Coronavirus Journey, Part 11

Part eleven of my ongoing journal entries about life in the time of the 2020-2021 Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Previous posts: Part One (Jan-Mar, 2020). Part Two (April 2020). Part Three (May 2020). Part Four (June 2020). Part Five (July 2020). Part Six (August 2020). Part Seven (September 2020). Part Eight (October 2020). Part Nine (November 2020). Part Ten (December 2020).

January 1, 2021

Happy New Year! We bid 2020 good riddance and hope for better things in 2021. As someone said, it’s a low bar.

Barb and I had a quiet New Year’s Eve. I made a pretty good surf and turf dinner with lobster, a little steak with a shallot sauce and roasted potatoes and green beans. Also a tasty variant on hoppin’ john which I sort of used as grits with my lobster. Better than butter! 

We watched another episode of Bridgerton — Barb got agitated with the mid-course plot twists (“This is why you SKIM these books,” she yelled at me and the TV; she wanted to fast forward but I wouldn’t let her) but she’s mostly enthralled. I still don’t completely understand the appeal of the genre but find myself also watching A Suitable Boy which, though set in a very different time and place (India in 1951), shares many plot points with Bridgerton: wealthy families trying to find husbands for their beautiful, smart, headstrong daughters while the daughters fall for beautiful, problematic young men; brothers in love with singers of ill-repute; lots of nattering, gossipy cousins and rivals. I guess, overall, it feels better than dealing with the real world. Definitely better costumes. And dancing!

Allie spent New Year’s in Boston with some friends (whom we are assured both tested negative a few days ago). Laurie spent the day housesitting at Maggie’s with the chickens and cat. Everyone seems more or less OK though we all wish we could be with others. It was a melancholy New Year’s Eve all around the world. The usually crowded scenes of revelers from Sydney to London to New York were empty and mostly sad. 

Allie is still dealing with the aftermath of breaking up with Dan. She got very excited at the prospect of coming down here to get some sympathy and home cooking. Barb got even more excited. The plan at the moment is that I’m going to fetch Allie maybe next weekend. She needs to wait at least 10 days from December 27 when she was with Dan’s family and is planning to get a Covid test this week. There’s snow in the forecast for the end of next week so we’ll see what transpires. I want to make sure the weather is decent for driving. It does mean traveling in perhaps the worst of the virus which I know we said we didn’t want to do, but I think circumstances will make it hard to resist or delay very much. I’m reasonably confident I can make the trip safely.

The virus situation is not good. We hit 20 million U.S. cases today (Happy New Year!). There are a record number of hospitalizations (125,000+) and many hospital systems are strained. Deaths in the U.S. ran over 3,500 on multiple days this week. U.S. case loads have wavered somewhat with holiday effects — the numbers have been down but appear to be ticking up. 

Numbers:

• Global cases: 83,600,000; Daily average: 580K; Total Deaths: 1,820,000
• USA cases: 20,000,000; Daily average: 187K; Total Deaths: 346,000 
• Maryland cases: 277,000  Deaths: 5,895; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 0 states “On track to contain COVID”
  • 2 states “Slow disease growth” (Hawaii, Northern Marianas)
  • 3 states “At risk of outbreak” (Puerto Rico, Oregon, Vermont)
  • 44 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Utah, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama…)
  • 4 states “Severe outbreak” (California, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Arizona)

The vaccination rollout has been slower than expected, though it’s not really surprising given the complexity and lack of national coordination. Trump originally said there would be 100 million doses distributed by year’s end, then the CDC lowered the estimate to 20 million. In fact, it seems maybe 12 million have been distributed but bottlenecks at the local level mean that less than 3 million doses have actually gone into peoples’ arms. The local bottlenecks are myriad and not really the fault of local authorities — they have limited resources (especially people, who are largely the same ones treating and testing existing patients) and the federal government has offered little in the way of funding or guidance. The country will get better at solving these problems but it will take time. I’m still hoping we will see the peak in U.S. deaths later this month and improvement thereafter. Dr. Fauci seems to think that by April anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one. That seems optimistic. More likely by June, I’m guessing, but he’s the expert.

