What an absolute mess we are in. Luke, who just turned 12 in Quarantine, told me “Man this quarantine is going by pretty fast.” I looked at him like he had three heads. “It is?!” I replied. “Well yeah we’ve been doing school for three weeks now, so we’ve already been on quarantine for four weeks.” I said, “Oh yeah I guess so.” In my head I’m thinking “It’s only been four weeks?!” I was thinking more like four years. I feel absolutely trapped. Don’t get me wrong as far as trapped goes, my own house is pretty good. However, it just seems like every day this is turning more and more in to a National mess that we are making worse on and for ourselves every day and every rule we add.
I want to go party with my friends and I want to take my kids to hockey and watch the Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues defend their title. I want to see the Cardinals start their season. I want to go to the grocery store without wearing a mask.
I am not a patient person whatsoever, and this is really putting me to the test. I am pretty sure if I wasn’t married to a pharmacist who’s around sick people all day and scared to death she’s going to bring home the ‘Rona, I’d be getting all kinds of shamed for running around in public. I want to be at people’s houses, garages, basements drinking a beer and laughing all of this off. None of it is really funny, other than all the Tiger King memes of course. Man those are like Xanax to me these days.
People are sick and dying there is no doubt about that. I am very worried someone will get my wife sick at work as they drag their kids through her store being complete idiots. The state and federal governments take more and more freedoms away from us every day. I know some of you are completely ok with that, because we have too many people like the ones shopping at the drug store for no good reason and companies too greedy to keep those people out of the store. Mess.
The great lack of common sense aside, I can’t help but feel sad and frightened by how fast we all jumped in line like sheep and lemmings to hide at home while many people lose their jobs, their businesses, and more than likely their marriages, relationships, and eventually their lives by suicide or overdose. When people feel they have lost it all they give up. If it isn’t happening already, it’s coming.
The government I believe was right to jump quickly and clamp things down until they could figure out what they were dealing with. I think we can all see it now, and many of us could go back to whatever the new normal is. I don’t know, do it in phases and see how it goes. Small towns first and work our way out.
Why are we arresting people for having Church, a wedding, a funeral? People got tickets last weekend and today for having “drive thru church” in their own cars. I have so many problems with that I don’t know where to start. Is it irresponsible to go ahead with your big wedding or to pack your mega church? Yeah it is. However, the people who attended weren’t drug there. They went on their own. I’ve gone to more church in four weeks online than in person for the past year. That’s a completely different blog, but our churches are erring on the side of caution as is my family. However, if I lived in one of these states handing out tickets, I might have held a tent revival in my yard just to see what would happen.
Today the Governor of Michigan made pretty much all social contact outside of your home illegal. You’re to be legally cited somehow if you’re “driving the wrong direction” in other words not the direction of the essential place you say you’re going. Arrested for going to Grandma’s for Easter?
The hardware stores and Walmarts there have to shut down their outdoor departments because lawn work doesn’t count as essential. Nurseries etc same thing. This means landscapers are the next businesses to go under if they are not allowed to buy supplies and are not listed under Essential Workers. “Well go cut your own grass,” you say. Ok, what about the old lady next door? In Michigan you can’t even go next door and do it for her. That’s right “no travel between two residences.” The following is an article about the new rules from a Michigan news site: The red comments are my own cute little notes.
Where can I travel?
The updated order specifies that any public or private gatherings with people outside one household are prohibited, and certain travel restrictions crack down on that even more. Here is where individuals are allowed to travel:
- To return home from outside the state
- To leave Michigan to go home elsewhere
- After April 10, travel between two residences is prohibited ———I’m sorry…WHAT?!
- To travel under a court order, including transporting children under a custody agreement
- All other travel is prohibited, including to vacation rentals. — Again WHAT?! If I have a secluded lake house keeping me away from other people completely, I can’t go there?
Related to that, no one can advertise a short-term vacation property unless it is necessary to assist in the housing of a health care professional or volunteer aiding the response to COVID-19.
Lawn care, construction, motorized boating, realtors, and buying seeds and gardening supplies as things that are prohibited under the current order. I can’t go out to the lake on my boat completely cut off from all of society to fish or just be? I get not hitting Party Cove with a full houseboat, but that’s not what it says. I can’t build my house or sell my house? My business cannot expand and if I’m a construction company well now I can’t pay for my equipment much less my employees?
