Monday, May 25, 2020

Self-isolation Day 69.


Happy Memorial Day! Prayers to all who have lost their lives in the military, and their families.

Today is a holiday here also – Ascension Day. Ascension Day is the celebration of Jesus rising into heaven after he had spent 40 days on earth after the resurrection. According to the New Testament, this took place before the eyes of his disciples. Ascension Day is the 40^th day of Easter.

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, got up twice during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

Teresa told me we would go grocery shopping right after breakfast.

Today three Medellin malls open on a pilot basis.

Several people who attended a high school swim party in Arkansas have contracted Covid-19, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters on Saturday.

“A high school swim party that I’m sure everybody thought was harmless. They’re young, they’re swimming, they’re just having activity and positive cases resulted from that,” Hutchinson said.

I’m halfway through my latest book a novel about an influenza pandemic titled The End of October by Lawrence Wright. It was just published this year and it’s amazing how closely it mirrors the coronavirus we are all now experiencing and the people’s and government’s reactions to it.

In the series The 100 that I’m watching which takes place about 100 years in the future, they come across the Lincoln Monument so they must be in DC. They also visit Mount Weather which was mentioned in The End of October as being in Virginia.

I took a nap from 11am to noon.

President Donald Trump has issued a call for schools forced to close amid the coronavirus pandemic to be "opened ASAP," as new polling suggests that Americans do not believe it is safe yet to send children back to school.



The United States is on a chaotic path with no federal plan against the coronavirus pandemic as it reduces public health funding and ignores the advances of climate change, according to activist scholar Noam Chomsky, considered the founder of modern linguistics.

Question: How do you read the current situation in the United States, where coronavirus has killed more residents than any other nation in the world?

Answer: There's no coherent leadership. It's chaotic. The presidency, the White House, is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who's interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects -- doesn't care what happens to the country, the world. 

Teresa called Wilson and ordered lunch to be delivered.

Teresa told me we would go grocery shopping later in the afternoon.

I stumbled on a video of a young man who built an obstacle course for squirrels. Even though Samantha from Sex in the City referred to them as “rats in cuter outfits”, I love squirrels. They are so athletic and intelligent. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. The guy started out trying to build a squirrel-proof bird feeder but it ended up evolving into a squirrel obstacle course.



Marcos called me from Arizona. He left here mid-March to spend some time with his grandchildren and now he’s trapped there in 100+ heat.



I finally beat Teresa in parcheesi today 5 games to 4.


Someone on Expat Exchange sent me the Pandemic Playbook

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-Playbook.pdf

Do you think this might have been helpful? Difficult to say since I understand they didn’t even look at it.

Teresa told me we would go grocery shopping another day. I also missed paying for Une today so my next opportunity is Saturday.

As Democrats argue that voting by mail is more necessary than ever, President Donald Trump is arguing vehemently against the idea — which he claims encourages voter fraud. And yet, Trump himself voted by mail in Florida's March primary.



The Pentagon is actively planning on living with the coronavirus well into 2021, putting it at risk of angering President Trump as he expresses confidence that the disease is on the wane.



Trump’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett appeared on CNN to urge the economy to reopen, saying, “Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work.” Human capital stock? How about Americans, citizens or at least people?



The World Health Organization says it is temporarily halting its clinical trials that use hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients over published concerns that the drug may do more harm than good.



“Great reviews on our handling of Covid 19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus,” Trump tweeted. ‘Ventilators, Testing, Medical Supply Distribution, we made a lot of Governors look very good – And got no credit for so doing. Most importantly, we helped a lot of great people!”

“Great reviews… [but] we got no credit” sound a little contradictory to me.



And a Trump replay from February 24^th: “The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.  We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries.  CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart.  Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

The US has 1,606,197 ð 1,640,913 ð 1,669,745 coronavirus cases with 95,883  ð 97,417 ð 98,184 deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 19,131 ð 21,175 ð 21,981 cases with 750 deaths.  Medellin has 385 ð 429 ð 447 cases, an increase of 18 from May 23^rd to 25^th. Looking at the 6-day averages provided by Medellin Guru, Colombia’s curve is increasing, this time in areas outside of the usual 7 trouble areas.


Joke of the day

Your stomach thinks that all potatoes are mashed.