Day #305

I'd strained my back on Friday night/Saturday morning, but it was better today, so took a walk in Greenwood Cemetery. Lovely day, as you can see above - clear blue skies, sun, and in the upper forties. I took pictures of flying Canadian Geese.

And watching old John Wayne movies - which I find oddly comforting (possibly because I'm worrying about my parents and missing them - and I saw them as a kid with my parents in the 1970s, and there's a kind of nostalgic comfort that comes from seeing them again - akin to being wrapped in a blanked and drinking coco with marshmallows). The Quiet Man (John Ford's love letter to Ireland) and Big Jake (notable for the first on-screen appearances of John Wayne's son Patrick Wayne, and Robert Mitchum's son Christopher Mitchum. Neither were very good actors and didn't really stay in the field.)

The first movie is a favorite, the second is kind of fun - it's a 1970s Western, so the bad guys are outlaws, and the Indian is part of the good guy group. The 70s Westerns were a touch more politically correct than the 1950s and 60s Westerns.

Amazon Prime has a group of them.

Told mother that I was watching them - and we talked a bit about Wayne, and the old movies. Also her favorite - Red River, which I wrote a paper on in undergrad.

Irritable today. Realized it when I kept muttering at the folks I was running into on the cobbled paths, who weren't looking. I was walking along, they were more interested in talking to each other then noticing someone was on a narrow path walking towards them, before entering it.




My parents can't get the vaccine. Even though they are over the age of 75, have pre-existing conditions, and in a retirement/nursing home. Why? They are in South Carolina - and no one has advocated to get them the vaccines. Meanwhile relatives who are under 75, and don't have their health issues can get it easily. And I've co-workers who are in their 30s with no problems at all that are.

My own take? I refuse to butt in line. Brooklyn Army Terminal shut down - they ran out of vaccines and had to cancel over 50,000 appointments. Mother said various hospitals and communities in South Carolina have had to do the same thing. She said one friend went online to set up appointments for her and her husband, but apparently you need two separate email accounts. So she had to set up her own email account in order to get it.

Workplace gets it through Jacobs Javits, which still had appointments available but it also is only for the public agencies.

It's a shame - because the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are reportedly the best vaccines out there - top-notch according to various experts. So why can't we humanely distribute them to those who need them?

Per the Governor's email:
( Governor's email on vaccine and virus tonight )

From the NY Times Briefing on the Inaugration..
( Thousands of Troops are securing the nation's capital because of the evil GOP terrorists )

( the impeachment )

Per some news commentator that mother was listening to today in between bouts of PT, once Trump's Twitter account was removed - the reports of insurrectionist posts and rallies for a revolution had gone down by 75%. As had hateful posts. They'd lost their leader - without him rallying them, their energy defused. Reminds me a little of Buffy the Vampire Slayer S7 - once the First Evil is vanquished, the hell mouth and mindless vampires kind of collapse in on themselves. Or Harry Potter - once Voldemort was no more, his followers crumbled. Or Hitler, once Hitler was removed, the rest fell apart.

Some Good News?

Joe Biden plans to issue dozens of executive directives in a 10-day blitz.

The orders will include canceling the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, reversing President Trump’s approval of a project to move oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists have long targeted the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline as a contributor to climate change and a symbol of the country’s unwillingness to move away from oil energy.

Other orders expected on Mr. Biden’s first day: rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel, and ordering agencies to reunite children separated from their families after crossing the border.

This! I want this, so badly. So very very badly. It's long overdue.



Ugh. The photo above kind of says it all.

( Los Angeles County became the first in the US to surpass one million recorded cases of COVID, and California the first state to have over 3 million. The state is under lock-down. )

( meanwhile the Trump administration has killed 13 people via the death penalty )

Well this is reassuring, considering my mother keeps getting hip surgery.
( no need to be scared of hip surgery any longer )

In other news? They have simulated car racing now... NBC and Fox experimented with sim racing - where only the money is real

Oh well, off to bed to read. Back to work tomorrow. Hopefully will be able to do laundry tomorrow evening - wasn't able to do it this evening.

Good night and good luck...