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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

COVID-19: How I'm Doing in Solitary Confinement


The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances. The day is reset after midnight GMT+0. The list of countries and territories and their continental regional classification is based on the United Nations Geoscheme. Sources are provided under "Latest Updates". Learn more about Worldometer's COVID-19 data 

New deaths:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

Mar 23          9  601       85      435            24               7        1631
        24         7  743     100      489            33               9        1983
        25         4  683     129      454            47               6        1987
        26         6  712       73      498            33               5        1801
        27         5  919     182      569            71               8        2782
        28         3  889     241      674            52               5        2609
        29         5  756     169      624            49               8        2706
        30         4  812     271      537            19               6        2849
        31         5  837     439      553            37               4        3661
Apr    1         7  727     589      463            83               3        3239
          2         6  760     522      709          158               4        4183
          3         4  766     716      587          123               5        3822
          4         4  681     769      546            55               3        4755
          5         3  525     909      471          106               6        3595
          6         2  636     874      528            78               3        4414
          7         ?  604   1371      556            95               6        6291
          8         2  542   1400      628          176               8        5431
          9         2  610   1286      446            82               4        3779
        10         1  570   1739      523          121               4        6506
        11         3  619   1476      399             ?                3        5358
        12         ?  431   1090      366            74               3        4533
        13         2  566   1147      280            21               3        4489
        14         ?  602   1754      300          100               5        5726
        15         1  578   1558      324            97               3        6351

Summary:
  • The World had 6351 new deaths, the second highest ever.
  • The USA declined from 1754 to 1558.
  • Europe remains mixed, but high.
  • China and South Korea are approaching zero new deaths.
Here is my take on the state of COVID-19 in the USA.  
  • The nation is mostly locked down, save for portions of a few states where they have determined that the economy is more important that the potential for local outbreaks.  The problem with this attitude is that they can be infected by people driving in from other states to visit family, enjoy the parks, etc.  
  • Hawaii's cases have plateaued, and we are further protected by the Pacific Ocean.  Yet, no sign of any kind of recovery plan.  I am further insulated by a cocoon called 15 Craigside.
  • No matter what President Donald Trump says, hard-hit states will not suddenly change courses to stimulate their economy.
    • The problem is that there is not enough testing kits to justify an immediate cessation of quarantine measures, and won't be universally available until later in the Summer, if that.  
    • It's not impossible that a vaccine could be made available in the Spring of 2021, but the reality for mass inoculations surely must be one to two years away, or longer.  Remember, there is yet no vaccine for the HIV virus, and worse, the SARS pandemic was in 2003, another coronavirus, and THERE IS NO VACCINE FOR THIS VIRUS!
    • Yet, certain sectors and businesses will be allowed to slowly open up based on local need.  For reasons that worry many, European countries are already beginning to loosen edicts.
    • Schools in the U.S. will continue to be closed until August or September at the earliest, but that's because they are normally in the summer break period anyway.
    • Summer professional sports could tentatively allow for games without spectators, hoping that media coverage will reduce losses.
    • Even when the general public is allowed to carry on life in this upcoming new normal period, seniors communities, like mine, will remain tightly protected for a while longer.
So imagine being in jail.  Or more specifically, like the Tim Robbins character of The Shawshank Redemption, in solitary confinement.  Don't want to.  Or on the Diamond Princess, where passengers were told to stay in your room and food will be delivered to you.  I can visualize that, for I spent ten days on this ship in December...before that man from Hong Kong boarded.  At 15 Craigside, we also get delivered three meals/day.  How am I doing?

I'm feeling groovy, and euphoric besides.  The pluses:
  • Sleeping better because I don't need to think what I'll be doing the next day.  Tomorrow is easy...the same as the day before, with routine exceptions. 
  • I now take regular naps.  If I get only 6 hours sleep the night before, I have a 2-hour nap.  If 7 hours, then one hour, sometimes more.  If 8 or more hours, I don't need a nap.
  • My knees are feeling better.  I went through physical therapy and now do knee exercises for forty minutes each morning.  Part of this exercise regimen also strengthens my arms and improves my posture.
    • as I have them, I still rub on those two ointments and take astaxanthin, all on recommendations from friends
    • I ran out of the pill, then a month later found two more bottles, and resumed taking it mostly because I paid an enormous amount (they don't qualify in my medical insurance plans), but don't think they are doing anything much
    • thus, I doubt that these applications are having any value, except for the massaging knees part, which can't hurt
  • To try to maintain my weight at the borderline between normal and overweight, because I can't go golfing anymore, I use the machines in our exercise room.  
    • takes an hour on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, while watching TV
    • I'm a lot more careful of what I eat, and have maintained 161 pounds, which places me right on that line at a BMI of 25.2 (see bottom of right column to calculate yours, or do it above)--but shouldn't I be in the middle of normal?:  nope, read this
    • a lot easier than walking 18 holes
    • from excruciating then, to now at least tolerable  
    • purposeful training, for I'm maintaining some conditioning, while strengthening my arms and torso--someday I'll no doubt have longer drives on a golf course
    • I don't use the treadmill for fear that I will fall
  • 15 Craigside offers their usual plethora of activities, although now using physical distancing, even in elevators--I hardly participate (meaning close to never), but here are two examples:

You would think that this solitary confinement would have socio-psychological downsides.  I  miss going out for bento at Diamond Head Lookout, singing karaoke and dining with my friends, and so forth, but the only real issue is that my meal enhancement options are limited.

Other negatives are picayune, like all the trash I create every day and the loss of freedom I have to do anything, any time.  As I'm a kind of loner anyway, this isolation is a luxury.

Things should improve this week, for meal enhancement opportunities again will be made available.  15 Craigside will allow you, every two weeks, to choose up to 15 items from Foodland and 5 from CVS Longs, which they pick up for us.  No alcohol, but I have two years worth of wine in my wine cellar and three lifetimes worth of scotch, gin, etc.  On the other hand if anyone out there wants to drop off a case of beer (Mickeys preferred, for I rarely drink the whole bottle, and it has a screw cap) and/or  large container of sake, I will reimburse you and more, whatever that might be at your determination.

Interestingly enough, what some readers of this blog site have recently missed most is the food part.  I've been too preoccupied with COVID-19.  Even though I'm now limited in my creativity, here are some of my meals in this state of isolation.  First, conveniently, they do deliver three meals a day to my room, and now, without the $1.50 cost.  Today they are also delivering popcorn with arare (Japanese rice cracker).

Sometimes they surprise us with gifts, like toilet paper and Easter candy:


Early on, I still had some chu-toro sashimi:


For Hawaiian night (my contribution is the second photo below):


Spaghetti plus my enhancements:


They only provided the hot dog, so I complemented with a pickle, hot peppers and truffled the french fries:


This next dinner was combining three delivered dishes with onions and mushrooms, and finishing up that chu-toro:


One of my highlight dinners featured beef from our Easter Sunday offering, which I combined with the breakfast hash, eggs over easy, super Stanford red wine, a Junmai Daiginjo sake, and The Jazz Singer, the first talkie:


The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, featured synchronized singing and changed filmdom forever. It won an Honorary Academy Award at the very first Academy Awards and ranks #90 in the best American films of all time.  There is a little uncomfortableness about Jolson in blackface, but the times-were-a-different then.  Among Jolson's songs were:
Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet:  Six songs missing were Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (which Jerry Lewis covered as his Bob Hope's signature Thanks for the Memory--that was way back in 1938 with Shirley Ross), You Made Me Love You (resurrected by Judy Garland in Broadway Melody of 1938, the same movie from which came Hope's song), Swanee, and my two favorites, When You Were Sweet Sixteen and The Anniversary Song.


I make too much fun of Donald Trump, but Barbra Streisand beats me.  Two years ago she had already written 15 articles (here is her latest) in The Huffington Post about him when she recorded Don't Lie to Me.








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