Death and Taxes

Latest Figures  

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  1,040,223 sick; 
               59,819 dead
   World: 3,173,410 sick,
                220,413 dead

The US has had over a million people sick and more than 50k dead. And as certain as the sky is now bluer with less traffic to create smog, those numbers will continue to grow as we open up and go out. The curve has been flattened, but the area underneath remains the same, just spread out over a longer period of time.

Our other certainty is taxes, so, even though the IRS has generously ruled that, due to the coronavirus, Americans do not have to file until July 15th, rather than the usual April 15th, I decided to get our papers together. I usually wait for the deadline to loom, then frantically try to get it all done. Why not give myself a break this year? Not wanting to schlep a package to the post office, I have dutifully scanned it all and forwarded the file to Dennis who has prepared our return for years. I had convinced myself that I would then throw away all the actual papers, but I was wrong, and once again I have the lot bulldog-clipped and tossed into my important papers box. I have been able to scan and pitch our medical receipts, so one small step towards the paperless society.

The later filing date was a hope to keep the economy more intact if we didn’t pay taxes for a few months and used the money to support local businesses, which, of course, are all closed. I appreciate the thought since I’d rather keep control of my money as long as possible, but I’m not clear this idea was thought through. And, by the way, I read that those of us who make quarterly estimated payments still have our June 15th payment on time. Huh? The down side is that since I make sure we always have to pay a little, not get a refund, the IRS doesn’t have bank routing and account numbers to be able to deposit our $1,200/adult stimulus money. Social Security has the information. Big Brother doesn’t seem very organized. Thank goodness we weren’t planning on spending the money in the near future. Actually we were planning to parcel  it out to our local food bank and nature groups, but they’ll still be needing money, no matter when we get it. Perhaps we will be some of the lucky people who get a real check, with ”Donald J Trump” written on the memo line. Certainly suitable for framing.

I also read that American citizens married to illegal aliens are specifically excluded from receiving a stimulus payment. Talk about hateful legislation. Fortunately lawsuits are filed. Unfortunately, I’d bet the majority of the people in this group are people who need the money now, not in years when the courts finally rule. One more letter to be sent to my Congress people.

My Life Goes On

Naples High, Class of 1967

The song “How Can I Keep from Singing?” runs through my head. 

          My life goes on in endless song

          Above earth’s lamentations,

          I hear the real, though far-off hymn

          That hails a new creation. 

The Rolling Stones
One World Concert for WHO

Our lives go on, changed and unchanged. We are talking with our family and friends more, we are being with them less, actually not at all. Zoom is our new medium. Our phones, tables, and TVs are full of faces in black boxes. My high school girlfriends, the Rolling Stones, the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, talk and play in my living room in little squares.

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for On-Line Gala

It reminded me of a set of paintings made by an artist when we were homeschooling. (which, by the way, is how everyone is being educated now, but in the 80’s and 90’s was a rare phenomenon.) We organized an art co-op with 4 other families, whose beliefs ran from a multi-generational family who followed an Indian guru who eventually convinced them all to sell their property in Broward County and move to North Carolina to an evangelical family who didn’t believe in evolution. I’d say we were in the middle of the continuum but it was more like a set of points radiating out.

The second year, I led a unit on painting, using Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain for my guide.  As part of our weekly meetings, we visited an oncologist who was also an artist who painted portraits of HIV victims as they were then known. At the time this was a deadly, scary disease. In fact, when a woman approached our UU congregation about attending and bringing her HIV-infected foster babies, we had to do some soul searching. She had been turned away from another church. Easy to think now that we should have welcomed her with open arms, living up to our professed values, but our younger son was 18 months old and was going to be in the nursery Sunday mornings with her children. Our solution was to have Grant volunteer as did several of our gay members. Only time we hadn’t begged to get nursery workers.

The oncologist/artist painted portraits of each of the children in our co-op plus a couple of the younger sibs. Although she wouldn’t give us the paintings, she did made a collage of them, with black borders between each child’s face. A Zoom view from time before time.

