This is the end of my seventh week of cower in place.  I am sick to death of starting each article with that sentence. I am finally seeing some rays of hope this nonsense is coming to an end.

Governor Gavin “Science” Newsom is floundering toward relaxing his authoritarian lockdown. I have to laugh, so I don’t cry, when I read about the various dictators’ governors’ plans to reopen and their claim they are relying on “the science.” Even a casual observer knows public health officials have contradicted themselves since this shitstorm began. The bona fide scientific community continues to gather information to formulate new working theories about this virus. That is as good as it gets right now.

To my utter shock and amazement, my local officials are trying to do the right thing.  My county board of supervisors voted 5-0 to direct our public health officer to rescind his orders that are stricter than the state’s orders.  At least one is promoting open defiance of Newsom’s orders.  Be still my beating heart.

My local courts are showing the first, faintest signs of reopening for something approaching normal business.  Nothing of substance will happen until the middle of June.  It is going to be fun times taking on more debt to pay salaries, rent, and other overhead for another month with next to no revenue.

Which sort of leads me to this week’s topic: stress’ effect on weight.  One of the few productive things I have done since this mess started is pay attention to my weight.  I’ve been tracking it weekly, been careful with my food choices, and have increased my conditioning workouts. I figured the weight would come off at a steady rate.  It hasn’t. I have been losing weight, but it started by bouncing around before slowly dropping.

Initially, I didn’t think I was stressed by my situation. Then I read this article. I have seven of ten symptoms. But still, I seemed to be doing the right things. I had avoided my biggest mistake of eating out of boredom, self-pity, or some other stupid reason. So, what was going on?

This article was of some help. The doctor who authored it has an umlaut in her name so she must be good. The part about exercise being the best medicine is spot on. My conditioning days are my better days. Whatever the science is behind it, I recommend it to you, friends. Do what you can with what you’ve got. Anything that makes you feel better in these times is worth doing.

Speaking of umlauts, none of you commented on last week’s music choices. So, you get them again. I can only assume MikeS is MIA and Sir Digby is asleep. As for the rest of you, I’ll just assume you are dead inside. You can select a song that tells your local tyrant you are going to take your chances, you will fight back, or you don’t believe them.