Part six of my ongoing journal entries about life in the time of the 2020 Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Part One (Jan-Mar, 2020) is here. Part Two (April 2020) is here. Part Three (May 2020) is here. Part Four (June 2020) is here. Part Five (July 2020) is here.
August 3, 2020
The calendar has rolled into August, the fifth month of the pandemic, week 20 for those keeping score at home. Like, all of us.
Several articles I’ve read lately are weighing on my mind. One, from today’s Washington Post, reminds us that “a coronavirus vaccine won’t change the world right away.” Dr. Fauci and others may be “cautiously optimistic” that we’ll have a vaccine ready for distribution in early 2021 but the article points out that early vaccines are likely to be only partially effective, will take time to roll out around the country and the world, and it will likely take far longer to build worldwide herd immunity. The polio vaccine, one of medicine’s great success stories, was introduced in 1955 and within two years cases were reduced by 80% in the U.S., but it was six more years before the vaccine in sugar cube form was taken nearly ubiquitously; polio was not entirely eradicated in the U.S. for two more decades, and another several decades worldwide. Early versions of a coronavirus vaccine may be only 50% effective, which is much greater than zero but it may take years longer to develop highly effective versions. And so on, not even counting the growing anti-vaxxer movement and politicization of mask-wearing. It’s a depressing but entirely realistic prospect. Vaccines will be a step forward into another phase of living and dealing with the virus but they are not likely to be a silver bullet that return the world to “normal” in one fell swoop.
Then there’s a BBC article about a 90-minute DNA test for flu and Covid-19 that sounds promising and a little dubious at the same time. It sounds a bit too good to be true, but I was really amazed by how they’re excited it will be such an improvement over the 48-hour turnaround they have for most cases. In the U.S. we wish we could get 48-hour results; I think results are currently averaging 5 days with many taking longer — which renders the test nearly meaningless. For months, the White House has been using an Abbott Labs test machine that gives results in 15-30 minutes but I don’t see it being widely deployed.
A local friend tells the story (online) of waiting in line for 4 hours last weekend for a drive-through test, got a text that he was negative the next day but to check a website for more information; there was no information on the website so he called and eventually was told that his test was invalid because they used the wrong swab. Please start over. At least he got the result quickly, which sounds better than average…but having to go right back to do it again is not encouraging.
Anyway, I could go on. I saw a good term for this habit, “doomscrolling.” It was in an article that purports to offer a way to stop doomscrolling which turns out to be a suggestion to limit the habit to 15 minutes a day. Thanks. If I could follow that cure, I wouldn’t have the habit. I could lose 50 pounds by eating for only 15 minutes a day as well, but that’s not going to happen. It occurs to me that doomscrolling is the internet equivalent of watching cable news. They do all they can to keep you watching, mainly by getting you agitated. I have been able to cut way down on my time watching CNN and MSNBC, so maybe there’s hope for me yet.
I will change the subject…after I do the numbers, which is just a small variant on doomscrolling but keeping track makes me happy, so what are you going to do? U.S. trends are actually moving in a somewhat less negative direction with “only” 17 states trending upward. Unfortunately, Maryland is one of the top 5 now. We’re a week or two from 20 million cases worldwide and 5 million in the U.S.
Numbers:
Global cases: 18,000,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 689,000
USA cases: 4,750,000; Daily average: 55K; Total Deaths: 157,000
Maryland cases: 90,800 Deaths: 3,515
US cases trending upward: 17 states/territories; top 5: NJ, IL, MA, MD, MI
US cases mostly the same: 30 states/territories; top 5: CA, NC, LA, PA, GA
US cases trending downward: 7 states/territories: FL, TX, AZ, SC, UT
From the why-people-hate-the-NYTimes department comes this article to make you feel guilty about not doing enough for your garden. It includes this cheerily unhelpful quote, “If you can’t enjoy weeding, you won’t be a happy gardener.” I guess that counts me out. I was doing pretty well with weeding through June, but the July heat defeated me. My back garden is a grassy jungle. I’ve thrown in the trowel and called for reinforcements from our landscaping company. They came by Saturday to mow the lawn (because my mower is still in the shop) and do some trimming, but can’t come back to actually weed for another couple of weeks. Unfortunately, everything’s going to seed which only sets up the problem to get worse next year. Sigh.
I listened to a podcast interview with Leland Sklar, one of the top session bass players since the 1970s, including for James Taylor, Jackson Browne and on thousands of records over the years. During the pandemic he has taken to producing near-daily YouTube videos of him playing bass and telling stories about some of the songs he performed on. Here’s just one for “Doctor, My Eyes”. I went on a binge last night, running through a number of clips and having many more queued up. It’s a fun reminder of my bass playing days and I’m pleased I can recognize (and could maybe do, with a lot of practice) much of what he’s doing. I’m glad to hear there’s a documentary and album in the works about Lee and his cohorts Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel, under the band name The Immediate Family. I won’t be spending time every day with Mr. Sklar’s YouTubes, but it’s good to see he’s there and keeping busy.
