'Card tremors' and other virus effects

Grannie Annie’s friend Karen called to announce that she was having “card tremors”. You know as related to alcohol tremors from not being able to play cards for the past couple of months. We looked it up and according to Google:

Tremors are involuntary shaking in one or multiple areas of the body and can occur intermittently or be constant.1,2 Two of the many possible causes of tremors are acute alcohol withdrawal and excessive alcohol use.

Tremors are caused by a problem in the areas of the brain that control the body’s muscles. Although not life-threatening, they can be embarrassing and even disabling, making it difficult to perform everyday functions.

Well it was all in good fun as a gregarious Karen living in a nearby really small town was used to joining friends in playing cards several times a week, driving to McCook and other places. Fun and a chance to visit with friends to keep one’s mind stimulated was good therapy for a long time widow living alone. Due to current governmental “suggestions” we are directed to shelter in place -- stay home which can get a bit lonely especially if one is retired and single. Yes the telephone still works but that doesn’t have the challenge of an afternoon of pinochle, bridge or what have you. Another unintended consequence of the shutdown.

Yes this old guy was intrigued when original direction came down from on high (government) that due to a heretofore unknown coronavirus that was particularly virulent and with no known cure a pandemic was developing in the US and around the world. Amazingly a vast majority of our population complied with the initial mitigation suggestions and did what we came to know as “shelter in place”.

Then government got its nose into the act and orders with teeth in them came down from the Feds and from State Governors. Schools shut down, businesses were classified as essential and those non-essential ones were shut down. Millions of people were laid off work and went on unemployment to try to get by. We in Nebraska were fortunate in that Governor Ricketts pretty well relied on his state’s citizens to use common sense to avoid the disease. The Feds handed out lots of newly created out of the ether money in an attempt to keep people from hurting or starving.

Any time a government attempts to operate on socialist principles chaos ensues and we now have a front row seat to watch Governors who are supposed to get their state’s economies back up to speed with their constituents back to work. One of the worst performance so far is the lady governor in Michigan making a mess of things for her people who just want to go back to their jobs. In another direction a power driven judge fined and put a lady in jail because she reopened her beauty salon to keep her family and her employees from going hungry. That didn’t work out well publicly for that judge after the incensed public got involved.

So things are a mess for a lot of people in our beloved country. Some like Grannie, me, Karen and our numerous friends are actually doing well throughout this turmoil. For those who are less fortunate we can all offer prayers that things will soon get better.

A comment on TV mentioned that the coronavirus that is responsible for COVID-19, and all the trouble that it is currently causing is one from a family of coronaviruses that includes the common cold. To date, to my knowledge, no vaccine has ever been developed to inoculate us against the common cold. That fact may indicate that it will be impossible to create an effective vaccination to prevent the COVID-19 disease that is currently ravaging us older folk. Of course being optimistic I can hope that a vaccine will be developed to prevent the COVID-19 and also another vaccine that will prevent the common cold.

Indications are that the bad COVID-19 coronavirus that is causing the current worldwide pandemic escaped from a Communist Government Laboratory in Wuhan, China. I have to ask what in the world were they messing with such dangerous viruses in the first place. Were they in the process of trying to develop a biological weapon to use against us in a future war? The way that the Communist Government of China restricted travel for anyone going from Wuhan to any part of China but they encouraged travel by Wuhan Chinamen to other parts of the world is a bit suspicious. Were they running a big test to see how virulent a war weapon COVID-19 might be? As the old adage goes: “All is fair in love and war!!

Enough speculation. For sure Grannie Annie won’t be having “card tremors”. Grannie loves to play cards. Since we are now shut-ins we have adopted a habit of playing one game of cribbage each night after supper. To date she has won way more than her share of the games. On winning her retort is “Well you taught me how to play it!” That is true but if it makes her wah-la happy it makes me happy too.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail