Brooklyn - New York Police Department officers drive their SUV cruisers into a crowd of protesters.
Minneapolis - Paint gun rounds fired at people standing on their own front porch.
Dallas - Tear gas and rubber bullets fired at protesters.
Covid-19 deaths now officially listed at close to 103,000.
Unemployment rates that are still rising, and could be as high as 40% by the end of summer.
The President hides in his secured bunker as protesters gather in front of the White House.
Things just get worse by the day. Pandemic, economic collapse, and senseless violence.
Death, destruction, and despair on a scale this nation has never seen before.
White protesters, armed and threatening violence, are allowed to threaten elected officials.
Police officers stand and watch in complicit silence.
Black protesters, unarmed and defenseless, are attacked by police units that are military units in all but name.
Things are going to get much worse, mark my words. The elections in November will be threatened and may not ever take place. The President, if he loses, will almost certainly refuse to leave office peacefully. Civil war is something we might see by the end of this year.
If you voted for Donald Trump in 2016, you share part of the responsibility for all of it.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
I Am So Angry
What an absolute fucking nightmare this day has been. The power went off in this part of Binghamton at 7 o'clock this morning. The initial estimate for restoration of service was 9:45 a.m. and as of 10:30 p.m, power has not yet been restored.
I'm using what little power is left on my computer's battery and the battery for my modem to write this. When they go, I'll be off line until power is restored for this building.
I'm angry because this has not only ruined my day, it's cost me about $40 in fresh and frozen food that is now spoiled. I'm angry because no one here at the YMCA has done anything for us. No one has made an effort to see if any of us have eaten. No one has made an effort to get us cold, bottled water. Per MSN's website, the temperature downtown as of 10:15 p.m. was 71 degrees. It's eighty-two degrees in my room.
Neither the city of Binghamton nor NYSEG has done anything for us either.
My mental state wasn't exactly the best coming into today, to begin with. Last Monday would have been my late wife's birthday if she were still alive. Next Thursday will mark the 15th anniversary of her death.
Okay, it's 10:37 and the damned power is back on. But I'm still angry, about all of this. I'm also upset with a local mental health crisis line, because I called there twenty minutes ago just wanting, needing, to talk to someone. The person I spoke to was rude and dismissive of my situation. The call lasted four minutes.
I don't talk about it much, and never have really discussed it here, but my mental health is less than perfect under the best of circumstances. I suffer from depression, I experience anxiety attacks, and I also have post-traumatic stress disorder. You can just imagine what a day like today has done to me.
I mean, I have to go out to the dumpster in a few minutes to dispose of several items. Melted ice cream (2 full pints), hot dogs that were warm to the touch, lunch meat that smells bad, cheese that smells bad, frozen green beans that I'm not about to take a chance on, mayonnaise, eggs, four small frozen pizzas, a partial bag of frozen french fries and a half carton of milk.
Wasted, every bit of it. All I have that I can safely eat right now are four breakfast bars and a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli. Yummy. (Sarcasm levels at 100%, Captain, according to our sensors).
Like I said, what an absolute fucking nightmare.
I'm using what little power is left on my computer's battery and the battery for my modem to write this. When they go, I'll be off line until power is restored for this building.
I'm angry because this has not only ruined my day, it's cost me about $40 in fresh and frozen food that is now spoiled. I'm angry because no one here at the YMCA has done anything for us. No one has made an effort to see if any of us have eaten. No one has made an effort to get us cold, bottled water. Per MSN's website, the temperature downtown as of 10:15 p.m. was 71 degrees. It's eighty-two degrees in my room.
Neither the city of Binghamton nor NYSEG has done anything for us either.
My mental state wasn't exactly the best coming into today, to begin with. Last Monday would have been my late wife's birthday if she were still alive. Next Thursday will mark the 15th anniversary of her death.
Okay, it's 10:37 and the damned power is back on. But I'm still angry, about all of this. I'm also upset with a local mental health crisis line, because I called there twenty minutes ago just wanting, needing, to talk to someone. The person I spoke to was rude and dismissive of my situation. The call lasted four minutes.
