Saturday, January 30th, 2021
Like every Saturday the day began with coffee and a scan of the news before I headed to the park for practice.
The routine changed somewhat as the dojo had its annual membership meeting after practice (via Zoom of course). It was lovely to see the faces of the Aikidoka whom I have not seen for almost a year. L. shared a funny story of him spearing invasive lion fish in the Caymans. While performing ikkiyo the fish fell of the spear and stung his head. He was in severe pain for eight hours. Of course, L. took his revenge and speared another couple of Lionfish. They are pretty, but not indigenous to the Caymans. They replicate like there is no tomorrow (30.000 eggs for every couple every few days) and eat all the local reef fish.
Anyway, as a result of the members meeting, I had moved my swim slot to 14:15 rather than right after practice. People after I did not show up so technically I could have done a full hour in the pool, had it not been for EM coming to pick me up and I did not want to keep her waiting to long.
Once back home a quick shower and then off to do the grocery run. I always shop when we run out of milk, which was the case today. Bad choice it was. They have forecast 5 inches (15 cm) of snow for tomorrow, possibly 8 inches by Monday. This apparently has led Marylander’s to believe there is an imminent food shortage. Not only were there many people in the store, but the store was raided.
Unlike at the beginning of the pandemic, when it was hard to find cleaning supplies, toilet paper or non-perishable food items, today the milk produce section, fresh vegetables and meats were basically cleared out. Is everyone suddenly on a Broccoli diet?
We managed to grab the last two tubs of sour cream for example. The fat reduced milk had vanished entirely, and the fresh meat counter had a pitiful selection. For tomorrow I opted for wild caught cod. Seems fish is not popular during an approaching snowstorm. In terms of protection it is unclear how many masks to wear. Given the new, more viral variants are spreading in Maryland, it seems advisable to err on the side of caution. I doubled up on masks while at the supermarket and EM had her FFP2 mask, which is the European version of N95.
A similar picture at Rodman’s. I had popped in to grab sausages for the Friday BBQ and the shop was filled with people loading their carts with wine. I swear everyone had at least twenty bottles. How long do people think the snow is going to last? OR do they drink three bottles a day?
I have bought most of the things I need for my birthday BBQ, which is scheduled for Friday, unless of course it rains. Not because I fear I cannot leave the house, more because I want to minimize outings to highly infectious places, like grocery stores. I shall keep it simple with just grilled sausages and steaks served in bread rolls with whatever condiments people desire. No salads, but rolls, which I have decided to bake myself. I am doing a trial run now to see if they work out. Otherwise I guess a trip to Trader Joe’s is in order on Thursday; much to my chagrin as this is not in line with minimizing trips to avoid the more transmissible virus strains.
The spread of the new variants is worrying. Not so much because of the spread, but more so because of the impact it may have on the efficacy of the vaccines. The quicker it mutates, the more likely it is to be resistant to vaccines, which would not be a good thing for all of us hoping to return to normalcy. The J&J vaccine is much easier to distribute, even if not quite as effective as the other vaccines. Maybe the J&J vaccine should be shipped to all the red states in denial of Covid. While I really want a shot, I am not sure I want the J&J shot. The general sentiment is that every American can have a shot by June. Possibly a poor shot is better than no shot? I just don’t know.
One of the biggest issues with the Moderna and the BioNTech vaccines is the ultra low temperature required for their storage. A freezer in Seattle failed and the entire stock of Moderna was about to spoil. There was a mad scramble to distribute the doses and find people to vaccinate. In the end not a single shot was wasted. This was my happy story of the day.
What a difference a government makes! The CDC has issued regulations on mask wearing, something inconceivable under the previous administration. Mask wearing is now mandatory on all modes of transport save for a bicycle or one’s own vehicle.
I feel so much safer with a government taking the virus serous!
Oh and today the USA added 149k new cases over the past twenty-four hours, bringing the reported total to 26.6 million of which 16 million are reported as recovered and 460k people have died.