We were so afraid when HIV first came into our consciousness. Could you get it from the air, from toilet seats, from them, whoever them were? Now it seems to be one more thing out there for which we need to be aware, but not afraid. No longer victims of, but rather people living with AIDS, because it is a chronic disease rather than a death sentence.

         Through all the tumult and the strife
          I hear its music ringing,
          It sounds and echo in my soul.
          How can I keep from singing?

Songwriters: Eithne Ni Bhraonain / Nicky Ryan / Roma Ryan

         

Latest Numbers

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  826,240 sick; 
               45,373 dead
   World: 2,573,143 sick,
                177,602 dead

The US now has almost double the number of deaths as our nearest, dare I say, competitor, Italy. So I guess we’re Number One in something. Partially because we are doing a better job of testing and recoding deaths accurately, partially because we are bigger country and the smaller ones like France, Spain, and Italy, are running out of victims. Africa and South America have yet to weigh in. China has reigned in its contagion, but only by draconian means with phone apps everyone must use that show whether they are allowed out or must be quarantined.

In this country, cases are beginning to show up in the hinterlands, causing meat packing plants to shut down, and food supply lines to slow, because the workers are sick. Unemployment is estimated at 22,000,000. BTW, Florida is evidently the slowest state to process unemployment claims. Another dubious Number One. I’m debating about worrying about the food pipeline. To that end, I ordered okra and eggplant seeds, the only veggies that will grow in the Florida summer heat. Plus some sunflowers and marigolds for fun. I guess they are also edible. Wonder if we can catch fish in our little canal. Maybe I should put fishing rods on the list.

If Only We Wanted to Drive Cross-country

I guess good news is that oil prices are so far down, they’re negative, implying that producers will have to pay to have their oil stored, rather selling to refineries. It’s a matter of futures, short selling, and other financial shenanigans, but the bottom line is that the bottom line is way down. Gas is cheap, if we had anywhere to go and wanted to.

Twice before I remember really low gas prices. The first was around 1970. Steve and I would drive straight from Atlanta to Naples in our muscle car with the 350+ cc engine. Dang, I can’t remember the model. During a gas war, we paid $0.25/gallon. Since that car got about 6 miles to the gallon, cheap gas really helped our poor student budget.

The second time was when my children were young, so mid-90’s. I don’t know why gas dropped in price, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but it went below $1.00. I remember having them look at the pump so they could say they’d seen 2-digit gas prices in their lifetimes. I was driving a Dodge Minivan which got a lot better mileage than the go-fast car, but it sure wasn’t as much fun to drive.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Earth Day. This Great Pause has brought blue skies to Los Angeles and cleaner water in Venice. Surely all our national parks are enjoying the respite from millions of visitors. If only humans could learn.

I Miss the Beach

“The Corona Can Has Arrived.
Another Way to Find Your Beach”  

The natives are getting restless. I saw my first lawbreaker a couple of days ago when we rode our bikes past the beach. A woman was tucked down behind the little dune, with her feet in the water. She ducked her head down when she noticed me. Sunday, as we came over Rickenbacker Causeway bridge, I saw several people swimming at the north end of the beach. A cop’s car was parked nearby, so I wonder if they just ran into the water, then were given the bum’s rush out by the police. In either case, I’m jealous. The water looks so inviting, and the weather has turned hot. How ironic is the beer truck delivering to the local grocery store?

Stuff I Thought I’d Go Through
Before Moving to House.
So Delusional.   

We were coming back from packing up our storage unit, and the best thing I can say is that it’s done. Grant took on his grumpy packing persona he drags out for all packing events, and even though I asked him to be patient, he continued to bark orders, punctuated with exasperated sighs. I’m not sure why I was surprised. Any camping trips or vacations began with his being annoyed. At least after the next three weeks, I’m unlikely to have to ever pack again.

My friend Mary, who moved from Plantation to Pace, Florida a couple of years ago, told me from her experience, at our ages, I had one move left in me. She was right. I’ve just divided it into two parts: Fort Lauderdale to Key Biscayne for the first and biggest pack, now to Windermere with a much smaller one. Of course, something’s, like the kitchen and clothes, have to be down both times, but the big move was the first. I was on my own for that one. Thank goodness I had my friend Sally come help, and I hired Ryann for the last few days. I wouldn’t have made it without them. This time, because of coronavirus fear, it’s just me and Grant.

