Coronavirus Mother Nature Fights Back

"The Earth is shaking less under coronavirus," said the CBS News headline on April 6, 2020.

"Goats take over town amid coronavirus lockdown," CNN, March 31, 2020.

 

"L.A.'s Air Quality Is Better Than Its Been in Decades," Los Angeles Magazine, April 6, 2020.

Article after article is coming out about how quickly mother nature is healing herself and throwing off human's grip as we are forced to stay at home due to the coronavirus. Now if the coronavirus is some ancient bat disease instead of an escaped bio weapon from a Wuhan lab, mother nature really is giving us a kick in the pants.

Everyday, the people of Los Angeles are reminded of how beautiful our city can be. When we look outside our windows and see the bright blue skies and crisp outlines of the city's landscape rather than blurry shapes in front of the usual dingy sky we remember why we love our great city.

The stay-at-home orders have had almost everyone in Los Angeles travel less, whether for business or pleasure. This means fewer cars on the road. NPR said truck traffic has decreased 21% (maybe those are the toilet paper trucks). And there are fewer planes in the sky. For three days after 9/11 when all commercial flights were grounded in the U.S, the United States warmed 3.6 degrees according to a news report from WTAJ News on 9/11/19.  I wonder how much warmer we will be after months of decreased flights.

As if the coronavirus was not enough, mother nature is employing a second method of enforcing the stay-at-home order in Los Angeles. After a dry February, rain has been falling on Los Angeles throughout March and April. So much rain fell on March 22 that it broke a single day record. And as any Angeleno knows, when it rains in LA we panic and stay home.

 

So embrace what nature has to show us: clean air, wildlife running amok, and especially for Angelenos, a less shakier earth.  Soon enough we will be back in the traffic and smog of the city we call home.

Take care and be safe.

Posts: Monday, Thursday, and Saturday

Coronavirus Invincibility Masks?

What a difference a week makes.

A week ago, the CDC said the general public should not wear masks unless they were sick or caring for someone who had the coronavirus. Wearing a mask didn't prevent you from catching the coronavirus, but if you had it, wearing a mask would help you from spreading it to others. The danger of always wearing a mask  was that taking a mask on and off meant that you were touching your face, thereby increasing your chance of becoming infected.

Fast forward one week, now the CDC says people should wear a mask because it is helpful to prevent community transmission of covid-19. The CDC Director Robert Redfield said up to one in four people infected with the virus could be asymptomatic. In other words, you can have no symptoms but still be spreading the disease. Even a cut up t-shirt would be better than nothing. 

During my grocery store run a week ago, few people wore mask. No plastic shields separated checkers  from the customers and while they wore gloves, they did not wear masks. Everyone was very good about giving each other space. The store had fewer customers and they seemed calmer than the previous week when the stay-at-home order was instituted. It seemed that the initial panic had subsided.

Fast forward to yesterday. The majority of people at Ralphs wore masks. Plastic barriers were in place for the masked checkers. There were a lot more people in the grocery store and a I saw the fear creeping back into some people's eyes. But my biggest concern was the social/physical distance gap between people had
decreased. 

In the milk aisle I suddenly found myself ambushed by masked bandits. Four shopping carts driven by six people in masks surrounded me. I said an expletive, left my cart where it was, and waited a safe distance away until the group of strangers broke up. The ambush repeated itself in the bread aisle. 

Even our modern day superheroes, the grocery checker, she leaned forward to ask me a question even though I was not behind her plastic barrier because I was bagging my groceries.

Even scarier were the increased number of individuals in their 70s and 80s shopping in the store since the crisis began. They were wearing masks. Perhaps the masks gave them the confidence to go shopping, but remember a non-medical mask only helps you from spreading it, not getting it.

When I mentioned this to my mother as I dropped off her groceries, she said she had heard that that was the CDC's big worry when they recommended that people should wear masks. People might feel safer with masks and would violate the social distancing and stay-at-home rules.

Everyone, please remember these three rules: 1, stay-at-home unless you have to go out; 2, keep practicing social and physical distancing; and 3, a mask does not make you invincible to the coronavirus so remember rules 1 and 2 . Until this week, the CDC was saying that wearing a mask was more dangerous than not wearing one.

Be safe and be healthy.

Posts: Monday, Thursday, Saturday

Coronavirus Xbox To The Rescue

"…school campuses will remain physically closed for the remainder of the year."

That one sentence from my son's school yesterday brought a wide range of conflicting emotions to my household.

Parents: dread, fear, stress

Kids: hope, freedom, loneliness

The first sign of how the coronavirus adversely affected my son was when he, unbeknownst to his parents, invited his friend over to play Xbox. His friend said his father wasn't letting him go anywhere.

These last three weeks with the whole family at home have been good. And I wondered, why have there been fewer arguments, less stress, than when the four of us have been home together in the past. 

One word comes to mind: Homework

The second is: Xbox

I knew homework was a source of stress in our lives, but never truly appreciated how good life could be without it.  Now not only will parents have to help kids manage their homework, but also manage their classwork. The question is no longer are you smarter than a fifth-grader, it is are you smarter than a tenth-grade math teacher?

  

Initially, my son's face lit up when he heard he no longer had to go to school. I knew he was thinking more Xbox time and his new game was coming out April 2. Then I reminded him about the one online course he took last semester and how tough it was for him to self motivate himself to complete the assignments on time. The smile disappeared. 

Fortunately, my oldest son is already out of high school, so we only have to help my youngest son complete his work. Hopefully my oldest son will jump in and help as well.

But it is my oldest son that is missing school the most. By June, he was set to finish the two trade schools he was enrolled in,  pursue his career, and move on with his life. Unfortunately, both schools are closed. They require a certain number of hands-on training hours to complete the programs. If the schools open May 5 as scheduled, he could finish by August. But there's a very real chance that they may not reopen until the Fall. He told me a week ago, "Dad, I really miss school." Those were words that I had never heard him say.

He has applied for grocery store jobs but with no luck. Since we claim him as a dependent he cannot receive the stimulus check even though he worked last year and paid taxes.

The best thing for both of my sons has been the Xbox. Not only as a break from reality, but as a social tool. I hear both boys talking, laughing, and arguing with their buddies and each other as they play together online.  I hear them talk about school, dating, and politics.

The best decision I made at Christmas was to buy a second Xbox to prevent sharing conflicts.

Microsoft's new marketing angle should be: "Beat self-isolation - connect with Xbox! Prevent conflicts, buy one for each family member."

However, the Xbox can't hide the fact that homework is coming, 6.6 million people went on unemployment last week, and schools are closed.

As parents we just have to continue doing what we have been doing all along, prepare, help, and educate. Plus, it wouldn't hurt if we got some Xbox play time in their along with their kids.

Take care everyone.

Posts: Monday, Thursday, Saturday