Category: Journal Entry

Vacationing with friends – Adjusting to COVID – Hiking on the Appalachian Trail – Removal of President Trump from Walter Reed – Ineptitude of school administrators – The Vice-Presidential debate – Mount Katahdin proves deadly – Attempt to kidnap Governor Whitmer – Trump’s attempts to downplay the virus – The Russia investigation – Evening statistics

The week I spent with friends renting a house together and hiking in southwestern Virginia forms quite a contrast to the news I hear from the world at large.  The latter seems to be nothing but turmoil and distress; the former was not only peaceful and full of enjoyment, but almost idyllic.  This trip is the third I’ve taken in three months, all of them for the purposes of outdoor recreation.  I’m not sure whether or not I appear to be similar to the oblivious revelers in Poe’s The Masque of Red Death, dancing and banqueting without seeming to be aware that Death is lurking in the room all the while.  The reader must decide.  To be sure, I do have the example of some highly-placed personnel in our federal government who set the example of determinedly ignoring the virus at all costs – but this is advancing matters.  

The virus certainly impacted our trip in some ways.  Normally when we rent a house some of the guests share rooms if these contain multiple beds.  This time everyone had a separate room.  It meant, of course, that the amount we paid was somewhat more expensive than usual (but the cost of renting a house when divided among eight to twelve people is fairly moderate in any case), and it also meant that our accommodations were more luxurious.  We stayed in a 19^th-century house that had initially served as the parsonage for the village church:  a lovely rambling building, with very spacious bedrooms, two sitting rooms, an extensive porch in the back overlooking fields of the various nearby farms amid a backdrop of mountain ranges whose contours define the valley in which Burke’s Garden is located.  (The valley is an elongated oval and has the appearance of having been formed by volcanic activity, although in actuality it was created by the collapse of several limestone caverns.)  We wore face masks while we were together in the house, except in the privacy of our designated bedrooms and when we were eating.  We sat well apart from one another at meals.  Most of the hikes were either loops or, if they were one-way, involved key swaps (i.e., one group of hikers at either end, with the driver taking somebody else’s car to the start of the hike and driving his own car back).  At no point were there ever more than three people in any single car:  the driver, a passenger in the front, and a passenger in the back.  During the drives all passengers wore face masks. 

It was not, perhaps, the perfect method for protecting ourselves; but it seemed a reasonable compromise under the circumstances.  No one in the group has a job that requires him or her to come in contact with large numbers of people; some (like myself) are retired; interactions with outsiders were minimal.  A few of us went out of the way to get tested beforehand.  Since I had recently been forced to travel by plane upon the return from Maine, I would have taken the test in any case simply to reassure myself that I had not picked up any infection as a result.

The hikes themselves did not stand out in the manner of some of the hikes on my other trips, such as the one going up Katahdin in Maine just a couple of weeks ago.  For the most part there were few or no overlooks.  The most dramatic view we saw occurred on the one day we were not on the Appalachian Trail itself.  But they took place in beautiful woodlands just as the autumnal colors were beginning to display themselves and after all they each involved a fair amount of exercise.  They were, in order:

10/4 – AT, James River Bridge to Sulphur Spring Trail and back, 9.5 miles, 2000’ elevation gain.  I did this hike on my own.  We were not supposed to check in until 4:00.  The drive there is approximately six hours.  However, I wanted to leave early in order to avoid the traffic that tends to pile up on I-81 during the weekends.  Pausing during the drive to take in a hike along the way seemed the best way of filling in the time.  The hike started out at the James River bridge, went over about a mile of flat ground along the river, then it climbed steadily upward but never at any extreme gradient.  The highlight of the hike was the bridge itself, which is the longest bridge on the AT limited to foot traffic only, with extensive views of the river.

10/5 – AT, Rt. 605 to 612, 13 miles (including a brief excursion to a shelter located about 0.3 miles from the trail), 2600’ elevation.  This was a key-swap hike.  I went with RH and MB; the others used the route going in the opposite direction, which has slightly less elevation gain but (as I believe) gave them a somewhat steeper ascent at the beginning of their hike than any climb that we three had.

10/6 – AT, Ribble Trail to Rte. 608, 11 miles, 1750’ elevation.  Another key-swap hike; the three of us had a little more elevation gain than those going in the opposite direction, but only by a margin of 100-200 feet.

10/7 – Hungry Mother State Park, 7.5 miles, 1425’ elevation.  Hungry Mother is named after the possibly apocryphal Molly Marley, a mother who fled from a raid by Native Americans with her child and wandered through the wilderness, eating berries to survive.  Eventually Molly, in her efforts to keep her child alive, collapsed.  Shortly afterwards, a search party found the child, whose only words were pleas to them to help “hungry mother.”  They went to the foot of the mountain where Molly had collapsed, but she was already dead.  Whether the story is true or not, the mountain is now named Molly’s Knob.  The loop we did went up the knob to the summit, which provided a beautiful vista of the lake formed by a river dam at the edge of the park and of the numerous mountains and the gullies that intersperse them.  The park is also of historical interest, being one of the six original CCC parks that opened in June, 1936.  The facilities built by the CCC are still extant and are frequently used by the population in the local counties.

10/8 – AT/Ribble Trail loop, 10.5 miles, 2050’ elevation.  The Ribble Trail has two junctions with the AT.  The junctions are 8 miles from one another, but the AT loops in such a manner that the Ribble Trail that connects them is only 2.5 miles.  We also went down to the Dismal Creek waterfall along the way to the trailhead.  The waterfall is actually very scenic; it is called “dismal” because the area consists mainly of pyrite overlaid by shale; when pyrite decomposes it leaves the soil very acidic and not well-suited for farming.  The surrounding area, by way of contrast, contains very fertile valleys formed on limestone, whose soil is much less acidic.  This hike featured the steepest and longest ascent of the entire trip, at the end of which was a rock outcropping that featured good views of the valley below.

10/9 – AT, Rte. 612 to Rte. 615, 8 miles, 1300’ elevation (RH says that it was actually 1380’, but to me that seems an over-estimate). We wished to do an easier hike on the last day in order to get back to the house early and prepare for travel back home on the following day.  The ascents were very gentle and there was an excellent overlook about halfway through the hike.  We met other section-hikers along the way:  three doing day hikes like us and three going via backpack.

The nearest restaurants were in Tazewell, well over a half-hour each way; and in any case on the trips that AD organizes we cook most of our meals on our own.  The house had an extensive kitchen and it will give an idea of the enthusiasm of the participants when I say that we dined on leftovers for the last two evenings and still had a great amount of food remaining this morning – everyone was eager to contribute to the communal meals and the aggregate of what all of us brought was more than sufficient to feed us. 

While we were enjoying ourselves with getting outdoors, feasting every evening, savoring the weather (which couldn’t have been better – high sixties to low seventies, low humidity, and no rain at all until the day of our departure), and spending the intervals between hiking and food preparation in animated conversation, the news from the outside world was a good deal less tranquil.  Here are some of the highlights of what occurred during my stay away from home:

10/5 – President Trump was taken back from Walter Reed Hospital to the White House.  There was a good deal of speculation about the extent to which he had recovered.  AM, who is a medical professional, said that the virus leaves people depleted for a  minimum of 10 days and that in any case he should quarantine for two weeks in order to avoid infecting others.  Such courtesies, however, are not in Trump’s vein, as subsequent events were to show.

I had a long telephone conversation with RK, my friend who teaches in a private school.  She has managed to obtain a promise from the administrators that she can teach from home and not attend a classroom in order to avoid infection.  (She had some cancerous cells removed several months earlier, which places her, as far as the virus is concerned, in a somewhat higher-risk category than others, such as myself, of comparable age.)  At first the setup she was given went smoothly.  She taught on Zoom, which provided results that were satisfactory to teachers and students alike.  However, the school administrators decided that the students should not have lessons that were entirely virtual, and decreed that they attend the classroom physically on a staggered basis.  Unfortunately, the school does not have sufficient bandwidth to provide every student who attends with a workstation – in fact, the maximum they can afford is two workstations per classroom.  And, of course, the classroom appears as a tiny square barely larger than a postage stamp on RK’s screen when she uses the Zoom application at her home.  She has no way of telling who is speaking whenever a remark from the classroom is made, unless the proctor monitoring the students repeats it for her.  Repeating the students’ remarks is necessary for another reason; the students cannot get close enough to the workstation for their voices to be intelligible, because crowding one another in such a manner would violate the social distancing mandate.  Thus the administrators have taken a perfectly valid process that would have generated relatively trouble-free lessons and have ruined it.  RK says that this year is the worst of her teaching career; the manner in which the administrators have interfered has made it impossible for her to obtain meaningful interaction with her students.

10/7 – We watched the Pence-Harris debate, for a time at any rate.  It certainly was a good deal less of a fiasco than the first Presidential debate.  Mike Pence’s views may not differ from Trump’s to any great degree, but he is much better-mannered and he can be well-spoken at times; in comparison with his superior in command he seems positively eloquent.  Altogether he did not make out a bad case for himself and the administration, at any rate when he went on the offensive.  Defending the policies of the administration, and with respect to the virus in particular, was something else again.  But that was not much of a reflection on Pence personally – the magnitude of such a task would have been too large for anyone.

Kamala Harris, too, showed to advantage in comparison with her associate; unlike Biden, she was invariably calm, self-assured, even regal in bearing, never showing the slightest discomposure when her opponent interrupted her.  She was not sparing in her words when discussing the failures of Trump’s administrator, not only with respect to COVID but in several other matters.  It was heartening to hear her.  Nonetheless, I was a bit disappointed.  She spoke in generalities a good deal and did not bolster her arguments with much in the way of statistics, which were readily obtainable and would have greatly strengthened the points she was trying to make.

It would appear that whenever anyone achieves a certain level of eminence in American politics, the words “Yes” and “No” are banished from his vocabulary.  At any rate, both of the candidates evaded the issues raised by the moderator on numerous occasions.  One example occurred early in the debate when Susan Page asked whether there had been a discussion on either side as to transition of power in case the elected President became disabled – a perfectly reasonable question, in view of the age of both Trump and Biden, and all the more so in view of the fact that a pandemic is raging in our midst.  All that either of the debaters needed to do by way of response would have been an answer like the following:

“Yes, we have discussed the matter.  I am happy to say that the state of President Trump’s/Senator Biden’s health is excellent and that such a possibility is unlikely, but he likes to make contingency plans and we have gone over details as to how to proceed in the event of any crisis that may incapacitate him temporarily or permanently.  I may add that one of the reasons he has selected me as his running mate is that he believes that I can be trusted to carry out the policies that he himself wishes to pursue.”

Or, failing that, the answer could have taken a different tack:

“No, we did not believe that such a discussion was appropriate to hold before the election.  Currently our energies are focused on securing the position.  Should we would win the election, there will of course several matters that have a high priority as we design the strategies to pursue during the course of administration, and one of these is the issue that you have mentioned.”

The responses that both Pence and Harris actually gave would gratified the heart of a Zen Buddhist, bearing as little relation to the original question as the most obscure koan ever devised.  Pence spent his two minutes talking about a question that had occurred earlier in the debate, while Harris indulged in a bit of laudatory auto-biography.  I admit that, had I been in the moderator’s place, I probably would have interjected a remark like the following before going on to the next topic:

“Thank you, Vice-President Pence, Senator Harris.  I may note, in passing, that neither of you gave a direct answer to my question, and I wish to express a hope that you will be somewhat less evasive in your responses to the topics that remain.”

Clearly, my disqualifications for involvement in American politics are legion; my tendency towards direct speech would in itself suffice to render me unsuitable for political office or for a position as spokesman of any description.

10/7 – The case counts on a day-by-day basis will be listed below, but this particular evening is notable as marking Brazil’s case count exceeding 5,000,000.

10/8 – There were several disturbing news items reported this evening.  One of them affected me on a personal level. Donald MacGillis, a Massachusetts journalist, died while attempting to summit Mt. Katahdin.  He had a 50-foot fall and, although he survived the fall, the combination of the injuries he sustained and the exposure he underwent while waiting to be rescued proved in his case to be fatal.  Since I myself have summited this mountain a bare two weeks ago, the news was sufficiently perturbing.  MacGillis was ten years my senior and he had used a different route than I had – but still, he was described as a veteran hiker.  Just a day later, a second hiker lost his life on the mountain as well.  I am somewhat surprised.  Katahdin has its dangers, certainly, but it is by no means the most hazardous peak I have ascended.  Then again, I’m not in a position to judge on the basis of my experience alone.  The Saddle Trail, which is the route I took, is said to be one of the easier ones; in addition, the weather on the day that I went, although windy at the plateau at the top, was otherwise not particularly troublesome.  I have no doubt that it became significantly worse during the two weeks that the season was advancing towards winter.

The FBI foiled an attempt by a white supremacist group to kidnap and then execute Governor Whitmer of Michigan.   The abuse that this unfortunate woman has undergone as a result of her strenuous effects to protect her state’s residents from the COVID virus simply defies belief.  In April, Michigan had the third-highest incidence rate of COVID of any state in the country.  At this point it is well within the bottom third.  The Michiganders do not seem in the least grateful for this reduction in illnesses and deaths; they have consistently led disruptive marches protesting against the restrictions that were instrumental in saving their lives. aided and abetted by the state legislature, which is dominated by Republicans.  And, as noted in previous entries, during these struggles she was thwarted at every turn by the very organization that should have been underpinning her effects to contain the virus, i.e., the federal government.

Speaking of which . . .

President Trump claimed that he felt fine and for that reason he rejected the proposed virtual debate, saying that there was no need for it.  The fact that he should isolate himself even he is no longer in danger in order to protect others is, of course, a trifle beneath anyone’s consideration – beneath his consideration, at any rate. 

One could say, if one were feeling charitable, that he was making a laudable show of resilience in order to encourage others who had contracted the virus and demonstrating the recovery was well within the bounds of possibility.  I am not feeling at all charitable.  Trump seems to have learned nothing from his experience with the virus.  It is clear that it has affected him much more than he is willing to admit, possibly more than he himself is aware of.  His bearing is notably less upright and his voice is hoarse and strained.  He remains a source of infection to others; at least 34 in the White House alone have been infected as well.  But he refuses to alter his campaign plans, is determined to hold rallies where the recommendations for wearing face masks and practice social distancing will be blatantly ignored, and continues to pressure the CDC to relax its guidelines for containing the virus.

This animus against the President was reinforced by a piece of news that emerged the following evening.

10/9 – President Trump requested Attorney General William Barr to indict Joe Biden.  Ostensibly the charge against Biden is that of employing Russian agents to undermine Trump’s campaign.  In reality, of course, Biden’s offense was to have the temerity to run against Trump in the first place.  It should be added that when Trump makes what he calls a “request,” it is impossible for the most obtuse to mistake his meaning.  He forced Robert Redfield, the head of the CDC, to declare that persons without symptoms of the virus should not be tested – over the serious objections of its own scientists; and he defined this ukase as a request, and considered it a very dexterous piece of diplomacy.  He has made another such request to Barr, very much to the consternation of the latter – Barr being, if not especially concerned about political non-interference in the Justice Department, is very solicitous to maintain the appearance of it.   

Amazingly, Barr, who has not inaptly been described as Trump’s toady – and he has, in fact, a rather batrachian appearance – has refused to pressure John Durham, the prosecutor who is leading the investigative inquiry, into producing his report prematurely, even if that means waiting until after November 3^rd, the date of the election.  Durham, by all accounts, is not the sort of man who can be easily pressured.  During his career he has not brought a case against anyone that has not been extremely well-prepared.  And, of course, it is not entirely out of the bounds of possibility that Durham’s report will conclude that the accusations are baseless.  No wonder that Trump is becoming increasingly agitated as the date of the election closes in with no scandal to pin upon his rival.  To be sure, he can always resort to slander if all else fails.  Knowing him, he probably will.

Although words do not fail me when I contemplate this man, prose does, and I am forced to fall back upon the following verse:

Trump’s mind, body, belly, hands, son, daughter, cronies, and all the rest
Are twisted, tainted, flabby, blood-stained, stoned, corrupt, craven, and possessed.

There remain the statistics for the days that have passed, including today’s, once again illustrating how rapidly the virus is increasing:

10/4 – # of cases worldwide: 35,388,157; # of deaths worldwide: 1,041,537; # of cases U.S.: 7,636,185; # of deaths U.S.: 214,609.

10/5 – # of cases worldwide: 35,613,538; # of deaths worldwide: 1,045,849; # of cases U.S.: 7,678,495; # of deaths U.S.: 214,994.

10/6 – # of cases worldwide: 36,038,274; # of deaths worldwide: 1,054,093; # of cases U.S.: 7,727,760; # of deaths U.S.: 215,904.

10/7 – # of cases worldwide: 36,375,798; # of deaths worldwide: 1,059,907; # of cases U.S.: 7,772,795; # of deaths U.S.: 216,781.

10/8 – # of cases worldwide: 36,734,356; # of deaths worldwide: 1,066,337; # of cases U.S.: 7,881,355; # of deaths U.S.: 217,658.

10/9 – # of cases worldwide: 37,089,652; # of deaths worldwide: 1,072,087; # of cases U.S.: 7,892,913; # of deaths U.S.: 218,615.

10/10 – # of cases worldwide: 37,450,065; # of deaths worldwide: 1,077,218; # of cases U.S.: 7,944,862; # of deaths U.S.: 219,281.

Our case rate is just short of 2.5% of the population, meaning that the virus has infected us at a rate of 1 in every 40.  Of the countries whose population exceeds 10 million, only Peru and Chile now have a greater case rate than ours.

The delights of October – The stock market – Unreliability of reports of the President’s health – A searching question – An online memorial service – Evening statistics

If T.S. Eliot is correcting in asserting that April is the cruelest month, October might reasonably claim to be the most benign, at least in the mid-Atlantic states.  The weather is at its best in this area; the stifling heat of the summer has gone; the skies are at their clearest – and since the skies were remarkably free from haze even during the summer this year, they naturally have not become less so now that we are enjoying lower temperatures and less humidity.  The leaves are just barely beginning to change color, having been delayed by the lack of cool nights even during most of September; but a few trees at least are displaying tinges of red and yellow.

