November 19
Another "grim milestone" - 250,000 Americans lost their lives due to Covid. The situation just keeps getting worse. Now daily new infections hover around 180,000 and daily deaths are climbing toward 2000. In California our daily new cases are back to early August highs with daily deaths between 150 and 200. Our county, along with most of California, is back on the purple tier. We've lived with this level of restriction for most of this year. It doesn't affect my personal life and daily routines much. But it's heartbreaking that small business, especially those running personal services, have to shut up again. New York City closed its public schools today to stem the rise in infections. Yesterday, I saw a photo of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. Unadorned, it looked sad, a reflection of our national mood.
In Europe, the curve for daily new infections is flattening in most countries. Their mitigation measures appear effective. Daily deaths in England, France and Italy are about 500 each.
This will no doubt be the last big wave of the pandemic. In the next months vaccines will become available. Today, AstroZeneca (the Oxford vaccine) announced successful results with an older population sample. Widespread infection has the advantage of speeding up trials of therapeutics. Things will soon improve.
Thanksgiving is coming up a week from today. The CDC and Dr. Fauci are urging small celebrations and limited travel. We are planning to prepare a big lunch to share with Premi and Sri.
As if the pandemic isn't enough cause for high anxiety, the political situation still has us on edge. Trump continues to pursue corrupt means to throw doubt over the election results. Georgia conducted a hand recount which verified Biden's win though by a slightly smaller margin. The senate race is heating up. The democratic candidates are hands down more qualified and competent. But that's not what matters in a red state. Trump still denying the Biden team access to the information and means essential for transition. It's shocking that nobody has the power to right this wrong.
November 23
Started the day with good news. The Oxford vaccine has shown success in trials where they experimented with different doses. The lower dose produced 90% success. This is especially welcome as Covid infections escalate in the US. Daily new infections in much of Europe are now on a decline. South America has improved considerably too. In California we hit record high daily new cases a few times last week. But we are 36th in the nation in cases per million. On Saturday Governor Newsom announced a curfew starting at 10:00 PM and ending at 5:00 AM. Striking a balance between the economy and infections is impossible.
Despite the advice of Dr. Fauci and the CDC 2 million Americans were on flights this past weekend to get to their families for Thanksgiving. With festive celebrations coming up, things can only get worse ...
I feel less anxious than I was in July/August because I realize I can cope with the restrictions in place. I'm not worried about running out of essentials and I have the ability to do food shopping at Sprouts and maybe even Trader Joe's as long as I go either at opening time or at closing time.
We had a great weekend, considering the circumstances. On Saturday morning we woke up to a clear blue sky and mild temperatures. After a pancake breakfast we hit the road, driving out of town for the first time since mid-March. The big excitement of the day was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch out of Vandenberg AFB. At the exit off 101 we were astonished at the backed up traffic. We were clearly not the only ones with this idea! Once we entered Highway 1 it was smooth sailing. In Lompoc we drove down Ocean Avenue until a road block forced us to park in a shopping center lot. From there we marched past flower fields to a very decent viewpoint. Considering the number of cars lining the roads around us and the crowd on foot, we were able to easily keep our distance and enjoy the experience.
It was a breathtaking sight to see this marvel blast into the cerulean sky. The purpose was to launch an oceanographic satellite to measure the rise of sea levels - a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency. What made this even more exciting was that we got to see the booster return to land.
Hours later Stephen and Jacqueline joined us for lunch on our patio. We hadn't seen them for months so there was a lot of catching up to do. They are now settled in their new home and the one they had lived in for 40 years is now empty and about to appear on the market. We have so many precious memories of meals with them in a dining room designed especially for Jacqueline's dream round table. So we now turn to a new chapter to make new memories.
We ended the day with the final 2 episodes of the 2nd season of "The Hour", about a team of BBC journalists researching and reporting on important issues of that time (1957). A talented and endearing cast - sad for it to be over.
Sunday morning was less exciting than the day before but I can't complain about the 6 mile beach walk under a blue sky. Mild temps, few people, soothing scents and sounds - a beautiful start to our day.
In the afternoon Katya and Hugh joined us for tea and cake. They brought along their own tea in a thermos and home made poppyseed cake which they shared with us. We made a cranberry loaf to share with them. Like us, they've become disillusioned with the state of democracy in the USA. The GOP's shift toward uncompromising issues and refusal to respect venerated norms and traditions has moved the country toward a frightening brand of nationalism. The Democratic Party has an increasingly harder time to gain control of Congress and their progressive agenda doesn't have popular appeal. This is mind boggling and distressing. A lot of our conversation was about moving abroad. We weighed the pros and cons of living in the UK and mused about the choice of city and region. What about Portugal? They are currently pursuing the option of maybe a home here and another in the UK.
For evening entertainment we started watching Season 4 of The Crown. Everyone's talking about it so we decided it was time to see how Maggie Thatcher is portrayed and take a trip back to the late 70's and early 80's.
Today, as the work week started, there was much tension while we awaited Michigan's confirmation of Biden for president. One of the two Republicans on the electoral board which included two Democrats abstained, bowing to pressure from Trump and his supporters. Shocking and unprecedented, but the other 3 cast their votes and saved the day. In the late afternoon I was relieved to hear that GSA (General Services Administration) cleared the way for Biden to officially begin his transition.
Now we can turn our attention to other matters, like Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday.
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