The Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania – More congested traffic conditions – Medicare – News from India and Pakistan – Evening statistics
Restrictions are continually lifting and travel between states no longer appears to be an issue, at any rate for day trips. I therefore resumed my goal of undertaking as much of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania that appears feasible. Today I went to Rte. 325, and hiked between the road and the Table Rock view (the end point of my previous hike in the area). It was 15 miles round trip; however, outside of the initial ascent to the top of Peters Mountain, it was relatively level: little ups and downs, some of them steep, but none of significant length. It was rocky in some areas (the AT in Pennsylvania is notorious for this) but not unduly so; however, it had rained heavily last night and sometimes the rocks were slippery. Even though it was longer than yesterday’s excursion, I was much less tired at the end. Yesterday I was hiking in temperatures approaching 90 degrees; today I was in higher elevations – not a great deal (Peters Mountain is less than 1300 feet above sea level) but enough to make the air temperature significantly cooler. I thought that the number of hikers would be fairly low for this section of the AT, but during the first hour I encountered more than a dozen, most of them going northward as I was going south. After that I hardly saw anybody for the remainder of the hike, both on the way to Table Rock and on the return to Rte. 325. Why this was so I can only conjecture; my guess is that several hikers were camping overnight and started their trek for the day fairly early.
Traffic was heavier going back that it has been during the past three months and it seems likely that we’ll be reverting to our usual congestion in and out of the Beltway over the next few weeks. Traffic on I-66 between Vienna and Fairfax was moving very slowly indeed.
I received my Medicare bill today in the mail. During the interval between the beginning of my retirement and my 65th birthday, medical insurance was one of my largest expenses. Once I was eligible for Medicare, my insurance bill went down by 80% and in addition I am receiving a supplement from my former employer to defray such expenses. Medical insurance, then, costs me relatively little. I mention this circumstance because the current bill contained an enclosure stating, somewhat apologetically, that Medicare payments could not be deferred on account of the economic changes that have come about as a result of the virus. In my case it did not matter at all, but the inclusion of such an announcement must mean that many seniors will be hard-pressed to make their monthly Medicare payments. Obamacare, during the previous administration, had been instituted for the purpose of guaranteeing medical insurance for all citizens; but it appears that that the effort towards that goal will be thoroughly undermined by the combination of the strain on our health system imposed by the virus and the hostility of our current president towards the achievements of any administration except his own.
India and Pakistan are both seeing large increases of virus cases. India has eased its restrictions after instituting one of the most rigid lockdowns worldwide in March. The new spike has come after the restrictions were lifted and may have been a direct consequence of their easement. But what can they do? At least 100,000,000 Indians have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdown. Pakistan has similar concerns; its Prime Minister mulled over extending the lockdown restrictions but in the end decided against it.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 6,839,244; # of deaths worldwide: 397,441; # of cases U.S.: 1,965,551; # of deaths U.S.: 111,375. At this rate our case count will surpass two million within a day or two.