I don't talk about it much, and never have really discussed it here, but my mental health is less than perfect under the best of circumstances. I suffer from depression, I experience anxiety attacks, and I also have post-traumatic stress disorder. You can just imagine what a day like today has done to me.
I mean, I have to go out to the dumpster in a few minutes to dispose of several items. Melted ice cream (2 full pints), hot dogs that were warm to the touch, lunch meat that smells bad, cheese that smells bad, frozen green beans that I'm not about to take a chance on, mayonnaise, eggs, four small frozen pizzas, a partial bag of frozen french fries and a half carton of milk.
Wasted, every bit of it. All I have that I can safely eat right now are four breakfast bars and a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli. Yummy. (Sarcasm levels at 100%, Captain, according to our sensors).
Like I said, what an absolute fucking nightmare.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Yes, This Is Another Covid-19 Post
The ongoing debate as how to best handle the Corona Virus pandemic is far from being settled.
Where I live, in the region officially designated as the "Southern Tier" of New York, the stay in place order was lifted a week and a half ago. The number of new cases in the region has dropped considerably over the last few weeks.
That's a good thing, of course. But it's no guarantee of ongoing reductions, nor is it a guarantee
of economic recovery. Some restaurants have reopened here in the Binghamton area.
A few closed permanently, and at least one new one has opened. I know, because I walked past it last Tuesday. But many businesses are still closed, including most hair salons and barber shops. My most recent haircut was in the second week of March, and boy, do I need one now.
But if even if I could find a place to get one, I'm not doing that anytime soon. Not after two hair stylists in Arkansas have just recently triggered an outbreak of at least 100 new cases. Both stylists were experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 but didn't let that stop them from going back to work.
No thank you, I will not take that risk. I'll cut my hair myself when the grooming kit I ordered from
Amazon arrives later this week.
What bothers me about things in this area is that over half of the people I see on the street are no longer wearing protective masks, nor are they practicing social distancing.
I get it, people. If someone has to go back to work, so be it. I may well be in that situation myself by the end of next month.
But this whole situation is far from over. If we stop doing what we know works, we're just setting
ourselves up for an even worse situation down the road, as it were. Not wearing a mask or not keeping an acceptable distance in non-work situations, to me, is simply unacceptable.
The local economy in Broome County was decent before all this started. Now it's hurting, badly. But what trade off do we consider to be acceptable? How many deaths equals what level of economic growth? Personally, I'm inclined to consider the human cost as being much more important than the economic one.
But I'm just one person, one who has no say in how things are to be handled.
Sorry for the real downer of a post, but that's just where I'm at right now.
Where I live, in the region officially designated as the "Southern Tier" of New York, the stay in place order was lifted a week and a half ago. The number of new cases in the region has dropped considerably over the last few weeks.
That's a good thing, of course. But it's no guarantee of ongoing reductions, nor is it a guarantee
of economic recovery. Some restaurants have reopened here in the Binghamton area.
A few closed permanently, and at least one new one has opened. I know, because I walked past it last Tuesday. But many businesses are still closed, including most hair salons and barber shops. My most recent haircut was in the second week of March, and boy, do I need one now.
But if even if I could find a place to get one, I'm not doing that anytime soon. Not after two hair stylists in Arkansas have just recently triggered an outbreak of at least 100 new cases. Both stylists were experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 but didn't let that stop them from going back to work.
No thank you, I will not take that risk. I'll cut my hair myself when the grooming kit I ordered from
Amazon arrives later this week.
What bothers me about things in this area is that over half of the people I see on the street are no longer wearing protective masks, nor are they practicing social distancing.
I get it, people. If someone has to go back to work, so be it. I may well be in that situation myself by the end of next month.
But this whole situation is far from over. If we stop doing what we know works, we're just setting
ourselves up for an even worse situation down the road, as it were. Not wearing a mask or not keeping an acceptable distance in non-work situations, to me, is simply unacceptable.
