Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Self-isolation Day 113.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly, got up twice during the night, had a light cramp in my right calf about 5:30, finally got up at 6:15.

It was 66 degrees as I left the apt about 7:15. I followed the same route as before. At Otra Parte I memorized (I think) the last 4 digits of their phone number – 8375. So the whole cellphone number is 315 875 8375. I’ll probably confirm it tomorrow.

Last night I played 3 games, winning 1 and losing 3. And the game I won I was losing but he got too aggressive and I checkmated him.

Teresa returned at 10:30 from her 3-hour walk to El Salado (a park) with her girlfriend.

We left the apt at 11am. I thought we were going to Euro but she started walking towards Mercado Madrid. I questioned her and she asked why I wanted to go to Euro. I told her because it’s a larger store and they have some things you can’t find at Mercado Madrid. At least it only took an hour at Mercado Madrid as opposed to the usual 2-hour trip to Euro. When we returned to our apt complex it finally happened. The elevator was out of order. Teresa went to the portero to ask for help. When she returned I made the first trip up 4 flights of stairs. When I returned I moved the cart up to the next level of the parking garage and made another trip. The doorman showed up and one more trip was sufficient to bring everything else upstairs.

 

Per the afternoon news, the number of dead from the fuel truck explosion has increased to 20.

I received an email from Envios Market that they will deliver a package to me tonight. It arrived at 7:45; it was my bottle of marigold extract capsules.

Today I beat Teresa in parcheesi 3 games to 2.

We had more rain this afternoon and evening.

 

NYTimes: Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox, open-air experiment. It has allowed the world to examine what happens in a pandemic when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered.

This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better.

“They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, and they have no economic gains.”

From the US Embassy: On Tuesday, July 7, President Duque announced the extension of the isolation measures in Colombia until August 1 with new exceptions only in certain municipalities with low or zero rates of infection.  As of July 7, there are 124,494 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Colombia according to the Colombian Ministry of Health. 

 

During a rare Coronavirus Task Force briefing today, Vice President Mike Pence tried to suggest that the worst of covid-19 is behind the United States.

As is custom in the Trump Administration, Pence must be living in an alternate reality from the rest of us. He congratulated Florida, Arizona, and Texas for beginning to flatten the curve, when the latest data actually shows that Florida set a single-day record for new covid-19 cases just days ago and Arizona has the highest percentage of positive tests in the nation. Arizona is also unable to administer covid-19 tests for everyone who needs one.

 

CNN: Five months into a still-raging pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 Americans, the long-simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and the health experts who staff his government have escalated from private griping to shrugging disagreement to now open dispute.

The result, people at those agencies say, is a new sense of demoralization as they continue their attempts to fight a once-in-a-generation health crisis while simultaneously navigating the whims of a President who has shown little interest or understanding of their work.

That Trump does not trust nor follow the advice of experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, is hardly new. The President has not attended a meeting of his coronavirus task force in months and recently its sessions have been held outside the White House, including on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Department of Education. Fauci was told to participate in the meeting remotely by videoconference, preventing him from participating in a midday task force press briefing.

 

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court will end its term Thursday morning with historic rulings that will probably determine whether the public sees President Donald Trump’s long-hidden financial records before the November election.

 

A Trump replay from April 14^th:

The seven governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsyslvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Delaware formed a joint reopening strategy council. California, Oregon and Washington also combined together into a joint regional task force.

Trump said, “When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total. It’s total. And the governors know that.”

 

The US has 2,947,732  ð 3,001,585 ð 3,054,069 coronavirus cases with 130,199  ð 131,134 ð 131,979 deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 120,281 ð 124,494 ð 128,638 cases with 4,527 deaths.  Medellin has 2,932 ð 3,168  ð 3,404 cases, an increase of 236 from July 6^th to July 7^th.  Envigado has a total of 135 cases, an increase of 11 from July 6^th to July 7^th.

 

Joke of the day

Doug Smith is on his deathbed and knows the end is near.

His nurse, his wife, his daughter, and 2 sons, are with him. 

He also asks for 2 witnesses to be present and a camcorder be in place to record his last wishes, and when all is ready he begins to speak: 

"My son, Bernie, I want you to take the Mayfair houses." 

"My daughter Sybil, you take the apartments over in the east end." 

"My son, Jamie, I want you to take the offices over in the City Centre."

"Sarah, my dear wife, please take all the residential buildings on the banks of the river."

The nurse and witnesses are blown away as they did not realize his extensive holdings, and as Doug slips away, the nurse says, "Mrs. Smith, your husband must have been  such a hard-working man to have accumulated all this   property".

Sarah, the wife replies, "Nah - The damned old fool just had a huge paper route."