All posts by ERTorre

E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
General

Dawn of a New Day…

Things are so damn dark -understandably!- the last couple of days and especially yesterday, with the terrorist action on the Capitol.

Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic, but it seems to me that maybe, just maybe, the actions yesterday may be what finally pushes this country to clean up its messes and fix things that, to this point, either they didn’t realize were broken or now understand they are.

It will start with arrests, which I suspect will come quickly in the next few days, of the terrorists who stormed the Capitol. Not all of them will be caught, I’m sure, but plenty of these MENSA candidates filmed themselves committing their terrorist actions and posted them to their social media accounts.

I’m noticing, by the way, that many of them today must have realized they are in legal jeopardy. To this moment, a little after 12 noon on the 7th of January, there doesn’t seem to be any marchers/protesters in Washington. If there are, they are a small group and they’re being held very far away from the Capitol.

Certainly I have yet to see any news footage of anyone from the MAGA group anywhere. (Next day Postscript: Nope, didn’t see any crowds the next day, though I recall one reporter saying they saw a truck drive by with a Trump flag on it)

A focus -proper and needed- will now fall upon the security forces/police that should have been protecting the Capitol. There are going to be plenty of heads that will roll, people who didn’t do their job or, worse, might have even participated in the terrorist act, if only by passively allowing the group to pass by.

They will be dealt with and, looking at things optimistically, the weaknesses, now exposed, will be dealt with. What happened yesterday very likely will not happen again.

Though Trump is still in power, I wonder if he’s finally come to realize he pushed things too far. Its possible -maybe even likely- he hasn’t.

But his friends -those with at least some ties to reality- are bailing on him after what happened yesterday. There are even Republicans -at least one so far- openly suggesting invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from the Presidency.

Yeah, I know… real profiles in courage a grand total of less than two weeks from when Trump’s presidency is up, but I suppose its better late than never and its got to sting.

Things will change by January 20th. They have to, and provided the Biden administration shows a modicum of competence, perhaps these last four years will rapidly slip into some kind of weird nightmare we collectively shared and will not see its like again.

Or maybe I’m being too optimistic.

General

The Morning After The Day…

Yesterday, January 6th, was a painful, frightening, bewildering, infuriating day.

I couldn’t not watch as the terrorists descended upon the Capitol and managed -how?!- to make their way into the building.

Where were the police? Where were the National Guards?

Even worse were images of what appeared to be at least one police officer… taking selfies with these terrorists?!

VIDEO: Cop took selfie with rioters as police let them in | Morning Bulletin

What. The. Hell.

I mean, he’s not holding the camera, its the idiot terrorist taking the picture, but what is the Officer doing there?!

Anyway, the terrorists were eventually pushed away. There were four people who died from this terrorist action (read about that here), three from medical issues and a woman who was part of the mob was shot and died from the wound. The details of how she was shot hasn’t been, at least that I’m aware of, revealed yet.

All of this, all of this, in my opinion rests with Donald Trump and his enablers. Donald Trump is, sadly, only the latest result of too many years of right wing media propaganda/brain-washing.

Sadly, the end results are people believing alarming lies.

Even more sadly, too many people I know, some very close to me, believe these lies.

Donald Trump couldn’t have lost the election, they say. He was robbed, he insists, just as he insisted President Obama wasn’t born in the United States (reality check: Yes, he was).

If people believe a string of alarming lies and somehow feel like nefarious things are going on and their rights are being trampled by evil socialist/liberals…

…then it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when these people, those who swallow these lies whole, feel empowered to do something about it.

I’m absolutely not excusing the terrorists’ actions, only trying in my own way to explain them.

They’re grown ass men and women and they should know better.

Which is why its so damn alarming that while Trump lost the election by an overwhelming 7 million votes, there were still so many people who voted for him.

Some, I’m certain, held their noses when they voted. Many, sadly, did so happily, enthusiastically.

Those who committed those actions yesterday need to be brought to justice. Those who encouraged them -including Donald Trump himself- need to be brought to justice.

Late last night the Senate and House of Representative formally affirmed Joe BIden’s election. At some point last night President Trump finally –finally!– acknowledged his loss (even with his usual lies about having the election stolen) and spoke of a “peaceful transition”.

Too little, too late.

Today there is talk -and I hope it amounts to more than that- of serious consideration to invoke the 25 Amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

I hope it happens.

Thought Trump only has 13 days to go, that’s an awful long time and, as we saw yesterday, things can go bad awfully quickly.

