Covid in the Fall

October 26, 2020

Covid alarm bells are ringing again with the urgency we witnessed in the spring. The expected fall wave is here after a summer reprieve in Europe. France is the worst hit with daily infections now close to 50,000. Partial lockdowns, curfews, earlier closing times for bars and restaurants and mask wearing are some mitigation measures. In the USA the heartland is having its turn, bringing our daily new cases close to 80,000. This third "wave" isn't a surprise. Epidemiologists have made the siren calls that without strong centralized government policy different parts of the country will be affected at different times. Utterly frustrating to hear the experts like Dr. Fauci urge safety measures and Trump the infant doing the opposite.

Fall is definitely here. Mornings are chilly. We've had to turn our heating on when we get up. Outdoor exercise is delightful in cooler temperatures. On Saturday at sunrise Daryl and I strolled on More Mesa Beach which we accessed from Mockingbird Lane. We had the beach to ourselves - so serene and magnificent - and we welcomed the strenuous climb up the many steps back to the mesa. On Sunday we drove to the backcountry onto East Camino Cielo Road to access the Fremont Ridge Trail. Cloudy cool weather was ideal for a good trek through the chaparral. A dense layer of mist obscured the normally breathtaking views, but we didn't mind. We went further than in the past, to a section where the trail narrows and drops steeply into the Santa Ynez River valley. The return, all uphill, gave us quite a work out. Normally, a 5 mile strenuous hike before breakfast drains me, but I stuffed myself with a scone from the previous morning's breakfast and that sustained me pretty well.

Cayden update: All evidence points to the acne treatment he has been on for a month. For some reason the prescription medication he'd been taking affected his liver and spleen, caused inflammation and persistent high fever. Biopsy results and blood tests exposed another issue - tuberculosis. Not the usual contagious kind that affects lungs and makes you cough. His is a latent form, which he might have been able to fight off had his immune system not been compromised. He was immediately put on a course of medication and all would have been fine had he not developed an allergy to one of the medicines he'd been given. He broke out into a full body rash so all medication was halted. He was thankfully released from hospital after a full week there. Now his rash is gradually disappearing and once his skin is fine he'll resume medication. We're all having an awful 2020 but for Cayden it's worse! Poor guy!

Eight days before election day. A tense time. Due to the pandemic states have opened up polling centers for early voting and turn out everywhere has been robust. Also many people are voting by mail this year.

I tracked my mailed in ballot and pleased to see that it's been accepted.

We are obviously hoping for overwhelming results in Biden's favor so that we won't have a long, drawn out fiasco after November 3.

The Trump team hoped for an October surprise similar to the Comey announcement last year. They tried to feed a Hunter Biden corruption story to the FBI and the Wall Street Journal. But only right wing fringe media went with the story, so it backfired. Hurrah!

Pleased with the lawn signs I've been seeing in my neighborhood!

For escapism at the moment I'm watching the Netflix series Norsemen. Farcical and satirical, it's hilarious. Just what the doctor ordered for these bleak times.

October 31

Three days until election day. We are nervous wrecks, wanting to believe the polls but the trauma of November 2016 keeps us wringing our hands. A Trump win will be unthinkably horrifying.

As the month ends the global mood is again one of anguish. In the USA daily new infections broke records with over 100,000 new cases reported yesterday. That's twice as many as India, 2nd on the Worldometers list. Europe's surge has exceeded Latin America's daily new cases. All of France will go into strict lockdown next week. So will England and critical parts of Germany and Spain. In the USA, mitigation measures are obscure. California is maintaining a low infection rate and my county's daily numbers are as low as they were before the summer surge. So I'm not despairing despite the fact that the country has now exceeded a total of 9 million cases since the start of the pandemic. 

We're ending the month with a week of summery daytime temps. Halloween today is subdued. Trick or treaters can't do their usual knocking on doors in their neighborhoods. Poor souls.

Almost 8 months of pandemic life and we've adapted to our restricted lives. No visiting friends at their homes. Nobody has come inside our home. Leisure shopping doesn't happen. Trips to the grocery store are infrequent, quick and guarded. Mask wearing is normal. Entertainment venues have remained dark. Though most of the world is in a state of limbo there are places where normal life continues. New Zealand, Australia, China, Taiwan, South Korea and a handful of others. We're all so desperate for normal. We're assured that vaccines will soon be available. Currently, the experts predict we'll know by December of a safe candidate. Then starting in January the public will start getting vaccinated, but it will take at least 6 months to reach everyone in the country. This puts us at June for a somewhat back to normal scenario.