One day a few months from now (we hope) we can look back on this time and breathe a collective sigh of relief.. we can applaud the ingenuity of human and thank our lucky stars that the pandemic coronavirus, Covid-19, was a moment in time that we all muddled through together..

But this week sure has tested our emotions..

The news media has shrouded all known print and digital with wall to wall COVID cases–NBA stars who gave it to children, entire cities shutting down.. Spain and France completely shutting down all activity … the United States declaring a national emergency and subsequent Sunday ‘day of prayer’ .. and here in Pennsylvania, county-by-county emergencies where Governor Wolf has been focusing on hot spots of Covid-19 cases as they get tested and confirmed..

China first.. and other nations next. Italy has had a harsh week… So many dead.. Newspapers filled with scores of deceased.

AND TOM HANKS HAS IT TOO!

SPEAKING OF HANKS, A NEW SIMPSONS CONSPIRACY THEORY BEGINS!

People think that a 2007 scene with Hanks in it was forecasting his future quarantine.

In The Simpsons Movie, an animated Hanks is at the Grand Canyon and says, “The U.S. government has its credibility so it’s borrowing some of mine.”

Later in the clip, he adds, “This is Tom Hanks saying if you see me in person, please let me be.” Both times amounted to a few seconds.

This week has been stunning, as we look back.

Days ago, President Donald Trump made a night time address to the nation where he began to get the nation ready for tougher days to come. The markets collapsed as a result, and some believed that the President looked bad and read his script even worse.. It did not helped he dropped the F bomb on CSPAN as he noticed ink on his shirt seconds before air time..

After the market crash, the President made a Rose Garden address to the nation, where he was flanked by CEOs of corporations and his aides.. the markets increased but it soon became apparent that a promise of a Google website to aide Americans was not just around the corner.. We will have to wait for that.

A reporter had a gotcha moment and got Trump to reluctantly say he will be tested for COVID-19..

The issue that prompted the question was Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting with Brazil’s president and staff.. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said he tested negative for the novel coronavirus, after reports suggested that he tested positive.. Some of his staff tested positive, as did the Miami Mayor Francis Xavier Suarez..

Late Saturday night, the White House doctor stated that Trump was indeed tested, and he was negative for the coronavirus–though some sustained their highly dubious questions over the authenticity of the White House statement..

X X X

LIVING THROUGH HISTORY IS NEVER GOOD

That is something my own father always said.. you do NOT want to live through history..

This week has tried our emotions and our stresses. .. .

In Pennsylvania, school is out for Corona.. public and private schools across the Commonwealth are closed for at least the next two weeks.

Certain counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania (undoubtedly more to come) are already included with this order:

MY CORONA

WE ARE LIVING THROUGH A SURREAL TIME..

A few weeks ago, several followers and friends shrugged their shoulder and rolled their eyes at Coal Speaker’s Coronavirus coverage.. We knew this was serious..

I wish we were wrong.

It feels weird. Actually, mid-week this week I woke up and thought most of this COVID-19 news was just a bad nightmare until checking Twitter and realizing it was real.

We have been on top of this for months now, and quickly realized back in January that the virus that began in a Wuhan fish market, and canceled China’s new years celebration, would become the story of the year..

And suddenly American is thrust into the drama of watching cases unfold before our eyes.. predictions–if they are true–state that our health care system will be tested to its core within 7 to 10 days.

May God be with our health care workers–my own family included.

To consider just how meaningful this story is to our lives, a sampling of headlines from around the world:

TEMP CHECKS BEGIN AT WHITE HOUSE... Journalist With Fever Denied Access... TRAVEL BAN EXPANDS... CDC NIGHTMARE SCENARIO: 1.7 MILLION DEATHS... Hospitals brace for 'tremendous strain'... Six patients for every bed? 'I Could Easily Kill Them': Terrified Doctors Sound Alarm... Survivors may suffer reduced lung function... TRUMP: 'I don't take responsibility at all'... S&P 500 Had Choppiest Week Since Hoover Was President... Mnuchin vows to keep markets open... Bank in Midtown Cleaned Out of $100 Bills... APPLE closes all stores outside China... National Guard activated... Robberies by suspects wearing medical masks in multiple states... When will there be vaccine -- and who will get it first?

Italians singing from windows to boost morale…
Health workers on edge of exhaustion…
Struggling Europeans tighten measures…
The new epicenter…
Spain imposes lockdown of entire country…Coronavirus Will Change How We Shop, Travel and Work for Years…
One-Percenters Keep Calm With $4,995 Go-Bag…
Mexico frets about U.S. spread, could restrict border…
Weekend Box Office Headed To 22-Year-Low…
Hollywood Could Take $20 Billion Hit!
Christian Moviegoers Still Believe as Faith Based Weeper Number 1…Companies that feed America brace for labor shortages amid worry about restocking stores…
Brawls break out at stores across country as customers dash for supplies…
Lines to get into supermarkets extend for blocks…
NOONAN: ‘Don’t Panic’ Is Rotten Advice…
Virus Can last a few days on surfaces…
Children less sick from COVID-19, but still spread…
Newborn baby becomes world’s youngest victim…

A few screen shots of the most important events of the week:

What will happen next?

There are horrible predictions.. there are dire warnings..

There are equally a huge amount of diligent and intelligent geniuses working on potential vaccines and potential solutions around the world.. This is a moment in time when we will look back and either see the United States and world as succeeding heroically or failing miserably. Let’s root for the home team: Human kind.. and let’s pray, on March 15’s day of prayer, that Trump’s ink spot vanishes and does this virus..

It’s a hope and prayer…

CAPTAIN TRIPS DOES NOT EXIST

And a stand…

The Stand..

Stephen King does not want current events to be compared to his novel and subsequent movie, but one scene cannot escape us..

The Second Coming

W. B. Yeats – 1865-1939

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born