Is it Finally Spring?

I spent two hours in the garden pulling weeds and cutting down a bush that was over six feet high and about as wide.  I am totally wrecked.  But I had to run out and take a photo of the crabapple I planted two years ago.  Last year it did not bloom, but this year it is putting on a lovely show.  Hard to take a photo as I planted it near the fence.

This tree is replacing an old Snowdrift crabapple that developed heart rot disease.  It was removed last fall.  Here is a pic of its twin from 45 years ago that is still growing in the back yard.  It has just started to open.

And that pine tree on the left is from a seedling my son brought home from first grade in oh, 1985?

Is it truly spring?

You Decide...

Some of my readers may remember that I spent ten years working in laboratory medicine.  One thing I know from my training and work is that in some areas of laboratory testing there are false positives and false negatives.  I give you these numbers and ask you to decide for yourself what is going on and if the numbers even make sense.

Population of China: 1.4 Billion
Number of COVID-19 cases: 82,947
Number of deaths:  4,634

Population of Michigan:  10 Million
Number of COVID-19 cases:  50,500
Number of deaths:  4,880

Also, they spent $9 million to build a field hospital in Detroit and treated 39 patients.  In Novi, Michigan, they set up a center to treat 250 patients.  They treated 10.  The state is paying $1 million a month to rent the facility, which they have been doing since March.

So, you decide.  I know, if it was you, if it was your family, one death is one too many... I've heard and read all the arguments.

Anyway, I leave you with this photo and caption.  It actually took me awhile to get it.

Stop Bragging Ms. Whitmer

I glanced at the newspaper this morning to see that the governor of Michigan, whom I voted for, is bragging that she has saved 3,500 lives by shutting down the state.

Well, Ms. Whitmer, instead of focusing on what you think is positive news, since last I checked we are all going to die someday of something, let's look at the damage you have caused emotionally and financially in this state.  As for that matter, what about what the politicians playing their little 'I am God' games all over this country have done to our national economy.

What kind of future are out children going to have when and if this is all over?  How do you plan to get us out of this deep recession you are sending us into?  And after this virus, what about the next one?

How many battered women have been stuck at home with abusive spouse?  How many children have been abused?  Why is allowing liquor and alcohol sales okay but not allowing clothing and home improvement sales okay?

I don't think there is any politician in this country who has a clue as to what they are supposed to be doing.  Protecting our health, safety and welfare does not equate to locking us up in our homes.  We can each individually make the decision whether or not to enter out into the world.  Just like we can decide to drink, smoke pot, hunt, drive recklessly, etc. etc. or not do any of those things.

I do not want to live in a nanny state.  Sending drones into the air to see if residents are staying six-feet apart and obeying your orders?  Has the Chinese Communist Party started running our country?

Has half the country gone bat-shit crazy?

First, no one is really sure how many people have actually died from the virus, but we do know that it is not 100%  fatal.  Not that you would understand that from reading or listening to the hyped-up news.  In the past, anyone being treated for the flu and then died was counted as a flu-death even if what actually caused the death was pneumonia, very common, or other respiratory or cardiac issues.

Folks in nursing homes die.  They are usually there because they are sick, hence the term 'nursing home' and are usually elderly.  Why is this constantly hyped?  Figure out how the virus was introduced into the home.  Eleven nuns at a local convent died.  Only five had the virus but that is what the news concentrated on.  Oh, their ages were 69, 99, 92, 95, 73, 93, 83, 86, 86, 73, 87, 86, 88, 89.  If you die here of the virus, you get a big write-up.  The majority of obituaries in the local paper have nothing to do with the virus.

It will be interesting to see (though I doubt that exact figures will ever be known) how many more deaths there are on an annual basis because of the virus.

I'll go back to what I said in prior posts.  In 1968-69 the Hong Kong flu caused 100,000 deaths in the USA.  We did not shut down anything.  I worked in a hospital and traveled to Europe in 1969.  Life went on.  No one called a halt to activity.  No one tried to play the hero.  Stop bragging Ms. Whitmer.