I went into Santa Fé for the first time since March 23. It was hard to tell if the man who fixed my garage door was right in his view that people in the city were taking more precautions than individuals in Española, because I went to one store, got what I needed, and left.
Traffic was lighter driving in. I got there around 9 am, which means I would have been with people commuting to government jobs. No cars merged into traffic on Opera Hill like they normally do at that time of day.
There were comparatively fewer shoppers where I went, but, as I said, it was 9 am. Lots of people in Santa Fé don’t stir until later in the morning. So many stores there don’t even bother to open until 10.
The attitude towards masks was clear: to be worn inside, but not outside. The store I went to was more expensive than the other big boxes, so the other customers would have been like those I see in my local grocery. They would have had more respect for following rules, and, probably not coincidentally, would have had a little more money to spend. Almost everyone was wearing a mask, and many had on gloves.
I didn’t see anyone on the sidewalks wearing a mask.
There was a bit of a Rip Van Winkle quality to the trip. I hadn’t been down Cerrillos since I last had to have my tire pressures adjusted. I usually go down Zia from the office of my massage therapist.
I was saddened to see a For Lease sign on Empire Builders Supply. I’ll admit I only went in once to buy some vents for my gable peaks. The place wasn’t self-serve, but the wait wasn’t long. The man who helped me got me exactly what I needed in a way that made me feel he knew what he was doing, and customers mattered.
I was surprised that the store I used had reverted to plastic bags. Apparently, when the mayor proclaimed an emergency in the city, he suspended the rules on plastic bags. He also ordered the plexiglass shields I saw.
One thing hadn’t change. The air pollution. Even with little traffic, there was a haze over the Ortiz mountains south of the city.
I returned crossing west on Siler. As soon as I got onto Alameda, I had problems breathing. The road runs on high land parallel to the Santa Fé river with badlands rising on the other side.
I suspect the 80 degree temperatures trapped the pollution and didn’t let it clear in the night. Instead, it drifted into the valley bottom and was held there by the badlands.
I had to turn the air condition on high and gulp in air to recover. I saw the mask on the floor, but there’s no place to pullover on Alameda. Besides, I wasn’t really willing to put it back on after wearing it in public.
I was only as I approached the Cuyamunge overpass, that the air sneaking into my closed car was clean enough for me to turn down the air condition. The mountains to the north also were in a haze.
The most important difference between Española and Santa Fé: Rio Arriba County has reported 14 cases of coronavirus, while Santa Fé County has reported 95 cases,
Sources:
Danielle Prokop. "Santa Fe Mayor Issues Emergency Order for Grocery Stores" Santa Fe New Mexican. 6 April 2020.
Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico." Updated 28 April 2020.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Friday, April 24
I made the weekly trip into town for supplies and the post office today. Little has changed since last week, except peoples’ masks
There were fewer purchased ones, probably because individuals had used up their reserves and couldn’t buy more. The news is filled with stories of problems with getting medical-grade ones from China.
Mine are not particularly protective, as I discovered a couple weeks ago. The box doesn’t indicate its raw materials. It just says it has no natural rubber latex and carries a stamp of the Sustainable Forest Initiative. The company website says the masks don’t repel liquids.
The box says the masks are a "product of USA, further processed in Mexico." That means the paper is made in this country, and shipped to Mexico. That border has been closed to non-essential travel since March 21. [1] People commuting from Del Rio, Texas, to Acuña could still pass, and goods could still be imported, if they could get passed federal agents looking for medical supplies.
The company’s headquarters are in Fulton County, the county with the highest number of coronavirus cases in Georgia. [2] The city with its headquarters closed essential businesses on April 2. [3] Even if these masks were at all useful, the barriers to producing more are high.
When masks ran out, the government began suggesting people make their own. This uncovered a different problem in the supply chain, what could be called a loss of institutional knowledge. It may explain why I saw more older people with homemade masks today than younger ones. Fewer young people know how to sew.
When I was a child in Michigan in the 1950s, we were required to take home economics in junior high. Half were assigned to the sewing room, and have to the cooking one. Half of all the girls in my hometown had been taught to sew by the time they graduated.
