little oomph and i got chased off the local grade-school astroturf soccer
field where we've been practicing bike riding by public health
authorities who were staking the place out. little oomph had just clipped
a post with a handlebar and was crying between the ground and my
embrace as public health authority called to me from the far side of a
car to inform me the place was closed. i comforted my child (little oomph was ok; their hand was a little sore from whacking the post) while the
authority approached (to about 10 ft) and repeated it. "i wondered" i
said, "we were going to read that sign over there when we got within
reading distance." "the signs are posted" said the authority gesturing
to no signs at all. "maybe you ought to put them on that gate we came
through where there were no such signs" i didn't grumble back. no need
to argue or express pique; it's a thankless job, i reasoned with myself
as we left. we tried a local church nursery school. had some success,
bailed a couple times, decided it was too small. so we went to a local
public high school parking lot across the street from a park. there were
lots of people going and coming from, traversing and gathering in the
park all day. we rode unmolested in the parking lot for several hours.
little oomph can bring the bike to a stop and stand there holding it with
fair consistency. toward the end the child managed to get going from a
standstill unassisted several times, though with some frustration.
finally little oomph fell and we packed it in.
talked to mom. she wanted to read an email to me. these people mostly
send me jokes, she said and read a headline "guiliani interviews dr.
soandso about 100% success rate curing coronavirus -- is there really a
dr. soandso?" i don't know. it sounds like a name -- waitaminute: did
you say guiliani? delete that and block the sender. she read on about a
100% success rate curing coronavirus with azithromycin, and zinc. i
interrupted her: did you say guiliani? she said "what is the citizen
free press?" it sounds to me like one of those right-wingnut propaganda
sites that wingnuts accept as news. i don't think that's a joke. i mean,
there's a fine line between what we recognize as trenchant parody and
what a certain portion of the population take as serious independent
news. so, yeah, it is a joke. you should regard it as a joke. but it is
malicious disinformation. as i understand azithromycin and hydroxy
chloroquine are dangerous; she seemed to know and agree to this. as a
general rule, you should make every effort to prevent anything from rudy
guiliani from getting into your awareness: that stuff is bad for your
mind. "oh!" she twigged, "rudy guiliani?" yes: guiliani. rudy guiliani.
all he wants is to throw sand in your eyes. "i didn't realize." delete
that, and tell those idiots to skip you with the bullshit disinformation
in future. she agreed to delete it, but probably won't push back on her
brainwashed friend, more's the pity. then -- as i often do these days
-- i related a recent episode of TWiV
on which a virologist who has recovered from covid-19 said he'd been
treated with hydroxychloroquine, and he recovered -- after experiencing
some explosive diarrhea -- but was hesitant to link them causally,
"because he's a scientist." mom chuckled.
fucking guiliani, man.
little oomph and i played "coronavirus testing and contact tracing" which
mama found a bit morbid (the child is 5), but i'm game to run with the
imaginative play and try to infuse the sensible nonpanic of not unduly
censoring the scary thing. the child also reported spending a lot of
time thinking about coronavirus like everybody else, and worrying that
while we're all paying attention to that disease we'll fail to be
attentive to the dangers of other diseases. both mother and i,
separately, explained that those measures we're taking to stay safe from
coronavirus are also keeping us safe from most other transmissible
diseases. but it is true that if everybody in the hospital is focused on
that one emergency maybe some of the other care we count on hospitals
to perform will not be available or not be as good. so we were going to
do our best to stay safe and healthy and not go to the hospital.
stay safe, y'all.