Let’s see what this new day brings.

General

Terrific Tuesday And Terrifying Wednesday

Yesterday, Tuesday the 5th the run-off elections in Georgia for their two Senate seats occurred and Raphael Warnock (D) has been declared the winner over Kelly Loeffler (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) currently has the lead -and considering where the remaining votes lay this lead will likely grow- over David Purdue (R).

Assuming Mr. Ossoff also wins, which seems very likely, it means the Senate will be split exactly 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans… which means that with the Vice President as a tie-breaker, and the Vice President being Kamala Harris, that means that by a slim margin the Democrats will lead the Senate along with the House of Representative and, of course, the Presidency.

Whew!

Today we also have what should be a formality: The Senate and House formally counting the electoral votes and declaring Joe Biden the President of the United States come January 20th.

Of course, this “formality” looks like it won’t be and there are many in the House planning to protest the election and a smaller number of Senators who also plan to protest. They are Trumpistas, no doubt, and while they will huff and puff, there is no realistic way for them to do anything more than delay the inevitable.

So instead of Joe Biden being formally given the Presidency relatively quickly, it may take until later today or earlier tomorrow to be given the power.

If you’ve read my posts, you should be very aware by now that I have little love for Trump and his chaotic governance and am more than happy to see him gone.

I also know that everything won’t magically become good once Trump is gone.

The entire world, thanks to this pandemic, is in a world of hurt and it is going to take several months -maybe even another year- before things get back to “normal”.

But with Democrats in control of all three branches of government and a President who seems to be more engaged with what is needed to be done to deal with this pandemic -versus a President who seems to think the way to deal with it is to ignore it almost completely- then maybe we can make some real headway in bumping up the number of vaccinations given to people.

When the pandemic is finally dealt with, I further suspect we’re going to see a burst of joy and activity the likes of which we haven’t seen in many, many years.

That day can’t come soon enough.

POSTSCRIPT:

It’s now 2:44 pm, Wednesday the 6th, and things around the Capitol have gotten way out of control, thanks once again to Donald Trump himself.

He incited the mob and now they’re trying to… what exactly? They’re breaching places they shouldn’t be in, supposedly smashing glass and doors… all for a degenerate who will be, I’m certain, viewed as the worst President we’ve ever had.

There will certainly be arrests and I hope many of them. I also hope this doesn’t go beyond this point.

President Trump incited this violence and he needs to be held accountable.

Inevitability we’ll see footage of many of these rioters in court, crying like babies, as their sentences are handed down.

Good riddance to bad trash.

Books/Literature

On Writing… Cracking The Story…

While I’m certain it’s different for authors, for me a book really starts to work when I’ve got both the start and, especially, ending worked out.

Before reaching that point, there’s plenty of thought put into my novels, working with situations I’d like to present or bits of dialogue that appeal to me.

But once I have that ending, I have something to work toward and that, in turn, allows me to more sharply focus on the stuff leading up to that ending.

I’ve often tried to put into words what writing is like.

It’s like creating a jigsaw puzzle from scratch, creating each individual piece and getting them to fit together -or throw them away- until you have a picture.

Or perhaps its like painting in oils, first creating a rough image then slapping on the oils, mixing them and creating more and more delicate shades and a more solid overall picture.

The part that can get frustrating -and, paradoxically, invigorating!- is that, at least for me, the final product is in flux, usually through the first two or three drafts at least. Its frustrating because sometimes one worries when and, more importantly if the whole thing will come together. So far, I’ve never encountered a situation where I’ve written over 20,000 words or more and then have felt the need to go back to the beginning and start all over.

But I’ve come close!

There have been works where I’ve written this amount of words and, while I still completed the novel I was working at, wound up discarding hard work in that word count range because it simply wasn’t necessary for the book as it evolved in my head and on the page.

Invigorating because with each “failure”, if one wants to look at the early pecking away at the book, you close in on what makes the story work and, like a dull blade, you’re banging away at it and sharpening it with each new passage/page.

So it is with the book I’m currently writing.

But yesterday I had a pretty big breakthrough: I kinda/sorta have figured out the novel’s ending -finally!- and now all the other pieces are falling into place.

I’ve been writing this book for something like two or three months now and have reached, roughly, the 1/4th point or a little past it, and now with the ending, things should move a little quicker.

We’ll see!

Movies, TV

Tanya Roberts (1955-2021)

Wrote the below and then word came that… well, read on…

The shocking news that actor Tanya Roberts passed away at the very young age of 65 made the news yesterday (you can read about that here). She apparently walked her dogs and when she returned to her home collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, where she would pass away.

