Day 3: California Under Martial Law Lite (Run To The Hills)

Sunday mornings are normally quiet in Eureka, California. America, it seems, is at its laziest come Sunday morning. However, this morning is quieter than most. I do hear the occasional car go by outside, but other than that it's easy to imagine that the population of Eureka has just slipped away into nothingness.

I've been staying away from Covid-19 coverage on Facebook. There's too much false information ("It's a hoax!"), too many condescending posts ("Listen, kiddies, this is how it is. I'm hear to tell you the truth."), and too much stupidity ("I'm going to lick a public toilet seat."). If only this virus struck the willfully ignorant. I'd be out spreading it then. Good riddance to bad garbage.

Ava Louise. She seems pretty fucking smart. 

I must say that I think Humboldt residents are feeling overly safe right now. Only two positive cases as of yesterday. They don't see the storm coming. I would contend that the only safe place in California is probably Modoc County. They already practice social distancing there. They are isolated. Nobody wants to travel there. Yeah, Modoc may be the oasis for this event. Hell, the place has one movie theater that shows one show one day a week. How quaint!

I worry about my mother. Someone at her work tested positive. She does not think she has had any contact with the person. I call her every morning, asking how she is and listening for any kind of sign that she may be struggling to breathe. I hate being on the West Coast at this point. Almost a country away from her. I hope my brother can keep an eye on her, but he works in a hospital. I imagine he's pretty busy.

When all this is over and the dead are buried, will we remember the power grabs that government agencies tried to do? When the businesses, those that survived, start to reopen, will we remember that Trump bumbled all of this from the start? When we realize that our loved ones probably didn't have to die, will we commit to forcing our so-called leaders to come up with a better, more proactive plan to stop this from happening again on such a scale? When toilet paper is back on the shelf at normal prices, will we remember how capitalism in its current form not only failed us but proved to be deadly for the poorest among us?

Probably not. Most people are condemned to make the same mistakes over and over, operating off a belief system that lacks foresight and memory. If we make it out of this one, we guarantee it will happen again. We are predictable that way. Herd mentality. More brawn than brains. Easily bred, led, and dead.

Sunday mornings are always quiet in Eureka. I fear it will get quieter yet . . .