My mother had a sewing machine, and I was in 4-H where I took sewing classes. While it seemed everyone I knew had a sewing machine, I realize now that the mothers of most of my friends did not. There already was a certain stigma to homemade, and people wanted store bought goods. This snobbery is always highest among people raised in poor areas who want proof they’ve succeeded.
Now, telling people to make their own masks is as useful as telling them to fly. Most people probably have scissors, and everyone has old clothes that can be recycled. That’s actually all that’s needed to make a crude bandana that ties in back.
Many may not have thread or needles. If they don’t they probably don’t know much about using a needle. I’m sure there are YouTube videos on this, but who thinks of going there?
Needles and thread can be bought almost anywhere, or could. What is harder to find is the elastic, or a substitute like hem tape (if one even knows such a thing exists), to make the ear loops.
This would be an ideal opportunity for someone who could sew to make masks to sell at a roadside stand. However, I doubt those exist. (I haven’t been out on a weekend when they’re most common, but I haven’t seen any at the usual places during the week.)
As an aside, I first bought my masks at a local drug store. They were all that was offered. Better quality ones didn’t exist there before the outbreak of coronavirus.
Sources:
1. Vanessa Romo. "U.S. And Mexico Extend Coronavirus Border Restrictions For Another Month." National Public Radio website. 20 April 2020.
2. "Georgia Coronavirus Map and Case Count." The New York Times website. 25 April 2020. Fulton County has 2,509 cases, with a ratio of 246 positive tests per 100,000 people.
3. Charles Woodman. "Coronavirus In Alpharetta/Milton: Latest Updates, Closures." Patch website. 2 April 2020.
There were fewer purchased ones, probably because individuals had used up their reserves and couldn’t buy more. The news is filled with stories of problems with getting medical-grade ones from China.
Mine are not particularly protective, as I discovered a couple weeks ago. The box doesn’t indicate its raw materials. It just says it has no natural rubber latex and carries a stamp of the Sustainable Forest Initiative. The company website says the masks don’t repel liquids.
The box says the masks are a "product of USA, further processed in Mexico." That means the paper is made in this country, and shipped to Mexico. That border has been closed to non-essential travel since March 21. [1] People commuting from Del Rio, Texas, to Acuña could still pass, and goods could still be imported, if they could get passed federal agents looking for medical supplies.
The company’s headquarters are in Fulton County, the county with the highest number of coronavirus cases in Georgia. [2] The city with its headquarters closed essential businesses on April 2. [3] Even if these masks were at all useful, the barriers to producing more are high.
When masks ran out, the government began suggesting people make their own. This uncovered a different problem in the supply chain, what could be called a loss of institutional knowledge. It may explain why I saw more older people with homemade masks today than younger ones. Fewer young people know how to sew.
When I was a child in Michigan in the 1950s, we were required to take home economics in junior high. Half were assigned to the sewing room, and have to the cooking one. Half of all the girls in my hometown had been taught to sew by the time they graduated.
My mother had a sewing machine, and I was in 4-H where I took sewing classes. While it seemed everyone I knew had a sewing machine, I realize now that the mothers of most of my friends did not. There already was a certain stigma to homemade, and people wanted store bought goods. This snobbery is always highest among people raised in poor areas who want proof they’ve succeeded.
Now, telling people to make their own masks is as useful as telling them to fly. Most people probably have scissors, and everyone has old clothes that can be recycled. That’s actually all that’s needed to make a crude bandana that ties in back.
Many may not have thread or needles. If they don’t they probably don’t know much about using a needle. I’m sure there are YouTube videos on this, but who thinks of going there?
Needles and thread can be bought almost anywhere, or could. What is harder to find is the elastic, or a substitute like hem tape (if one even knows such a thing exists), to make the ear loops.
This would be an ideal opportunity for someone who could sew to make masks to sell at a roadside stand. However, I doubt those exist. (I haven’t been out on a weekend when they’re most common, but I haven’t seen any at the usual places during the week.)
As an aside, I first bought my masks at a local drug store. They were all that was offered. Better quality ones didn’t exist there before the outbreak of coronavirus.