Not everyone shares my rosy view of this month, of course:

“October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.”  (Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, Ch. XIII)

The stock market has indeed been a-flutter with agitation yesterday and probably will be for some weeks to come.  In addition to the usual fears and doubts about quarterly reports and end-of-fiscal-year reports, the state of the President’s health, along with that of a good portion of the administration generally, has been making speculators wary.  The uncertainty regarding how the President is faring is of a degree that would rouse Kim Jong-Un himself to envy.  The reports from the White House are simply not to be relied upon.  Even on the rare occasions in the past when they have sought to disseminate some amount of truth, no one in the current administration seems to have any idea of fact-checking – witness, for example, the recent risible claim about Amy Barrett being a Rhodes scholar.  In this case, the spokesmen have a vested interest in putting as good a face on the situation as possible, and in all probability would claim that Trump is doing very well even if he were to be on his deathbed. 

“Why do you hate Donald Trump so much?” a friend whose views of Trump are somewhat more favorable than mine recently asked me.

“Well,” I hedged, “I don’t know that I’d call it hatred, exactly.”

He looked at me for a moment and then said, “What would you call it?”

And I was reminded of a certain passage I encountered on re-reading Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage about two weeks ago:

“In her heart of hearts Mrs. Grantly hated Mrs. Proudie – that is, with that sort of hatred one Christian lady allows herself to feel towards another. Of course Mrs. Grantly forgave Mrs. Proudie all her offences, and wished her well, and was at peace with her, in the Christian sense of the word, as with all other women. But under this forbearance and meekness, and perhaps, we may say, wholly unconnected with it, there was certainly a current of antagonistic feeling which, in the ordinary unconsidered language of every day, men and women do call hatred.”  (Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, Ch. XVII)

In all fairness I had to admit that my attitude towards Donald Trump is rather analogous to that of Mrs. Grantly towards Mrs. Proudie, even though I am neither Christian nor a lady.  I don’t want him to suffer, especially, and I have no particular wish for his death as opposed to recovery, but my attitude towards him remains as hostile as ever.  Yes, my right-wing friend certainly had the better of me there.

There is possibly some personal animus involved as well.  This evening I attended a Zoom memorial service for TW, the husband of my mother’s cousin, who was one of the earliest victims of the virus.  It was rather an emotionally draining affair.  I did not know him well, but many friends and relatives spoke of him with lively affection and with several displays of grief.  My cousin in particular was devastated by his death, which was completely unexpected; even at this interval, more than six months afterward, she could not trust herself to speak directly during the service, for fear of breaking down completely.

I can honestly claim, however, that this hostility does not extend to Trump’s relatives.  I have little love for any of them, but I am sorry that Melania has come down with the virus; I hope that the report is correct that a slight cough and headache are the extent of her symptoms; I am glad to hear that Trump’s children all tested negative, particularly 14-year-old Barron; and I am positively relieved to learn that Mike Pence tested negative as well, since it means we will have some sort of guidance in the event that Trump is temporarily incapacitated. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 35,121,850; # of deaths worldwide: 1,037,520; # of cases U.S.: 7,600,420; # of deaths U.S.: 214,273.  In the past two days about 100,000 Americans in addition to Trump have fallen ill with the virus.  With our current mortality rates, that means that between 2,500 and 3,000 will die of the disease from these cases alone.  At this point we have well over 2½ million cases still active, meaning that at least 50,000 more Americans will die from the virus even if we get no other cases from this day forward.  I wish that this could be emphasized more than it is in our media.  Unfortunately, the most likely source for such information, i.e., the Democratic campaign, has abandoned this approach; Biden has decided that the time has come to show solidarity and has suppressed all of his negative ads.  I disagree with this policy.  It should be possible to express sympathy for a man on a personal level and still be critical of the policies he initiated that have led to such a disastrous result.

The coronavirus visits the White House – Overview of the results of Trump’s COVID policies – Biden’s reaction – Minneapolis City Council – The pleasures of autumn weather and scenery – Evening statistics

The Internet is abuzz with the news that Donald and Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus.  They will be in quarantine for 14 days.  I am sorry for her – but with regard to the President himself, I have little sympathy.  His heedlessness during the past several months has been a death sentence to thousands and has been the cause of disabling many more for life, and I am vengeful enough to hope that his infection may have long-term consequences.  It is quite possible that such hopes will be realized, for he does has certain risk factors, chiefly his age and his tendency towards being overweight. He has already developed symptoms that are described as “mild” and has checked into Walter Reed hospital for a few days.  However his illness turns out, he will be prohibited from active campaigning for the next two weeks and will in all likelihood be plagued with fatigue well into November, which is bound to lower his chances of being re-elected.

There is in addition a certain appropriateness to this event, which is the outcome to be expected from his continual disregard of the CDC’s guidelines towards COVID prevention.  Last night he said that “the end of the pandemic is in sight,” only to discover shortly afterwards that Hope Hicks, one of his closest aides, tested positive for the infection, thereby bringing the disease into his innermost circle.  Trump and his aides have consistently ignored the recommendations for social distancing and the wearing of face masks; and during the Presidential debate this past Tuesday he frequently mocked Biden for following them.  Since the President has come in close contact with a large number of people on his staff, they all will have to be monitored (and in all probability quarantined) as well.  “The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said to reporters.  Well, we know that the first part of that statement is true:  he certainly attaches the utmost importance to the health and safety of himself.  Whether he is capable of displaying the smallest degree of solicitude for the health and safety of anyone else is, to say the least, debatable.

If I sound rather callous about the President’s prospects, there are a few consequences to bear in mind about how his policies have affected the country at large.  It is true that our position is slightly better now with respect to other nations that it was previously; but that is not because there is any marked degree of improvement in our own status but because other nations have also been deteriorating.  Our death rate from the virus is now about 2.8%, which is certainly a significant decline from what it was three months ago, but it is still on the high side.  Over 2¼% of our population has been infected already; this figure threatens to be doubled by the end of the year.  We still account for over 20% of the deaths from the virus worldwide and for over 32% of the cases currently active.   The only countries whose population is over 10,000,000 that exceed our incidence rate are Peru, Chile, and Brazil.  By way of contrast, Nigeria – whose population is comparable to ours but otherwise is not a country known for its wealth or its advanced medical system – has an incidence of 284 COVID cases per million of its population and a death rate of 5 per million.  I have noted in previous entries how many leaders in Third World countries such as Malawi, Malaysia, and Vietnam have taken the threat of the virus much more seriously than our government has, and that their efforts to contain the virus have had a great deal more success.  Even an inhabitant of countries such as Mongolia and Cameroon has a better chance of avoiding infection than the average American, and a better chance of surviving the disease if he gets infected.  Such are the results of the manic behavior of a President who has been continually at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – an agency specifically created to safeguard the health of our citizens – and who has consistently thwarted efforts of the more responsible of our state governors to impose restrictions that offer a chance of containing the virus.

Joe Biden has a more forgiving nature than mine.  With that fundamental decency that characterizes him, he was among the first to send his wishes for Trump’s recovery.  Unfortunately he has started to lessen the pace of his own campaign on that account, taking down all ads that say negative things about his opponent.  I think that that is unwise.  It should be possible to express sympathy for a man on a personal level, and at the same time to remind the public that this very same man is largely responsible for the havoc that the virus is wreaking on our country.

Another set of oblivious politicians have come to regret the consequences of their reckless irresponsibility.  The Minneapolis City Council, after having unanimously voted to defund the city’s police, have now reversed themselves after a surge in carjackings, robberies, assaults and shootings, asking “Where are the police?”  Medaria Arradondo, the police chief, didn’t even bother telling them that their own vote to defund the police was the primary cause of this sorry state of affairs; he merely told them that more than 100 officers have quit or taken leaves of absence, more than twice the usual rate.

Amid all of this upheaval the day was quite placid on a personal level.  The results of my own COVID test that I took on Tuesday came back today, and I tested negative.  I was not seriously worried, but I did want to get some confirmation that I had not exposed myself during my return from Maine via airplane, particularly as I am going to be in a house full of friends this coming week.  In the afternoon I went to my father’s gravesite in Falls Church.  The gravestone was completed recently, so I went there to see it and to take a photo of it that I could distribute to various relatives. 

The gravesite is about 8 miles from my house and the day was so beautiful out that I walked instead of driving there.  The weather is something to savor after the long and sweltering summer.  One is continually reminded, in the suburbs at least, that the area was originally forest and that the areas that have been carved out for setting up our dwellings can readily become forest again after even a short period of neglect.  Trees are the dominant feature of the landscape, even from primary traffic arteries.  The autumnal colors are just beginning here – not as brilliant as those in Maine, of course, but still it seems a providential arrangement that the timing of the leaves’ transformation coincides with the mellowness of the October sunlight, so that the changing hues appear at their most intense saturation. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 34,817,610; # of deaths worldwide: 1,032,709; # of cases U.S.: 7,549,299; # of deaths U.S.: 213,523. Amid all of this concern over the President’s health, I feel bound to point out that over 50,000 other Americans contracted the virus today as well, and that over 850 have died from it.

Optimum weather conditions – Flying from Bangor – The new Supreme Court Justice nominee – Brad Parscale’s adventure – Trump’s self-estimate after the debate – Biden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize – Evening statistics

It is the time of year when the weather is at its best:  not too hot, not too cold, relatively dry, and clear of the haze we usually receive during the summer – although, as I have noted, the haze was much less in evidence these past several months on account of the reduction in car traffic emissions.  It is a promising weather phase for the trip in central Virginia I am taking with several others starting on the 4^th and ending on the 10^th.  The forecast there is for somewhat cooler weather, and it will get cold at nights; but during the day the current prediction is for temperatures in the 60s. 

I omitted to mention that I returned from Maine by means of an airplane flight from Bangor.  The airport is small and not especially crowded, and everyone was very conscientious about wearing masks.  Still, people had to remove their masks during the flight whenever they were eating or drinking.  I therefore decided to get tested for the virus again after my return, and I underwent the test two days ago.  With luck I should be getting the results tomorrow or Saturday.

President Trump has decided that Amy Coney Barrett, a judge whose most salient attribute is her hostility to the Roe vs. Wade decision permitting abortions without government interference, is the person most eligible to replace Ruth Bader-Ginsberg on the Supreme Court.  To that end Kayleigh McEnany, the White House Press Secretary, has announced that, among Barrett’s other qualifications, she is a Rhodes scholar, and so indeed she is – not, to be sure, a recipient of the Rhodes scholarship that is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, founded to promote leadership marked by public spirit and good character, and to render war impossible by promoting friendship between the great powers, and whose numbers include eight future heads of state and numerous notable names in the fields of law, education, epidemiology, space exploration, and cosmology; but the well-known category of scholar who graduates from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.  But I can actually feel grateful to McEnany for making such a claim, as it promptly inspired various readers and auditors to make some wonderfully snarky comments on the Web, such as:  “I’ve been to Rhode Island so I, too, am a Rhodes Scholar”; “I did a book report on Dusty Rhodes once. Does that make me a Rhodes Scholar?”; “I was a Rhodes Scholar in that I drove on some roads to grad school”; “One of my favorite poems I sometimes re-read when making difficult decisions is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Does that also make me a Rhodes Scholar?”  The Internet is a harsh mistress.

Brad Parscale,  President Trump’s former campaign manager, has stepped down both from the president’s re-election campaign and the management of his digital firm after an apparent suicide attempt.  Parscale was hospitalized after his wife told Fort Lauderdale police that he had guns and he was threatening to harm himself.  Upon arriving at Parscale’s home, the police reported that his speech was slurred as though he were intoxicated and that he seemed to be crying.  They seized 10 firearms in the house in the process of taking him into custody. 

Suicide would appear to be a logical outcome for anyone who has the misfortune to work for Donald Trump.  As one advisor in the White House confided to a friend, who re-confided it to the Vanity Fair magazine, “Trump doesn’t let anyone else speak. He really doesn’t care what you have to say. He demeans people. He talks over them. And everyone around him thinks it’s getting worse.”  According to inside sources, he believes that he has emerged as the winner from the debate earlier this week, and no one has the courage to tell him that the debate was a disaster from the point of view of his campaign. 

One of Trump’s selling points, that of his being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, has been neutralized; a member of the British Parliament has nominated Biden as well.  So now our election consists of two candidates who have each been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in a contest that promises to be as belligerent as any this nation has undergone in the course of its entire history.  It is not at all certain that some sort of armed conflict can be prevented if Biden wins the majority vote and the Electoral College vote as well, and Trump refuses to concede. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 34,463,609; # of deaths worldwide: 1,023,659; # of cases U.S.: 7,493,802; # of deaths U.S.: 212,628.

The mail-in ballot – The first presidential debate – Reactions from abroad – Evening statistics

The mail-in ballot for the upcoming election arrived during my absence in Maine.  When I visited my mother today I asked her caregiver to witness my opening of the envelope and then I obtained her signature on the envelope containing sealed ballot after I filled it out.  Afterwards I took it to the City Hall, which is only a few minutes’ walk from my house.  I could have just as easily dropped it in the mail as well, but I thought it just as well to expedite the process. 

I was quite prepared, if for some reason the decision to use mail-in ballots were reversed, to go directly to the polls in November, despite the risk of infection.  Voting has never been as important as it is now.  I have provided a ballot filled out as meticulously as I am capable of doing; if only I could be assured that it will be duly tabulated.  Who can tell whether or not our current administration may toss it aside along with thousands and millions of others?

This conviction was reinforced by the first presidential debate last night.  Onlookers were swift to declare it the worst presidential debate in the history of American politics.  Chris Wallace, the unfortunate moderator, must assuredly be at loggerheads with his colleagues; after attempting repeatedly, and in vain, to exercise some sort of restraint upon the President, to prevent him from speaking out of turn, and to obtain direct answers to his questions, I’m sure he has no desire to listen to the paeans of praise that the other members of Fox News shower upon Trump as a matter of course.  He lost control of the debate within the first five minutes, never to regain it. 

It may come as a surprise to anyone who watched the debate, but it actually had a set of rules.  The moderator was to introduce a topic and ask a question. Each candidate would have two uninterrupted minutes to answer. Then the other candidate would have his two minutes. Then a general conversation, guided by Wallace, would ensue.

From the onset it was obvious that Trump was not going to abide by these rules.  He interrupted at every opportunity and worked steadfastly at transforming the debate into a shouting match.  Watching the debate was like watching a game of hockey in which one of the players takes up his stick and bashes his opponents and the umpire on the head whenever he happens to send the puck out of play.

How was Wallace, or any moderator for that matter, to cope with such a situation? He couldn’t very well put Trump into the penalty box.  Nor was it feasible to use physical force to restrain him, although no doubt Wallace was sorely tempted to do so.  Personally, I would have no scruple in administering a sound spanking to that spoiled brat in a seventy-year-old body.

By the end of the grueling experience that the debate became, Wallace’s state of mind must have been approaching that of Job’s wife after the disasters that overtook her household, ready to curse God and die.  The President in short behaved during this event more or less as expected, always on the defensive, always ready to sling insults at his opponent, always ready with hyperbolic assertions, always unable to reinforce his assertions with any firm statistics, and always displaying the whining petulance of an over-indulged child of ten.  Biden, by way of contrast, managed to convey an impression of maturity and self-possession during the onslaught he endured.  Sometimes, to be sure, he was taunted into some mudslinging of his own.  But as more than one commentator remarked, it’s difficult to behave otherwise when one is flung into a pigsty. 

Several have advised Biden not to undergo two more such embarrassing displays, but I see nothing wrong with presenting the voting public with graphic reminders that the upcoming election offers a choice between a man who can exercise some control over his emotions, with a standard of civility, and a man who is destitute of either of those qualities.  I hasten to say that this is not my own personal assessment.  The Oddschecker website claims that the debate has led to the “biggest swing in the market in six months,” with a shift of 5.63 percent in Biden’s favor.  Two more such encounters can only bolster his position even more.  To be sure, Trump’s diehard supporters will not change their opinions no matter what sort of exhibition their icon might display, but at least a portion of the more intelligent of those inclined to vote for Trump – and there are some of these – must be feeling embarrassed by the antics of last night.  It is even possible that a few of them as a result will decide to stay at home and refrain from voting for him, either in person or by mail, after what they have seen.

When I was out today I overheard some of my neighbors chatting about the debate.  “I just had to turn the TV off after a while,” one of them said.  “I simply couldn’t stand it any longer,” – and the others allowed that she had given a very rational account of the matter.

Then, of course, there are observers further afield who are equally dismayed by what they have been seeing.

“I feel sorry for Americans.  But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”

The speaker is U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar.  Myanmar not only has been greatly overburdened by the coronavirus, driving its hospital system to the brink of complete paralysis, but is also contending with incessant ethnic warfare, with fighting breaking out periodically among Bamars (the majority group, accounting for about two-thirds of the country’s population) and various minorities such as Kachins, Karennis, Karens, Rakhines, Chins, Shans, and Rohingyas, among others.  The depth of the animosity subsisting between these may be gathered from a conversation that George Orwell once had with a member of the Karens when Myanmar (or Burma, as it was called then) was a colony of the British Empire.  He was a young man serving in the British civil service at the time, and during this disillusioning experience he was becoming increasingly hostile towards the Empire as an institution, regarding it as a swindle and a systematic exploitation of every ethnic group weaker than the British themselves.  So he was flabbergasted to hear his acquaintance remark, “I hope the British stay here two hundred years.”  “Why on earth do you want that?” Orwell asked.  “Because we don’t want to be ruled by Burmese.”  Not much has changed since this conversation was held nearly a century ago.  Civil wars have plagued the country ever since it obtained independence in 1948.  In addition, more than a quarter of the population is living below the poverty level.  And it is a representative of this country who is now professing pity for the United States.

