exponential growth

the birthday girl at about 4 months

dancing with her dad at her wedding. Marriage did not last long

yesterday with her peach melba  birthday cobbler She and Josh prefer cobblers to cake

social distancing in the Costco line

her glamour shot  I assume Maya took the photo  She is a redhead here but not her true color which is in the wedding photo (and in the infant photo)

A teenager is told to do a task daily for a month. His dad tells him he gets a choice in how he will be paid: A million dollars up front or on the first day of the month: one penny, second day two pennies, third day 8 pennies etc. up to 31 days. To most people, the million dollars sounds like a better deal. Halfway into the month, one would only have  $50.00 or so. But towards the end of the month things snowball, the total is close to $20,000,000. That's exponential growth which is used to describe now the number of corona  cases. Here in Michigan, we went from 2 to 7600 cases in 3 weeks. Now they don't double every day, more like every other day or every two days but they are increasing at an alarming rate even with social distancing. I read the obituaries regularly. Most include something about a memorial service will be planned at a later date though today I noticed someone will have a graveside service tomorrow. At least it is outside.

Sometime today I will set up Zoom so my friends and I can have a virtual happy hour.

As for exponential growth (which Steve argues is geometric growth which I believe is just another word for the same thing), I have been battling it on a much smaller scale in my house. Aphids! They are sucking the life out of my hibiscus plants. An adult aphid (and one reaches adulthood at 10days) can give birth to 10 babies live a day. And they reproduce asexually So instead of an exponent of 2 as we have in the penny case, it is close to 10. They shed their skin 4 times while growing to adulthood so I see lots of white carcasses on the leaves, easier to spot than the green aphids themselves. Fortunately they are quite sensitive to soapy water spritzed on them. They prefer new growth so I know where to look. But as my one plant, which  is huge, they are easy to miss. One could quickly turn into thousands. So aphid hunting has been added to be chores.

Our river boat cruise down the Danube in May is cancelled. We can reschedule with a 25% bonus in the next 2 years or get a full refund. We have to wait to see what is happening .

Yes the Orange One really messed up disbanding the pandemic team, refusing to listen to warnings about the virus. claiming everything was a Democratic hoax and now liberally pats himself on the back on what a tremendous job he is doing. And his base is still loving him.  Our divide now is greater than ever with his supporters deep in denial that this is occurring. The mega churches (3000+) are still meeting in defiance of local laws. And not just the so-called Christians, ultra Orthodox Jews still hold services. However I am not sure that more enlightened countries are doing that much better. China now claims that everything is under control now but won't let in reporters to see for themselves

I still have a fewTrump lovers on Facebook though they make me cringe. One recently fell out of love with Trump because Trump actually seemed to be taking things seriously (better late than never) and the stock market tanked which my acquaintance thought totally unnecessary as the virus is 'not all that bad'.  Another started a fundraiser to protest trans athletes being able to compete in races as a sex different from the one they were born with and her daughter, should she decide to be a runner (she is 8) won't have a fair advantage. Really. With the hospitals not having supplies and overworked health professionals not having masks, you are worried about 'girls' with too much male steroids.

We were good friends in the past. She really is a sweet lady. Fortunately her daughter (friend of my daughter) has a good head on her shoulders though unable to convince mom (a scientist at that) what is right.

Sigh. Such times we live in.