I’ve finally mostly finished what has become three posts on my investment history and a separate one on lessons learned. I’ve tried to tell the story without being too obnoxious about the actual dollar amounts or too hubristic about what may amount to simple good luck. This has been a hard set of posts to write but I hope they prove useful to Allie and eventually to others. 

I came across a good article today explaining why the stock markets ended up doing well in 2020 despite the pandemic. Basically, aggregate incomes went up (with a trillion-dollar boost from government relief programs) while spending (especially on restaurants, travel and entertainment) dropped. The extra money needed somewhere to go and a lot of it went into stocks. It seems to me like a blatant argument for more considered, directed government relief programs but I have no confidence that will be the lesson learned in either DC or Wall Street. It’s much more fun to give money to voters who don’t need it.

January 4

It’s the first Monday of the new year. Barb is trying to figure out how to get in the swing of work again after four days of actual rest and not working. She did lots of puzzles, caught up on movies and TV shows and did some reading. Betsy Pelovitz came over on Saturday for lunch (Canopy!) on the deck and chatted with Barb for four hours. Barb also had several catch-up phone calls with folks like Patti and some co-workers that ate up hours. Barb has a much higher ability and desire to talk with people than I do. I had one long call (and many texts) with Laurie, and we’ve spoken a number of times with Allie. Other than that, I haven’t spoken with anyone and I’m fine, thanks.

Our landscapers (JFK) finally arrived today to work on our flowerbeds and overdue fall cleanup. It will be nice to get it done. Meanwhile, our neighbors have a crew starting work on their new back porch project that will last for months. Winter is still a busy time in the suburbs, as long as someone else is doing the work. It gives Manny something to watch.

This is shaping up to be a tumultuous week in politics even though it shouldn’t be. The Georgia Senate runoff vote tomorrow will determine the balance of power in the nation for at least the next two years, assuming they can figure out who wins. It’s a toss-up as of now, according to polls that no one trusts. Trump upset the apple cart with an outrageous call this weekend to the top (Republican) Georgia election official seeking help “finding” enough votes to overturn the presidential vote. Tape of the call was leaked (by whom?) to the Washington Post. It would be enough to start another impeachment proceeding if it weren’t at this 11th hour and 58th minute of his presidency. And besides, he will no doubt do more outrageous things over the rest of this week, much less the next few weeks. He’s due in Georgia today for a rally, then on Wednesday is the official certification of the electoral college in Congress. A dozen Senators will contest the results and ask for yet another recount. Trump has invited thousands of his goons (supporters) to DC for a variety of rallies in the streets. Should be fun.

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There’s growing concern over a new, more infectious strain of the virus now popping up around the country and the world. The NY Times newsletter highlighted this chart which shows how cases in the UK and South Africa, where the new variant has a foothold, have spiked. The concern is that it will cause even more widespread virus cases and deaths over the coming months while we slowly get vaccines into peoples’ arms. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. quietly passed 350,000 deaths, a number which Trump says is “far exaggerated.” The daily case count is jumping back up nationally and globally after the holiday blur.

Numbers:

• Global cases: 85,200,000; Daily average: 616K; Total Deaths: 1,850,000
• USA cases: 20,700,000; Daily average: 213K; Total Deaths: 352,000 
• Maryland cases: 285,000  Deaths: 5,994; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 0 states “On track to contain COVID”
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Northern Marianas)
  • 4 states “At risk of outbreak” (Puerto Rico, Washington, Vermont, Hawaii)
  • 40 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Georgia, Mississippi, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma…)
  • 8 states “Severe outbreak” (California, Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas, Arkansas…)

I’m still on tap to go get Allie later this week. The weather looks better so I plan to drive up Friday and back on Saturday. Assuming all goes well, it will be great to have Allie and Perri here for a while. Assuming all goes well.

