Since getting my rosy “Not Detected” test results, I’ve put on hold calling these times the Hostage Crisis, and instead I’m going full stir-crazy, just like doing 10-to-life for a crime you never committed.

Can anyone guess my big accomplishment today? Not 1, but 2 complete one-piece Cutie peels! Jeez.

Also, you should know about me, I’m a news junkie. But not just straight consumption, no that’s too easy. I’m a corroborator, a fact-checker, a BS-detector, a genuine disbeliever in almost every story I’ve only seen once. I take in a variety of sources, starting with my Seattle Times first thing in the morning, then moving on to whatever form of Internet News finds itself under my fingers on the keyboard, to the evening news. I’ve been known to look for the same story in the paper, then on CBS, then on NBC, then pop over to MSNBC, thence to CNN, etc. You get the picture. It’s absolutely mind numbing how the same basic news event can get spun so differently based on the source.

In the act of all this news-hounding, I’ve noticed that each outlet has it’s own Corona Virus Mascot, if you will. There are so many different pictures out there of “THE Corona Virus”, some scary, some Shrek-like, some downright beautiful, that I’m becoming convinced that nobody really knows what it looks like, just that it needs to be blasted on the screen to get somebody’s attention. Here’s a small sampling:

I have reasonably convinced myself that the general structure of the virus, regardless of how it looks, has been adopted by most authorities as “a spherical protein, encased in a lipid membrane, with protruding attachments, all housing a strand of DNA that, by itself, can do no harm until it finds, attaches to, and invades a cell that lines our respiratory system, and uses that cell’s inner machinery to replicate”. The trick, I understand, to defeating the virus before it defeats you, is that lipid membrane.

Lipids are fats, basically a grease. This thin shell on the virus acts as a food for the receptor cell that ingests the casing and thus the inner DNA strand, which starts the infection cycle. If you want to stop the virus in it’s tracks before it has a chance to get inside you, the key is to disrupt the lipid membrane. Really, anything that cuts grease will do the job. Soap, the foamy type, works great. It zaps the lipid membrane and dissolves it, and the inside goodies just deteriorate without their protection. Alcohol, in relatively high concentration (65%+) will do the same. (Sorry, but Vodka won’t). Heat melts the membrane, just like it does the grease on the engine block in my 1968 MG Midget. Any industrial grade de-greaser, like we use mixed with a little Lysol (mostly for the nice fruity fragrance) to disinfect our office and loading bays, will easily do the job. Dry air also works pretty good, as do the UV rays from the sun. That wimpy little lipid/DNA bundle hates UV.

So, fear not, you have many weapons around you to battle whichever of the above demons you wish. Me, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the view. Just me ‘n Tippy.