When it rains, look for rainbows

I've tried to write this blog entry three times already.  I just don't know where to start.  Our world has changed so much in the last two months.  I guess that's about right.  Somewhere around the end of February, the first case of coronavirus showed up here.  Today, we have 810 THOUSAND cases and 44 THOUSAND deaths.  To be exact, 44,234 Americans have DIED.  While I know how this happened, I watched it happen, yet I still cannot fathom this incredible LOSS.

New York has been hit the hardest so far and they have had to resort to using air-conditioned trailers to keep the bodies in until they have the time, the manpower, the energy, to process them and give them decent burials. This is happening here, in this country.  The United States.  I just can't believe it.  It's like we're watching a movie.  But we're not.  It's real.  Georgia has 19,881 cases today and 799 deaths.  Hospitals are bursting at the seams, healthcare workers are working double shifts, without proper protection, using the same masks and coverings shift after shift, day after day, getting sick themselves, some of them dying.

I absolutely, completely and without any shame, blame Trump for this.  Not the virus, of course, he didn't cause that.  But his RESPONSE.  Too slow, not serious enough, his severe mishandling, LYING to us constantly about testing and masks and every-damn-thing else, absolutely no empathy for anyone so no concern for the sick and dying.  I knew this guy was garbage from Day One and I also knew that WHEN THE TIME CAME that we'd need a LEADER, he would fail us.  But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we'd have such a horrific tragedy as this and this unbelievable loss we're suffering.

I am a government worker so I am considered "essential" (although when I was furloughed every Friday for six weeks seven years ago, I was non-essential.  Oy.) but the base decided to let those of us who have underlying health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, immunity issues) go out on two months of administrative leave, they call it Weather and Safety Leave, in March, to try to protect those more fragile employees.  I took advantage of this offer since I have three of the conditions listed on the form.  I got my doctor to sign it, I turned it in to them and I've been at home since March 26th.  

Larry, however, works for a company that believes itself to be essential so he's been working.  We're washing hands, using Clorox wipes, Lysol and face masks.  Doing whatever we can to stay safe and healthy.  So far, so good.

It's horrible.  The whole world is under quarantine.  I follow a bunch of celebrities and influencers on Instagram and they're all sharing bits and pieces of their lives while stuck at home and it's comforting to see that we are, indeed, all in this together.  As far as all of us trying to stay home and stay healthy, anyway.  We're NOT actually all in this together.  22 million people in this country have lost their jobs.  The government threw us all a $1,200 bone this month but $1,200 will barely cover April's mortgage payment and groceries for an average American family.  Uncle Sam gonna have to do better than that!

I've spent my 26 days at home cleaning house, organizing things, keeping the laundry caught up, working in the yard a bit (we put fresh mulch in the front yard flower beds but we're out of mulch and are not going shopping for more any time soon), drinking lots of coffee, getting lots of rest, watching lots of Netflix.  I have a TBR stack two stories high but I just cannot sit down and read.  I did finish the book I was reading but that's about it.  Mostly I just stay on my phone or watch 24-hour news and stress out.  I've gone in to the office about once a week to catch up any work I have and check email and stuff like that.  I have Kroger deliver our groceries every week and we practice social distancing with our neighbors.  We watch church on Sunday mornings and we covet a double roll pack of toilet tissue.

Folks are doing all kinds of things to try and stay positive.  There's the bear in the window thing where people ride around the neighborhood and see how many teddy bears they can find sitting on window sills.  We have one in our front bedroom window.  Of course we do.  There's the rainbow thing, too, where everybody is drawing chalk rainbows in the street, their driveways and putting paper rainbows up in their windows.  

We believe that rainbows are God's promise that He would never again flood the earth.  We believe that He will send us one when this storm passes as well.  In the meantime, we've got a driveway and we've got sidewalk chalk.