January 6

10am. It’s suddenly a brighter day in America as Georgia’s Senate runoff results in two apparent Democratic victories. Raphael Warnock was declared victor in his race around 1am last night. The second race with Jon Ossoff is officially too close to call but all indications are that Ossoff will take it, maybe by more than 0.5 percent which will remove the requirement for an automatic recount. Results may be clearer by noon today, though things may drag out, being Georgia.

With the two Georgia seats decided, the Senate will be controlled by Democrats and Chuck Schumer which suddenly opens possibilities for more substantive legislation for the next two years. It’s a gift to Biden and hopefully to a more progressive agenda than would have been possible under a Republican Senate. 

Meanwhile, today Congress officially confirms the Electoral College vote. A number of Republicans are expected to throw up roadblocks but there should (should) be no way to change the results. By the end of the process, Biden will be declared official winner of the race he has already won several times over. And Trump will be the official loser, not that he will ever admit or accept it.

Thousands of Trump supporters are in DC at Trump’s encouragement to protest the results. Trump will speak to them at 11am on the Mall near the Ellipse. There are several other rally locations around town with various other lesser stars and pardoned felons in Trump’s Hall of Shame (welcome Roger Stone, George Papadopolous, Michael Flynn and others). The crowds are welcome to rant in one last gasp. Early shots of the gathering crowd show there may be fewer people showing up than Trump wished, which would be a fitting bookend to his inauguration. There is concern over violence in DC with lots of buildings boarded up again, but hopefully cooler heads will prevail. We will see what the day brings.

2pm. The day is bringing a mess at the moment. Trump protesters, after hearing an hour of Trump’s alternate reality blatherings, have moved to Capitol Hill where they have breached the steps and may even be inside the building. The Senate and House debates have been suspended, at least for a while. Capitol Hill and surrounding buildings are on lock down, staff being told to shelter in place; the Cannon House Office building and one of the Library of Congress were evacuated earlier this afternoon due to a suspicious package.

As of 2:30pm there are interior shots of the Capitol with protesters meandering (peacefully at the moment) through Statuary Hall. Unbelievable. It’s an increasingly tense situation. It looks like Capitol Police are trying to regain control of the crowd, but they don’t have real control yet.

4:30pm. It’s been a jaw-dropping afternoon. I can’t begin to describe all that has gone on in the last two hours as the Trump mob roamed the Capitol building. I’m certain that more will come to light in the coming hours and days. As the sun is about to set and DC Mayor Bowser has called a 6pm curfew, Trump has finally just put out a muddled, ambiguous twitter video asking people to go home but reminding them that the election was fraudulent and stolen. Biden, to his continued credit, made a proper, heartfelt statement on TV (at 4pm, just before Trump did) but the folks on Capitol Hill are not listening to him.

It appears that DC and Capitol Police have been clearing the interior of the Capitol Building. It seems like maybe they’re starting to clear the steps and perimeter but there are still thousands of people milling about. It will be a frightening night in DC. 

There has been much gnashing of teeth from TV commentators about a failure on the part of Capitol Police to protect the building. On the contrary, I think they’ve shown remarkable restraint in the moment. How much worse would it have been if shots were fired and people killed on the Capitol’s steps?

Oh by the way, Jon Ossof has just been declared winner of the second Senate seat in Georgia. So there.

January 7

It’s the day after and I feel obligated to write. I couldn’t muster words last night, just horrified, angry and sad as I watched what unfolded at the Capitol. Reams will be written by those more eloquent and insightful than I. Police gained control of the situation as night fell, the mob dissipated and there was less trouble in the streets overnight than I feared. There was some redemption as Congress reconvened around 8:30pm and eventually finished its business of confirming the Electoral College vote count — at 3:45am. Biden will be president on January 20.

The nation will not soon forget (I hope) the ransacking of the Capitol by the mob of Trump supporters. There’s much quibbling about what to call the action and its participants. Riot? Coup? Protest? Insurrection? Terrorism? There is no doubt about its cause, chief instigator and his cronies. Trump incited this riot, Republicans aided and abetted. Four people are dead. I’m sure millions of dollars of damage to the Capitol itself but incalculable damage to America’s democracy and image. A self-inflicted wound.