Other foreign observers are displaying similar reactions.

From Eduardo Bohórquez, the director of Transparency International Mexico:  “We used to look to the U.S. for democratic governance inspiration.  Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”

From Yenny Wahid, an Indonesian politician and activist:  “Trump inspired many dictators, many leaders who are interested in dictatorship, to copy his style, and he emboldened them,”

From Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia, a city on the Canadian border of Michigan:  “Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire.”

I have had a tendency when I am on travel, as for instance during my recent trip to Maine, of not following the news headlines as closely as I might have done, and so far that has always paid off. Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 34,141,741; # of deaths worldwide: 1,018,076; # of cases U.S.: 7,445,658; # of deaths U.S.: 211,688.

The mail-in ballot – The first presidential debate – Reactions from abroad – Evening statistics

The mail-in ballot for the upcoming election arrived during my absence in Maine.  When I visited my mother today I asked her caregiver to witness my opening of the envelope and then I obtained her signature on the envelope containing sealed ballot after I filled it out.  Afterwards I took it to the City Hall, which is only a few minutes’ walk from my house.  I could have just as easily dropped it in the mail as well, but I thought it just as well to expedite the process. 

I was quite prepared, if for some reason the decision to use mail-in ballots were reversed, to go directly to the polls in November, despite the risk of infection.  Voting has never been as important as it is now.  I have provided a ballot filled out as meticulously as I am capable of doing; if only I could be assured that it will be duly tabulated.  Who can tell whether or not our current administration may toss it aside along with thousands and millions of others?

This conviction was reinforced by the first presidential debate last night.  Onlookers were swift to declare it the worst presidential debate in the history of American politics.  Chris Wallace, the unfortunate moderator, must assuredly be at loggerheads with his colleagues; after attempting repeatedly, and in vain, to exercise some sort of restraint upon the President, to prevent him from speaking out of turn, and to obtain direct answers to his questions, I’m sure he has no desire to listen to the paeans of praise that the other members of Fox News shower upon Trump as a matter of course.  He lost control of the debate within the first five minutes, never to regain it. 

It may come as a surprise to anyone who watched the debate, but it actually had a set of rules.  The moderator was to introduce a topic and ask a question. Each candidate would have two uninterrupted minutes to answer. Then the other candidate would have his two minutes. Then a general conversation, guided by Wallace, would ensue.

From the onset it was obvious that Trump was not going to abide by these rules.  He interrupted at every opportunity and worked steadfastly at transforming the debate into a shouting match.  Watching the debate was like watching a game of hockey in which one of the players takes up his stick and bashes his opponents and the umpire on the head whenever he happens to send the puck out of play.

How was Wallace, or any moderator for that matter, to cope with such a situation? He couldn’t very well put Trump into the penalty box.  Nor was it feasible to use physical force to restrain him, although no doubt Wallace was sorely tempted to do so.  Personally, I would have no scruple in administering a sound spanking to that spoiled brat in a seventy-year-old body.

By the end of the grueling experience that the debate became, Wallace’s state of mind must have been approaching that of Job’s wife after the disasters that overtook her household, ready to curse God and die.  The President in short behaved during this event more or less as expected, always on the defensive, always ready to sling insults at his opponent, always ready with hyperbolic assertions, always unable to reinforce his assertions with any firm statistics, and always displaying the whining petulance of an over-indulged child of ten.  Biden, by way of contrast, managed to convey an impression of maturity and self-possession during the onslaught he endured.  Sometimes, to be sure, he was taunted into some mudslinging of his own.  But as more than one commentator remarked, it’s difficult to behave otherwise when one is flung into a pigsty. 

Several have advised Biden not to undergo two more such embarrassing displays, but I see nothing wrong with presenting the voting public with graphic reminders that the upcoming election offers a choice between a man who can exercise some control over his emotions, with a standard of civility, and a man who is destitute of either of those qualities.  I hasten to say that this is not my own personal assessment.  The Oddschecker website claims that the debate has led to the “biggest swing in the market in six months,” with a shift of 5.63 percent in Biden’s favor.  Two more such encounters can only bolster his position even more.  To be sure, Trump’s diehard supporters will not change their opinions no matter what sort of exhibition their icon might display, but at least a portion of the more intelligent of those inclined to vote for Trump – and there are some of these – must be feeling embarrassed by the antics of last night.  It is even possible that a few of them as a result will decide to stay at home and refrain from voting for him, either in person or by mail, after what they have seen.

When I was out today I overheard some of my neighbors chatting about the debate.  “I just had to turn the TV off after a while,” one of them said.  “I simply couldn’t stand it any longer,” – and the others allowed that she had given a very rational account of the matter.

Then, of course, there are observers further afield who are equally dismayed by what they have been seeing.

“I feel sorry for Americans.  But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”

The speaker is U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar.  Myanmar not only has been greatly overburdened by the coronavirus, driving its hospital system to the brink of complete paralysis, but is also contending with incessant ethnic warfare, with fighting breaking out periodically among Bamars (the majority group, accounting for about two-thirds of the country’s population) and various minorities such as Kachins, Karennis, Karens, Rakhines, Chins, Shans, and Rohingyas, among others.  The depth of the animosity subsisting between these may be gathered from a conversation that George Orwell once had with a member of the Karens when Myanmar (or Burma, as it was called then) was a colony of the British Empire.  He was a young man serving in the British civil service at the time, and during this disillusioning experience he was becoming increasingly hostile towards the Empire as an institution, regarding it as a swindle and a systematic exploitation of every ethnic group weaker than the British themselves.  So he was flabbergasted to hear his acquaintance remark, “I hope the British stay here two hundred years.”  “Why on earth do you want that?” Orwell asked.  “Because we don’t want to be ruled by Burmese.”  Not much has changed since this conversation was held nearly a century ago.  Civil wars have plagued the country ever since it obtained independence in 1948.  In addition, more than a quarter of the population is living below the poverty level.  And it is a representative of this country who is now professing pity for the United States.

Other foreign observers are displaying similar reactions.

From Eduardo Bohórquez, the director of Transparency International Mexico:  “We used to look to the U.S. for democratic governance inspiration.  Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”

From Yenny Wahid, an Indonesian politician and activist:  “Trump inspired many dictators, many leaders who are interested in dictatorship, to copy his style, and he emboldened them,”

From Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia, a city on the Canadian border of Michigan:  “Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire.”

I have had a tendency when I am on travel, as for instance during my recent trip to Maine, of not following the news headlines as closely as I might have done, and so far that has always paid off. Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 34,141,741; # of deaths worldwide: 1,018,076; # of cases U.S.: 7,445,658; # of deaths U.S.: 211,688.

The hikes on the Maine trip – Other aspects of staying in Millinocket – Ruth Bader-Ginsburg – Donald Trump’s campaign difficulties –  Daily statistics

“Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” 

The trip to Maine was rather like that familiar joke.  There was indeed a great deal to enjoy, despite the episode related earlier.  To begin with, one couldn’t ask for better weather.  It was cool but never chilly, with low humidity, and not a drop of rain fell during the length of our stay.  Then, too, the foliage was beginning to turn, and even though it had not reached peak by the end of the week it was fascinating to see the progress of the change of leaf color on a day-to-day basis.  The autumnal colors of the leaves in New England are brighter and more vivid than those of the trees in the mid-Atlantic states, and by the end of our stay there were many areas with an extensive variety of hues and tints.

And then the hikes themselves were uniformly pleasant and sometimes memorable – but perhaps it is best to take the hikes in order individually.

9/19 – JK, JB, and I arrived one night earlier than the other five members of our group, and on this day we took a loop from the Abol Bridge campground just outside Baxter State Park itself.  We went on the Appalachian Trail (AT) to the Blueberry Ledges Trail, a pleasant walk through woodlands of mixed birches, maples, pines, and firs, going gradually upwards but never very steeply.  There were occasional rock scrambles but on the whole the gradient of the ascent was mild.  We met one through-hiker as we approached the end of the trail, which is slightly over four miles long.  He told us that he had already completed the AT twice within the past five years.  He was taking the Blueberry Ledges Trail this time because it cuts out a little distance from the approach to Mt. Katahdin.  The other end of the trail makes a T-intersection with the park road, on which we walked about ¼ mile to the AT and turned to get back to the parking area.  However, this section of the AT is considerably longer than the Blueberry Ledges Trail – nearly 10 miles in all.  It skirted around Grassy Pond, Daicey campground, Little Niagara Falls, and Big Niagara Falls.  We were to see these falls again on 9/24, but we paused to look at them.  After we passed the falls we had to go over various rock scrambles, none of them very long.  Then the AT flattened and it paralleled a stream for several miles.  About a mile before the end a creek that drained into the stream was bridged by three logs spaced rather far apart, and crossing on them was precarious.  The bridge that had been there earlier was washed out and the logs had been put down as a stopgap.  It was obviously a work in progress; I was to use this bridge again on 9/26, and by that time the logs were placed more closely together and were more sturdily anchored to the ground.  The hike was about 15 miles, with 2000 feet of elevation gain.

After our return we connected with the others, who had split their drive into two days and had arrived in the early afternoon.  We had pizza delivered at the house where they were staying.  We all contributed various other items we had each purchased from the local grocery store (which is surprisingly well-stocked) and had an enjoyable evening chatting mainly about our travel experiences and planning the hikes for the other days. 

Traveling, incidentally, was certainly smoother than it has been in the past; the virus is still making an impact on the roads, reducing congestion considerably.  I have never had such an easy drive on the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, within memory – and I have been on it many times, having both friends and relatives in New York.  I was able to use cruise control for the greater part of the way.

9/20 – We did a set of three smaller there-and-back hikes at the Kidney Pond campground in Baxter State Park. All had trailheads along another trail that skirts around the pond.

Sentinel Mountain, the first of these, is 2.1 miles each, beginning about ½ mile from the parking area.  It was a fairly moderate ascent until the last ¼ – ½ mile, when it became a steep rock climb.  JK said that this section of the hike reminded her of the Adirondacks.  Eventually we reached a rock ledge with a view – somewhat obscured by trees, but still looking downwards onto the stream below.  The ledge was extensive and there was room for everyone to sit together. 

Upon returning to the main trail, we backtracked 0.2 miles to the trail leading to Celia and Jackson Ponds.  This trail was much easier, being fairly flat and considerably less rocky than the Sentinel Mountain Trail.  Celia Pond is rather pretty, but small and not especially outstanding.  Jackson Pond is larger and more interesting, with views of the surrounding mountains on the other side of the water.  The trail was about 1.3 miles each way.

Only JK and I did the third trail, which led to Rocky Pond after 0.6 miles.  Again, the trail was fairly flat and not especially rocky; the pond itself had many boulders projecting from the water.  All of the ponds were clear, and the deeper parts of them were dark blue, without any dilution of color from muddiness or algae growth.

Since this was the day on which the accident occurred, JK and JB and I did not get back until late.  We had to wait for the tow truck to arrive, and then three of us sat together on a seating area that was designed only for two passengers.  After we returned to Millinocket and refreshed ourselves, we went to the house where the others were staying.  They had various plates of food already prepared and we ate a buffet dinner together, which was a very welcome end to what had been a trying journey returning from the park. 

9/21 – I was not able to hike on the day after the accident because I had to make negotiations with various parties.  After I was on the phone with the insurance company and went to Medway to get an idea from the auto shop as to when they could examine the car and provide an estimate, I walked around Millinocket itself.  It is an odd place.  None of the houses are cramped or undersized; all of them have driveways, several are quite large, and many have features such as covered garages and porticos.  Yet the overall effect is rather shabby.  The sidewalks are uniformly uneven and in disrepair, interspersed with grass growing through the cracks.  Gardens are kept on a small scale and not many house owners bother to mow their lawns.  The “downtown” was a single street with few businesses or shops in operation, and with only a couple of places that serve food.

And the question is:  why hasn’t some enterprising developer tried to build the place up, in the style of other trail towns such as Kent, CT or Damascus, VA?  Even places such as Hot Springs, NC or Duncannon, PA, which are relatively lackluster, have much more to offer in the way of stores and restaurants than Millinocket.  After all, many outdoorsmen pass through the area – not only hikers, but hunters, fishermen, canoeists, kayakers, cross-country skiers, snowmobilers.  There is the potential of realizing a thriving trade, if only an investor were willing to initiate it.  But It does not appear that anyone has made such an attempt.  It is true that such an undertaking would require substantial funds to begin with, and Maine is a poor state.  But it is difficult to believe that there is no one in the region with sufficient resources.

9/22 – Again we went to the Abol Bridge campground, where we did a there-and-back on the AT going south.  The famous 100-mile wilderness begins just past the bridge beyond the campground.  The trail goes along the road for a few hundred yards, then turns aside and enters a dense forest area.  But the most daunting feature about the 100-mile wilderness is its length.  Other than that, much of the trail through the area goes up and down far less steeply than in other parts of Maine.  This section of the trail has no especially noticeable features, but the foliage was striking.  Even in the three days since we first began our hiking the autumnal colors had become much more widespread.  The sign at the northern terminus of the wilderness is similar to the one I saw three years ago at Monson, the southern end, warning hikers that they should carry food for ten days if they are attempting to cover its entire length.

9/23 – On this day we went up Mt. Katahdin.  It was by far the most challenging of the hikes, about 11 miles round trip, with 3900 feet of elevation gain.  In some ways it was similar to hikes I have done in Colorado, beginning with a relatively moderate ascent and reaching a much steeper one as the trail approaches the summit.

The first 3.3 miles ascends to the Chimney Pond campground.  It is rocky in places but the gradient in this segment is never particularly taxing.  The trail contains many rocks and tree roots on the surface, as is typical of Maine trails in general.  About a mile from the trailhead there is a view of Katahdin from a distance.  I did not pause there going up, but upon the return I took a few photos there.

From the campground I took the Saddle Trail, which, as the name implies, goes up to a saddle located on the plateau at the top of the mountain.  This segment was about 1.2 miles, of which about ¾ mile consists of boulder fields ascending very steeply, almost perpendicular at times.  It was merely challenging going up; but the return, going down, was very frustrating – it was a continual struggle to maintain balance and it seemed to go on forever.  The photos I took from the top of the saddle were clearer than the ones at Baxter Peak, which had some cloud cover.

Once the plateau is reached, it is still 1 mile to reach the peak.  The gradient, however, is much less steep, and progress was easier both ascending and descending.  However, it was very windy, sometimes gusting to 50 MPH.  The last 0.2 miles went through another boulder field, but it was considerably less difficult than the approach to the saddle.  The plateau is above the treeline and thus has something of the stark grandeur typical of mountaintops above a certain elevation:  bare and windswept and rocky, with little vegetation except varieties of grey moss and some twisted shoots growing close to ground.  Several mountain trails, when this point of the ascent is reached, proceed along a narrow arete, but the plateau at the top of Katahdin is very broad and consequently there is little danger, even with the continual wind gusts, of falling down the mountainside. (There are other trails to the summit that are somewhat riskier in this respect.)  I lingered at the Baxter Peak, the highest point on the mountain, for a few minutes, but although the views of the valleys below are impressive, the cloud cover that lingered about the top of the mountain made the photos that I took rather indistinct and wraith-like.  There were perhaps a dozen hikers scattered about the area around the plaque at the highest point.  I had expected a greater number of people, for it is a popular hike.  But our group had started early and I completed the ascent in 3½ hours, so it was only 10:15 when I arrived.  It probably is more crowded later in the day.

I had lunch during the return downwards, pausing at the Chimney Pond campground after climbing down the Saddle Trail.  At that point the most arduous portion of the hike was complete and I went along the return via the Chimney Pond trail at a more relaxed pace, pausing on occasion to take photos.  I returned at 1:25.  The others were taking somewhat longer to complete the hike, and one of the rangers, when I fell to chatting with him, suggested that while I was waiting to take a brief extension to the Sandy Spring Pond, a there-and-back trail of about ½ mile each way. This is a pleasant way to unwind after the exertions of ascending Katahdin and then returning.  The trail is nearly flat and not especially rocky, and the pond afforded a view of the mountain from below.

Mt. Katahdin, incidentally, can be reached from the other side by means of the Appalachian Trail; in fact the summit at Baxter Peak is the trail’s northern terminus.  Although it represents the longest single climb on the AT, it is not the most difficult.  Mt. Washington and other peaks in the Presidential Range are more taxing.  I often felt a sense of strain going up Mt. Washington, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Madison, whereas the ascent to Katahdin, although it certainly required a certain amount of perseverance, was considerably less daunting than these.

9/24 – After having completed the climb to Mt. Katahdin on the preceding day, we were all in the mood for a less ambitious hike as its sequel.  We returned to the Kidney Pond area and skirted around the pond until reaching the Lily Pad Stream Pond Trail.  This leads to a rivulet that can be crossed by canoe.  The park had a couple of canoes resting against the bank; if we had planned matters out more carefully, we could have obtained the keys to unlock them from the park rangers and used the canoes to paddle to the other side.  Instead we returned to the trail that went around Kidney Pond until it came to another point in the rivulet, which was capable of being forded but would certainly would not have left us dry-shod.  We did not wish to walk several additional miles with wet shoes and socks, so we backtracked and went to the Daicey Pond campground parking area on the other side of the stream.  From there we went along the Appalachian Trail to the Little and Big Niagara Falls that I had seen earlier with JK and JB.  Now we had the leisure to contemplate them without haste, resting on the rocks and watching fishermen at the base of each of the falls casting their lures.  I took off my boots and socks to dip my feet in the water at Big Niagara Falls, which was cool but not chilly.  The total amount of distance covered was 6½ miles, with little elevation gain – 400 feet, or perhaps 500 at the most.

After this hike we had a meal that could be described as either a late lunch or an early dinner at a restaurant just a few miles outside of the park.  Considering how destitute Millinocket is of places to eat, this restaurant was surprisingly elegant, situated alongside an extensive lake, with a small but attractive garden just between the lake shore and the outside dining tables.  The weather became slightly cool and windy at times, but never unpleasantly so.  Both the food and the service were excellent.

