Chronicles of the Virus Day 25
There is talk about setting up hotels and other places as holding cells of a sort for those who test positive without any symptoms of Covid-19. I assume it is so that quarantine can be enforced with a minimum of personnel, so that life can resume quicklier.
A few months ago that would sound like the beginning of a dystopian novel, where the government would eliminate basic liberties. Now, it depends. I know that I would not like to be sent to such a place, with or without my husband. Who would take care of the house? And the cats? How could we ensure that the privacy of our house would not be violated by any attempt to disinfect it? I do understand the logic behind such a move. There are enough idiots out there that to try to keep them all under lock and key sounds like a good idea. There have been people who have tested positive, and have run away from the hospital. But there are others who are responsible and know they have to stay away from others. We can't stick them all in the same sack.
Some days I alternate between being scared of getting infected, and a fatalistic acceptance of whatever may befall me. I suppose that the longer an emergency goes on, the less the flight or fight reaction lasts. I can understand the character in a story that is running away from certain death finally stopping and letting the death happen. I also feel like screaming at them, "Just move!" The problem with this virus is that you don't know just how it will affect you. There have been young people who have died, and there have been centenarians who have survived it.
The weather keeps jumping between rain and sun this week. Today, it's the sun's turn, at least during the morning. But more rain is forecast for tomorrow and Friday. My mother-in-law would say that it always rains on Good Friday, but that is selective memory. There have been plenty of sunny Good Fridays in my past.
The greens of spring, so early this year, are consolidating and becoming less varied. The apple trees, among the last to flower, are putting out their buds. Bluebells are appearing, and the hydrangeas have mysteriously flowered already, though new buds are also growing.
The weather and the new season are touchstones that are constant in this changing world. Though there are other things that simply don't change, like human stupidity. A couple of guys went out for a drive (forbidden at the moment), both drinking alcohol (an absolute no-no whatever day it is), without auto insurance (at least there was little traffic), and without seatbelts (these guys really know how to add up the fines). These intelligent specimens then proceeded to put the video on a social media page. They could just as well have walked up to a police station and turned themselves in.
Another illuminated member of the human race was fined six hundred euros for going out to find a prostitute. A story from Russia, which could have just as easily have happened in the United States, tells of a man who got his rifle and shot and killed five neighbors because they were too noisy. And a group of women in a small town in the province of Jaén, went out last Friday night in procession, wearing mantillas and carrying candles. Ladies, your religious devotion can wait another year, surely?
On the brighter, more ingenious side of human nature, people keep doing strange things. One family decided to tie helium balloons to their pooch to see what would happen. I assume they pulled him down rather easily. It's a good thing they didn't try it in the garden. There's also news that Andrea Bocelli will hold a live concert Easter Sunday at seven (six Greenwich time) on his YouTube channel.
There's hope yet for the human race.
Life continues.
A few months ago that would sound like the beginning of a dystopian novel, where the government would eliminate basic liberties. Now, it depends. I know that I would not like to be sent to such a place, with or without my husband. Who would take care of the house? And the cats? How could we ensure that the privacy of our house would not be violated by any attempt to disinfect it? I do understand the logic behind such a move. There are enough idiots out there that to try to keep them all under lock and key sounds like a good idea. There have been people who have tested positive, and have run away from the hospital. But there are others who are responsible and know they have to stay away from others. We can't stick them all in the same sack.
Some days I alternate between being scared of getting infected, and a fatalistic acceptance of whatever may befall me. I suppose that the longer an emergency goes on, the less the flight or fight reaction lasts. I can understand the character in a story that is running away from certain death finally stopping and letting the death happen. I also feel like screaming at them, "Just move!" The problem with this virus is that you don't know just how it will affect you. There have been young people who have died, and there have been centenarians who have survived it.
The weather keeps jumping between rain and sun this week. Today, it's the sun's turn, at least during the morning. But more rain is forecast for tomorrow and Friday. My mother-in-law would say that it always rains on Good Friday, but that is selective memory. There have been plenty of sunny Good Fridays in my past.
The greens of spring, so early this year, are consolidating and becoming less varied. The apple trees, among the last to flower, are putting out their buds. Bluebells are appearing, and the hydrangeas have mysteriously flowered already, though new buds are also growing.
The weather and the new season are touchstones that are constant in this changing world. Though there are other things that simply don't change, like human stupidity. A couple of guys went out for a drive (forbidden at the moment), both drinking alcohol (an absolute no-no whatever day it is), without auto insurance (at least there was little traffic), and without seatbelts (these guys really know how to add up the fines). These intelligent specimens then proceeded to put the video on a social media page. They could just as well have walked up to a police station and turned themselves in.
Another illuminated member of the human race was fined six hundred euros for going out to find a prostitute. A story from Russia, which could have just as easily have happened in the United States, tells of a man who got his rifle and shot and killed five neighbors because they were too noisy. And a group of women in a small town in the province of Jaén, went out last Friday night in procession, wearing mantillas and carrying candles. Ladies, your religious devotion can wait another year, surely?
On the brighter, more ingenious side of human nature, people keep doing strange things. One family decided to tie helium balloons to their pooch to see what would happen. I assume they pulled him down rather easily. It's a good thing they didn't try it in the garden. There's also news that Andrea Bocelli will hold a live concert Easter Sunday at seven (six Greenwich time) on his YouTube channel.
There's hope yet for the human race.
Life continues.
A man was rescued by helicopter from the Pyrenees when he decided to walk from France to Spain to buy cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about that. To save three euros, he now pays over a hundred. i sometimes despair of human intelligence.
DeleteThanks, Maria, you've made me thoughtful (re - how far into state control our lives may slip) and smile (with the stories of more candidates for the Darwin Awards.) Humans. Doing the same stupid things for eons, I suspect. We just don't have enough paintings on the cave walls to tell us the stories of those who got eliminated from the gene pool.
ReplyDelete