Wave the Black Flag Friday Round-Up

How do you protest in a pandemic if you’re not an idiot? You do it in your cars, that’s how. We organized a car protest in a high school parking lot that brought out 45 cars and maybe twice as many people, all masked up and social distancing to beat the band. We had a couple of terrific speakers, one a pastor who, a few weeks ago, was on his deathbed from the virus, and then we did a caravan around the east side, beeping our horns, and waving our flags. The point? Expressing support for Wisconsin’s stay-at-home order at the site of one of the polling places for our April 7th election where hundreds stood in line to vote and now nineteen people are reported to have Covid-19.

We got some terrific press coverage.

I made onion rings and it was life-changing. I ate an enormous number of them and went to bed feeling like a brick had been duct-taped around my waist.

Yesterday, the president conjectured about disinfectant killing the Coronavirus – inside a person’s body – and today Lysol nation has to issue a warning to people not to ingest their products and we are all like, Oh well. I have a dish towel hanging in my kitchen that says, “My dog would be a better president.” Still true and the dog I had when I got the towel has been dead for over a year. From his grave, he would do better.

I’m writing a proposal about elder abuse. Oh, I don’t see myself as ever getting abused – too tough, too capable, you know, strong. But I bet most of the several thousand people who were abused last year in Wisconsin didn’t think they’d end up in that boat either. Where’s my oar? You can do a lot of damage to a potential abuser with a goddamn oar.

Just out of the blue, there was a red Christmas ornament hanging from a gray tree branch. This was on our walk this morning on a new path along the Menomonee River. After the red ornament, there were gold and silver ones every 30 yards or so, not close enough to keep you from being surprised to see the next one. Someone did that. I love them.