I partially retract my comment above about the Capitol Police. I think much more should have been done to restrain the crowd at the perimeter of the grounds rather than let them swarm up to and into the building. I’m sure some authorities didn’t want a show of force and didn’t want the negative photo op of a bunch of angry Trump supporters facing off against Capitol police. What they got was far worse. Still, put in an indefensible position, the police appear to have acted with commendable restraint. They weren’t the cause of the problem and they shouldn’t take the blame. The blame falls squarely on Trump.

What will be done about it? Hard to say, unfortunately. We are in uncharted waters. There is some talk about invoking the 25th Amendment and removing Trump from power. That seems highly unlikely. Even under these circumstances I doubt the Cabinet members have enough spine to follow through, much less ⅔ of both houses of Congress. Can Congress impeach a president after the fact for the purpose of preventing him from holding office again? That may be a possibility but again will require a supermajority in the Senate, I think. Are criminal charges (incitement to riot) possible? Will Trump’s likely self-pardon shield him from any recriminations?

What about his followers? Many acted like goons and thugs on camera and can conceivably be tracked down. Some are already blatantly bragging about their actions. DC and the DOJ can try to convict the most egregious offenders, and probably should, but Trump may preemptively pardon them as well in the next couple of weeks. In any case, the sentences or fines would be light compared to the damage done. And the real criminal would be lounging at Mar-a-Lago.

I’m not sure what the next few days and weeks will bring. I can say that things look to be brighter after Inauguration Day on January 20. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. 

For us, Barb (who did everything she could to avoid the news yesterday but still got wind of things and got very agitated) headed into her Baltimore office today. I’m preparing for Allie and Perri’s arrival. I will drive up tomorrow and bring her back down on Saturday. 
And, by the way, yesterday was the worst death count yet from the virus in the U.S., with 3,964 deaths. American carnage, indeed.

January 11

We’ve made it to Monday. I drove up to Boston on Friday, spent the night at Allie’s and drove back down with her and Perri on Saturday. Traffic was light in both directions and I made each trip in just over 7 hours, stopping only once in each direction. It’s much faster if you don’t stop for food or repeated bathroom breaks. I made two sandwiches for the drive up and ate them in intervals. On Friday night at Allie’s we ordered dinner (a calzone for me and steak and cheese sub for Allie, with a Greek salad to share) and got some wraps for the drive back down. Hint for next time: don’t order tuna fish — it gets too soggy and messy the next day. The turkey wrap was much easier to handle. Perri was extraordinarily good the whole trip, mostly sleeping in her carrier with Allie in the back seat. I forced Allie to listen to four hours of my Nick Lowe playlist while I added comments about the linkages between songs and artists. She put up with it very politely.

On Saturday night and Sunday, Perri explored her new surroundings and became acquainted with Manny. There was a lot of hissing and moaning to begin with from both parties. We tried blocking off the upstairs for Perri which was fine as long as Allie stayed up with her. As soon as Allie is out of sight, Perri gets upset and says so. Allie and Perri spent most of Sunday in our bedroom with Barb, watching TV while Barb worked on puzzles. Over the couple of days the cats reached a sort of stalemate. Perri and Manny can be in the same room but not within 5 feet of each other — anti-social distancing, Allie calls it. 

This morning, Allie went to work in her study upstairs as Perri scampered all over the place. Allie feared she would be a distraction while she was on work conference calls so I brought Perri downstairs. We sat out on the deck for a while with Manny until we all got too cold. I eventually settled in our bedroom with Perri while Manny went down to the basement. That’s where things stand at the moment. And now you’re up to date.

