Saturday, May 2nd, 2020
What a gorgeous day!
Max, of course it being a Saturday, decided to walk across my chest left to right right to left and back again followed by head butting any visible body parts at 6:15am, demanding to have his head scratched. When I comply he will “reward” me by biting my hand only minutes later, but I am awake. What can I do but wander downstairs and make a coffee to take back to bed and read the news? Oh and of course open the door for Max to depart on his important errand which was the reason to wake me up in the first place.
The upside of being up this early: I catch the light as the sun rises over the back neighbors house into my garden, sunlight slowly flooding through the door into my bedroom. From my bed I look straight out at a tree with beautiful young leaves sparkling green against a brilliantly blue sky bathed in the early morning light. A stunningly beautiful sight. The light only lasts for about 10 minutes as the sun comes up further, it changes.
It is a sun filled day. Given all of my bulbs have finally arrived I not only cut the dead wood out of the Hydrangeas, but spend well over two hours planting some 250 bulbs; mostly where the voles have left devastation.
The voles seem to have moved on after I threw pure castor oil down the hole the last time around; at least I did not come across any new holes or tunnels.
After bending over for two hours my thighs, butt and back are sore. Seeing the sun has now reached past the trees and is bathing my love seat in light I opt for some intense Vitamine D and UV treatment paired with a nap. Even EM settles on the lawn maybe the intense sunlight will have an immunizing effect as suggested by a certain head of State.
To round the afternoon off, we braai some Spareribs. Hard to fathom that only last night I spend the evening in front of the fireplace.
During our daily walk EM takes pictures of the folks outside socially distancing. I think her art project on the subject is coming along nicely. All the paper marche has dried and she has a nice topography of the Hood into which to add the pictures.
There is some really funny news today. Seems laundering money is becoming a real problem im LA. With all shops closed there is a lack of opportunities.
Also nice to read that Spaniards are now out and about, leaving their homes for the first time to exercise after 7 weeks in lock down.
For data nerds I found this is super cool page. Modeling the virus in different ways to track what is really going on. The model shows which countries and within countries which municipalities.
Today the world has 3.42 million recoded infections; 90k more than yesterday, so numbers are still going up.
Unbelievable the numerous articles I came across of people not only violating social distancing rules, but attacking those that do or enforce social distancing rules. NBC reports that a park ranger reminding visitors to lake Austin to maintain six feet distance was pushed into the water. While FOX is running a story on a protestor shouting, spitting and calling at a reporter covering the protest by a thousand or so souls in Ohio. Apparently the reporters wearing of a mask is considered “threatening” and she has no right to “ social distancing in public”
What is wrong with these people? They have all the rights they want, but do not grant others the right to stay safe? Imagine one of them is infected and spits at you, would that not be attempted murder?
After 80.000 flocked to the beaches once they reopened, the Californian governor has closed them again. Now there are protests to this closure. If people would have kept to the rules, surely this would not have been necessary....
All this while the completely chaotic testing and tracing situation continues and over 30 States are reopening. As the Guardian puts it “it is like flying blind” Hoping Hogan will keep #stayhome order in place for another month or so at least. I plan not to go anywhere unless there is widespread testing. Amid all the none testing going on, turns out that officials of this administration get test every few days and anyone visiting the WH has to take a rapid response test. So if you cannot get tested maybe it is time to pay a visit to 1600 Pennsylvania....