Falling Back, 46 & 47. Flowers for Covid.

Hearing yesterday that Santiago might be closed because of the rise of contagion there, I decided to go to a pet store to buy the kitty litter I use (a very large bag that has a very good quality-price ratio), and in the meantime, buy some flowers to arrange bouquets for the cemeteries.

Despite the high infection rate, the Praza de Abastos, the marketplace, was not empty. There were plenty of people shopping for their meat, fish, and green groceries. There were also lines at one of the florists there. But she was charging three euros for each rose, so I left and went in search of a couple of other florists I remembered. 

It turned out that one had closed and the stall had been converted into something touristy and closed at the moment, and the other had retired. That left a green grocer selling chrysanthemum plants, and another florist that had recently opened. Roses there were at a decent (!) two euros each, and the plant was cheaper than cut mums. However, today I still returned to florists nearby to buy the rest of the flowers I need. And I may still have to buy more, if I get to make my mother-in-law's bouquets for her cemetery niches.

What will be tricky is going to see the different cemeteries on Sunday, All Saint's Day. The maximum number of people allowed in each group is four. I think the maximum of wanderers allowed in the parochial cemeteries is fifty, and each group can only stay a half hour. To top it off, just about every large city, and a few larger towns, have been closed, though only until Tuesday. So, if on Sunday, you live in Trazo, and you want to visit the tombs of relatives in Santiago, you can't. If, however, you live in Ames and want to visit Santiago, you can. Both Ames and Santiago are going to be closed as of three this afternoon, but because they border each other, people can move from one to the other, just not leave them, or enter from other towns without good reason. 

Just about every other region has closed its perimeters to prevent contagion from spreading. Only Galicia, Extremadura, Madrid, and the Balearic Islands, I think, have not. Not that it matters. It just means we have to drive nonstop to those other regions if we want to visit them, because we can't stop along the way. Portugal does not allow movement between its townships, either. If we were to visit our neighboring country, we would have to remain in the township into which we crossed over. No trip to Porto this weekend.

Nice things have been popping up, though. A study has been published that seems to suggest that the Diphtheria Tetanus Pertussis (DTP) vaccine administered in early childhood protects from Covid. However, that protection diminishes with age, and with the administration of the vaccine in later years. But it would help explain why so few young children get seriously ill. 

We're clutching at straws to find any kind of good news in this darkening latter part of the year, as we head into the dead of winter. But it's a bleak winter. Today, looking for the rest of the flowers I need, I visited a local florist. They barely had any choices, and they were not receiving any more flowers. There are no Halloween costumes for sale in most places. Christmas lights are being hung, but stores are encouraging people to start buying for Christmas now by extending the period of exchanges into the latter part of January. No one is in the mood to be joyful or to spend frivolously. Despite the Christmas goodies on sale in the supermarkets, there is no other sign of the upcoming holiday. Other years, by now we would have seen at least one store with colorful baubles and fake snow, calling in shoppers. Not this year.

Perhaps we will learn to see life without the price tag we love to attach to things. Maybe that will be one good thing to come out of this. But, maybe, we are too thickheaded, and will fall back into our old ways again.

Life continues.