Assessing the Cub Run Trail – An irresistible appeal – An unusual vehicle chase – An indirect victim of COVID – Evening statistics
Yesterday I went along with WN along the Cub Run trail west of Compton Road to ascertain its condition and whether it can be restored. We equipped ourselves with hedge clippers, and they were greatly needed, for the trail is wretchedly overgrown and all but impassable in its current state. We managed to cut our way through, but the work that we accomplished can only be temporary. It will take a fully equipped work team to clear the trail of blowdowns and brambles and make it usable again. Still, it is far from impossible to reclaim it, and its reclamation is very desirable. The alternative is to use the park road that accesses the pavilion in Bull Run Regional Park, which is uninteresting in itself and which is not available to pedestrians at all during the park’s annual two-month-long Festival of Lights. There actually is a signpost at the end of the trail where we emerged (at the underpass close to the road that leads to the Bull Run shooting center), as well as a faded blaze on one of the nearby trees, and I can well imagine the dismay of anyone who follows the direction indicated by these, only to encounter an unrelenting series of briars and fallen tree limbs.
Recently I read a plea for contributions from The Guardian which, I must confess, is not without merit. Arwa Mahdawi, a columnist for the paper, reported that Elon Musk referred to The Guardian as “the most insufferable newspaper on planet Earth.” To which she blithely added, “I’m not sure there is any greater compliment.” The appeal was rounded off as follows: “If you are able, please do consider supporting us. Only with your help can we continue to get on Elon Musk’s nerves.” Who can resist such a worthy cause? I uploaded a contribution immediately after reading this.
The Guardian proved its worth by featuring a story I ran across immediately afterwards. In Boone, North Carolina, Ronnie Hicks stole a vehicle and, after onlookers reported his erratic driving to the police, they energetically went in pursuit. They were able to catch up with relatively little effort, for the stolen vehicle was a John Deere tractor, whose maximum speed is 20 miles per hour. Stopping it, however, was another matter. The 43-year-old hot-rodder ignored the policemen’s cries to halt and, although the police tried to immobilize him with tire deflation devices, these “were not terribly effective on a tractor,” as Andy LeBeau, Boone’s police chief, later admitted. Even though both front tires deflated and one completely separated from its rim, the tractor was still operative. So the slow-motion chase continued, going along several highways and interstates, with other vehicles from the county police and the North Carolina State Highway patrolmen joining in. Eventually Hicks turned down a private road, jumped off, ran away, was cornered, drew a knife out, was tased by officers, and was then arrested. He was charged with felony counts of fleeing to elude arrest and assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, along with misdemeanor counts of driving while impaired, resisting a public officer, and reckless driving. Also, just to cover all bases, he was cited for driving left of the center lane (and no, I’m not making that last item up).
From this farcical account I pass to one much grimmer. A trial in Wales is making the headlines concerning the appalling conditions under which a young girl, Kaylea Titford, died at the age of 16 in October, 2020. Kaylea suffered from spina bifida, making it impossible for her to get around except in a wheelchair, and hydrocephalus (“water on the brain,” a condition that has a mortality rate of over 50% if it is untreated). The account of her final months reads like a primer of parental neglect. She had outgrown the wheelchair she used in earlier years, which would have been unusable in any case, since it had flat tires and needed a new front wheel. She thus was rendered immobile, even to the point of being confined to her bed and being unable to be wheeled to the shower. Her parents rarely cooked at their home, relying on takeout from restaurants instead; and it is not surprising that, under a regimen of rich foods and with no opportunity for getting exercise (or even for getting out of doors at all), it is unsurprising that her weight ballooned to over 300 pounds, with a body mass index of 70. When she went into a coma and the police were called in, she was found lying upon filthy, soiled bedlinen and pads that had absorbed several days’ leakages from her body, with matted, tangled hair, toenails that had not be cut for at least six months, and skin so severely inflamed and ulcerated that in some places it had split, displaying the fatty layer underneath. Her parents appear to have been as incompetent as they were negligent. Alun Titford, her father, by his own admission has not prepared a meal for himself or anyone else for the past twenty years and never cleaned the house on his own, leaving such tasks to his partner. Sarah Lee Jones, the mother, did make some half-hearted attempts from time to time to mitigate the perpetual squalor, but Titford’s sloth appears to have been infectious and eventually she too succumbed to a lifestyle of sheer inertia.
Sadly, it appears that COVID was an indirect cause of this unfortunate young woman’s death. Before the pandemic she was sufficiently proficient on the wheelchair as to be able to attend school and even to participate in basketball games and to run track by pushing her wheelchair. But in March, 2020 the lockdown occurred and she was then confined to her home, where, virtually abandoned by her parents, she died just seven months later.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 672,495,595; # of deaths worldwide: 6,739,058; # of cases U.S.: 103,803,483; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,128,217.