Thinking about swimming in our new pool is keeping me going. Or should I say, my head above water. But I do wish I could go to the beach.

According to Authorities

From my friend Ana’s brother Jose, who lives in Madrid:

1. Don’t leave home, but if you have to, then leave home.
2. The masks are useless, but they’re helpful. If you can, wear one, or wear a scarf or don’t wear them at all because they’re only good if you’ve got the virus, but you could have the virus and not know it.  So, yes, masks are helpful, wear one.  Oh, there aren’t any available?  Then don’t wear one, they’re useless anyway.
3. Stores are closed, except for the ones that are open.
4. Don’t go to hospitals, unless you have to, only for emergencies. What’s an emergency? If you think you’re dying, that’s an emergency, then go.  Otherwise, stay home since it’s like the flu…Well, it’s like a bad flu.  Well, it’s much worse than the flu.  Well, you may just die.
5. Gloves don’t help, but they could help.
6. Supermarket food won’t run out, but some items are scarce if you go at the end of the day but don’t grocery shop in the morning.  Better go at the end of the day and if something’s missing, return the next day.  No, it’s best if you don’t go out.
7. After buying groceries, leave your shoes at the door and wash your clothes in the hot/hot setting.  If you wash it in the normal setting, the virus won’t go away.  The virus won’t die if it spins in the washer with soap and set to cold/hot.  However, just wash your hands for 2 minutes and that kills the virus.
8. The virus does not affect children unless for those who have it.  Well, in Madrid many children have been hospitalized, but it’s mostly elderly people (like in any disease).  So no, this does not affect children.
9. Animals do not catch the virus, but having said this, a cat in Brussels tested positive in February.  When no one was getting tested, this cat got tested because we liked him, and that’s that.  Animals don’t catch it, although we don’t really know because we don’t test them, so no, they’re healthy.  Although animals transmitted the virus, but not anymore.  A bat, a pangolin, a Labrador, well no, it was a unicorn, or a panda bear, or a dolphin.  A man ate soup of something and look what happened!
10. You’ll have lots of symptoms if you’re sick, very high fever, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, diarrea… But you can also be asymptomatic, you can have symptoms without being sick (like a psychological pregnancy) or be contagious without symptoms or have a spring allergy and then you die anyway but no, that’s not it.
11. In order to stay healthy, you must eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have at home and don’t go out to exercise.  You can exercise at home, there’s lots of videos, everyone is exercising.  Yoga, yoga, do lots of yoga.
12. Don’t get close to older people but take care of them, take food to them and medication to them.  In other words, have contact with them.
13. You can order prepared food which has perhaps been prepared by people without gloves and without masks.  When it arrives, don’t eat it and let it sit outside your home for 3 hours.
14. You can’t see your mother or your grandmother, but you can take a taxi and talk to the elderly taxi driver or talk to the pharmacist who is a very nice older lady.
15. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four hours, no, six hours, no, no, we haven’t said hours, maybe it’s days? But it needs a humid environment.  Oh no, not necessarily.
16. The virus remains suspended in air, or not, or maybe… especially in a closed room.  In one hour one sick person can contaminate ten others, so if a child gets sick, all your children were contaminated in school a while back, but let’s close the schools anyway because they have not caught it yet.
17. They report the number of dead but they don’t report how many are infected.  We will do massive testing, but not tomorrow, the next day, or even next week.  We’ll get to it, there’s no rush.  The Chinese ripped us of with the tests.  So we won’t do testing, heck, if you feel sick, it means you have it and that’s that.
18. We don’t have a treatment but there may be one which apparently is not dangerous and it works but in reality it doesn’t, or maybe it does,  it’s just had good results in some patients but not in all, so then we do have a treatment, but we don’t really have one.
19. We should stay in confinement till the virus disappears but it will only disappear if we attain herd immunity and therefore, when it circulates… and for that we need to break free of confinement.
20. Don’t worry, everything is under control and we have figured everything out, because of course Spain has the best professionals and the best healthcare  system.  And our Queen Letizia is nice and healthy, thank you.