9/25 – I could not hike on the 25^th, being obliged to go to Bangor Airport to try to make arrangements about a car rental and to have the car towed from the auto shop to a second one that has more extensive repair facilities.  I strolled about Millinocket again in the afternoon, where on one street I read a sign posted in front of one house that greatly amused me.  It began with the words “No soliciting!” in large letters.  There then followed, in letters with a slightly smaller font, these lines:

We’re too broke to buy anything.
We know who we’re voting for.
We’ve found Jesus.
Go away!

The dinner we had that night is worth mentioning.  TW picked up some lobsters at the supermarket nearby and we had a splendid meal.  I have not eaten lobster for nearly a year, and it was quite an indulgence to dine on freshly caught lobster in Maine.

9/26 – I went with the others to the Abol Bridge parking area.  The others went on a loop to Abol Pond.  They said that they were going to add a there-and-back excursion on the Blueberry Ledges Trail.  Since I have been on the Blueberry Ledges Trail on the 19^th, I took a slightly different route.  I began by going along the Appalachian Trail to the log bridge we had struggled with on the earlier hike.  Immediately past that bridge is a trailhead that leads to the Foss-Knowlton Pond, about 2½ miles each way.  It is a lovely place, more extensive than most of the other ponds and with a perfect view of Katahdin in the distance.  The trail itself is very easy.  I doubt if the ascent was more than a few hundred feet and it was all very gradual.  Much of it had clearly been in use as a fire road in earlier times.  By this time the colors of the foliage were approaching their full brilliance.  The scarlet of the maples and the greenish yellow of the birches were especially vivid.  Afterwards I returned to the Abol Pond Trails and completed that loop.  At one point the trail crossed a stream, but it was not especially difficult.  To my surprise I caught up with the others; they had decided to walk on the Kettle Pond Trail instead of the Blueberry Ledges Trail.  The trailhead for the Kettle Pond Trail is located close to Abol Pond itself, in the middle of the loop.  I covered about 10 miles in all; their route was somewhat shorter.  I was well-satisfied with my choice, since Abol Pond itself was, while pleasant enough, much less picturesque than Foss-Knowlton Pond.

For the following day JK, JB, and I all had made different arrangements for our return.  I took the airplane out of Bangor.  The plane ride was comfortable, leaving on time and landing 20 minutes early.  Because the plane could accommodate only about 70 passengers at the most, I obtained my luggage very rapidly after deplaning.  Yet the experience made me somewhat uneasy.  Everyone wore face masks during the course of the flight – except, of course, whenever they were eating and drinking.   It seemed to be prudent to be tested to ascertain that I did not received any infection from the plane trip once I was back at my home; and I did get tested on the morning of the 29^th. 

I cannot say that I was tracking the headlines very carefully while I was in Maine.  Everyone in our group, of course, heard about the death of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg.  When we discussed how the ill health of her final months and her lingering death created complications with respect to appointing her replacement, we agreed that even Supreme Court Justices should have term limits and should be forced to retire at a certain age – at 80, perhaps.  That amount of time should be long enough for anyone.  It now appears that President Trump is attempting to rush through the process of getting a new judge appointed before the election, so that it turns out that he loses he will still be able to stock our judicial system with appointees who favor his somewhat skewed views of law and order. 

He is undergoing some difficulties.  Mary Trump, his niece, is now suing him on the grounds that she had been cheated out of her share of the family inheritance.  She seems every bit as mercenary as the family members whom she denounced in her recent book; but her lawsuit is certainly an unwelcome distraction for Uncle Donnie during the last few weeks of his campaign.  And there are several articles revealing how little he paid in taxes for several previous years and how precarious his personal situation is underneath the surface of his gaudy, ostentatious style of living – although the word “revealing” here has to be interpreted in the loosest possible sense.  Surely these accounts of the murkiness of his financial dealings cannot come as a surprise to anyone.  Now if someone were to report that he dealt with a contractor or a business associate or an employee or a relative in an open and honest manner, I would respond with all of the shock and incredulity that the most eager journalist could desire; but reading these stories of how he cheated various corporations and the state of New York is like reading assertions that grass is generally green in color – which is as much to say that chicanery, delinquency, and turpitude in any financial dealings  conducted by Donald Trump are as invariable as showers in April, or sultry weather in August, or snow falling in the winter and melting in the spring, or other, similar facts of nature.

Since it took two days to complete this entry, I enclose the statistics for both days:

Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 33,542,559; # of deaths worldwide: 1,006,090; # of cases U.S.: 7,361,293; # of deaths U.S.: 209,777.    

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 33,826,905; # of deaths worldwide: 1,011,885; # of cases U.S.: 7,403,480; # of deaths U.S.: 210,731.  

India is rapidly gaining on us; at this rate it will displace us as the country with the greatest number of cases within a week.  (it’s incidence rate is still much less than ours, on account of its much greater population.)  Yet neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan have much lower case rates, even though some of these have very densely populated cities.

Car accident in Baxter State Park – Daily statistics

This description of my recent trip to Maine will of necessity be lengthy, both on account of its duration (well over a week) and its variety, so my account will have to be divided into several parts.  I will deal first with an event which, though it did not ruin the trip, made it much less enjoyable than it could have been.

The roads in Baxter State Park are gravel, and when I returned from the hike on Sunday (9/20) I struck a rock at such an angle that it not only caused the right front tire to go flat but broke a shaft attached to it.  No one was injured, but the car could not be moved after the collision.  The rangers, when they appeared, were not surprised by this incident.  It seems that others have come to grief against this same rock, which is not large (above the surface) or especially noticeable and which protrudes slightly from the side of the road so that it is easy to hit.  The park service has attempted to remove it, but it is too deeply submerged in the ground to enable them to do so without entailing considerable expense.  This event was bad enough, but there was worse to come.

The car was not drivable even after the rangers changed the tire.  They therefore arranged to have it towed to an auto repair shop in Medway.  The car remained there for five days until the shop repairmen finally managed to examine it, at which point they determined that they did not have the facilities to fix it.  They recommended that it be sent to another auto repair shop four miles away.  The car is currently (as of 9/27) at this second place, where a cost estimate for repairs will be made.  The insurance adjuster seemed content to allow the first auto repair shop to determine the schedule of getting an estimate; whenever I contacted him his response was “The auto shop hasn’t contacted me yet,” and it never seemed to occur to him that he might be the one who should be initiating the contacting.  I have heard many stories about New England efficiency, but they do not seem applicable to Maine.  Those Down-easters make the Virginia residents of Appalachia seem like paragons of industriousness in comparison. 

I had to miss out on two days of hiking:  Monday (9/21) to verify that the car had been towed, to get an idea from the auto shop as to when they would be able to supply an estimate to the adjuster, and to remove certain items from the car (the remote device for opening my garage door, for example); and Friday (9/25) to make arrangements for getting the car towed for the second auto shop and to go to Bangor International Airport to make arrangements for a car rental to get me and the two group members who rode with me back home. 

At this point I still do not know whether the estimated expenses of the car repair will result in the car being totaled.  The car has covered over 130,000 miles and I was thinking of getting a new one in the next year or so.  Being forced to get a new car at this point is therefore not a particularly severe hardship – though obviously I would be glad to prolong its term of use if it is at all possible.  But to deal with this issue during the entire length of the trip greatly interfered with my enjoyment of it.

This is not to say that the trip was ruined.  The hikes were all enjoyable and some were memorable; the weather was perfect; the foliage was in the midst of acquiring all of the brilliance of a New England autumn; and it was gratifying to be in the company of good friends.  The “episode,” if I may call it such, did not obliterate the pleasure I obtained from the trip but it certainly impaired it considerably. 

I will write at length about the more positive aspects of the trip in another entry.  Suffice it to say that the hikes in Baxter State Park are well worth the effort, particularly at a time of year when the autumn foliage is swiftly approaching its peak, and ascending to the summit to Katahdin is an experience that should not be missed.

Also I will tabulate the statistics of the past ten days, which may illustrate more graphically than a day-to-day report of how rapidly the virus is increasing.

9/18 – # of cases worldwide: 30,691,232; # of deaths worldwide: 956,396; # of cases U.S.: 6,925,941; # of deaths U.S.: 203,171.

9/19 – # of cases worldwide: 30,979,691; # of deaths worldwide: 960,838; # of cases U.S.: 6,967,221; # of deaths U.S.: 203,874.

9/20 – # of cases worldwide: 31,223,952; # of deaths worldwide: 964,762; # of cases U.S.: 7,004,768; # of deaths U.S.: 204,118.

9/21 – # of cases worldwide: 31,475,289; # of deaths worldwide: 969,120; # of cases U.S.: 7,046,216; # of deaths U.S.: 204,506.

9/22 – # of cases worldwide: 31,750,311; # of deaths worldwide: 974,024; # of cases U.S.: 7,096,392; # of deaths U.S.: 205,401.

9/23 – # of cases worldwide: 32,083,275; # of deaths worldwide: 981,219; # of cases U.S.: 7,139,036; # of deaths U.S.: 206,560.

9/24 – # of cases worldwide: 32,407,973; # of deaths worldwide: 957,697; # of cases U.S.: 7,185,471; # of deaths U.S.: 207,538.

9/25 – # of cases worldwide: 32,748,342; # of deaths worldwide: 992,886; # of cases U.S.: 7,236,381; # of deaths U.S.: 208,369.

9/26 – # of cases worldwide: 33,047,704; # of deaths worldwide: 998,285; # of cases U.S.: 7,287,561; # of deaths U.S.: 207,177.

9/27 – # of cases worldwide: 33,297,503; # of deaths worldwide: 1,002,137; # of cases U.S.: 7,320.699 # of deaths U.S.: 209,453.

There doesn’t seem to be any consistency in our day-to-day statistics.  On some days the American case count increase is over 40,000 (even over 50,000 on one day) and on others it is less than 30,000; the American death toll exceeds 1,000 on some days and is relatively low on others; today, for instance, the death toll was 276.  What is clear, however, is that we are unable to display a convincing tread of deceleration.  In all fairness it must be noted that, although the U.S. accounts for just under a third of the cases still active, the American death toll is less than 21% of the world death toll at large.

The virus does appear to be slowing down in Brazil.  Its case rate increase at this point is considerably less than our own.  On the other hand, India is suffering greatly.  It now has over 6,000,000 cases.  The death toll from the virus is relatively low, but it almost certainly is under-reported.  Many Indians die at their homes rather than in hospitals, and there is little regulation as to what is reported on death certificates regarding the cause of death. 

One other undesirable milestone was achieved today:  the world death toll from the COVID virus has surpassed one million.

Beginning of autumnal colors – The burgeoning national economy – Amy Dorris – Evening statistics

Autumn is beginning at last.  The past three nights have been sufficiently cool to initiate the process.  The maple leaves are beginning to redden, although at this point they are a subdued burgundy.  It will require several more days before they achieve the brilliant scarlet color for which they are known.  The majority of the other trees are still green for the most part, but the onset of the color change can be discerned.  I expect the colors to be a good deal more varied when I return from Maine.  In Maine itself, presumably, the process is further advanced, and I and the others should be able to get a glimpse of the famed splendor of a New England autumn.

There have been new developments in the campaign today.  The economy has been growing at a greater pace than most experts have predicted.  The third quarter is now projected to have a GDP growth of 31.7%; at the end of July it was projected to be only 12%.  Retail growth has been relatively modest, but steady, with increases every month for four months running.  Outlays in August not only exceed those of July; they are 2.6% higher than 2019 totals. 

All of which means that Trump’s popularity has increased – perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he is less unpopular than he was formerly.  The polls still show Biden leading, but the gap between the two candidates has narrowed.  According to one poll, for instance, Biden is leading by 6.2%, as opposed to 9% in July. The Democrats are now in an uncomfortable bind as a result.  Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues have blocked increased relief measures, including a $300 billion package promoted by GOP senators. Their reluctance to boost the economy is understandable; any increase of job gains will strengthen Trump’s position.  But if they are perceived as standing in the way of these gains, Biden’s campaign will suffer as a result.  I think in their position that I would try to promote such gains and then claim the credit for them, but that is admittedly a difficult feat to pull off.

However, Trump’s campaign has also had an unexpected setback.  Amy Dorris, a former model, has accused Trump of groping and manhandling her at the 1997 US Open tennis tournament. At the time she had been dating a friend of Trump, Jason Binn, a publisher and an entrepreneur.  She was invited to the event as his girlfriend.  She claims that she told Binn afterward that Trump was physically mistreating her and that it was up to him to intervene; Binn himself has stated that he has no recollection of this interchange between them.  It is now some 24 years after the event and accusations of this sort are notoriously difficult to prove, especially as she continued to remain in Trump’s company as his guest for several days after this episode.  Trump himself has denied it strenuously, but that counts for nothing.  No doubt Trump is wedded to the truth, but he treats it as badly as he has treated his other wives.  I myself think that the charge is possible, indeed probable.  It is well-known that he began his involvement with Marla Maples while he was married to his first wife; and many other women have made similar accusations of sexual harassment.  I doubt if Dorris’ claims will have much impact; still, it is possible that they may make a bit of a dent in his campaign, particularly with regard to his attempts to obtain votes from suburban women. 

It will be a relief to get away from all of this election news for a week!  Not that we will be isolated from it, of course, but one tends to regard headlines less when one is traveling.  I had to make an effort to scan them while I was vacationing in Jim Thorpe last month.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 30,332,359; # of deaths worldwide: 950,110; # of cases U.S.: 6,872,850; # of deaths U.S.: 202,168.  Nearly 45,000 new cases today and only just a bit under 1,000 deaths.  The death rate in the U.S. from the virus at this point is nearly 1 for every 1,600 – which doesn’t sound like a very large fraction, but it mounts up when applied to a population of several hundred million.  And, of course, this is only the official figure.  As has been pointed out in previous entries, the actual death toll is probably higher, perhaps more than 35% higher,

Travel preparations – Possible election difficulties – Evening statistics

An uneventful day, outside of preparing for travel.  I will be going to Maine on Friday with several others and we will be staying together in a couple of rented houses to do some hiking there.  We will be driving, of course; at this point journeys on airplanes appear to be too uncertain.  (The air on the planes themselves is continually filtered and the chances of catching the virus while in flight should be fairly low, but waiting to be boarded in a crowded airport is another matter.)  The drive will take about 12 hours and it will be fairly grueling at times; but, as the poet Byron once remarked in his letters, comfort must not be expected when one goes a-pleasuring.  As with the earlier trip in August, I will take notes on a day-to-day basis, including the statistics for COVID cases; but I won’t be able to upload anything about the trip until I return. 

There is a good deal of speculation on what will happen if Donald Trump is defeated but refuses to concede.  That seems a valid cause for concern, for he has publicly declared that there is no way that he can be legitimately defeated.  We had a similar crisis in 2000, when disagreement over the vote count in Florida generated several lawsuits initiated by both parties and was eventually escalated to the Supreme Count, which decided in favor of George Bush.  Al Gore conceded at that point, not wishing to escalate the struggle further still to Congress.  I am not an admirer of Gore – I find it difficult to respect a man who, while preaching about the need to conserve in order to staunch the tide of climate change, lives in a huge house that soaks up resources and takes private jets to wherever he travels as a matter of course – but in this instance I give him full credit for averting what could have been a national upheaval.   

It probably can be taken for granted that there will be an election dispute of some sort.  Individual states whose vote count is challenged have until December 8 to resolve any disputes over the vote, with state electors casting their Electoral College votes on December 14.  After that, Congress will tally the Electoral College votes on January 6, in a joint session led by the incumbent vice-president who is also president of the Senate (Mike Pence in this case).  If Congress fails to reach an agreement, the US would be in a situation similar to that of the disputed 1876 election when several states sent competing electoral college votes to Congress and the crisis was resolved only two days before the inauguration.

If no president is declared to be the winner, the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) would be appointed the acting president until the situation is resolved.  But if each party declares its candidate to be the winner and refuses to concede, then even this compromise would not come to pass.  Basically the inauguration in 2021 could be delayed for months, depending on how many politicians are willing to follow Trump’s lead in placing party politics over national interests. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 30,015,552; # of deaths worldwide: 944,499; # of cases U.S.: 6,825,967; # of deaths U.S.: 201,278.  The earlier slowdown in our rates of increase has been only temporary; it looks like we are back to averaging 35,000-40,000 new cases and over 1,000 deaths daily.  India’s case rate is more alarming still; it is receiving close to 100,000 new cases per day.  Its case count already exceeds 5,000,000.  (It must be remembered, however, that India’s population is four times the size of our own, so proportionately the rate of infection is still a good deal lower – 0.4% of India’s population has been infected, as opposed to well over 2% of ours.) 

Cooler weather at last – A raccoon in Fairfax – A cautionary tale about COVID – Evening statistics

It was truly autumnal weather today:  mainly in the high 60s, 71 degrees at the most during the warmest part of the afternoon, and brisk enough in the morning to warrant donning a jacket.  During the preceding evening as well, it was cool enough to sleep comfortably under blankets with the windows open.  On the other hand, the sky lacked the clarity that we have, most unusually, been seeing for the entire summer.  It was more typical of the bleached appearance we normally see during late summer than previous days have been:  rather hazy, with greyish overtones, despite being cloudless.  The smoke from the wildfires in the West appears to be the cause; it has drifted over 2500 miles to blight our area as well, even though it is somewhat dissipated by this time.

The cooler temperatures seem to have made wildlife a bit more active.  When walking close to City Hall today to perform various errands, I saw a raccoon scampering across the street.  Its forearms were much shorter in proportion to its hind legs, so that it had the appearance of a four-legged animal making an attempt to walk on two legs and not quite succeeding.  It was a bit startling to see one in broad daylight on the streets, for they are generally nocturnal (although they frequently visit well-populated areas, being attracted by the refuse in garbage cans).  I was careful to give it a wide berth, especially as it appeared to hobble a bit, which is often a sign of rabies.  It passed by without showing any signs of aggression but it made no attempt to avoid me.

