Life in the Time of CoVid-Day 12 Lockdown
April 7, 2020-Day 12 of SA Lockdown:
Worldwide: 1,348,628 confirmed CoVid-19 cases; 74, 816 deaths.
Italy: Death Rate has risen to 16, 523; China: No New Deaths for the First Time since January.
One day into the 2nd half of the 21-day SA Lockdown and I’ve hit the what now? place with a the dull thud. (Do not bother asking if we have news regarding evacuation; we have heard zip-ziltch-radio silence from our US Ambassador Lana Marks since Sunday.
And on the 12th Day, Kelly woke feeling like a cast member on The Truman Show* or Ground Hog Day. 7:00 am: Alarm goes off; 7:18 am: dress; 7:22 am Yoga; 7:23-8:59 Check Covid-19 News; 9:00 am: Greet Gloria; Another day in LOCKDOWN. (*& spiraled down rabbit holes like this on 20-years after The Truman Show.)
Cut! . . . and ACTION!
South Africa: 1 686, the death toll rising to 12; Nurses have tested positive sparking fears of increased patient transmissions in the country’s hospitals and clinics.
SA Bride & Groom Arrested Over Lockdown Wedding:
“All 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay.”—BBC News
USA: 367,758 CoVid-19 cases; 10,981 dead; NY: 130,689 cases; 4,758 dead.
Caregivers, facing contamination, coping with infection, illness & death—personal risk—work on…Citizens blow off the pandemic and carry on…& we click away in our walled castle. No wonder I feel like an extra in an outdated movie rerun.
Our daily routine feels like it’s become habit, parts of which—especially the 3-times-daily Huff & Puff & these Fishbowl post chats—I’m feeling good about and hoping to maintain. Then . . . I googled “How Long Does it Take to Form A Habit"?” Psychology Today shut me right down. Habits, Good & Bad, are not created or broken equally. When it comes to forming a bad habit, 2 days is enough:
“Order a doughnut with your coffee on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, and you’ll probably find it very hard to resist ordering a doughnut on Wednesday.”
Making a good habit, however, takes around 66 days. 66! Please don’t stretch Lockdown to 66 days!
As for Breaking Bad? How many days do you think it takes: 3, 21, 30, 90, 120?
Is Binge Watching Kruger Safari a Good or Bad Habit?
According to my go-tos at curejoy.com it takes between 18 to 254 days to break a bad habit. So maybe and maybe…
Now, in the 2nd half of the 21-day SA Lockdown, the question is, what happens next? Where’s CoVid going to hit and when? Here’s the word from SA Officials:
If you live in an urban area where local health officials initiated early social-distancing orders, the peak of new cases could hit later this month. If you live in a rural area, the coronavirus spread will take longer and stretch limited hospital resources thin.
If, like me, during Life in the Time of CoVid, you are craving Some Good News, check out John Krasinski’s SGN:
Here & below is the link to SGN Episode #2. Ignore the ads—just click skip—and be sure to watch all the way to the dad using a leafblower to push his tot on a swing…and then….wait until you want the…well, watch for yourself!It made me smile, tear up, laugh aloud, share—SGN!
“No Matter How Dark it Gets There’s Always Good in the World,”- @johnkrasinski #SGN
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Life in the Time of CoVid-Day 11 Lockdown
April 6, 2020-Day 11 of SA Lockdown:
Worldwide: Since Dec 31 & April 5, 1 ,174 652 cases of COVID-19 “(in accordance with the applied case definitions and testing strategies in the affected countries); 64 400 deaths.”
Italy (15 362), Spain (11 744), United States (8 501), France (7 560), United Kingdom (4 313), Iran (3 452), China (3 333), Netherlands (1 651), Germany (1 342),… South Africa (9), Cuba (6), Singapore (6), Trinidad and Tobago (6)…180 countries so far.
