The theater of the absurd continues, as does the shelter in place.
Here in California, we're in it for another month or so, until the end of May. The July Euro bike trip has predictably become another casualty of COVID 19. Without guarantee of even getting into one country, never mind 3, without needing to be quarantined for 14 days, or knowing if hotels would be opened, this trek made no sense for this year. At least we still get to ride here in the US (and especially locally).
We're used to the current situation of no real social contact, except ZOOM and your home bodies, so thank goodness that relationship is a good one! I can't imagine not liking your spouse these days. It is especially hard for parents who work and have to home school their little kids. They may love their kids, but everyone is starting to realize how under appreciated teachers are. Ugh....we are so lucky. We get a paycheck. We are healthy. And we get to ride. What a treat!
Back to connecting to people....I feel the need to contact many folks to check in. Even people who I'd gone months or years without talking to them. It's weird that everyone is going through the same thing, but it’s still comforting to speak with them. So far, we're lucky that people we know have their health.
The absurd I mentioned at the top will be the subject of many books, movies and jokes for a long, long time. Inject bleach as a remedy? Sunbeams and UV in your body? Is 45 sane? Obviously no.
Every few days, we hear updates on numbers. Infections. Deaths, Unemployment numbers. And unlike 45's approval rating, they are increasing. Today (April 30), the rough numbers are:
- US Infections - 1,000,000
- US Deaths - 60,000
- US Unemployment Filings since March 1st - 30,000,000 (rivaling the Great Depression)
All of these numbers remind us that almost everyday, there are new milestones being reached. Mostly bad. Eoconomic, health-related, etc. And the tough part remains the unknown about when it will be over. Obviously, it won't be all at once and every place will be different. Days? Months? Years? Wow, that sounds sad and ominous, but some things may never be the same.
May 3. Onto more positive thoughts. We took a nice ride to Marin today and did the Paradise Drive loop. The roads are getting a bit back to normal traffic, but we took some trails too and they continue to be crazy busy! I want to focus on the positive here (instead of saying they need to get outta the way!). I honestly hope that all those little kids and parents who seem to be discovering their bikes for the first time actually keep it up. They seem to be enjoying it, but have a fair amount of work mastering their two wheelers! Slow, weaving, dressed badly, helmets hanging over the handlebars, or worse yet, no helmets near the kids. But they are enjoying themselves. Maybe the virus will be the thing that increases the number of folks who cycle and that would be a good thing!
May 5. I’m beginning to think I’m in the eye of a hurricane. I’m safe, it’s dry, my life is almost the same with a retirement check coming in. I can shop for food. We can go for bike rides or walk or hike. And I know I’m starting to repeat myself. But the world continues to fall apart around us. I’m constantly reminded of the virus when I’m outside and there’s little or no traffic, the BART lot is empty, kids are sometimes riding up and down the street on their bikes. Millions have lost their jobs from all sectors. All schools are closed. Most businesses are closed. The stock market is unstable. Much of public transit has shuttered. And finally, people continue to die in large numbers. The administration still wants to view this as merely an economic encumbrance to be surmounted. In fact, they pat themselves on the back because of how great a job they’ve done. Well over 60,000 people have died in 6 weeks - more than the Vietnam war in 10 years - and Jared Kushner considers this a success? Ouch. And the trauma, socially, financially, health, etc. is continuing with no real end in sight. If this is success.......I’ll leave it a that as we have entered our 8th week of shelter-in-place.
May 7. Sheesh. Only 2 days later and we're up to over 73,000 dead in the good ole USA. And what does Trump do? He visits a mask factory and doesn't wear a mask. WTF? Yesterday, we had a big ride up Diablo, all the way from home. 79 miles and almost 6800' of climbing. And no cars on the park's roads (well, a few work trucks) since the park is closed to motorized visitors. That'll take your mind off the crazy world.
May 9. Everyday it’s another 2,000-3,000 deaths. The unemployment rate is rising and now hovers at 14.7%, reflected in the headline “Jobless rate rises to highest since 1939”. It’s as bad as it got during the Great Depression. Yet, I’m sitting in the house, doing what I please, reading, watching TV, listening to music, I tend to forget about it. Even getting out for a bike ride, always absolutely appreciated and a pleasure, is still my normal life. The traffic seems to be increasing out there, especially on the weekends. Trail heads are filled with parked cars. Bikers and runners are out there doing what they do. And then I see the line to get into a grocery store. For Berkeley Bowl, it’s more than a block long, wrapped around the corner, maybe 100 people deep. The parking lots at North Berkeley BART or Lafayette BART are essentially empty. Acres of parking lots, now turned over to parents teaching their kids how to ride their bikes. That’s when it hits me again that this is real. The bad news continues. The battles over when to “open” society and return to “normal” continue. The administration’s refusal to take any leadership role continues. The pandemic is not over and there’s no telling when it will subside. And as many writers have said, the return to “normal” life may never come. I find that hard to grasp, as every perturbation in life has eventually subsided and things get back to normal, so why not this as well? Are they right or am I right? And what is the future? Is it weeks, months, years? No one knows and that’s what’s hard to grasp.
PS Some good news. My bike riding miles are doing pretty pretty well, averaging well over 200 miles/week. Spring is here and the weather’s been glorious (while it’s forecast to snow back east."...yes, in mid-May!). So even though the future is unknown, I’m trying to make the best of the present.
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