Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Friday, March 27th, 2020

Busy

What started as a glorious sunny day is rapidly deteriorating to overcast and chilly – of course in time for the weekend, when one would be able to laze in the sun. No such luck.

Somehow the day was so busy we did not even manage to do our daily walk! The main reason: we went on a grocery trip and there does not seem to be enough time in the day, which is funny given our activities only two weeks ago….

How life has slowed down, but between the morning exercise regime, work, making lunch, eating and work, the hours of the day fly by till the evening comes. Those are long. Maybe we should start to introduce evening walks or bike rides to fill the space and get the exercise in.

But, I was on the topic of shopping. This took so much longer than normal. Starting with gearing up – a scarf to cover mouth and nose – check. Rubber gloves – check. Wipes to keep cleaning the phone and the rubber gloves – check, courtesy of Giant who provide them at the entrance to the market, which was remarkably empty at around 6 pm.

Since I have decided to make fresh juice for us in the evenings going forward, I ended up buying inordinate amounts of apples, carrots, and ginger as well as restocked on lemons and ginger for the morning tea.

Beyond that, hopefully, I got enough groceries for two weeks. Luckily, I found some unusual items such as Kohlrabi and soya beans. So Monday’s menu will feature Asian vegetable stir fry. Also dropped into Pesca Deli to get some Little Neck Clams for the pasta Vongole planned for tomorrow and a fish for Sunday – Tuzlu Balik (fish in a salt crust) - will be the dish of the day. Seeing we are likely in for a cold spell I am planning on some red cabbage with breast of duck for Tuesday and Turnip / Brisket stew for Wednesday. Seems I am completely with the trend of cooking is more than feeding oneself.

The shelves at Giant were pretty empty – meat section half cleared out, same for milk, rice, bread, and pasta. Best the aisle with cleaning products – not a sheet of toilet paper, kitchen towels or napkin in sight and most cleaning products sold out.

Americans must be on a super cleaning spree. Everyone’s houses come the end of this is going to be as spick and span clean as are peoples butt's I presume. We did get lucky though and scored a bottle (half a liter!) of hydrogen peroxide.

This now lives in the garage, because coming back all groceries entered the house the same way with every single item getting its own wipe down with a clothe drenched in hydrogen peroxide! All vegetables found their way into a bath of dish washing liquid and were rinsed diligently after. If you want to know how the process work check out this video on food safety.

I have also taken to online shopping; admittedly with a bad conscious as it means that delivery drivers are at risk as they have to continue to work. I ordered a bunch of herbs for my kitchen garden and more flowers for the garden. None of which have yet arrived, so no gardening this weekend. Maybe just as well as the weather forecast is truly miserable. Unlike Amazon neither of the two gardening sites allows online tracking of the order, so need to wait, which is not something I do well.

I guess beyond cooking that means tomorrows entertainment will include propping up the lavender plants so they do not fall into the shrubbery. Mum thinks they need to be pruned, but she did that in October so not sure I will do that again.

Also, I will run to the hardware store tomorrow – maybe they have restocked toilet paper. Plus I want some paint since I no longer like the color of my spice jars, so the lids are up for a make over. Will need some advice on how/ if to take the old paint of.

And then, maybe EM agrees, might make her go to the deserted dojo with me to run through all of the 4th kyu testing technics. Feel I should move around my house Shikko only to get a handle on that technic, if only it were not so on the knees.

Based on current school closures (April 24th 2020) I doubt testing will happen that weekend. Not even sure if all of the seminars I had planned to attend in July and August are going to be on.

How long will the current state of affairs last? Latest numbers are not encouraging. Official infection rates in the US have reached 100k and continue to rise quickly. Death today are nearly 2.000 which is double yesterday’s according to the FT.

Given that the death toll is predicted at ~81k it seems this country has ways to go still with this infectio. If the billionaires had their way, this figure could increase significantly as they want people to return to work, even if it means a higher death toll.

I have real issues with that. Since living here, this country has felt more foreign to me than any other place in the world I have lived in (some 15 countries). I have been struggling to identify why, especially given that I grew up with the notion of the USA sharing our values, being our protectors.

The current administration may have made the divide more obvious, but the fundamentals have not changed. I think where I come out is that this country in its social fabric does not really subscribe to an equitable society. In a discussion with one of my Aikido friends she explained that this was indeed so (defining equitable society as shared responsibilities across society, with the stronger looking out for the weaker).

She ascribed this to the complete absence of social casts or classes. Here everyone is – on a society level, at least in theory – equal, has an equal chance to make or break it in life.

If you are poor or unable to contribute the same to society as the next person, it is because you are not trying. Hence, you deserve where you are. This gels with my impression that this society is very much geared towards survival of the fittest, or as I like to say, survival of the richest.

Yes, there are large numbers of charities helping those struggling, but help is individualized and not something the society as whole subscribes to. And to me that is what makes it so incomprehensible.

Every country I have lived in, has some form of consensus within its social fabric to provide for all, not leave people behind by design, which does not necessarily mean they succeed. Or that they are free of critique, but there is some form of social contract, which I seem unable to identify in the USA. There appears to be no aspiration to create equal opportunities for all through access to education, access to clean water, access to health care. Once you have the basics, it is still up to the individual to make it. And yes, if you come from a poor background, even with all this in place, chances are you will struggle, but then there are social safety nets. And yes, you do get free riders with which these societies also struggle, but to me that is a nicer problem to have, than people dying because they do not have clean water or they cannot afford to seek medical care. Surely the richest country in the world ought to be able to provide the same basics to its populace which the world community aspires to for all humans? I would love to have a conversation around why and how to better understand. Maybe I got it all wrong…….