We are a week into the middle of winter and with the recent cold snap and with the snow that will be falling today and tomorrow I\u2019m falling back into the New England mid-winter trance.\u00a0 Luckily without my typical commute a lot of the wear and tear on my body and mind are reduced to a reasonable level.\u00a0 In the past I would have to get up at 5 am and clear the snow for two hours before commuting to work and then drive home and still having to clear the rest of it in the dark before collapsing into bed.\u00a0 Now with my new and improved lifestyle I get up at 7 am, eat breakfast, play blocks with my granddaughter for a little while then leisurely and efficiently go out and clear the snow once it stops falling.\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably break it up into two sessions with a meal in between to relieve the monotony and warm my old bones.\u00a0 Camera Girl has made a really excellent Chicken Butter Nut Squash Soup so I\u2019ll be properly fortified for the second half of the operation.<\/p>\n
In my less demanding routine I have the chance to reflect on the unfortunate aspects of this new world that we live in.\u00a0 Here we are almost a year into this absurd lockdown and most people in New England really believe that we are in the midst of the bubonic plague.\u00a0 I half expect to see the cartman leading his pony around with the pile of cadavers shouting, \u201cbring out your dead.\u201d\u00a0 The local tv coverage and the attitude of the people you meet when you do go out is that we are all struggling against unbelievable odds to survive the ravages of the Andromeda Strain.\u00a0 Apparently, we\u2019re all heroes now.\u00a0 It sounds like the nonsense the Soviets used to spout every time the tractor factory came close to meeting the quota.\u00a0 \u201cAll hail the revolutionary fervor of Assembly Line B Night Shift!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0When a country that did nothing about the virus like Sweden has, after a year, a slightly lower per capita death rate than a country like America, that threw all its small businesses off a cliff, you have to wonder just how detached from reality people are.<\/p>\n
Based on the fact that California and New York are beginning to loosen the restrictions on such dangerous activities as opening your front door and breathing in the shower I am hopeful that by the end of winter we will at least be allowed to visit friends and relatives without the neighbors calling in a SWAT Team on us.\u00a0 And that will be big.\u00a0 I found that not seeing my various family members was the worst part of this travesty.\u00a0 And not just family.\u00a0 I have friends that I am dying to see face to face and share a burger and shoot the breeze with.\u00a0 This lockdown is harming us physically.\u00a0 It\u2019s harming us mentally and it\u2019s harming us spiritually.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve mentioned I\u2019m reading Solzhenitsyn\u2019s Gulag Archipelago.\u00a0 And compared to the atrocities the Soviets perpetrated on their people even the lockdown is minor.\u00a0 But it is related to what they did.\u00a0 It is psychological warfare aimed at damaging people\u2019s self-respect.\u00a0 We\u2019re caged animals and they ratchet the punishment up and down just to torture us.<\/p>\n
So the cold weather is a perfect symbol of the Gulag that has been built for all of us living in the blue states.\u00a0 Maybe now that Dementia Joe has been nailed up on his scarecrow pole in front of the White House they\u2019ll let us free.\u00a0 Or maybe they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I have one exceptionally cynical old friend who claims that we right wing folk are just sheep and no matter how much abuse is heaped on us we\u2019ll just continue to take it without doing anything more forceful than complain.\u00a0 He thinks that anything that\u2019s going to happen will have to happen in a red state and even that will be in the nature of orderly and peaceable action.\u00a0 I\u2019m of a different opinion.\u00a0 Even in the bluest of blue states, I think a point will be reached where people will revolt against this abuse.\u00a0 Somewhere a spark will ignite the tinder and a crowd will start a bonfire of these stupid masks and put an end to this idiocy.\u00a0 And I hope I happen to be nearby to join in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are a week into the middle of winter and with the recent cold snap and with the snow that will be falling today and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2868,2867,2372,1066],"class_list":["post-13294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-bonfire-of-covid-masks","tag-civil-disobedience","tag-covid-19","tag-the-great-revolt"],"yoast_head":"\n