Coronavirus no longer dominates the news. On May 4 I did a survey of two major newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. In a “normal” election year May is the start of the slow time between the primaries and the conventions that I like to call the doldrums. At that time about 75% of the news stories concerned the pandemic. COVID-19 hasn’t gone away. But is it as newsworthy now?
Last night I was looking for quotes for my 2021 calendar. It was so much fun that I didn’t want to stop. I guess I’m a quote addict. I’d be doing it again this morning, except for this one I found by Ray Bradbury: “You must write every day of your life.” So here we are.
Astronomers in Cardiff just announced that they found traces of life on Venus in the form of phosphine gas. This is the planet which Ray Bradbury described as, “the color of rubber and ash, this jungle, from the many years without the sun.” Or was he talking about California?
California is burning. This time it’s different. I hate to admit it, but in the past I’d almost become accustomed to the fires at this time of year. The news always seemed to hype it up so that each year always had the most acres or the longest lasting fire or the most structures lost. But the 28 fires burning right now include the six largest fires in California history.
This morning I washed the sand out of my hair and prepared to hunker down for the next few months. It was a great beach weekend, but far different from the Sequoia/Yosemite road trip we took in August. The national parks were wide open with very few people around, whereas Carlsbad was full of people walking around town and enjoying the beach.
Sunday, September 6, 2020 Carlsbad, California. Less than an hour drive to a beach escape from the heat. We arrived Continue reading
It’s a sunny September morning and even though it looks just like the sunny August morning we had yesterday, it feels different. In our seventh month of the pandemic we are no longer surprised to find that some of the fluid changes have begun to solidify. There’s actually a pretty cool CDC graph that shows this plainly.
Thursday morning I went to the mall. It was a little creepy. Definitely more “Dawn of the Dead” than “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” The parking garage next to Nordstrom’s was empty at 10:00 AM, but I parked my car and headed for the entrance next to the French bakery. It was locked. The sign suggested two other entrances, but they were a long walk away.