Certain stories about people who contract the COVID virus should be widely circulated as correctives for others who tend to be over-confident about their immune systems on account of their active lifestyle – in which category, incidentally, I include myself.  Because I have no underlying conditions, there are times when it seems to me that my chances of contracting the virus are low and that I have less to worry about than most people of my age.  But these are illusions.  The case of Natalie Hakala is a reminder of how relentless the COVID virus can be. 

She was a college student at Concordia University, in her senior year and a practiced distance runner, attaining a time of 2:17 for the 800-meter race.  When the university shut down in March, she went back to her family in Eugene, OR, where she self-quarantined for two weeks after her return.  She finished her classes online and graduated virtually, while avoiding contact with anyone outside her family.  But in July she went camping in the woods with five other friends. Ultimately five of the six campers came down with the virus, but Hakala is the only one who sustained lingering symptoms.  When she tried to run, two weeks after she tested positive and was no longer contagious, she could not go more than 100 yards; she not only was winded but she felt contractions in her chest and her heartbeat was racing.  Eventually the most trivial tasks, such as preparing coffee in the morning, left her feeling breathless.  When matters became so severe that she felt it incumbent to check into a hospital, it was discovered that her lungs had only 79% oxygen saturation (anything under 90% is considered dangerously low).  She was diagnosed with costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage in the rib cage), pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart), and pleurisy (inflammation of the tissue surrounding the lungs).  She is recovering now, but very slowly, and it will be several months before she regains the energy to run again. 

So much pertaining to this virus is a mystery; how is that Hakala was so severely affected when her camping friends all endured minor symptoms and are now as healthy as they were before?  But one thing is certain:  Hakala’s normal state of health was enviable; she was active and vigorous in her daily habits; and she was barely over 20 years of age.  “I was taking the virus seriously,” she said of her experience.  “But you always think it’s not going to happen to you.”  Her mother, who is a physician’s assistant, has a passage on her Facebook page that is worth quoting:

“Many on my Facebook feed think that the death rate from this virus should dictate policy. A very myopic point of view from my experience. This virus also disables people. They are called the long haulers and any age is affected. My daughter was top in her conference in the 800m and cross country at her college last year. Now 7 weeks later, after a 3 day stay in the Covid unit, she still can’t walk across the room without discomfort. 7 weeks and not well. She’s a healthy collegiate runner who now can’t walk across a room, so if you think it’s just a cold or kids get over it easily then you are fooling yourself. This virus does not care and we have no cure.”

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 29,714,016; # of deaths worldwide: 938,366; # of cases U.S.: 6,787,282; # of deaths U.S.: 200,163.   We have passed another unenviable milestone today:  our death toll has exceeded 200,000.  The epidemiologists now say that this amount will double by the end of the year, and unfortunately this prediction seems only too likely to prove justified.  Today alone there were more than 1,000 new deaths. 

The long, hot summer – Haircut, no appointment necessary – Trump’s latest feat – Evening statistics

My impression that the summer was hotter than usual has received confirmation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  It released data today showing that the Northern Hemisphere endured the hottest summer on record.  In particular, the period from June through August was 2.11 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average.  The heat has moderated today, reaching only the high 70s.  In the morning a wind was blowing briskly, so that was quite cool outside; later on the wind died down but at no time did the temperature rise to 80 degrees.  It has been a long time since we’ve had such temperate weather in this area. 

We are definitely relaxing in some respects with respect to the restrictions imposed by the virus.  It was an odd experience when, after spending months not being able to get a haircut at all and some months after that being able to get one by appointment only, to walk casually into a barbershop and have my hair cut without any difficulty at all.  The barber managed to cut my hair – including trimming my eyebrows – without lifting my face mask once, which is a fairly impressive display of manual dexterity. 

I have not mentioned President Trump for several days running, which, no doubt, must be a source of disappointment for him.  The fact is, he has done nothing out of the ordinary until recently.  To be sure, he has dragged his feet in responding to the wildfires in the West, has organized a mass rally in Nevada with blatant disregard for the guidelines on social distancing and wearing face masks, has sneered at the Nevada governor for attempting to hold him down to such guidelines, has turned against Matt Drudge because the site run by the latter has focused on some negative news about him, and has been abusive generally with anyone who disagrees with him in the least trifling particular; but these are, if not exactly the “new normal,” are at any rate the “Trump normal,” and thus scarcely worth remarking upon.   I am happy to report, however, he has managed to outdo himself once again in a tweet this weekend about Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, which runs as follows: 

“Was Andy McCabe ever forced to pay back the $700,000 illegally given to him and his wife, for his wife’s political campaign, by Crooked Hillary Clinton while Hillary was under FBI investigation, and McCabe was the head of the FBI???”

This rhetorical question ignores several circumstances:

1. The $700,000 was donated to the 2015 campaign of Jill McCabe, Andrew McCabe’s wife, when she ran for the Virginia Senate, and not a  penny of it was given to Andrew McCabe
2. The donations came jointly from the state Democratic party and a PAC formed by Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia state governor at the time, were publicly declared, and were perfectly legal
3. Hillary Clinton was not one of the contributors
4. McCabe was not head of the FBI in 2015 or 2016; he was the acting director for three months in 2017, two years after his wife ran to be elected, and the investigation of Hillary Clinton did not occur under his direction

Four mis-statements in a single sentence!  This must be a new record.  Our President is an inspiration to dissemblers and fabricators all over the world.  At times I am driven to wonder whether the term “trumped-up story” was coined in his honor.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 29,434,021; # of deaths worldwide: 932,397; # of cases U.S.: 6,749,168; # of deaths U.S.: 198,975.  A setback after yesterday; the number of new cases is nearly 40,000, although the daily death toll is still under 500.  Italy, once a significant epicenter of the virus, now ranks only 20^th among the countries with the greatest number of cases.  That is not so much because the virus has subsided there – it is still getting over 1,000 new cases a day on the average – as much as that the virus in other countries has become increasingly widespread.  Over the past couple of months the case count has increased dramatically in countries where it had until recently been relatively low, such as India, Argentina, Iraq, and South Africa, among others.

Delayed autumnal colors – Hiking with Wanderbirds members on the AT – New lockdown in Israel – Strange development in our election – Evening statistics

It is now mid-September and yet the foliage has not begun to change color; the nights have not been cool enough.  Flaubert, in his Dictionary of Clichés, includes the following definitions of “Summer” and “Winter”:

“Summer – always ‘unusual.’  (see Winter)

“Winter – always ‘unusual.’  (see Summer)”

However, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to claim that this summer of 2020 has been hotter and has lasted longer than average, at any rate in our area.  Normally by this time of year the foliage begins its annual transformation.  It is a slow process, not reaching peak until mid-October or beyond.  The autumn colors this year may be duller on account of the shortened amount of time for their development.

Nonetheless, it was quite cool this morning when I joined AD and half-a-dozen others to hike from Manassas Gap northward towards the Trico Tower Trail, where we completed a brief loop with the latter trail and a fire road before returning:  10 miles in all and 2100 feet of elevation gain.  I am rather sorry I have not visited this area more often in recent months.  It is best-known for the profusion of trillium that grows in the Linden area in May but it contains a great variety of vegetation throughout the year and even now, in late summer, there were wildflowers everywhere:  jewelweed, mountain sunflowers, knotweed, asters.  It was cloudy for the better part of the day, which probably helped to keep the temperature down.  It was only during the last mile or so of our return that the clouds parted and the temperature began to get very warm; but even so, it was never warm to the point of being uncomfortable.  Afterwards we snacked together, as in the Wanderbird days, with soft drinks and tea and fruit and cheese.  It was a near-perfect day, centered around a lovely hike done among congenial company. 

Israel will be entering a three-week lockdown, which had been lifted in May.  It is the first developed country to take this measure.  It has had a surge in new cases – nearly 3,400 per day for the last seven days, an amount which, given the country’s small population size, is proportionately more than four times higher than our own.  The earlier lockdown during the spring apparently helped to reduce the rate of infection but it had unfortunate effects on the country’s economy, greatly increasing the unemployment rate.  The new lockdown is scheduled to begin on Rosh Hashonah, the beginning of the Jewish High Holiday season.  It remains to be seen how successfully the lockdown can be enforced.  The Jews have already been deprived of the greater part of the Passover celebrations earlier on account of the virus.  Both on Rosh Hashonah (the new year holiday) and the evening at the end of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, which involves a fast lasting 24 hours minimum and which generally concludes by breaking the fast with a celebratory meal), large family gatherings are traditional.  It is going to take a vigorous effort to persuade them to forego such celebrations this year.

Our election is taking a rather peculiar turn – given the circumstances, I suppose it could hardly do otherwise.  Republicans are spending a good deal of time having volunteers knocking on doors and attempting to use personal interaction as a means of persuasion.  What is peculiar is that they are basing this strategy on a book called “Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America” – whose subject, as the name indicates, is about Barack Obama’s field operation during his presidential campaigns.  It has become required reading for all Republican staffers – greatly to the surprise of the book’s authors, who did not expect to acquire such an unusual set of devotees.  Hahrie Han, one of the co-authors, says that she is not certain whether these new readers have fully comprehended the guidelines she recommends:  while the element of personal contact is important, she says, Obama’s campaign succeeded because of the relationships that he slowly build up well in advance before any door-knocking began.  However that may be, the Republicans have taken the book that describes the campaigns of a President whom their own candidate has repeatedly maligned as their standard, while the Democrats appear to be ignoring it and to be relying on contact by telephone only. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 29,172,614; # of deaths worldwide: 927,923; # of cases U.S.: 6,707,025; # of deaths U.S.: 198,476.  Just over 30,000 new cases today, and less than 350 deaths. 

A new food market – The Age of Euphemism – Wildfires in the West – Execution of an Iranian athlete – Evening statistics

Yet another supermarket has recently opened in the Fairfax area.  The open-air mall at Fairfax Circle was in a very shabby state for several years and then was dismantled altogether.  For a while – that is to say, for three or four years – the buildings were unoccupied and crumbling into ruins; finally, construction began, the old buildings were torn down, new ones were built.  Just a few weeks ago the most elaborate of the buildings was taken over by Giant (a food store chain widely distributed in the mid-Atlantic states) to perform the function of “anchor” for this emerging combination of shopping center and condominiums.  I went there today and found it to be quite elaborate.  It was not crowded as food stores were crowded during the early days of the virus, but it was far from deserted.  While I’m certainly not complaining, I continue to be surprised at the number of food stores that have opened in this area – especially in recent months, when one would have expected the current economic climate to be unfavorable to such enterprises.  This is the second large food market store that has newly opened within three miles of my house in less than six weeks. 

In driving to the store I passed by an intersection with the road that skirts along one side of Fairfax High School.  The name of the road used to be called “Rebel Run” but it has changed within the past few months (in late June, I believe) to “Lion Run.”  I certainly am not a supporter of the “Lost Cause” and have no use for sentimentalizing over a group of men who fought to preserve the institution of slavery.  But it is one thing to repudiate such a cause and it is quite another to pretend that it never existed by erasing every reference to it.  At this rate the 21^st century is on the road to outdoing the 19^th in its use of euphemisms.

Wildfires continue to rage in California, Oregon, and Washington.  Nearly 70 fires are active along the West Coast, six of them ranking among the top 20 of the largest wildfires in the history of California.  At least 29 people are dead, dozens more are missing, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes.  The worst of the fires in California are in the Bay Area; but Los Angeles, where my brother lives, has endured the worst smog it has seen in 26 years.  Cities such as Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco have for days been seeing skies colored a ghastly orange, festooned with black and white smoke.  The situation is exacerbated by the extreme heat of the past several weeks (triple-digit temperatures for many days in succession). 

Navid Afkari, an Iranian wrestling champion, has been executed for stabbing a security guard for Iran’s water and sewage department to death.  As a matter of course, athletes from all over the world have joined in protests over his death, calling for Iran’s expulsion from world sport.  I’m sure it must come as a shock to them that there still exist some nations in the world who do not believe that professional athletes are entitled to special privileges in such matters and that not every country is as gentle and forgiving as the United States is for celebrities such as O. J. Simpson.  For my part, although I am not particularly well-disposed to the Iranian regime, I cannot fault them in this instance:  it is no crime to kill an assassin. The attack appears to have been unprovoked, the victim dying from being stabbed in the back; and the murder of Hassan Turkman, the security guard in question, has plunged several relatives into mourning, including Turkman’s three young children.  Iranian law allows a man who commits homicide to pay restitution to the victim’s relatives in exchange for his life if they agree to such an arrangement.  The offer of payment was made to Turkman’s family, but they refused, insisting on sentence being carried out on the man who had killed their kinsman; and I would have done the same in their place.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 28, 928,750; # of deaths worldwide: 924,054; # of cases U.S.: 6,674,763; # of deaths U.S.: 198,120.  Some falling off in numbers since yesteday:  less than 40,000 new cases and just under 700 new deaths.  But we’re not back at the level of the previous few days. 

9/11 Attack:  a personal reminiscence – An interval of peace amid the 2020 campaigns – Evening statistics

It is the 19^th anniversary of the famous attack of 9/11/2001 upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  Many people have personal stories to tell of that time, particularly those who resided in New York and Washington DC.  My own experience is not, perhaps, especially striking or dramatic, but it is one of the few times of my life that I was personally involved in an event that was reported on the national news, and it is not surprising that memories of it recur now.

I was working at that time on a project that was developing a weather satellite for NASA.  The office was in Greenbelt, just a few miles from the Goddard Space Flight Center.  On the 11^th of September members of our group were attending a weekly meeting there, which was a progress review that reported on issues uncovered during the preceding week, assigning the resolution of these issues to various engineers, and monitoring status of the work completed on the issues that had already been assigned.  These meetings were among the few during the course of my career that I actually looked forward to attending with eagerness.  The reason for this was the Project Manager, Bonnie Seton, of whom I must say a few words.

Government agencies vary greatly in their treatment of the contractors they employ.  Some hold the contractors at arms’ length; they are not at all unpleasant, but there is little or no mixing and camaraderie among the two groups of the agency’s employees and the contractors is not encouraged.  Others, among whom NASA and the FAA stand out in my memory, have the opposite approach; they go out of their way to make the contractors feel comfortable working alongside their own subordinates and to abolish, at any rate to the extent possible, any suggestion of a caste system.  For example, it was the custom of the EDOS project (which is the name of the satellite for which we were developing software) to hold catered office parties at the completion of various milestones, and to these celebrations Bonnie Seton issued a pressing invitation via her counterpart in Northrop Grumman for the engineers in his group to attend.  It would not be a team, she insisted, if we were to feel excluded.  These celebrations were not especially elaborate but they were very enjoyable and they did contribute to our bonding with the NASA engineers on the project with whom we were working.

But apart from her personal qualities there was another reason that it was a pleasure to be working on a project under her direction.  Quite simply, she ran meetings better than anyone else I have ever seen, either before or since.

Engineers have a tendency, when confronted with a technical issue, to attempt to solve it on the spot, not always regarding the fact that they may not possess the necessary data to do so and that it may require more research before such an attempt even becomes feasible.  Without losing her temper or even raising her voice – she was always polite to everyone – she quietly, but firmly made it known that the purpose of the meeting was to identify issues and then to assign them to the engineers best qualified to solve them.  If they could be solved quickly, so much the better; but they were to be solved outside of the meeting itself, which had many different items to cover.  In this way we did not get bogged down on one particular item at the expense of all of the others.  The meetings she ran were among almost the only ones I have ever attended in the confidence that the last items on the agenda would receive as much attention as the first.

I have striven, when I had meetings of my own to run in later years, to imitate her example; but it seems in such matters administrators are born, not made.  I managed pretty well, but I never flattered myself that I was at her level. 

At all events, we had assembled, both the contingent from NASA and the contingent from Northrop Grumman – all except one engineer, whose absence occasioned some surprise, for he was punctual in his habits and he had not called in to report himself ill that day.  We waited a little, but then as there was much to discuss we decided to begin without him.  About fifteen minutes after the meeting began he came bustling in, breathless and apologetic, saying that there had been a great deal of traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (which has an exit ramp leading directly to the Goddard Center).  There had been an incident, it appeared, on the national news, an attack of some sort, or possibly an accident, about which the details were uncertain.  We thought no more about the matter and continued our discussion when, shortly afterwards, a knock was heard at the door and Bonnie Seton, upon answering it, was called out of the room.  We tried to go on with the meeting during her absence – which, however, did not last long.  Shortly afterwards she re-entered and, without saying a word, turned on the television set that was also used for video tele-conferencing. 

And there we saw it – the first of the Twin Towers to be struck (the North Tower), all in flames, as newscasters reported the surreal-sounding story of a plane that had crashed into its façade just a few minutes earlier.  It was not even clear whether or not it was some unaccountable sort of accident.  And as we were trying to assimilate the knowledge of the damage that had been done and the number of lives that must be lost, we watched in horror as a second plane headed – mercilessly, inexorably – to the South Tower and crashed on its façade as well, igniting yet another deadly fire. 

We could hardly speak at first.  We looked at each other in mute shock, with disordered feelings, with agitation that was none the less intense for being silent. 

And then all at once our tongues loosened, talking almost at random.  Who had done this?  And why?  And in the meantime the footage and the reports continued with relentless intensity:  shots of people running frantically along the Brooklyn Bridge for safety, shots of people trapped on the upper floors of the South Tower electing to jump and die quickly rather than endure a prolonged death by fire; reports of a third attack – on the Pentagon this time – reports of a plane crash in Pennsylvania suspected to be a hijacked plane that failed in its mission, reports of fires spreading along the entire district of Wall Street.  There seemed to be no end of new developments, each more horrifying than the last. 