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All in all, it’s very nice having Allie and Perri here. We’ve sorted out a meal plan for the week. We have a variety of things to watch together or separately in the coming days and weeks. It’s good for both Barb and Allie to have someone to talk to, and it’s fun to watch the cats interact. It looks like Barb and Allie can both pretty easily tend to their work in their respective places upstairs and in the dining room. I don’t want to spend the next few weeks in the bedroom with Perri, but I imagine we will sort things out as we go. We are pretty well set to hunker in place for the next several weeks. We don’t have a particular date to take Allie and Perri back to Boston but we expect they will be here for a least a few weeks as we watch history unfold.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world goes to hell. In the aftermath of the Capitol riot on January 6, calls are mounting to remove Trump in advance of the January 20 inauguration. Pence and the Cabinet are resisting calls to invoke the 25th Amendment though it remains a slim possibility. The House is on the verge of impeaching Trump for the second time, wanting to get it done while he is still in office but maybe delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a number of months while Biden gets his administration off the ground. The real objective of impeachment would be to deny Trump the possibility of holding office in the future, or profiting off of his time as President. It’s very unclear how this will all play out, but Pelosi and the Democrats are trying to hold the high ground and momentum.

The virus is indeed at its worst yet, as predicted. We are on the verge of 100 million cases and 2 million deaths worldwide, almost exactly one year into the pandemic. The daily average of new cases in both the U.S. and the world are at their highest levels yet. We’ve topped 4,000 deaths per day in the U.S. several times this week. My small hope is that the tide will peak in the next couple of weeks. Time will tell. 

Numbers:

• Global cases: 90,400,000; Daily average: 739K; Total Deaths: 1,940,000
• USA cases: 22,500,000; Daily average: 254K; Total Deaths: 374,000 
• Maryland cases: 307,000  Deaths: 6,272; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 0 states “On track to contain COVID”
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Northern Marianas)
  • 2 states “At risk of outbreak” (Puerto Rico, Hawaii)
  • 28 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (New Jersey, Kansas, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico…)
  • 22 states “Severe outbreak” (Rhode Island, Arizona, California, Arkansas, Utah…)

Sue sent me a collection of clippings and other documents relating to the Garbutt family. She said Keri had stored them in her collection of stuff from Mom. I don’t recall seeing any of it and I’m glad to get it now. It will take me some time to incorporate it into the website but it becomes another task for the coming months.

At Laurie’s behest, Susanna added me to the Scattergories message group on What’s App so I might more easily make it to a family game some Tuesday. We’ll see whether Perri will allow me to do that in the coming weeks.

January 15

It’s a Friday and I’m feeling uncharacteristically optimistic. There’s no particular reason but I just have a hope and a feeling that maybe we’ve seen the worst of the current set of troubles and are starting the climb back to something more stable and sustainable. I may just be fooling myself but I will indulge these positive feelings for as long as I can.

First off, happy birthdays to Sue and Dad. Dad was born 103 years ago today and Sue 74 years ago. I can’t get hold of Dad but will try reaching Sue. 

I woke up to a series of group text messages from my neighbors Ron and Mark regarding the new vaccine guidelines for Howard County residents. This was unusual because I’ve never gotten group texts from either of them and there are a handful of other numbers/people in the group that I don’t know. But the gist of the texts is that Howard County will soon start inoculating anyone over age 65 — which Ron and Mark are and I guess they suspect I am too. They pointed to a county website that I hadn’t seen yet that explains vaccine procedures and groupings. I think Barb and I fall into Category 2 for the vaccines which is for people under 65 with comorbidities. I’ve never been happier to think I have comorbidities. At least I’m guessing I do — I feel like I have comorbidities. Does that count? There’s no timetable yet for Group 2, but they’re opening up Groups 1B and 1C over the next couple of weeks, so maybe we’re a month or two away.

Even though the virus is at its worst levels yet (2 million deaths worldwide as of today), I have a glimmer of hope that maybe things will start getting better from here. The average number of daily new cases is ticking slightly downward both in the U.S. and worldwide. The number of states in Severe Outbreak is starting to recede. Hospital capacity is dangerously high in some places but doesn’t appear to have overflowed into crisis territory.

Numbers:

• Global cases: 93,200,000; Daily average: 717K; Total Deaths: 2,000,000
• USA cases: 23,400,000; Daily average: 240K; Total Deaths: 389,000 
• Maryland cases: 318,000  Deaths: 6,449; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 0 states “On track to contain COVID”
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Northern Marianas)
  • 3 states “At risk of outbreak” (North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii)
  • 29 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (New Jersey, Kansas, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico…)
  • 20 states “Severe outbreak” (Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Utah, Rhode Island…)

The IHME forecast for daily deaths in the U.S. shows us slightly past the peak. I think maybe this forecast is a little stale and due for an update soon but I’m still hopeful.

