I packaged and sent an installment of Marlow’s series on the plague this morning. I love his hang loose approach to global pandemic, always with a distinct rhythm of melody and distant old times. Or new ones. The House passed a three trillion dollar bill, biggest in the history of the republic in one shot.

The word is that it will die in the Senate, or be vetoed by Mr. Trump. Interesting times for us all.

With the recent spread of virus on some Navy ships, a long ago memory came back. I was sharing USS Midway with 4,200 close friends, and we have completed a second Indian Ocean deployment in the months straddling the beginning of 1980.

We stopped in Subic Bay for fuel and supplies before heading back home to Yokosuka. There is nothing quite like a hundred days at sea to stoke the fires of my shipmates, regardless of rank or general feelings of enhanced self worth.

I don’t need to delve too deeply in those memories, because in addition to Diesel Fuel Marine and fresh lettuce someone brought a nasty variety of influenza from the barrio back to the ship. We were not dying, just sick, which is why the spread of the contagion was so dramatic. You could see it progress through workspace and grade, and with inexorable success. It got me, too, probably from handrails covered in virus and thin grease. I almost couldn’t get off the ship after the four day transit north. Plague is a drag, large or small, novel or not.

I got up early- I don’t know why. I assume it is the Commonwealth loosening up the state-wide house arrest. Yesterday it seemed the neighbor’s kids had suddenly been liberated. There were bursts of shotgun fire in the morning, transitioning to a more orderly semi-automatic rifle fire in the late afternoon. I shoot down in the pastures just to keep my fingers loose- nothing untoward- but added to the sound of firearms were shouts of raw youthful energy.

I kept my head down and organized the trash, a useful plague activity. So is living, if you have the freedom to do so.

I suppose we will see if loosening the restrictions brings the virus back. I don’t think we have a choice in all this, you know, and a stop in the Philippines for a break doesn’t seem to be on the menu.

We will get through this, if we take it loose and be kind. And remember those who have fallen. One of my old shipmates has a new grandchild who is ailing. My thoughts are with them, and prayers, of course. But let’s remember the load that all people have to carry to get through this. We will, though. It is Armed Forces Day, after all.

– Vic