Most of the obituaries I’ve read concerning Ms. Roberts note she was Stacey Sutton, the “Bond girl” in Roger Moore’s final James Bond film, 1985’s A View To A Kill (Tanya Roberts first appears at the 1:33 mark of the below trailer)…

She was certainly an 80’s figure, with her other two big roles, in the 1982 film Beastmaster…

…and in 1984 she would star as Sheena:

Later on she would make her mark in That 70’s Show as Midge Pinciotti…

I think its fair to say that her earlier works, now cult classics to some, nostalgia trips to others, weren’t all that good. It’s fair to say that A View To A Kill is the worst of the Roger Moore Bond films and among the worst of the Bond films, period. Few, too, would say Sheena is some lost classic while there are those who feel Beastmaster is a deserving Cult classic.

I say this not to put down Ms. Roberts, but quite the contrary. There’s something about the presence alone of Ms. Roberts in those films that make them memorable. One could point out the obvious: She is one beautiful woman, and the roles in both Sheena and Beastmaster in particular allowed her ample opportunity to show off that beauty.

In fact, when the news of her passing came, I instantly thought back to her roles in these films as well as The 70’s Show and my memories of her, frankly, were positive.

Yeah, maybe the 80’s material wasn’t always very strong and the film’s makers wanted a beautiful female in nearly no clothing running around, but there have been plenty of films like that made whose star isn’t quite as well remembered as Ms. Roberts, which suggests there was indeed more to her than just the proverbial pretty face.

As one gets older, the people in the arts one grows up with also grow older and, eventually, pass away.

Tanya Roberts’ passing at 65 is shocking as when I think about her my memories of her transport me back to that beautiful, athletic woman she was back in the 1980’s.

I hope she had a terrific life.

I may have to give A View To A Kill another whirl, for old time’s sake.

POSTSCRIPT:

Now there’s news that… Tanya Roberts in not dead?!

This is according to TMZ:

Tanya Roberts still alive… Despite her Rep saying she’s dead

Very weird, but concerning for Ms. Roberts nonetheless. She’s been hospitalized for over a week. I hope she recovers… assuming this second story is accurate!

POSTSCRIPT 2:

Now more news sources are confirming that Tanya Roberts is indeed alive, something which might explain my confused (and not totally sure!) original Postscript.

What a weird, weird story, though I have to admit I’m glad to hear that she’s not passed away. Still, what I said in that Postscript applies: Clearly she’s in some kind of major distress as she’s been hospitalized for over a week now.

Still, best wishes to her!

POSTSCRIPT 3:

Sadly, now comes news (12/5/21) that Tanya Roberts has indeed passed away. This is coming from TMZ:

Tanya Roberts dead at 65 following premature passing announcement

Frankly, I feared this would be the case. If memory serves, something similar happened with musician Tom Petty who was rushed to the hospital and was declared dead only for the news agencies to retract the story as he was still alive but basically vegetative.

I recall my daughter wondering if he’d recover and I told her based on the initial reports, that sounded doubtful. Mr. Petty would pass away a day or two after the initial hospitalization.

As I said, I feared Ms. Roberts was not in great shape. To be hospitalized so suddenly and remain there for over a week sounded grim. I suspect the publicist who released the initial report of her death knew she was about to pass and knew there was little chance of her recovery.

That’s guessing on my part, I admit.

Regardless, what I wrote initially stands. Ms. Roberts may not have been in the very best films during her biggest period of time in Hollywood, but she had a screen presence and to this day is remembered when many similar actresses in similar roles today are not.

She was a part of my youth, a face that was familiar to me and a beauty in the classic Hollywood tradition.

Rest In Peace.

General

Welcome 2021…!

Woke up to a sunny morning and silence outside.

No cars moving -at least not yet- and all seems pretty calm.

Yesterday I wrote about the end of 2020 and today I’ll try to focus on the future.

In the immediate future, we still have 20 days left of Donald Trump and his “presidency”. I don’t want to keep harping on this but on January 6th the election results will be announced in the Senate/House of Representatives and, according to CNN, there may be as many as 140 Republicans in the House, and at least 1 in the Senate, who will object to the results and slow down, likely only for a few hours, the official results of Joe Biden’s win.

