Month: May 2020

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On Your Left!!!!

Covid Rant…..not really

We take walks as often as we can at a nearby county park.  Nice wide paved trails provide a reasonable spacing between people traveling opposite directions.  There are very few people wearing masks, but probably a third of those not wearing – pull up their shirts or swing out onto the grass to put extra distance between them and us.

Then there are the runners and bike riders who zoom past, usually not caring how close the come to the walkers.  They are the primary reason we wear our masks – these people are breathing hard, huffing and puffing as the pass within a foot or two – leaving a trail of virus laced mist behind.  Or so, at 65+ person needs to be thinking about.  We wouldn’t be out there if we were seriously afraid, but it costs so little to add a little bit of protection and I don’t mind, reminding people that they should be considering masks too.

But a bit of a rant further on the bicyclists (if I can call them that).  I used to ride in groups with other cyclists.  If you do that, you learn quickly there are conventions that regular cyclists use, not only for the safety of others but themselves too.  When a cyclist passes a person on a sidewalk – typically people walk or slow ride on the right – and the cyclist passes on the left.  It is good form to call out “On Your Left” a few seconds before you pass.  This gives the person some warning (can’t always hear a rear approaching bike).  It also helps insure someone doesn’t turn left, let a dog or kid wander into the bikes path.  This becomes even more important for the riders puffing along at 20 miles per hour.

In all the days on the trail so far, we’ve been passed by about 25 riders – and ONLY ONE has bothered to call out their presence, some silent at very high speeds.  Often, we are in a group of 6 or 7 people, with young kids and small dogs.  Just the sort of group a rider should be wary of overtaking in surprise mode. I eventually started calling out “On Your Left” as they passed, but even that hasn’t raised any notice in the riders.  It seems they have no understanding of the risks.  Maybe these are all Covid refugees that bought a bike on Amazon and escaped their isolation while oblivious of riding conventions.  Maybe getting Covid and getting over it, just makes you stupid.

Rant two.  We have two small dogs that sometimes go with us.  And as dogs do, our dogs always leave us a present along the way – which we always pick up with our ever present doggie bags.  The park also provides doggie bags and the start of the trails.  There is always the random dog owner who never picks up after their dogs, but thankfully most do.  BUT, the park has put away all the trash cans (apparently picking up trash is somehow Covid-dangerous), and a number of dog owners, despite picking up after their dogs; when they get back to the parking lot (some don’t wait that long), they discard the filled doggie bag alongside the trail.  What is wrong with people?

Don’t answer that, we don’t have time for that long a list.

Mike

 

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Covid 19, 20, 21 rambling….

Covid 19, 20, 21 rambling….20211228

We left home late last year, for a few months in warmer climes.  We’ve in the the RV now for 6  25 months.  We are camped near home in Texas, but can’t be in our home due to front line health care workers living in our house (relatives).  We did venture into the garage to exchange parts/tools and rarely inside with appropriate PPE to grab a few things for the next part of our journey.

Like most everyone else, we are tired of isolating, but just the same, we are tired of being wary of catching the virus.  Like many of you, we are in the over 65, somewhat more vulnerable crowd.  While we are healthy and eat Keto style, even a somewhat mile tour of the disease is not something we want to live through.  And in close quarters, if either of us picks it up, then likely both of us do.

We aren’t entirely isolated.  Our daughter and her family of six are camped beside us and will be traveling with us, when we escape this park.  We are camped in a small town, not far from home in a private park.  We are careful of contact.  Everyone in the park maintains their distance.

So, let me tell you a story.  The other day, I was filling up my truck at a local gas station.  As usual, I was being careful about what I touch, sanitizing, etc.  As I stood there, a guy – overweight and older 55-60, walked out of the station and most of the way to his truck, he was rubbing his nose with his hand, finishing off with a general wipe of his mouth area.  Then he handled some stuff in a storage area of the truck, then got in and drove away.  Did I mention he was one of those snack food delivery guys that put the stuff on the racks in the gas station?  Think about that, next time you want to pick up some M&Ms or chips in a gas station.  I figure his route probably took him in, oh, say a 20-mile radius.  Just enough to cover a nearby city that happens to have a meatpacking plant – you know one of those Covid Petri dishes?  I’m sure they have gas stations that the people working there stop by on the way to and from the plant.  Maybe even a snack room inside the plant.

I’ve been told, by close relatives, that they live in a more or less rural setting and therefore they don’t have to wear masks or be particularly careful because there isn’t a lot of Covid running around.  Even though they are within a few miles of a major city.  Even though there are still people commuting into the city for Essential Work.  Even though they live near an Interstate or major thoroughfare.  Circles, that extend for miles and miles.

Hey people, this is like sex and STDs!  Except you don’t get to have the fun part.  Whomever you include in your isolation circle, you are including EVERYONE they include in their circle.  The circles get pretty large, pretty fast.  No, you can’t prevent all contact with everyone, but you can choose some level of reasonable control.  Covid induced isolation insanity KILLS.  It kills because people get tired, then convince themselves that dangerous activities really aren’t that dangerous.

Like Wisconsin.  I have lots of relatives up there – and quite a few who bristle against the “illegal” stay at home orders.  Last night, the state supreme court, met by VIDEOCONFERENCE (mmm because they didn’t want to get the virus?) and invalidated the state Stay at Home order.  Within minutes, bars were open and crowded with STUPID Wisconsonites acting like they’d been freed from a terrible imprisonment.  How they reconcile the “legal decision” with the fact that the virus was still on the way up in Wisconsin – one will never know.  Perhaps this is just another form of Darwinism – except they will take a lot of older, perhaps more intelligent parents and grandparents with them.  And now it seems, they will take a number of small children and their parents with them too.  Long term exposure to the virus appears to be leading to the inflammatory crisis with small children and the average age of those hospitalized with the virus is dropping – many down in their 40’s.

We have another week or so in Illinois – then hope to head somewhere out west, to low Covid zones where we can isolate in parks or boondocking locations to ride out the summer, at least while looking at forests or mountains.  Of course, all plans are subject to where things go in the next few weeks and months.  At this point, there is no certainty that this is going away any time soon.  Treatments will get better, improving survival rates, yet being retired – any stay in the hospital is likely to push us toward financial ruin.  If and when vaccines come out, we will be in line as early as we can get there.  So, we are preparing for this to last a long time, while hoping the worst of this virus goes out with 2020.  Obviously it didn’t go out in 2020, or even 2021.  Things are shaping up to make early 2022 as bad if not worse than the previous two years.

Meanwhile, repairs and alterations continue as much as I can, as a distraction to the world mess.

Mike