Us, January 19, 2020: John, Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine
Us, January 19, 2020: John, Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine
COVID-19 update: Globally, according to Johns Hopkins' COVID-19 tracker, as of this writing there are nearly 857,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with over 42,000 deaths. In the United States, there are nearly 188,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with more than 3,800 deaths. San Diego county has over 600 confirmed cases, with seven deaths. Social distancing rules will remain in effect through April, as cases in the U.S. are expected to peak in two to three weeks.
We had a quiet weekend in lockdown. Our only outing was that Ondine went to the grocery store Saturday morning armed with John's list; John, our usual grocery shopper, stayed home because he's fighting a cold.
Ondine, Roy, Leo, and Shadow went next door for kaffeetrinken Saturday afternoon. For our anniversary, John made red lentil curry and we watched a movie on Amazon Prime: Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, and Cliff Robertson.
Sunday morning Leo went next door to help weed Barbara's front yard.
It's weird to see the mountain empty on a weekend. At one point, we heard a helicopter over the mountain ordering people off, apparently someone decided to ignore the yellow tape and signs at all the entrances.
John decided to get back on his exercise bike as a daily workout instead of walking, in addition to walking the dog at night. The closure of the parks and trails seems to have pushed a lot more people into walking and biking the streets, so if we walk the dog any time before dark it's kind of crowded out there with all parties taking evasive maneuvers in an intricate dance of social distancing. Fortunately, car traffic is way down so it's fairly easy to swerve well into the street.
Reducing car traffic may actually turn into one of the long-term benefits of the pandemic. Apparently, the global carbon footprint has shrunk dramatically in the past month or so, and in parts of the world with highly polluted air, like Delhi, they're seeing blue sky for the first time in decades.
Another positive outcome might be, ironically, bringing people together. Fixing the American healthcare system might be another positive outcome, albeit probably a pipe dream. And, improving general sick leave and wellness attitudes might be another.
Roy started class online today, although he's been doing projects and homework (off and on) through spring break. Today he had an exam that was proctored via live webcam and audio. Other than that, he spends a lot of time on his computer playing games with friends online.
Leo is officially on spring break, although some individual teachers have reached out via email with updates and resources. Mostly he's just been playing games with friends online and creating music.
Ondine is working from home for an indeterminate time.
John is getting more into opera and archaeology online. Thanks to the Met's daily opera streams, he's now seen three fourths of Wagner's Ring Cycle, and was struck by how modern and fresh it was even in its brutality. And, he joined a class on the wives of Henry VIII and the literary book club via Zoom. This was the last meeting of the semester for the book club, and the summer session will be partly online. Again, there were only two participants and the facilitator. Still they had a great discussion about Du Maurier's Rebecca.
Neighborhood gas prices dropped nearly a dollar to about $3.09 per gallon, while the stock market is hanging just over 21,900 this afternoon.
Back to the Archives page
Back to the Kuraoka Family
main page
Forward to the next Weekly Journal, April 4 2020.