And all the while we engineers from Northrop Grumman had an uneasy feeling that our presence was no longer needed that morning, that we were in fact very much in the way.  Signs of activity were becoming apparent in the Goddard facility; sounds of many footsteps were heard in the corridors; various people were evidently being summoned for emergency decisions.  The area in the Twin Towers area had to be scanned for any data that could be obtained, and discussions were being held about the numerous satellites that were eventually deployed for this purpose.  (In fact, the EDOS satellite was used in subsequent days; several of our own engineers participated in this effort to obtain and interpret the data.)  Any idea of continuing our weekly meeting was, of course, not even a matter of discussion.  Presently, indeed, the director of the project on the Northrop Grumman side called all of us together in one corner of the room and told us quietly that, as non-Government personnel, we would oblige the NASA administrators by leaving as expeditiously as possible.

This directive we were not at all sorry to obey, for by now it was apparent that staying on any Government facility at such a time could be hazardous.  For all we knew, there could be dozens of additional hijacked planes on their way to various targets in the DC Metro area.  It took us a while to get out, of course, for we all had to drive via a single exit and there were several non-Government personnel besides ourselves who had been directed to leave. 

Eventually, however, the security guard waved at me to let me through; and, thoroughly drained, I returned to the Northrop Grumman facility.  Here I asked my supervisor if it were possible to take my work home and complete it there.  The concept of working outside of the office was much more rudimentary then and he appeared a little surprised at this request but, after some reflection, he agreed.  I felt that I could not sit in the office that day.  The nature of the work was such that I had no difficulty in completing it outside of the Northrop Grumman facility and, indeed, I finished it more quickly than I would have done in the office, because I had no interruptions to contend with.  I was sorry for it in a way, for the more I plunged into my assignments the easier it was to drive the images of that morning from my mind; but it unfortunately was finished only too quickly and then it was impossible not to dwell on the events I had witnessed.  One picture in particular lingered, and it haunts me to this day:  the footage of a man standing on a ledge, sweaty, disheveled, his necktie askew, briefly folding his hands together (possibly in prayer), casting a last despairing look at the building in flames and then at the depths below, before plunging to his death.

Such is the story of my personal involvement in the events of 9/11.  It is, as I say, not especially dramatic, though the impressions it left behind were sufficiently vivid.  I certainly experienced nothing as harrowing as what my cousin and his family in New York endured.  They had a close friend who was a firefighter at a station not far from the Towers; and when my cousin heard the news of the attacks and learned that the firefighters in the area had rushed to the scene, he knew at once that he would never see his friend again – and so indeed it proved.  This friend was only in his early forties and was the father of small children.  To this day, my cousin will not go to World Trade Center site (Ground Zero) or visit the museum there, even though his own mother (my aunt) works there as a docent; the memories it arouses are too bitter. 

The remembrance of the events of 9/11 has injected a rare note of civility and good manners in the Presidential campaign.  Donald Trump delivered a speech in Shanksville, PA, the site of the crash of the plane that passengers had wrested from the hijackers, with the knowledge that their own lives would be forfeited in the process.  The President made a speech honoring their sacrifice, and it must be impartially recorded that the speech was an excellent one, without a trace of the superciliousness or boorishness he had displayed earlier towards the Marines who had fallen at Belleau Woods.  Joe Biden spoke at New York, delivering a speech with equal appropriateness.  Mike Pence was also present at the ceremony, and he and Biden greeted one another amicably.  We should savor this rare moment of concord, for the days to come will be full of vituperation on both sides.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 28,637,592; # of deaths worldwide: 918,892; # of cases U.S.: 6,634,305; # of deaths U.S.: 197,361.  Sadly, we are back to the old numbers:  a case increase of more than 40,000 and a daily death toll of over 1,000.  We can’t seem to achieve a deceleration that lasts more than a few days at a time.  Italy, once the country that was the object of the greatest amount of pity, now has a slightly lower death rate than our own (589 per million inhabitants in Italy, 596 per million in the U.S.).  At this point we have entered the category of countries that have seen more than 2% of its entire population become infected with the virus.  

An “average” amount of rainfall – Our current holding pattern – Various reactions to guidelines on the virus – Travel plans – The oncoming election – Trump on the defensive again – Our media’s local patriotism – Fire in Beirut – Evening statistics

It rained steadily yesterday and the rain continued off and on today, quite heavily in the mid-afternoon.  We had a good deal of rain in the spring, well above the normal amount for that season, followed by a long drought in late June and much of July, whereas August and this first part of September has seen a return to normal levels.  I suppose it will all work out to an average amount of rainfall by the end of the year, but one wishes that it could have been more evenly distributed throughout the months.

In looking back over the journal entries I can see a gradual shift in tone.  When I began the journal conditions were changing on almost a daily basis, and although the changes were not agreeable in themselves, they at any rate had the merit of novelty.  The early entries, as a result, have a good deal more variety.  Now we are in a kind of holding pattern.  The shortages we underwent in the early days of the pandemic are pretty much at an end (in this area at least – I cannot answer so confidently for the nation at large).  There are occasional items, such as housewipes, that can be difficult to acquire, but most foods and most cleaning supplies can be obtained easily.  I have no difficulty in finding flour, yeast, fish, fruit, and so on, as I did in March and early April.  The traffic situation appears to have become stable.  It is still on the low side compared to what it was before the virus practically cleared the roads.  One can travel on the Beltway during rush hour with considerably less chance of being caught in a traffic jam than before.   When I drive through Fairfax going from west to east along Rte. 50 in the late afternoon, I do not feel impelled to use back ways to avoid the Kamp Washington intersection, as I used to do during afternoon rush hour in pre-COVID days.  However, the times when the highways were more or less deserted are a thing of the past.  Again, people have more or less resigned themselves to wearing face masks indoors and I have not seen or read of any encounters between store employees and customers about this issue lately, although of course there are always going to be a few exceptions intent on making a fuss about it. 

The restrictions, or at any rate the guidelines, have lasted for months and people are looking forward to the day when they can be eased.  When can we invite people to our own houses again? – if not to host large parties, at any rate to entertain small groups of six or eight or twelve.  When will we be able to freely visit the interiors of other people’s houses?  When will it be feasible to risk using public transportation?  When will we be able to travel out of town again?  There are no clear answers to these questions at this point.  Some people are being bolder than others.  Without neglecting common prudence to the extent displayed, for instance, by the attendees of the recent rally in Sturgis, several are resuming social intercourse with a small circle of friends, or using the Metro on a regular basis, or taking flights to other parts of the country.  Quite a number walk outside without wearing masks, even though they will wear masks inside public buildings and stores. 

I have been more or less middle-of-the-road.  I wear a face mask not only in stores and public buildings but when I’ve gone outside, unless I’m hiking on trails that require considerable exertion – where, as it seems to me, a face mask will not be of much use when I am breathing heavily as I go panting up a hill.  Also, it tends to interfere with depth perception.  I have driven my car with one passenger, but that passenger sits on the right side and in the back.  So far I have not driven anyone sitting alongside me in the passenger seat.  I will be taking a couple of trips with other people later this month and in October.  But we will be driving, not flying – I have not reached the point of confidence to risk going to a crowded airport.  (The planes themselves seem safe enough, but boarding them is a different matter.)  We will be staying in rented houses, and each of us will have a separate room.  It is more expensive, but neither myself nor the majority of my acquaintance are prepared to risk sharing a room night by night for a week or more on end.

And if there are fewer new developments to report on how the virus is impacting our daily lives, political events are occupying a greater amount of space in the journal.  That, I suppose, is inevitable during the months just preceding a presidential election.  There have been numerous rallies and of course the Democratic and Republican Conventions occurred just two or three weeks ago.  The rhetoric is becoming more heated, as always happens during the September and October preceding an election; but in this case it has a certain degree of monotony.  Donald Trump’s idea of campaigning is simply to lobby insults at his opponents; there is no attempt to refute their positions or disprove their accusations.  It must be said in his defense that this strategy seems to work – at least, it did during his previous campaign in 2016. 

Trump is undergoing difficulties, however, on account of the book by Bob Woodward that accuses him of deliberately ignoring the severity of the virus and downplaying it in the knowledge that it was much more deadly than he publicly claimed.  This accusation is based not on a few off-the-cuff remarks but upon a series of eighteen detailed interviews held between December and July, all of them on tape.   Incidentally, Woodward himself has not escaped criticism for sitting on this story instead of sending the details to his employers at the Washington Post so that warnings could be supplied to the public earlier.  But Woodward, of course, is not a public official; his casual dismissal of the responsibility of warning to the American public about the dangers of the virus is merely callous, whereas Trump’s deliberate concealment and evasiveness on this matter is, by virtue of his public position, almost treasonable.  At all events, he is on the defensive again, and that is not a good position to occupy a bare 53 days before the election.   

There have been fewer references to events outside of the U.S., partly because coverage of events outside of our borders has always been rather sporadic and incomplete.  If I have not mentioned, for instance, the fact the lockdown in South Africa caused three million people to lose their jobs in the first week alone or that Great Britain is still struggling to work out the terms of the Brexit from the EU or that China and India have been exchanging shots of ammunition over their border for the first time in 45 years – it is because these stories have failed to make much impression upon the American media, although they certainly are significant enough to the people actually living in the above-named countries. We are more likely to read about a sighting of a tiger running loose in the vicinity of Knoxville, TN (one of the headlines featured in various articles) than about any of these.  It seems that a sheriff’s deputy spotted a large feline, probably striped, going about at night.  The Knoxville area contains both a zoo and a sanctuary for big cats called Tiger Haven, but neither of them is missing any tigers.  It is possible that someone acquired this one illegally and then released it after getting tired of looking after it.  The story is an interesting curiosity, but the emphasis on it seems disproportionate in comparison with events like those I have mentioned.

One event that did make the headlines is that Beirut has endured a huge fire that comes just after the devastating explosion that occurred in August 4^th, which killed nearly 200 people and caused massive property damage.  It is unclear what triggered the fire, but it started in the warehouse area, in an aid agency that was storing food and cooking oil.  Unfortunately, the agency’s building is in close proximity to warehouses containing rubber tires and other flammable material.  The fire has been less serious in its impact that the explosion a month earlier; so far, at least, no injuries have been reported. As an indication of how much esteem the current administration enjoys, many Lebanese are accusing its politicians of deliberately trying to destroy evidence at the port that led to the blast.  And at that, they may be right.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 28,313,440; # of deaths worldwide: 913,090; # of cases U.S.: 6,585,742; # of deaths U.S.: 196,145. 

The insurance agent – Trump receives endorsements from multiple sources – Patriarch Filaret – Evening statistics

Some days ago I noticed a slight crack, less than a half-inch long, on my windshield and I decided to get it fixed today.  The repair itself presented no difficulty, but dealing with the insurance company was rather frustrating.  I could not make the representative understand that I noticed the crack after it had actually occurred, perhaps well after.  She kept asking me for particulars about how it happened, even after I assured her that I had not the slightest idea.  Finally I gave up the attempt, realizing that the only way to make progress was to give her the answers she wished to hear.  “When did it happen?”  I supplied a fictitious date.  “Did it occur while you were driving?”  I couldn’t really see what bearing this question had on the matter; but – OK, yes, sure, it occurred while I was driving.  “Where did it happen?”  There are several highways in the area that I use fairly often, so I chose one of these at random.  “And what do you think the cause was?”  By this time I was getting caught up in the game our conversation had become, so I spun a yarn about how that highway had traces of recent construction and when I was driving behind a truck some bits of asphalt flew about as the truck’s wheel went over it, causing several of them to strike the windshield.  In retrospect I’m rather pleased with my powers of invention.  In this way we had an amicable discussion that ended in the claim getting processed.  So it worked out in the end, but I am still a bit nonplussed by the insurance agent who virtually demanded me to lie to her.

I am feeling somewhat less hopeful about the upcoming election.  Donald Trump is clearly worried about the outcome; he has been attacking people at random, Kamala Harris in particular.  But he has also received boosts from an array of people whose opinions will have some influence. 

Dr. Fauci has publicly stated that Trump did not distort what he was hearing about the virus from the various experts and that much of his optimism during the early months reflected the current wisdom at the time.  He is responding to a report by Bob Woodward which claims that Trump knew about the severity of the virus from early days onwards and deliberately suppressed this knowledge.  My own recollection is closer to Woodward’s account of the matter than Dr. Fauci’s.  I have not forgotten, for instance, how Trump sparred with various state governors, in many cases actively thwarting their efforts to ensure the health and safety of the citizens of their states.  He has also disparaged Dr. Fauci publicly on several occasions.  So it is rather odd that Dr. Fauci has said so much on his behalf.  Fauci is a man of integrity and has worked tirelessly during the pandemic, so I cannot write him off as a highly placed crony such as Attorney General Barr or Secretary of State Pompeo; but it is something of a blow to see him making excuses on Trump’s behalf.

And if that were not enough of a setback, Donald Trump has received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.  He did indeed help to broker a negotiation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, to the extent that they are now allowing air travel between the two countries, and it is possible that this arrangement will pave the way towards easing tensions in the Mideast at large to some degree.  In all honesty I cannot see that this nomination is as outrageous as the episode of the prize being awarded in 1973 to Henry Kissenger for his arranging a “peace” between North Vietnam and South Vietnam that led directly to the latter country being invaded 18 months later.  But the timing of this nomination is, to say the least, unfortunate.

In addition Trump has received an endorsement from an unexpected source.  Noor Bin Laden, the niece of Osama Bin Laden but a dedicated opponent of ISIS who has unequivocally denounced her uncle’s terrorism, has gone so far as to say that Trump’s re-election is crucial to preventing a repetition of the attacks made on 9/11/2001.  She also claims that ISIS grew in stature during Obama’s presidency as a result of his policies, implicating Biden as well by association.

I do not see that Trump can be acquitted of irresolution and poor decisions in his handling of the virus, to the extent that our nation is now accounting for well over a third of the world’s active cases.  I believe that the new accord between Israel and the UAE must undergo the test of time for at least a few months before anyone can judge how lasting it might be.  I do not agree with Noor Bin Laden’s assessment that Trump is better qualified than Biden to handle potential terrorist threats, especially in light of his rocky relationship with the national military.  But all of these claims have given a new impetus to Trump’s campaign and will make Biden’s attempt to defeat him much more arduous.

A report has come in of yet another religious leader who believed his priestly status exempted him from the ravages of the coronavirus, only to discover how very much mistaken such an assumption is.  Patriarch Filaret, who leads the Kyiv Patriarchy of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians (one of the largest religious groups in the Ukraine), declared that the pandemic was a punishment from God for permitting same-sex marriages.  In March he said that God “will not allow me to get sick, because I have to serve the church.”  He is now being treated for the virus, which, if we are to believe his explanation of the pandemic, leads one to speculate whether he has been fondling the altar boys.  There is a certain type of humility that is sometimes called “Jesuitical”:  an elaborate display of self-effacement that professes a great lack of pride in words, but which is extremely self-conscious and which generally conceals a core of self-satisfied, smug superiority over the other sinners that comprise the greater part of mankind.  It is a species of humility by no means confined to followers of Ignatius Loyola, and may be said to be something of an occupational hazard for religious leaders generally.  Patriarch Filaret is only one of many heads of congregations whose protestations of their sense of unworthiness are nothing but veils drawn over their arrogant assumption that they are God’s favorites.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 27,998,402; # of deaths worldwide: 907,055; # of cases U.S.: 6,548,340; # of deaths U.S.: 195,184. Another day with lower new case numbers than the previous week (just over 30,000) but today we saw more than 1,000 deaths. 

Continued fallout from the Atlantic article – Eric Trump’s attempt to belittle Joe Biden – Republican campaign financial difficulties – Hiking to see the “castles” – Evening statistics  (both days)

I spent yesterday (the 6^th) catching up with various errands such as laundry, lawn-mowing, attending to some correspondence involving my mother’s care, etc., and I felt a bit lethargic about writing as a result.  And yet the day’s news was not without significance.  The article in The Atlantic that reported that Donald Trump referred to the Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “losers” appears to have struck a raw nerve.  Trump is now calling upon his followers to bombard the journal with protests and has issued denial after denial, accusing the report as being – you guessed it – “fake news,” his favorite phrase for any type of report that does not present him in a flattering light.  He does not seem to realize that the more frequently he attempts to refute the story the greater the amount of attention is drawn to it; and one is tempted to say that at last he is over-reaching himself – were it not for the fact that he has said and done many things quite as outrageous in the past and these mishaps seem to have no impact upon his supporters.  Still, he does appear to be flailing out in increasing desperation.  The blocs who supported him in 2016 are no longer to be counted upon.  Moderate, college-educated, suburban women, who supported Trump four years ago, appear to be leaning towards Biden now, while many veterans are not at all placated by his denials, which, it must be admitted, sound extremely unconvincing.

Eric Trump has attempted to speak on behalf of his father and he has done so in a way that is characteristic of the Trump family generally, i.e., by denigrating someone else.  On Labor Day he attacked Biden, saying that “Everything this guy does is low energy and awkward.”  This assertion appears to have backfired.  The response to Eric Trump’s tweet consists of hundreds of others commenting on his father.  Their tone is about what might be expected.  Comments such as these are typical:  “Guess what?  It’s called acting like an actual regular person and not a game show host!” and “I’ll take ‘alleged low energy’ any day over a ‘big mouth, hyper, arrogant, lying fool.’”

And on top of this, Trump’s campaign is having financial issues.  It has raised $1.1 billion dollars from the beginning of 2019 through July, but already $800 million of it has been spent.  Biden’s campaign, by way of contrast, has raised $364.5 million in the month of August alone.  Trump has already said that he is willing to spend his own money on the campaign if necessary, and this is one of the few promises he has made that he can be relied upon to keep.  So great is his fear of rejection that it overrides even his greed. 

I don’t know if I’m the only person who believes that our electoral process could be handled somewhat more economically.  At any rate, it was a relief to get away from all these antics today. 