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There’s some room for hope on the political front as well. Biden introduced a $1.9 trillion relief proposal last night that seems, dare I say, appropriate. At least it’s not been blasted out of the water within the first few hours. There’s a smidge of clarity on the impeachment trial in the Senate, that it will start next week under Biden and the Democrats and will move quickly along with Biden’s confirmations and relief package. There’s a glimmer of a possibility that enough Republicans might be willing to bolt against Trump to convict him and then prevent him from holding office in the future (though that still seems highly unlikely).

On the local front, my friend Jenny called yesterday to say she has (once again) quit FIRST Chesapeake over their plans for holding in-person robot competitions this season. I don’t blame her one bit and wish her well in her separation, knowing full well that she will likely still stay involved. I wish her peace. I’m so glad I’m not involved anymore in robots; the whole FIRST world is in disarray with the virus. It seems like a good year to just give it a pass. Jenny also relayed that her sons have just sold their (six year old) startup company (Arvada Health) for a tidy sum, so more power to them.

Allie and Perri have quickly made themselves at home over the week. It’s great to have them. Manny may not entirely agree — Perri has become his shadow and never seems to let him rest. But we’re all getting along. We’re having fun with meals — I went to the deli yesterday and got enough stuff for several meals. I’m going to fetch Hot Pot fixings for tonight so we’ll be set for the next few days. We are going through episodes of The Crown which Barb had boycotted until now, so we all have something we can watch together. All is good. 

That’s enough for now before I wear out my optimism. Off to enjoy the rest of the day.

January 19

It’s the final day of Trump’s presidency! We should celebrate. It’s also the day we mark 400,000 deaths in the U.S. from the virus. We must mourn. What a novelistic bookend that tomorrow, Inauguration Day, is also the anniversary of the first diagnosed virus case in the U.S. What a sad year. What an incredibly awful legacy Trump leaves behind and will no doubt continue to build upon (or dig his crater even deeper). 

It’s hard to express the range of emotions on hand today and tomorrow, tinged with anxiety that something worse might happen. There’s exhaustion, outrage, anger, and anxiety mixed with optimism, hopefulness, and pride for the country having made it through, in some tatters, perhaps, but still with a potential for positive change. What a challenge for Joe Biden and his team. I hope they are up to it. The roller coaster ride will continue.

The numbers, for the record. The average number of daily cases in the U.S. and worldwide continue to tick down, fortunately. “Only” 10 states are in Severe Outbreak. May it continue.

Numbers:

• Global cases: 95,900,000; Daily average: 666K; Total Deaths: 2,050,000
• USA cases: 24,200,000; Daily average: 207K; Total Deaths: 400,000 
• Maryland cases: 330,000  Deaths: 6,650; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 1 states “On track to contain COVID” (Northern Marianas)
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Hawaii)
  • 5 states “At risk of outbreak” (Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, North Dakota, Puerto Rico)
  • 36 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Delaware, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Connecticut…)
  • 10 states “Severe outbreak” (Arizona, California, South Carolina, Rhode Island, New York…)

January 22

We all heaved a sigh of relief as the Inauguration came off without a hitch two days ago on Wednesday. Trump is finally gone and has stayed mercifully quiet. Biden and Harris had a moving ceremony highlighted unexpectedly by a terrific poem reading by Amanda Gordon (who knew we had a Youth Poet Laureate?). The ceremony and abbreviated parade were over by 1:30pm. By 3pm, Barb already had her first assignment to start rescinding some of the ludicrous actions of the previous administration.

Since then, there have been noticeable feelings of near normalcy. The press secretary is holding daily briefings, Biden is signing executive orders as fast as he can in a well-planned sequence focusing first on the pandemic, his cabinet appointments are starting to sail through Senate approvals, Dr. Fauci is allowed to speak freely and seems invigorated by it. The team has hit the ground running and so far there have been few, if any, hiccups. Competence is suddenly on welcome display. Soon enough there will be rancor and missteps, but for the moment the honeymoon is quite enjoyable.

