Happy Friday’s Eve dear fellow Covid-19 warriors and friends of Sam. I am a day late, because I had to do some work last night. And honestly afterwards I could not stare at a laptop anymore. And so I didn’t. I watched TV with Henning and our little monster aka Sam the pooch.

Don’t get me wrong though, I really love writing and especially doing it on my cute little Lenovo Thinkbook. And no, unfortunately Lenovo is not paying me for saying this.
This week was quite busy. But a good kind of busy. The kind where you are making good progress on a couple of things. There was also a good amount of fun with my team, which is always a great thing.
Meanwhile the state of the nation? Well the good news is, it looks like we are soon not going to lead the statistics of Covid-19 cases anymore. No, there is no mysterious cure and the “geniuses” that actually did not detect a vaccination against HIV did the same for Covid-19. Not (yet) detect a vaccination, that is.
Which leads me to the really bad news. Our Covidiot in Chief needs some better polls in regards to the upcoming election. And he is determined to improve his rating, by reducing the Covid-19 cases. But without actually reducing the amount of cases. Because he could not care less for the people.
So following the principle “never trust a statistic that you have not forged yourself”, he is not only asking his teams to reduce testing. He is actually taking away federal support in form of funding for testing. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/texas-coronavirus-testing-trump-funding/index.html
Did he lose his mind? Aside from the fact, that I am not sure what’s to lose? No, I think this is an election tactic. And one that might actually work with the majority of his followers. As long as they or their loved ones do not get sick themselves, but can’t get a test. I guess.
To my utter disbelief it seems, that Mr. T’s supporters seem to be at least a little smarter than him. And yeah, that’s not too difficult, but have you seen some of them? What makes me think they are? Well, they did not show up to his first rally in Tulsa. Or at least not as many, as he had expected.
But we only have to partly credit his supporters for the almost empty rally (~6,000 instead of the 19,000 capacity). This seems to also have happened thanks to a great and fun movement from some TikTok users. They participated in a challenge to register for free rally tickets and then make a video as to “why they unfortunately could not go”. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html
Black lives matter protests have slowed down, or at least reports about the same. Racism and stupidity apparently have not. Do you want to know, how a stupid white racist looks like? Well, watch this video, and let me know if you can detect one. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/06/25/arizona-councilman-guy-phillips-mocks-george-floyd-i-cant-breathe-orig-kj.cnn/video/playlists/top-news-videos/
And just to be very clear, in my opinion EVERYONE that is a racist, is stupid. But of course not everyone that is stupid, is necessarily a racist.
In this case, Mr. Guy Phillips, a Scottsdale (Arizona) City Councilman not only participated in an “anti-mask” rally in a State, that is among the top in new infections and hospitalizations. He also made fun of George Floyd’s last words “I can’t breathe” (screamed while being murdered by another racist and stupid white man), but in his case referring to the mask he had to wear.
I can’t even!
Any further word would likely get me in trouble, but I am sure you can read my mind here.
It’s almost Friday and weekend, my friends. And believe it or not, despite it still feeling like March, it’s End of June as well. Where did this year go? Usually I would like for spring and summer to last longer. Not so sure I have that same wish this year. Well, if you’d ask Sam, time could have probably stopped right in this moment. At least for a little while.

Sun in his fur, warm (likely hot) stones, the outlook of playtime and a jump in the pool. Life’s good.
The not so romantic reality is, it currently has over 90 degree (over 30 degree metric system) and the pool is almost at a 100 degree. So jumping in the pool is like jumping head on into a hot spring. Refreshment is nowhere to be found. We are running our AC at 78 degree during the day and 76 at night. When we first moved to Florida, we started with 70-72 degree in our rental town home. Well, after we moved into our own house and had to pay the energy bill for the first time, that was that. Now I would need a blanket and a sweater to last in 70-72 degree.
Many South Floridians seem to be pretty confused by the mask mandates. It’s pretty easy though. The bottom line is: Wear one! Because Florida is seeing a huge influx in cases. So no matter what the mandate is, you might want to just wear one to protect yourself. You can do that, without a mandate. I tried. It worked. Unless you are sharing this attitude with so many other South Floridians, of course.

Henning and I are going to have a lunch date tomorrow. Of course with Sam. We will be having burgers at a burger place near (not at!) the beach in Fort Lauderdale. They have outside seating. Which is a condition for us in the current situation. They offer a nice variety of burgers and some of them are even kinda WW friendly. I will be enjoying an Ahi Tuna burger with wasabi spread on a pretzel bun. Yum!
If it’s not too hot (which it likely will be), we will go for a little stroll along the canal and Las Olas, a nice area in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. We like that place, but it has the potential to be crowded and again, too hot to walk. We will definitely have to do the 5 second test (put your bare foot on the street and if you can last for 5 seconds, it’s safe to walk the dog, if not then not).

Sam definitely enjoyed his first trip there two years ago. We all did. But it also was a lot less hot. Tomorrow we would probably not look as put together (even though Henning definitely looks like he could use some shaving now and then). I will try to take a throwback picture and share here if I do. A sweatier version, for sure.
Have a great rest of your week and enjoy your weekend. I will check-in again on Sunday.
Remember, keep your distance, wear your mask, stay healthy and take care.
Hugs,
Nannette
I really enjoyed this post Nannette. It is unfortunate to think that there are people who consider this crisis either a hoax (refuse to wear masks) or not that serioues (go out on the streets as if everything is back to “normal”). Here in NYC, it is a mixed bag. My wife and I were able to go outside for outdoor seating at a restaurant but it was irritating seeing people walking outside without a mask or a sense of social distance. It doesn’t help that our leaders are not supporting social distancing and testing to contain the spread. But anyways, I hope you enjoy the burger! It sounds really good and tasty 🙂