Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Sunday, September 6th, 2020
A Final Trip to the Lake
The nights are getting a little chilly as I noticed when rising this morning. The air in the house was definitely fresh given all windows continue to be open (except for the unscreened office windows to prevent the cat from spending nights outdoors). The days are still beautiful though, dry, warm and in the sun positively hot.
EM went off on a two hour bike ride in the early hours of the morning while I grabbed a coffee and made my way back to snuggle up in bed, with my i-pad, to catch up on daily events.
Once she returned I made sandwiches, packed the towels, water and some cherries and we headed back to our favorite swimming hole – Lake Arrowhead in Lurray, for what I think may well be the last time given the colder nights, though I am still holding out hope for yet another weekend trip.
The water was perfect, warm on the surface, but one could definitely feel the colder layers further down. We spend three hours lounging on our rock and swimming once around the lake. EM had the foresight to bring a ball so we enjoyed a game of water polo as well before warming up in the sun and then heading back; though not before stopping at a local farm stall and Wegman’s to stock up on groceries for the week. I just love Wegman’s, even though it never is a cheap excursion. They just have such a great selection and lots of Asian vegetables which diversify our meals. A perfect mother – daughter day despite the fact that I did burned my face just a little.
EM is not happy with me criticizing her driving. She is an excellent driver, but has gotten a little too sure of herself, so does not employ the foresight I would like to see in situations with heavy traffic. Like me she likes to go fast, but this, paired with lack of foresight, could well make for some unintended rear-ending. I think she understood what I was trying to say.
Reading the news today I cannot help but wonder about people’s intelligence or rather lack thereof. No one seems to have learned from the July 4th weekend. No one seems to have the ability to listen to expert advice. How hard can it be? For Labor Day weekend people go out and party in crowds. Ten days down the line, there will be a big surprise as new infections will double from what they are today, which is still twice of what they were in May. As a result, projected death are now up from 200k to 400k by the end of the year. That is a mind blowing number. So glad we are staying local and are not going anywhere crowded.
And as if one needed more evidence of crazy a couple in Brooklyn refused to wear masks on public transportation. Surely after everything New York has been through one would think people have some sense of urgency to not repeat the performance. Alas, that does not appear to be the case. Personal comfort over everyines safety.
There seems to be a general notion that as new infections spike hospitalization and death do not grow in equal proportions. This is not helpful and possibly sends the wrong signals, a sense of safety where there is none. Virologists do not seem to have an explanation for this phenomenon other than a possibly reduced intake of viral load. It is a case of simple math to see there is nothing to understand. On average 1.000 people die per day in the USA, so I would not say deaths have not been in line with new infections. There was a time, when new infections were down to 20k and death to a couple of hundred. Now it is about twice that (~44k new infections and ~ 1.000 deaths). So, the analysis does not hold.
Total infections in the USA today are at 6.45 million of the 27 million globally as America continues to be first! At the same time Dr Fauci is changing the narrative for the American people and preparing them to live with the virus and the restrictions coming with mitigating the spread for another year at least, warning that a vaccine will not be available before early 2021. This is in line with my thoughts on day 1, when I in absolute mutiny texted my brilliant friend that I was not going to put my life on hold for 12 - 18 months, and here we are. To date life has been on hold for just a day shy of six months.
At the same time, realizing we are in it for the long haul we have opened up and are trying to get some normalcy in our daily lives at least. Add virus fatigue to cold weather and many may well get careless. This applies to us as much as to everyone else, as it will be hard to give up the little bit of social freedoms summer has enabled. And of course, this unmitigated disaster has one person who is ultimately responsible: the moron in chief. As the authors so aptly point out, it is not just him who needs to be held accountable. Alongside agent orange, the Republican Party and its voters equally share the blame for the 193k dead as of today. They knew full well that the moron was unfit for office, but went along to elect him anyway, each for their own motives. Maybe the common voter was blindsided, but certainly not any of the GOP officials, no matter what level. What was shocking to see driving through rural Virginia today, where the “Trump Pence” signs. How can anyone in the right min believe this duo is a good choice? Surely by now there is ample evidence of their combined incompetency, the abundant corruption, the disrespect for the little guy and anyone who does anything for society as a whole?
Here is hoping this party will be decommissioned for a long time to come once all is said and done, either in 2020 or in 2024; though I do not want to hang around in this part of the world to see 2024 if the moron is re-elected. It will be bad for everyone, everywhere in the world, but worst for the USA. One day they will wake up to a country utterly corrupted and deeply divided (if it can be any more so than it is today).
The day will come when their children or their children’s children will ask: how could you have let this happen? And they will struggle to answer. Just as an entire nation struggled to answer this question after 1945. An interesting number, how much of a coincident is it that it is number 45 who is causing the destruction of this great country?
