Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Friday, May 8th, 2020

i-toys

Good morning world! Maryland bipolar weather at its best, with a sunny start to the day, rapidly deteriorating to grey, rainy skies. The cold spell is arriving; which of course is relative. The DC area enjoys an overall sub-tropical climate, except for those winters when the icy winds come straight down from Canada that is.

So “cold” now means some 18C during the day and a chilly 2C at night and plenty of sunshine forecast for tomorrow. I will make use of that sunshine to up-earth Mondo-Grass at one of my neighbor’s houses and transplant it to my garden. Our Listserv is truly amazing. Anything you may want, you can get. The Mondo-Grass makes for great foliage under the Azalea bushes upfront and is just the best treatment against weeds and far less smelly than the mulch my neighbors like so much.

Now more than ever I love my garden and pottering in it. Everyday something new springs to life and begins to bloom. Some late Azaleas, the last of the Lilacs. The Rhododendron. Next up the Gladiolas, the Hydrangeas and the Roses. The latter will be in full bloom all summer, though I noted two are not doing well and may need replacing.

I am so anxious for my herbs and my other flowers to arrive; next weekend hopefully. I also noted today that my new bird bath is well like by my feathered friends. I just observed a Cardinal taking a dip. This will make for great summer entertainment as I am expecting to be spending most of it in my garden.

Seeing Europe has just extended its closed boarders until June 15th, I fully expect all of our summer travel plans to be null and void; who would want to import a virus threat from the US anyway? I am sad to miss the Aikido seminar I had signed up for; 13 teachers from 12 countries, but I guess that is as unlikely as the Cherry Blossom Seminar, which I had planed to attend tduring the first week of Jul. No one will want to be in close contact with some 100 people they do not know and Aikido is a contact sport.

Floh, I am happy to report, is fully functional again today. I was so sad when yesterday I turned the key in the ignition to hear – nothing. I thought our little cincocento had died. Luckily, it seems to have been its original 2013 battery only that passed. My mechanic informed me that he had over 150 battery replacements over the past four weeks, when normally he sells no more than 3 in a month. Seems the pandemic is taking its toll on our cars also. With no one driving anywhere the batteries never get fully recharged and die. Thankful that my car insurance includes roadside assistance, which meant a nice dude came out to jump start the vehicle and enabled EM to take it to River Road Auto House who have been looking after Floh for the past three years.

Floh is a real Italian and has ailments which need taking care off on a regular basis; nonetheless we love it. I have resolved to take Floh for a spin every now and again so it can recharge and maybe we will enjoy the “recharge” too. An excuse to venture further than the Hood for a walk.

The world today counts 3.9 million infected with a deaths toll of 279k, 75k of which are in the USA. Infections are still rising at 2% nationwide and 4% in Maryland.

Given these numbers I cannot believe that four months into the virus spread across this country there is still a discussion on testing or rather the lack thereof Seriously? Still shortfalls? “we ought to do more” where have all these people been all the time?

At least there is research into making tests available broadly. Maybe they could be as simple as those used for blood sugar testing, i.e. just a simple prick test?  It would certainly increase comfort levels if everyone could test regularly before venturing into the outside world.

Just wondering if such testing were to be mandatory, would it cause the same shit storm as the requirement to wear masks does? And how would one check people have self tested? Oh, right there was the bit about it being tied to an app. I do fear that everyone will see everyone else as a potential threat though. Certainly something I notice in myself.

We briefly stopped at Strosnider today, after rescuing Floh from the mechanic, to replace a broken hose. I was most uncomfortable with a woman who seemed to not be aware of social distancing and kept edging towards me. Am I just paranoid or is this virus really changing how we view personal space? Anyone closer to me than six feet makes me feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Certainly life will not be normal unless we stop seeing other humans as a viral threat, and certainly for that will be a while. And most certainly the continued anti mask rebellion will not make people feel safer or more willing to venture into the world.

I am applauding Costco (no we do not have a membership) and really, if a mask is such an inhibition, stay the fuck away. From what I gather I am not alone in my fear that this reopening and the lack of caution come to soon. Seems like many get the concept of how the virus spreads (see Day 57 for a great article on when aerosols become threatening, which is not when passing a jogger, but sharing airspace with someone over an extended period of time).

On the uplifting side I came across an article about someone making cat videos to save local independent movie theaters. I think we will submit a clip of Max who is quickly becoming very human. He for one does not seem to mind that his humans are home all the time. If he is fed up with us, he just wanders of to wherever it is busy cats go while we are stuck. Max or no Max we will watch the movie. Not just out of a love for cats, but to support independent theaters.

Other news features apple’s new i-phone. I think that may just be the thing for me; which takes me back down memory lane. When we lived in Frankfurt am Main I used to do my shopping in the local stores on Saturday mornings. There was a small Papetterie I loved to visit. They had the most beautiful products always. Some fifteen years ago they displayed a device that completely eluded me at the time –turns out it was the very first i-pod. I distinctly remember thinking “who might need such a thing?” Suffice to say this household owns several such devices, but the need for them is now as elusive to me as then; seeing my phone is now also my i-pod.