Got to enjoy a 4 day weekend with a little time off from work. During this extended time away from work I also took a break from the news about the coronavirus ravaging through San Antonio and the great state of Texas in general, mostly for my sanity.

• Spent most of the extra days jamming out to the Gorillaz’s newest dope track called PAC MAN.

• Slightly ashamed to share that Erika Paradise and I watched a terrible movie on HBO max called Xanadu, staring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly who appear to be the only people in the movie that woke up while filming or even bother rehearsing their lines.

Despite trying hard to not pay attention to the news about COViD-19 in San Antonio, I did manage to hear that Judge Nelson Wolff told KSAT that he was against locking down San Antonio again, but also that he “would take all those 13 exceptions to mass gatherings and eliminate a lot of those exceptions. You know, run the gamut of sports fans, of church services; a number of different other gatherings that are taking place.”

At the start of the week, the 45th Prez of the U.S. tweeted about how wearing a mask is patriotic, sent federal troops into two cities where they have abducted protesters in vans, and he admitted to meeting Ghislaine Maxwell multiple times (the one who was Epstein’s 2nd in command) and he wished her well in federal custody. 2nd amendment folks, anti-mask folks and qonspiracy responded like…

Last weeks number’s mix up in San Antonio has apparently caused some mass speculation by alternative news devotees (aka qonspiracy theorists) which the Mayor of San Antonio had to shut down. Maybe he spent the weekend watching the most recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about Coronavirus conspiracies like I did.

• Speaking of numbers being messed up, San Antonio's Metropolitan Health District has found that they are having trouble getting accurate numbers of active and recovered COVID-19 because some patients have stopped answering the phone.

  • To make matters worse, health officials in San Antonio are also noticing another troubling trend, nothing that San Antonians are not coming into the hospital until it’s too late due to fear of contracting the virus.

• Some numbers definitely not messed up are the ones showing that things are getting even worse in San Antonio and Bexar County due to ANOTHER surge beginning to take shape thanks to the July 4th weekend. Awesome.

You also know it’s getting bad when the Mayor of San Antonio has to issue an address en espanol to remind people not to go out much and to wear masks.

Despite the pandemic raging on for months, it's only been the last two weeks or so where my dreams have taken a COVID-19 turn, as I've begun to dream people wearing masks or people in dreams (who I don't know) contracting the virus.

This week also saw our 45th President 'take a more somber tone' when talking about the coronavirus, while certain states like Texas see their hospitals fill up and look like 'war zones,’ President Trump decides to blame the influx of cases on immigrants and protesting instead of the fact that states like Texas probably reopened way too soon. Right, that's probably it.

• During one of the press briefings this week, Trump astutely noted that “The country is in very good shape, other than if you look south and west.” Ah, so that’s what we were doing wrong this whole time. Meanwhile, in the south, nurses in several Texas hospitals are saying there is no room anymore.

  • PS - We all know what Trump’s ‘somber tone’ is really about. C’mon. Here’s a hint, it happens in November.

Good news for tequila lovers and alcoholics, Taco Cabana steps up again this week as it celebrated National Tequila Day by allowing folks to buy $3 margaritas to go, not just on Friday but all weekend.

Bad news for fans of German meats and beer, as the annual New Braunfels Wurstfest was announced to be cancelled for the FIRST TIME in it’s 60 year history!

Baseball fans got to rejoice as a super duper greatly reduced season started this week. Hooray for people getting to watch slow games in w/o any fans while these millionaires get tested way more frequently than regular people. Awesome! Here’s hoping they watched John Oliver’s piece about sports.

Last week, Erika Paradise and myself had bought two small cans of cat food for our feline friend. This week, Fifi the cat has made her displeasure of going back to dry food known by staring forlornly at her bowl and mostly grazing enthusiastically on her dry food. What can ya do?

One of the main issues that has plagued Texas during the Coronavirus pandemic was brought to light once again this week, as mayors and other local officials have asked the Governor of Texas on several occasions to allow them to grant ‘stay at home orders” for their localities. This week saw mayors and local officials again ask Governor Abbott for that ability. It’s not like the mayors are asking for something crazy, as a few weeks ago Gov. Abbott gave them more authority to place restrictions on gatherings.

• It doesn’t help (and even undermines) the Texas Governor’s office called a recent county’s new stay-at-home orders ‘simply a recommendation.’

What also doesn’t help is that Texas could potentially see it’s first tropical storm this weekend, which signals hurricane season is just around the corner. And if Texans thought Texas wasn’t prepared for a 2nd wave of COVID-19 cases, then Texans probably aren’t super thrilled with the news that a one-two punch of hurricanes and coronavirus could put a major on hospitals due to Texas not being prepared. One person who works in the military says it could get really bad, depending on the amount and severity of the hurricanes. Yikes…

Last weeks trend in San Antonio continues, where hospitalizations continue to fall, yet the death toll continues to climb, pass a grim marker that 1 in 4 coronavirus patients in San Antonio ICU’s are now dead. So again… another mixed bag. Also the last few days saw San Antonio cases actually fall slightly.

• Some good news coming out of Texas however that, if to be trusted from Gov. Abbott, is that the statewide mask mandate is actually HELPING slow the new spread in Texas. Everyone just has to keep it up. So… yay?