Woke to gloomy skies, rain forecasted an a note from the US Ambassador to South Africa, letting all of us awaiting evacuation (not sure how many we are) that they are developing “a viable alternative,” to the evacuation plan that fell through last week:
“(This was no small task — after the first set of charter flights arranged by DC fell through, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and Brazil all managed to schedule their flights ahead of ours.)” Marks ended the note with a smidge of promise: “We are getting closer to finalizing a solution, and I hope to have some good news to announce soon. All we are waiting on is for DC to sign the contract and remit.”
So, cues poised behind the eight ball—or, cases at the door—we go round and round and round in the waiting game. Thank you Joni!
USA: 312, 237 confirmed CoVid cases; Surgeon General Warns “Brace for our Pearl Harbor” moment.
For those unschooled in US involvement in WWII (or who didn’t see the movie,) Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese Kamazazi fighter planes bombed Pearl Harbor; “destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. “-Pearl Harbor History
It’s horrifying to have anyone comparing CoVid-19’s anticipated Armageddon with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which vaulted the US into the already raging WWII—a war in which 50 to 80 million people died—3% of the world’s population. What’s more, many maintain WWII, combined with FDR’s New Deal, ended the depression. Conversely, the economic ramifications of the CoVid pandemic seem to be rocketing us into depression. I don’t know how to end this thought.
It is not easy to corral 57 million people into doing something together for the sake of humanity-CoVid in SA
Heroes. I console myself by mining the news and Social Media for Heros. Sure, we expect health workers to “do their jobs” (after all they do get paid…) But, would we step up ourselves? Our daughter-in-law, Michelle: wife, daughter, mother of 2 sweet boys goes in every shift to help expectant mothers and fathers bring their newborns into this world. Some hospitals were restricting partners from coming into the hospital, but staffers, like Michelle, at additional risk to themselves, nixed that: humanity rules. Marty’s son, Stephen, a Urologist, husband & father of 4, wears a mask at home. Some, including a nurse, mother of a 1 year old, out of fear of contaminating her family has not been home since the outbreak. Instead, she’s sleeping at the hospital. These heroes and so many more, risking their health to help others. In comparison, how hard? Inconvenient? Uncomfortable? is it to stay home, and if out wear a mask?
Research shows the average infected person spreads the virus to about 2.2 others.
Heroes: People staying home, not going for a run, not walking the dog, not visiting friends, not within 6 feet of each other.
No Excuses: If you have a T-Shirt & Scissors: You have a Mask!
Heroes: People wearing masks & sanitizing, staying 6 feet apart, not littering, not spreading germs.
I want to be a hero.
Curtis and I are going to walk to the shops today—only because, with our evacuation delayed we need groceries.
WE PROMISE TO: Maintain a safe distance from others. Sanitize, Properly dispose of litter. And we will wearing masks.
(Charles suggested tampons & duct tape; Shona said we wouldn’t last.)
Not designer MLB masks or official surgical masks, either. Thanks to Shona sending the No-Sew Mask instructions, we sport spotty-but-clean T-shirt masks. Our eyes will be smiling.
MASKs are the new black!
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Life in the Time of CoVid-Day 7 Lockdown
April 2, 2020: Lockdown Day 7
Worldwide: 950,713 confirmed CoVid-19 cases; 48,313 deaths; 202, 826 recovered!!! Spain deaths surpass 10,000; Russia reports record spike in cases
If you think you don’t need to wear a mask; if you think you “need” to go out. That CoVid-19 is “no big deal,” read this email I just received from a student (in response to my note wondering why I hadn’t heard back from her):
“A sad event has transpired. Last week my father was hospitalized due to COVID 19 symptoms and after six days he passed away in an isolation unit. We learned that when hospitals close down they send everyone who isn't essential home and only keep the most critical staff. It was hard to get anyone to answer the phones and have information passed along, but we understood why.”
USA: 214,461 confirmed cases, 4,841 deaths; The death toll has quadrupled & now exceeds the number of deaths from CoVid-19 reported in Mainland China
LOCKDOWN. President Ramphosa and the SA government is smart to name it so harshly. Enough with the sugar-coating terms: Social Distancing, really? Unless you’re in a bubble, you’re at risk.
