Week 2
Day 8. Geometric progression. Monday March 23 2020.
Unlike other countries in the world, the US did not respond like it should have in the areas of testing and containment, and now the price will be paid, and the virus will spread faster here than anywhere else.
The US Surgeon general says this week is going to be a bad one for the US. The state of NY already has over 20,000 cases. It is exploding there. Almost the entire west coast is now in "shelter in place". 100 million Americans, not ordered, just strongly told to stay at home unless you need to go somewhere. Buy food. walk the dogs.
I am facing a good month or two of solitude, which is painful to think about. I think I have plenty of food and water. I have never lived through something like this though, so its hard to know for sure. None of us knows for sure.
Day 9. The Road Ahead of Me. Tuesday March 24 2020
"Its going to get much worse before it gets any better"
My personal theory on why this happened to the GOP is that it all stems from the abortion debates in the 70s and Roe v Wade. the churches decided that life begins at conception, and so the life of the fetus should take precedent over the life (and granted, whims) of the mother. The democrats preferenced the life (and granted, whims) of the mother. The republican party thus became inundated with the religious right. And because religion is essentially a non fact based enterprise, whereas one has to believe in many things happen without any proof of them happening or ever happening. ie God, Jesus, faith itself. All non scientific ideas. So this buy in of the religious right- that facts are not important - eventually encompassed the entire GOP. Eventually even political facts, and science facts, became secondary to your faith in the way things should be. Or to be more precise, in the way the republican party want things to be.
It has now gotten to a point where you cannot argue facts or science with people on the right. They will just tell you its all fake news. But it's science! you might say. Doesn't affect them at all.
Bandon has declared a state of emergency and yesterday ordered all hotels to be vacated within 24 hours. who would have believed that old soviet tactics would be so easily implemented in an American town. These are unusual times to be sure. All of these new emergency orders stemming from local and state governments still allow citizens to go out and exercise. small favors.
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I always had the wanderlust and science fiction fed me what I needed growing up. Holding a sci fi book under my desk at school and reading Asimov, Clark, Zelazny, Harrison, while others were paying attention in class. "Chip, would you like to answer the question?"...."What?"
My parents tried to keep me in school, but I took off as soon as I could, and began hitchhiking around the NY region while still in High School, and throughout my first two years of college, where my parents eventually gave up and I took off with my thumb, and headed to the rest of my life. In those days and early years I didn't need money, didn't worry about money, didn't ever worry about tomorrow. All I wanted was the road ahead of me.
They are talking about the virus "spiking" in the next month to six weeks, which means end of April things might start returning to normal, and the nation can start talking about how to restart America again. El Presidente "Big Hands" Trumpe - our own little self annointed dictator - of course wants to start things earlier against the advice of all health authorities. This is pretty normal for him. Do the stupidest thing, because that's exactly what your supporters want from you. Anything to "stick it to the liberals" even if it means everyone going down in flames. At least the guy is consistent.
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I Took a great 6 mile walk south today down to Haystack Rock on the beach. 3 miles down, 3 miles back. The tides are back to being low in the morning which happily coincides with my planned morning walks. So its back to the ocean and the beach for a day or two. Or maybe 3. Tomorrow low tide is 8:18 am. should work.
When I first moved to Bandon, I had to adjust to looking at tide charts again, as the ocean recedes a good couple of hundred feet from high tide to low tide. Before I knew what I was doing, I took my brother Scott and his wife Tammy down to the beach during a high tide and we walked down there and he sort of got caught by an incoming wave, and then told me that it was in his top 5 "near death" experiences. I think he was exaggerating a bit, but now I pay attention before I walk or bring anyone down there. Bandon in the past has had what are called "sneaker" waves, where a series of incoming waves will accumulate into one huge wave suddenly and what was previously a peaceful beach suddenly gets swamped with the big wave. People have been killed in the past. the old expression is "Never turn your back on the ocean".
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The state of NY is getting the initial brunt of the virus in America. Already 40k cases or a whopping 7% of the world's total. Everybody thinks it can never happen to them. Most of them are wrong. Mark Twain said our problem is not so much what we don't know, but rather it's some of the things we think we know just aren't true. Big problem now in America
Day 11.Thursday March 26 2020. The Country we live in.
Another low tide morning, so it aligns with my morning walking. Walked north along the ocean today to the South Jetty. Then along the south side of the Coquille River into old town. I am learning about the Estuary, an estuary being an interesting environment where salt water and fresh water life forms converge. Sort of a mish mash of life that I find very appealing. In our younger days, back in the days of the cold war, Michelle and I often talked about visiting either Hong Kong or Berlin, both cities on the edge of two massive cultures. Hong Kong between the west and the east, and Berlin between the west and the Soviet empire. We never made it to these places beause in those early days we had no money between us. Michelle worked in a book store and I drove a cab. A million years ago. Then when we began to get better jobs and make some money, we got busy with raising a family. And so it goes.
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Weird and sad milestone today. America now has more officially reported coronavirus cases than China does (83,671 to 81,285), where the virus began. China looks like they have finally begun to contain their outbreak, with no new reported cases today. whereas in America we are still on the upward side of the spike, with 15,460 newly reported cases today.
The bombs are still falling and Trump wants everybody to jump back out of their foxholes and get back to work. Sheesh.
Day 12. Friday March 27 2020.
