RANTS: MY CARONA! AND SO IT BEGINS!

MARCH 21—You can spend all day glued to the tube or the internet parsing this or that news item about the pandemic, seeing which turns and twists are leading us ever closer to the looming Apocalypse. Then again, this may not be the most helpful of habits. Of course, we should be very concerned—people are dying, economies are crashing, countries are scrambling to ramp up their defenses against Covid-19. Here in this land of chapped lips and frozen nips, I could be wrong, but Canadians—thus far—seem to be taking all this in their stride. When I listen to news broadcasts from federal, provincial and local authorities, I get the impression that I'm listening to adults.* I hear serious discussions, plans and proposals for inter-governmental cooperation and coordination, along with generally consistent health warnings. And as a citizen, such diligence gives me confidence in my country’s ability to weather this storm. So, not all news-surfing leads you into the realms of pandemonium.

We will see in the coming weeks and months whether the authorities have correctly gauged the level of impact the coronavirus will have on Canadian society, and whether they (and we) have responded to it appropriately. Either way, those of us emerging from our shelters after the storm surge from this viral tsunami departs will probably ever after think of our lives divided into pre-and post-Covid-19 chapters. It’s not the most pleasant of markers with which to gauge our lives, but perhaps it’s one that will force us to more fully appreciate our relationships with others and with the world we inhabit (including those pesky microbes who, by the way, are just trying to make a living like the rest of us!)

But before I get too “big picture” and start to blather—I need to get out for a walk along the lake shore—for now, by myself. Stay healthy!

Cheers, Jake.

*Unlike the shudders I get when I watch the Incompetent-In-Chief, President Trump, hold his press conferences. Gosh! If I was in the US, I’d be buying beans and bullets by the bushel! He doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence, and he’s only recently and reluctantly begun to take this thing seriously. We’ll see if he can rise to the occasion or flop about like a hooked fish.

RANTS: FRONT LINE WORKERS NEED PROTECTIVE GEAR INCLUDING YOUR LOCAL GROCERY WORKERS

March 19/20—[Like a few hundred million people, I’m writing blog posts on My Corona!]

I was at the Shopper’s Drugmart yesterday and the clerk there—a chipper, always making jokes, friendly nearly-senior gal said, when I asked her how she was doing, that she just kept focused on the present and looked at the “small picture”; she didn’t want to think about the future, just get through each work day. I wanted to tell her that I was the opposite, that I always seem to want to look at the ‘big picture’ and that we balanced each other out, but instead I said something like, “well, that’s all you can do,” and for her to stay healthy.

I noted that she wasn’t wearing a mask and it seems to me that the service industry folk who are on the front lines, along with healthcare workers and first responders, should get dibs on masks and gloves and hand sanitizers. People in grocery stores, shops, pharmacies, need their employers to do all they can to protect them. Such workers should be declared “essential personnel” along with doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and so on, and should be protected in law, receiving the necessary protective gear and benefits . Some states in the US have recently done this. (For me, I’ll practice “social distancing”—Ah! The new words we all must learn—and keep to myself as much as possible, as well as using isoprophynal alcohol in lieu of hand sanitizers. It’s so little to help those who do so much.)

Cheers, Jake

RANTS: DEAR DIARY

"If I just turn off the TV, it will all go away!"

March 3/20—By the time I finished reading Jack London’s, “To Build A Fire” the other night, I thought I was getting frost-bite! We had a late season winter storm up here in Ontari-ari-ari-o, and were up to our eyeballs in snow!  So London’s story was a good read under the covers the other night. Dear Reader, if you ever want to know what it might be like to freeze to death, read this story! It’s about an idiot trekking through the Yukon during a particularly bitter winter’s day when the temperature drops to near “space cold” levels. 

It details how things can quickly spiral out of control, especially when you’re a stupid, cocky a-hole. And you really can’t like the guy—he wanted to kill his dog and cut it open, so he could warm his hands in the steaming guts! Nice guy! It’s too bad his little trick didn’t work. (But I must remember it the next time I go skiing. Just in case.) Our feckless hero becomes a human popsicle by the story’s end, and his dog trundles off to find a new master. You go, doggie!

Plague in Athens

March 17/20—Now other things in the world have the potential for spiraling out of control. The Covid-19 virus (it sounds like the name of a Russian* attack submarine!) seems to be catching a lot of countries unawares. I checked some stats: SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) lasted for the better part of a year, from the fall of 2002 to October 2003, and that disease spread to 29 countries, killing almost 800 people world-wide. This new coronavirus, Covid-19, has spread to 152+ countries and has already taken approximately 7,000 lives, mostly those who are elderly or with compromised immune systems. And it’s only been about four months or so since this nasty bug hit our radar! And we’re nowhere near being out of the woods. There are months to go until it burns itself out, and scientists say a vaccine is a year or more away.  So, I think it’s time to turtle, time to find a good shell and crawl under for the duration.

