Every year on April 1st, I send a “joke” email to my U2 fanclub mailing list. This year, I sent the following, which is decidedly NOT a joke. I simply didn’t have it in me. I wrote it this morning and sent it moments ago. I thought I’d cross reference it here, for those who like reading personal posts from DKos community members.
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Friday the 13th was the last day I worked from my desk at my office. I should have known it would be a dark day indeed. I live in Santa Clara County, one of six counties that surround the San Francisco Bay. We were the first large scale area in the United States to have an official “Shelter in Place” order, which went live on Tuesday March 17. These restrictions affected over seven million residents and told us we had to stay home.
Many of those reading this note are now doing the same thing. How’s it going? How are you holding up?
In my family, I now have two adult children. My daughter is 21 and in her third year in college. She lives in Boston. My son, who is 18 started his first year in college last August in St. Louis. Both are home. My son didn’t find out he couldn’t return to college until after he was here for Spring Break and so only brought a carry on suitcase with him. We do laundry frequently. We are told his belongings will be sent to him at “some point in the future.” They both do their classes from their laptops, as I do my work from a PC in a bedroom we’ve converted into a home office. It’s not so bad, but you don’t get the interaction from your colleagues when you’re at home.
I remember years ago, in the late 90s, when I started on Wire, I used my work email address to communicate. I worked at Intel back then. Michael Cummins, who lived just down the street from me, said, “You have that cool email address.” Intel was the hot tech company in the mid to late 90s because of the Pentium chip. It was cool to work there, but that was a zillion years ago. Now I work for Morgan Stanley and I manage other people’s investments. If you haven’t been paying attention, you may not know that the first 3 months of 2020 was the worst quarter in the 135 years of the Dow. I am just now running my quarter-end reports and it’s bleak. As I look at the stock market as I type, it’s down another 4.5% today. The markets are a forward indicator, meaning it can tell us things about tomorrow that we may not be able to see today. Despite the massive amount of dollars the US Government is willing to throw into the economy, the market doesn’t care. It knows it was the wrong stimulus package focusing on the wrong things. I saw a meme today that showed dinosaurs watching the comet overhead that was about to hit earth and end their time in existence. One of the dinosaurs was quoted as saying, “Oh shit! The economy!!” We are run by buffoons.
Maybe because I’m a numbers guy, during each day, I frequently peek at the curve of the Covid-19 cases in the United States and around the world. Again, as I type, the US just went over 200,000 cases and 4,400 deaths. My wife has pulmonary challenges and she has ever since she was a little girl. We’re both 52 years old now and she is terrified. The Washington Post today published an article detailing how those who are dying are largely “people of any age with underlying medical conditions…” and then it goes on to cite examples and statistics. I don’t have the heart to show her the article. Besides, it only confirms what we intuitively know. Yesterday the kids went on a bike ride and we were home alone for the first time in 18 days. Her brave face melted away and we both broke down in tears at the reality that 3 of us may have to go on without her. She was preparing a list of where everything is and “open items” for me to carry on…just in case. We’re doing everything we can to protect her. I pray it’s enough. I read a report of a woman, about 10 years younger, who was intubated. Her family wasn’t able to be with her as she died. Her last words to her children were sent in a text message.
It’s hard to be positive right now when everything is upside down, inside out, and basically skewed beyond recognition. And I’m sorry to bring heaviness to the list. I tried using U2 as my relief. I saw and heard Bono’s attempt at capturing the moment with his new song. I’m not sure who was recording that video, but did we really need to be an inch from his nose? His voice sounded terrible, but it was wonderful to hear it anyway. I didn’t realize that it was updated a few days later with Jennifer Hudson and will.i.am. and Yoshiki. That version is much better. A little hope. A little relief. A little U2.
I don’t have a joke for you on this April 1st. I just wanted to be heard.
I love you all.
Bono told us to.
He sang “Let your love be known.”