Why the Los Angeles County spread may not slow down enough

 After days of advance notice, here’s Los Angeles County trying to balance controlling the increased spread of Coronavirus and continuing hospitalizations plus deaths with the no doubt forcefully stated reluctance to return to springtime closures from various businesses.  Essentially, much of this requires people to be on the honor system between November 30th and December 20th.  Given what looks to be a post-Thanksgiving uptick in infections and deaths plus Trump/Fox News-turbocharged encouragement of recklessness in the cloak of observing traditions, Los Angeles County is in for a rough three weeks. 

[Quoted from DEADLINE article]

Here are details about the stricter limits on L.A. County residents that will begin Monday as a result of a fifth consecutive day of 4,500 or more new cases of Covid-19:

• Gatherings: all public and private gatherings with individuals not
  in your household are prohibited, except for church services and protests,
  which are constitutionally protected rights.
• Occupancy limits at various businesses; all individuals at these
  sites are required to wear face coverings and keep at least 6 feet of distance:
• Essential retail: 35% maximum occupancy;
• Nonessential retail (includes indoor malls): 20% maximum occupancy;
• Personal care services: 20% maximum occupancy;
• Libraries: 20% maximum occupancy;
• Fitness centers operating outdoors: 50% maximum occupancy;
• Museums galleries, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens operating outdoors: 50% maximum occupancy;
• Mini-golf, batting cages, go-kart racing operating outdoors: 50%
  maximum occupancy;
• Outdoor recreation activities all which require face coverings (except for swimming) and distancing: Beaches, trails and parks remain open; gatherings at these sites with members outside your household are prohibited.
• Golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball, archery ranges, skate parks, bike parks and community gardens remain open for individuals or members of a single household. Pools that serve more than one household may open only for regulated lap swimming with one person per lane. Drive-in movies/events/car parades are permitted provided occupants in each car are members of one household.
• Schools: All schools and day camps remain open adhering to reopening protocols. K-12 Schools and Day Camps with an outbreak (3 cases or more over 14 days) should close for 14 days.
• Closed nonessential businesses/activities:
• Playgrounds (with the exception of playgrounds at childcare and schools;
• Cardrooms;
• Restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries remain closed for in-person dining and drinking because of the high rates of transmission in the community, as customers are not wearing face coverings, which results in  an increased chance of transmission of the virus. Restaurants, wineries and breweries remain open for pick-up, delivery and take-out. Breweries and wineries remain open for retail sales at 20% occupancy.

Donald Trump’s Greatest Transition-Delaying Hits

 1. The More I Ignore You

 2. Rudy, Don’t Fail (Remix)

 3. Losing Made Me Grey

 4. I’m A Wrecking Machine

 5. Drill Baby Drill (duet with Sarah Palin)

 6. Scott Atlas Shrugged 

 7. My Fans Don’t Want A Concession Speech

 8. You’re Fired!

 9.  I Pardon Myself

PANDEMIC RAMBLE #2

 first it was the NBA championship then it was the World Series and there was also Halloween and don’t forget Trump scaring some of America including his MAGA followers into standing in long lines to vote and soon it will be Thanksgiving and how can some people bear to be apart from family members and later Christmas will come and how can some people bear to be apart yet again from family members and it’s just family members in the house and they’ll say they don’t need masks because they know everyone there and they don’t know anyone who has the virus and someone will mention the Governor too scared of temporary lockdowns and how he bent the rules he wanted others to obey and observe and someone else will say it’s God’s Will if they catch the virus and too many people will sit together, eat and talk for far too long and roll the dice with their own lives and whoever they come into contact with that isn’t family

my home town still has high school football games in the midst of the virus and from what I hear people aren’t wearing masks and it’s a small town in what they call Texoma which is where Texas and Oklahoma are separated by the Red River and maybe they justify no masks by not living in a city and choosing to live their lives and roll the dice and God’s will and all things related to that, though some of them go to the mall in the nearest city to shop and roll more dice on their and other people’s health since the small town has very few businesses to speak of

someone posted a meme on Facebook where Lady and The Tramp are glum and sad because their Italian restaurant has plexiglass dividers and Lady and The Tramp are both covered by plexiglass domes and they can’t share a strand of spaghetti and I think to myself THIS ISN’T FUNNY

we get COVID-19 fatigue which is another way to say we lack faith in a better future and aren’t willing and able to be considerate to ourselves and others until that future arrives

as I wrote once before, people made it through World War II with the rationing of food and gasoline and no new cars to buy and that lasted for over three and a half years

in 2020, we yell, we throw masks on the ground in parking lots and pack way too many people inside a house just because it’s easier to stick your tongue out at notions of sacrifice, survival, science and a kinder, more considerate world

New Poem: LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL

 he will yell his head off

 but we don’t have to be scared anymore

 he can challenge the results he doesn’t like

 but we voted in such large numbers

 he can’t undo the will of the American people 

 >

 a rose breaks through concrete

 a nation recovers from submersion