These people, it can’t be emphasized enough, are borderline seditious in their actions. Biden won by a lot, some 7 million more votes and more than enough electoral votes and every single attempt by Trump and his cronies to try to negate this election has been swiftly struck down. If memory serves, only one of their lawsuits, involving a technical issue which didn’t change even a single vote, was “won” by them.

Worse for them, so far the only voting fraud exposed -and its been just a couple of cases- involved people trying to vote for Trump.

Ah well!

Regardless, I suspect the next 20 days will be quite the rollercoaster ride because of this.

Meanwhile in Georgia, we have the run off election for 2 Senate seats. Bluntly, if the Democrats win both seats, then the Democrats will have control over all three branches of power and will then get to push their agenda much more freely.

If they don’t, then Republicans, and Mitch McConnell, will remain in control over the Senate and things will slow down considerably.

We’ll see about that as well.

In near term, its my hope that as soon as Biden does take control over the Presidency he and his team work extra hard on getting the vaccination program going properly.

This is the key to getting back to some kind of “normalcy” and the fact that we’ve had only some 2 million vaccinations in December versus the hoped for 20 million further proves, to my mind, that Trump and his team simply ordered the vaccines in bulk but had no plan as to how to do the actual vaccinations.

Sheesh.

*****

On a personal front, I’ve been working here and there as I can -and it is difficult during these days!- on my new novel which doesn’t have anything to do with the Corrosive Knights series.

This is a standalone story which I will hopefully get finished off, at least the first draft, in the next couple of months. I’m already some 50+ pages into it, of a quarter of the way there going by my usual 200 or so pages (10 point, single spaced), but I do have to work out several elements, including the story’s conclusion. I have some idea of how it will end, mind you, but I’ve always wanted to make sure all my books end strong and I’m not quite there with this book yet.

*****

So here we are, at the start of 2021 hoping for the best.

Let’s see where we are a year from now!

General

2020 Almost In The Rear View Mirror…

What a year.

Seriously. What a year.

I’ve been around a very long time now and truly, there’s almost nothing that compares to what we’ve been through this year and, for the most part, it revolves around one thing: COVID-19.

This was the year of the pandemic and because of it, also the year where we saw the limits and ineffectiveness of the body politic, especially when its being buffeted by misinformation, conspiracy theories, and general stupidity and laziness.

There have been serious outbreaks throughout the world but there have been places where proper cautions have resulted in control over this virus. Specifically, we’re talking about Japan and New Zealand, where the rate of COVID-19 is almost negligible and the people there -who took the virus very seriously- have managed to get on with their lives while so many other countries -our included- are still wallowing in denial, neglect, and (here’s that word again) stupidity.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of vaccines, but so far there have been a little more than 2 million people who have gotten it and we were promised by the current administration we’d have some 20 million vaccinated by now.

Yeah. We’re only 18 million short.

It’s been noted that if we keep this pace (I doubt we will) it will take 10 years to vaccinate enough people to create the desired herd immunity which will allow us to return to our more normal lives.

Next week we have the certification of Joe Biden’s election and we have one Republican in the Senate, Josh Howley of Missouri, will join the firebrands in the House of Representatives to protest the certification which will lead to some delay but ultimately no results for Trump.

Yet Trump, if nothing else and while damaging the Republic, keeps charging this particular hill. Like the spoiled child he is, he cannot accept that he was defeated in the election (twice if you count the votes he lost by to Hilary Clinton!) and, I very strongly suspect, he realizes that once he’s out of power the legal floodgates open wide against him.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the rest of his life is spend in one litigation after another and his fortune suddenly looking very shaky.

Meanwhile, however, his administration is botching the vaccinations and he’s devoting no energy toward issues regarding COVID or the bombing in Nashville (its rather startling he hasn’t mentioned this at all so far!), instead continuing his infantile and seditious attempts to overturn a legitimate election while playing golf at his resorts.

January 20th can’t come soon enough.

But enough about that.

One great thing about the New Year is that mentally many of us feel like we’re starting fresh, with another 365 days ahead of us to do better for ourselves and others.

I’m optimistic about the New Year, partially because it seems like we may -at least toward the middle of the year- finally make great strides against this virus and perhaps… maybe… hopefully reclaim the life we’ve had before.

It’s been a crappy year but there’s no reason to think things might not get better.

A lot better.

Let’s hope it does and, even more importantly, let’s work to make it so.

Have a Happy New Years!

We’ll see each other again in 2021!

Movies

The Snowman (2017) A (Mildly) Belated Review

I vaguely recall there was some excitement regarding the 2017 release of the film The Snowman.

