Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020

Life Style Thoughts

Today is much better than yesterday.

I have overcome my sense of frustration – mostly. It looks like spring may want go give way to summer, while overcast this morning the skies have cleared making way for sun filled evening. And better still the Aikidoka will make another attempt at a Jitsi class tonight 30 minutes. Let’s see how that goes.

I do note that people in my household are increasingly craving human interactions not via media though. EM has headed of for a socially distanced bike ride with one of her mates from school. One of her arties ha a birthday on Thursday and there are plans for a socially distanced picnic on the Westbrook lawn, while I am seriously entertaining the idea of having an adult beverage with select girl friends in the garden on Saturday. Their response was super enthusiastic.

Is that a reckless undertaking, I wonder? And given I am rather vocal in my critique of people not adhering to social distancing, does that make me as despicable as those crying for a reopening of the economy? Especially in light of infections continuing to increase in Maryland (and elsewhere in the country)? Or is there a way to have some outside contact and still be responsible about it?

Certainly my mum seems to be doing that (and I get rather upset with her for meeting her 75+ year old friends, all of whom are staying home except for when they meet in groups of four with mum to play cards).

Following China, we would have another 12 days of strict lock down  before any sort of reduction in restrictions could be entertained. But then, the US is not pursuing the Chinese model by any stretch of imagination. Governor Hogan has relaxed rules a little, allowing outdoor exercise such as fishing, boating, horse riding, camping and golf as long as groups do not exceed two or include household members only. This makes me hopeful that we may be able to at least rent a sailboat one of these days. Sailing would be socially distanced, seeing EM and I would be the only people on the boat and any other boat would be meters away. I shall have to think on it, but am drawn to bodies of water, even if as murky as the Potomac.

Worldwide cases are up by ~ 100k compared to yesterday reaching 4.24 million. Maryland has 34k reported cases of which 7.130 are in Montgomery County. The day on day increase in Maryland is ~1.000. Our ZIP code has 43 infections reported which is about double that of three weeks ago. The rise in newly reported infections is slowing down somewhat – from 4% to 2% nationwide. It is however unclear if these numbers can be trusted given a report today that numbers are far higher than officially disclosed and are rapidly increasing in the heartland of America, with some States seeing a rise in infections of 250% - 600%. Who would have thought that the virus would spread in do nothing States? Just hoping they will not stop testing to keep reported numbers low. Also, not sure what undisclosed data means. Clearly with this article the data is now disclosed.

The Washington Post conducted a survey indicating that people are far more supportive of a very slow reopening than policy makers, which I find rather encouraging. The data also illustrates that all these protests may well be blown way out of proportion. I wonder would they receive less coverage if they were not actively encouraged by the so called leader of the free world?

Almost unnoticed now for weeks is the plight of thousands of staff on cruise ships. It appears they have been languishing (or maybe quarantining) on their various ships for weeks now with no plan on how to get home. This destroys any romantic notions anyone might have had of cruises. To me the idea of being on one of these floating high rises has always been a nightmare, like all-inclusive vactions, which does not mean we have done a few over the years, but everyone of of them had me thinking "never again". For all of these poor people working on these boats it must be very distressing; locked up for months with nowhere to go and no idea when it will end. I doubt they get much enjoyment out of pools, movie theaters, and other entertainment features on these boats.

As the world, in the absence of a vaccine and a treatment, prepares for life with COVID-19 for months, if not years, to come humanity should re-think its lifestyle – ideally with a view to mitigate climate change and conserve nature. In this vein, I found an article related to commercial husbandry shocking; animals need to be culled because there are not enough people on farms to mind them? And because processing plants are closed or work at reduced capacity thousands of animals are not only killed, but for nothing? While concurrently roughly 20% of the US population goes hungry and food banks are running out of stock.  Something is wrong with how we as humans have organized feeding ourselves. Time to rethink. Time to go local again.

When I visit the farmer’s market I buy my meat from a farm raising ducks, geese and chickens an hours drive or so from where I live. Same with the red meats, eggs and so on. Yes, it is more expensive, but it helps the local communities, and is more sustainable and humane for the animals; more in line of my visionof my steak having a happy life on a meadow before ending up on my dinner plate. Rather than shipping food across the country or the planet, it may well be time to organize supply within communities. Apart from ecological and benefits for regional economies, it is a means to stabilize food production and availability as evidenced by empty shelves in supermarkets and no lack of supply on the market. The same holds true for manufacturing of many other basic items. I need to think about this a little more.