Sources:
1. Vanessa Romo. "U.S. And Mexico Extend Coronavirus Border Restrictions For Another Month." National Public Radio website. 20 April 2020.
2. "Georgia Coronavirus Map and Case Count." The New York Times website. 25 April 2020. Fulton County has 2,509 cases, with a ratio of 246 positive tests per 100,000 people.
3. Charles Woodman. "Coronavirus In Alpharetta/Milton: Latest Updates, Closures." Patch website. 2 April 2020.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Thursday, April 23
I had an eye examination scheduled for tomorrow. When I didn’t get any kind of confirmation call, I called them only to find out it had been cancelled weeks ago and nobody bothered to inform me.
Eye Associates had stopped all routine appointments when the governor closed non-essential businesses, and was only handling emergencies and on-going injection programs.
I had no real problem with that policy. I can’t imagine how a technician could sterilize all the equipment used in a refraction between patients.
My problem was with the lack of service in general. Española did not recover from the economic problems of 2008. Population growth leveled off, [1] as 4,240 people left the area. [2] The number of children in the schools declined, [3] while the rest of the population continued to age. That means more people change from private insurance to Medicare.
Demand for ophthalmologists would have remained steady or increased. I don’t know how many were assigned to Española by Eye Associates, but the one I saw was only available a few days a week. I always had to wait weeks for an appointment.
My eyes changed last fall, perhaps as a consequence of glare from my new computer’s screen. I should have called for an appointment immediately, but didn’t do so until February. When I drove by their office to schedule an appointment, it was closed. Eye Associates stopped servicing us last year.
When I did call the office in Los Alamos, I still had to wait seven weeks for an appointment.
When I called this morning, I was switched to the outlet in Santa Fé. The woman I talked with said they had blocked off all appointments through August to new patients. They were reserving the time for people like me whose appointments had been cancelled.
She also told me I should have been notified.
That brings me to another problem we all suffer from in the valley. We are a long distance call from Los Alamos and Santa Fé. People in those cities don’t realize that and don’t dial the area code. When they get the message they need to redial, they just assume, because it’s Rio Arriba County, the person they’re contacting is another deadbeat who gave false information.
My physician tells me he never gets test results from the place in Santa Fé that does my mammograms and bone density exams. I have to drive to them to request a copy of the results for myself, and ask them to please resend them to the doctor. At that time I mention the area code, and the doctor’s office receives them.
The woman I talked with this morning said they would contact me when they were able to schedule appointments again. Since I knew I would never happen, I asked if I should call Los Alamos.
She told me no, that they might not have brought back all their staff by then, and I should call Santa Fé to schedule the appointment in Los Alamos.
I’ve read reports that physicians are worried their practices may not survive the extended closure. [4] Eye Associates is not some benign Dr. Welby. It’s a corporation headquartered in Albuquerque that has bills to pay.
It’s been obvious over the years that it schedules the time of the ophthalmologists as tightly as possible. It’s already decided Española wasn’t a viable cost center.
I may decide, as much as I like the person I’ve been seeing, it’s time for me to find an ophthalmologists in Santa Fé. I don’t much fancy navigating the road from Los Alamos with dilated eyes.
And really, waiting seven weeks to find out if a change in my vision was routine or a symptom of a serious medical problem really isn’t acceptable.
Sources:
1. Española Public School District Facilities Master Plan 2013-2017. Architectural Research Consultants, February 2013. It said Española grew by 500 between 2000 and 2010, but Rio Arriba County’s population dropped by 1,000. [page 2-12]
2. Master Plan. 2-12.
3. Master Plan. 2-15. The drop was 1,507 people.
4. Tierney Sneed. "Why The Pandemic Is Putting Primary Care Docs In A Major Financial Pinch." Talking Points Memo website. 26 March 2020.
Eye Associates had stopped all routine appointments when the governor closed non-essential businesses, and was only handling emergencies and on-going injection programs.
I had no real problem with that policy. I can’t imagine how a technician could sterilize all the equipment used in a refraction between patients.
My problem was with the lack of service in general. Española did not recover from the economic problems of 2008. Population growth leveled off, [1] as 4,240 people left the area. [2] The number of children in the schools declined, [3] while the rest of the population continued to age. That means more people change from private insurance to Medicare.
Demand for ophthalmologists would have remained steady or increased. I don’t know how many were assigned to Española by Eye Associates, but the one I saw was only available a few days a week. I always had to wait weeks for an appointment.
My eyes changed last fall, perhaps as a consequence of glare from my new computer’s screen. I should have called for an appointment immediately, but didn’t do so until February. When I drove by their office to schedule an appointment, it was closed. Eye Associates stopped servicing us last year.
When I did call the office in Los Alamos, I still had to wait seven weeks for an appointment.
When I called this morning, I was switched to the outlet in Santa Fé. The woman I talked with said they had blocked off all appointments through August to new patients. They were reserving the time for people like me whose appointments had been cancelled.
She also told me I should have been notified.
That brings me to another problem we all suffer from in the valley. We are a long distance call from Los Alamos and Santa Fé. People in those cities don’t realize that and don’t dial the area code. When they get the message they need to redial, they just assume, because it’s Rio Arriba County, the person they’re contacting is another deadbeat who gave false information.
My physician tells me he never gets test results from the place in Santa Fé that does my mammograms and bone density exams. I have to drive to them to request a copy of the results for myself, and ask them to please resend them to the doctor. At that time I mention the area code, and the doctor’s office receives them.
The woman I talked with this morning said they would contact me when they were able to schedule appointments again. Since I knew I would never happen, I asked if I should call Los Alamos.
She told me no, that they might not have brought back all their staff by then, and I should call Santa Fé to schedule the appointment in Los Alamos.
I’ve read reports that physicians are worried their practices may not survive the extended closure. [4] Eye Associates is not some benign Dr. Welby. It’s a corporation headquartered in Albuquerque that has bills to pay.
It’s been obvious over the years that it schedules the time of the ophthalmologists as tightly as possible. It’s already decided Española wasn’t a viable cost center.
I may decide, as much as I like the person I’ve been seeing, it’s time for me to find an ophthalmologists in Santa Fé. I don’t much fancy navigating the road from Los Alamos with dilated eyes.
And really, waiting seven weeks to find out if a change in my vision was routine or a symptom of a serious medical problem really isn’t acceptable.
Sources:
1. Española Public School District Facilities Master Plan 2013-2017. Architectural Research Consultants, February 2013. It said Española grew by 500 between 2000 and 2010, but Rio Arriba County’s population dropped by 1,000. [page 2-12]
2. Master Plan. 2-12.
3. Master Plan. 2-15. The drop was 1,507 people.
4. Tierney Sneed. "Why The Pandemic Is Putting Primary Care Docs In A Major Financial Pinch." Talking Points Memo website. 26 March 2020.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Saturday, April 18
The justification for buying household disinfectants was the need to clean surfaces touched by outsiders in a home, or by individuals coming in from outside. Restrictions on social intercourse lessened that need because, theoretically, only household members would be entering a residence.
Yesterday, I had a repairman in my garage. He wore a mask when he arrived, but took it off while he was working for three hours.
Now, what to do.
A New York Times reporter asked experts about the needs for personal sanitation. Most of the answers began with general phrases like "these types of viruses." If they were more specific, it was to the related "virus that causes SARS."
It’s still early in the history of the virus. Only one study was done on Coronavirus, and that was published by The New England Journal of Medicine in March of this year.
Neeltje van Doremalen’s team tested both the current form of Coronavirus and the one that caused SARS in laboratory conditions. They found the aerosols remained active the full three hours of the tests, and that it lived longer on plastic (72 hours) and stainless steel (48 hours) than on cardboard (24 hours). That made the hard surfaces and aerosols possible vectors for the disease.
My garage has a cement floor and concrete block walls. The door is a wood composite and the replaced hardware some steel alloy. Like anyone’s there’s lots of stuff stored in it made from wood, steel, plastic, and paper.
I decided the safest thing to do was only enter it if necessary for the next week. In the meantime, when I’m in the area and can keep an eye on wandering animals, I’m leaving the door about three-quarters raised so fresh air can circulate, as much as it does it a cave. It faces north, so doesn’t get sun.
Sources:
Tara Parker-Pope. Is the Virus on My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper? The New York Times website. 17 April 2020; 18 April 2020.
Neeltje van Doremalen, et alia. "Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV." New England Journal of Medicine. 17 March 2020. Posted on its website 16 April 2020.
Yesterday, I had a repairman in my garage. He wore a mask when he arrived, but took it off while he was working for three hours.
Now, what to do.
A New York Times reporter asked experts about the needs for personal sanitation. Most of the answers began with general phrases like "these types of viruses." If they were more specific, it was to the related "virus that causes SARS."
It’s still early in the history of the virus. Only one study was done on Coronavirus, and that was published by The New England Journal of Medicine in March of this year.
Neeltje van Doremalen’s team tested both the current form of Coronavirus and the one that caused SARS in laboratory conditions. They found the aerosols remained active the full three hours of the tests, and that it lived longer on plastic (72 hours) and stainless steel (48 hours) than on cardboard (24 hours). That made the hard surfaces and aerosols possible vectors for the disease.
My garage has a cement floor and concrete block walls. The door is a wood composite and the replaced hardware some steel alloy. Like anyone’s there’s lots of stuff stored in it made from wood, steel, plastic, and paper.
I decided the safest thing to do was only enter it if necessary for the next week. In the meantime, when I’m in the area and can keep an eye on wandering animals, I’m leaving the door about three-quarters raised so fresh air can circulate, as much as it does it a cave. It faces north, so doesn’t get sun.
Sources:
Tara Parker-Pope. Is the Virus on My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper? The New York Times website. 17 April 2020; 18 April 2020.
Neeltje van Doremalen, et alia. "Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV." New England Journal of Medicine. 17 March 2020. Posted on its website 16 April 2020.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Friday, April 17
I made my weekly trip into town today. On the surface things seemed the same. The restaurants that were popular still had cars in their parking lots, as did the car-parts stores. However, there seemed to be shorter lines in the drive through lanes of the banks and credit unions. That may be because I was out earlier this time, and people don’t go out until closer to noon, or it may have meant fewer people had payroll checks to cash.
Shelves were still bare, but more things were available. I always buy toilet paper in individual rolls because I have no place to store a bulk package and keep its contents clean once it’s been opened. This restricted me to one brand, which had gotten shoddier over the years.
Today, the local grocery had individual rolls from several companies. They, or the distributors, have responded to the limits on purchases with packages that make it possible to honor those limits.
I had come to a crisis point with butter. The one I bought, because it was all that was left, turned out to have some chemical in it that was causing me to break out. The local grocery not only was resupplied with butter but had several brands, including an organic one I had used in the past.
My concerns with buying butter, rather than margarine, may make me sound elitist, but I’m probably just a variant in the mix that’s Española. The National Retail Federation released statistics on the impact of Coronavirus on sales. Clothing and automobile sales were down. They are something that can be postponed when one has lost income.
Most of the clothing comes from Asia, and the automobile manufacturers have stopped production. While demand was down, supply probably was also down so no inventories were accumulating.
Food store income was up, because people have to eat at home. I’m part of that 25.6% increase in sales, because I normally buy my groceries in a big box in Santa Fé, rather than in the local store.
The big boxes were classed as "general merchandise stores." Their increase was less, 6.4%. In some states, like Michigan, those outlets are required to close off their non-essential aisles, but here they are open. The probably saw the net effect of the shut downs: increases in grocery sales offset decreases in clothing and non-essential items. I haven’t been to one since I stopped going into Santa Fé.
The other type of store where I’ve been shopping also saw a slight increase: building materials and garden supply store sales were up 1.3%. It’s still going to be a very tough year for people like the local outlets and their suppliers. This is the only time in the year when nurseries have big sales, and many didn’t survive the economic problems of 2008. Those that did have faced tougher competition from the big boxes.
The one I visited today actually had the plants I wanted: pansies and snapdragons. They are cold weather annuals and this is the time they do well. However, I rarely can get what I want. The ones that become available in mid-May don’t do well.
I’m not sure why I was lucky. The person who runs that hardware store’s garden center is very active in finding things her customers want, and often from smaller suppliers. She may have been more successful this year.
The alternative is that things have trickled into our market because there’s less demand in large cities. The resulting surplus has been made available to people like my local store.
The one thing I noticed today was people were even less concerned about contracting the virus than last week. The number of confirmed cases is in Rio Arriba County increased from 7 to 10, but people still may not know anyone personally whose affected.
The grocery store remained the same. All the cashiers were wearing masks and gloves, and most of the customers were wearing masks. The ones who weren’t were men.
The post office was less wary. The people behind the counter weren’t wearing masks. Perhaps, they think they are adequately protected by the plexiglass shields. Unfortunately, it sends a message to customers that masks aren’t needed on the other side of the barrier. Only a few people were wearing them, and they tended to be older.
The message was reinforced by television coverage of protests in states like Michigan. I heard my first complaint about distancing from the man behind me in post office. The guy in front of me, backed out of the lobby and then wandered around, making it hard to stay away from him. When I moved back , the man behind said "I suppose we have to play these games."
My final stop was the hardware store, a different one that I had used earlier. Only one clerk was wearing a mask, and none of the customers.
When I got home my garage door wouldn’t close. The cables had frayed and broken loose. I managed to close the door enough using the manual override so the contents of the garage weren’t visible to someone driving by. But, there was still the chance of rain, and definitely small animals invading.
That kind of repair business falls into a gray area: it’s not essential in a severe crisis, but it’s critical. The company in Santa Fé was open and dispatched someone who knew the area. He understood my directions, like a local would, and arrived at my drive without problems.
I put on a mask to greet him, and he responded by doing the same. One of his first comments was that no one in Española was taking the need for protection very seriously. As I said, I haven’t been to Santa Fé to test the validity of his suggestion the city was doing better, but his comment on the locals rang true.
Sources:
"March Retail Sales Plummet During Coronavirus Pandemic." National Retail Federation press release. 15 April 2020.
Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico." Updated 17 April 2020.
Shelves were still bare, but more things were available. I always buy toilet paper in individual rolls because I have no place to store a bulk package and keep its contents clean once it’s been opened. This restricted me to one brand, which had gotten shoddier over the years.
Today, the local grocery had individual rolls from several companies. They, or the distributors, have responded to the limits on purchases with packages that make it possible to honor those limits.
I had come to a crisis point with butter. The one I bought, because it was all that was left, turned out to have some chemical in it that was causing me to break out. The local grocery not only was resupplied with butter but had several brands, including an organic one I had used in the past.
My concerns with buying butter, rather than margarine, may make me sound elitist, but I’m probably just a variant in the mix that’s Española. The National Retail Federation released statistics on the impact of Coronavirus on sales. Clothing and automobile sales were down. They are something that can be postponed when one has lost income.
Most of the clothing comes from Asia, and the automobile manufacturers have stopped production. While demand was down, supply probably was also down so no inventories were accumulating.
Food store income was up, because people have to eat at home. I’m part of that 25.6% increase in sales, because I normally buy my groceries in a big box in Santa Fé, rather than in the local store.
The big boxes were classed as "general merchandise stores." Their increase was less, 6.4%. In some states, like Michigan, those outlets are required to close off their non-essential aisles, but here they are open. The probably saw the net effect of the shut downs: increases in grocery sales offset decreases in clothing and non-essential items. I haven’t been to one since I stopped going into Santa Fé.
The other type of store where I’ve been shopping also saw a slight increase: building materials and garden supply store sales were up 1.3%. It’s still going to be a very tough year for people like the local outlets and their suppliers. This is the only time in the year when nurseries have big sales, and many didn’t survive the economic problems of 2008. Those that did have faced tougher competition from the big boxes.
The one I visited today actually had the plants I wanted: pansies and snapdragons. They are cold weather annuals and this is the time they do well. However, I rarely can get what I want. The ones that become available in mid-May don’t do well.
I’m not sure why I was lucky. The person who runs that hardware store’s garden center is very active in finding things her customers want, and often from smaller suppliers. She may have been more successful this year.
The alternative is that things have trickled into our market because there’s less demand in large cities. The resulting surplus has been made available to people like my local store.
The one thing I noticed today was people were even less concerned about contracting the virus than last week. The number of confirmed cases is in Rio Arriba County increased from 7 to 10, but people still may not know anyone personally whose affected.
The grocery store remained the same. All the cashiers were wearing masks and gloves, and most of the customers were wearing masks. The ones who weren’t were men.
The post office was less wary. The people behind the counter weren’t wearing masks. Perhaps, they think they are adequately protected by the plexiglass shields. Unfortunately, it sends a message to customers that masks aren’t needed on the other side of the barrier. Only a few people were wearing them, and they tended to be older.
The message was reinforced by television coverage of protests in states like Michigan. I heard my first complaint about distancing from the man behind me in post office. The guy in front of me, backed out of the lobby and then wandered around, making it hard to stay away from him. When I moved back , the man behind said "I suppose we have to play these games."
My final stop was the hardware store, a different one that I had used earlier. Only one clerk was wearing a mask, and none of the customers.
When I got home my garage door wouldn’t close. The cables had frayed and broken loose. I managed to close the door enough using the manual override so the contents of the garage weren’t visible to someone driving by. But, there was still the chance of rain, and definitely small animals invading.
That kind of repair business falls into a gray area: it’s not essential in a severe crisis, but it’s critical. The company in Santa Fé was open and dispatched someone who knew the area. He understood my directions, like a local would, and arrived at my drive without problems.
I put on a mask to greet him, and he responded by doing the same. One of his first comments was that no one in Española was taking the need for protection very seriously. As I said, I haven’t been to Santa Fé to test the validity of his suggestion the city was doing better, but his comment on the locals rang true.
Sources:
"March Retail Sales Plummet During Coronavirus Pandemic." National Retail Federation press release. 15 April 2020.
Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico." Updated 17 April 2020.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Thursday, April 16
Things returned to normal today. My head and throat were clear, and I was able to work outside.
This has been an unusually warm spring. Our last frost day normally occurs in early May.
The apricots and peaches bloomed early, and completed flowering. The cherries and crab apples were starting to blossom.
Then, Monday, our typical spring returned. I had an inch of snow around my house. Much of it settled on flowers. The cherries blooms turned brown. The leaves were OK on everything except the new shrub I bought last Friday.
Wednesday, my outside thermometer read 15 degrees. That finished off any open blooms. Some buds may have survived.
Normal here may be a new phenomenon with everything closed, but normal to Nature has not been affected by any virus.
This has been an unusually warm spring. Our last frost day normally occurs in early May.
The apricots and peaches bloomed early, and completed flowering. The cherries and crab apples were starting to blossom.
Then, Monday, our typical spring returned. I had an inch of snow around my house. Much of it settled on flowers. The cherries blooms turned brown. The leaves were OK on everything except the new shrub I bought last Friday.
Wednesday, my outside thermometer read 15 degrees. That finished off any open blooms. Some buds may have survived.
Normal here may be a new phenomenon with everything closed, but normal to Nature has not been affected by any virus.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Journal of a Plague Year, Tuesday, April 14
Nothing is more boring than someone else’s physical complaints. Mine don’t even interest me very much.
In normal times, when I felt like I did yesterday, I would have assumed my body was fighting whatever was going around and slept it off.
But, these are not normal times. Everything takes on an exaggerated significance.
The usual things may be in the air, but we don’t know. The time when Coronavirus was beginning to penetrate New Mexico was allergy season. I suspect people ignored symptoms because they always felt bad when juniper pollen was in the air.
We’ve lost that early innocence, and now suspect the worse.
Yesterday I took more precautions than usual. They say nothing helps, but I still took aspirin every four hours, rather than once a day.
Then I tried applying what little knowledge I had gleaned from the internet, that the virus lodged in the throat.
I started thinking about all the ways one could feed or destroy something located there. Should I drink more liquids, or would that give the organisms necessary moisture?
I remembered the medicinal mouth wash my dentist had given me. He seemed to think it was the best all-around antiseptic available. Once, when I had a cut on my finger, he asked if I had treated it with the mouthwash. It hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s what he would have done.