August 4
It’s just a day later but I have some thoughts. I think I only have the time and energy to dwell on one for now. It’s about a story I haven’t seen written yet regarding baseball (bear with me). The baseball season, such as it is, has been underway for about two weeks and so far two teams (the Marlins and Cardinals) have experienced significant outbreaks of the virus involving dozens of players and team officials. This has forced rescheduling of dozens of games and a further adjustment of the rules — doubleheaders, which are now needed more than before, will be two games of seven innings each — further bastardizing the rules of an already compromised season.
I’ve seen plenty of articles taking Major League Baseball to task for trying to operate the sport with teams traveling from city to city rather than in a specific “bubble” location like Orlando for the NBA and MLS or two cities in Canada for the NHL. What I haven’t seen yet is a good article discussing how MLB’s experiment is a microcosm of how the nation is trying to deal with the pandemic.
Baseball is trying to cobble together a season to salvage some money from fans and TV networks starving for its product. You can call it greed or survival — there’s an argument for both which mainly depends on how much money you already have in your pocket. The bowdlerized season they’ve come up with is more of a made-for-TV extended exhibition rather than a truly competitive baseball season. None of the stats or records can be fairly compared with other seasons and, assuming they make it through to a World Series, it will be hard to really consider the winning team a World Series champion.
The entire spectacle is predicated on the notion that there’s some money on the table from a TV audience willing to watch anything remotely competitive and advertisers starving to get messages to their eyeballs. Getting some of that money is better than nothing, baseball reasons. Better for the owners, players and all the others employed to make the circus go round. There’s a direct parallel between baseball and the situation for restaurants, travel, entertainment and many other arguably nonessential but highly desired parts of the economy.
But where is the line that weighs health versus economics? A couple of dozen people have tested positive and are under some level of isolation, mostly in hotels away from home. That’s bad, and you don’t want them spreading the disease any further, but how many are too many? How sick are they? Baseball players are among the healthiest members of society, their coaches and others affiliated with the team are more vulnerable. Their families and local bubbles are one step removed. How many have gone to the hospital? Have any been in intensive care? None have died, thankfully, that we know of. What happens when those lines get crossed? Any death would be tragic, of course, but would one death shut the season down? One intubation? One hospitalization? What if it’s not a player or coach but a stadium staff person? A family member? A barber or who knows what?
Baseball has turned into an ugly, awful petri dish for a nation struggling to weigh health versus economics. Baseball is under a daily microscope with extensive virus protocols, frequent testing and rapid (but not rapid enough) results. If they can’t make this work, how can America’s schools, restaurants and millions of businesses expect to? But at the same time, what level of pain from the virus will be deemed acceptable? There is no good answer and so far I don’t think I’ve seen baseball’s leadership try to establish a line. They’re playing it day-to-day, which also happens to be a founding principle of baseball’s myth.
The real line will probably end up being the court of public opinion. Baseball’s commissioner is ostensibly the final decision maker on whether the season goes forward. His decision will no doubt be in consultation with the owners and the players’ union. I think it would be helpful and illuminating to have an up-front public discussion of where those lines should be drawn. It would be an extraordinarily difficult conversation but one that would be instructive to businesses and populations across the country. It parallels the honest discussions our nation’s leadership should be having on behalf of all its citizens. (Dream on.)
In lieu of that conversation, I further suspect the answer will be to play on and make do with whatever comes. Catching the virus is bad, spreading it is worse and ethically indefensible. But at the end of the day, you take all the precautions you can and move forward. Or choose not to play, which some of the wealthier, older players have done. So far, fortunately, none of the baseball-related viral cases have been fatal or long-term debilitating (caveat, that we know of). Some players have described a miserable few days but they are back on the field now. Most of them appear to have had few symptoms or argued they were the victims of false-positive tests. That parallels the experience of the larger society. The majority of people who catch this disease either have mild or no symptoms. Having a positive test is by no means a death sentence.
I think, to conclude for the moment, that the answer is to play on. Take as many precautions as you can to not spread the virus, accept that the product may be compromised somewhat and the economic returns diminished. Press ahead but be smart about it. And honest and informed. That’s the difference that baseball can offer: a positive example of how to live and deal with a world with the virus in it. I’m not sure baseball is passing that test — being open and honest and smart are not familiar characteristics of baseball leadership — but it’s a public test, everyday. I’ll keep watching, but the game is taking on a different meaning for me this season.
August 7
The week has meandered by. On Tuesday, I went to Costco and procured a rack of ribs and a roast chicken, both pre-cooked, which yielded three evening meals so far and a pot of gumbo coming up. Not bad for $20. This is the second time I’ve done this in the past several months; never had before. I get occasional hankerings for ribs and the Costco ones fit the bill (fill the Bill) pretty well. I doubt I’ll feel the need to get ribs at a restaurant for a long time to come. I got Barb some of their shrimp salad and she gets nearly the same yield. God bless Costco.
