Sunday, August 30th, 2020
Very chill morning today, mooching around at home. The weather has turned from humid to pleasant late summer. The sun is still hot, but the air is far more pleasant than yesterday. Indian summer is arriving, and people are getting more active outdoors. Like my neighbor who has set up in her front garden for what looks like it will be a movie night. What a fabulous idea.
Late in the morning we headed over to my colleague, neighbor and friends house. They closed on it in mid-July and have now settled in. Given Corona restrictions they are spending their time fixing up the garden. It is turning out to be beautiful.
EM and her son are in the same grade and are both doing full IB, so they share a couple of classes. They have also been working on the CAS project together over the summer and the site is coming along nicely. With that project, the extended essay and the English essay almost completed they are a bit ahead of the curve which hopefully frees up some time for them focus on the more challenging academic subjects.
Hanh Nam and I first worked together when I lead our access to finance work in the Mekong, so we go back fourteen years now. She had asked us over for lunch as she was making Pho, the delicious Vietnamese noodle soup, which is quite a production as one needs a good day to make the broth. Frying the meat, the onions and other ingredients before boiling them for hours and hours, while adding a number of spices such as star anis.
For starters she had made fresh spring rolls with herbs from her garden. It was all delicious and we spend a couple of hours over lunch in their garden, until it was time for me to head to the pool. In this new life there is limited flexibility as everything needs to be planned and booked in advance and my pool time had been booked 15:00-17:00.
I had a most enjoyable swim, spending almost a full hour going back and forth and closed of the session with a few dives. Only downside, I seem to have lost an earring in the pool.
EM has headed of to spend time with the BF at his house. I can understand her need to get out, but it would be nice if they also spend some time here so I could get to know him a little. Given school is starting tomorrow and that she had been complaining about lack of sleep, she has a curfew today -22:00.
The new school year will be a challenge, though with Governor Hogan’s announcement for school districts to consider reopening schools I hold out a little bit of hope for the winter sports season. It would be great if the swim team could practice giving at least some semblance of a normal school experience for what will be EM’s last year of high school. Reading about experiences of schools and universities who have gone back to in class room teaching, I am however grateful that MCPS has opted for virtual teaching, as imperfect as it may be. At least this approach will ensure consistent learning for the students. Especially with the lack of control this nation has over the spread of the Virus.
Today the USA has 6.1 million reported infections, while the global tally is at 25.1 million. The fact that politicians are not leading by example is not helpful in garnering public buy in to measures such as mask wearing and social distancing. Most notable of course the acceptance speech of the moron in chief’s nomination as presidential candidate by the RNC. DC allows gatherings of 50 people in outdoor space. Well he had 1.500, almost none of whom were wearing masks with chairs tightly packed onto the WH South Lawn. This is wrong on so many level; starting of with misusing the office and the house of the people for a partisan campaign event to violating DC regulations. I am desperately hoping this will tun into a super spreader event with many, many of the attendees contracting the Virus – uncharitable thoughts I know. Men are more likely to die than women if they contract COVID-19. It appears women have stronger immune systems. and seeing the majority of attendees were elderly white men, the stage for impact is set.
In the meantime three vaccines are in advanced phase 3 trials, CanSino, Oxford and Modern. China is actually considering licensing CanSino for use in developing countries, after it has been licensed for use by the Chinese military, while Russia is vaccinating people without phase 3 trials completed, de facto turning its nation into one gigantic phase three trial. Given life in the USA is unlikely to return to any form of normalcy without a vaccine, the administration is increasing its pressure on the FDA, which now is the latest federal agency to be politicized, as the process of dismantling expertise continues.