Friday, July 31st, 2020
It rained all day. Starting sometime in the middle of the night sheets of rain have been coming, as if we needed to make up for the three days when rain had been forecast but did not come. My garden loves it, but , I spend my morning inside the house. At least no AC as it was cool, albeit humid throughout the day.
I had taken the afternoon off for yet another dentist appointment and what I thought would be an hour turned into two, so I missed my slot at the pool. At least EM managed to make use of it. The dentist unearthed another cavity festering under one of the gold crowns, so I will need to go two more times for a new crown to be cast and then fitted. I do hope this will be the end of the tooth sanitation.
The remainder of the day turned out to be very entertaining, wiht a dinner outing the absolute highlight of the day. We left home at 17:30 for dinner with some of the Aikidoka at the Dojo-cho’s residence. It was a fun night. The food was awesome and the company extremely entertaining. L managed to serve a socially distanced three course meal for the seven of us occupying three tables to ensure the appropriate distance could be maintained and we were organized by households/ existing pods. I shall definitely copy that receipe for chocolate sauce to go with vanilla ice cream. She had added some oragne-olive-oil; of course orange and dark chocolate is a great combination.
We had to leave just before midnight as EM is not allowed to drive between midnight and 4:00 in the morning and she was the designated driver so I could indulge in wine with the other adults.
I learned there is a small contingent who has formed a training pod an idea I have also pursued in recent weeks - to find a training partner or two to form a small pod for partner practice with. In the meantime, am very grateful for outdoor class on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I am making some progress with the Jo, one side only though. Not sure why the hustle works on the right hand, but not the left.
The virus keeps spreading. Worldwide 17.5 million cases have been reported and numbers in the USA keep rising. Today we are at 4.64 million, adding another 68k in just one day. As US cases rise so does litigation, which the GoP, calling for reopening he country foes not want to see. The GOP wants aid to Americans only with strings attached, specifically no litigation by workers. That string may just come a little too late. Frankly, I believe these lawsuits are justified. They should also file against the administration for gross negligence. And maybe there can be cases filed by suppressed voters, I mean while they are at it, they might as well. Given the countries inability on politics it is all going to be I the hands of the judiciary system sooner or later, just a pity about all those judicial appointees... Even more so when I read about the school reopening discussions, with States like Florida leading the charge. Despite high and rising infection rates.
While I have my struggles with online classes and would much rather see EM attend in person lectures, I do not think it is responsible to put teachers and students at risk and make them super spreaders in the process.
Also there is more on the administration’s incompetency when it comes to pandemic management, the pandemic response plan was shelved when it appeared only blue states and large cities, who did not vote Republican, were affected by the virus. This does not give rise to hope on vaccine distribution, for which the administration seems to be completely unprepared and if the pandemic response action is anything to go by, will be done in a highly partisan way, unless of course there is a president Biden by then.
I think I will never understand this country, sheriff as the upholders of the constitution acting against laws or policies of elected political officials? I am not sure I understand this concept, at least not in a democratic setting. Seeing it seems to be related to mask wearing only, maybe all of these sheriffs just need to contract the virus...
American says it lost the war on misinformation, which is sad on many levels as it does not bode well for the future of the country. The majority today gets its “news” through social media which tend to be very bias and what people see is largely self selected.
Studying the history books scientists find a possible Covid-19 remedy. And then Moderna continues to go to press with unproven statements, like the assumption their vaccine which started phase 3 trials yesterday having a 90% efficacy. How do they know when it has only been administered to 40 people to date, half of whom showed severe side effects? Somehow I am very suspicious of this effort
If anything this is quirky: British American Tobacco is jumping on the vaccine manufacturing bandwagon and is starting trials with a vaccine produced by tobacco plant.