Talk of Reopening
April 21
The governor spoke yesterday and we are going to reopen Tennessee on April 27. It will be incremental. There will still be a recommendation for no gatherings of more than 10. Nashville had 152 new cases yesterday but only 33 today. I think we might be jumping the gun just a bit but we will see.
Georgia is starting to open on Friday. They have a lot more cases than Tennessee, a lot more deaths also.
Jonathon's in Hendersonville.
April 22
So, as we grow more eager to reopen everything and get back to normal, how people feel about this has split down the same predictable political divide. It seems as if most of the scientific community says we should wait a little bit and the folks on the left want to do that. The economic community says we need to reopen now to avoid even worse economic damage and the folks on the right want to do that. I’m starting to lean towards reopening. I think we need to do it reasonably and more slowly in more population dense areas. In the end it is the public that will decide. You could open everything up tomorrow and I doubt Taylor Swift would sell out Bridgestone Arena. People aren’t going to be ready for that. But at the same time, I bet some people got tattoos in Georgia today, I bet a lot more wait a little bit. In the end, what really gets me is the partisanship of it all. How quickly we want to pick sides and label something or someone as red or blue. I’m so sick of it.
“Good afternoon. Don’t let anyone steal you joy. This storm is about to be over,” words from a cashier at Kroger today. I sure hope so cashier lady.
April 24
For the last week Blackhawk helicopters from Fort Campbell, KY just north of here have been flying over the neighborhood at night with their lights off. This is not a new thing; they use the closed Cornelia Fort airport in Shelby Park for night training. But this is usually once in a while. It is strange to hear them so often and so many nights in a row. I would love to get some pictures of them landing in the park but I might have to camp out a while to get those shots.
Hospitals are furloughing people. That’s something you don’t expect during a pandemic. With no elective surgery hospitals are losing money. People that might have gone to the emergency room in the past for something are now thinking twice about it because they don’t want to be around people with the disease.
China One on Lebanon Pike was particularly well draped tonight. I believe they have been closed and just recently reopened.
