The Latest

1.  The governor of Maryland has ordered non-essential businesses to close as of 5 pm today.  We had already heard from our dentist and eye doctor that they would only deal with emergencies.  Don't know if they will have to close further.

2. Here we now need to take our temperatures in the morning and fill out a sheet with listings of symptoms.  Check any symptoms we have or the box no symptoms.  We put it back in the envelope and leave out on our shelf by 10:30 am.  We'll get another sheet later in the day for the next morning.

3. Dan inquired and just got word that we can checkout some weights for exercising in our apartments.  That's good news.  I used the community app to do two fitness programs this morning.  Weights will be a help to keep fit.

4.  My brother in law in Charlottesville suburbs, who I wrote had the symptoms of Covid-19, learned from test results that it was not influenza A.  He was not tested for coronavirus!  I'd take from that he did/does have it.  His case doesn't appear in the count.  Dan says he read the real count is 10 times what we read.  Now I understand why since many people are getting it but not tested.

5.  I've decided that to keep away the blues I need to keep to my old routines and modify as needed.  Like since no Muscle Toning class to attend now use that time to do the online exercise.  I'm also making a list of what to accomplish in the day so I can feel productive.  Writing this blog post is on the list and will cross it off as soon as this is posted.

Here's another funny to close:

More Restrictions and Time Out

A new memo appeared on our shelf outside our apartment door.  Updated restrictions based upon the CDC, CMS, state health department and Life Care Services.

No more movies in the auditorium.

No more fitness classes or fitness videos in the auditorium.

Limits on gatherings of every sort in our common areas.

Limit of two on the elevator at a time.

Going out of the building only for essentials like doctor visits, prescriptions that can't be delivered  or food though they'd prefer we order groceries to be delivered.

We try to take time out every day.  Thursday we went to our old stomping grounds to walk along the Patapsco River.  Wouldn't you know we met up with former neighbors we haven't seen since we moved.  We kept our distance especially when they said they'd just returned from a 22 day cruise on the Amazon.  Saturday we went to the Howard County Conservancy to walk.

Here are scenes from our riverside walk.

Across the river the railroad is going passed.  Dan counting the cars did his multiplication and figured that the train was 1.25-1.5 miles long. 

Can you see the tree blossoms?

Spring beauties all over.

A twisted tree.

Evidence that a beaver has been at work.

Skunk cabbage.

The trail was muddy in places.

More beaver work.

Here the beaver has ringed the tree which means it will die.

Dan said of this beaver stump that it was the work of this beaver's grandfather.

This poor tree has this snake like vine growing on it.

Only picture from Conservancy walkway of this barred owl in its cage.

Next time we walk I'll take my camera.  The iPhone pictures seem so dark most of the time.  Is there some setting I should change?

Words for All of Us

Emily Landon, chief infectious disease epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine gave these words yesterday.  Here's the article with video clip.  

Her most important words were these:

“It’s really hard to feel like you’re saving the world when you’re watching Netflix from your couch. But if we do this right, nothing happens,” Landon said. “A successful shelter-in-place means you’re going to feel like it was all for nothing, and you’d be right: Because nothing means that nothing happened to your family. And that’s what we’re going for here.”

****

In other news, it looks like my brother in law in Charlottesville, VA has weathered the virus.  I don't think he ever had a confirming test but it all seems like that it was Covid-19.  Now we have to see if my sister gets it. They have 8 grandchildren that they cannot see except through video even though they live close by.

****

Need something to laugh at?

Tracking Covid-19 Cases

I added a sidebar to track the numbers of new cases in Howard County where I live.  I was initially relying on a local paper but its numbers were inflated compared to The Washington Post so I'm using the Post as my source from now on.

Maryland recorded its first death from the virus today.  It won't be the last.
Update: since I originally posted new numbers came out.  My county doubled overnight and now stands at 16 cases one of whom is a 5 year old child.

So here's a bit of humor unrelated to these times or maybe not.  We all may be getting that tour.