Barb went into work yesterday to get ready for her “migration” and didn’t return home until 4am. They are moving her Outlook emails “to the cloud” which she doesn’t trust so she spent hours and hours downloading decades of old files to some hard drive. It was probably an unnecessary step but some others have had troubles getting to old emails and she’s not taking any chances. Goodness knows, she will likely be vindicated at some point in the coming months by having the backups. She’s home today, putting in a regular shift. I don’t know how she does it. Or why.
There was a horrible explosion in Beirut on Tuesday that wiped out a huge section of that beleaguered city. More than 100 were killed including many first responders, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands homeless. It’s a vicious tragedy for a city and country that were already in terrible shape. I haven’t heard anything from Laurie but I’m sure it tears at her heart for a city that she loved. As bad as it was, there was some small level of relief to hear that the explosion seems to have stemmed from mismanagement and neglect rather than an overt act of terror.
It’s also some small level of relief to write about matters other than the virus or some Trump inanities at the top of my mind. Little has changed in the past week, which is not a good thing but at least things have not gotten appreciably worse. Just another week losing time and life sliding by. Let’s go to the numbers…
Numbers:
Global cases: 19,000,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 712,000
USA cases: 4,890,000; Daily average: 55K; Total Deaths: 160,000
Maryland cases: 93,600 Deaths: 3,551
US cases trending upward: 11 states/territories; top 5: IL, NJ, MA, OK, NE
US cases mostly the same: 26 states/territories; top 5: TX, NY, GA, PA, TN
US cases trending downward: 17 states/territories: CA, FL, AZ, NC, LA
July’s spike in the US continues to taper off, which is good, but we’re still at a very high level. It seems people are being a bit more careful than they were a few weeks ago, but we haven’t really done anything to drive the virus down. The debate to open schools rages on, with most school boards in densely populated areas opting for remote learning to start with, but plenty of other areas are moving ahead with in-person classes. It’s a patchwork approach that will make it extremely difficult to discern nationwide patterns. Par for the course.
Meanwhile, negotiations over the next relief bill drag along. The key players are Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Mnuchin and the relatively new White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. With Meadows in the mix an agreement seems less likely. Where that leaves the nation is anyone’s guess. There’s talk of Trump taking more executive actions but it’s not at all clear what he can get away with. It’s a mess designed mainly to make sure the Democrats don’t come out looking like winners. Notably absent from the discussions is Mr. Art of the Deal, but he looms over everything, tossing in tweets and sounding ridiculous in recent interviews. In other words, more of the same.
I have no great insights to share. We have gotten used to this foul-smelling status quo. It’s not exactly miserable or awful, but it’s not enjoyable. I find moments of peace and shards of hope, but feel guilty if I start to actually feel content or find something enjoyable like music. I can exist like this for a long time, but it’s not really living.
August 10
It’s a Monday, week 21. I’m on the porch on a muggy but not terribly hot morning. A great blue heron just glided by, looking for all the world like a pterodactyl (spelled it right the first time!) or I guess how I imagine a pterodactyl might have looked. Anyway, it was graceful and quiet and off to look for a new pond, no doubt. A little moment of peace.
Allie moved into her new place on Saturday. There was some anxiety when the movers she hired (a first for her, she used the ones recommended by her new apartment building) were late in arriving. She could only reserve the freight elevator in her new place for a 3-hour window and that had her worried. The movers eventually arrived, carted her stuff down her four flights of steps and got over to the new building but missed the elevator window. The movers had to contend with other people who had it reserved after Allie, dragging out the whole process. By 9pm she got everything into her new digs and started to settle in. Dan helped her with the move; thank you, Dan. Everything went well enough that they were able to go out on a boat with friends the next day. Allie caught a fish.
We sent some housewarming flowers which she got Sunday, then she sent us these nice texts later. A nice exchange, worth saving, I felt. I’m glad that she’s happy and glad she’s in the new place which should be a more good spot for her for a couple of years, we hope. The building is The Kensington, a block or so off the Boston Common on Washington Street, near Chinatown and the Theater District…though evidently also across from a strip club, so I guess we’ll all find out how good a neighborhood it’s in. Still, the place looks great, the amenities in her apartment and in the building look terrific and we hope she has a happy time there. It will be a much nicer environment to ride out the pandemic and work from home for the time being.
Barb and I have notions of heading up to see her in September, but at the moment Massachusetts is enforcing a 14-day quarantine on visitors from states such as Maryland. You can circumvent it by showing negative Covid test results from within 72 hours of arrival or getting a negative test upon arrival, but with test turnarounds being anything between 2-10 days it’s a game of roulette. Plus, we don’t know how to get a test. Another bridge to cross. Not much to do other than wait and see what the situation is in a few more weeks.
