Ross Catrow.

Couldn’t help but laugh at this sad little anecdote I found in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today:

Chris Morrison, a 38-year-old Hanover County resident, brought a bucket of water, dish soap and brushes to try scrubbing the graffiti from the Lee monument Wednesday…After trying for a while, he couldn’t scrub the graffiti from the pedestal. Instead, he found some chalk and began blotting out what messages he could. After a few hours, he decided to leave as demonstrators began gathering for another march.

Love to see it.

I've got such a limited reserve of creative energy and almost all of it goes into Good Morning, RVA each morning. By the time evening arrives, I've only got enough focus left in the tank for margaritas and comics and, I guess, scrolling through the Twitter timelines of local reporters. I'm in awe of folks who've spent the last five days protesting for a better tomorrow.

Every day, for the past several days, has felt like a time set aside to wait for the events of the evening to unfold. First, pain and violence, now anger and hope.

Stay well, do good, and be safe.

Listen, all of these margs help prevent scurvy.

Really feels like we’re teetering on a very, very thin edge these past few days.

The Great and Mrs. America have both been surprising quarantine delights!

I told an AI that attempts to generate rhymes to write me song about the "coronavirus pandemic" to the tune of David Bowie’s "Space Oddity." Here’s what it came up with:

To learn more about this disease or
For further assistance
Is recommended as part of the vaccine
Information program hosted by kathleen
F of purdue university.
For more information.
In order download the full video you
Will have several options that you can pursue.

😬

My parents came over for dinner for the first time since before Coronavirus: Day 1. We had Mexican delivered, sat in the backyard six feet apart, and did not hug. It was nice!

I have an entire other blog for writing about local government, but I'm real interested to see how Richmond's mayor responds to the last two weeks of the City's percent positivity data—which has become Virginia's Very Important Coronavirus Metric. It's gone up since he requested a Phase One postponement from the Governor two weeks ago and doesn't look like it's headed down this coming week. I imagine he'll feel intense pressure to make some sort of change, though. Phase 0.5?

The best part, so far, of coronatimes has been exploring new-to-me parts of Richmond by bike. I’ve found incredible trees, hidden paths, secret sidewalks, and charming neighborhoods all within a couple miles of my house.

Let’s fill our days with bikes, naps, and ice cream.

Needed this!

Everything is the same or bad, and I need something to be different and good. I know I am ~40 years old and Office Space is such an obvious generational marker for me, but I do relate deeply to this bit:

So I was sitting in my cubicle today and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.

I talked to four different people on the phone. That's probably more people I've interacted with in a single day since…66 days ago? When I talk to people with my voice lately, without the additional time to process that text affords, I can feel myself rambling, mumbling, and generally not making any sense. I've forgotten how to be!

So this is how quarantine is going.