Midnight Madness

Are you scared yet?

Tonight I am.

I've been very diligent. I haven't seen a person face to face since I went to the drugstore on Monday the 16th. You see I don't want to get it, and I'm fearful if I do I'm not gonna make it through.

Did you see that video from Spain? Of the guy sitting at a desk crying because they're just leaving everybody over 65 to die? I'm over 65. And I have an underlying condition. It has to do with my immune system. No one really knows what is going on, it's what caused my pemphigus. But both my doctors, my internist and my hematologist, are worried about it.

I'm not the kind to worry about health. Unless I freak out about it.

It was illegal to be sick when I was growing up. My older sister posits it was because my mother's mother was a hypochondriac. If you were sick, unless you were literally dying, puking, writhing on the floor, you had to go to school. We also never ever got breakfast. My mother slept in. I didn't think much of it, but then they said breakfast was the most important meal of the day. And now they're saying it's not, to fast as long as you can before you eat. Illustrating that science is a fluid subject, whereas Covid-19 is not. Sure, the doctors have some tools in their arsenal, but there is no silver bullet and the world doesn't need any one of us, it can go on just fine without us.

My father died at 70, of cancer. He was shocked that he made it to that age, because his dad didn't. As I've approached that marker...nobody lives forever, even Sumner Redstone has gone into hiding, and he was sure his regimen would keep him sentient and alive forever. But it didn't. He's compromised. Kind of like my mother, the dementia is creeping in, it was only a week ago that she could even wrap her head around the virus, and she told me this afternoon she was planning to go out to dinner. But didn't the governor of Connecticut shut all the restaurants down?

Did you see that article in the "New York Times"?

Probably not. Everybody's reading their own stuff, watching their own shows, it's a full time job keeping up, but I'm doing it, I'm interested and I think I'm protecting myself with knowledge. Most people don't know much. They're just confident that they won't get it and if they do they'll pull through. WRONG!

Getting back to Connecticut... I grew up in Fairfield, on one side of the town was downtrodden Bridgeport, on the other upscale Westport, where Paul Newman and Bette Davis lived. So there's this article in the "Times"...

"Party Zero: How a Soiree in Connecticut Became a 'Super Spreader' - About 50 people gathered this month in the upscale suburb of Westport, then scattered across the region and the world, taking the coronavirus with them.": https://nyti.ms/39vr8yQ

I've been thinking about this, now is the time you want to stay away from upscale people. Everybody's social climbing, especially in Los Angeles, but it's the upper class that does the most traveling, that intersects with the most people, that are carriers, that will infect you, better to live in a house with poor people, or lower middle class people, I don't think there are any real middle class people left.

And sure, Tom and Rita came back to the U.S., they're doing well. But did you ever wonder how they got back here? I assume they flew private, I could be wrong, but I know they want to avoid the risk, once bitten, twice shy. You can't afford to fly private, you can't even be seen in the emergency room, never mind get good treatment. There's an ICU and a ventilator for Tom and Rita. You? Good luck.

And then there's that article I just read in the "New York Times" app:

"As a generally healthy 45-year-old, I didn't seem like a probable Covid-19 candidate.": https://nyti.ms/2JhUKFb

That's another thing you find out, how painful the experience of being infected is. You're uber-tired, and you're struggling to breathe. Sounds horrible, and it is. But like every other illness, you have sympathy for the patient but then you move on, saying to yourself "I'm just glad it isn't me." But this time, there's a good chance it will be. No matter how much money you have, whether you take supplements, whether you're in good health today, Covid-19 doesn't care.

And at this point in time, if it's in the "New York Times," a great portion of America ignores it, it just can't be true, the paper is biased, with an agenda, it's FAKE NEWS! No, it's the most real news you can get. But this is where we are, the President has made it so there are no authoritative voices but his, and if you trust his...there's a good chance you're going to get infected.

But right now I'm not worried about politics, I'm not even worried about the insane states still in business with no self-quarantining of the population, no tonight I'm worried about human nature.

It's kind of like sex without protection, you get caught up in the moment and the regrets come after that. Does a baby result? A good percentage of the time no, but I know someone who got a girl pregnant when he lost his virginity...it screwed his mind up so much he could barely function, and he got mononucleosis in the process, whether it was related, who knows.

And speaking of mononucleosis, I had the world's worst case, at an age when most people don't get it, 21, verging on 22.

Let's see, it was 1976. And I was at this freestyle skiing competition at Keystone, in Colorado. And my friend injured himself severely trying to do a double flip but somehow he made his way back to Aspen. I went to visit him thereafter, he and two other guys lived in the basement of a house on Cemetery Lane. They had a party, everybody was in their early twenties, we shared a joint, even though I told myself I was never gonna smoke dope again...that's where I got the mononucleosis, I tested at the limit for nine months, I kid you not. Was I thinking about this when I took a hit, of course not, have I thought about it since...of course!

I was in a down mood, it was a party, why not.

This is coming down to character, and I know you don't want to hear that. Yes, the nerds did inherit the earth. Why? Because while you were out partying, losing your virginity, they were studying hard, so they could get into a good college and advance their lives. Of course you can become rich and famous without going to college at all, but that's not my point. My point is these people applied themselves, and never went off course, they knew one bad grade could be the difference between getting into an Ivy or not.

Do you have the strength to stay on the course? Can you say no to the enticements? Can you do everything in your power not to be face to face with another human being until the end of May?

That's what Bill Gates said it would take. It's already been two weeks, you can make it. But if we don't do this, Covid-19 will hang around until the end of the year. You either do it right now, or you pay the price.

I don't want to pay the price.


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