The pandemic marches on, past 5 million cases in the US and 20 million worldwide today. Congress and the White House remain at an impasse on a new relief package; Trump signed some executive orders over the weekend mostly as a PR stunt. What else is there to say?
Numbers:
Global cases: 20,000,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 732,000
USA cases: 5,050,000; Daily average: 54K; Total Deaths: 162,000
Maryland cases: 96,000 Deaths: 3,585
US cases trending upward: 9 states/territories; top 5: IL, MA, VA, PR, RI
US cases mostly the same: 26 states/territories; top 5: TX, NY, GA, NJ, TN, OH
US cases trending downward: 19 states/territories: CA, FL, AZ, NC, LA
I thought, for the sake of a new topic, that I would take a moment to catalog what I’m watching and reading at the moment. A little cultural time capsule.
My daily routine includes reading the Washington Post (the actual paper) every morning and the Baltimore Sun four days a week. The Sun is just a shadow of its former self, often consisting of just a front page section and a sports section, but it passes for local Maryland news. We still like getting paper copies home delivered; Barb considers it a charity. One thing the Sun started doing during the pandemic is including a page of puzzles and word games which we’ve appreciated. Barb does the word searches; I do the Jumble and crossword puzzles. It’s becoming a ritual for us. The Sun also sends me a daily email recap of the handful of stories it deems relevant to Howard County which I find useful. I don’t get any other local news other than through Facebook which is wildly inconsistent.
Online, I read the New York Times, BBC and Washington Post apps, checking them all rather too obsessively throughout the day. I check The Atlantic app once or twice a day for recent articles, and sometimes doomscroll through Flipbook or Apple News. Both those sites aggregate articles based on what you read and prefer, and at this point I don’t really trust either of them because the flow of articles seem too slanted. I can recognize my own echo chamber. Ditto for Facebook, which I still check once or twice a day, but only briefly, though I do usually cycle through my three different accounts with very different feeds. I’m mainly checking to see what family and friends are up to, skipping over most of the overtly political, sensationalist or commercial posts (which are most of them).
On TV, Barb and I watch the local Washington DC NBC 11pm news, mostly for the sake of the weather report. I’ve largely given up watching CNN or MSNBC, though I sometimes pop in during the day if there’s something immediate going on. Otherwise, I find it’s just repetitive drivel. I never watch the more opinionated evening broadcasts. Many nights I will check out the BBC news and the PBS Newshour, though I find myself wandering off to a baseball game or fixing dinner if those seem more interesting.
Late nights I’m still captive to the Daily Show, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, at least for their monologues. I tape each of them and fast forward through the endless commercials and less compelling guests. Each of these shows have struggled with the pandemic, doing the shows in isolation from home and interviewing guests by Zoom. It’s less than ideal, certainly, but the monologues provide a decent recap of the day’s outrages.
Those are my main news sources, and I admit I spend a good deal more of my daily time checking them than I should. I haven’t found a good way to keep track of daily events without overdosing. I often let them, particularly the news apps on my phone, get the better of my. I’m trying to be a little better but it’s a highly addictive habit.
I was going to dive into my entertainment choices but I think I’ve prattled on long enough for one post. I’ll save it for later. I’m sure you’re dying to know.
August 13
I’m starting with the numbers today because the trends appear to be improving slightly, both globally and nationally, or at least the level of rise is tapering slightly. Small comfort. I also noticed that over the past six weeks the number of cases has risen by 86% globally and 83% in the US, while deaths have risen by 43% and 26%, respectively. I suppose that reflects a combination of increased testing, somewhat more effective levels of treatment, and wider community spread among less vulnerable (younger, healthier) portions of the population. I haven’t seen much written about this divergence; to some extent it must reflect the lag in death rates to follow the rapid rise in case numbers since early July. Indeed, today’s number of deaths in the US, nearly 1,500, marked the highest daily total since May.
Numbers:
Global cases: 20,600,000; Daily average: 240K; Total Deaths: 749,000
USA cases: 5,210,000; Daily average: 54K; Total Deaths: 166,000
Maryland cases: 98,000 Deaths: 3,612
US cases trending upward: 5 states/territories: IL, PR, HA, Guam, USVI
US cases mostly the same: 26 states/territories; top 5: CA, TX, NY, GA, NJ
US cases trending downward: 23 states/territories; top 5: FL, AZ, NC, LA, PA
I admit it’s still too easy for me to be in thrall of the numbers. It’s a coping mechanism, I suppose. I’m not sure how well it actually helps me cope. It’s marginally better than reading the news. Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate which seems his most reasonable, least damaging choice. I wish them well and hope there are no great skeletons in her closet. The Democratic convention (a four-night made-for-TV commercial, really, no longer a working event) starts next week and the Republican one the week after. I doubt I’ll watch much of either in real time, for the sake of Barb’s sanity. I’ll catch the highlights.
