The State of Things.

Here's the current state of things:

I have a newsletter to write (the English version, the German one went out yesterday); the weather outside is mostly grey and hardly pleasing; there's a chunk of yeast in my fridge that waits for inspired baking (suggestions welcome!); I have a video for an exhibition to cut and edit; the cat is lying on my right forearm, and since that moves when I type, she wobbles along on it.

I'm also feeling fairly rant-y about the German politicians draaaaaaaaaaaagging their feet when it comes to decisions. They took a sweet long time to decide that something should be done back in October, when they might have acted in September; they waited for six weeks now, probably hoping that a cluster of half-hearted restrictions that clearly revealed that they were not enough after two weeks would miraculously be plenty with even higher numbers (and so worse circumstances) after three, four, five, or six weeks. Now there's a new all-time high of infections within 24 hours, we're nearing 600 dead per day, clinics are on the brink of overload, and there's still a debate about whether one should maybe think about closing schools and shops a bit before Christmas, or, as has been planned in the last week or so, after Christmas only. I just don't get it.

It's not that the second wave came unexpected. Or that one could not know the numbers would rise more if things were not taken more seriously. There was lots of downplaying in September, when numbers started to rise - which is not the smart thing to do when you want the public to take stuff seriously and see the danger. And yes, a lot of shops and a lot of restaurants and a lot of schools and a lot of sports places are not the super-spready places. But they can all play a part (and will!) in spreading the virus once numbers are over a certain threshold, as the probability to have infectuous people there will be high. How can that be so difficult to see?

As for us, we'll be going into (even more) of social seclusion for a bit now, in order to be able to safely see my parents at Christmas. Not that there's very much real-life social stuff to cut, mind you; we've had real-life contacts of more than a few minutes at a time with just a handful of people for the last few months anyways.

It's not nice, folks. So - sorry for the rant, and for bringing up that unpleasant topic again, but it's unfortunately quite at the top of my mind right now. I do hope things are better where you are - and if they are not, that you can cope.

Stay safe, and sane, and keep your distance. We'll make it out of all this somehow.