ongoing countdown to its beginning.  I get how it formed: New York City for weeks in the spring of 2020 was the pandemic's epicenter in America, and now that it seemed to be winding down, this mega-concert was intended to put some closure to it all, a "victory lap" of sorts.  Only problem was the Delta variant sweeping through the country, causing once again ICU beds to fill up...this time almost exclusively with patients refusing the readily-available and effective Covid vaccine.  So in essence this concert was a celebration of the vaccinated, but not of the disease's decline.  As the days approached the concert it also became apparent that a tropical storm, Henri, was going to threaten the region and cause bands of heavy storms to sweep through the area.  Yet New York City mayor Bill de Blasio insisted the concert go on at the scheduled time.  The result: halfway through the evening, a strong storm swept through the area sending the thousands of live spectators to flee for cover, with the remaining performers put in a state of limbo after mixed signals of the concert only being delayed a couple of hours, and those at CNN...which was broadcasting it all live...to struggle to fill in the empty air time.  But the storm did not relent and the concert was cancelled, leaving scheduled acts like Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Paul Simon and the Killers off the stage.  No, I didn't watch the first half of the concert, but from what I've read about it, everybody seemed to be having a good time.  Until the storm struck, that is.  Well, maybe this was Mother Nature's way of saying, "Don't declare victory until the game is over!"...

Still Recovering Gradually at Home from Surgery

I continue to "shelter in place" as I recover from my July surgery.  On the second day after my operation all hell seemed to break loose about Covid-19, with its Delta variant spreading explosively among the unmasked and unvaccinated population.  I was informed, while lying in my ICU bed, that the visitation policy was changed and that I could name exactly two people who would be permitted to visit me in my room...any others would have to stay in the waiting area until I could be eventually wheeled out to see them.  All throughout my two-week stay in the hospital news kept growing of the disease's resurgence...the day after I was finally discharged, it was announced by UF Health that they were indefinitely postponing elective surgeries in order to ensure ICU beds for the dramatically rising Covid cases...that would no doubt have included my own surgery had it been scheduled just a little later.  And now here I am, some three weeks later, and there's no sign of abatement in the infection and death numbers.  But at least I'm getting better...but it looks like I'm back to mask-wearing in public once I am again able to venture forth into this disease-ridden world.  Because my rib cage was separated for my open heart surgery to replace a defective aortic valve and repair an aortic aneurism, my recuperation has centered around the re-fused sternum area growing back together while preventing water buildup within my chest. Also, following surgery my heart twice went into a-fib (no regular sinus heart rhythm), but a procedure called Cardioversion restored normal beating which I have maintained since.  I am looking forward to a full recovery and getting back to work. A physical therapist has been visiting twice a week and helping me, both to exercise those parts of my body that are safe to exercise, and to take it easy on those parts that are still vulnerable...my walking has dramatically improved. But I don't know what to make of this coronavirus resurgence, except for the fact that it was completely preventable if more people had simply worn a mask in public and gotten vaccinated...oh, the folly of the prideful...

Quote of the Week...from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dear Science Deniers (Anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, climate hoaxers, flat-Earthers), You found one another and communicate via stupefyingly advanced technologies that pivot on the discoveries of scientists. Just thought I'd remind you of that fact.  Sincerely, Your Smart Phone.

                                                                       ---Neil deGrasse Tyson

It deeply saddens me when someone I personally know dies from Covid-19 as was the case earlier this week, but it's no longer a matter of being helpless about the subject.  For months we have have FREE, EFFECTIVE vaccines available to ANYONE age 12 or over, and for well over a year have had access to story after story of victims in intensive care units with tubes sticking out of them, many dependent on ventilators to do their own breathing for them.  None of these facts, by the way, require access to a smart phone.  And it was well reported about the current Delta variant of the disease and its devastating effect on the population in India long before it gained supremacy here in the United States.  Delta is much more contagious than the other strains of Covid and that has been hammered home countless times.  Yet people continue to play games about how not wearing a mask in the presence of others without being vaccinated is somehow an assertion of their human rights and dignity.  If you haven't been vaccinated and refuse to wear a mask around others, then you have made a conscious decision to dehumanize yourself into a petri dish for Covid to live on, grow, and become readily transmissible to others.  I repeat: this resurgence of Covid-19 and the tragic deaths resulting from it in the U.S. are completely due to the millions of people that have deliberately degraded their own humanity to the level of a petri dish by neither wearing a mask nor getting vaccinated.  Your bodies are not closed systems: they easily get infected from others and in turn infect still others.  And Covid debilitates and kills.  Or have you completely surrendered your ability to discern reality?  Seems of late that folks are so prideful that instead of recognizing they made a mistake about something, they "double down" on their flawed thinking...