The negotiations over another relief package appear to be completely dead in the water. Both sides seem far apart and intransigent. I think it works slightly in the Democrats’ favor since they can more readily pin blame on the Republicans, but the losers are all the people, businesses and local governments that need relief. I find the Republican negotiating tactics, or lack thereof, deplorable and insensitive. But I guess by now they should not be any surprise.
On the local front, Allie seems well settled into her new place. She Facetimed us last night to give us a tour of her apartment. It looks great and she seems very happy. We’re all pleased.
I’ve started putting the videos from Allie’s youth I recently digitized into Billzpage, starting from May, 1996. They are a good addition, even if the quality of my cinemagraphic skills are low. I was never a committed videographer. Still, it’s great to see these clips and remember how simultaneously fun, charming, cute and boring those times and that stage of our lives were. To some extent I wish I had done more videos, but then again I’m glad I wasn’t the dad with a video camera at every special and not-so-special event.
Allie says my observational video style makes me “Spy Dad”, a reference to one of the TV shows I’ve particularly enjoyed watching over the past few months called “Spy in the Wild.” It’s a nature documentary jointly produced by the BBC and PBS (I would love to see the BBC version narrated by David Tennant but I’ve only been able to access the PBS edition narrated by the more prosaic American, David Unger). They use absurdly cute robot animals (“spy penguin”, “spy otter”, “spy hippo”, etc.) to get in close with their subjects, then make up elaborate stories about the animals’ behavior. The series is at once ridiculous, cloying, astonishing and entirely absorbing. I giggle all the way through it. I’m proud to be Spy Dad. It goes along with being Panda Dad (to Barb’s Tiger Mom).
August 17
It’s another Monday, another week. Number 22. It’s the middle of August and the weather should be miserable but it’s actually quite comfortable lately, cool even. After a dreadfully hot July we’ve had a much milder August. Last week was wet, this week looks downright pleasant with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s most evenings. Can’t complain about that other than it seems unseasonable. I’m almost tempted to get out and do some yardwork, but not quite. I’ve resigned my weed problem to the professionals and now am just waiting to get scheduled. I’m somewhere in their queue; I should probably check.
This morning’s nature sighting is a hummingbird flitting around our Rose of Sharon. I see them very rarely, once or twice a year. Today’s the day. A couple of days ago I saw a bunch (a gaggle? No, a rafter, says the internet) of turkeys in the back near the woods. There were five of them trying to dry off after a rain. It’s the first I’ve seen wild turkeys around here. Yesterday we had several very active flocks of birds…our local swallows but also some other small ones, all very eagerly chasing bugs in our backyard and driving Manny batty. The deer also seem to have become bolder, wandering out in the open with more impunity. All these sightings are partly a function of me spending more time on the deck but it also seems like the wildlife is getting more relaxed since there is slightly less human activity. Another nature note: the cicadas seem to have just sprung to life, making a racket here at 10 in the morning. We’ll see how that progresses in the coming days and weeks. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a real invasion of cicadas. Seems about time, and appropriate for all the calamities that 2020 has brought so far.
I actually looked at my calendar this morning and I have nothing planned at all for this week. No appointments, no honey do’s. Well, there are always honey do’s but none scheduled. Inertia seems to have taken over completely. This would, in other years, have been prime time for me to go see Laurie in Spain. Not this year. Hopefully next.
I have a vestigial urge to travel but increasingly mixed feelings about it as well. We have most everything we want right here and have carved out some pretty deep ruts of routine. Plus, it’s safe. Plus, it’s a hassle imposing on our neighbors to feed our cats and gather our mail and newspapers. I’m not sure where we would go. Boston, first and obviously, but so far we’re not sure about whether we will try to go in September, just a month away from the week we targeted. I’m inclined to wait another month but that will be a later conversation with Barb. After that, we have nothing on the horizon until May 2021 when the All the Best Festival is rescheduled for Punta Cana. I’m hopeful we will be able to do that trip, but it’s too far in the future to get worked up about yet.
After that, I’m not sure where we would go. We still have a voucher for British Airways to London that will expire in May, so I guess we might think about a trip there in early 2021, maybe. Someday we should go back to Colorado but Barb’s not eager about that. I’m not eager to do a cruise anywhere, ocean or river, though the advertisements are cranking back up. I’m not even especially eager to take the music road trip(s) I’d envisioned to Nashville and Memphis (and maybe Kentucky and southern Virginia for bluegrass). There’s still some appeal but mostly I just think about the hassle and anxiety…even discounting the virus. I would like to wander northern Spain with Laurie, and there are other parts of Spain and Portugal I’d like to see with her, but those are not Barb trips. In any case, the virus makes it all an idle daydream. We’re not going anywhere right away, maybe not even Boston.
