Summer temperatures arrive – Cicadas – Inconsistency about public use of facemasks – The Eden Center – The roses of Bon Air Park – Travel guidelines revised for the vaccinated – COVID in India and Latin America – The Capitol rioters – Evening statistics
Warm weather – as in close to 90 degrees or more – has come to the area. It always is somewhat uncertain each year when the milder weather of spring will give way to the fierce heat and accompanying humidity of mid-summer. Sometimes we are able to enjoy cooler weather until the first or second week of June, but this year the heat has arrived slightly earlier than usual. Up to this point we have had a number of wonderful days for the season, neither too warm nor too cold, with low humidity – very different from last year, which remained fairly chilly until just a few days before the temperatures became oppressively hot. And it is still relatively cool in the evenings, so it is not necessary to resort to air conditioning just yet. I am certainly lazier as a result of the heat; hence the hiatus in entries.
Another sign of the shift in season is the emergence of the cicadas as their 17-year cycle comes to its dramatic end. North American cicadas spend 99.5% of their lives underground in an immature state (known as a “nymph”). They emerge upon maturity and are active for 4-6 weeks, looking for mates and reproducing. The males aggregate in chorus centers and call to attract females; in my area the air is filled with their continual humming. The females lay their eggs in the stems of woody plants, after which all of the adult cicadas die and the brood disappears. They are quite harmless, at any rate as far as humans are concerned. They bite only when they are handled, and their bites are not painful and do not transmit diseases. They can damage young trees on account of their feeding upon juices flowing through tree roots and the population of squirrels may be negatively affected by a cicada cycle because the egg-laying activity of the females can damage mast crops. There are about 3,000 species of cicada in all; the North American variety has by far the longest cycle.
I managed to get out today, despite the warm weather, joining AD and RH with others to go along the Appalachian Trail there-and-back between Jenkins Gap and the Gravel Springs shelter. It was about 12 miles, with 2400 feet of elevation gain. The most dominant feature of the hike was the wild azaleas, flamboyantly pink in hue, while the air was continually scented with honeysuckle. It was at least 10 degrees cooler in the higher elevations than in the lowlands of DC and its suburbs, with clouds to veil the glare of the sun and cool breezes to keep the humidity down. After the hike we discussed various matters concerning the Wanderbirds club, including the annual picnic (which was canceled last year but which will be held this year) and the possibility of its imitating the Capital Hiking Club in resuming bus hikes. Its approach, probably, will be somewhat more gradual, resorting to carpool hikes for a few weeks initially and then determining at what point resuming bus rides to the trailheads is feasible.
The managers of retail stores are clearly puzzled as to how to deal with the new CDC guidelines on facemasks. In one store I visited on Wednesday a notice was posted stating the facemasks were optional for those who were fully vaccinated. One of the cashiers had no facemask. On Thursday and Friday I shopped at other stores, and in these masks were required for everyone. There is no consistency; policies vary from one store to the next, and it is best, as before, to take along a facemask every time one goes outside of the house in case it may be needed.
I wondered about this time last year whether the Eden Center would survive the pandemic. It is something of a landmark in Arlington, a shopping center set up by the extensive Vietnamese community that has settled in the area. The center has several stores that are convenient for obtaining products imported from Southeast Asia. It certainly underwent some difficult times over the past several months; but the stores, when I visited the center on Friday, appear to be as active as before. Its extensive supermarket is as well-equipped as ever, with an extensive variety of fish (I picked up some fresh halibut, which is practically unobtainable anywhere else), ducks roasted in the Cantonese style, a selection of vegetables that includes fresh bamboo shoots and water chestnuts., and so on.
One reason that I went to the center is that I had driven that morning to Bon Air Park, which is about a mile away. The park is not large but its rose garden has something of a local reputation among the communities of Arlington and Fairfax counties. Last year the gardens were closed off and one could see the roses only from a distance; but this year there are no such restrictions and many people besides myself were strolling amongst the red, orange, white, pink, and yellow blooms, which are at this point at the beginning of their peak.
The EU is now set to admit vaccinated travelers to their various countries. By now nearly half of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated and over 60% have received at least one dose. Seniors in particular have done well in this respect, with nearly three-quarters of them fully vaccinated and 85% who have received at least one dose. All of those who obtain their second dose at least 14 days before they travel will be allowed to enter various European countries, although regulations will differ from one to another. France will be open to vaccinated travelers by June 9th. Spain will also be open some time in June, although a specific date has not been set. Germany requires a negative COVID test from all foreign travelers, regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, and Iceland are already open for foreign travel. Alas, Canada will remain off-limits to American until at least June 21st.
The effects of the disease in India are worse than ever. The country has run out of space to accommodate its dead. Cremations, which are an important component of Hindu ritual, are now held in public parks because the crematoria have run out of fuel for the funeral pyres. Burial grounds for Muslims and Christians have reached full capacity. Only 40 million Indians are fully vaccinated, less than 3% of the nation’s population. It is true that the rate of infection appears to have peaked. Earlier in the month, there were over 400,000 new cases a day; now the daily average has been well under 300,000 for the past week.
Latin America has also lost well over 1 million people, accounting for nearly 30% of the deaths worldwide. About 89% of these have occurred in five countries: Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, and Peru.
The Republicans have been trying to block the creation of an independent commission to investigate the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. Some have attempted to downplay the violence of the events on that day. Let us hope, however, that they are not slandering the rioters by claiming that these have been leading a kind of double life, brandishing firearms and shouting death threats at the top of their lungs while all along being peaceful and completely harmless in reality. That would be hypocrisy.
Statistics for 5/20 as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 165,823,630; # of deaths worldwide: 3,444,033; # of cases U.S.: 33,832,094; # of deaths; U.S.: 602,610.
Statistics for 5/21 statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 166,453,430; # of deaths worldwide: 3,456,978; # of cases U.S.: 33,861,716; # of deaths; U.S.: 603,395.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 167,026,921; # of deaths worldwide: 3,468,001; # of cases U.S.: 33,880,552; # of deaths; U.S.: 603,862.