I fear I am falling into a state of suspended disbelief here in the Florida Keys. They keep telling us the worst is yet to come but so far less than a thousand of 75,000 residents have been tested and the total number of cases as of yesterday was stuck at less than 70. Not 70,000, that was not a misprint.
Light relief in the form of the Moo Car. At the last supper I had with friends before we all went to Gethsemane to expiate our sins, somehow the subject of the Moo Car came up and lo and behold last week I saw it and I photographed it, unoccupied as it was. Much hilarity I trust and thank you Chuck for the reminder.
In the world in which we are currently living summer heat is covering us like a blanket suddenly. The canal waters behind my house are fast losing their cool winter edge and the daily swim is more pleasure than pain by now. The photo below illustrates our general lack of movement, many bicycles, a few golf carts cross paths but of cars there are not many. Some people still have to drive to work but even the bridge coming into Key West poses no apparent threat of traffic jams as lanes close and repair work continues.
Driving up Margaret Street I caught these two strolling and epitomizing the new state of car free Key West. It's the zombie apocalypse and they are strolling amiably along in the best tradition of insouciance in the face of unspeakable terror.
I wanted to walk the docks a bit and breathe fresh salt air unpolluted by human activity but it occurred to me social distancing could be impossible to maintain on a platform less than six feet wide with steep drop offs on either side to the water. I had to limit myself to the telephoto.
Sunset walks are a relief from the rest of day, the places I go where people who live cheek by jowl in the city have no interest. Nature keeps on keeping on, doing very well we are told where human activity has shrunk. In the Keys there are signs of Spring amidst year round summer weather.
I look at the greenery and look for the odd leaf out. Edward Weston did this to astonishing effect and I wonder at his dedication to making things look different than what they are.
The quiet times walking Rusty who prefers a nose down position gives me time to clear my mind while looking for contrasts and shapes. It is freeing also because this isn't my job and I am only answerable to myself.
There are no expansive views around here and where there are in the Keys they are usually over water. That's where the people gather to look out across salt ponds scattered through the Lower Keys and look for the sun to set. Rusty and I are deep in the bushes, socially distant doing nothing useful.
If Rusty could talk, and there are days I'm surprised he actually can't, I doubt he would be able to say with any confidence how coronavirus scares have affected his life. On my days off we walk further but day to day his food magically appears, his water bowl is clean and he wanders the house and the deck and the yard at will, as always.
As long as I can keep saying that I figure coronavirus is bearable. That the SPCA is asking for food donations for people who are running out of money to feed their dogs is disturbing. They have handy drop off bins and addinga couple of bulky items to the shopping list is not at all inconvenient.
Rusty is a jealous dog. When a neighbor's dog came by looking for suckers with treats (us) he was not at all happy and he let me know by following me closely and staring hard at me in disapproval. This is a one dog home coronavirus or not and I am not allowed to forget it even for a moment. That won't change for any disease or injury, his or mine.
11 comments:
In your Margaret St. "stroll" picture the 4th car up on the right, the white car, is a '73 to '74 Volkswagen Thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_181 I believe only 25,000 were sold in the USA in those two long ago years, and if you look at what they trade for today it will blow your mind. https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars-for-sale/volkswagen-thing-for-sale I probably have not seen one in 15 years elsewhere but there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS one in KW every time I've been there. It was yellow, then orange, and now apparently it is white (not repainted, but a different car.). Someone there must have one so it seems. They were known for rusting very badly. Which means someone is finding a pristine example each time and sentencing it to death
How do you thing you would cope in a similar situation a couple of years from now while entirely on the road?
I don’t know how they're doing testing/etc, in FL, but let me give you a taste of what's happening up here in MD: we were doing testing of only the most likely C19 patients. So any mildly sick or asymptomatic ppl were not getting tested (even though they could well have had C19). Then those tests sat in a variety of state and private labs for a while. Suddenly, over the course of a couple days, the logjam broke and hundreds of test results came back, making it look like C19 was going to kill 90% of the state. Then the numbers dropped back down to the previous levels. Then they opened up a huge drive through testing site at one of the football stadiums, and many many more ppl got tested, again making it look like we'd had another huge surge in cases.
In actuality, the numbers were rising pretty sharply until the governor imposed a stay at home order, at which point they began rising much more gradually. I don’t think we've plateaued yet, but we're up one day, down the next, then the next, then back up for a day or two, etc. (I think the models said we're supposed to peak on Saturday, but the numbers sure don’t show that.) People are mumbling about reopening stuff up here, but I don’t think we're anywhere near that. It would truly suck to open things back up only to have a rebound in infections and have to shut it all down again.
I think you folks down there probably need at least another 3-4 weeks of stay-at-home to get a handle on what the numbers actually look like. Good luck snd take care!
Love the pictures that show how much rusty loves you! Just the long daily walks show how much you love him. Take care.
RE COVID-19 causing STAY AT HOME orders: There is a meme set inside a residential home of a dog starring at a man with the dog thinking, "After 1,213 days of praying that my human would never, ever leave me my prayers have been answered. I pray that things will never change." LOL
So... the thing ( which I had not noticed) I know the owner of the orange one and she is as funny as her car. She taught me how to get up off the floor after my accident as she had been through the same thing only worse.
The trouble with successfully suppressing the virus is that it makes people think it’s a false alarm and do they reopen. They did that in China and apparently people are getting sick again. I am amazed Miami isn’t doing worse but the statistics for this disease seem suspect to me as testing as you point out has a random quality to it when it gets done at at all. I only know I have seen no one in my circle come down with symptoms never mind getting hospitalized.
Were we in the van we would be parked well out of sight isolated and alone. Our van was always planned to be off grid. We don’t intend to stay in campsites much and hope we can travel to areas with fewer amenities than we are used to in the US. So going to ground seems not that difficult even in Florida with Google maps and satellite views you will find lots of open spaces. The trouble for most travelers is they clump together for “safety” and draw attention to themselves.
When I think of stay at home orders and dogs I hope people who never take their dogs places will realize how stultifying home imprisonment is. Rusty is already well traveled but I hope the next decade will blow his little mind. I look forward to introducing him to moose and llamas.
Meanwhile we wait.
Yep. There are only two dozen cases in my zip code, yet my county has the highest number of cases in the state. There are many different ingredients that go into “the curve.”
I saw your picture in the shout out to dispatchers in Konk Life. Nice of them to give credit to those behind the scenes doing a job that most take for granted.
Regards,
Dave Richardson
My picture appearing on Facebook and in Konk Color is the unintended consequence of working day shift. The public information officer needed a picture for her Facebook post and there I was running tags and driver licenses. In the good old days I'd have been at home asleep waiting for night shift to start.
Now that you have been on the day shift for a while, what's your preference, days or nights?
Days go by faster and with the reduced call volume night shift is a total drag with very few calls especially after midnight I'm told. I'm not doing overtime at the moment as others want it and that means I get more time at home otherwise night shift is better for time at home with Rusty during the day. I can do either but days are fine for now. I expect to be back on nights later in the summer when I forsee a personnel shuffle and I'll be fine with it. Interestingly I think my new sleep pattern with the CPAP since I was in the hospital makes sleep much easier even if I got back to nights.
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