I led a hike for the Vigorous Hikers that took a loop to the “castles”:  the two piles of rock along Great North Mountain that do, in fact, have a somewhat castle-like appearance and were thereby named, by the German settlers in the area, Big Schloss and Little Schloss (“Schloss” is German for “castle”).  It is a long hike – about 18 miles in all, with 3200 feet of elevation gain; but the most protracted climb is done at the beginning along the Little Sluice Mountain Trail to Little Schloss.  The spur trail going from the Little Sluice Mountain Trail to Little Schloss is “unofficial” and in the past it has been so overgrown that at times it was difficult to make out a trail at all.  But today it was in better condition than I have ever seen it before:  recently mowed and very easy to follow all the way up to the top of Little Schloss itself.  Someone has taken the trouble to maintain it, even though he may not be officially associated with the PATC. 

The other ascents on this hike, while not negligible, are much shorter.  We lunched in the Sandstone Spring area, about 3 miles from Big Schloss.  Because of the distance in driving we were forced to start at 9:00 AM, which is somewhat later than our usual starting time.  At it happened, however, those who participated in the hike were among the fastest hikers of the Vigorous Hikers group, and we were able to get back to our cars before 3:45 PM, even with breaks for a fairly leisurely lunch and for taking in the vistas of the Trout Run Valley and the ridgeline of Great North Mountain from both of the Schlosses.  The weather was sunny but not overly hot; in the morning, when we were ascending towards Little Schloss, the temperature was blessedly cool.  The hike involves walking along a forest service road at the end, and this last part was less enjoyable than it could have been on account of the gnats that were buzzing everywhere.  Still, it was sunny and clear for the entire day, and the skies were not hazy at all, as they generally are at this time of year.

Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 27,476,918; # of deaths worldwide: 896,374; # of cases U.S.: 6,485,426; # of deaths U.S.: 193,511.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 27,718,688; # of deaths worldwide: 900,791; # of cases U.S.: 6, 511,980; # of deaths U.S.: 193,973.  Two consecutive days with less than 30,000 new cases and less than 500 deaths apiece.  It is a slightly encouraging trend.  In the words of Napoleon’s mother:  “Pourvu que ça dure!” (if only it lasts.)

The Appalachian Trail at Manassas Gap – Reminiscence of the Wanderbirds Hiking Club – How the club expanded my experiences – The effects of the virus on the club – An extrapolation of such effects on a national level – A family conference – Evening statistics

I met with AD and several other Wanderbirds members to go along the Appalachian Trail from Manassas Gap (where Rte. 55 intersects the AT) to High Knob Rd. and back:  10 miles and about 2000 feet. The weather was all but perfect, pleasantly cool in the morning, when we completed the longest ascent, and never overly hot even in the mid-afternoon.  The highlight of the hike was a beautiful meadow at the top of the first hill, strewn with wildflowers such as wild geranium and yellow snapdragon.  After the hike we snacked together very much in the style of the hikes that were held before the virus forced the club to disband the bus rides we used to travel to the trailheads.

This is not the first time that I have mentioned the Wanderbirds club in these notes.  It has been clamoring for greater exposition for some time; and If I go into detail at this point, it is not merely for the sake of self-indulgent reminiscence (although there may an element of that in what follows) but to explain how certain clubs and groups can affect people generally and how the coronavirus has made inroads into an important element of the lives of many men and women.

I had been hiking off and on ever since I can remember but when I turned 40 I tried to do it on a more regular basis, realizing that if I did not increase my physical activity my life would become sedentary to the point of unhealthiness.  I bought some books that described the trails in areas such as Shenandoah National Park and in other parts of Northern Virginia, and investigated some of the hikes there.  Much of this hiking was solitary.  I did join the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, but although that club organizes hikes its primary purpose is trail maintenance.  Its membership is very large and, consequently, I rarely met the same people on more than one hike.  But after some years of this regimen, a co-worker who was a member of the Wanderbirds persuaded me to join the group. 

It proved to be a benefit in several ways.  To begin with, the membership of the Wanderbirds is relatively small – at its largest its numbers never exceeded 300 – and because we traveled together in a bus we were naturally thrown into each other’s company for a considerable amount of time.  Several members were “regulars” who managed to attend the hikes every week, so that it was easy to become acquainted with them.  Finally, since all of the hikers went at their own speed and did not all arrive at the bus for departure at the same time, it was the custom of the club to snack together on the food and drink provided by the leaders.  In the beginning the fare was limited to pretzels and potato chips, but by the time I joined the club the food provided was considerably more elaborate – in fact, virtually every hike ended in a kind of party.  The club also sponsored annual events such as a picnic hike in summer, a Christmas party in winter, and so on.  As I made friends with many, various sub-groups would undertake other activities outside of the club’s official ones.  Thus in one year I went to Georgia with seven or eight others to hike in the vicinity of Springer Mountain, another in the Smokies, another in the German Alps, etc.  And there were various other leisure activities bands of us would do together as well.  It is not surprising, then, that the club came to form a large component of my social network.

But membership in the club had an additional effect.  It provided a striking illustration of how a group can aid a person in developing skills and acquiring self-confidence.  Previously, for instance, I handled long steep ascents very badly.  I was continually stopping to rest and recover my breath – except that the stops that lasted two or three minutes did not offer much in the way of restoration.  The Wanderbirds provided instruction of the best kind:  by example, without being aware that they were providing instruction at all.  From them I learned that a much better approach is to maintain a continuous motion, slowing down if necessary but never coming to a complete stop and thereby losing momentum.  I still do not handle the steepest ascents as well as I could wish, but I am much more proficient at them now than I was before I joined the club.

Then, too, the effect of the club was to prod me into undertaking activities I never would have done on my own.  When I first joined the club, I looked upon a 14-mile hike as the absolute maximum that I would ever be able to perform.  Now I was associating with people who would hike 11-13 miles in a day as a matter of course, and would sometimes do considerably more.  Sometimes hikers would, with the leaders’ permission, go ahead to do “extra” – go off along detours that added a mile or so to the total length of the hike.  The Wanderbirds had a rather interesting reputation even among other local hiking groups.  The age level of the group is somewhat higher than the average; it is one of the “grayer” groups.  But it is also considered one of swiftest.  Once, when I was walking on a trail with some other members and we overtook a few other hikers on the same trail, they asked about the route we were taking and the group with which we were associated; when we told them that we were with the Wanderbirds, their reaction was, in effect, “Oh! no wonder.”

Thus I would be hiking at longer distances than what I had formerly believed to be the maximum amount of exertion earlier, and at a faster pace.  And as time went on the club gently propelled me into more ambitious projects.  In 2009 one of the club members discussed the Hike Across Maryland, which I have mentioned earlier:  the bi-annual event in which hikers attempt to traverse the 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail that run through Maryland in a day.  He would up by saying to me that I should try it.  At first my reaction was: Impossible!  I had never completed a hike of half that length.  But then others joined in, saying, yes, you should try it, you can do it.  And they said it often enough that eventually I thought – well, maybe I could.  And so I did, and I managed to acquit myself creditably enough.  But I never would have attempted it without such a suggestion coming from the outside.

In that way I have gone on to do many activities that I could not have imagined myself doing in the days when I was hiking on my own:  laboriously ascending “14-ers” (mountains whose summits are over 14,000 feet above sea level) in Colorado, participating in the annual One-Day Hike (a hike that covers 100 kilometers, or slightly over 62 miles, of the C&O Canal towpath in a day), clambering up a rock wall by means of metal cables in a section of the Via Ferrata in the Dolomites, straddling a knife-edge ridge that divides two great volcanic valleys in Oregon, going up and down Mt. Washington and other mountains of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire, among others:  no extraordinary feats, perhaps, but considerably more than I would have been capable of without the beneficial stimulus that the Wanderbirds provided.

In mid-March the hikes that the Wanderbirds undertook together had to be put on hiatus.  Setting up hikes that involved rides on a chartered bus with 40-50 people sitting side by side for two hours was out of the question once the coronavirus began to expand in the country.  There are now small sub-groups of Wanderbirds members coordinating hikes in which others can participate, but the hikes are less ambitious, the numbers are much smaller, meeting a core of regulars from one week to the next has become more problematic.  What we have at the moment are mere echoes of the activities that the club did before the virus forced it to abandon them.  There are hopes that it can be restored to its former structure once the virus has been controlled and riding in transport vehicles such as buses is reasonably safe again, but that will not occur until spring of 2021 at the earliest. 

Many clubs have affected its members in the same way, being forced to put their normal activities on hold and wait for better times to come – not hiking clubs, necessarily, but organizations such as choirs, ballroom dancing groups, local sports leagues; any group, in short, that depends on numbers of people performing activities while in close physical proximity with one another.   And with this loss of such an important source of person-to-person interaction, we are losing a degree of social cohesion.  It is no coincidence that sales of at-home alcohol since the pandemic have increased by 27% as of June or that several states are reporting a dramatic increase in opioid overdoses.  As the virus continually pushes people back to fall upon their own resources, we are seeing a vivid illustration of Samuel Johnson’s words about the ill effects of self-isolation:  “Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety, will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember that the solitary mind is certainly luxurious*, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air.”

(NOTE:  “luxurious” is here used in the sense that the word had in earlier usage, when it meant “given to sensual self-indulgence” instead of “elegant or expensive”)  

Our own family has done its best to combat the worst effects of this isolation.  Today my brother organized a Zoom meeting so that various family members (including some who live in Chile and one who is currently in New Zealand) could get in contact with each other and update relatives with their current status.  We spoke together for about an hour and, considering how unfamiliar some of us are with the technology, it was a success.  My aunt in particular has been displaying great resilience under the current circumstances; despite having past her 90^th birthday and despite having been deprived of meeting with the greater part of her immediate family, she remains as active as ever, getting out every day and staying in excellent physical shape.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 27,275,286;  # of deaths worldwide: 887,094; # of cases U.S.: 6,458,987; # of deaths U.S.: 193,214.  There were actually less than 30,000 new cases today and less than 400 deaths, which is an encouraging sign.  India’s case count now exceeds Brazil’s; it is second only to the U.S. now. 

Hiking in the region of the Occoquan – A rare clash between Trump and Fox News – Trump’s alibi – Boat parade in Austin – Evening statistics

I went again with RS today, exploring methods of connecting Occoquan Regional Park to other trails in the Gunston and Mason Neck areas.  He did not make it all the way to Ft. Belvoir on his own on the preceding evening, but he got as far as Rte. 1, at which point he was picked up by a friend who lives in the area and was able to take him to the hotel within the fort’s enclosure – where, as a veteran, he is able to stay.  I met him at the gate this morning and from there we went to the “Workhouse,” the area that was formerly the Lorton prison and that now has been converted to a collection of art studios.  It is close to Occoquan Regional Park, where we proceeded to go, and from there we investigated methods of following the Occoquan River to points east.  We covered about 15 miles, with a fair amount of bush-whacking.  The latter part of the hike led us to the Meadowood Recreational Area, which I had never seen before, and which has quite an extensive network of trails, about 20 miles in all, plus another 2 miles of paths reserved for mountain biking.  RS has actually participated in the routing of some of these trails, so it was quite familiar to him.  It is similar to the American Chestnut Land Trust – not striking or dramatic, but full of rich leafy forest watered by numerous little streams that split it into several distinct sections bordered and defined by the gorges.  The day was, if not cool, at any rate considerably less hot and humid than the preceding two days and was much more comfortable. 

Admirers of Donald Trump will be gratified to know how rapidly he has sprung into action as a result of the backlash he has been receiving about his remarks about persons who have sacrificed their lives in military service being “losers.”  The Atlantic, which originally reported the story, has been critical of Trump for some time and admittedly may not be altogether impartial.  But Jennifer Griffin, the Fox News national security correspondent, afterwards issued confirmations of this report in a series of tweets.  Trump has good reason to be worried about the effect his remarks may be having:  according to a recent poll, support from U. S. veterans, once one of the groups who supported him by a large majority (they voted for him in preference to Hillary Clinton by a margin of 2-to-1), has shrunk to a bare 38%.  So naturally Trump has called upon Fox News to fire Griffin, although he is not among the Fox News directors and has no authority of any kind to dictate whom they may fire or hire.  He can perhaps be excused for believing that this organization will roll over with canine servility at any command that he barks out; it has consistently lavished praise upon him no matter how uninhibited his actions might be.  It remains to be seen whether they will display that vestige of self-respect needed to make their own choice in retaining or releasing members of their own staff.

Also, Trump claims that he telephoned Melania in Washington on Thursday night to express his disappointment on being unable to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, where the Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood are buried.  There is a slight problem with this alibi:  Melania was with him in Paris at the time and she as well as her husband was originally scheduled to appear at the cemetery before he canceled the visit. 

Mary McCarthy once said about Lillian Hellman:  “I think every word she utters is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”  I beg leave to apply this observation to our President as well.

In the meantime, a boat parade upon Lake Travis in Austin, TX, held as part of a Trump rally has met with all of the success it deserves.  The waters seethed like a cauldron, as if Nature herself were protesting such a demonstration; rough waves surged up and crested, tossing the boats about violently; distress calls overwhelmed the local sheriff’s office (one is tempted to say that the office was flooded by them); and at least four boats sunk altogether. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 27,043,160; # of deaths worldwide: 882,986; # of cases U.S.: 6,429,805; # of deaths U.S.: 192,818.  We’re back down to a mere 40,000 new cases today and slightly over 700 deaths.  Well, I suppose that’s an improvement.

On the CCT – Donald Trump’s reported remarks about the fallen dead in battle – Trump’s denials of the report – The burgeoning economy – Voting by mail – Evening statistics

I went again with RS, going via the Cross-County Trail from Rte. 50 to Hunter Valley Road, at which point RS again went forward and I returned back to my car, covering about 22 miles in all.  That brings my total mileage for the year up to this point to just under 1500 miles.  RS hoped to get as far as Fort Belvoir this evening, but if that proves to be too ambitious he will find accommodations along Rte. 1.  It was less hot and humid than yesterday, but it still could be problematic walking in exposed areas.  But most of the hike was well-shaded and sometimes breezes alleviated the heat.  At Lake Accotink, where we had lunch, the pavilion on a hill behind the recreational offices was pleasantly cool. 

RS was rather depressed today:  he is an Army veteran, and he was indignant at the report of our President’s heartless and vicious remarks yesterday about the Marines killed in battle during WWI being “losers.”  One would think that sheer self-interest would induce Trump to repress such comments.  Veterans comprise a significant portion of his voting bloc (although RS loathes him, and I know a few others who like him no better), yet Trump goes out of his way to alienate them.  The reaction, as might be expected, has been one of uninhibited outrage, with Joe Biden (whose son, Beau Biden, was in military service in Iraq) taking the lead and excoriating Trump with quivering intensity.   

There has been some attempt to back-pedal; both Trump and the Pentagon have denied that he made such remarks, and Trump added that he was prevented from visiting the Marines’ graves because the weather made it impossible to conduct a helicopter flight to the cemetery near Paris where the men are buried, not (as was reported) because he did not want to mess up his hair.  The alternative was a long drive through some of the busiest sections of Paris, to which the Secret Service objected as being unnecessarily risky.  And it is possible that Trump is being libeled, but the comments attributed to him sound thoroughly in character and I, for one, have no difficulty in conjuring up a vivid mental picture of him going to a soldier’s funeral and, in the presence of all dead man’s relatives, shouting “You’re fired!” at the moment of the casket being lowered into the grave, just as he did on his late, unlamented reality-TV show.

Although I do not like to admit it, the state of the economy may boost Trump’s campaign to some extent. The U.S. added 1.4 million jobs in August, marking the fourth consecutive month of job gains and declining unemployment since the coronavirus lockdown.  The unemployment rate has dropped this past month from 10.2% to 8.4%.  The economy, however, has recovered less than half of the 22 million jobs that were lost as a result of the virus. At least 534,000 of these will not be restored at all.  Food and beverage services regained 134,000 jobs in August but still have 2.5 million fewer since February. Retailers added 249,000 jobs but are at 655,000 fewer than in February.

Voting by mail is beginning.  North Carolina mailed out the first ballots of the 2020 election today.  At least 643,000 voters have requested absentee ballots in North Carolina, and hundreds of thousands more are expected to do so in the coming weeks.  In 2016, by way of contrast, the state received only 38,871 absentee ballots.  Donald Trump’s reaction was characteristic:  he visited the state earlier this week and urged voters to test the system by mailing in their votes and then showing up personally at the polls – thereby committing a felony by attempting to vote twice.  This blatant attempt to derail the election process is a good sign in a way; it means that he is becoming anxious about the results in November.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 26,772,294; # of deaths worldwide: 878,070; # of cases U.S.: 6,386,496; # of deaths U.S.: 192,032.  Our case count increase is back to over 50,000 again.  The death toll is only slightly under 1,000. 

Lunch with friends – On the Cross-County Trail – Reminiscences of an old departed friend – The Hike Across Maryland – Donald Trump unaware of the Talmudic injunction “Let another praise thee and not thine own mouth” — News from Portland – Evening statistics (both days)

I was a bit lazy yesterday.  The only event of note was having lunch in a local restaurant with EG and HG – the first time I have dined with others in a restaurant since March.  On the occasion of meeting with friends in the winery on July 27^th, we had provided our own food, and on the occasion of my trip to Jim Thorpe in early August, my meals at restaurants were solitary.  So this episode represented a new step in returning to normal activities.  Of course we wore masks before we were seated at the table and equally of course we were sitting out of doors.  The food was excellent, the service attentive, and EG and HG are always wonderful company.  We discussed many matters, including the ongoing campaign.  It is something of a relief to see Biden taking the initiative, not merely attacking Trump but actively refuting the notion that he supports the rioting and looting that has been going on in several cities (he has, indeed, openly denounced such activities) and, in general, showing an energy that up to this point has lain dormant.  Earlier in the campaign, as I and many others noted, he was content to allow Trump to blunder and appear increasingly inept; now that the conventions for both parties are over, he evidently feels – and, as I think, correctly – that the time has come to deliver his messages more forcibly.

