Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week to Roy! We celebrated his big 2-0 with take out from Panda Express and a family dinner around the dining table with Barbara and Sparky here. That was it, really, it was all sort of low-key. He's sort of outgrown the ton-of-gifts stage anyways. And Panda Express is really a treat.
It's funny that we still associate Panda Express with going to Grammy's house in La Canada because we'd usually have it after seeing a show at the Glendale Centre Theatre. All that is over now, the end of an era, which is sad. But the feeling of occasion still comes back with those aromatic red paper boxes stuffed full of orange chicken, chow mein, chicken teriyaki, mixed veg, and, this time, mushroom chicken. Yum!
The big Patrick Henry drive-through graduation parade for the Class of 2020 was on the same day, but Leo had decided earlier that he didn't want to go since he wouldn't be able to hang out with his friends. So we skipped it. This past week John returned Leo's textbooks, and skipped all the other drive-through stations including the cap & gown pick-up. We'd ordered (last year) the free package anyways, which was just a cap and gown and tassel rental, and because Leo decided to give the grad parade a miss, there'd be no opportunity to wear it anyways, except at home, alone, with only us and the dog to watch him parade around. Meh.
And, Grandpa Bill's birthday was this past week too! We remember that on his birthday in 2000, the day before Roy was born, Bill ran the Suzuki Rock and Roll Marathon. That was 20 years ago! He ran it a couple times after that too, as it was one of his favorite marathons.
Coronavirus update: The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker shows that COVID-19 has been confirmed in over 6,852,800 people worldwide, and has claimed over 398,200 lives. That's over 527,800 more cases and over 20,800 more deaths since Tuesday. The U.S. now has over 1,917,000 confirmed cases and over 109,700 deaths, up over 96,500 cases and another 4,100 deaths since Tuesday. In San Diego, our local toll rose to 8,180 cases with 294 deaths.
Global protests continue over racial inequities in police use of force, and some measurable progress was made this past week when several police agencies, including the SDPD, banned the use of carotid holds. Carotid holds are kinda shimewaza; holds that block the blood flow to the brain and can cause blackout. They are subtle and very effective, but without the rules, training, and monitoring of a martial arts setting, they may have proven to be more dangerous than they're worth in a law enforcement setting. (That said, knee-on-neck is not a recognized technique, in judo anyways.) Most of the protests in San Diego have been peaceful, and nationwide there seems to be a movement among police agencies to scale back their harsher tactics in favor of a more collaborative approach. In particular, the National Guard activated in Washington DC was disarmed and largely sent back home.
Leo is one week into a four-week course in Music Production with Andrew Huang. So far he says the course has a lot of content he hasn't seen covered in other classes or YouTube videos, so he's very pleased with what he's getting out of it. The other students are a mix of pros and relative beginners. He had his graduation parade this past week, which he didn't go to. Tonight would've been his Grad Night party at California Adventure Park, but that was canceled. But he did go to Foster's Freeze to get his free Class of 2020 burger/fries/drink combo! And, we will get take-out again next week to celebrate his graduation, which would've been this coming Tuesday.
Roy had his birthday, of course. Today he's with Danielle and her family, but will be back this evening. No news on the PPM certification course offered through PMI; he'll start that some time this summer.
Ondine took a walk this morning at Mission Trails Park with our friend Lucy. She said the trail was pretty busy. And, this evening, she's getting together with Jackie, a childhood friend from the neighborhood who's back on the block! Also coming to that gathering are Barbara and Joan and Doris and Ofelia, so it'll be a small gathering of the block's old guard. Ondine set up a small tabletop firepit she bought last year, so this'll be its very first use.
John is diving into Anthropology now, currently reviewing a six-week online course on Forensic Archaeology to prepare for a certification test. He also is enrolled in two summer classes at City College online. The Physical Anthropology class starts in July, and he's enrolled in that one for certain. The Cultural Anthropology course starts in less than two weeks, and he's now waitlisted at #4. He'll have to scramble to get the textbook if he does end up crashing the class.
Neighborhood gas prices have been steady at $3.09 per gallon. The stock market closed Friday at 27,110.98.
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