The local economy in Broome County was decent before all this started. Now it's hurting, badly. But what trade off do we consider to be acceptable? How many deaths equals what level of economic growth? Personally, I'm inclined to consider the human cost as being much more important than the economic one.
But I'm just one person, one who has no say in how things are to be handled.
Sorry for the real downer of a post, but that's just where I'm at right now.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Two Fun Saturdays In The 1980s
During the almost five years I worked as a closer at a Wendy's, I put in a lot of nights. In 1988 I worked 323 nights out of 366 (1988 was a leap year). The next year, it was 324 nights out of 365.
Of the eighty-four nights I didn't work in those two years, very few of them were on a Saturday night.
I do remember taking January 23rd, 1988 off to celebrate my birthday with three of my co-workers.
My birthday is the 22nd of that month but I chose to work on it so I could spend the next night with the other three guys. We went bowling at a local alley. We played video games and shot a few games of pool while we were waiting for our reservation time for the two lanes I had booked.
We had a lot of fun that night.
Then, on another rare Saturday night off, I had no plans and wound up going to the same alley, which was about a fifteen minute walk from where I lived at the time. I had no lane reservation so I made one when I got there and was playing pool when I felt someone tap me on my shoulder.
It was my dad. He too, had reserved a lane but when he saw me, we decided to share one lane so he went back to the front desk and cancelled his reservation. When my name was called over the intercom, we racked the balls on the pool table for the next player and started bowling.
The first game was a friendly competition and I won it.
The second game was just the same, and Dad won it.
When we began the third game, any loving kindness of a father-son nature was out the window,
as the expression goes. There were no shared smiles, and no compliments for making a good throw.
I took an early lead, lost it and then regained it. In the final frame, I held a one pin lead. Dad
found himself looking at the dreaded 7-10 split, the hardest throw to make in bowling.
He made a perfect throw and won the game by one pin. I congratulated him and after I
took care of the bill at the front desk, I called a cab from a pay phone.
Dad, at the time, lived about five minutes away from me with his girlfriend, so we decided
to share the cab. What was supposed to be a fifteen minute wait stretched out for more than an hour.
During that time, we had one of the very best father-son talks we ever had.
I had paid for the lane and both shoe rentals, so Dad offered to pay for the cab.
The driver dropped me off at my apartment. I had a light dinner after showering and changing into clean clothes. I checked the TV Guide and there really wasn't anything on television that night
that I was interested in watching.
I decided to go see a movie.
I checked the listings in the newspaper and saw that the film playing at the theater just a few minutes away from my apartment was one that I wanted to see. The other theater, which was about a mile and a half away, was showing a film I had no interest in.
As I arrived at the movie theater, sure enough, Dad was in line.
His girlfriend had gone out to dinner with her brother and his wife so Dad had decided to go out again, just as I had. We sat together, of course. He paid for the tickets and I paid for the snacks.
When the film was over, we walked up Washington Avenue and crossed Main Street to get
a snack. We spent a half hour or so at Dunkin' Donuts and then said our goodbyes for the night.
That was just about thirty-one years ago, now, and it still stands as one of the best days I've ever had.
Of the eighty-four nights I didn't work in those two years, very few of them were on a Saturday night.
I do remember taking January 23rd, 1988 off to celebrate my birthday with three of my co-workers.
My birthday is the 22nd of that month but I chose to work on it so I could spend the next night with the other three guys. We went bowling at a local alley. We played video games and shot a few games of pool while we were waiting for our reservation time for the two lanes I had booked.
We had a lot of fun that night.
Then, on another rare Saturday night off, I had no plans and wound up going to the same alley, which was about a fifteen minute walk from where I lived at the time. I had no lane reservation so I made one when I got there and was playing pool when I felt someone tap me on my shoulder.
It was my dad. He too, had reserved a lane but when he saw me, we decided to share one lane so he went back to the front desk and cancelled his reservation. When my name was called over the intercom, we racked the balls on the pool table for the next player and started bowling.
The first game was a friendly competition and I won it.
The second game was just the same, and Dad won it.