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| Bandon City Park |
Come home and take a siesta then do some work around the house, then make a tea and write on the computer. Usually this blog. Yesterday I worked on the garden, which means planting more veggies. I now have spinach, lettuce, cabbage and garlic. Northern climate food. I will get more "starters" in the next week or so.
Bandon is not a big town, but I have my loop walks. Maybe 4 or 5 of them. No doubt I will come across more as the "shelter in place" prolongs.
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No one is talking about how long the "shelter in place" will be in effect, but it is now apparent that due to the the federal government's lackadaisical response to the virus, the United States is now the new global epicenter of the virus, surpassing China now as having the most cases. I am thinking now that it will take years for the country to recover from this, as we are leading the world now in infections, and we are still on a spike trajectory with no stabilization in sight. The blame for this has to be laid on the White House's door. While other countries were preparing, the president kept saying he wasn't worried and showed no signs of doing anything, nor did he ask anyone else to do much. Idiot.
Day 13. Saturday March 28 2020.
I reckon most people will be able to make it through April being cooped up in their homes, but anecdotally I have been hearing from lots of folks that being cooped up with family is starting to feel a lot like Cabin Fever. No matter how close you are to them, family drives you crazy after a few days. My mom used to say Fish and Guests smell after 3 days.
On the other hand living along has its own challenges. All my contacts with other people have to be intentional, and I fight the lonliness and solitude by making my connections with email and texting others. People I would normally see day to day anyway here in Bandon, but now we can only talk remotely. I have also set up a regular time with my kids to have an actual phone call, each on Sundays, so I am hoping that works out, but they are young and likely to be bored with it or forget. I will not be able to blame them. I didn't think of my parents as people I should be concerned about until I was closing in on 30. My kids at 22 and 19 have a ways to go before that.
The virus is what it is, and no one has any idea what will happen. In the US, we are all still waiting for what everyone is now calling "The Surge". The REAL SPIKE in cases that will wash over us all, killing a number of us. Anxiety fear and resignation reign. I am thinking everyone in my family is healthy enough to get through it, but of course none of us know. Even if we survive it, no one even knows if this is the type of virus that will still come back even though we were all cured of it. Just No One Knows.
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I walked south along the busy 101 and out to the Bandon Airport this morning. Seven miles there and back. Downside is you have to walk along the 101 to get there, with cars going by you at 60 mph right at your side. The sidewalks disappear about half way down there. The payoff though is that once you get out to the airport its huge, silent and peaceful.
So I sit there on the tarmac outside a hangar, stare out at the desolate runway, and think of my mom and dad. I come from an airport family, so, like my siblings, I feel a kinship and a calmness at airports, which is why it never bothers any of us to get to the airport 2 or 3 hours early if we have to fly somewhere. We grew up at airports. They are like home to us.
So I sit there on the tarmac and think of my mom and dad when they were young, and we kids were young, and we were still a family. Me the third kid of four. Sort of lost in the middle.
Hi mom. Hi dad. Its chip. Thinking of you.
Day 14. Sunday March 29 2020.
Quiet days are the norm now. Still no known cases in Coos County, so a somewhat false feeling of safety, although the whole country by now doesn't believe any of the official case counts. Because America has completely screwed up its testing, they are saying there could be anywhere from 5 to 10 times the cases out there that nobody knows about.
I did end up spending an hour with Jeff Norris helping him at the theater. In addition to running the theater and the Barn and the Senior Center, he is also the local Tailor in town. The Bandon Hospital has asked him to make 200 protective masks, so I told him that I will go over to his shop tomorrow and help out on the scissor side, cutting out the material. He's a good guy. I am part of the team with him in putting movies on at the theater. I build the slide sets before the movie, as well as come up with the video shorts that we will show as well.
He told me that Bandon is expecting a surge, and because we are a tourist and retirement town, that the expectation is that the hospital is going to need more beds, so that they are looking at the Barn for that. No one knows when this surge is going to get here though.
Day 14. Sunday March 29 2020.
I did end up spending an hour with Jeff Norris helping him at the theater. In addition to running the theater and the Barn and the Senior Center, he is also the local Tailor in town. The Bandon Hospital has asked him to make 200 protective masks, so I told him that I will go over to his shop tomorrow and help out on the scissor side, cutting out the material. He's a good guy. I am part of the team with him in putting movies on at the theater. I build the slide sets before the movie, as well as come up with the video shorts that we will show as well.
He told me that Bandon is expecting a surge, and because we are a tourist and retirement town, that the expectation is that the hospital is going to need more beds, so that they are looking at the Barn for that. No one knows when this surge is going to get here though.
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I did get to have my first weekly phone call with each of my kids, Mara and Jana. For Mara it was our first, and a little stilted, but I am hoping it gets more comfortable if we can keep it up, and we find out more about each other. Jana I already talk to a lot more, although she def does not like to talk on the phone. "OK see ya". I get a lot, but all in all I know more about her life, so can ask her about it.
Got a guy coming over in 15 minutes to pick up a laptop I was working on for him. There are a lot of ancient laptops in Bandon, like an archeological site. I once had a dentist look into my mouth and tell me the same thing. I have teeth in there that have been worked on for the past 60 years, with the accompanying 60 years of advancing dental technology. For a dentist, it must be like wandering through a museum.
I had braces as a kid. That was fun. I think the dentist finally gave up on me and my teeth, and just said to me one day "You're done!" even though it didn't feel like I was done.
I had braces as a kid. That was fun. I think the dentist finally gave up on me and my teeth, and just said to me one day "You're done!" even though it didn't feel like I was done.
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