Here’s my big plan: I may go get a haircut today. I haven’t had one since February and it’s finally time to succumb. Even Barb has started bugging me.
Numbers:
Global cases: 21,600,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 774,000
USA cases: 5,410,000; Daily average: 52K; Total Deaths: 170,000
Maryland cases: 101,000 Deaths: 3,639
US cases trending upward: 10 states/territories, top 5: CA, KS, PR, DE, SD
US cases mostly the same: 22 states/territories; top 5: TX, NY, IL, NJ, PA
US cases trending downward: 22 states/territories; top 5: FL, GA, AZ, NC, LA
I recognize this fetish with the numbers is increasingly misleading. The case counts don’t really track the actual status of the virus and the deaths are likely underreported. But it’s a habit I can’t quite kick. I go back to my notion from early in the crisis that we should have a national/international color-coded system so we can really compare regions. The closest I’ve seen is the one from CovidExitStrategy.org. Their color-coded scheme includes a number of factors and seems to be the most helpful, but it’s a little cumbersome for me to use in this format. It also doesn’t do nations around the globe. Today’s map shows New England doing pretty well; Massachusetts just turned from green to yellow. Maryland is still Trending Poorly. On the whole, we are hardly out of the woods. We haven’t even turned the corner, yet.
In politics, Trump’s blatant attempt to hamstring the US Postal Service so they can’t process mail-in ballots has created a substantial backlash. Hopefully the reaction will be strong enough to blunt his effort. Isn’t voter suppression a crime? Does it matter anymore? The Democratic Convention starts tonight as a TV event. I’m mildly curious how they will pull this off. I’ll let you know in my next post, I guess. The Republican one will be next week and I’ll do all I can to avoid it. These “conventions” and the four debates (three Presidentials and one for the VP candidates) scheduled for September and October are the main political programming events on the campaign calendar. The conventions are likely a prototype for what conventions will increasingly become in the future; the old model was pretty well dead anyway.
I didn’t think I had much to say today, but I’ve rambled on quite a while. It seems like enough. Got to go get that haircut.
August 24
It was a nominally busy week for me, busy enough that I didn’t feel I had time to write until now even though there was nearly nothing on my actual calendar. I spent a good chunk of time editing videos for Billzpage. Two weeks ago I started chopping the six hours of Allie videos I got from Costco into day-by-day cuts. At first, I didn’t know how to embed videos in posts so I built links to them in Google Drive. I realized that many of the segments were 10-20 minutes long and not very inviting to watch, so I started slicing them into shorter segments, ending up with nearly 80 clips covering four years.
Once I had all the videos linked, I wasn’t very satisfied with that solution and last week figured out that I needed to add a module to WordPress to display videos in the posts. I figured out how to make that module work, then had to go back and change the links into in-line videos. After I did this for a couple of posts with a few dozen videos I discovered that too many videos in a post drag down performance unacceptably on the site. So I went back again and started editing out short 30-60 second highlight clips to feature in the posts. That meant taking a closer look at the videos to isolate highlights, which in itself was a fun exercise. Then I posted the highlight clips and re-inserted Google Drive links to the full videos. I’m about halfway through that process now. It seems to be a reasonable compromise and it’s proving useful to take the time to isolate the highlights rather than forcing people to sit through longer minutes with not very much happening.
I’ve had two points of immediate feedback. One is that Barb tends to wander by more frequently to see what I’m working on and loves to be reminded of how cute Allie was. She also enjoys deriding my lax parenting technique of just filming Allie’s sometimes questionable activities rather than actually preventing them. (I point out that Allie is still alive and seems to have survived relatively unscathed.) Second, we got feedback from Allie that she and Dan discovered the videos last weekend and spent some time wandering through them. She enjoyed seeing them which is deeply gratifying to me.
Both episodes speak to the higher viewer engagement that videos bring. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures. I’m very glad to have these videos and don’t mind taking the time to make them accessible. On the other hand, I’m glad I don’t have a whole lot more of them. I’m not sure how I would be able to process and display years and years of them, which speaks to the whole question of how current and future generations will deal with the ubiquity of videos documenting their lives. Overall, it’s been an interesting little interlude down this video rabbit hole, and I’m not done yet.
I’ve made headway this week with Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin. I’m finally up to 1776 and his ambassadorship to France. I’ve enjoyed learning more about Franklin’s long and multifaceted life, but I’m growing more dissatisfied with Isaacson’s style or lack thereof. Franklin covered a tremendous amount of ground and I’m finding that Isaacson gives short shrift to some of the episodes I’d like to know more about, such as his charting of the Gulf Stream (which merited less than one paragraph) or his involvement with Thomas Paine and the impact of Common Sense which got less than a page. Instead, we get pages and pages of Franklin’s relationships with various women in France and England. I hope to finish the book this week, get it back to the library and write a fuller review.
