Another in the “Out My Window” series about life in the COVID-19 pandemic
Shopping
So we ventured forth into Columbus yesterday. While we haven’t been “hermits” for the past few months, we haven’t gone into the city too often. Recently our trips have been going to some woods or abandoned factories to try to trap lost dogs. But today, as we travelled through town, we heard the news from Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine. On a COVID crisis scale of 1 to 4, Franklin County (that’s Columbus and the surrounding suburbs) is at a ‘3’, and seems headed to ‘4’. Four is the worst, back to the lockdown mode of March. I don’t know what that means as far as businesses are concerned, but I expect restaurants and bars will be so limited that they are either forced to close by the state, or by the economics.
We were out buying a new hot tub. For those who remember the days of track team parties and Cross Country winter runs at five in the morning, after twenty-one years my old hot tub finally bit the dust. There are lots of memories and scars on that thing. It’s onto a new one, and it will be here on Monday. But the old standing invitation to use it anytime, even three in the morning or during a snow storm, isn’t in effect. Not, at least, for a while: not until COVID-19 is no longer a big part of all of our lives.
Not Normal
And, for only the second time since the fifteenth of March, we ate at a restaurant. We were outside, on the patio, carefully placed away from others. It wouldn’t really have mattered; three o’clock isn’t rush hour in most places, and certainly not at Fado’s Irish Pub. But it still felt good to be out, to be drinking beer from the tap (Harp’s – it’s summer) and eating food someone else made “right there”. But with the virus growing, it’s probably like that March 15th meal… the last time out for a while.
One of our favorite places to visit is a little fishing town called Sebastian, Florida. We liked it so much, we spent the winter camped nearby (camper, not tent!!) a couple of years ago. The prime nightspot in Sebastian is Captain Hiram’s Hotel and Restaurant, along with the “Sandbar” bar. Just got an email: first a restaurant employee was diagnosed with COVID and the restaurants were closed. Now a hotel worker has it too. Captain Hiram’s Resort is closed for the unforeseeable future.
Figures Don’t Lie
The numbers are staggering: 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the United States — every day. Sure we are testing more people. But more people are “failing” the tests too. Statistically speaking if you test more, you should have a lot more negatives. But that’s not what’s happening. In places that tried to ignore the first onslaught of COVID, like Florida, and Texas and Arizona, now hospitals are getting maxed out with patients. And it’s not just a “red state” phenomenon. California is also seeing staggering growth in disease diagnosis.
2,787,038 Americans have been diagnosed so far. 130,906 have died. You do the math – but to save time – it’s about 4.6%. That’s 2300 deaths per 50,000 diagnosed. And the number diagnosed is growing exponentially (ncov2019.live) (WAPO).
We are far, far from over the COVID pandemic. In fact, it seems we are really just beginning.
Heigh Ho Silver!!
There is some good news. President Trump yesterday actually said, “…I’m all for masks”. That’s a sea change from the “I don’t need one” that we’ve heard for the past four months. Now, he thinks it makes him, “…look like the Lone Ranger”. That’s fine if it works for him. And I’ve already seen movement among his devout supporters, who until now have spent paragraphs on social media trying to disprove the value of masks. All of a sudden, they’re wearing them. If mask wearing stops being a Red/Blue symbol of ideology, and starts being the “human” thing to do, I guess I don’t care how it happens.
Wearing a mask is the right thing to do, though nowhere near a perfect “preventative”. Your mask helps me, my mask helps you, social distancing helps us both, and staying at home helps us all. I know there are folks who can’t tolerate an N-95 mask. So use a bandana. And I have a good friend who cannot hear, and reads lips. Masks cut her off from the spoken world. Our world needs to accommodate her needs. Social distancing and pulled down masks can work while we keep her in the conversation.
Play with COVID
We’ve missed the time when we could “stop the virus”. Now we have to wait until we have a cure, and a vaccine. And for those who cruelly say, “…well we’re all going to get it anyway, so let’s get it over with”: I hope it’s not your mother, or wife, or father or son that can’t “beat the odds” and dies.
And while I’m ranting, stop making fun of the college kids in Tuscaloosa. They had a “COVID Party”, like the anti-vaxxers “chicken pox parties”. One person has the virus and everyone paid into the pot. The next person diagnosed wins the cash. Let’s hope they don’t win the big “jackpot in the sky”. The story reeks of “privilege”, the privilege of ignoring science. That got us in this mess in the first place. Sure they’re kids and they’re being stupid. But there are plenty of elders who’ve been just as stupid about this too. At least someone will get “silver” in this deal.
Home Bound
It’s tough to travel: how do you stay in a hotel, or eat in a restaurant? Yes, we can haul the camper, but just being “on the road” means we are going to be in more “social contact”. And if we can’t go into the local pizza place, or the neighborhood bar, or the “Piggly Wiggly” grocery store without worrying, or creating worry, it’s just not as much fun.
So we’re going to hang here at home. We’ve got a new “foster” puppy, but the “foster” title fell away pretty quick. She’s won a place on the bed, and in our hearts. “Keelie” is the newest member of our pack. And we keep doing home improvement projects. The utility room is redone, the garage is insulated and shelved, and the new hot tub is on the way. The salesman said that seems to be the “way of the world” right now. Everyone is doing home projects: what else can they do? He’s selling hot tubs and outdoor furniture so fast that folks are on waiting lists for months.
“Months” is probably about the right amount of time. It will be months until a potential vaccine can begin to put an end to COVID. Months before we can have a national strategy for dealing with the crisis. And months before we can even start thinking about “back to normal”.
Guess we’ll be hanging here at home, playing with Keelie and soaking in the new hot tub.
