Coronavirus Diaries

In Australia weddings are now limited to the bride and groom, the celebrant and 2 witnesses. Needless to say most people are cancelling.

Funerals are also limited to 10 people.

Just saw Bindi Irwin got married - it was just the couple, her brother and mom.

I can only see 3 outcomes in the US. Person to person civil war as society breaks down. Martial law with troops on the streets. Or millions of COVID-19 deaths.

I'm having nice coronavirus experiences out in the world

I try to only venture out every other day. Today, I went to a convenience store for the first time.

There were huge bolded signs on the doors saying please maintain a 6 foot distance from patrons. People were chill, kind, and 100% observant of the new religion.

I wanted a sub sandwich, so. Local restaurants remaining open take either online or call-in orders--then, you call them again when you arrive, they come out and do the transaction curbside. It's so weird to see a parade of wait staff in and out to cars in the parking lot. But, it's working.

People seem so much nicer.

My hands are turning into discolored, dried-ass cornhusks. The over-washing calls for some super-souped up lotion. (Trying to remember the name of the lotion Norwegian sailors use... Neutrogena? Anyway...

I'm going to have to Google Meet my grandson tomorrow. He's going to forget what I look like.

I miss his hugs. It's sad that hugs are verboten.

I think you might be right--and I'm betting on military. Locally, police are authorized to 'break up' gatherings of more than 3 people.

Giving a pittance to out of work people and open ended giving to corporate interests will not sit well in the near future.

I've noticed that about people, in person. It doesn't seem to apply to people in cars and especially people in cars in parking lots. Maybe I'm missing something.

Today was definitely a bad coronavirus day for me.

My child lives 800 miles away, is considered essential personnel, and was exhibiting some symptoms. While my son and I were talking soothingly to her through a series of calls and texts, telling her calmly, in an abundance of caution, to continue follow the basic protocol of avoiding illness and treating it at home, blah blah blah--while back channel, we were locking in a screaming fight as I was scanning for flights and juggling the decision of how the hell I was going to get to her--would I stay there? would I bring her home?

I was basically only trying to gauge if I would possibly make her sicker if I was infected on the way there (if by plane) or if I'd be driving her back when suddenly, she needed hospitalization... We went through several scenarios and the worst thing for me today was --- every time my kids have faced a threatening moment, I've known exactly what to do. This time, I honestly did not know which response would be worse / better for her.

So, abject hell and screaming while we dispatched her to call a nurse.

Thank god for nurses.

The debilitating dizziness (not a Covid symptom, but was confusing her re fatigue, which is a symptom, coupled with scratchy throat, which also is) scared her. Anxiety had caused her not to eat enough over the past week, and her blood sugar was low. She ate a candy bar (favorite nurses' suggestion ever) and she's feeling 100% with scratchy throat.

Life is turning on a dime, lately.

I'm just grateful for both of these wonderful people, my kids. Grateful for every resource we have.
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In other interesting news, Gov says he's going to be capturing Yankees as they cross our border, fining them, and quarantining them. Finally, payback for the War of Northern Aggression...

Trying times indeed. Good for you and stay safe.

You and yours as well.

Nothing says Southern like 'War of Northern Aggression'.

Sure hope it works out. This a nerve wracking time, isn't it?

The kid situation is getting to me. How’s your family/friends?

Sorry, but my only family is a sister in an Alzheimer's facility, and naturally, by state order, they are not allowing visitors.

Friends? Like me, they're worried sick about financial goings on, and at least concerned about the disease, itself. That is, a few occasions of near panic, followed by a certain amount of guarded optimism. Remember, Farmington, NM is not really one of the hot spots.

I am concerned about a report of over sixty cases on the Navajo Rez. It is very thinly populated, and Navajos don't tend to form groups outside the family. I have to wonder how they're getting infected. Um, the reservation is something like 25,000 square miles in area.

Confounding about the Navajo.
I’m going to see if I can find a write-up.

Hoping the best for you and your sister.
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General news:
Just heard Trump has invoked the wartime production act to get GM to make ventilators.
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Navajos in NM

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/822037719/coronavirus-cases-spike-in-navajo-nation-where-water-service-is-often-scarce

Excerpt:

The Navajo Nation reported its first two coronavirus cases on March 17. Just over a week later, there are now 69 cases. The reservation is under stay-at-home orders — but thousands of people must regularly leave their houses for necessities such as water.

"About 40% of Navajos must drive several miles to haul their water and many still use outhouses," member station KJZZ's Laurel Morales reports from Flagstaff for NPR's Newscast unit.

Morales spoke to Shanna Yazzie, who must drive 50 miles to bring drinking water, groceries, and other items back home — and to handle basic tasks, such as dropping off household garbage.

With the new emphasis on handwashing, Yazzie's family is going through more water.

"My mother was asking, 'When are we taking the trash out?'" Yazzie told Morales. "We have four bags of trash and we have to drive into Tuba City. To do that and to do laundry, I'm scared to go do laundry right now. We have a small laundromat here in the community kind of risky for us right now, so our laundry is getting piled up."

I'm trusting my four children to do what's best for them. One has been working in a clinic behind a desk. They are shutting down tomorrow. One is a truck driver in Oklahoma. One works a food place in a hospital, I think. She may have moved recently. The one most likely is co-manager of a Walmart. The oldest and youngest still have children at home. So far as I know they all are healthy.

Better call Snake Plissken, Gothamites.
You might have escaped from New York, but you are being hunted.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/rhode-island-police-to-hunt-down-new-yorkers-seeking-refuge

Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York and demand 14 days of self-quarantine.

“Right now we have a pinpointed risk,” Governor Gina Raimondo said. “That risk is called New York City.”


New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., on Friday reporting a total of 44,000 cases.

Rhode Island has just over 200, and it has begun an aggressive campaign to keep the virus out and New Yorkers contained, over objections from civil liberties advocates.

Raimondo, a Democrat, said she had consulted lawyers and said while she couldn’t close the border, she felt confident she could enforce a quarantine.

In Australia the various state’s health departments (don’t ask me the official names) certainly do have the power to enforce quarantines at the individual/family/household level. I’m not sure about the societal level.

Pretty shattering to my illusion of individual autonomy.

I almost said something ignorant about Americans not being subjected to the ‘state’ breaking in our homes and pushing inside to exert power over us—and then immediately had to reconcile with American neighborhoods where that happens all the time.

Bad feeling to worse.