SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2020:
Nadine is more cautious than I would be, on my own, about being close to other people: ex: shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. We have not been in a real store for ten days now. Thus, my chatter about ordering on-line in earlier letters. I think I overdid it, so no more of that for a while.
A lot of stores have been setting aside the first hour of the day for seniors. Our friend Arnie in The OC decided to take advantage of this, and went to Ralphs early for this hour. There was a huge line of old people waiting. He estimated it would be two hours before he could get into the store, get his shopping done, and check out. So, he came back later that day about 5PM, and there were no waiting lines and no checkout lines (and few old people). So much for that great idea.
I am struck by how uneven the burdens of this epidemic are on various groups in our country (let alone the world).
- People like us are relatively comfortable; not worried about our income, at least for the present, which is mostly pensions and Social Security. Don’t have to go out at all. Have just about everything we need and want, at least for our physical needs.
- Then there are those who have lost their jobs or most of their income, with no reasonable way to get it back in the short term, and are also asked to stay at home. They must worry a lot about their finances, and wait for the “corona checks” which they are told will be arriving..
- Then are those who are home alone, and can get little or no human face-to-face contact.
- Next are those who must go to work to keep the basic wheels of our economy going; food supply, utilities, deliveries, fire and police, etc. and risk exposure themselves.
- And finally the health workers, who must go to work, and who are exposed to being infected, often it appears without the normal protections for their own safety.
SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2020:
A friend with direct knowledge reports that gun sales are up in the USA. "Smaller gun shops can not get any new shipments in”.
Why is it that whenever there is some kind of emergency in America that people go out and buy more guns? We already have almost as many guns as people.
My winter garden is still producing. Only one head of cabbage left to harvest, but still a lot of potatoes in the ground, and the chard just keeps growing and growing. The cosmos are blooming like crazy, and marigolds are starting to bloom, and the zinnias and sweetpeas will be in bloom soon. “Volunteer” tomato plants from last year’s fallen fruit are also popping up now. Lots of ladybugs in the garden; this is a good thing because they eat aphids.
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2020:
Times like this seem to bring out the best...and the worst...in people. Our building has 150 apartments. We live on the 3rd floor, and to avoid using the elevator, we have started walking up and down the staircases.
Today, as we were coming back up the stairs, we saw an opened Amazon box left on a landing. In it were some supplies for a CPAP machine (used by persons who have sleep apnea, including me, so I recognized what the contents were). It was addressed to our neighbors in the apartment above us, a family from Peru, with two kids; the husband is attending USC for a year to get an MBA. I took the box up to them, and returned it, which they appreciated very much of course.
What is happening is the low-life scavengers are in our community, and know when the delivery vans roll in. They wait, and then enter the building, and take packages that have been left in the mail lobby, or in front of individual apartment doors!!
TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2020:
Hard to believe that the first three months of 2020 are over.
We take our morning walk. Virtually no cars on the streets. At intersections, pedestrians are crossing the street against the "don’t walk" sign, because there aren’t any cars.
Passersby on the sidewalk move over, as do we, trying to maintain at least 6 feet distance. Even the dog walkers. But the dogs don’t realize they’re not supposed to be friendly to strangers.
Construction projects still going forward. On-going is the construction of the Fairfax and the LaBrea stops for the Wilshire subway. A large 25-story apartment building near our house.
On LaBrea, an OSH store closed about a year ago. Now being remodeled. The workers said it will be a Target store.
There is already a Target at La Brea and Santa Monica, and another at La Brea and San Vicente, about 3 miles apart. Now there will be a third half-way in between. Now many Target Stores do we need in our neck of the woods?
POLITICAL STUFF:
In the NYTimes on Saturday, Timothy Egan reports: “The public radio station in Seattle, KUOW, has stopped airing Trump’s live briefings, because the volume of misinformation he puts out cannot be corrected in real time.”
I hesitated on this, thinking about “freedom of the press”.
But if the media are free to publish whatever they choose, they must also free to not publish whatever they want.
Also, don’t the people have a right to know what the President is saying, and let them judge for themselves about his accuracy and motives. Yes, they do I am sure they will always be able to get the unedited version on Fox news.
I say congratulations to KUOW. It doesn’t matter who is putting out untruths and uninformed, let alone dangerous, opinions. I hope other media will get this message, and start editing these live briefings and adding some context before publishing them.
For more, see the KUOW statement on their website:
And you can sign an on-line petition:
JEWISH HUMOR:
Our friend Rick’s wife Lois said to him: “Maybe we can do Passover on Zoom”. To which he replied: “Yes, Lois, I think June would be fine.”
In case this epidemic lasts thru the year (God forbid), the motto for Hannukah this year will be “The holiday where we make one roll of TP last eight days.”
Stay safe, wash your hands, call your mother, keep your distance, and love one another.
Coleman
MY PHOTO GALLERY:
A cheer-leading sidewalk artist in our neighborhood:
An enterprising neighbor:
Kobe-mania has subsided a lot, but it’s not over yet:
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