The Curmudgeon Speaks

When you are limited in where you can go and what you can do, any variety amounts to a small victory. We have this gazebo off our deck that looks cool, but we haven’t used it that much. Mostly we pay someone to fix things. The windows were leaking and the bottom small windows all around had to be replaced to salvage the building. I always thought it would be ideal for watching Sunday football and baseball in the evening. It was often just too hot. 

We had a very nice day today with the temp hitting the low 60s. The sun is even out. We brought out the vacuum cleaner and attacked the dust and are now justing sitting and enjoying the sunshine. 

What you can’t see well is the solar panel I just laid on this small back deck and the converter and small battery. It generates enough power to run an Echo for music and a laptop. The wireless in the house reaches this far. A perfect place to read and write. 

Social distancing. [I wonder if this expression will make any sense in a few years.]

We seem to be in one of those “when it rains it pours” times of our lives. We are sequestered in our home waiting out the world COVID pandemic and our fridge/freezer goes out. I first identified there was an issue when I spotted the water that resulted from the ice in the ice maker and dispenser melting and running into the refrigerator. We pulled the freezer out from its enclosure under the cupboards hoping we could unplug and then plug it in to see if that would help. It often works for computers. No such luck.

We do have the unused beer fridge in the garage and after throwing much of what was in the freezer compartment out, we filled the beer fridge with actual food. I wonder if old refrigerators have a preference. Maybe living on as a beer fridge in some dusty garage is not the way to end your cooling career. The pandemic has made me very empathic.

No, it is not an unused beer fridge because I am anti-beer. This is Minnesota and stuff freezes even when kept in a fridge

Did I mention that the door leading from the house to the garage is broken? You can lock it from the outside, but not from the inside. So you walk around the house when you want to use this door and unlock it. Carry stuff to the garage. Lock the door again. Use the other door to get into the house. Not that handy when all you want is an apple.

By the way, finding a repair person is a challenge and a risk. Still working on that.

All this aside, what a great adventure. This may be the major adventure of our lives. I grew up on a farm burning corn cobs for heat during a couple of winters. We lived through the flood that required the evacuation of Grand Forks as the entire city went under. Interesting stories to tell our kids and anyone else who will listen. Still, nothing like this. This is a real opportunity.

Did I mention we had an actual thunderstorm last night and then it snowed? Actually, it was hauling stuff to the garage in the middle of a very cold rain that reminded me of sandbagging in the cold rain in the flood and thus the opportunity to have stories to tell today. I just can’t waste an opportunity to turn such a thought into a blog post.

BTW – if you have heard that you are getting $1200 and think this is not nearly enough, it is useful to recognize that this is more than the minimum wage in some states. This is (7.50 x 40 x 4) = 1200. In the future, if you are complaining about those low-income folks who want more money for the work they do, it might be useful to keep this in mind.

When it rains, there is possibly the opportunity for the stories of a lifetime. Take the time to write them down.

We considered spending some of the time we have been requested to isolate ourselves at our cabin in Northern Wisconsin. Our place is isolated, has Internet allowing us to do our work and keep in touch, and we purchased the house from a couple who lived there full time. It is not a rustic cabin.

However, the local leaders have announced they don’t want people to use their cabins because local services would more likely overloaded in the event of a surge in medical problems. I do understand this, but I also understand I am more vulnerable to becoming infected in a populated area. This is an interesting and complicated ethical problem.

We have been doing lots of shopping from home these days. I am accustomed to seeing boxes from Amazon in front of my door, but now we even order groceries.

The state of the economy in this time is understandably not ideal. Survival of humans must come before capitalism in whatever form the country decides to apply it. I don’t happen to believe that the bailouts to large corporations will actually benefit those in need of funds. I am on the side of getting money directly to people and I am not convinced that the history of funds for corporations demonstrates that the tax relief and direct gifts of money from the government in this fashion is the best approach. The trickle down concept seems to involve so much overhead that what ends up at the bottom is very much a trickle.

Anyway, there are a few businesses I value and I see the employees and the business as pretty much the same thing. There is a small coffee shop in Webster, Wisconsin, that I visit nearly daily when we spend time at our lake place. I go there to work and drink their coffee. Yes, I could drink the same coffee at home and less expensively, but I am willing to pay for the social experience even though I very rarely say a word to anyone after placing my order.

I can’t really spend time at this coffee shop now and I decided to see if I could continue to do my part to keep them in business at a distance. Sure enough, they have a web site and sell their coffee online. They roast their coffee in these weird air roasters that generate one pound at a time and if you can wait 20 minutes they roast it while you sit and drink a cup of what they are offering that day. When the shop first opened, I told the owner I had heard that some foodies liked to roast their own coffee and did so in an air popper. I was referencing the similarity between the roasting devices they used and the approach I had read about. He smiled, turned around, and pointed to the popcorn air popper on a shelf behind him. His start.

I ordered two pounds of Tanzanian Peaberry – my favorite coffee and what I see if they have no matter where I am. Twelve dollars a pound for peaberry coffee is a great price and this is good stuff. The problem is the way they have to get it to you. Ten dollars for 2-5 day express delivery. The coffee did show up in two days. It was not an urgent matter, but this must be the way they have to get it done. Money just can’t be the only thing that matters. Consider it a random act of commerce.

