Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
Protests and riots escalated nationwide over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer while two other officers assisted or looked on. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, and officers claimed that he had resisted arrest and resisted getting into a police cruiser, claims that have been disputed, with video evidence from police bodycams and bystanders mounting. The police officer involved had been involved in two previous incidents that resulted in disciplinary action; he has been fired and charged, and other officers were also fired and may be charged.
This killing follows other law enforcement-associated killings of other unarmed African Americans, including just in the past few weeks, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and Sean Reed (already Ahmaud Arbery seems a long time ago); yesterday Louisville restaurant owner David McAtee's name may be added to the grisly list of police-involved shootings of black people.
President Trump, after urging state governors to use more force against protesters, was moved to an underground bunker where he continued to post incendiary tweets as protests raged around the White House. The U.S. military has been staged around Washington DC; if they go into action, it'll mark the first time U.S. troops have been deployed against American civilians since 1992, during the Los Angeles uprising over the acquital of four police officers filmed savagely beating Rodney King, an African American. (Another time U.S. troops were deployed against American civilians in Southern California was in 1942, when Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and shipped off to internment camps. A looong time ago, but ... just sayin.)
Here in San Diego, Saturday night we fell asleep to the wail of police sirens and tear gas grenades being fired in neighboring La Mesa, about two miles away as the crow flies, where two banks and some vehicles were burned and shops were vandalized and looted. Grossmont Center, the nearest mall, was also vandalized and looted. We could smell the smoke Sunday morning. The cities of Santee (in the news recently for the appearance of a man wearing a KKK hood as a face mask while shopping) and La Mesa both implemented curfews from 8 pm to 6 am.
Coronavirus news is almost morbid relief set against all that: The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker shows that COVID-19 has been confirmed in over 6,325,000 people worldwide, and has claimed over 377,400 lives. That's over 326,000 more cases and over 10,400 more deaths since Saturday. The U.S. now has over 1,820,500 confirmed cases and over 105,600 deaths, up over 59,800 cases and another 2,200 deaths since Saturday. In San Diego, our local toll rose to 7,554 cases with 269 deaths.
Hey, GOOD NEWS: the NASA/SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked with the ISS on Sunday, marking the first successful manned mission by SpaceX and the first successful manned launch from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle was mothballed nine years ago.
The breakout star of the mission was "Tremor," a blue and pink sequined stuffed apatosaurus that floated by the camera several times during the flight; it was seatbelted into another seat during launch and was tethered to keep it from floating too far away. Tremor belongs to one of the astronaut's young sons; it was made by Ty and its sequins can be flipped making it blue, pink, or a combination. Apparently, using a toy as an informal zero-g indicator is a spaceflight tradition that goes back to Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
We had a fairly quiet weekend at home. Kaffeetrinken on Saturday was the big event, although Ondine had more social time with her friends from Smith and Heidelberg. And the weather was nice too!
Roy and Leo did a big job, clearing out some of Barbara's shrubbery next door. They filled one greenery can, and will fill ours next. Roy came home with terrible allergies, though, and was wheezy enough to need an inhaler that night. There's still more to be done, but it'll be at least a month or so before there'll be a free greenery can.
Leo started his online Complete Music Production Course with Andrew Huang on Monday. It's a four-week course with about two hours a day of lessons and assignments with critiques. He says he's really getting a lot out of it so far.
Leo decided he doesn't want to do the drive-through graduation parade at Patrick Henry, so we'll mark his graduation some other way. He scored a free Class of 2020 graduation lunch at Foster's Freeze, but we have to drive him over there to get it.
Roy went out to lunch with Danielle Monday. He turns 20 this week, so we're figuring out what to do for that. Probably take-out since we don't yet feel ok with restaurant dining.
Ondine visited her friends from Smith and Heidelberg in two separate Zoom video calls over the weekend! She had to use John's aging laptop to do it, but everything worked out well. Although everyone is connected on Facebook, this is the first time she's seen most of them in decades.
Also, she planted six tomato plants John bought at San Carlos Hardware, along with three bags of topsoil and a new "Beware of Dog" sign. The six-pack of tomatoes was tagged Cherokee Purple, but we're not sure, so they'll be a surprise! Actually, given our luck with vegetables over the last few years, we'll be surprised if we get any tomatoes at all, purple or otherwise. (And, just to make it clear, we don't care what color the tomatoes are, we will nurture them and water them and take care of them. And then we will eat them.) She also potted a basil plant. Tomatoes, basil, we're growing pasta sauce!
John is reviewing his Forensic Archaeology course materials to swot up for the certification test, which he decided to pay to take. He also paid to get his certificate in another Archaeology course, since he's exploring that route. He's taking a break from the Cultural Diversity in Cities and Cultural Heritage in Cities courses on FutureLearn because the educators seem to be absent, and in these times he feels that the course content is hopelessly outdated without facilitated discussion.
Neighborhood gas prices are about $3.09 per gallon, and today, amid the chaos, the stock market is hanging around 25,700ish.
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