a lazy saturday...i taught chinese kids early this morning (got up at five) and then put their coronavirus tales on their weblog. we in the states should pay close attention; they teach us some things.

one is that there is a lot of benefit to staying home. it doesn't appear that way to young folks, who are often bored, but when the chips are down, family is who you want to be with. it's who i want to be with, anyway. my daughter set up a zoom reunion for my brothers and sisters, and we all got on there and worried about each other and about the general collapse of civilization as we know it. but it's become clear to me that so far none of them has it. my daughter has friends in seattle who have it, and this is quite serious, but it's more advanced in seattle than here - i suspect we will get it, or people we know will get it, soon enough.

no one mentions this, but i suspect you can look at it as nature's last gasp. antarctic melting, floods haven't worked, amazon has been razed, and then the democrats go for biden, who has never given any indication of caring. it was earth's last chance. and ironically, china and the states are the two places where it will hit the worst, besides italy. if you think about it, it's a wealthy class disease, if you consider all chinese, americans, and italians to be first world to begin with. it makes us slightly smaller as a people. "the earth is telling us to go to our room, and think about what we have done," someone said, and i bought that. i'm not sure if the earth did it deliberately. someone said it's just because we are right up against what is left of animals. yes, and if you buy that things happen for a reason, this is earth's last chance to make sure the animals have a shot at surviving.

and coronavirus has only begun to pick up steam. new york got another five thousand, overnight, and now has over eleven thousand. other places are beginning to double, overnight - new mexico among them. there are massive nationwide attempts at getting everyone to stay home - we are totally behind that - but the disease has a big head start, and will overtake large numbers before too long. there is no question, it will be a major event before it's over.

it's interesting who might get it at the top. Trump might (still); Pence might. Some senators and congressmen might. the way i see it, anyone who is still meeting in large groups, is very likely to get it, because that's who it is going after. and we still have people getting together - on florida beaches, in texas, at various bars and clubs that are still open - we still have a fairly wide swath of the nation that is not taking it very seriously.

that swath is getting smaller every hour. eleven thousand, i'd say new york has respirator/ventilator shortages already. it will not be pretty. it will be like italy - lots of bodies, and no time for funerals.

our own family seems to be surviving. one sister lives alone, has stopped working, goes for regular walks, and stays six feet from everyone. she sounded panicky a couple days ago, but today sounds more like she's just determined to survive. at her job, they don't take it seriously. at places where they don't use masks, or even try to get them, there's an issue, i think. and supplies, nationwide, will become an issue. this is something the people at the top haven't been thinking about, but they should get started.

i tend to be negative - this is the end of the world, we will run out of supplies, everyone will starve, that kind of thing. my sister, also, tends toward pessimism. we read too much news, and need to get outside, to enjoy the spring. it's a new year, and flowers are coming up, all over the place.