In many ways COVID19 was as bad as a pandemic could get without being really bad. It doesn’t have the virulence of measles combined with the mortality of bubonic plague. This, however, makes it all the more galling that Donald Trump and his cadre of sycophants failed to guide the nation through these straits effectively.

Unlike 9/11, which literally exploded across the nation, we knew this was coming with weeks of lead time and Trump’s team failed to act. Here’s the story of how we got the signals of the threats ahead, how Lauren and I experienced it, and how Trump spread disinformation ahead of it.

Prelude to a Season of Death

In February of 2020, I was due to start a new job. Ahead of it, and knowing that new work tends to dominate life for a little while, Lauren and I planned to take a trip to the beautiful Netherlands. I had long hoped to share the wonders of the Mauritshuis, Zuid Holland, and Amsterdam with her. While we were there, though, the European media, forever ahead of US media in terms of international reporting, was running stories about a highly infectious illness sweeping the Wuhan province of China.

Peter Naur was undoubtedly a great computer scientist: Turing award winner, co-creator of the influential Algol language, and co-inventor of the Backus-Naur notation used to explain the options of programs and program routines. The significance of Naur’s contributions are beyond reproach. One of my favorite works of his is “Programming as Theory Building”.

However, the language, style, and approachability make this article less-accessible, and that is a shame. In this post I’d like to humbly submit my edit: “Programming as Theory Building 1.01.”

As is our custom, we took a mid-October travel break this year. Thanks to the pandemic this, as has been everything this year, was a little bit different. Due to New England’s strict quarantine regime (good for them), we decided to stay in the Empire state so that we could honor the best health practices.

On the other hand, we really wanted to see some pretty foliage. I found the leaf peeper map on and realized that the upper-right corner of the state near Lake Placid was most ideal, and so we made reservations in Lake Placid.

Complicating all this was that a week ago my viking of a wife underwent surgery and had spent a week resting and recuperating on bed. At the prospect of canceling, she wasn’t having any of it and she insisted we go on. We both had the suspicion fresh air, movement, and nature were an important part of her healing, and we were right.