"Can I come out now? Hello?"

If I could, I’d take a long nap until September, except I’m worried that I might be broke by then, what with the stock market crashing and economies large and small around the world trembling as the great anaconda of global trade and finance finally choked up, following the Great Disruption of Chinese manufacturing when that country closed up shop as the outbreak worsened. Instead of a dramatic black swan event, like a comet or an erupting super-volcano, we get a planet-full of runny noses! No super-nova, just a lot coughing. Still, things are grinding to a halt, and  all thanks to a viral cousin of the common cold!  Those pesky microbes! What will they think of next?

"Let's not lose my head over this!"

However, the coronavirus does point out how rickety and slap-dash our globalized financial and just-in-time industrial supply-daisy-chain really is: China goes tits-up, and since so much of the world depends on it to make all our stuff, we’re out of luck! (Ain't globalization grand!) No more plastic salad-shooters stamped “Made in China” at the Walmart.** (Though China appears to be nipping the spread of the bug. Good for them!) And to add insult to injury, Russia and Saudi Arabia are squabbling over oil production levels. Both want to screw American shale oil production (an industry already running on fumes), as it cuts into their profit margin, and they would be most happy to see it tank. But in a pique, SA instead flooded the market with oil. As a result, prices crash, shale oil becomes waaay too expensive to produce at $30/barrel, and markets drop through the basement, as one industrial sector after another flounders and credit tightens.

Funny thing: even at $30 to $35/barrel,  world demand for oil is low. There’s nothing to make, buy or sell with the Chinese industrial engine temporarily out of commission, and there’s nowhere to go. (Who wants to fly onboard those air-borne petri-dishes? Or be served a Corona beer at some Bahamian poolside bar? Not me!) The markets and financial sector are scared, as they should be, filled with shysters, thieves and con artists as they are, and their decades-long shenanigans are being exposed as the global health crisis unfolds. Disease and decadence. Have you ever seen a cat shiver? That's what the world seems like just now.   

Modern Tricks

We’re like deer trapped in the headlights of one big mother of a tractor-trailer roaring down on us. On a lighter note, we'll still have pogo-sticks!

Cheers, Jake.

*Speaking of Russian—this is a complete aside--but does anyone have trouble with the cable news station RT/America (Russia Today/America)? From time to time, the station ‘blacks-out’ for a few seconds, or else the sound is distorted and you can’t make out what’s being said. There’s not too many conspiracy theories that I subscribe to (except the one about Neil Armstrong standing on the moon, July 20, 1969. Yeah, right! In fact, he was filmed on vacation in Arizona at the time), so am I being conspiracy-disposed to wonder whether my cable provider or CSIS or the CIA is periodically jamming their signal? It’s the only station on my TV that has this problem and I’m starting to wonder what Big Brother finds so threatening about the channel?

**A relevant blog post by James Howard Kunstler, as well as an interesting podcast interview he’s recently posted might be of interest.   

"N-no, I'm not worried!"

A LOOSING OF TOONS

There is something to be said for staring yourself in the face—in a mirror or on paper. There’s crags and wrinkles all round! Well, no matter. I thought I would put down a few toons for your amusement. When I watch TV, I try doing something that’s remotely useful like doodling. Thus the B&W fine-tip magic marker drawings. They’re pretty trippy or so-so, depending on your mood.

Your Road begins

Where it began.

Go where you need.

Do all you can.*

*It’s almost as good as the old nugget:

“Every day in every way I’m getting better and better."

A Fladdar of Bladders

[def'n: a group of bladders or sacs

plotting an event. From Latin: Fladdius Bladdus

"conniving pee sac"; Old Eng: fladdic bladar

"weak pisser", “angry piss”]

The Watchers

Doodle #27

A Closing of Gates

Connectivity 2040

Have a Nice Day

Doodle #29

The Layout of the Land

Would-be Friends

Martian Selfie

I’d rather have a few toons get loose than this coronavirus thingy. Everything seems to be going tits-up these days: World-wide economic shocks, exponential growth of what looks like a “boomer bug”—with China, Italy, Spain now , as I write this, reporting record numbers of infected; the US closing its borders to most European air travel; our PM Trudeau “self- quarantining”, large gatherings banned; schools, businesses, the YMCA  closing; a run on toilet paper! Sheesh! I think I’ll hold my breath for a few months!

These doodles I draw while watching news on the boob tube. It beats actually paying attention to what’s going on. Enjoy them or spray with disinfectant, or burn. (And if you don't like the titles--choose your own! I won't mind.)

TTYS, Jake