Alternatives to coronavirus news

There has to be more news out there than the coronavirus. It’s the struggle everyone is growing weary of...24/7 news coverage of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, Italy, South Korea and China.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to the constant blathering of pretty talking heads reading the latest update.
I found a great book, written by one of my favorite authors: Joel C. Rosenberg’s newest thriller: “The Jerusalem Assassin.” I began
reading this latest Mideast-centered piece on Sunday morning after watching Eagle Brook Church online.

Between work on the Advantage and the Dodge County Independent, I was able to read a couple hundred pages. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed that I could have finished the entire book late Sunday evening, but I knew if I had there wouldn’t be another one of his thrillers out for another year.

That’s when I began scanning the bookshelf to line up my next read. Several of Winston Churchill’s historic recountings of World War II, Stephen Ambrose’s non-fiction of the Battle of the Bulge, Sharyl Attkisson’s “The Smear” which chronicles the shady side of U.S. politics and of course, there’s always a fall back to read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” the fictional account of life under the heavy hand of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

It’s almost a recalibration of life.

No golf. No baseball. No sports other than reruns of past events (not worth wasting the time to view).

We could break out the paintbrushes, rollers, tarps and paint the two bedrooms and family rooms down- stairs, but that’s a grind after working five days on the job. Yes, it needs to be done, but it requires energy that seems to be on low by week’s end.

We’ll hopefully be on the other side of this virus hysteria in a few weeks and back to a normal lifestyle. (Maybe by then the weather will settle in with sunny skies and warmer weather rather than this nighttime snow showers and rain.)

Meanwhile, stay hunkered down and grab a good book, call a family member or friend, or just go for a walk.