On this day in 2020, President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a national emergency in the United States.
NARRATOR: It was Friday the 13th.
The afternoon before, word came from my work overlords that we might be required to telework for “the next two weeks” and that we should go home properly prepared. I packed up my laptop and some files, watered my office plants, went home and wrote a blog about how we could do this…for two weeks.
That weekend I filmed a cameo Santa performance for a movie. Check it out here: Everything But You
I was in the middle of directing True West with Panglossian Productions in Williamsburg. I had an amazing cast and was blown away with every rehearsal. It was going to be so good. So very good. But reality hit and we had to cancel.
I’d also been through a couple of training sessions to return to my weekend work at Kings Dominion. We got the word that opening was delayed, so we did some online trainings, more on that in a minute, but the park never opened for the season. There was a brief Taste of Christmas but that was it for the year.
We all rapidly began learning how to use Zoom, or Google meets, or other platforms. Some of us adapted. The harsh reality is, however, that some still don’t get it.
When in doubt…mute.
Eventually we got used to teleworking. In reality, I was more efficient working from home. That even includes the time that I was dealing with The Great Unpleasantness of the Summer of 2021 (™)…otherwise known as treatment for prostate cancer.
I got the first shot, and the second shot, and the first booster…but I’m not getting anymore.
I didn’t return to the office until July of 2022.
Four weeks later I tested positive for COVID.
You have to be in denial, or perhaps living under a rock if you don’t see that we were lied to, we were manipulated. Our economy suffered. Our students suffered.
The media, the politicians, and yes, the health care industry continue to lie to us today about so many, many issues.
Regardless of your conclusions, if you can’t see that, then perhaps you should sit this discussion out.
It didn’t have to be this way, and that makes me angry enough to say I won’t fall for it again.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how is your Monday?
As I said the other day, spring appears to be here. In my free time I am both trying to recover my yard and renovate the guest room.
Works in progress.
Speaking of manipulation, our clocks “Sprang Forward” this weekend. Daylight Not Saving Anything Time is no longer necessary but it’s darn near impossible to roll back anything the government has mandated.
But because lost an hour of sleep, today is National Napping Day. I am not making this up.
We’re all sleepy. Nap ’em if you’ve got ’em.
THINGS YOU SHOULD READ
Pope Francis: ‘Gender ideology’ is one of ‘most dangerous ideological colonizations’ New York Post
“All humanity is the tension of differences. It is to grow through the tension of differences,” the pope said. “The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation.”
Youngkin is Running for Vice-President (But Could We Please Do Something First?)
Shaun Kenney in The Republican Standard
For one, I’m hesitant when I hear talk about restoring the “Spirit of Virginia” from those looking to leave Virginia for the next big thing in Washington. It probably isn’t even Youngkin, but it is most certainly his handlers. Partly because I want to believe such a thing is sincere rather than a political calculation — yet mostly because we all know that it is indeed rooted in a political calculation.
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