Version 2.092

This morning, I went to the office to pack up my desk, as we are moving to a new building downtown. It did not take me that long, as I do not keep that much at my desk. I feel that with every job--and this is my sixth--I tend to keep less and less at the office. I supposed the only things I cared for at this one were four Instamax photos of Julian. All else was pretty much replaceable or unimportant.

Mid-morning, I swung by the periodontist, as I was concerned with the amount of swelling of my lower jaw, which still lingers. I am supposed to do more warm saltwater rinses and also use the wet hot pad more often.

Once that was out of the way, I was able to concentrate more on work, but it still feels a bit overwhelming all the stuff that I need to do. A pleasant surprise, was that we had a conference call with James Bullard of the St. Louis Fed organized for the Memphis Economic Club. His basic thesis was that the first responsibility was to do our best to control mortality because of the virus. 

Also, as this is a fairly new threat, we still still learning what the best measures are to mitigate risk. He compared it to fire regulations, as fire is also pretty contagious, but we learned from past incidents and developed guidelines for materials and building codes that control that risk. This virus will not be any different, it just takes a bit to climb the learning curve and adjust. It was a good message, I thought.

I always get annoyed when I see people complain about the masks, as a sign of overreach by the state. Almost everything we do or buy is controlled for safety. Would anyone feel safer if they were going to restaurants where food safety regulations were not being followed/enforced? What about buying cars that have wheels fall off while we drive them, don't have seat belts, etc.? I don't know if this pseudo-liberalism is a sign of ignorance or just lack of reasoning skills. Maybe both, I suppose.

Two of the masks that I purchased the other day arrived. I was looking to get something that had a flower pattern that resembled Magritte's The Great War. I already made a few out of a fabric with green apples, but I got too lazy about making more, plus I did not find a fabric that resembled The Great War.