There is the matter of a Senate impeachment trial to figure out. The various actors are sorting out details of when to hold the trial under what procedures. It is the first impeachment of an out-of-office president so new precedents must be established. The GOP appears at least a bit splintered in the wake of Trump’s departure but it’s too soon to tell if there are any real prospects of getting 17 GOP senators to vote to impeach.

We set another near-record number of U.S. virus deaths yesterday (4,142) but the numbers of cases are still ticking down domestically and globally. Only three states are in “Severe Outbreak,” down from 20 a week ago.

Numbers:

• Global cases: 96,200,000; Daily average: 631K; Total Deaths: 2,060,000
• USA cases: 24,700,000; Daily average: 188K; Total Deaths: 410,000 
• Maryland cases: 335,000  Deaths: 6,735; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 1 states “On track to contain COVID” (Northern Marianas)
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Hawaii)
  • 7 states “At risk of outbreak” (Washington, Vermont, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon…)
  • 41 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Delaware, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Connecticut…)
  • 3 states “Severe outbreak” (Arizona, South Carolina, California)

Allie will stay with us for one more week. It’s continued to be great having her and Perri here, a very happy distraction for everyone…even Manny. Perri and Manny have become buddies, for the most part, and Perri has her run of the house but still tends to hang around with Allie or another human. Everyone’s getting along well. It will be very quiet when they leave. We haven’t decided exactly when, but probably next weekend depending on the weather.

I’ve nudged along some travel plans. Once we get vaccinated, Barb and I will see Allie in Boston, hopefully in April or May. We have July in Colorado locked in. I think we will likely return to Boston in August or September to see Allie and maybe rent a house somewhere near the water for a few days, maybe on the Cape. I hope to take the girls to Aruba in October for their birthdays, and we hope to have Allie back here for some combination of the holidays. I’ve got some ideas for 2022 but will keep them to myself for the moment. Keeping fingers crossed.

So, some sense of optimism still percolates. It’s a nice feeling, one we haven’t had much of for the past year. Our big decisions are what to eat each day. Tonight, we’ve decided, is sushi and tomorrow we will try dim sum takeout for the first time. Excitement!

January 25

The Biden honeymoon lasted a day or two before pundits declared it dead. I guess that’s par for the course. It also gives the media something to talk about. They’re already going through Trump withdrawal. Outrage (and eyeballs) must be found somewhere.

My glimmer of optimism over the drop in virus cases was quickly squelched by articles reminding us that new virus variants could propel numbers upward in coming months. I guess it’s more responsible for the media to remind us of the downside rather than celebrate possible good news, but I’d really like to retain my little bit of optimism, thank you. And the numbers are still declining, despite having crossed 25 million cases in the U.S. and about to top 100 million cases worldwide. Still, it’s good not to let our guard down or relax what few steps we’ve taken to mitigate viral spread. 

Numbers:

• Global cases: 99,300,000; Daily average: 609K; Total Deaths: 2,130,000
• USA cases: 25,200,000; Daily average: 171K; Total Deaths: 419,000 
• Maryland cases: 342,000  Deaths: 6,865; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 1 state “On track to contain COVID” (Northern Marianas)
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Hawaii)
  • 7 states “At risk of outbreak” (Washington, Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota…)
  • 42 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Rhode Island, Georgia, New York, California, Oklahoma…)
  • 2 states “Severe outbreak” (Arizona, South Carolina)

On the home front, we had another quiet and pleasant weekend. Barb worked on puzzles and finally finished watching New Tricks on Allie’s Hulu account. We ordered dim sum takeout from Asian Court on Saturday and it worked out pretty well, another family tradition adapted through the virus, so yay. 

