Day 40 of rollback-California Covid-19 spike - Governor shuts us down
Alabama college students at a “Covid-19 party”…
As an educator, I’m focusing primarily on the school situation as most schools across the country have opted NOT to open for Fall 2020. Many schools that HAVE opened were shut down within days because of Covid-19 outbreaks - most have hundreds of students under quarantine right now. It’s obvious that school counts as a “super spreader” event, right up there with churches, concerts, and bars, although I’m still confused about bars, which I feel have been unfairly targeted, as well as hair salons.
Throughout the USA, it seems that whenever a Covid-19 outbreak occurs, the knee-jerk reaction among officials is (wave hands hysterically in the air) “OMG. OMG. OK everyone! - we got this - close all the bars and hair salons! There - that should do it! We did it. Nothing to see here. Go back to your lives” when, in reality (sadly), its the schools and colleges that actually need to shutter in order to protect the surrounding communities.
Right now, during back-to-school week, colleges seem to be the biggest culprit. Apparently, even in the midst of a pandemic, with 170,000 souls lost, college students are still naturally inclined to PAR-TAY!!! What a bunch of fools! “Covid-19 parties” are a theme now. One headline reads: “College students in US are intentionally throwing “Covid-19" parties” to see who gets infected first.” The NY Times has linked at least 251 cases of Covid-19 to fraternities AND sororities [sorry ladies - for awhile dirty frat boys were the biggest offenders. Apparently, we’re just as bad as the boys] across the country, including Washington, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The only thing that seems to be working is the NBA Disneyland ‘bubble’, but nobody has the commitment OR the funding to create a similar design. Apparently, only the richest segments of society [read basketball stars] are able to eradicate the virus. We already have a vaccine - it’s called money.
Back to bars, though…
Like restaurants, why aren’t bars allowed to go to an “al fresco” model and move everything outside? Instead, they are completely shut down. I feel the same about hair salons. As long as customers are staggered, salons seem to be one of the safest places to go. Hair stylists are trained in sanitation,which is a huge component of their education when they are in school, and as long as both the customer and stylist are masked, it’s pretty safe. Dentists don’t have to close, but hair salons do? We can take a flight or go to the grocery store - Whole Foods is typically packed - but we can’t go to a hair salon? By now, I’m sure everyone’s aware that an underground industry has emerged for hair cuts, color, and weaves. Similar to a black market of sorts, hair stylists are either going to their customers’ homes or setting up shop in their garages and allowing customers to come to their homes. So, hair cuts are still happening, but now in completely unregulated spaces. It seems safer to open the hair salons…
Whose bright idea was it to close them? The CDC? The WHO? These are the same entities that told the World and Americans not to worry about masking, thereby contributing to the spread and making numbers everywhere spike, before reversing themselves and admitting that they lied so essential health care workers could do an N95-grab. I’m not knocking essential workers - who have now emerged in multiple areas of industry; they deserve an N95 more than me. But how can the WHO abdicate it’s responsibility and lie to the world and the CDC lie to the American people about the importance of wearing masks? How do these agencies live with themselves?
8/21/20. Friday
7:30 - 7:45 - I’m up way too early after having gone to bed so late last night and feel exhausted. I take the dog out, but she already pooped on my patio. She goes pee and we go inside for her cheese and my coffee.
8:00-10:00 - I update my blog.
10:00-10:15 - I have yogurt with apples, walnuts, and honey. Since it’s Friday, I want to do something to celebrate the end of the work-week, but there is literally nowhere to go since everything is shut down because pandemic. I ask L. for suggestions and we come up with a few ice cream places, but I don’t feel like driving to Pasadena, in 109-degree heat, for a cone.
10:15-10:30 - I call BMC and ask for D., the employee who told me to call him, but then never returned my call. “Claudia” answers and says D. is off today and won’t be in until Monday. When I remind her that I left a message for him yesterday, she says he was “swamped” and didn’t have time to return my call. Hmmm. Really? A door distributor was swamped? During a time when new construction projects are at an all-time low? FYI - there’s a run on lumber and aluminum right now.
When I went in person to BMC last week, I was the only customer there until a lone male showed up. This was over the course of 2 hours. I asked Claudia if D. is the only person who can order a lock?? Surely, another employee can do this for me. Claudia asks me to email her the lock pictures as well as the email from D. and says she will talk to her vendor who sometimes fills in for D. when he’s out. I forward D.’s response, asking me to call him, to Claudia, with more pictures of my lock. Spoiler alert: Nobody calls or emails me.
11:00-12:00 - Shower. Dressed in Covid-19 uniform
12:00-1:00 - I braid my hair and read Seal Team 6 while I braid.
1:00-2:00 - I have chicken tortilla soup for lunch, then top it off with a piece of my retirement cake. Still tastes delicious. I read a Money Diary.
2:30-5:30 - I take a nap.
L. leaves for Piccola Tratoria (restaurant), with R., to celebrate their 3-month anniversary.
5:30-6:30 - I make a second cup of coffee and trim some of the vines from my plants that are edging over the wall into my neighbor’s yard. The branches from my tree have grown onto my neighbor’s roof so I need to schedule a tree trimmer (sigh) because I try to be a considerate neighbor.
6:30-8:00 - I go to work (enter my home office) and prepare my “script” for the lectures I need to record for next week for my Core class and my high schoolers.
8:00-11:30 - I record next Thursday night’s lecture, then break it into two parts for my high schoolers on Wed. and Fri.
11:30-12:30 - I make a few adjustments to Canvas then review my scripts for Specialty Classes No. 1 and No. 2 in preparation for the next round of recorded lectures.
12:30-1:30 - I make a salad with arugula, tomatoes, zucchini, boiled egg, and pieces of left over chicken from the Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. I have a glass of champagne.
1:30-2:30 - I take the dog out and shut down everything, then go upstairs and have another glass of champagne while I try to read, but I keep falling asleep.
2:30-3:30 - Nighttime routine and bed.
Yeah…TGIF