When we began the third game, any loving kindness of a father-son nature was out the window,
as the expression goes. There were no shared smiles, and no compliments for making a good throw.
I took an early lead, lost it and then regained it. In the final frame, I held a one pin lead. Dad
found himself looking at the dreaded 7-10 split, the hardest throw to make in bowling.
He made a perfect throw and won the game by one pin. I congratulated him and after I
took care of the bill at the front desk, I called a cab from a pay phone.
Dad, at the time, lived about five minutes away from me with his girlfriend, so we decided
to share the cab. What was supposed to be a fifteen minute wait stretched out for more than an hour.
During that time, we had one of the very best father-son talks we ever had.
I had paid for the lane and both shoe rentals, so Dad offered to pay for the cab.
The driver dropped me off at my apartment. I had a light dinner after showering and changing into clean clothes. I checked the TV Guide and there really wasn't anything on television that night
that I was interested in watching.
I decided to go see a movie.
I checked the listings in the newspaper and saw that the film playing at the theater just a few minutes away from my apartment was one that I wanted to see. The other theater, which was about a mile and a half away, was showing a film I had no interest in.
As I arrived at the movie theater, sure enough, Dad was in line.
His girlfriend had gone out to dinner with her brother and his wife so Dad had decided to go out again, just as I had. We sat together, of course. He paid for the tickets and I paid for the snacks.
When the film was over, we walked up Washington Avenue and crossed Main Street to get
a snack. We spent a half hour or so at Dunkin' Donuts and then said our goodbyes for the night.
That was just about thirty-one years ago, now, and it still stands as one of the best days I've ever had.
Friday, May 8, 2020
The Spring That Hasn't Been
In the Northern Hemisphere, spring began on March 19th of this year. But this spring, just as two years ago, has been harsh here in the Binghamton, NY area. We've seen most days have daytime high temperatures anywhere from ten to thirty degrees below normal. We have had a few truly nice days, but they've been few and far in between.
Right now, it's snowing here in Binghamton. When I left my building to go to Wal-Mart, at 5 in the afternoon, it was fifty degrees and raining. It's now thirty degrees with a predicted overnight low of twenty-six and a predicted high of just thirty-eight degrees tomorrow.
The temperature dropped twenty degrees in just a little over two hours. I was looking forward
to having a nice chef salad for dinner today but now, it's going to be soup and a sandwich. There
have been days I've used my air conditioner but right now I have my portable ceramic heater running.
This is just so damned depressing. I mean, it's not like we don't have enough to deal with already.
Wishing you the best, dear reader.
Right now, it's snowing here in Binghamton. When I left my building to go to Wal-Mart, at 5 in the afternoon, it was fifty degrees and raining. It's now thirty degrees with a predicted overnight low of twenty-six and a predicted high of just thirty-eight degrees tomorrow.
The temperature dropped twenty degrees in just a little over two hours. I was looking forward
to having a nice chef salad for dinner today but now, it's going to be soup and a sandwich. There
have been days I've used my air conditioner but right now I have my portable ceramic heater running.
This is just so damned depressing. I mean, it's not like we don't have enough to deal with already.
Wishing you the best, dear reader.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Most Recent Covid-19 Numbers
This first set of numbers are from the CDC, and are therefore considered to be official.
As of May 6, 2020, total cases of Covid-19 in the USA number 1,171,510 and deaths
number 68,279.
There are varying estimates on deaths per day. I haven't been able to find anything official, other
than the CDC report of 823 deaths yesterday. Of course, an internal and unpublished report
from within the White House predicts that daily deaths could average 3000 by August.
That assumes that all states will be fully reopened, which, sad to say, is pretty realistic at this point.
Three thousand deaths per day? That's a horrifying thought to any sane and rational person.
If you can honestly and openly admit to being comfortable with that, shame on you.
I am in something of a unique position, I must admit.
I have no close friends with whom I socialize. The last time I did anything with a friend was over two years ago and that person I am not in contact with. My dad is dead, my brother lives several hundred miles away, my cousins don't speak to me at all, and so, that just leaves my mom. I broke up with my most recent girlfriend about three years ago, as well.