Based on a novel by popular mystery/thriller writer Jo Nesbø, the film featured Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, J. K. Simmons, and Val Kilmer. The movie was produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In; Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy).

And yet, when the film was released, it was met with almost universal scorn from critics and Mr. Alfredson went on the acknowledge his film was a failure, even stating that because of budget cuts, he was unable to film some 10% of the script (!).

The film, needless to say, didn’t do too well at the box-office and was soon gone, if not forgotten.

Yet I was intrigued by the stories regarding the film and its final release. It isn’t often that you get what seems for all intents and purposes a very high profile “A” film with a great cast, director, writer, and producer which turns out to be -if the critics are to be believed- a near complete disaster.

Yeah, I was curious to see this film. I had to see for myself.

I’ll start with the good, which I think is pretty apparent from the above trailer: The film looks gorgeous. The snowy Norwegian setting is both beautiful and, when needed, creepy.

And that’s about all that’s good about this film.

This is a fragmented film whose story is at times difficult to follow because we have things happening here and there and often one sequence doesn’t even seem to be related to another. For example, the entire political subplot involving J. K. Simmons amounts to almost nothing in the context of the rest of the film. And Mr. Simmons isn’t even the only recognizable actor to appear in a nothing subplot. Perhaps one of the most head scratching sequence, a very small cameo appearance by Chloë Sevigny, has her play a victim of the serial killer and her twin sister!! Why? To give Ms. Sevigny three minutes of screen time instead of a paltry two?! Because that’s her entire story arc, victim then twin sister who shows up seconds later to say her sister was a good person, and that’s that.

Perhaps the saddest thing to see is Val Kilmer, who at the time was dealing with health issues and who looked, to be blunt, pretty sickly. Every bit of his dialogue was dubbed, quite badly, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he looks alarmingly frail, you’d laugh at the pathetic attempt to dub his lines in.

Michael Fassbender, a usually reliably good actor, is not terrible but is relegated to playing a one note character, your morose, brilliant, yet alcoholic/burnt out protagonist. His character’s alcoholism has him on the outs with the police department but he latches on to a promising young detective (Rebecca Ferguson) who has secrets of her own and is involved in what may be a case involving a serial killer.

Of course, it turns out that they are indeed dealing with a clever serial killer, one with mysterious motives and possibly years of hidden activity.

While the movie is a mess, in the end one does put the pieces together enough to understand the plot they were trying to present. Unfortunately, even with that knowledge one feels the story was underwhelming.

I suspect in the novel the movie was based on the many weird characters and scenes that seemed to go nowhere mattered a lot more than they do on screen. By the time we reach the movie’s climax and the serial killer is revealed, he turns out to be pretty much who we thought and afterwards wonder why he bothered with many of the actions he took.

As I said before, based on the stories I read about The Snowman, I couldn’t not see it. The curiosity alone made it irresistible.

But the movie is every bit as disjointed and disappointing as the critics said, with the only redeeming element being the wonderful cinematography and winter setting.

Too bad.

Movies

The Equalizer 2 (2018) a (Mildly) Belated Review

Back in 2014 Denzel Washington starred in a remake/reworking of The Equalizer TV show starring Edward Woodward which ran from 1985 through 1989. Here’s a bit of the TV show, for those unfamiliar with it…

I was a fan of the original TV series which was basically a clever variation on James Bond… had the venerable agent grown older and retired to New York and decided to continue helping people who needed his “unique” skills.

When the Denzel Washington film came out, I reviewed it (you can read my review of it here) and I thought it was an “ok” film. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination but neither did I feel it was particularly memorable.

I also questioned why the film was made as a remake of that particular show. To wit: Why take away the one thing that made the TV show so unique, the idea of an elderly James Bond type in New York, and get rid of that completely by having Denzel Washington play an agent who others thought was dead but, through the course of this original movie, ends up where the Edward Woodward show began, with him offering his “unique” services to those in need. Only he wasn’t a “fish out of water” James Bond in a New York milieu.

When The Equalizer 2, the sequel to this film, was released in 2018, I didn’t really care to see it. Again, I didn’t hate the original movie but I was leery of the changes made to the original concept and didn’t feel particularly compelled to go watch the sequel.

A couple years passed and the film showed up on a cable channel and, for the heck of it, I DVRed it. It sat there for a few months and yesterday, for the heck of it, I decided to give it a try.

