A morning visit – Lessening restrictions on travel – Manaus beginning to recover – Shots for flu, shingles, and pneumonia – The Republican Convention begins – Kim Jong Un – Jerry Falwell Jr. – Evening statistics
This morning EG and HG invited me to have coffee with them in their garden. During July the heat was so extreme that sitting outside for an hour or so was out of the question, but the weather during August has been more typical of the summers here: warm, certainly, but not unbearable. The garden has become profuse with growth, replete with zinnias, hostas, tomatoes, and squash, among others. HG said that since most other activities have been curtailed she has been spending a great deal of time tending to the plants and cultivating several new ones; some of the additions have been, so to speak, accidental, sprouting from seeds that were in the compost.
We discussed several matters. EG and HG have become grandparents for the third time, and HG went up to New York to visit her daughter for a few weeks. The quarantine restrictions, therefore, affected her very little, since she was staying there for over two weeks and was not traveling anywhere outside of her daughter’s residence outside of visits to the hospital. She told me that there was no evidence of checkpoints, even though she drove over the George Washington Bridge to reach her daughter’s residence, which is somewhat to the north of New York City and close to Long Island Sound. The delivery came off very well and the restrictions imposed by the virus did not interfere much with the usual procedures. The only recommended restriction that they received was not to take the infant out in a stroller, because people instinctively stop to hover closely over a new-born infant to admire him or her. Instead, a new mother is instructed to carry the baby close to her chest, facing inwards. This account, along with my own recent experience in Jim Thorpe, makes travel (at any rate travel within the country) appear somewhat less problematic than it was formerly.
We touched upon other topics as well: the success of the Democratic Convention, the difficulties confronting the Republican Convention (which began today), and various activities that we are still able to pursue locally. EG and HG kayak a great deal, particularly in the Occoquan River in the area of the Bull Run Marina. HG has expressed an interest in going up Old Rag, so we will try to do so at a date in late September, when the temperatures should be cooler but which will still be well before the season for the leaves changing color, at which point the route becomes much more crowded.
EG and HG had been on a tour of the Amazon well before the virus had been heard of, and their cruise included a visit to Manaus. During the spring this city was stricken horribly by the virus, resulting in the hospital system strained beyond its capacity, patients being turned away, gravediggers being forced to inter people hurriedly in trenches. But now, without any intervention, the ravages of the virus have begun to recede. Manaus has not imposed any restrictions, and yet it is now returning to near normalcy. Immunologists are wondering why. There are many theories – the relative youthfulness of the population, an early establishment of herd immunity on account of the initial virulence of the virus upon the city’s population – but no one really has an answer. There is a measure of hope in this episode. Some have speculated that certain other areas that were among the most severely affected by the COVID virus are relatively safe now. New York City may be among these.
We spoke also of recent experiences in shopping for food. When I said that I had not been at Whole Foods (a popular chain in this area, notable for selling exotic foods at somewhat esoteric prices) for months on account of the lines there, HG told me that it was best not to go during the so-called senior hours, early in the morning. The optimum time instead is mid-day, when the number of shoppers is considerably lower. I found this to be true, for when I left them I went over to the local Whole Foods store, which is just a few minutes’ drive from their house. I got in without any difficulty at all and was able to search for various items at leisure.
Upon returning home I went to the local CVS to obtain various vaccines: flu, pneumonia, and shingles. I have been putting this measure off for some time, but there is general agreement that such vaccines improve one’s chances against catching the COVID virus. The main reason I’ve been dilatory about the matter is that I tend to react badly to the shingles vaccine. My arm remains sore for a few days and I frequently come down with a mild fever – not severe or long-lasting, but decidedly inconvenient. Still, such symptoms have not previously interfered with my normal activities and under the circumstances it’s best not to neglect any preventative measure. The shingles vaccine requires a follow-up within two-to-six months, so I will have to remember to get the second shot in late October or early November.
Since I have mentioned the Republican Convention, I will say that it is starting off better than might be expected. At first it was rumored that about half of the speakers would be members of Trump’s own family. That turned out to be an exaggeration; the selection of speakers actually displays a certain degree of diversity, with a combination of prominent politicians and an assortment of others from various walks of life. Interestingly, although Kellyanne Conway announced that she is stepping down from her position of counselor to the president yesterday evening, she is still listed among the scheduled speakers. Trump secured the nomination tonight (although his formal acceptance will occur on Thursday evening), with Pence as his running mate, and thus the remainder of the convention can be devoted to emphasizing the themes of law and order, plans to re-energize the economy, and of course a few harangues against Biden and the Democrats generally.
There were occasional slip-ups, to be sure. For instance, at one point Trump proposed that his supporters should chant “Twelve more years!” instead of “Four more years!”; which is a fairly suggestive indication of how his mind works. Setting aside the difficulties he might encounter in overturning the 22nd Amendment, it is characteristic that he apparently plans to hold the reins of power even when he is 90 years old (well, 86 anyway, but who’s counting?).
Then, too, he has issued a warning that November’s elections would be “rigged,” while presenting no evidence – evidence to back his various assertions never having been, to borrow a term from bridge players, his long suit. If Biden manages to obtain a majority in the electoral vote (he almost certainly will obtain a majority in the popular one), he may still have to be prepared for a struggle to get into the White House, since Trump has more or less declared that he will not leave it no more what the election results might be.
In writing about Donald Trump it came into my head by some odd association or other to see how matters are doing with another well-known national leader, namely, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He has appeared in public only a few times since April; and a few observers are speculating that these appearances have been faked and that he may actually be in a coma, with his sister Kim Yo Jong quietly taking over his position. Transitions of power from one family member to the next have been fairly mysterious in that country for some time. It was months before the North Koreans heard officially that Kim Jong-il, Kim’s father, had died and that his son had taken his place. It is not encouraging news: Kim Yo Jong has shown no indications whatever towards favoring reform and, in her efforts to cement her hold on the country, she may prove to be its most ruthless dictator yet.
Jerry Falwell Jr. is being pressured to resign from Liberty University. He has received criticism ever since he posted a photo of himself via Instagram of himself and an unidentified young woman, both with unzippered pants and in an attitude suggesting intimacy. In addition, a man named Giancarlo Granda today claimed that he initiated a sexual relationship with both Falwell and Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell – which is fairly versatile of him. I find Falwell’s sexual adventures relatively unimportant in comparison with his reckless disregard of the safety of the students several months earlier, brazenly ignoring the restrictions imposed by the state officials and re-opening the university despite their warnings, an action that promptly led to several students getting infected with the virus. But at any rate the university administrators are trying to get rid of him now; and even though it’s a bit late in the day and done for the wrong reasons, one cannot do other than hope that they will prevail.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 23,800,659; # of deaths worldwide: 816,514; # of cases U.S.: 5,914,682; # of deaths U.S.: 181,094. The daily case count increase is still in the neighborhood of 40,000 and the number of new deaths something over 400; one hopes that this lowering trend, such as it is, will continue.