P.S. Every day go out on your balcony to applaud and sing “We shall Overcome” several times a day to avoid depression.  Every day when 500 people die, it’s as if a plane with 500 passengers crashed, it doesn’t mean anything because the numbers are decreasing,  and it’s just a number anyway and it’s important to applaud and sing and have a festive atmosphere.  We are Spaniards and we shall overcome!

Apart From It All

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  614,180 sick; 
                26,081 dead
   World: 1,999,628 sick,
                 128,011 dead

The numbers are horrendous but, I am sure, are major under-counts because testing is still not available to most people. It is impossible to compare one week to another because the criteria change. New York just decided to add everyone who dies from any flu-like reason, and England has started including deaths at home, not just those in hospital beds. 

Even though the number of new cases and deaths in the US seems to be holding steady, not growing, I believe we are still just seeing the tip of the world-wide iceberg. So far South America, the mid-East, and Africa have not reported many cases. They will not escape, and the carnage will be massive. 

Covid Decoration
(Repurposed Palm Trunk)

Wrapped in our little privileged cocoon, we wait out the tribulation. We walk or bike in our comfortable community, then retreat to our apartment, able to organize and live our lives in as complete safety as anyone can have. InstaCart workers select and bring our grocery orders, Amazon drivers drop off any online items we want, the mail carrier puts our drugs in our mailbox. 

Through e-sign, we closed on our Windermere house today, after I wired the balance due to the sellers and the fees for Andrew, our attorney, from our Schwab checking account. Monday, we had a virtual walk-through via our realtor Jodi’s iPad and Zoom. I called up three insurance companies, reviewed their emailed quotes, and chose one with windstorm protection, which we paid for by automatic bank withdrawal. The electricity at that house is scheduled to be turned on, and the power here at the condo is arranged to be turned off the day after we move out, all via the respective companies' websites. I sorted out pool service by phone, and Grant is searching WiFi options. The boxes he ordered from U-Haul came yesterday. If only the packing could be done online, from the couch. 

Forty years ago, I celebrated with a good bottle of Sauternes when I signed the paperwork, in real ink, for my house. Tonight we will toast with Dark Horse Brut Rose, which I’m pretty sure was a Buy One Get One Free. The Sauternes will have to wait until I can go to a wine store and pick it out. 

Happy Easter

In Our Easter Bonnets  

For the first time in almost 40 years, the Easter bunny did not hide eggs at our house for my children and grandchildren to find. I did see a six-foot bunny in the back of a Key Biscayne police pickup truck, leading a parade of golf carts through the neighborhood. Sirens blaring, and horns honking.

When he was very young, Patten and I were shopping at the grocery store the day before Easter. He covertly pointed out a man in a tuxedo with a huge amount of candy in his cart. When we got a couple of aisles away, Patten whispered to me that he knew who the man was: the Easter bunny in disguise. Seemed reasonable.

Mary and Spaulding Dying Easter Eggs
2005

Now the grocery stores have instituted one-way aisles and limits on the number of people allowed in at once to facilitate physical distancing. I have decided to stop using the term social distancing because we are actually more in touch with friends and family now than ever. We just can’t physically  touch them. My friend sent a picture of her college-age daughter eating Easter dinner out on their porch. Near, yet far.

Nightmare on Elm Street, Peeps Edition  

Another casualty of the virus is the Peeps Show at Flamingo Studio in Lake Worth. My friend Marjorie and I would make a trek up each year to see dioramas made with Peeps, the marshmallow chicks, bunnies, etc. made by candy company Just Born. Before we went the first time, I called to see how long the exhibit would be open. “Easter, or until the ants get them, whichever comes first.”  We decided to hustle on up.

From Peeps chicks having fun riding carousels to bunny Peeps massacring each other, someone made it in Peeps.

