In exactly 15 minutes from right now, our chancellor is going to make the formal announcement of our second national lockdown.  At least one of our newspapers got a copy of the rules and published it, so I know what’s coming.  Basically, everything will be closed starting at midnight on Tuesday morning (museums and libraries will have the option to stay open).  Restaurants will revert to take-out only.  It will be illegal to be outside from 20:00 till 06:00 with only a few exceptions, mostly related to your own health or that of others.  A loophole here will allow me to take my usual middle-of-the-night “powerwalks.”  But there will be no entertainment.
 This has been expected: all of our neighboring countries have already shut.
 I am happy that I managed to get tickets to two operas, Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Zazà" at Theater an der Wien. a huge hit at the Met in the early 1920s and not heard there since, and the totally uncut, five-plus hour original French version of Giuseppe Verdi’s "Don Carlos" at Wiener Staatsoper, with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, and to a concert, with American maestra Marin Alsop, the new music director of Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, conducting Hans Werner Henze and Gustav Mahler at Konzerthaus in the last weeks.  When Staatsoper reopened in September, they installed neon lights in the arches on the facade to spell OFFEN (open); it has now been changed to STUMM (silent). In a last-minute fit of not knowing when I will be able to experience live music or dance again, I managed to land a ticket to Sunday night's performance of Balanchine's "Jewels" by the Wiener Staatsballett.
I was actually kind of apprehensive about going, but our theatres and concert halls went beyond the government restrictions to assure safety and there were Zero cluster outbreaks in Wien At the small, regional Salzburger Landestheater one person tested positive but due to the strict contact info you have to show to get a ticket everyone sitting near him/her got a phone call.  The number of new infections has gone insane.  I mean: in June, we had a national total of new infection for an entire week at 151; today we had 5.400 new cases.  The total for the week – announced on Sundays – will be over 26.000.
At least I got confirmation that my application to renew my Daueraufenthalt visa for another five years was received, so that takes a huge load off my mind.  The lockdown really won’t affect me very much: I never really got back to the old “normal” when we reopened in May and kept my mask on in all locations.
As usual, I watch too much MSNBC and CNN.  The other night the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman said to Anderson Cooper that this could quite possibly be the last weekend of America . Yeah – you read that right.  I think I have passed the point of writing “I can’t believe I actually just wrote that.”  Given the behavior I see from Americans on the news, I am totally appalled.
 I can’t begin to tell you how much I want Austrian citizenship!  I had planned to start the process this past spring but … well … you know.  With all immigration bureau offices closed since March, it became impossible to do anything more than submit my application to extend my resident alien status for another five years by post.  If Biden/Harris get in, I can relax till I reach American retirement age, in August 2023; if not, I will start the process as soon as the offices reopen.
And – yes! – with the help of Democrats Abroad I was able to download and fill-out my ballot and fax it back.  I received official government acknowledgement that my vote was received and will be counted. Please be prepared for anything. I just went to the website of our national broadcast service, ORF, and in the news I found this article: “Trump erhebt Vorwürfe gegen Ärztinnen und Ärzte”—“Trump raises allegations against doctors.”  Jesus, is there no escaping him for more than a minute?
Time to tune in Kanzler Kurz, at 34 the youngest head of government in our history.
Alles Liebe,
L.