I skipped the walk this morning. when my alarm went off I was feeling tired. Because of that, coupled with DT having a low-grade fever yesterday, I decided I should take it easy just in case something was trying to invade my body! I slept for most of the day so there won't be much in this post.
My friend Janice called; we had been texting and she got tired of texting! We talked for over an hour! She is scheduled to be here from May 13th thru 19th. But on Thursday the 14-day quarantine goes in to effect until further notice. And since it took about 3 months for China to get things under control to where they were not having increasing numbers of new cases, it will take at least that much time here which means early June. She's going to hang on to her reservation until the day before since she has one year from the date of cancellation to re-book without penalty; though I would think the hotels would be more lenient in this unprecedented circumstance.
I was also texting with my friend Leslie; she has COVID-19. We had been texting on and off for several days, but yesterday was the 1st I had realized that she has COVID-19! While asking about Dad's safety at the nursing home, she said, "Personally I think they should just not let any visitors at all. You can have no symptoms and be a carrier for longer than 2 weeks. I haven't been around anybody in over 3 weeks and I have it. I've been quarantined all that time and I'm still utterly miserable. ... People that are dismissive of this thing are so foolish. It's nothing to be frivolous about. It's really really awful actually. ... I fell asleep last night and woke up just before I texted you. All I do is sleep drink lots of liquids and keep taking my temperature I'm coughing up my lungs š ... my doctor say don't go to the clinic ... and don't go to the ER unless my temperature is over a hundred and two or I have extreme difficulty breathing. ... my temperature has been hanging at 100.1, although yesterday it went down to 96. They have no room at the hospital. And they don't want me to come to the clinic because they're short-staffed and have a lot of sick people there that they're trying to treat ... without the proper supplies. This is like a horror movie." She also sent me this.
For lunch I ate the last Jimmy Dean Egg'wich so I could get the nearly empty box out of the freezer. I also ate the last half of one of the avocados that Sherry gave me. Yes, that is ketchup that you see in the photo; it becomes a savory side dish. Here we also eat it with shoyu (savory) and sugar (spread on bread like jam or jelly). I think we do different things to it since it is so plentiful here. I will also have to find a good Thai avocado curry recipe.
On the news this evening they talked about the emergency "stay at home" order for O'ahu that was announced by Mayor Caldwell today; it goes in to effect tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. Cases on O'ahu have gone up to 41, with a total of 56 for the State. All except 2 have been traced back to out-of state travel; the 2 are still under investigation. Under the "stay at home" order people can still go outdoors to walk and exercise but only in groups no more than 10 people. I generally walk alone so I will be able to continue my sunrise walks; I rarely even see 10 people during my walk! Depending on what happens, I may end up staying on the Big Island longer than initially planned.
I got a notification yesterday that Grey had tagged me in a Facebook post; I went to check it out. Here's what he said, "You know that part of any zombie or pandemic film where the characters need to get to a safe space by running a gauntlet of the infected in a rapidly collapsing society, and they somehow manage do it just in time? Reality just imitated fiction. ... A few weeks ago Arka Kinari sailed west from Mexico across the Pacific, while ... Nova went ahead to Indonesia to prepare the tour and I stayed behind in Mexico to do shore support. The plan was for me to rejoin the crew and resupply the ship in the Marshall Islands, which is a cluster of atolls between Hawaii and Indonesia (islands quickly disappearing under the rising seas of climate change, but that slow disaster story is the tortoise to this coronavirus hare). ... The situation in the mainland United States is well known, accelerating from normal to apocalyptic in less than a week. ... The world started closing down... Europe, Canada, most of Latin America. The nation that took isolation the farthest was our planned rendezvous of the Marshall Islands, which declared a total ban on incoming flights and boats. It is the strictest quarantine on earth, not even their own citizens are allowed to return. ... Meanwhile Arka Kinari reached the mid-Pacific, with the winds and currents on the stern making it impossible to return to Mexico, and with the Marshall Islands now closed to the world. ... Using a satellite texting system I get updates of equipment that needs replacing ... Then this satellite gadget started glitching out. In case they went completely dark I had to make a quick plan B. ... I booked an immediate flight to Hawaii, transferring in the small airport of San Jose airport. Without any direct flights to Europe or Asia it seemed the safest place for this calculated risk. Halfway to Hawaii, when I felt confident I could actually get there, I messaged the crew that to inform them (in as few words as possible) that the world is coming unglued and they should plot a new destination for Hilo, Hawaii. ... If any of you think it’s irresponsible to travel at time like this, be aware that Arka Kinari is not only my home, but also home to a team of six international sailors with different passports and visa restrictions, who are now adrift in an increasingly hostile and paranoid world. As all the borders shut there’s a real danger them being stranded at sea as a pariah ship. I needed to arrive somewhere early enough to self-quarantine and negotiate with customs and immigration before their arrival. ... To be clear, the ship poses zero risk to Hawaii, they departed Mexico ahead of the virus and the 30-day passage is a model quarantine. In fact it is Hawaii, or any land, that poses a risk to the crew, not the reverse. But pandemic laws are blunt instruments, if arrivals are banned it will be very hard to negotiate an exception. Everyone's just following orders. ... My transit cut it so close I could almost hear the doors slamming behind me. The day after my arrival, the US & Mexico border was closed to non-essential travel. All of Californian went under legal orders to stay indoors. Hawaii is now restricting arrivals to residents, and then only with mandatory quarantine (I self-quarantined ahead of the decree, bc don't want to be that guy). ... This emergency plan is only possible because of the last-minute suggestion of Tomiko and the generosity of her cousin Kinuko. This family has the wisdom to keep the grandparents house, to maintain a relationship to this land and place. I stayed here twenty years ago, even then it felt mildly haunted. Not in a bad way.... benevolent spirits. Now it’s properly spooky, draped in dust covers and cobwebs during a transition. But that is just the surface, the new solar panels and a Tesla battery show the longterm improvements for the future generations. With trees in the backyard bursting with oranges, bananas and coconuts, this is as and ideal place as could be imagined for isolation, with plenty of tasks to keep the body occupied. ... So, here I am at the happy ending of that film, holed up in a remote house in the hills of a remote island, with a bunch of canned foods, a 4x4 parked out front, and not a human in sight. But one thing the zombie apocalypse films got wrong is the dissonance of generalized panic versus the banality of corporate culture. Office Depot is still open. Netflix is streaming. Amazon delivers. ... Everyone has their corona virus story, and I consider myself very lucky that mine brought me here. The only thing I’ll suffer from is loneliness and the coming battle for permission to land the ship. Arka Kinari is now about ten days sail from Hawaii. I'm very sorry for any of you that are dealing with sickness or loss. Finally, big respect to friends in healthcare and other essential services. The applause coming from balconies across the world is long overdue."
Hau'oli lÄ HÄnau to Kirk!
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