Gov. Walz MN) just finished a press conference indicating that citizens of Minnesota are going to have to adopt more extreme measures to control the spread of the virus. When he was finished I took my daily walk around the neighborhood to get out a little and get some exercise. I have been trying to find something to take a picture of and post to Instagram (I also see my post from yesterday.

I ended up with this photo. It was not what I had in mind. At first I just stood there and stared. Really, gathering to tailgate in blatant disregard for the safety of your fellow citizens. A couple of the women gave me that universal signal to express their displeasure. Really brave I guess. I took a picture and left.

I try not to use the type of language to express my displeasure as that used by that North Dakota politician. How about – some folks are just self-centered and unwilling to exercise a sense a responsibility to others. How many times is it necessary to explain – you have every right to put yourself in situations in which you are at risk. You DO NOT have the right to knowingly expose yourself to a highly communicable disease you could easily pass on to others. Your behavior either indicates you are not capable of intellectually processing what this means or you are so self-centered that it is obvious you don’t care.

National Geographic just offered an interesting story on the photos taken by their staff when these folks can not travel to do their work. Photography is a great outlet for the creativity in all of us.

My son and his family have been doing this Instagram activity that has generated quite a bit of participation. I have seen similar things elsewhere and I have no idea where it started. Anyway, my son’s version is to walk with his family and each family member takes a picture of the same location. The photos are posted to Instagram and followers vote on their favorite as a comment. The popularity is calculated from these choices, a winner is announced, and the winner gets to select the next site to be examined.

Me? I listen to podcasts during my daily walks and once in a while I take a photo.

Business Insider says that Amazon and NetFlix have had to resort to a lower quality video stream to meet the present increased demand as people separate themselves to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. The article is focused on the situation in Europe, but a similar situation may arise in the U.S. as the disease spreads here. I know our own speed has been noticeably impacted and we are far below the rate we pay for, but this is the reality for the time being.

We are lucky to live in close proximity to all of our kids, but that matters little in the present need for we old folks to stay away from others. I had not heard of a virtual happy hour, but we all got together for one this evening. The kids used FaceTime and the adults used Google Meet. Yes, we did have snacks and beverages.

I think it was good for all of us. With the exception of son Todd who is a director and mainly works on ad campaigns, the rest are teachers or work in a medical field. All now face considerable pressure both as parents and because of their occupations. We had a great conversation about our present life experiences and the state of the world in general. I think we all found this worth doing and we plan to meet online again in a few days.

I encourage others to get together in this fashion. You may be interacting with family members you seldom have the opportunity to see face to face and we all need each other now more than ever. If you don’t know how to use Skype, Facetime, or Google Meet (and maybe some other options), take the time to learn. This virtual thing may be our new normal and we need to make the effort to stay connected.

Todd showed the fly he was tying during our interaction. A wooly bugger if I remember correctly.

Trump’s attitude at today’s press conference really annoyed me. I cannot help having to respond.

I find Trump’s argument that he inherited a government poorly prepared to deal with the present crisis and the claim that he takes no responsible a poorly argued effort to craft disinformation that may seem reasonable to Trump loyalists. These personal vocal claims and the constant adulation of those who stand with him to address the American people should stop immediately. I would stipulate that no government could position itself to be prepared to handle a challenge (actually challenges if you include the financial crisis) of this magnitude. However, the blame game does not pass the smell test and the claims of no responsibility can easily be shown to be factually inadequate. Just let the experts make policy and let others take care of communicating with the public.

Some facts to consider:

1. Whether adequate or not, the Trump administration dismissed staff with the responsibility of anticipating pandemics. For whatever reason this was done, possibly as a budget cutting measure, you do not respond to a condition of poor preparation by dismissing those responsible for whatever level of preparation and planning exists without some effort to offer a superior replacement. At least, don’t blame the situation on anyone else.
2. When it was known that a new virus was rapidly spreading elsewhere and this virus was spreading within a population with no immunity, you don’t tell the concerned public that everything is under control and the known cases in this country will probably be down to zero in a few days. I can’t believe those with expertise would promote taking this position. The several weeks of ramping up to get ahead of the spread of the virus was not used to address shortages and create defenses that we now seem to be developing in an effort to catch up. How much was this delay an effort to not spook the stock market which seems to be the metric on which this President argues his worth?
3. As far as the economic situation goes, that trillion+ in revenue the government should have taken in from corporations already enjoying a great economy would now be quite valuable. Yes, it did boost the stock market because so many corporations used the money to buy back stocks. Who benefited even when the market was up? However, the level of the stock market was largely offset by the rapid increase in federal debt. The process amounted to borrowing money from the American people (the debt). The debt is still there, but now the country must find a way to give money back to the same people saddled with this debt. Remember the government is us – we will borrow more money from the future to help now.

How many more examples are necessary? Who will take responsibility for these decisions? Remember when Hillary warned the nation that Trump lacked the leadership skills necessary in an actual crisis. We were lucky we got by with poor leadership for three years, but now we face a crisis of exactly the magnitude she was concerned about. I suppose supporters did not anticipate this type of crisis. Fair enough, but now it is here and we are stuck with a buffoon who assumes he is above criticism and who lacks the compassion required in this situation.

I wrote a post a few days ago encouraging those interested in technology to use the “home time” we now are experiencing as a time to explore a new online service. I made reference to, but did not explain the multiple reasons I think this is an important use of time. The following video offers one perspective on the importance of expanding competition to maintain and improve the tech tools we now access.