Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Wednesday, April 8th, 2020
Stormy night
I woke up around 4 am thinking we were going to take off in our house like Dorothy in the Wizzard of Oz. Then thought we might just get washed away, neither happened. Max, EM, J., myself and the house are all still here. It might have made for quite an adventure in these troubled times though.
Of course, the shower curtain doubling up as a cover for the deck furniture blew away and everything was drenched, beyond that no damage. However, in the neighborhood, a number of trees sadly fell causing damage to power lines, a few cars, and landlines (who still needs those anyway?). We walk past a beautiful old apple tree just past full bloom tonight and stroked it a sad farewell.
The soaked cushions prompted me to finally follow-up on the delivery of my outdoor furniture cover. I spend twenty minutes in some loop letting me know how important my call was. Just to then be told “it would be shipped soon”, how soon, no one could say. The warehouse is backed up because of too many COVID induced online orders! Normally I would have had a fit at this waste of my time, It seems I am learning patience, just shrugged, wished the poor lady at the call center a nice day, good health and hung up.
On the bright side, last night's blitz washed away all the clouds, and the sky is shiny blue; the world looks freshly washed, which I guess it is. Somehow spring has burst out in full force. The Japanese Rose is bright yellow, the Azaleas blossoms are opening up in a multitude of colors. This prompted me to spend part of my working day on the patio enjoying the sun and a light breeze.
Also, the vole traps and repellent have arrived. The “repellent” turns out to be a gallon of Castor Oil so spend the early evening mixing this with dishwashing liquid and water and proceeded to flood their holes with the mixture. We also filled the traps with bird food and set them out. If I catch the buggers they will be deported to Little Falls! Because of the mild winter, there appear lots of them this year, at least that is what mum says.
The sealant I bought last week seems to work, at least for now I have no more ants eating off of my kitchen counter.
Other than discussing last night's storm, the Listserv is still very busy with curb alerts. I have never seen so many items on offer for free. Clearly people must have accumulated a lot of shit, since this clearing out business has been going on for three weeks now. Not sure, why in our house there is nothing to purge, other than maybe EM’s art supplies. Definitely time to clean out that studio.
This is on her "to do" list as much as preparing her next segment for SDTV. Episode 5 is available and it features topics such as a visit to Antarctica, binge-worthy book suggestion, advice from the past on how to sound smart and the first Hidden Talent contestant. No contribution from EM. Her specialty is staying positive. So far she has done a segment on chocolate cookies and one on making your own pasta. The latter we did with a mix of flour and semolina. We have resolved to do only flour next time as we believe they will come out smoother. The plan for her next contribution is on rainbows. Waiting to see if she will find time to make that happen.
Also, she is still working on her CAS project for which she is creating a website with resources to study overseas. This is largely spurred by her own university research as a result of which she had planned a trip crisscrossing Europe to check out different Unis. Given that it hits all COVID Hotspots (Italy, Spain, UK, and the Netherlands) I am not sure if it will happen. Maybe she needs to build in resources for virtual tours. Speaking of COVID19, people in the USA and Europe seem to be losing patience with their situation and are debating when economies may reopen for business.
The numbers do not suggest that it will be any time soon, despite the political rhetoric. My source, the FT tracker shows upwards of 1.4 million infected with almost 90k deaths reported. The US is the world leader with over 400k reported infections and 14+k dead. In Spain and Italy, which have enforced the strictest lockdown measures in Europe numbers on both newly infected and deaths are decreasing, supporting the theory that this is an effective measure. Iran seems to have stabilized as apparently have Germany and France.
In Germany, the magical date for reopening circulated is April 20th, which happens to be mum’s but also Hitler’s birthday. Not sure that is a great choice of date. I continue to be concerned that US numbers may be grossly under-reported, given testing is still very limited at best. Putting the numbers into perspective though, given the world has 7.8 billion inhabitants, 1.4 million infected is a tiny percentage. Maybe, so I am hoping, this experience is changing the way humans utilize this planet. Maybe it is also demonstrating that if the world really wants to cut, it can. And maybe, the world gets its act together to act as ferociously on climate change as it is acting on eliminating the virus.
No other worthwhile reads in the news tonight, other than yesterday's news on the primaries in Wisconsin which were held despite the virus and the state declared lockdown. Reads on this do not make me hopeful for democracy in this country.
The other big news item today: Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign, but will remain on ballots in all outstanding primaries.
