Louisiana Covid Update

The Louisiana Dept of Health is reporting 13,010 cases today, and increase of only 514 cases since yesterday.  Evidently, the Covid-19 virus doesn't attack as many people on Sunday.

My home parish of Rapides is currently reporting 100 cases, up only 3 from yesterday.

Here at the house, we prepared a Covid-correct meal and fed those family members who chose to attend.  Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, milk gravy , English peas and yeast rolls.

Belle and I set up an assembly line.  She would season the little steaks with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then dip them in seasoned flour, then an egg wash, then panko crumbs, and I'd take over dropping them in the hot skillet.

After we finished the steak, she pushed me aside, drained the oil out of the skillet, and started work on her special milk gravy.  A chicken fried steak just ain't right without milk gravy.

The family is gone now, and we're back inthe house.  We may start Happy Hour early today.

Louisiana Covid Update

According to the Louisiana Dept of Health , we currently have 12,496 cases of Covid-19 in Louisiana .  His is up from 10,279 yesterday,, an increase of 2279 from yesterday.  The curve is steepening a bit.

My home parish of Rapides is reporting 97 cases, and Belle's home parish of LaSalle is reporting 4 cases.  This is the first time LaSalle has reported any cases a all.

Have Ammo,, Will Travel

I have loaded the ammunition for wherever the next sanctioned shoot of the Southern Territory, CFDA might be.

The Mayor of Houston

The mayor of Houston is asking criminals to take a break during the pandemic.  Yeah, really.

Louisiana Covid Update

Today, on Friday, April 3rd, the Louisiana Dept of Health is reporting 10,279 active cases of Covid-19, up from 9150 yesterday, an increase of 1129 cases.  Of those, 1707 are hospitalized, with 370 deaths.

My home parish of Rapides is reporting 81 cases with 4 deaths.

Covid Update

The Texas Covid dashboard is here.  I found it this morning ust out of perverse curiosity.  I shows about what I thought I'd find.  Most of the infection is centered around the metro areas and the main travel routes.

Governor Abbot has issued an order that any traveler from Louisiana must self-quarantine for 14 days in Texas.  I don't blame him, he's trying to keep his state as safe as he can, and big ol' Texas has abut half as many cases as much smaller Louisiana.

Mississippi is reporting only about 1200 cases as of this time.

I can't find an Arkansas dashboard, but it seems that they're reporting something over 600 cases right now.

As for me, I"m still reloading cowboy ammo.  I find that I can load about a thousand cases a day, until my thumb gives out.  I have a total of 1500 cases left to oad, and I'm about to go to the shop and get started.  It give me something to do.

No, Kids, It's Tree Chicken

Louisiana Covid Update

Wow, the numbers took a huge jump today, a total of 9150, an increase of  2726 since yesterday.  Our governor attributes this to increased testing, and the inevitable log-jam of testing results chasing the initial tests.

In other news, we have some six million new unemployment claims across the US, for a total of almost ten million jobs,  The economists act like this should be some huge shock, but to anyone with two active bran cells this should come as no surprise.  When we kill off half the economy in three weeks, it should massive job losses should be no surprise.

We're in a recession, folks.  Someone made the point today that a huge sector of the economy isn't feeling much pain, and that's true during any recession.  For example, Belle and I both are financially secure.  Our money continues to come in like clockwork, but we're not spending it on restaurants and other entertainment.  The folks who are hurt most are the working stiffs.  And, they are the backbone of the economy.

I'm worried about out country, both in an economic and a political sense.  In the past three weeks, we have crippled the economy, and suffered the greatest contraction of individual freedom in my lifetime.  We can't travel, can't enjoy our leisure, and in our particular case, we aren't even allowed in Texas.  I never thought that I would see individual travel restrictions between states.

Louisiana Covid Updte

The Louisiana Dept of Health is reporting 6424 cases of Covid-19,  an increase of 1187 since yesterday.  The Governor, in his daily briefing, ascribes this to increased testing.  So ar, Louisiana has lost 273 souls to this virus.

PawPaw spent the morning hauling used railroad cross ties across the yard.  Belle wants a raised bed garden and I intend to provide it.   I have noticed that a cross tie has gotten a lot heavier in the last 40 years.  When I was in my 20s I could move them fairly easily.  Nowadays they are much heavier.  I feel it in my legs and my back right now, and I might be "stove up" by morning.

Oh, and I hung a new hummingbird feeder.  The quarantine continues.

Louisiana Covid Update

On this cool, cloudy Tuesday afternoon, the Louisiana Dept of Health is reporting 5237 active cases with 1355 hospitalized.  That is an increase in active cases of 1212 since yesterday.

I've been out in the shop loading wax bullets.  I got 600 rounds loaded and primed today, which eaves me 2900 to go before all the cartridge brass is loaded.

While I was loading, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh, and his continuing theme today is that this level of economic inactivity is simply not sustainable.  At some point in the very near future, we are going to have to get back to work.

I see that Sweden is going for herd immunity.  That is a bold decision by its leadership, and I"m sure that someone studying pubic heath will write a dissertation on this decision in years to come.

Louisiana Covid Update

The Louisiana Dept of Health is reporting 4025 active covid-19 cases i Louisiana, up from 3540 yesterday, an increase of 485 cases since yesterday.

My home parish of Rapides is reporting 44 cases, a small increase.

Our governor reports that he will modify his stay-at-home order to correspond with the Presidents order, to reflect that we're supposed to veg out until April 30th.

During this madness, I have been loading CFDA ammo to give my hands something to do.  I currently have 9000 rounds of CFDA ammo loaded, with a paltry 3500 left to go before I put this project to bed.  Tomorrow, I"m probably going to run to the lumber yard.  Belle wants a small raised bed to grow some tomatoes and cayenne peppers.

Texas Closed For Business

It looks like Texas is shutting down internal domestic travel.

AUSTIN ― Travel by road from Louisiana into Texas at any location will require a 14-day self-quarantine by those arriving in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday.

Evidently, the Texas DPS will be telling travelers by road fro Louisiana that they will have to self-quarantine for 14 days.

When the first air travel quarantine restrictions were announced last week, DPS troopers were charged with handing out forms requiring arriving travelers to list where they would be carrying out their 14-day quarantine.

I never thought it would come to this.

Thirty More Days

It looks as if we're under lockdown for another 30 days, at least.

That's the galling part.  They can't tell us, with all the science and the finest minds in the business, when this will be over.

I want to know when it will be over.  I don't care when they set the date, whether it's in June, or July, or even August.  I just want to know when I can start making plans.  Americans are planners, and the worst of this disaster is shutting down the planning.

I spent twenty years in the Louisiana Dept of Corrections.  The one thing that every inmate had is a release date.  The inmate knew that on some certain date in the future, he would be released.

What we have now is a rolling release date.  Maybe in 30 days, maybe in 60. What I'd like to see is a iron-clad date when we know, without a doubt, that we can return to some semblance of normal.  Let the experts look at their most pessimistic models, then set a date based on that estimate.

Then, let us know that on that date, we can get on with our lives.