Outside of that, I was fairly idle in the afternoon – hiking 17 miles the day before can have that effect.  But today I met with RS to do some exploration of the local trails.  We started at Difficult Run and went along the Cross-County Trail to Twin Branches in Reston, and from there we ate lunch at the South Lakes shopping center (where, unfortunately, construction blocked the entrance to the sitting area beside the lake).  RS is doing a series of 25-mile hikes for four days, staying overnight close to the location of the end of the day’s hike.  Since I had to get back to my car, I turned back at that point, but I will be rejoining him tomorrow and Saturday.  It was hot and humid, and exposed in some areas, but the trail is relatively flat and not at all arduous.  I walked about 19 miles in all, and while I was rather tired at the end I was not exhausted, despite the heat.

When I parked at Difficult Run I was assailed by certain memories.  My friend Sherrie Taylor (I feel no constraint in writing out her name in full, for regrettably she passed away many years ago) and I once went on a splendid winter hike together by ourselves starting from Difficult Run, which was a favorite area of hers, and from there we went to Great Falls, about 2 miles away, where we covered several of the trails in the area.  It was one of those extraordinary winter days that sometimes visit this region, with a sky of cerulean blue illuminated by a brilliant sun, its rays reflected by a light covering of powdery white snow on the ground, newly-fallen and therefore unsullied by particles of soot or mud.  The views of the Potomac and of the Falls in particular displayed their most radiant aspect in such a setting. 

I have mentioned that Difficult Run was one of her favorite areas and when she passed away – far, far too soon! – her ashes were scattered just off of the portion of the trail that runs from Georgetown Pike to the Potomac.  Whenever I am in that area – and I go there fairly often – I am invariably reminded of her.

When I first joined the Wanderbirds, she went out of her way to make me feel welcome (as she ordinarily did for all newcomers to the club) and it was she who gave me the greatest amount of encouragement when I undertook, in 2009, to complete the Hike Across Maryland.  This event occurs every two years and consists of hiking the totality of the portion of the Appalachian Trail  that runs through Maryland, about 41 miles in all, with about 6000 elevation gain.  That sounds like a great deal, but in fact most of the ascent is contained in three long climbs spaced well apart from one another and the remainder of the trail consists of very moderate ups and downs, interspersed with stretches of level ground.  Still, this event was the first one of such magnitude that I had undertaken, and I was apprehensive about it.  In particular I was anxious because I was unable, due to scheduling difficulties, do any hiking the week before.  (I was working at the time, so the only times I could undertake long hikes were during the weekends.)  But she told me, “You don’t want to do anything very strenuous the week before a hike like this.  What you need to do is go out a few miles in your local area every day before the hike, so that you ensure that you’re limber on the day of the hike.”  I took her advice, and it proved to be invaluable.  I completed the route in a little over 11 hours.  I was tired at the end, but I had been able to pace myself throughout and I did not run out of energy in the middle of the hike, as many of the other participants did.  I look upon her encouragement and her counsel as a major factor in my being able to complete such an event successfully.

It is so tempting to run on about Sherrie. Any hike that she led was invariably a festive occasion.  She was wonderfully ingenious at devising new methods of giving pleasure to others – whether it was organizing Easter Egg hunts after a hike at the appropriate season  or providing hot cider after cold winter hikes when we were assembling at the bus or supplying her special nine-layer salsa as part of the after-hike snacks.  There were (and are) many in the club who went out of their way to set up a party atmosphere as the hike ended and the hikers were returning to the bus, but the hikes that she led were unique all the same.  When, after her death, a memorial hike was held in her honor, over 60 people signed up for it, one of the largest numbers on record; the bus held only 57 at the time and some had to use carpooling. 

From such fond memories I regretfully descend into the present political scene, a journey rather like the road to Avernus described by Virgil:

 “The Dow Jones Industrial just closed above 29,000! You are so lucky to have me as your President.”  Would any other president in history make such a claim?  Every single one of our previous presidents has regarded the office as both an honor and a public trust.  To Donald Trump, such concepts are meaningless.  He seriously believes that he is conferring a favor upon the American people by consenting to be their president.  He speaks of the great sacrifices he makes – in a speech in California last year, for example, when he said, “”This thing is costing me a fortune, being president.  It’s probably costing me from $3 to $5 billion for the privilege of being — and I couldn’t care less—I don’t care.”  If it is any consolation to him, I can think of only too many who are anxious to relieve him of this crushing burden.

I heard from my contacts in Portland that the reports of the rioting in the city have been greatly exaggerated, very much to the annoyance of most of the citizens.  There is a good deal of protesting going on at the area in the center of the city where the municipal government buildings are located; other than that, matters are fairly quiet and people are walking about without any particular concern.  They are, however, deeply resentful of the manner in which Trump is attempting to obtain political cachet from the affair and are no more desirous of a visit from him than their mayor is. 

Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 26,166,763; # of deaths worldwide: 866,532; # of cases U.S.: 6,289,914; # of deaths U.S.: 189,925.  Our death toll for the day exceeded 1,000 again.  Brazil’s death toll was over 1,200 and its case count increased to just over 4,000,000.  India’s daily increase was over 80,000. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 26,456,479; # of deaths worldwide: 872,473; # of cases U.S.: 6,334,570; # of deaths U.S.: 191,027.  Another day of over 40,000 new cases and over 1,000 more deaths.  India is also continuing to have new infections at an alarming rate; over 80,000 today as well.

Rainy weather in Shenandoah National Park – Hearing from Trump supporters – Loss of a healthcare worker – Unprecedented politesse in Paris – Evening statistics

“It may now be proper to return to the Hero of this Novel . . . of whom I believe I have scarcely ever had occasion to speak; which may perhaps be partly owing to his unfortunate propensity to Liquor, which so completely deprived him of the use of those faculties Nature had endowed him with, that he never did anything worth mentioning.”  (Jane Austen, “Jack and Alice,” Ch. 7)  If my entries have been somewhat less personal of late, it is because I haven’t done all that much worth mentioning, though I flatter myself that alcohol was not the cause.  The preceding week was rather an energetic one (nearly 100 miles total) and, also, as I noted earlier, I was slightly ill this past week as a result of the shingles vaccine and while the illness lasted only a day, I was not disposed for much driving after the excursion of the week before.  Most of my walking over the last several days has been local.  Today, however, I rejoined the Vigorous Hikers, which, for one reason or another, I have not seen for four weeks.  We went up the Jordan River Trail and did a counter-clockwise loop of the Marshall, Appalachian, and Bluff Trails:  17 miles in all, with perhaps 2700 feet of elevation gain.  The weather reports indicated that the rain would move away in Shenandoah, but it continued all day.  There was no wind, however, and the rain fell gently; and I kept reasonably dry wearing my broad-brimmed hat and my rain jacket.  The trails were not as muddy as I expected, but we did have to go through many puddles and streamlets that flowed across the paths.  It was fairly cool throughout the hike and on the top of North Marshall, it actually became rather chilly – which presented quite a contrast to the hiking of the past nine or ten weeks.  It was good, all the same, to see some of the hiking companions whom I have not been with for nearly a month.  A few of them told me that they have been reading the blog, which certainly was pleasant to hear. 

Some members of the group are supporters of Trump and it is rather odd to hear them; when they discuss him they seem to be talking about a completely different person than the man I read about and whose speeches I sometimes force myself to hear (it is a distinct effort of will on my part, since his voice and mannerisms alike inspire me with a great aversion).  Such encounters are rather disheartening; they suggest that Trump’s chances for re-election are not as forlorn as several commentators would have us believe.  One of my friends has recently visited the Delaware beaches, and he assures me that he has seen pro-Trump signs posted by several of the residents and that there is little support for Biden in that area, despite his being a native son.  The base for his support comes mainly from Wilmington and he is less popular in other regions of the state.  I know of several who would be dismayed by such observations but it is just as well to confront them and be aware of the base Trump possesses.  If the supporters of Biden simply lift their hands in horror or deny that such support exists, It is possible that Biden will lose the election.

We have lost yet another dedicated health worker:  Patricia Edwards, a nurse in Greenville, SC, who worked the overnight shift in intensive care for over thirty years.  She was diagnosed with the coronavirus on August 7^th, rushed to the hospital two days later with plummeting oxygen levels, and died on August 19^th.  Her mother, who was 96, died of the virus a week later.  It is uncertain where and how she caught the virus, but she undoubtedly had a great deal of exposure to it during her work.  She was greatly loved by her patients and associates:  her son and four daughters say that they have been overwhelmed with calls and online tributes from colleagues, neighbors, friends and relatives of former patients whose lives she touched.

Patricia Edwards is one of 671 American health care professionals who have died from the coronavirus – at least, that is the official figure.  But it almost certainly is greater.  Of the 4.5 million people surveyed by the CDC, healthcare personnel status was available for less than a quarter of them, and of the 150,503 COVID cases officially obtained from this survey, death status was available for 70% of them.

Some travel writers have suggested that despite the health risks it may be the best time in history to visit Paris.  The city has seen a decrease of over 16 million tourists this year on account of the virus, resulting in restaurant owners losing half of their income.  As a result, they are anxious to attract clientele and now, in the words of one astonished travel writer, “even the waiters are friendly.”  At this point not many international travelers are able to take advantage of these conditions:  Americans, among many other nationalities, are still restricted from traveling to Europe.

 Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 25,889,096; # of deaths worldwide: 860,265; # of cases U.S.: 6,256,445; # of deaths U.S.: 188,869.  Russia’s case count has just passed the one million mark.  India’s case count is nearly as large as that of Brazil; it will overtake the latter nation in a day or two. 

Wetter and cooler weather – Elimination of wild polio in Africa – India and the COVID virus – Evening statistics

Rain today, and fairly constant too, so it rather discouraged being out of doors much.  But rain is very welcome after the long, hot, dusty July.  When I saw my friends earlier this week, HG told me that the amount of rain her garden was greatly benefited by the rain in August, after it had been severely tried by the drought of July.  Besides, the rain is bringing the temperature down.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be quite cool in Shenandoah, where I will be meeting the Vigorous Hikers.  And wet as well, unfortunately; there is a flood warning currently in effect for the park that is supposed to end at 2:00 AM; but the trails will be quite muddy as a result.

With all of the news about the coronavirus a more promising development has been hardly touched upon in the news.  The entire continent of Africa has just been declared free from wild polio, which a mere twenty-five years ago paralyzed thousands of children.  The Sabin-Salk vaccine has been successfully distributed all over the continent.  In South Africa the elimination of the virus came about as a result of an especially vigorous immunization campaign spearheaded by Nelson Mandela – one of the many achievements of that amazing man.  At this point there are only 177 cases of vaccine-derived polio virus in all of Africa.  Two out of three strains of wild polio virus have been eradicated worldwide.  There is, unhappily, one strain still active in Afghanistan and Pakistan (but nowhere else), so the disease has not been eliminated altogether.  But we may not be far from the day when it becomes, like smallpox, only a historical memory.

There is another country besides our own where the increases in the COVID virus have been alarming.  India has steadily acquiring new cases at the rate of 60,000 – 70,000 per day.  It has four times the population of the U.S., so proportionately its rate of increase is less than ours; but its case count is threatening to close out Brazil’s as the second largest in the world.  Despite this, India is entering a new phase of reopening that will see subway trains running for the first time in months.  Gatherings of up to 100 people will be permitted at sports, entertainment, cultural, religious and political events.  It is true that the recovery rate has been rate (about 77%) and the mortality rate has been low (1.7%).  “Recovery,” however, can be a somewhat flexible term; in India patients with mild and moderate symptoms in India are considered no longer active after 10 days of symptom onset if they meet certain conditions. A test to confirm that they no longer have the virus is not required.  

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 25,620,737; # of deaths worldwide: 854,222; # of cases U.S.: 6,210,796; # of deaths U.S.: 187,713.  There is a bit of a lessening in intensity of our increases.  It is the second day of case count increases less than 40,000 and of deaths well under 500.  Brazil’s case rate is close to our own, i.e., a little under 2% of its population.  It is far from being the only South American country where the virus is steadily increasing:  Colombia, Peru, and Argentina are all seeing thousands of new cases daily, and Peru’s infection rate is the third-highest in the world, exceeded only by San Marino (a nation by courtesy but actually a micro-state) and Kuwait.

August afternoons – The lost window of opportunity – My self-diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome – Evening statistics

Today was one of those characteristic afternoons in August, “long, beautiful, and terrible, when one felt that the summer was rounding its curve, and the rustle of the full-leaved trees in the slanting golden light, in the breeze that ought to be delicious, seemed the voice of the coming autumn, of the warnings and dangers of life.”  (Henry James, The Bostonians, Chapter 37).  The skies were clear, the weather was perfect, the trees are in full leaf; the waters of the lakes and streams sparkled in the sunlight; and yet there was the slightest hint, in the long shadows beginning to form at 5:00 in the evening, of seasonal change.   Summer is approaching its end; the temperatures are moderating and the days are becoming shorter. 

And under the current circumstances the warnings and dangers should not be neglected, for the COVID virus is supposed to be more virulent in colder weather.  Earlier we had seemed to be on the verge of curbing the virus, but then the majority of the states released their lockdown restrictions and the rate of infection promptly redoubled.  The amount of new cases has gone down to some extent in the past couple of weeks, but 40,000 seems to be the average daily number and our case rate is now approaching 2% of the national population. 

Donald Trump’s supporters have spoken derisively of the “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but surely the results speak for themselves.  I do not see how anyone can argue that, with respect to the virus alone, he has grossly mismanaged matters.  With a bare 4% of the global population, we account for 24% of the cases worldwide, 37% of the cases still active, 22% of the deaths.  And many of his responses have not merely been ineffective but actively harmful, such as his completely fallacious claims that hydroxychloroquine is an effective cure or that bleach could be beneficial.  His promotion of anti-malarial drugs for the COVID virus, in addition to raising false hopes in Americans afflicted with it, precipitated panic-buying of them in areas where they are really needed, such as Africa and South Asia. 

And that’s not even taking into account that he is the third President in history to be impeached or the incredibly high turnover of the White House staff.  I don’t think I’m being unduly captious in expecting greater stability within a Presidential administration.  Over 60% of Trump’s senior staff vacated their positions within 18 months of his taking office, voluntarily or otherwise, and there has been more change in his first 13 months than his four immediate predecessors saw in their first two years.

Then there is the fact that his financial credentials are by no means impeccable.  He appears to have indulged in financial skullduggery for years, or even decades.  The Manhattan District Attorney has issued a subpoena to obtain Trump’s records for the past eight years.  Trump’s efforts to block this request have been consistently denied by the courts at all levels; and if Trump is elected this coming November, we are going to be in the embarrassing position of having an acting President undergo a criminal investigation, possibly resulting in his being convicted.  Already many of his associates have undergone trial and quite a few of them have received prison sentences.

That his manners are objectionable, not even his most ardent supporters can deny.  His own daughter admitted as much during the Republican Convention:  “I recognize that my dad’s communication style is not to everyone’s taste. And I know his tweets can feel a bit unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves.”  They do indeed – but not in the sense that Ivanka Trump intended.  The virus is running rampant, millions have been thrown out of work, and racial tension is reaching a degree of intensity that I, for one, cannot remember since 1968.  In 1989 the national mood was almost euphoric, buoyed by the fall of the Soviet Union and the expectations of the “peace dividend”; three decades later, it has swung to the opposite extreme, bitter, angry, depressed, divisive, and pessimistic, and while the totality of this shift cannot be laid at Trump’s door, his administration has certainly accelerated this disastrous change.

Such are the indicators (or some of them – there are many others, which I omit here for fear of being tedious) of my Trump Derangement Syndrome and I can only say that it is a very widespread disease, greater in distribution than the coronavirus itself and just as contagious.  I’m not sure what can be done by way of a cure; possibly the election of Joe Biden as President will alleviate these troubling symptoms; but, failing that, a stroke or an aneurysm felling Trump to the ground and rendering him speechless and incapable may do the trick.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 25,527,548; # of deaths worldwide: 852,683 # of cases U.S.: 6,173,235; # of deaths U.S.: 187,224.

Record number of wedded couple’s years – Cleaning up the shipping industry – Donald Trump assails his niece – Evening statistics

Since yesterday’s entry was a long one and since there are not many new developments, today’s will be fairly brief.  Amid all of the gloomy news I’ve seen for at least the last month I’ve come across one item that offers a glimmer of consolation.  A record was broken in Ecuador by Julio Mora Tapia, 110, and Waldramina Quinteros, 104, two retired teachers who have been married for 79 years, both of them lucid and in good health.  There have been marriages that are longer still, but their marriage has the greatest combined ages of any pair, just short of 215 years.  They have four surviving children, 11 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.  The families of both the husband and the wife had disapproved of their engagement, so they quietly slipped away one day to get married before the registrar, thereby beginning a romance that has lasted nearly eight decades.

Another bit of inspiriting news, one on a much larger scale, is that the global shipping industry is turning its attention to “green” fuels.  It has been estimated that if all of the ships combined were ranked as a single country, it would be the sixth-largest polluter in the world.  But shipping companies are now gradually replacing their traditional fuels with hydrogen cells and “biofuel,” fuel created from animal and plant oils.  The shipping companies are not merely mouthing platitudes to placate the environmentalists; they are actively supporting research and development, and already have begun implementing the newer, cleaner fuels on many vessels.  Maersk, the largest shipping company in the world, has set itself the goal of being carbon-free by 2050.  We are likely to see cleaner waters and clearer air very soon.

I have spoken of the familial (not to say incestuous) atmosphere of the Republican Convention; and now yet another Trump relative has acquired headlines.  Donald Trump has been greatly irritated by Mary Trump’s tell-all book about him and his family; and when Donald Trump is irritated, he is not one to suffer in silence.  He has assailed Mary Trump as “an unstable niece, who was now rightfully shunned, scorned and mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind & caring grandfather!”  A relative is unstable, therefore she must be “rightly” scorned and mocked:  that is as good a way as any to sum up Trump’s mindset. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 25,153,553; # of deaths worldwide: 845,925; # of cases U.S.: 6,136,947; # of deaths U.S.: 186,825.