I watched some evening portions of the Democratic Convention last week. It was, as suspected, a made-for-TV infomercial but there were at least standout speeches from Michele and Barack Obama and Biden himself, in something of a surprise — not that he would speak but that he would do it well. The Republican show will start tonight and I expect I will get all my coverage of it from the hated mainstream media and late night shows. I can’t bear to watch any of it live or give Trump the benefit of my eyeballs in the ratings.
Another item that popped onto my radar this week is my health. Barb visited her doctor last week and generally got a good report. She used to have issues with high blood pressure and has been on medication for several years. The doctor asked her to monitor her blood pressure over the next few weeks to see if she can come off the medication. So we had to figure out how to use the blood pressure monitor we’ve had sitting on a shelf. Hers is indeed doing very well, which is great. I decided to start measuring mine and am dismayed to find that mine is high. I’ve always had relatively low blood pressure so I’m not sure what’s changed other than that my diet is crap and I’ve been putting on weight again during the past six months. I’ve resolved to finally curb my snacking and do a little better. I’ve started to lose a few pounds but would be better to drop many more. We’ll see how long my resolve lasts. It’s definitely put a scare into me, maybe enough to finally make some healthier choices.
Further on the mortality track, I’ve been reviewing the revised trust and estate documents our attorney finally returned. I’m about halfway through them…not happy reading but necessary to get updated.
And that finally brings us to the virus, which continues to abate slightly but is still at a very high level here in the USA. The CovidExitStrategy map looks similar to last week; Maryland is still Trending Poorly.
Numbers:
Global cases: 23,400,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 809,000
USA cases: 5,710,000; Daily average: 42K; Total Deaths: 177,000
Maryland cases: 105,000 Deaths: 3,691
US cases trending upward: 11 states/territories, top 5: IL, IA, KS, SD, ND
US cases mostly the same: 18 states/territories; top 5: CA, NY, NJ, NC, PA
US cases trending downward: 25 states/territories; top 5: TX, FL, GA, AZ, LA
My indoor tennis block time ostensibly starts this week. I’ve decided I won’t be playing at least until Maryland gets into the yellow “Caution Warranted” zone on CovidExitStrategy for several weeks straight. We’ve lined up a lunch with Deb week after next and will see how things are then.
Barb wanted to eat out on Saturday so we went to Grille 620 nearby, sitting outside. It was only the second time we’ve eaten out together at a restaurant. The weather was decent and Barb seemed fine with the meal but I was not comfortable. I wasn’t a good dining companion or conversationalist. The next night, we had Betsy Pelovitz over for a steak dinner on the porch. I’m more comfortable with that level of interaction and socializing. Also, it gave me a chance to practice making tzatziki using our fresh homegrown cucumber courtesy of our neighbor Mark who is doing the growing. It was my second batch. It was tasty, but doesn’t help with my desire to reduce snacking.
We decided that we will likely delay our trip to Boston by at least a few weeks to line up closer to Allie’s birthday. We had a good call with her last night. She is having great difficulty finding a kitten that she rather desperately wants. I keep saying the right one will show up when it does. Hope that will be soon. Once she gets a kitten we are even more likely to make the trip.
Seems like more than enough updates for the moment. I’ll get back to the videos…after lunch.
August 28
Our Friday news roundup. We have survived the Republican Convention, more or less. Hurricane Laura did a number on Louisiana but fortunately spared the larger metro areas of New Orleans and Houston, splitting the distance between. We will likely get some rain from it tomorrow. There was another awful police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin last Sunday which precipitated protests and rioting through the week resulting in further shooting and two deaths at the hands of a young White vigilante. The virus spins along in its ghastly way, not declining quite as rapidly as in past weeks in the U.S.
Numbers:
Global cases: 24,500,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 832,000
USA cases: 5,880,000; Daily average: 42K; Total Deaths: 181,000
Maryland cases: 107,000 Deaths: 3,722
US cases trending upward: 12 states/territories, top 5: NC, MN, IA, CN, KS
US cases mostly the same: 21 states/territories; top 5: NY, IL, NJ, MA, AL
US cases trending downward: 21 states/territories; top 5: CA, TX, FL, GA, AZ
I came across this FluView map from the CDC which shows the spread of seasonal flu across the US for various years. It’s worth hitting the “play” button. It shows clearly how the flu typically ramps up in November through April or so. It’s remarkable how widespread it gets through the winter months. I can see more clearly why there is such concern for a second wave of coronavirus, particularly if it tracks anywhere near close to the same pattern. With symptoms being so similar, people won’t know what they have. For the vulnerable, both are scary. Demand for testing and medical facilities will be much greater, and I can guess fear and uncertainty will rise just in time for the election and aftermath. Something to look forward to.
But the big news is that Allie seems to have found a kitten.
