"People are dying who have never died before" - March 18, 2020, Donald J. Trump, POTUS
He spelled H I P P A yesterday. He didn't say HIPAA, he spelled it. Any grown-ass person who has ever sought health care on any regular basis in the United States knows what HIPAA is. I don't think this needs further larification, but here you go anyway: The President of the United States does not even know what the 1996 HIPAA law, the Health Care Insurance Portability and Accountability Act actually is. How the hell does this piece of the lowest animal feces have the audicity to speak to me -- to speak to US -- about this pandemic in any knowledgeable way. And the nodding faces clustered around his podium.... are they all mad? Are we all mad here? Don't answer that.
Of more importance is that, this morning, The Trumpster repeated calling this the Chinese Virus. A reporter called him out for being racist. He denied it saying "The virus comes from China. I'm not racist". Oh yes you are, you mangled excuse for a cognitive being. This is not an argument of semantics; his words are persuasive and drilling in the word "Chinese virus" will ripple out. Chinese markets are already shunned. I hear in San Jose they are the only markets that actually have everything in stock. If I were doing any shopping outside of my garage and the deep freezer, I'd find that Ranch 99 or any market in Chinatown would be my best bet, too.
China, which is where the virus appears to have started spreading, is finally seeing a downturn in Coronvirus cases. If we were to put out a timeline, it took sometime from mid-January to now, with over 80,000 cases and a couple of thousand deaths, and a necessary, swift and almost draconian shutdown, to get this under control. See here for up to the minute data from the World Health Organization.
Here in Alameda County there was a fifty percent increase in positive cases during just 24 hours, from March 16 to March 17th.
The U.S. is up 2,000 cases country-wide in 24 hours according to CNN with cases topping 7,000 from around 4,500 yesterday.
Mendocino County went on a Shelter in Place order last night, March 17. A friend up there says, "Feeling both relieved and terrified". I haven't heard from my other friends up that way, most of whom live in remote areas of the county.
France is on day two of their country-wide lockdown, following Spain's lockdown a few days ago. My son got out just in time, having fled to London and coming home several days earlier than he had planned. He's one of the lucky ones, actually. A couple of friend's kids are stuck -- one in Barcelona, the other in, of all places Peru. There are no planes from Peru for that one, but the one in Barcelona is just stuck. Good fortune is she was already there for a while drilling down on her Masters Degree, so she has an apartment and people around her who look out for her. The Peru kids are stuck in a hostel. Talk about a shit storm.
To date, the UK is more or less business as usual, with people attending cafes and pubs, and crowding the tube even though there are over 1,000 confirmed cases and a few deaths. Guess they'll figure it out eventually. Or not.
But there is some good news, actually, really unusually good news no matter what is happening in the world... Dolphins are returning to Italy! {which turned out to be a complete and utter fake, but it was a nice thing to think about anyway] Turns out when people leave, pollution dissipates rapidly, and so animals are returning to the waterways of Venice and elsewhere as people become scarce. The water in the Venetian canals are crystal clear and fish are seen swimming around in them. How remarkable!
If you haven't read Earth Abides, a sci-fi novel set in the 1940s, please do. When humans disappear, earth returns to its natural state. In a way, it's a love story. In a way, it is prescient. In a way, it tells a story that only belongs in sci-fi. There's another book by Dean Koontz written in 1984 or so, but I can't recommend it because it's too real. No need to scare the child in you anymore than you're already terrorized inside.
Here at Casa de Eva:
The weather took a turn and it was dark and cloudy here in Berkeley for most of the day. A cold front is moving through, thwarting my intention to plan the seedlings sprouting in my window sill. The zucchini, tomatoes, watermelon and peppers will have to wait. The virus has nothing to do with this, but somehow it feels all connected. Everything is connected.
Being fortunate enough to have paying work to keep me busy at home meant I didn't have to scour or scrub my house, though that would probably be a great use of my time. Things are in perhaps better order than usual, and the dog got a mid-day walk which is unusual.
This new reality which seems likely to last a month or two or more, means I'm pretty much separated from my son and grandkids for the foreseeable future. I suddenly had a crying fit late this afternoon missing my dead husband and wishing for my kids.
One From the Heart and Witches of Eastwick on Amazon Prime Video have helped me escape all the bad news for a few hours, but at the same time made me a little melancholy for a time long ago when I watched these for the first time. I'm a news junkie and if I keep watching CNN I'm gonna scoop my eyeballs out of my head with a spork and stab a chopstick through my right ear to finish the job.''
The dog and I took a walk and there were a lot of people out for being the middle of the day in the middle of the week. People were cordial and most greeted each other (me), but at the same time, we sure did stay 10 feet away from each other. Weirdish is what I'd call it.
I made banana bread last night with the last four pathetic, browning bananas sitting around oozing in a bowl on the kitchen counter. Under normal circumstances, brown bananas make me sad because I don't feel like making banana bread and the poor things get thrown into the compost. Not today though, because right now wasting anything is a trip to the store, and a trip to the store isn't something I should do. The house smells like warm bananas and vanilla. Like a home with people to feed, even though there really isn't. The first end slice, spread with Miyoko's vegan butter, was warm and soft and sweet, like my home, where I am gratefully trapped. It could be so much worse for me than this place.
The irises, stunted from relentless pruning by the garden-butcher I pay to keep the oxalis to a minimum, are doing their best to show up in spite of Mr. Le. Speaking of, I wonder if he's going to show up in a couple of weeks. He never tells me when he's coming. He likes to keep up the element surprise. I hope he's okay.
The truth is, though, the world we rely on looks like this
A friend was at Safeway yesterday and quite clever (as indeed he was) to find some nice steaks in the freezer section because the fresh meat was gone.
A really useful Facebook post from another friend outlines the actual rules of the Stay at Home order in San Francisco. This is useful information because honestly none of us really know what the rules are and we are loosely following what we think we know they mean. All of us are armchair experts, and here to judge everyone else. Now we can read the rules and STFU.
Until tomorrow, kids. Be kind to one another. We sure do need it right now, even at a distance.
Peace and love,
Heather
from Casa de Eva
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