As of Saturday, Michigan had nearly 24,000 cases of COVID-19 with close to 1,400 deaths. The state has the third highest number of cases in the country, behind New York and New Jersey. However, about 78% of the confirmed cases are in the three-county Metro Detroit region and some counties have yet to see any coronavirus patients. —This is the “Why” Sorry Nope.
In (GOV) Whitmer’s press briefing on Thursday, she was asked whether certain regions of the state that were not hit as hard with the virus would be allowed to reopen earlier. But the governor said COVID-19 does not observe geography. —This is NOT Common Sense
In my humble yet outrageously Libertarian opinion, these orders are completely out of control. I think the mask thing is stupid, but I’ll do it, because it makes people feel better at the grocery store. I don’t know how long I’ll do it, but for now I will. As far as the why, the stats for COVID in Michigan as far as I am concerned don’t come anywhere near warranting the complete outlawing of travel. If we want to give each other the Coronavirus than so be it. You say, “Yeah unless you’re one of those 1400 people that died.” Yes that is horrible. But to lock down the entire state? Well, “They’ll overwhelm the hospitals.” Will they? So far that hasn’t happened.
Our actions have helped and yes there are clearly a lot of folks lacking common sense at least in my area. When I go to the grocery store (twice) there are a lot of people driving around and they can’t all be going to the grocery store. Thus we need some rules, but standing in the cul-de-sac six feet away from my neighbors should be illegal? With all due respect to Governor Whitmer, COVID may not be geographic, but our reaction to it should be.
I REALLY want to gather with my neighbors in the court or my hockey family in their garage, but I haven’t. We are doing are best to behave. The second the Governor of MO told me it was illegal to do it? First thing I am doing is throwing a party and daring the cops to come over. If they come and do anything then shame on them. Many of my nurse, doctor, friends my cop friends (hopefully like only one cop) and even my wife would argue with me right here.
Ok, I wouldn’t really dare the cops, because I wouldn’t want to put them in that very tight spot. I’m not sure what I’d do, but I would be obligated to do something. It sounds corny to a lot of people these days, but I take my oath to defend the Constitution very seriously myself and others way better than me have given too much or everything for that oath.
And side note God bless all of you in the hospitals, pharmacies, police and fire departments, the nursing homes and the essential workers at the store or keeping our lights on etc. God bless all of you and if going out 100% for sure would wipe us all out then I am all for being locked up for as long as it takes.
That said, I’m sorry, I just do not see the harm in sitting in my driveway six feet away from whomever wants to come over. Again I’m not doing that. I am adhering, because my wife is making me, and I don’t want to be Facebook shamed, but if they make it illegal I am going to have a serious issue with that. People are not dropping like flies around here and I know people are still shopping and I know people are still hanging out.
If I was still a cop I would be hard pressed to lock someone up in their own home for hosting Easter dinner. Hard pressed. If I knew our local hospitals were in fact busting at the seams with COVID patients or zombies started shuffling out from the neighbor’s BBQ? Different story, call in the troops and I will be a good citizen of the state. As far as I know neither of these things have happened.
As far as crowded hospitals go, how about the two big hospital ships on the coasts? Empty until some genius in NY sent COVID patients to the boat when they were supposed to send non-COVID patients who then infected sailors on the boat. Facepalm. (And some of you want these folks in charge of YOUR healthcare? Remember this). You see, the Navy ships were to take trauma victims, accident victims, and other patients a normal hospital would take. They were set up with a 1,000 beds.
The Governor of NY mistaken or not, I don’t know, asked that the boats take COVID patients. Not any ship in any Navy is set up for a virus like that. The patients and boat crews are cramped and breathing the same recycled air right on top of each other. These ships are made to take wounded troops on-board off the coast of a warzone. Well fortunately since everyone was staying home, there is a lot less crime and accidents etc in NYC. Plus the Navy, hospital administration, and insurance companies got wrapped up in so many rules, the ships weren’t getting any patients.