Allie is now well-settled in her new place. She had some issues with appliances last week but the building’s maintenance crew took care of them, replacing the front glass panel of her microwave and replacing the dishwasher altogether. We’re all happy they responded quickly. She’s been able to use the pool and gym a few times. All seems good, but she has been very eager to get a kitten to keep her company. After several weeks of intense but fruitless searching, she seems to have found a winning kitten, a one-eyed little grey rescue, 12-weeks old. We’re not sure how she lost her eye. The process to approve Allie and get the kitten to the vet is underway and she’s hoping to get her within a few more days, I believe. Allie is already shopping assiduously for kitten paraphernalia and is very excited. We hope they all get along famously. I think the new arrival will be named Perry.
Odds and ends:
- Having survived getting a haircut last week I plucked up my courage and went to the dentist this week. So far so good. Such a brave lad, am I.
- I made headway with 1997 videos on Billzpage; the site broke for a day or so thanks to another plugin problem but it seems to be more or less OK now. The Jetpack plugin which is supposed to provide some security and for which I actually pay an annual fee is still disabled, however.
- I finished reading the Benjamin Franklin biography and wrote up my thoughts. I’m moving on to Levon Helms’ autobiography as a palate cleanser.
- Barb has shifted her work schedule a bit — she went into the office twice this week so she can have more time at the pool on the weekend. She’s really enjoying the pool, which is great. Too bad it closes in a couple of weeks.
- Laurie has gone up to Asturias with Maggie and the boys to visit their friends Kelly and April. I hope they have a great time and I wish I could get there myself before too long. Maybe next year.
August 31
It’s the last day of August and the final week before Labor Day when, I suspect, things will start to get even worse than they have been. How’s that for a cheery thought?
Labor Day in America is a kind of psychic turning point, the end of summer, start of the school year, start of everyone getting serious about getting back to work and ramping up for the winter and holidays and new year. It’s the time to start getting things done that you’ve been postponing all year, because if you don’t get them done they will go onto next year’s list of to-do’s. And who wants a longer list?
This year the stakes are raised exponentially by the virus and election. The next three months are likely to be extreme: extremely anxious, exhilarating, fraught, tense, enervating, exhausting, aggravating, exciting, interesting (in the manner of the alleged curse, “May you live in interesting times”). I’m leaving out horrifying and terrifying only because I still remain optimistic enough to hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t want to be accused of hyperbole. Or cliche. Too late?
I could prattle on about my worries but I don’t think it helps my blood pressure. So instead I will look at the numbers. That should help.
Numbers:
- Global cases: 25,100,000; Daily average: 250K; Total Deaths: 844,000
- USA cases: 6,010,000; Daily average: 42K; Total Deaths: 183,000
- Maryland cases: 108,000 Deaths: 3,752; “trending poorly” per CovidExitStrategy.org
- US cases trending upward: 10 states/territories, top 5: NC, AL, MN, IA, CN
- US cases mostly the same: 26 states/territories; top 5: NY, IL, NJ, TN, MA
- US cases trending downward: 18 states/territories; top 5: CA, TX, FL, GA, AZ
We crossed milestones of 25 million global cases and 6 million in the United States. India has topped 3 million cases and is about to overtake Brazil for second place in total case count after the U.S. but India is still riding up the ramp of its growth curve while the U.S. and Brazil are at least slightly on the downslope. I am haunted by the graph of flu season cases primed to start in the coming months. It seems nearly certain that coronavirus cases will do the same. Some models project more than 300,000 deaths in the U.S. by December but there are enough variables and caveats that the forecasts are little better than guesses.
I’m not helping my anxiety, so I will turn to other news.
- Allie reports she was approved for her kitten, so she should be getting Perry in another week or so. Everyone is pleased and excited.
- I spoke with Betsy who reports that she is back to teaching in-class for the new school year. They’re using a hybrid model with two small cohorts of students in class for two days per week. Betsy has multiple fabric and plexiglass masks and a portable plexiglass shield which must be quite a sight. They are one week into having actual students and everything is still weird and stressful. The kids themselves seem to be adapting pretty well; Betsy’s workload has multiplied as she has to tend to the kids in class plus those at home. Several classes in other schools have had positive Covid tests so the class then needs to isolate and shift into distance learning for two weeks. Betsy and many other teachers doubt this hybrid model will last through the semester and they will shift back to distance learning before long. But who knows?
- Kristen is moving into the house with Sara and Tyler. We wish them well. Joe is back to working in his actual office five days a week.
- I made a field trip to a new restaurant on Saturday, a hand-pulled noodle place in Gaithersburg that also features onion cakes and good dumplings. I had a very tasty noodle soup and got enough other things to last several days. Barb didn’t love her noodle stir fry so I’m looking forward to turning it into a nice noodle soup tonight. None of this is helping with my carb intake, but it’s tasty and it spurred me into a trip yesterday to Lotte Plaza to pick up some good jars of hot oil that will make the soup and dumplings even tastier. Yum. Time for lunch.
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