Strange Days, Indeed

 

November 12, 2020

Strange Days, Indeed

The past ten days have been about as surreal and strange as any in this crazy in this bizzarro year as we have seen one of the craziest elections in American history, a dramatic rise in the number of Covid-19 cases and locally have been skirted by a tropical Storm, not once, but twice as it meandered through the Caribbean before heading to the Gulf of Mexico. All the while Kathy remains at our home in Colorado and I have been busy with taking care of our home here in Key West and preparing for the possibility of a hurricane.

The Covid numbers have continued their sharp increase as we passed ten million cases in the United States this week and currently have 10,257,826 confirmed cases in the United States with a staggering 239,683 deaths. In Monroe County we have increased to 2,646 cases with 1,280 of them being in Key West and 25 people locally who have died from the virus. It shows no signs of being controlled any time soon and has limited my venturing out even more than usual.

The massive Covid-19 spike did not seem to impact what was a record turnout at the poles on Election Day, it was fantastic that the amount of people participating both on a local and a national scale broke all records, making the counting of the ballots a crazy proposition in many states especially in states with mail-in ballots that could not start being counted until election day itself. Election night started off pretty grim, at least from our personal perspective. It was obvious early on that there was not going to be the hoped for Blue Wave, in fact locally it was just the opposite as Republican candidates swept almost all of the local races, which was a disheartening way to open the evening.

There was a bit of good news as the three cruise ship referendums that were to limit the size, scope and number of passengers all passed with huge landslide majorities, it was about the only decent news locally for us. The National scene was not a whole lot better, especially early on as Republicans who were considered vulnerable I n the Senate won reelection and there were even gains in the House. The Presidential race was the big prize though and at first it seemed bleak as Trump ran up large leads in a lot of key states, all where the votes took a long time to count.

The next morning, many states still had not been called as votes continued to be counted. Over the next four days, I and much of the nation nervously watched the news coverage as Biden was slowly chipping in to Trump’s margins as the mail-in votes from mostly urban areas came in in states like Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Hour by hour the news started looking up as the numbers trickled in and Biden closed the gap and then took the lead. He was ahead enough that on Saturday the race in Pennsylvania was called and Biden had secured the needed electoral college numbers to claim the election. A few states are still not completed and called, but he has enough to set off celebrations across the nation on Saturday as people poured into the streets to celebrate.

Of course, Trump will not be going anywhere that easily and has refused to concede, claiming all manner of voter fraud, with no proof mind you, but he has dug in and does not want to relinquish power. It is a sad and scary time and it will play itself out from now until January when Biden is scheduled to be sworn in. I didn’t have much opportunity to celebrate as Key West was under threat from Tropical Storm Eta, which formed south of Cuba and headed our way after smashing into Central America as a category 4 hurricane. I had to prepare for the worst and it took the better part of the weekend to ready the house.

Thankfully for us at least, the storm initially passed to the East of us, and we here only got some rain and wind while Key Largo, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale took the brunt of the storm. The weird thing about this one is that it passed over the Keys near Key Largo went to the West then South again before being blown North passed Key West once again and heading towards Tampa. The second and third brushes with Eta were much windier and wilder than the first pass, but overall we were fortunate again.

The passing storm made for some crazy waves and surf along the Atlantic side of the island and local streets and the White Street Pier submerged under flood waters once again. It made for a few good photos of the conditions. The only other thing I did this week was attend the Key West High School homecoming football team, which managed to sneak in between thunderstorms with the Conchs winning another impressive victory and the annual homecoming festivities just finishing before a downpour arrived.

While the weather here has been pretty bad, out in Colorado Springs, Kathy is enjoying cool, crisp Fall weather that has enabled her to take daily hikes in the Garden of the Gods, which is right by our house there. She has been taking advantage of some free time and relaxing. She did have a visitor this week as our friend Stephanie, formally of Key West, stopped in for a visit with her for a couple of days. Kathy finally returns to Key West next week and I can’t wait to see her. The pets and I all miss her. I have taken to taking Jack on long walks in different locations to take his mind off her being gone. We explored Boca Chica Beach this week and have taken a few other expeditions to new places for him to sniff.