I thank God for the garden

I think we are luckier than most of the country as we have a tiny garden of our own. That means we can step outside whenever we want without bringing our permission document. When the sun comes out we can sit there and absorb it. We can still see neighbor's faces without having to calculate our distance, and say "hello" as they check their mail or bring in their groceries. Our garden allows me to remember what it felt like to freely move outside. When I'm not messaging friends, reading news, or writing blogs, I go out here.

Let's try for a "before shot" of the garden (below). This was last week and you can see the magnolia bloomed, and the small maple tree in the center pot is just barely opening its leaves. The tree in the center of the weedy lawn is a cherry. It's got big buds. We look forward to the blossoms opening any day now. The weedy lawn is wall-to-wall.

I've been attacking the weedy grass. I raked the whole thing, pulled up a bunch of weeds, and plowed a perimeter so I can plant something interesting when I get access to plants. For now, I've just put down the peony bulb and echinacea seeds that I had luckily found at the grocery store. Pulling up the weeds and leaving the dirt is a slow job. I hope to finish by the end of the week.

Maybe it was foolish

When the school closures were announced February 23rd, my employers took their family out of town to quarantine in another location and I was no longer working. I had free time. I tried to be careful keeping distances, washing my hands, and trying to control my hands from touching my face. It's harder than you think!

[Photo credit: https://twitter.com/jamesckim/status/1238571037517733889/photo/1]

I still went to all my normal appointments, aesthetic treatment, physiotherapy appointments, and we ate dinner with my in-laws and some other friends, I met up for coffee with one of my closest friends because it's a big deal going through the biggest pandemic of my lifetime and I wanted to see her face. We went for a hike on March 7th, the day before our region became a quarantine zone.

Lots of people were wishful thinking and used the hashtag #Milanononsiferma that means Milan won't stop. They wanted to encourage the people to keep going out and supporting local businesses.

All these moments were potential risks. Risks that we can no longer afford to take in Italy. Now we can only go out for urgent medical care, work that cannot be done from home and cannot be put off, necessities like groceries or cigarettes, to walk or walk the dog. You must carry a permission slip and you must always keep distances. These are the laws for more than a week and the virus is still spreading at a high rate. We had these germs before quarantine and now they're showing up, or now you're spreading it to your quarantine buddies. It is going to be awhile before the virus stops spreading.  

Today's rates

Italy's current rates of daily new cases & daily deaths rate went from 2500 and 250 respectively to 3500 and 350 respectively.

The country is only six days into a complete full lockdown so until six days ago there was still a LOT of spreading of germs in a lot of the country.

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus
#Istayathome #Coronavirus

I didn't expect this

This breaks my heart. Today I saw this video of All Saint's church in Bergamo. The crematory can't even keep up in some cities that are the worst hit by #Coronavirus #deaths so the temporary solution is to keep the bodies in the church in coffins until they can be cremated.

This is what I imagined it was like during the plague. Obviously I'm not a historian, I can't compare the two pandemics. But I didn't expect to be seeing scenes like this in March 2020.

https://www.abruzzolive.it/la-scena-dei-cimiteri-pieni-a-bergamo-bare-nella-chiesa-e-salme-in-attesa-di-cremazione-da-giorni-video/

Psychological help line

On March 17th, after we had been staying at home for 3 weeks already, and the second week of national lockdown, our town posted a new community phone hotline for psychological help. 

"That's a great idea" I thought "are there already in week two?" Someone somewhere is already there. 

Lockdown, and how does it work?

Over the last month, the Italian government has continued to modify what our lockdown looks like. There were game changes almost every day last week as the rules became increasingly severe and was extended to the whole country! Our leaders are working hard to understand what are the best restrictions, what are the priorities, in which areas, while balancing pros and cons of the varying dynamics. However saving lives has prioritized over saving anything else in Italy, of which I am very proud.

It can be difficult to stay on top of the constantly changing restrictions. Information is spread via official channels, news, and social media. We try to keep up, and we try to understand. Meanwhile the rules of the game are real laws and not following them correctly can result in fines or potential lawsuits and jail time. Now put yourself in my friend's shoes. She runs her family's café in a residential neighborhood with a lot of elderly regular clientele. She shared with me that she was keeping the café open because she identified that her clientele need that space for social contact, a human connection. At the same time she was terribly worried about each and every one of them and found herself begging them to go home as soon as they had finished consuming their orders, wanting to protect them from infection.