In other words, I'm quite used to being alone. And most weeks, before all of this started, I usually went out just once a week, in terms of going any farther than one mile away on foot.
Staying at home and not being around others, other than going to work, is something I'm used to.
In other words, I'm having a much easier time of things than most of us are. My bills are all paid for this month and I have almost two weeks worth of food on hand.
But I'm also terrified, because my age and health issues place me at high risk. I wear a protective
face mask anytime I leave my room. I sanitize the living daylights out of everything. Still, it's anything but a sure thing that I'll come through this safely.
And even if I remain safe, far too many of us are dying, with far too many government officials
not caring at all.
As of May 6, 2020, total cases of Covid-19 in the USA number 1,171,510 and deaths
number 68,279.
There are varying estimates on deaths per day. I haven't been able to find anything official, other
than the CDC report of 823 deaths yesterday. Of course, an internal and unpublished report
from within the White House predicts that daily deaths could average 3000 by August.
That assumes that all states will be fully reopened, which, sad to say, is pretty realistic at this point.
Three thousand deaths per day? That's a horrifying thought to any sane and rational person.
If you can honestly and openly admit to being comfortable with that, shame on you.
I am in something of a unique position, I must admit.
I have no close friends with whom I socialize. The last time I did anything with a friend was over two years ago and that person I am not in contact with. My dad is dead, my brother lives several hundred miles away, my cousins don't speak to me at all, and so, that just leaves my mom. I broke up with my most recent girlfriend about three years ago, as well.
In other words, I'm quite used to being alone. And most weeks, before all of this started, I usually went out just once a week, in terms of going any farther than one mile away on foot.
Staying at home and not being around others, other than going to work, is something I'm used to.
In other words, I'm having a much easier time of things than most of us are. My bills are all paid for this month and I have almost two weeks worth of food on hand.
But I'm also terrified, because my age and health issues place me at high risk. I wear a protective
face mask anytime I leave my room. I sanitize the living daylights out of everything. Still, it's anything but a sure thing that I'll come through this safely.
And even if I remain safe, far too many of us are dying, with far too many government officials
not caring at all.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Someone Died While Doing His Job
This is what things have come to.
Forty-three year old Calvin Munerlyn, working as a security guard in a Family Dollar store in Michigan, is dead because he got into an argument with a customer.
He told her she had to leave the store because she was not wearing a face mask, in defiance of a state issued order.
The customer was the daughter of Sharmel Lash Teague, age forty-five. Teague became involved in a verbal altercation with Munerlyn, who ordered her to leave the store.
She left the store in a sport utility vehicle but returned twenty minutes later. Her son, Ramonyea Travon Bishop, age twenty-three, and her husband Larry Edward Teague, age forty-four, entered the store. Teague then began yelling about his wife having been disrespected.
It was at that point that Bishop allegedly shot and killed Munerlyn.
All three have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder.
In accordance with our legal system, all three are presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is as it should be.
But the fact remains, either way, that Calvin Munerlyn is dead.
Yet another senseless Covid-19 related tragedy in a nation filled with them.
Forty-three year old Calvin Munerlyn, working as a security guard in a Family Dollar store in Michigan, is dead because he got into an argument with a customer.
He told her she had to leave the store because she was not wearing a face mask, in defiance of a state issued order.
The customer was the daughter of Sharmel Lash Teague, age forty-five. Teague became involved in a verbal altercation with Munerlyn, who ordered her to leave the store.
She left the store in a sport utility vehicle but returned twenty minutes later. Her son, Ramonyea Travon Bishop, age twenty-three, and her husband Larry Edward Teague, age forty-four, entered the store. Teague then began yelling about his wife having been disrespected.
It was at that point that Bishop allegedly shot and killed Munerlyn.
All three have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder.
In accordance with our legal system, all three are presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is as it should be.
But the fact remains, either way, that Calvin Munerlyn is dead.
Yet another senseless Covid-19 related tragedy in a nation filled with them.
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