COVID-19 Tip-toeing in….

This mornings walk was, as usual, uneventful.  I met one couple with dog, and one single woman.  It was a little  chilly.  My walk is about two miles at a moderate pace.

Back home our neighbor said that golf, marinas and. bait shops were okay to open; indeed the top of the front page of the paper directed us to the Sports section “OK, GRAB A TEE TIME.  Governor says courses can open.”

Around noon, I took my usual drive, this time my destination was Afton, where there is a big marina.  The temp was in the early 60s, bright sunshine.  I met a squad of about 100 motorcycles, probably out on their inaugural tour.  The Marina is closed, a sign said, but there were signs of life.

Somebody pulled onto the road pulling a small fishing boat; I passed a couple of golf courses and there were a few out there too.  And there were a few walkers on the sidewalk.  The drive was a no drama deal.

Earlier I’d had a long phone conversation with a cousin who said she has respiratory problems, so she doesn’t push any envelope.  She stays inside, others do the shopping when needed, occasionally husband and she take a little drive as I do.

The paper had a front-page picture of the protestors at the Governors residence.  The paper said 800 were there.  I recalled: A peace march against the Iraq war with only 800 participants would not have qualified for even a small mention inside the paper a dozen years ago.

Another headline said that “another pork plant is latest hit by virus”.  This one in Worthington MN, about 60 miles down the road from Sioux Falls SD “and produces more than 4% of the nation’s pork supply”; very large, but apparently smaller than the Sioux Falls operation.

Yesterday, a friend of Cathy’s called to say she took a one-month leave from her position at a local super market.  She’s been terrified about being exposed to the virus.  She needs the job; she’s also medically vulnerable.

On and on go the stories.

The problem with COVID-19 is the contagion.  It’s not like “people drowning” or “automobile fatalities” or such.  It is contagion, and the difficulty of telling who is contagious, which can actually be anyone, including myself.  A couple of blogs back, on public health, a friend sent the story of “Typhoid Mary”, famous in the lore of spreading the disease, not knowing she had it.

But, it’s a nice day here, and in many and sundry ways people are trying to figure how to to reasonably deal with a problem that truly affects the entire globe, and will probably be an ongoing problem far after the traditional ‘flu season’ is supposed to be over.

My mask. Still getting used to it.