In the end the USNS Comfort off the NY harbor had to cut the beds from 1000 to 500 to make space between the COVID patients, who then gave the disease to the hospital staff, but according to the Business Insider as of April 10th the Comfort had treated 58 patients. The massive Javits Center (huge convention center in Manhattan I’ve been there it’s insanely huge) has treated 104 patients. Mess.
Now these numbers are awesome as far as Pandemics go. Clearly people in New York City are staying home. Here’s the thing, New York City is not Grand Rapids, MI, St. Charles, MO and certainly not the same as rural and small town America. Name your town and state where there are entire counties with zero cases of Coronavirus, but it’s illegal for Farmer Brown to hop on his tractor and borrow some feed or beer from Farmer McDonald. Does that make any sense? Forget the Constitution (which many have) or the legality of it, does that make any common sense? Mess.
Open the bars and restaurants slowly. Limit how many people can be inside. Mandate they sanitize the place like crazy between shifts. Do the same with all the stores. It doesn’t have to be everyone stay home or no one stay home. We should be able to find a middle ground that works. After all “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” If it doesn’t work and a bunch of people get sick? Well that would suck…bad. And then you lock everybody back down.
Thus far from what I can research, most people that have had it didn’t know they had it. I am 90% sure a couple friends of ours had it and it was awful, but they both recovered with no hospital. Liz thinks I’ve had it from the same people, but it came and it went. The numbers seem to bear this out as being the norm. Way more people die from silly everyday accidents and illnesses than COVID. Which is fine I know unless you or your loved one is dying from COVID. I get that. There is a risk. All I am saying is if people are willing to take that risk they should be allowed. It for damn sure shouldn’t be illegal.
Millions of people are applying for Unemployment and many more will be applying soon. If you’ve ever been on Unemployment, you know it takes forever as every other government function to get checks mailed out. Now the system will be more than overwhelmed and loaded with millions….MILLIONS of people that probably shouldn’t be on it. Even when they do get their checks it’s likely not enough to live on. And for how long?
If you lose your business, your business is lost. You say well lenders, banks, mortgage companies, landlords, equipment dealers and so on that small businesses get their support from should just not charge the business owners for the time they’re shut down. Well that sounds beautiful. To some extent some lenders are doing that, but not all and not for long. That’s not how we work.
We also as a whole aren’t built to be kept at home. Bucking domineering authority is in our DNA. At least it is in mine. I could conspiracy theory you to death on this whole thing, but I won’t. On that note though…if we are willing to be locked down this quickly for this long based on in my opinion was too much unwarranted panic, what’s to keep “them” from making up some other disaster and taking our rights away?
I know roll your eyes. Yes I am a “pry it out of my cold dead hands” kind of guy. I’m a little bit like Col Jessup in “A Few Good Men.” “We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line.” That’s a little much, but that’s how I feel when talking to folks these days. Maybe I am old school and paranoid, but I’m not alone.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” –The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,
You see I take these words very seriously. I believe as they did. GOD gave us these rights. We are to be ruled and judged ultimately only by Him. I mean all of mankind not just Americans. Yes we are obligated to follow the laws of man and “give Caesar his due.” I’ll put a mask on if you think it will help. I don’t want to be sick or get my kids or your kids sick. The government has to give me a lot more reason than COVID-19 to ban me from driving wherever I want to drive.
Where do we draw the line on safety and liberty or economy? I don’t know. What I do know is the all or nothing approach is wrong. It’s especially wrong when the rules come down as edicts and executive orders without any say from us. Like I said at the beginning, it was absolutely right to shut down the border, parades, and sports (I guess), the bars and restaurants etc. None of us knew what it was going to look like.
We didn’t want to be China or Italy. Well we aren’t China or Italy. Yes our numbers are now higher (except China I guarantee they’re lying and they owe the world for how they handled this) but there are more of us. The numbers are highest in our bigger cities, but we don’t all live right on top of each other. For those that do, as the days go by they should keep closed up. The rest of us should be able to test the waters a little. At some point the government has to go back to by the people for the people. We are already on a slippery and steep slope. At some point we have to say “wait a minute can we talk about that travel thing first?” We have to start cleaning up the mess not make it bigger.
Jacked Up Dad 