Morning statistics – The local Farmer’s Market – New hiking boots – An afternoon visit – Ominous indications in North Korea – Donald Trump at West Point – Shutdown in Beijing – Restoration in France and Australia — Pierre Nkurunziza – Evening statistics
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,765,878; # of deaths worldwide: 428,753; # of cases U.S.: 2,117,027; # of deaths U.S.: 116,831.
More stalls were open this morning at the Farmer’s Market than there were last week. Customers and vendors wore masks, but we were able to pick out produce by hand. One vendor said that even the regulations for directing the flow of pedestrian traffic would probably be retired by the following week. I’m a bit apprehensive of the potential result. Peru, it may be remembered, took extensive steps to circumvent the spread of the virus, but the ubiquitous open-air markets defeated this objective; people went to the markets every day, and as a result they were infecting one another continually.
I went to the REI in Woodbridge, which is open to customers (the ones closer to home are still restricted to curbside pickup only). At long last I was able to get hiking shoes. The salesperson told me that many people have been ordering shoes in different sizes online. For example, a person who normally might wear a size ten boot would order pairs of the same boot in sizes 9½, 10, and 10½, try them on, and then either mail back the two pairs that did not fit or arrange with a store to return them at the curbside. It was, as she herself admitted, a cumbersome process, which is why I prefer to try footwear on directly in the store. In the event I got the boots I needed; they don’t pinch the toes, as some brands do, and at the same time they do not slide off of my heels. From there I proceeded to break them in, and what could be more natural than to do so at Rippon’s Landing, which is only a mile away from the store? I went to the parking area and walked down the Neabsco Creek boardwalk and through part of the Metz wetlands. It was a lovely day: clear skies, fresh air, low humidity, slightly breezy. Red-winged blackbirds flitted over the reeds and lilies, while a blue heron soared overhead. The water-lilies are not yet at the peak of their bloom, but I saw many large yellow flowers just on the verge of opening out.
At the parking lot someone left various bulbs for free that people could pick up to take home. I selected four of the daffodil bulbs and planted them when I returned. We shall see next spring whether they will take root.
After lunch I visited my friends DC and JC. Their daughter FC has just returned from California. She and her husband will be staying in the area until July 30th, when they will be moving to Providence, RI. She had a position at the university in Santa Barbara, but when she told me her reasons for giving it up and moving back East I whole-heartedly entered into her point of view. Santa Barbara is very expensive, being notable chiefly as a retirement area for those in the upper middle class and beyond. Moreover, it is not easy to walk comfortably there, similar in Los Angeles in this respect – it is very sprawled out and unless one lives in the center of the town (i.e., the most costly area), it is difficult to access either stores or parks on foot. Finally, she prefers the climate of the East to that of the West Coast, a preference that echoes my own; the marked seasonal changes of this area are more congenial to my mind than the oscillation between the “wet” and the “dry” months of the Pacific Coast.
We sat in the garden, where JC has grown a great variety of produce. The mild weather was very comfortable for sitting outdoors in the shade. We drank the Taiwanese tea that she always has on hand (and she gave me some out of the surplus in her kitchen to take back home, and some fresh oregano as well) and chatted leisurely about both past memories and current events, while observing the wildlife activity in the yard: squirrels darting here and there in search of food, and various birds migrating to the bird feeder, including a species of woodpecker that I have never seen so close to human habitations before.
As with my previous visit, my experience of today has been very different from the state of affairs described by various headlines.
North Korea is being heard from again. The state of Kim Jong-un’s health is still rather murky; but his sister Kim Yo-Jong has recently undertaken the role of attack dog, slamming South Korea for its inability to control the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by two defectors from North Korea and rattling the sabers in the typical style of the regime. Up to this point Kim Yo-Jong has maintained a low profile, although she is estimated to be the most important person in the country after her brother and his most likely successor if he dies. If appearances are any indication, she is much more self-controlled than he, whose over-indulgence of his appetites is fairly easy to discern from his photographs. He is puffy and flabby, with sunken eyes and leaden complexion, the very picture of a man who eats and drinks to excess without taking any exercise. She is slim, well-groomed, self-possessed; her features are fairly regular, but the cold stoniness of her eyes suggests that she will be an even more implacable dictator than her brother whenever she assumes the reins of power.
Kim Jong-un is not the only national leader whose health is a matter of speculation. Donald Trump delivered the commencement address at the 2020 US Military Academy Graduation Ceremony in West Point, and during that ceremony he appeared unable to lift a glass of water with one hand to his lips and to have difficulty walking down a short flight of stairs. He insists that he is in perfect health but he does turn 74 tomorrow and medical observers suggest that these lapses indicate serious neurological issues. Then again this may be wishful thinking on their part.
China has shut down the largest wholesale food market in Beijing and has put lockdown restrictions in the surrounding neighborhood after several dozen people tested positive for the virus. This is especially troubling because the last local case there occurred 50 days earlier. China does not report asymptomatic cases as part of its total case count, which means that its official figure of 74 cases still active is greatly under-reported.
There is some good news from abroad. France’s death toll has been under 30 people for four consecutive days; at one point the daily death toll was more than 800. And Australia, after having undergone the most intense drought in living memory, has had above-average rainfall over the past several months. The crops of numerous farms have been restored and many areas are now much less desiccated.
It has been confirmed that the death of Burundi’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza, is the result of the coronavirus, making him the first state leader to succumb to COVID-19. Burundi has officially reported 94 cases and one death; but again, it is almost certainly under-reporting. It is highly unlikely that a man who has access to the best medical treatment that the entire country can afford is its only fatality.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,855,258; # of deaths worldwide: 431,728; # of cases U.S.: 2,142,017; # of deaths U.S.: 117,526.