Recovering at Home from Surgery

Just to keep this blog more or less continuous, I'm writing today's article.  It's been two weeks since I was discharged from the hospital following my aortic aneurism/valve replacement surgery and then two weeks in the hospital.  Melissa has been taking good care of me in just about every phase of my slow recovery.  And sometimes the patient himself doesn't see any improvement in his condition...but I've been told I'm doing much better: very encouraging. My physical therapist has been giving me different projects to work on and I have found them helpful.  On the second day after surgery, Shands hospital policy drastically limited to two named people those allowed to visit me...all because of the Delta variant resurgence of Covid-19.  And just as I was being discharged they formulated their policy of postponing elective surgery because of the shortage of ICU beds...had they scheduled my surgery for August as originally planned, I have no doubt that my operation would have been put off.  In any event, I managed to get it in under the wire and am very glad to be at home...

Quote of the Week...from Frank Zappa

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.                             --Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa (1940-93) was an avant-garde musician and composer, his collected works spanning many styles while often fusing them together in one piece.  He was very satirical with his song's lyrics, and made another quote I discussed in December 2019 on this blog: "The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced." The above quote of his dovetails nicely with the Canadian rock trio Rush's Vital Signs track from their incredible 1981 Moving Pictures album.  And with the population's norm these days for disrespecting science in favor of their precious manipulative, egomaniacal idols, I'm starting to feel like the little boy in the story The Emperor's New Clothes who was "deviant" in simply telling the truth: the emperor is naked!  The great figures of our history were not afraid of standing alone among their surrounding peers.  They often suffered ridicule and insult for simply speaking the truth and many weren't recognized within their own lifetimes for their contributions to humanity.  So, like the little boy in that children's story, I'm going to "deviate".  The current upsurge in the Covid-19 pandemic here in the United States is TOTALLY due to those selfish dupes who refuse to both wear masks in public enclosed places and get the vaccine.  I keep wondering, mystified at how many people have decided to make wearing a measly little thing like a mask the great issue in their lives to take a stand on.  Really?  From what I know about human nature, though, many of the anti-masker/anti-vaxxer folks behave as they do because they see others in their immediate group behaving this way and want to fit in and not be put down by the aggressive ones in that group. Back in early April 2020 I made the decision to wear a mask while at work...even though others (including a supervisor) laughed at me.  I then had my first vaccine in March 2021 and the second in April.  I never entertained the wild conspiracy bullshit (the emperor's new clothes) circulating around me and only stopped wearing a mask when the CDC cleared doing so for those completely vaccinated. But the Delta variant for this already very contagious disease that kills across the age spectrum has prompted those with the proper scientific credentials to go back and urge everyone...even if already vaccinated...to resume wearing masks while in crowds or indoors.  I came too close to having my essential, but elective open heart surgery postponed when the demand at Shands for ICU beds exploded...all because of the jerks who won't mask up or get vaccinated.  I hear a lot of talk from my state's demagogic governor Ron DeSantis banning mask mandates from even private businesses, but I never hear about the need for the people to behave in a responsible manner when each other's health...and even lives...are at stake.  Those who are BOTH anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, like those in the fawning crowd's open adulation of the emperor's new "clothes", have committed themselves to their delusion: they disgust me... 

Quote of the Week...from Charles Barkley

Yes, I'm vaccinated. Everybody should be vaccinated.  The only people who are not vaccinated are just [expletive].  Can you imagine if one of these guys that is not vaccinated, if they get one of these players' kids, wives, girlfriends, moms and dads sick and they die over some unnecessary conspiracy bullsh**t?  I think that would be just tragic.                                  ---Charles Barkley

There's not much I can add to the great Phoenix Suns' player and National Basketball Association Hall of Famer...I disagree with him sometimes but not here: he hit the bulls-eye with this comment he recently made during a CNBC interview.  We would not be in this upsurge in Covid-19 right now were it not for those millions upon millions of fellow Americans who have refused to be vaccinated.  The vaccines are free and widespread: no waiting in line or appointments necessary.  The irony is that in much of the rest of the world the population is desperate for vaccines.  The anti-vaxxers here tend to coincide with the anti-maskers: can't these fools realize that wearing masks cuts down on the disease transmission rate and that their refusal to get vaccinated directly leads to new outbreaks and a return to mask mandates?