This time I looked more closely at the bottle. It clearly was marked for external use only. But it wasn’t like iodine. It had to be formulated so small amounts were safe, because klutzy people probably swallowed it.
I took a small amount and used it in the prescribed way, then swallowed a tiny bit. I don’t know if it did any good. All I know if the usual bad aftertaste extended to the base of my throat.
I woke again this morning sometime after 5 am sweating. It may have been hunger, it may have been heat building up in the room, it may have been anything except a sign of illness.
When I finally got up around 6:30, my throat was less sore. I used some of the expectorant I was hoarding to wash away whatever remained in the cavity.
During the day I had the symptoms of fatigue: sleepiness and weak knees. I was constantly hungry.
Then, by mid-morning my throat was OK, but I was stuffed up. Whatever was causing my problems had retreated to my head.
My stomach got more upset, but then why would it be happy with every odd thing I was sending it? It doesn’t much like aspirin, and taking more yesterday would have been enough to create turmoil.
Now I’m left with the final unknown. Was it simply a cold or something worse? I couldn’t have gotten tested: my symptoms weren’t severe enough to justify one.
Will it matter, if I’m OK now? No one knows. Those Germans I mentioned yesterday found evidence the virus remained in the body after people recovered, but their sample was too small to be useful.
Would it be like malaria or chicken pox, or malaria, or more benign? We may not know for a year if there are long-term consequences. Even then, we may not know because few would get the kinds of tests the German researchers were able to use on hospitalized patients.
Sources:
Roman Wölfel, Christian Drosten, et alia. "Virological Assessment of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-2019." Nature website. 1 April 2020.
In normal times, when I felt like I did yesterday, I would have assumed my body was fighting whatever was going around and slept it off.
But, these are not normal times. Everything takes on an exaggerated significance.
The usual things may be in the air, but we don’t know. The time when Coronavirus was beginning to penetrate New Mexico was allergy season. I suspect people ignored symptoms because they always felt bad when juniper pollen was in the air.
We’ve lost that early innocence, and now suspect the worse.
Yesterday I took more precautions than usual. They say nothing helps, but I still took aspirin every four hours, rather than once a day.
Then I tried applying what little knowledge I had gleaned from the internet, that the virus lodged in the throat.
I started thinking about all the ways one could feed or destroy something located there. Should I drink more liquids, or would that give the organisms necessary moisture?
I remembered the medicinal mouth wash my dentist had given me. He seemed to think it was the best all-around antiseptic available. Once, when I had a cut on my finger, he asked if I had treated it with the mouthwash. It hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s what he would have done.
This time I looked more closely at the bottle. It clearly was marked for external use only. But it wasn’t like iodine. It had to be formulated so small amounts were safe, because klutzy people probably swallowed it.
I took a small amount and used it in the prescribed way, then swallowed a tiny bit. I don’t know if it did any good. All I know if the usual bad aftertaste extended to the base of my throat.
I woke again this morning sometime after 5 am sweating. It may have been hunger, it may have been heat building up in the room, it may have been anything except a sign of illness.
When I finally got up around 6:30, my throat was less sore. I used some of the expectorant I was hoarding to wash away whatever remained in the cavity.
During the day I had the symptoms of fatigue: sleepiness and weak knees. I was constantly hungry.
Then, by mid-morning my throat was OK, but I was stuffed up. Whatever was causing my problems had retreated to my head.
My stomach got more upset, but then why would it be happy with every odd thing I was sending it? It doesn’t much like aspirin, and taking more yesterday would have been enough to create turmoil.
Now I’m left with the final unknown. Was it simply a cold or something worse? I couldn’t have gotten tested: my symptoms weren’t severe enough to justify one.
Will it matter, if I’m OK now? No one knows. Those Germans I mentioned yesterday found evidence the virus remained in the body after people recovered, but their sample was too small to be useful.
Would it be like malaria or chicken pox, or malaria, or more benign? We may not know for a year if there are long-term consequences. Even then, we may not know because few would get the kinds of tests the German researchers were able to use on hospitalized patients.
Sources:
Roman Wölfel, Christian Drosten, et alia. "Virological Assessment of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-2019." Nature website. 1 April 2020.
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