“This is very important – to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything…. just to do nothing at all, very, very, important. And how many do this in modern society? Very few. That’s why they’re all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful.” -Charles Bukowski

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” -Charles Bukowski

How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? -Charles Bukowski

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” -Charles Bukowski

That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. -Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If you are reading this then you are continuing to survive Covid 19!! Yea!! And so have I!! That is a very good thing!! As I started writing this blog post in the first week of June, the United States was just under 2 million known cases and 110,000 deaths. By the time I was getting ready to publish this post we were at 2.5 million+ cases and 127,000 deaths. Wow! Each day as I checked the stats, the numbers continued to go up as expected, especially in the states of Texas and Florida. I think that Texas and Florida lifted most of their stay at home orders April 30th. On June 10th, Texas was at 80,000 cases with 1,900 deaths and Florida was at 67,000 cases and 2,800 deaths. By June 24th, two weeks later, Texas was at 137,000 cases / 2,300 deaths and Florida was 114,000 cases / 3,300 deaths. Of course there were other states that had a similar increase in cases and deaths, but I just picked Texas (my home state) and Florida to use as examples. During the fist week or two of June the United States was adding 15,000 to more than 40,000+ new cases each day by June 26th. Some of this can be attributed to the increase in testing but the rest were a result of easing lock down restrictions or not having them at all. A rise in hospitalizations are not a result of increased testing, but an increase in virus activity within the community affected.

Of course there were concerns over increased infection risk when the nationwide protests over the George Floyd killing broke out. From what I have read, I have come to believe that the risk was low if you were outdoors protesting, and practiced physical distancing. But this would not be the case for individuals that were in very large crowds all packed together or if you were arrested and placed in lockup with multiple other individuals for an extended period. It now seems that the highest risk of getting the virus is anything that requires you to “breath the air of others.” Which means any type of indoor physical gathering like concerts, rallies, weddings, parties, sporting events, meetings, movie theaters, restaurants, air travel, etc…. But if you can participate outdoors with physical distancing and a mask, the risk drops significantly from what I understand. It even seems that the risk of getting the virus from physical surfaces is lower than expected. So that is some clarity and good news in how the virus proliferates within a population. Janet and I have tried to do most things online since the end of February. We have found that the ordering of groceries still leaves something to be desired. Especially when it comes to ordering greens and fresh vegetables. What you think looks good is not the same sometimes in what your buyer thinks looks good. And don’t get Janet started on expiration dates. Lol. Oh well, I am just glad that we have the ability to order online.

Looking at global picture I believe the numbers are much higher than what is being reported, especially in third world countries that do not have access to adequate testing and/or reporting mechanisms in place. And some countries are just not reporting or minimally reporting, like Russia and Brazil. At the first of June, Brazil’s president, Mr Bolsonaro, decided that it was best to not report cumulative data, in an attempt to hide the rising numbers. He had been previously criticized for rejecting lock-down measures recommended by the WHO (world health organization) that would have helped to stop the spread of the disease. By the end of June, Brazil had the second highest case/death count in the world (1.2 million cases/55,000 + deaths), only the United States was higher. All I can say to this madness Mr Bolsonaro, a majority of those deaths as with Orange DT, are on your hands… If you interested in seeing the numbers yourself, check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

As the pandemic has smoldered on, it has become readily clear that the Orange DT is much more concerned about getting reelected than the health of the countries citizens. In February it was all about how it was going to disappear and that it was under control. By first of March the verbiage was all about downplaying the risk and that it would still just go away. By the middle of March the tone had changed due to rising numbers and multiple experts calling for the government to do more. Of course this oratory did not last long. Too much “I told you so.” In April when things had gotten pretty bad in parts of the country, the rhetoric was about how hospitals were inflating the need for equipment and masks. They weren’t, I was there working. Much of April saw the Orange DT blaming the debacle he helped to create on others. Everyone from China to the WHO to Nancy Pelosi. In May, the Orange DT was crying about how it was all unfair to him and the need to open the economy back up quickly. Of course the experts in Epidemiology were warning it might be too soon. It was. Now that we are in June, the talk from his pie hole is how the pandemic is ending – its not. We are back to blaming China again, and in an audacious act of stupidity and selfishness the Orange DT has created potential “Super Spreader” events in Tulsa, Arizona and soon to be Wisconsin. All in the hope of getting reelected. I think that individuals who attend these events should all get potential “Darwin Awards.” If you are not sure what they are check out this link: https://darwinawards.com/

On a different note Janet and I have been trying to put more of the principles of being “minimalist” into play during the Covid debacle. We first got interested in the idea when we saw the documentary by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus called “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.” You can find the trailer and how to watch here: https://minimalismfilm.com/

We had always talked about “cleaning out the junk” we accumulated over the last few years but did not get too serious about it until now. The pandemic has given us some time to revisit this idea. Plus as I have gotten older, I realized I did not need most of the stuff that I have acquired in the past. It is just amazing how much you can amass over the years. It is still taking me a little time to get my head wrapped around it. The idea is not just about getting rid of the “old stuff,” but changing your patterns in how you consume. Just throwing out the old and then turning around and buying new is not going to fix the issue. Minimalism is much, much more than just getting rid of stuff. Some would call it a better philosophy for modern living. And in order to help myself get started I recently downloaded one of their publications: Minimalist Rulebook: 16 Rules for Living with Less. By Joshua Fields Millburn. You can find it here: https://www.theminimalists.com/rulebook/

One of the things I like in the publication is the 90/90 rule. In a nut shell this is what it is: “Have you used an item in the last 90 days? If you haven’t, will you use it in the next 90? If not, it’s okay to let it go.” Another one I like, but find it very hard to do, is the “one-in, ten-out rule.” If you buy one thing for the kitchen as an example then 10 other things have to leave the kitchen. The area that I am starting to use this rule is on books. I have been a hoarder of books for a long time. And unless my reading speed accelerates significantly, I will need two life times to read or reread them all. So this summer my plan is that any new or used books I purchase or acquire as a gift then 10 have to go out. Rule 6 in the publication is one of my favorites and I am so guilty of not doing it. I hold onto things “just in case.” It goes something like this: “You better pack it, you better keep it, you never know… “just in case.” I don’t know how many times I have said this very thing to myself or others. The reality is that you rarely need that “just in case” item. These are just a few examples from the book. Even if you are not sure about the minimalist idea it is still a good read and best of all it is free. And if you want to go even deeper check out “the Minimalists” web site: https://www.theminimalists.com/

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. Sorry, no book reviews on this one but I promise to have a few on the next one. Keep thinking about how things are in the process of changing due to Covid. If you want something different than what was offered before the pandemic, minimalism is one way to start the process on a personnel level. Our current practices of buying and consuming are not sustainable for our planet. And until we become a true space-faring species this is a great alternative in purchasing humanity some time, so to speak. In my opinion what better a way to start a grass roots process of change by becoming minimalist. You will be happier and from an environmental perspective the earth will thank you for it.

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and physical distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey