May 1-16

The month of May began the same way it's been since this situation started in March. One noteworthy event happened on the 8th when I saw Jenny (albeit briefly) for the first time in six weeks. She was in town for an overnight visit with her friend's two young daughters and I had some goods I'd been keeping for her and her mother. Her friend was taking her home over the lunch hour so we arranged to meet at my usual lunch spot at the plaza. We were only together for about fifteen minutes while we got our subs and loaded the merchandise into her friend's car but every minute counted. The sub shop is managed by a very nice young lady named Erica, when the governor and the state's health secretary ruled in April on mandatory use of facemasks in public places she was kind enough to get one for me since she knows people who make them. I offered to give her a few dollars for the materials, the time involved and her kindness but she wouldn't hear of it. When the state government instituted this stay-home/lockdown/quarantine in March most people were largely willing to be reasonable for a REASONABLE amount of time. What was originally in good faith two weeks has become two MONTHS, under the governor's plan it is to last until June 4 and I'd lay odds it will last even longer. On May 10 our county's political leaders sent a letter to the governor informing him that the county would "reopen" on the 15th regardless of his plan, among the reasons being that (a) the predicted infection/fatality numbers from this virus were poorly projected and simply don't warrant continued closure and (b) many small business owners are on the verge of bankruptcy if they're not already there. Many other counties around the state are expressing similar concerns because the governor's plan (at least to the naked eye) appears to be haphazard with no scientific basis. On the 11th the governor addressed the various counties' representatives by saying that their actions were cowardly and they were deserting the fight. Up to that point I never had an opinion of the man either way but when he said that he lost me completely. For two months the people of this state have done everything asked of them and MORE, we're now at the point of enough is ENOUGH. You cannot keep people locked up indefinitely over something that MIGHT happen. I could be killed in an automobile accident but I'm not going to stop driving. I could break my neck falling down the stairs but I'm not staying on the second floor forever. I could die from the pollution in our atmosphere but I'm not going to stop breathing. The original idea behind "stay-at-home" was to "flatten the curve" and that has happened. It's no longer about the virus, it's become a matter of political agendas, power and control. Stay tuned, friends. Take care, thanks for reading.