Saving lives

Once we recognise that this is a major event in human history, it can actually help gain some perspective. And as Cuomo said “What we have done has saved lives” pic.twitter.com/cZFbE9HTlX

— Helen Jenkins (@jenkinshelen) April 25, 2020

Laugh and the world laughs with you

Joe Biden could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot Donald Trump and I would still vote for him

— doug wiser (@MyBigRedTruck) April 18, 2020

If you could pick one person to curse Donald Trump out on live television in that press room for one minute straight, right to his face, who would it be? I think I would go with Samuel L. Jackson.

— Jason Overstreet (@JasonOverstreet) April 8, 2020

What do ya bet if trump ever used an interpreter for the deaf they'd fuck up and get him a mime?

— George Carlin's Ghost (@OldFuckGCG) April 16, 2020

My best friend sent me this. I can’t stop laughing. It’s spot on 😂 pic.twitter.com/ecTo5MtcaV

— Emmet Kelly (@EmmetSeanKelly) April 11, 2020

Americans dumbest criminal. pic.twitter.com/T39kWEomxw

— Only in America (@Crazzyintheusa) April 15, 2020

Most pointless colouring picture ever. pic.twitter.com/OFcQzoVUab

— You Have One Job, Stay Indoors (@_youhadonejob1) April 15, 2020

Stages of Grief

Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.
These are the stages of grief and I've been through them all since the COVID19 lockdown began. I think everyone else has going through them too.

Denial - how can this be happening? WTF is this? Isn't there some easier way?
Anger - don't they realize what they are doing to us and to the economy? Its so terrible for so many people.
Bargaining - well, maybe it won't last too long if everybody acts the right way.
Depression - how awful this is, and its going on FOREVER!!!
Acceptance - it is what it is. Nothing we can do except to get through it.

Though I must admit, I still feel anger:

What shocks me about #COVID19 is the economic disaster. I never realized we might have no way to control a disease except to close everything down, worldwide, and keep it closed for weeks or months. People starving, businesses bankrupt, economies ruined, lives devastated.

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 (@CathieCanada) April 14, 2020

The economic hit from this is going to be so hard, and last so long, and hurt so many innocent blameless people.
But every time I start to feel sorry for myself and for all of us, I remember that whatever I am going through, it is nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to what others are dealing with.
I don't think our society will ever be able to repay doctors and nurses for what they are doing for all of us, risking death every day to save as many as they can.
There was one tweet in particular, from a pediatric surgical fellow and single mother in New York, that made me just cry.

My babies are too young to read this now. And they’d barely recognize me in my gear. But if they lose me to COVID I want them to know Mommy tried really hard to do her job. #GetMePPE #NYC pic.twitter.com/OMew5G7mjK

— Cornelia Griggs (@CorneliaLG) March 29, 2020

I hope she will be OK.
I hope someday her children will be able to honour her for what she is doing.

How I spent my summer vacation

Here's the tweet of the week month:

Today is 3 wks in quarantine w/o sugar. Walking 3 miles a day, no meat, dairy or flour! I feel great! No alcohol & vegan diet! A 2 hr home workout everyday. Lost 14 lbs & gained muscle mass! I have no idea whose tweet this is but I’m proud of them so I decided to copy & paste it!

— Alison 🇨🇦🇿🇦 (@AckAlison) April 10, 2020

Strange Days Indeed

I wonder if John Lennon ever realized how prophetic his words would be:

Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed.

I never understood how a pandemic would destroy the world economy.  

Millions of people out of work. Millions with no paycheques, no income, and no prospect of getting any except for a few hundred dollars from the government. Millions who have no money, who cannot buy food, or medicines, or clothes, or pay their utilities bills or their rent. It is an economic disaster of a scale which the world has never seen before.

I used to live in a modern society. And I never wanted to live anywhere else.  But I just didn't understand how fragile that society really was.  

Now I find myself suddenly living in some kind of an alternate universe, one with no schools, no clothing stores, no book stores, no coffee shops. No health care, no dental care, no physiotherapy, no surgeries. No weddings, no funerals, no parties, no graduations, no concerts, no events. No bars, no restaurants. No sports. 

The idea I am seeing floating around now -- that this worldwide economic shutdown will just have to last for years, until we get a vaccine or a cure -- well, sorry, but that just ain't gonna happen. 

Not if all this pain is just for the sake of avoiding a virus which is, for most people, most of the time, a mild illness. 

And yes, of course I understand that our heedless and careless way of living wasn't sustainable because we don't know who will get COVID-19 next, and we don't know who will die, and if we are dying, its an awful death, and the problem is that caring for the people who are really sick is going to destroy our health care system unless some of us can postpone getting really sick until later.

But our situation right now isn't sustainable either. 

We need to figure out how we are going to get out of this.

I wrote a comment recently on Montreal Simon's excellent blog, to the effect that I am proud to be a Canadian during this crisis, because our leaders stepped up to the plate.  Someday I hope to understand better how Trudeau did it, how he put the right people into the right place to get us through this.

And now, they have to step up again, to lay out a plan of how we are going to get out of this.

And I think maybe it will start with a national testing program -- we have to know who has already had COVID-19 and who has not, so we can figure out who needs to continue to to isolate.

And then, gradually, our strange days might end.
UPDATE:  I'm starting to see stuff along the lines of: Social Distancing cannot fail, it can only BE failed!  In other words, we just have to keep doing it more and more and more, and Trudeau has to make it illegal for anybody to ever leave their house ever, and then, easy peasy, THEN it will TOTALLY WORK!
Hmmm.....

Friday Funfest

The COVID-19 news is so depressing, beaten only by the economic news, which is absolutely awful. So here's something a little more lighter-hearted, on a cold Friday. 

This is Toby he is now working from home... pic.twitter.com/RB6na9bUsT

— Stuart Antony (@STU_ACTOR) March 31, 2020

A true friend is someone who helps you in good & bad times, no matter what. pic.twitter.com/6UW6JNEhl1

— Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) April 3, 2020

How the livestock keep warm in Russia. pic.twitter.com/qlh8s8JuUB

— 🇷🇺Only In Russia 🇷🇺 (@CrazyinRussia) April 3, 2020

Math magic pic.twitter.com/eeAsHp6tpr

— Engineering (@engineeringvids) April 2, 2020

Sandra the orangutang started washing her hands because she saw all the zookeepers doing it repeatedly during the COVID-19 crisis.

Wash your hands.
Be more like Sandra.🌎❤️🧼🌎 pic.twitter.com/t8TTizDGeD

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 1, 2020

Grizzly bear casually fixing a fallen safety cone as they walk down the road pic.twitter.com/c4klDbdGOJ

— Nature is Lit🔥 (@NaturelsLit) April 1, 2020

Smooth recovery pic.twitter.com/z0eZmz2AIF

— Animal Life (@animalIife) March 14, 2020

And this thread wins the award for the funniest tweet of the week:

I think I just got a group of goats in Llandudno arrested.

Let me explain... first, I saw this from inside a dark pub (the one I live in currently). I thought I was seeing things. So I took some video: pic.twitter.com/RtxYG6htLC

— Andrew Stuart (@AndrewStuart) March 27, 2020

So maybe next week will be better -- well, we can always hope!