Man, the country is in a mess right now. I am actually way less stressed than many because of a few compelling factors that do not hurt my feelings at all.

One. I don’t have children nor work in the public. Two, I read about this in January so all of the stress and trauma visiting regular Americans right now I have already endured. My continued studies into this issue over the past few months I was almost overly prepared. I bought masks the week I read about it and had them ordered by 1/21/2020. I know, I know, everyone has a fucking opinion on my mask but when most of the world contending with this is asking for them for their citizens, well, you as Americans have some onus to know and be able to discern for yourselves when the information was given. It is a respiratory illness which means it is a breathing illness which of course means that if you simply breathe, you are at risk and with a lot of the population passing it without knowing it, you cannot convince me all of the people touched each other or the same door handle or toilet flusher. It does not make sense. And you risk infection whenever you are in the public sphere, so I wear mine inside any store, period, the end. Now when I was doing laundry yesterday the owner’s son told me if I coughed with the mask on he would have to ask me to leave, which is fine, but still funny. I have had to preface anyone whose circle I invade to do business that I do not have anything, I just have had open heart surgery so have to be very careful. This morning I was in the store with a woman wearing gloves who told me to tell everyone to shove it, that all we are doing was trying not to die–she having suffered through Leukemia, was one of the nicest experiences as of late. One thing I do know about the mask thing–well, you’re stupid not to wear one in my opinion-at some point in the near future they will have to admit not all of those people touched each other or the same handle. DNA tests on the virus will eventually find it, but seriously, guys, fucking think a minute. A respiratory illness primarily touch contagious? Fucking bullshit, it’s not ebola.

So yes, enough on the mask. Anyhow–I have worked from home for most of the past decade and for some of you it’s not easy, but let me tell you some benefits of working from home. There are many, but some are not ones people realize until they do it themselves. 1) It is almost impossible to cause or participate in drama for work in a virtual sphere. Drama requires sneaky conversations and side winks and seeing the object of scorn to really build. Working from home allows you to avoid the politics and drama inherent with in person relationships, not that I am saying it’s impossible virtually–it’s just that people tend to behave better consistently since everything is recorded. 2) You don’t have to wear makeup or do anything special with your clothes. Now this took me some time because I love clothes and fashion but I tended to wear better stuff working from home. Well, better for me. Leggings are banned in the office so yes, I wear them at home. Tank tops, also, also worn all of the time. Shoes. I don’t care, I wear socks most of the day. In the summer I can actually wear summer dresses that don’t need any special length or sleeve, also freedom. 3) You tend to eat better when your kitchen is right there. Now cooking does take time to get good at and I am actually really damn good at it now but it took a while and hundreds of recipes sent in food boxes to kind of solidify that, but you can certainly whip a lot of meals up in no time. 4) You tend to treat time better because you are wasting less of it. I would use my time to prepare dinner on my last break or run the dishwasher, take a walk with the dog, whatever it was, it was easy to do when I didn’t have to commute every day.

There are other rewards to that life I will muse more on but those are some of the immediate ones. I feel we’ve been trending towards more automation running things so will have to be comfortable sometimes being just with our own selves eventually which is what this is kind of a pre-training for—now I have no idea when it will end and since I’ve been reading about it a few months I am only convinced of a few things mentioned. The mask, yes, so important. Washing your hands, obviously but I have been doing the avoid public handle thing for years. A vaccine is the thing that will make me feel better but I do think we will not really get out of this until 2023 is when we will finally get the relief after the first few years of suffering. But it is here, it is serious, and though I am entirely alone, no joke I see nobody and it’s only been Don and Brenda a few times since November—I might be the last hermit surviving over here–home filled with food, filtered water, air filtration and space heaters for days and enough video and computer power and endless entertainment with Kodi and the like—crafts, painting, sewing everything really—and a sweet dog. Fuck it. I get Don on Skype every day and I am doing all I can to help make his life the best I can, too. And to be honest—I have a hell of a lot to get done, too. Got another class online–pictures for my mom still but two more for my sister. Website building and some tshirts. I bought coronaprone.com because some of us are prone to sickness. and coronabalona to have some fun with–that is my achilles heel, I don’t buy shoes or clothes anymore, hell no, I get drunk and buy websites for my many genius ideas.

I know. I know, you are impressed with all of my hoarding of websites, but I do own a few right now that could do some good shit. The corona ones, one helpful, one fun. The barterflea, I also own barterbutt haahahahah. Bartering in a flea market for services and things you can trade is not a bad idea. I still own the decos. I own groucho–the hearts and the reverse. So the goal, the thing I need to do right now is learn how to do the word press on my own. The class was today but it got canceled. The next one is April, but…still bound to be hell on earth here. I have to get my ideas organized and I will be in a better place. Ta-daa…..be well, friends. It is a weird world out there and if I could give you any advice…get a walk in to a trail or to wind or something wonderful every day. It will save your sanity–it certainly has helped mine over the past few years. GET OUTSIDE. Find a tree. A hill, a mountain scene, a bike trail, ANYTHING, but when the connections between humanity have broken down such as they have—good thing to remind yourself of your connection to nature.

And also–the site for those of you who have no idea how to check on your own.

Right now–8442 cases. 149 deaths, 106 recovered. Leaving 8187 currently infected.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/