I try to live in the real world. I (perhaps foolishly) think I am pretty good at it and that it more a survival technique than anything philosophical. That said, I am certain I have my delusions, most of which I imagine I don’t want to examine too closely. I think it is ok to pull the wool over you own eyes a bit, to suspend disbelief. Just a little, though.

The Usefulness of Our Delusions

Now that I have some free time I’m noticing all the things I’ve left in a state of benign neglect over the years, like my house, yard, photos, files, etc. The yard is an acre with lots of trees, mostly live oaks. They push out leaves in spring, leaving the yard mostly covered. Over the years I’ve let them go, letting the mower much whatever it could telling myself it was good for the grass. Of course, being honest I have very little grass these days and lots of leaves. I thought about raking them and using them as mulch in the big beds in the front, but that seems like lots of work. Tried the leaf blower but it just seemed to wedge the leaves down into what little grass was left. I have my little Worx Landroid robotic mower in the back, and soon in the front, so a bagging mower wasn’t really available. Same for my electrified riding mower (still in development). I figured I would try a small battery electric push mower and use it more or less as an electric rake. Bought a Worx since I’ve had good luck with the Landroid. I was told the 20V batteries would work with my Black and Decker tools but they appear to have a gratuitously different interface. But so far so good with the leaves. Gonna take a while but it is only once or twice a year. Maybe I’ll have real grass again.

I have been watching the news on the Myanmar coup. I was trying to figure out what the point was. I was tempted to make a cynical comment about how it is always about the money. I suppose that isn’t strictly true. But follow the money first if you want to save yourself some time.

Myanmar coup leaders tried draining $1bn from US account

I still remember tracking the news from China and then Italy about the emerging virus. I was hoping the US would be able to isolate and control it, but I didn’t see any movement in that direction. By late February 2020 we started to stock up on food. My last meal at a restaurant was February 28. I realized things would get bad when I went to visit a colleague at a tech company up the road and saw this notice on the door. This was a little over one year ago.

A couple of weeks ago our printer started complaining about lost WiFi connections. Then it stopped working completely. We went to buy a new printer but they seem to be in short supply. We ordered one and it finally arrived, but it did not work. It kept giving a cartridge error and wouldn’t print (but it would scan). Packed it up for return and realized we don’t have a printer to print out the return label.

I’m not a fan of Politico, but this is a good read. What is amazing is that there was lots of warning for this weather and power event. The outages started early and went on for about a week. I’m sure there are lots of people frozen to death out there for some reason aren’t being counted. The tepid response of the governor and other state leaders is almost bizarre, especially when compared to similar disasters like hurricanes. And then there was the parade of lies from the get-go. Again, people here are pissed. Looking like the only accountability will be at election time. One can hope …..

‘Look What You Did to Us’: The Big Chill of Texas Politics

I like Ezra Klein, but I seldom read his stuff or watch him on TV. He seems to be a fairly doctrinaire lefty, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, I just don’t expect to learn anything new from him. This NYT article caught my attention, though. He does dismiss the incompetence of Texas leaders a bit too much IMO. Worth a read.

From the BBC. I believe this is an undercount, but we may never know. While the US data is terrible, the UK and Italy have done worse on a per-capita basis.

Covid US death toll: Imagining what 500,000 lost lives look like

One of those people I think I would have enjoyed knowing. The end of a era.

Pretty much the whole situation summed up in one (brilliant) cartoon. From Tom Tomorrow via the Nib.