May 07, 2020, 00:49 GMT
USA
1,262,918 confirmed cases of COVID-19
74,798 American Deaths

Update: 25,285 new cases and 2,527 new deaths in the United States

Note: Flip Flop AGAIN. Today, the US president reversed his decision of yesterday to dismantle the Coronavirus Response Team. Overnight, he'd been told that the briefings have been "popular" on TV and get him good ratings. To improve the show, he's going now to add or eliminate some new members to the team: whatever that means. Guess we'll find out.
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It's now time to put flowers outside in the deck's planter boxes. Unfortunately, the idea of starting flowering plants from seed doesn't seem to have worked well out as well as hoped. Not knowing back in December that we would be facing social isolation because of a world pandemic, I didn't order & plant the seeds back when I should have to have viable flowering plants this Spring. The seeds arrived late & didn't get planted indoors in starter pots until April 5th. So far, only some of the seeds have germinated. This is the first plant to show a hint of the first "real" leaves. From the info on the seed packet, it should now take 3 more months before these flowers are big and sturdy enough to begin flowering.

Oh well. At least, it was a good idea: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170530067

Normally, I buy good size starter plants in flower from the garden center. Unfortunately, when I called different garden centers to see if any would do contactless curbside pickup, none would. As much as I want to have flowers this Spring, I'm not willing to risk our health (and maybe even lives) by shopping in the store for something that isn't a necessity. Things may be open again, but it's still a very dangerous world out there. COVID-19 is on an upward trend in our area... Both cases and deaths are on the rise. We're staying safe.