Though my expectations were low, I found the opening hour or so of the film quite interesting: It took its time to establish the various characters and their situation(s), drawing me as a viewer in to the world of Robert McCall (Denzel Washington, natch) and the machinations that ultimately lead to him having to deal with a group of killers… a group of which he was once a part of.

I don’t want to get into SPOILERS and I won’t, but it was refreshing to see this opening and to see director Antoine Fuqua, who directed the original film, take his time showing us the various characters who play a role in the story to come.

However, as good as it was in the early going, it felt like this went on a little longer than it should have. Still, once the pieces were set and the action really started, it was interesting and tense, even if I would also say it wasn’t necessarily spectacular.

The best part of the film, IMHO, was the way it presented the idea of a hurricane -yes, the weather system- slowly coming in, scene by scene. I really like the way that the weather deteriorates subtly as the movie goes along, symbolically showing the fury of McCall building. Once we reach the climax, the hurricane -and McCall’s fury- is quite literally all around us. We see McCall at his deadliest against the bad guys as the full force of the hurricane buffets them.

…but…

The bad guys, like in the original film, are unfortunately once again not all that well defined. I practically moaned when their leader explained his evil actions with the cliched “we worked for X so and so number of years and then they just put us out to pasture… we’re not going to let them!”

…but still…

Despite this I enjoyed this movie. In fact, I’d say it was far better than the original Equalizer. While it may not be the best action/adventure film evah, its kinda nice to see one with a lot of thought behind its story and structure and a not insignificant amount of heart.

While The Equalizer 2 does not reinvent the wheel and I’m still not sold on the idea of re-doing a TV show while removing almost everything that made it unique, if you’ve got a free evening with nothing much to do, spending a bit of time with The Equalizer 2 is far from the worst thing you could do.

Recommended.

General

Coronavirus Diaries 25…

…Christmas edition…!

Our family usually does our Christmas gift giving on the 24th but this year, over an abundance of caution, we’re not meeting up in too large a group and doing one visit to family yesterday, with today being the other visit.

In both cases we’re talking about 10 people max and we know what we’ve been doing/where we’ve been and we’ve all been very careful whenever going out so while we probably shouldn’t have the get togethers, we’re reasonably sure we’re all clear…

,,,well…

My sister-in-law, who is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients, called to let us know yesterday that she tested positive for COVID-19. She is usually very careful, wearing masks and washing her hands frequently. Because of the nature of her job, she is also frequently tested for the virus. She took three tests in the past two weeks and the first two were negative but the last one, taken two days ago, came back positive.

She’ll test herself again to verify if indeed it is a positive result and not a false negative. However, she says she has felt a sore throat, which indicates she has something, but is otherwise -thankfully!- so far fine.

Nonetheless, that ended our family visit intended for today. We’ll likely not see that side of the family for at least a week or two, depending on what the subsequent test results indicate and until my sister-in-law tests negative.

Over on my side of the family, my father had an appointment with his doctor earlier in the week and he did a blood test and, wouldn’t you know it, he came back positive for COVID-19 anti-bodies.

Which means he had the virus.

I’ve written before how I suspected several people -including myself- in our family business contracted the virus in mid-late January, early-mid February.

At that point in time, COVID-19 was something which was supposedly only in China’s Wuhan province. It wasn’t yet thought to be in the U.S. and it wasn’t until March, nearly a month later, that we began to realize it was indeed with the United States. And it was in March, the second week or so, that many businesses in our area were forced to shut down to contain a possible spread.

It’s incredibly scary to realize that my father’s illness way back then, which lingered some two weeks, was more than likely COVID-19. Thankfully, he recovered fine. He was the one, of the three or four of us who were sick at the same time, who had it the worst and everyone subsequently recovered. I myself had two or so weeks where I was so exhausted at the end of each day, beyond the normal exhaustion of a busy week, and practically collapsed on my bed afterwards.

Yet I too have had blood test, the last one quite recently, and there has been no indication of COVID-19 anti-bodies within me. Having said that I don’t know if I was indeed checked for that.

Regardless, my wife, who works in the care field, has an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine this Saturday. She will be the first person in our family -and extended family- to get it and, unfortunately, neither my daughters nor myself can get it until its available to the general population.

As I’ve noted before, I’ll be getting it as soon as I can, but its a relief that at least one of us will have the first half of the vaccine and therefore, will half the chances of her getting this terrible virus.

I’m hopeful with the incoming administration there will be a stronger push to get the vaccine not only out there, but to have people get it.

If you can, please do so.

Hopefully one day very soon, we’ll return to something of a normal life.