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January 29

It’s Friday and some plans have changed. The projected weather (a snowstorm here turning into a Nor’easter up the coast) makes travel problematic this weekend and next week. It turns out Allie is happy to stay here a bit longer and we are happy to have her, so she will stay a few more weeks. Perri had an appointment with an eye specialist next week but Allie was able to move it, so things are clear for her to stay here. Everyone seems happy with the decision, including Manny and Buster who now like to eat Perri’s food and poop in her box upstairs. So now we just have to plan some meals to get us through the snowstorm. Hot pot here we come.

Biden has been in office for just over a week and it seems like months. The news cycles have quieted down as Biden’s been issuing executive orders left and right undoing various Trump misdeeds (there were so many!). Trump’s second impeachment trial officially started this week but was put off for several weeks so both sides could prepare…but a procedural vote indicates that only a handful of GOP Senators are likely to vote against Trump so he’ll likely be acquitted. 

Biden’s cabinet appointments are getting approved and attention will shortly focus on Biden’s proposed relief package. There’s enough GOP resistance that there will either have to be a compromise or the Democrats can try to blast it through on a partisan basis. The problem with blasting it through is that it likely blows up prospects for bipartisan agreement on anything else and makes the next two years that much uglier. The GOP has not been able to kick the Trump-populist wing — if anything, that’s the stronger wing of the party at the moment. As long as they’re in ascendency within their minority party it will remain hard for the government as a whole to do anything…which has been the problem for the past several decades.

The virus numbers continue to drop but there is growing concern over new, more contagious variants from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. The race is on to get enough people vaccinated to counteract the new variants but there are so many glitches in vaccine distribution that it seems a race we’re likely to lose. Biden’s new team is trying to come up with more of a nationwide plan for distribution but it will take weeks or months to implement.

Here in Maryland it’s a county-by-county distribution but many people seem to have trouble navigating the signup process while others are finding loopholes. Everyone over 65 is eligible at this point and I’m hearing of some people that are scheduled (Jenny and Yonie, Deb and Jay), which is at least somewhat encouraging. So far, Barb and I don’t qualify. Jenny notes that it takes 3-4 weeks after the second shot for immunity to kick in, so there’s a further lag to full efficacy.

Numbers:

• Global cases: 101,000,000; Daily average: 560K; Total Deaths: 2,190,000
• USA cases: 25,800,000; Daily average: 160K; Total Deaths: 433,000 
• Maryland cases: 349,000  Deaths: 7,037; “Active or Imminent Outbreak” per CovidActNow.org
  • 1 state “On track to contain COVID” (Northern Marianas)
  • 1 state “Slow disease growth” (Hawaii)
  • 9 states “At risk of outbreak” (South Dakota, Alaska, Washington, Vermont, Michigan…)
  • 40 states “Active or imminent outbreak” (Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Georgia, New York, Kentucky…)
  • 2 states “Severe outbreak” (Arizona, South Carolina)

Laurie reports that things have deteriorated in Spain. There has been a big spike in cases in the past month, at least partially due to the U.K. variant, and their vaccine distribution is a mess. Plus, Laurie may not qualify since she is not a citizen. Uncertainty reigns, which is not a great surprise but still a disappointment.

After a year, the virus is finally encroaching on our little circle. Kristen had the virus last month though thankfully no other Embreys seem to have caught it. Betsy, though, has had to quarantine multiple times because of Kristen and outbreaks at her school. Allie’s (recently former) boyfriend, Dan, has it now. One of the reasons Allie wants to stay here is to keep her distance from any inclination to help take care of him. And, sad to say, the father of Betsy Pelovitz, one of Barb’s closest work colleagues, succumbed this week to the disease. That’s the closest actual death we’ve encountered. No closer, please.

On the entertainment and education front, I’ve started listening to the Revolutions podcast which goes in-depth into various historical revolutions including the American, French, Russian and more. I’m working my way through the English Civil Wars of the 17th century which are hopelessly convoluted but I think a logical precursor to understanding the ones that followed. The podcast is already six years old and there are hundreds of episodes. I don’t know how I’ve missed it so far, and I suspect it may take me years to catch up if I try to listen to all of them, but it seems like a compelling story that I’ll follow for a good while.

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