Thursday, June 11th, 2020
It rained for most of the night – what a relief. As a result the air is nice and cool, we even resumed our walk after lunch today! Amazing how two days of a break make one feel unfit or is it the heat? Anyway, worried I will lose muscles for lack of training. Even though I have weights and stretch bands it is hard to self-motivate, especially when I really have no clue what I should be doing with these. Therefore, news that Maryland is moving forward with reopening and Montgomery County announced today it is expecting to begin phase 2 of reopening in about a week, is excellent news as during phase two community pools, both public and private, will reopen for lap swimmers! If I get at least 30 if not 60 minutes of swimming in every day those extra pounds should also go away again.
With summer in full swing we will most likely also stop cooking and move more towards salads, which should also help contain quarantine induced weight gain, even though as it is we have only a meal and a half a day. Clearly still too much. Switching to a diet of salads is only impaired by EM’s dislike for green leaves of any kind and there is only so much Greek salad a person can eat.
Time to get creative!
Apparently creativity is also called for if one is considering dating during the pandemic. States are providing guidance on safe dating. It is amazingly frank for this normally prudish country. I have a hard time imagining how it would work, despite the guidance. It does not appear to turn into a pleasant or enjoyable experience.
In the meantime, protests continue with results. More and more States and municipalities are taking action or are at least reviewing options; not only to curb police brutality, but also to embark on making the country less racist. One such option was the renaming of army bases, which of course was vetoed by the Orange Cheeto. He did however want a wall and now there is one around the WH. Protestors have turned it into a work of art. Sadly the "wall" is being dismantled again, but much of the work is going to the Museum of African Americans.
There is a lot of news on the Virus today. Numbers keep increasing globally and at a worrying rate. Today 7.48 million cases have been counted. The US continues to contribute around 20k per day to this count. And the second wave is coming following the reopening of most States. The administration has however left the Virus behind and is moving on.
Meanwhile, science seems to be very busy, with vaccine developers and producers taking financial risks. I came across a great article on the process of development and production making this understandable even for the layperson. Science is also discovering that not all humans are equal to the virus as they seek to explain why some people get extremely ill and other have virtually no symptoms. And that a treatment develop for cats could be used to stop viral replication in humans. Lastly, vaccine development is moving at record speed with Moderna reporting it is set to move to clinical trails in July.
Maybe we do not have to be in hold with our lives for another year, but only another six months? Would that not be nice?