Friday, November 13th, 2020
I am freaking hopping mad. My brilliant friend had suggested we meet and both of us took several COID-19 tests in preparation for the meeting. My antigen test yesterday was negative. Today I received the results on the PCR test I had taken on Sunday – negative. I have communicated both and since Tuesday my friend has been incommunicado, not responding to any of the text messages I have send. Not confirming plans for yesterday (understandable as PCR test results not yet back) nor for tonight or Saturday.
Of course, I should not been surprised, because this has been the story for the past three years. We make plans to meet and more often than not, it never happens. So why am I disappointed? With the Virus spreading we both went to great length to make a safe meeting possible. So why then is there no communication? I find it so disrespectful. How hard can it be to send a text with when we may or may not meet? Especially since I had asked a week ago to clarify, whether or not, a meeting really was in the cards and if not, to let me know sooner rather than later. It is not like I have plans to go anywhere, entertain or be with anyone, but I do believe it is common courtesy to respond, even if the response may not be what I wish for. Why make me jump through hoops, if there is no intention to follow through? The only positive take away – everyone in my household is safe aka virus free.
Beyond that, today was a perfectly lovely day. Given lack of responsiveness from my brilliant friend I decided to stop quarantining in anticipation of a meeting that is likely not going to happen and met my friend C for an early afternoon sail. The sun was out, a nice wind kept us going, just lovely to be out on the water. This might have been the last day, though the marina is playing it by ear. If it continues to be sunny, we may be in for another sail next Friday.
From the marina I headed straight to the pool for my daily swim. Once home I went to great length to scrub the chlorine of which seems to have permuted my skin with the smell of Chlorine turning into a constant companion. The only way to get rid of it is smothering self in body lotion. I believe the pools I frequent are all overly chlorinated, as evidenced by my forever fading swimsuits. I need a new suit every two to three months!
Now I am at home, fire lit, a glass of red wine going, contemplating whether or not to make my famous Christmas cake tonight. Probably I will not, but I have plans to embark on the pumpkin chutney making process on Sunday; that is if my acorn pumpkin does not rot completely in the meantime. And said cake can wait until Sunday too.
Today the USA saw 163k new cases reported, bringing the national total to 11 million of the worldwide 53 million reported cases. The rise in new infections is caused by small get together of families indoors. In light of this article I wonder if it was such a good idea to let the teens go camp in a cabin for the weekend. I am also thinking we need to shrink our bubble again and should all go and test before our Thanksgiving dinner. For planning purposes I found a guide on how to prepare for festive gatherings very helpful. Key recommendation is to limit the number of households involved and to be on best COVID combatting behavior for two weeks prior to the gathering to ensure all participants are virus free.
The restaurant industry is trying to find ways to enable safe dining, which includes the use of tents. Other than my outing to what I thought was a restaurant in a big atrium, I have not been inclined to try indoor dining and I doubt I will want to venture there any time soon, unless I have a tent with a heater to myself; maybe. If I have to share a tent, it is the same as being inside an establishment and I am so not going there!
Scientists begin to understand why some people contracting COVID get much sicker than others. This is great news as it can be helpful in the treament of COVID-19 patients, making the disease less severe. It seems that a terrible course is related to an antibody called Inferon.
"In an international study in Science, 10 percent of nearly 1,000 Covid-19 patients who developed life-threatening pneumonia had antibodies that disable key immune system proteins called interferons. These antibodies — known as autoantibodies, because they attack the body itself — weren't found at all in 663 people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infections. Only four of 1,227 healthy patients had the autoantibodies. The study was led by the Covid Human Genetic Effort, which includes 200 research centers in 40 countries."
Meanwhile there are a lot of doubts about the viability of the BioNTech/ Pfizer vaccine as it needs to be stored at -70C
I think I will wait with getting a shot until the vaccine has been approved in Germany.