South Africa: 1,380 confirmed CoVid cases; 5 deaths; Mkhize warns of 'calm before a heavy and devastating storm
We just returned from the shops. Last trip, thinking we would be evacuated “early” this week, we only bought 3 days stock, so we needed to. The line waiting to enter Pick-N-Pay ringed the block. The Woolies line was only a few deep, so we chose it. Tension outside and in was palpable. Everyone racing and grabbing as though on a clock. Curtis too. I asked him, “Why are you acting so weird.” His response, there are so many people…” So many mask-ish efforts: scarfs, balaclavas, turtlenecks, hankies, etc. Lots without masks seem to think holding one’s breath helps. Including clerks wheezing “Thank you, Maam” through clenched teeth.
'Apprehensive' elderly German tourists apprehended en route to test for Covid-19
This could have been us had we tried to drive back to P.A.
Do you know how many times a waking hour you touch your face? It’s like trying not to scratch a mosquito bite. Count. Or better, watch someone else.
I caught myself 4 times in one hour—and that was me consciously trying not to touch. Every touch could bring a CoVid virus into your body. No excuses:
IF YOU HAVE A T-SHIRT AND TEETH, YOU HAVE A MASK.
Service Announcement Over, captivity is an issue; imprisonment for many doesn’t come with a garden or a balcony, or even a window that opens wide enough to fit one’s head. So, what do for exercise?
LAPS: Yes, I am one of the lucky ones, with a lovely garden. I walk laps as I listen to podcasts, webinars—conversation. Every time my phone chimes, I get up to listen & talk. One problem. My natural inclination is to walk counter-clockwise which, after the first few days seems to have made my left leg shorter, thus giving me a long-shoreman gait. So as of yesterday, every few laps I reverse direction.
Lapping the room works, too. It’s 19 medium paces around our room (bathroom not included). And, I’m told, very annoying.
12 STEPS UP-12 DOWN
STAIR-CLIMBING: Now that we are officially the only ones staying in Manderley Lodge, when Gloria is away, I sneak across to the office side and stair step. i call it the 12 by 12: Twelve steps up & twelve steps down. I stopped at 10 reps yesterday. Depending on Gloria’s schedule, I’ll sneak in a few more today.
YOGA: Do not roll your eyes. Or think I’ve gone all OHMMMM on you. Even Curtis can do this one as it’s all on the floor. Think of it as “stretches.” Here’s my 10 minute fav by _____________(Hint: Don’t try to do it without the video because you’ll find yourself shortening the time you stay in each position; or forgetting some. Trust me. I have listened to the same video at least 1000 times (no exaggeration). Miriam’s voice is now my Manchurian Candidate phone call: I mindlessly obey.
HUFF & PUFF: This is our new favorite. It only takes 4 Minutes! (a session). Curtis discovered it sometime back when he was trying to find a way to exercise without leaving his computer (Curtis loves his computer!) but we’d never tried it. IT’S GREAT! Yesterday was our 3rd day of Huff & Puff (Officially Called: Zach Bush MD: 4-Minute Workout.) Wow! I do! I do! I do feel the tingle/burn!!!
Oh yes, as if there isn’t enough drama in the world with CoVid, yesterday Graham, our landlord, Gloria’s boss, quit. Turned out his lease on Manderley Lodge ended March 31. Instead of renewing, or giving 3 months’ notice, he came last night, cleaned out the supply cupboards, and left. We know because the supply cupboards are in our room—2 locked cabinets at the end of our closet. He knocked while we were eating dinner. (5th can of tuna in brine gone…Charles says we should have our mercury levels checked when this is over.) —DEAR AUSTRALIA, WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL YOUR TOILET PAPER…
What does this mean to us? No TV for 2 days. Yes, Gloria, we will survive. (Thank you U-Tube! Thank you NYC for this Broadway Coronavirus Medley!)
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