Grant and I prepped our Easter dinner of herb-encrusted lamb, asparagus, and roasted potatoes before settling on the couch to attend our congregation’s Easter service. Around the world, ministers, preachers and priests led worship to empty buildings while their flocks watched on their TVs and computers. Yet, as always, there were defiant groups whose members came together, some claiming their god(s) would protect them, others asserting their First Ammendment rights. I shake my head in wonder.

Absolutely Stunned

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  374,329 sick; 
               12,064 dead
   World: 1,441,589 sick, 
                   82,933 dead

I know I shouldn’t, but I watch the White House press briefing each evening. I tell myself that I do it to keep up to date on Covid-19, to hear Doctor Anthony Fauci and Doctor Deborah Bitx give us accurate information, but I don’t. The truth is that I am fascinated by what off the cuff remark President Trump will make.

When commenting on the removal of the captain of nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after he went public in his cry for help with the virus on the ship, Trump said perhaps the captain shouldn’t have taken the ship to Vietnam where crew members likely were infected. As if the captain was just out for a pleasure cruise: “Where should we sail today? What about Vietnam? We haven’t been there lately.”

It doesn’t work that way. That port of call had been planned by the big brass of the Navy months ago.

The remark that just about put me over the edge was when Dr Brix was answering a question about the models which show hundreds of thousands will die of Covid in the US and our different states. Trump said, “The professionals did the models and I was never involved in a model. At least this kind of model.”

After Frank Bruni wrote about this in his New York Times article, “Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul?”, I had to comment:

Unlike Trump, who claims he is number 1 on Facebook which he isn’t, I admit my comment wasn't the most recommended out of the 3939 comments, but it was a Readers’ Pick.

For Mature Audiences Only

Warning: if you’re offended by thoughts of senior sex, read no more. Once in your head, you can’t unthink it.

I don’t know if it’s the hours I lie awake in bed, my body still on Japanese Standard Time, or my genes misfiring in a last ditch effort to replicate, but my skin is tingling like days of yore when I had estrogen flowing through my body. It’s saying, “Sex seems like a good idea right about now.”

After my hysterectomy and oophorectomy in 2005, my hormonal level immediately went from 60 to 0. Those monthly cycles between intense desire and blah meh disappeared overnight. Thank god for muscle memory, but even that faded over time. Now old joints ache, unused muscles protest, and lubrications are zilch, yet my skin tingles and calls out. Interesting.

Pandemic

IHME Projections For Florida 

Today, official numbers are:
   USA.  311,357 sick; 
               8,438 dead
   World.  1,202,236 sick, 
                    64,753 dead
and no end in sight, although how these exact numbers come about I wonder. Who knows how many additional people recovered from slight, undetected cases, and how many more people died because Covid-19 exacerbated a preexisting condition.

The talk is still about flattening the curve. What happens when stay home is no longer mandatory? There are still 8 states without stay-at-home orders. How will their citizens fare?

Groundskeeper and Housekeeper,
Essential Workers, Key Biscayne Style*

After four days of sheltering in place and maintaining social distance, Grant and I are doing pretty well. We have agreed upon times together and times apart. We eat lunch and dinner together, playing a game of cards after lunch. We take turns reading aloud to each other after dinner when we haven’t had Zoom meetings to attend. Between times, we putter around with laundry, paperwork, read/listen to books. etc. I spend too much time reading news and watching White House press briefings.

Food Right at Our Doorstep 

Our outings are a daily bike ride or walk, stepping into the street when we near others on the sidewalk, with no worries of cars since they are few and far between. One trip to the post office to pick up our mail, and one grocery store visit, which was too crowded for me to return. We signed up for InstaCart and had our first food order delivered from Publix today. That was so easy I may never go back to grocery shopping again.

One friend said she was living a Montessori life, with different stations to organize her day: first was the coffee and journaling stations, then the housekeeping station, the lunch station, the meditation station, and so on. As she makes her rounds, she feels in control. Having control of my life is what I’m looking for too.

*Note: April 6, on our bike ride this morning, I saw a dog grooming van come on the Key. I just hope the workers are safe while they take care of us, our lawns, our babies, and our pets. There are 20+ Covid cases here.