Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Covid Chronicles. Chapter 56: Groundhog Day Covid Lifestyle


Read chapter 55 here




Wednesday, July 8, 2020 


We enjoyed a temporary relief from the heat yesterday. Starting in the late afternoon, a steady rain fell for more than two hours. We shut down the air-conditioners and opened the windows and doors, which allowed a natural cooling effect to permeate the house. What a welcome change. (Not that we’d ever again want to be without a-c!) 

Unfortunately, it was nothing more than a tease. We’re under a heat advisory today: hot temperatures, high humidity, and a heat index approaching 100˚. JoAnna and I took care of our outdoor chores early. And with the terrace trees blocking all direct sunlight, I was able to clean and reorganize a patio storage cabinet in comfortably shady conditions. 

On the previous two mornings, JoAnna and I have taken walks at a much earlier time than usual, leaving the house before 8:00. Monday’s walk took us through the Pheasant Branch Creek corridor, where I was able take the ‘after’ photo of some of the restoration work done in the aftermath of the August 2018 deluge and flooding. Much of the sandy soil washed away from the hillside remains in piles along the walking trail that follows the creek. 



The long-range forecast offers no relief. In fact, the heat is likely to linger through the end of the month. In other words, we have the cruel irony of day after uncomfortable day of weather monotony to accompany our Groundhog’s Day Covid lifestyle. And with daily new cases here remaining at an unacceptability high level — although we are nowhere near as bad as Florida, Texas, and California, even on a per capita basis — the return to anything remotely approaching normalcy is a long way off. In fact, Dane County officials just announced that, effective next Monday, face masks are required indoors in public places. (Which, of course, has led to small outbreaks of ranting on social media.) And as reported in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a Milwaukee alder announced that she is introducing an ordinance that 
...would require people to wear masks when they are in public — including when they are indoors or at an outdoor public place and ‘see a person within 30 feet who is not a member of the person's family or household’.
 Knowing the makeup of the 15-member council, I’m sure the ‘outdoor’ portion of her proposal will give rise to a spirited debate when the ordinance reaches the floor. 

Driven by cases among 20-29 year olds, Wisconsin’s Covid numbers, most particularly in Dane County, have turned worrisome. After getting a renewed taste of restaurant dining during our Warren visit, JoAnna and I returned to a more cautious approach. We still order takeout but don’t plan to dine in anytime soon, indoors or out. Our rethinking was very much influenced by additional restrictions placed on Dane County bars and restaurants two days after our return. 
The county announced Thursday evening that bar and restaurant patrons must be seated with chairs 6 feet apart and only with members of their own household. They may still operate at 50% capacity. 
Also, gatherings on private property are limited to 10 people. 
 And then there’s Trump, who is now jawboning about schools and colleges reopening, with all students in the classroom, as if the virus suddenly disappeared and we flashed back to using a 2019-20 school year calendar. He once again raised this issue at a White House meeting yesterday — the clumsily named National Dialogue on Safety Reopening America’s Schools – where the main order of business, apparently, was to have everyone at the table offer their obsequious praises to the president. Nothing more than a gathering of sycophants. Trump, of course, beamed as if everyone meant what he said. 

Here’s the question I keep coming back to. As we approach the end of Trump’s first term in office, how can there still be an average of 40% of survey respondents who approve of the job he is doing as president? What an extreme disconnect between perception and reality.

Read chapter 57 here

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