Monday, November 16th, 2020
Since realizing last night that the game was over for at least 2020, I have been completely de-stressed and calm. All the anxiety of a meeting just disappered as I ealized it was not happening. It was the most interesting experience. I thought I was feeling emotionally abused, but have come to realize, that the only person abusing me was myself. A lot of the disappointment had to do with what I had been expecting or imagined the weekend to be rather than what had been agreed. I realized the only promise my friend had made had been for Saturday morning, not Friday, not Sunday, just Saturday morning.
In hindsight it was probably I who screwed up expecting that enquiries would be reality. This leads me back to some soul searching and working harder no not having expectations. It is our expectations and dreams which cause us misery. So, back to my motto: Happiness is reality minus expectations, which clearly I have ignored for most of last week. It is just harder to live than it may sound and requires constant self evaluation. Clearly, the evaluation part had not been happening as I was to caught up in my wishful thinking.
Moving on from this unfortunate episode and focusing on Thanksgiving now, which is only ten days away. We plan to spend it with our one bubble family. We have all agreed to test before Thanksgiving to be sure we are safe, seeing we will be spending hours indoors together.
EM and I discussed the entire risk management and testing strategy over lunch, and I mentioned to her that my biggest concern is around the BF and his family, as I do not know who is in their bubble and how seriously they are taking precautions. Surprisingly she came back to me saying he would be willing to test! So there is a big chance that EM and I will test separately; she with her BF, and me by myself.
I will need to think about food for Thanksgiving and plan a grocery run. Cranberry sauce for sure and a Turkey by the looks of it, but what else? Maybe D has some suggestions. It will be fun for all of us to cook together and maybe play some games while we wait on the bird. Until then one more busy week to go.
Thanksgiving will also be the next test for the USA. As people traditionally travel to be with their friends and family and many students are expected to return home, potentially spreading the virus across the country. Many colleges have already announced that students leaving campus for the holiday should not expect to come back, but rather attend class virtually for the remainder of the semester.
Thankfully today saw another decline in new infections. We are down from a peak of 181k cases to 135k newly reported cases yesterday, so maybe the trend, which began the day before yesterday is continuing.
Infections in the DMV are increasing, albeit not as quickly as in other States with the rural areas now the most affected. Kind of funny to read about my neck of the woods in an article published by teh Seattle times at the other end of the country. My guess: This increase is largely due people in rural areas (mostly Trump supporters) who have not taken the risks of gatherings, especially indoors, serious enough.
Shockingly it appears governments and health officials are unable to figure out how transmissions happen. Yes, the current spread is among family members, but how did a family member get infected and bring the virus into the family gathering in the first place? This question appears to puzzle officials suggesting contact tracing is not happening to the extend it should. To stop the spread it is crucial to understand the route of transmission, but contact tracing capabilities are lacking everywhere from what I understand and the Apps designed to help are not widely adopted. Really people, how hard is it to follow the basic rules of “wear a mask”, “avoid meeting people not in your bubble”, “practice social distancing” and “wash your fucking hands”?
At least there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The second COVID vaccine candidate boasting effectiveness, Moderna claims its vaccine is 95% effective. Like the BioNTech Pfizer vaccine it uses technology never applied to humans before and is highly unstable. While BioNTech Pfizer needs be stored and transported at 70C, which will make distribution a challenge, Moderna’s vaccine needs to only be stored at -46C; still a challenge.
I am not sure I would go for either of those mainly because of the storage issues. Still hoping for AstraZenca/ Oxford to come through, which may be any day now.