We’re back in near-lockdown again, or rather buildings are in lockdown. For me, that means no library, though if I were desperate, I could send them a list of books and they would hand them out the door when they books were ready to pick up.
I understand that people have died from The Bob, and I know many people who know people who have died, but I don’t personally know anyone. Instead, during this time, I’ve known people who were diagnosed with cancer, heart problems, and a whole host of other horrific diseases. I’m not really trying to be controversial, just mentioning my experience.
I feel bad for people who are having to deal with catastrophic diseases during this time because no one seems to care about anything but how many tested positive for The Bob, even if most of those positives were not accompanied by symptoms.
Except for the library being closed, and my feeling bad for those with untreated illnesses because of limited medical services at this time and my feeling even worse for those undergoing various treatments while trying to steer clear of The Bob, my life isn’t any different. And it hasn’t been. I guess it helps being a hermit — one who is quite content reading, playing a computer game or two, and watching one’s property slowly being brought into submission.
Others have a different experience, I know, and I am in no way making light of those experiences, but some of the bureaucratic idiocies surrounding The Bob are appallingly ridiculous. For example, Colorado has implemented a color dial system to let people know how they are supposed to behave, with purple being the most restrictive and green the least. It makes me wonder how many of our tax dollars were spent coming up with such an utterly unnecessary system. Why not just tell people they have to stay home or they can go out but not in groups or whatever. Being told one is orange or red only confuses the issue because then people have to try to figure out what that means. But I suppose confusion is the name of the game. It keeps people focused on something other than that we are still dealing with governors with delusions of greatness and illusions of total power.
It’s funny that no one talks any more about the original projections that put all this insanity into play. If, as was postulated, that 80% of the world’s population would die, then yes, these restrictions would be necessary. But although people are getting sick and dying, the numbers simply don’t add up to such a destruction of normality.
And yes, I do take precautions, but that’s not because I’m being forced to. It’s because I always take precautions when it comes to illness. To force people to stay home, not because they are sick, but simply to protect their neighbors who might get sick if one didn’t stay home is beyond anything I could ever have imagined while steeping myself in conspiracies and government machinations for my first books.
But at this point, there’s not much any of us can do about the situation — and the confusion — except find an acceptable level of isolation and preparedness and interactions with people, and ignore what is anathema.
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If you haven’t yet read A Spark of Heavenly Fire, my novel of a quarantine that predated this pandemic by more than ten years, you can read the first chapter online here: http://patbertram.com/A_Spark_of_Heavenly_Fire.html
Buy it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024FB5H6/
Download the first 30% free on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1842
Bertram's Blog 
November 21, 2020 at 8:14 pm
I know, I know. Same tier system in California. The governor restricts all this stuff but is caught at a large gathering at an upscale Napa restaurant called the French Laundry. So add hypocrisy to your list. And, btw, starting tonight on our trip, California has a curfew from 10 pm to 5 am and wants people to quarantine for 2 weeks if they come to California. We already live a very quiet life at home taking precautions everywhere so I don’t think that will be necessary, but just the idea. Besides, if gatherings are the problem, a curfew will push people to gather in homes instead. The stupidity of it all!
November 21, 2020 at 9:23 pm
A curfew? What are we? Children? Cripes.
November 22, 2020 at 10:36 am
The insidious part of this disease is you can infect people without knowing you have it. I would feel horrible if I gave it to someone who wound up in the hospital with a tube down their throat and in an induced coma. This is what happens if you get put on a ventilator, they have to put you in a coma. So although I am sick of being shut in and tired of all the hassles like the short supply of some items, I will wear a mask and do whatever it takes so I don’t get sick and cause anyone else this pain. I also wear seat belts which hurt me because they push on my port. And if I smoked, I would abide by that rule as well. They got it under control in Japan and South Korea and we didn’t. There is a lesson there.
November 22, 2020 at 2:14 pm
Same here. Harris County, Texas, seems to be in trouble as far as the trends are going. We’ve been leading the state in cases and deaths from the beginning (we are the largest), and it seem to get worse every day.
No family Thanksgiving for us. It will be just me, my wife, and the grandson who lives with us. The rest of the family, including his mom and sister, are gathering at my daughter’s house, but we are not going to chance it. Hoping for a Christmas gathering with family, but even that seems unlikely at this point. We all have to judge our individual situations for ourselves, in my opinion. Too much government is a dangerous, dangerous thing, and there are plenty of politicians that see the panedmic as an opportunity to grab more power for themselves.
November 22, 2020 at 4:17 pm
My point, exactly. Too much government is a dangerous thing, and this situation creating a land grab for too many politicians.