Corona Log entry- November 6,2020

Friday, November 6- 2020

        It is a Balmy 84 degrees here in SW Florida today. We had driven up to the Babcock Ranch this morning. It is northeast of here, to see how the new community is coming along. They were getting ready for an Art show there tomorrow. Hundreds of new homes, in all price ranges, had been built here since last we visited. The picturesque Timber Lake rippled with the wind as it swept across the lake. People were wearing their face masks here as we stopped for coffee. Bless them.

      Hurricane Eta has just smashed into Nicaragua yesterday and tomorrow will be approaching Cuba, before it careens across SW Florida with heavy rain storms. It is all part of living here in Florida. We will batten down the hatches and get through it like we always do.

      The U.S. Presidential election had just taken place this week. The victor is still undeclared. A total of 270 electoral (out of 538) votes needs to be reached to win. Each Congressional district has one electoral vote. All but two states (Maine and Nebraska) have a winner take all law. The person with the highest vote total takes all of the electoral votes in that state. The District of Columbia has an additional three votes. Neither candidate has yet achieved this. Challenger and former V.P Joe Biden is knocking on the door and will probably win. Current President Trump isn’t very happy with the election and is hollering fraud to anyone who will listen, which increasingly is not many. With recounts and law suits, the election probably won’t be officially certified until early December. That is the process although the wait is driving everyone up the wall. I can wait until forever if it means a change of administrations here in the United States.

     The whole Corona Pandemic has been knocked from the headlines during the week. Unfortunately, the virus has gotten even more active. On one day this week, we incurred over 121,000 new Corona infections in a single day. It is spreading like wild fire. The death toll is nearing 240,000 souls lost, with no end in sight. The drug companies are doing their best to come up with a vaccine, but have had no luck yet. They keep running into snags in their trials, because the pesky virus keeps mutating. There is talk of a future lockdown in businesses, if we can’t get it under control. In Europe, Greece, Germany and Britain have all ordered business lockdowns. The virus is running rampant across the globe. International Borders are still closed in many countries, as everyone struggles with the pandemic.

    The financial markets stream along seemingly unconcerned with the plague around them. Meanwhile, many businesses large and small face a probable bankruptcy from loss of revenue. With a change in administrations, there will hopefully be another federal stimulus bill that will assist both businesses and local governments, who are staggering under increased costs from Corona prevention measures.

     Schools, at all levels, professional and college sports all wink in and out as the virus grabs members of the respective groups. Everyone does their level best to cope. And now, hopefully we can avoid any major political pep-rallies with thousand who refuse to wear masks and social distance. That ought to help out some.

     On a personal level, we wear our masks to any indoor facility, social distance when around people and use hand disinfectant and soap liberally. More than that we figure is out of our control. The big question coming up for many Americans is whether or not to hold the large family dinners traditionally held during the Thanksgiving holidays. It is an important family social gathering that we all enjoy. The dangers inherent to the older generation make us all pause and wonder what to do. Each family will have to decide the risk for themselves and say an extra prayer at the family meal.

     We continue watching the drama surrounding the election. It is on the news all day, for the last five days. It will remain there until the results become clearer. May the good lord provide for us all.

                             (42,724 total words)