Finally Thursday's law for full closures of all non-essentials made things clear and, with a sigh of relief, she closed the café. It hadn't been easy to stay open because the government doesn't call or write you to explain what you need to do. She had to go search online last once a day to discover for herself the most recently enacted guidelines. If she missed one, and was found not adhering, she could have faced a fine of hundreds of euros.

This is the English language infographic published by National police last week to explain what should stay open and what should be closed, as well as guidelines regarding leaving your home and watching for virus symptoms.

Three things I wish I'd done before Quarantine started

In retrospect, there are three things I wish I had done before quarantine started, and now It's too late.

1. Get my hair cut. The hairdresser was open for awhile after schools closed here in Lombardy, but since Thursday everything non-essential is closed in all of Italy. As my hair grows out, I don't know how many weeks or months I'll have to wait until they reopen. I did stock up on hair dye because I buy from a special all-natural shop. If you buy normal brands that are sold in your favorite grocery store, then you shouldn't worry as you can pick it up anytime you go shopping in the months ahead. 
2. Get gardening/hobby supplies. I wanted to get new plants/seeds, pots, and soil weeks ago, when shops were still open, but I kept it low priority, and now all non-essentials are closed. Some items can be found at the grocery store, but not the selection I would like. It especially burns me to not have gardening supplies because it's nearly Spring, this week is warm and sunny; I will spend every day in my garden to start my tan, work my rigid body, and get out of my house. If I only had more pots and soil, I could put in everything I wanted early and be reaping fruits and vegetables earlier than ever. No comment as to whether we'll still be in quarantine when I start to harvest, no one can know that. 
3. Borrow that tool. We decided weeks ago that since I had the time now, I would hack up our short green jungle in the backyard to put in a real lawn. One of the tools I would need, we would ask to borrow from our friend who lives two towns over. Since a week ago, however, we're only allowed out for necessities and emergencies, and picking up that tool would not be legally justifiable, so we won't get it until the country has deescalated to non-emergency, whenever that will be. No tool, no lawn. This would have been the perfect time, dang it! 

A call to step up

I watched Bernie Sanders’ press release asking the President to declare a national state of emergency. He hadn’t yet? And I cannot express just how relieved I felt listening to his sincere and raw words: "we are all in this together." This is a humanitarian response. A Christ-like response, if you will.

Some quotes:

"If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country, when we are all in this together, this is that moment. Now is the time for solidarity, now is the time to come together with love and compassion for all, including the most vulnerable people in our society who will face this pandemic from a health perspective, or face it from an economic perspective." 

"We need to know what is happening right now in our country, in our states, and in fact all over the world. If there was ever a time for transparency, for honesty, and being straight forward, this is that moment. And we need that information coming from credible, respected scientific voices, of which we have many in our own country and all over this world. Not from politicians." 

"The bottom line is that in the midst of this unprecedented moment we need to listen to the scientists, to the researchers, to the medical folks, not to politicians." 

Then he lists a number of measures that would each be revolutionary in America, and weapons of mass relief. Many of his "welfare" type proposals would be revolutionary in America, such a big deal, but did you know they would be rather normal in most other wealthy countries?

VIDEO https://youtu.be/clomd4d4b98

Drive-thru

I read news that Denver created a free drive-thru Coronovirus testing site, following the Korean model. They should win a prize for fastest learning and implementation (who cares if they're copying, they learned what works and did it)!!! Thank the Lord God Almighty, they did it. Despite so much fighting, restrictions, and failures in other states. Colorado pulled it off, and lets pray the other 49 states get their act together and implement this model as far and wide as possible.

1. because it's free people will do it. They want to know if they have the virus so they know how strictly to quarantine themselves, just in case they're asymptomatic but contagious;
2. because it's drive-thru they don't have to worry that they'll get sick by sitting in the waiting room with others potentially infectious;
3. even if they test negative, it helps the government to have a wide public sampling to know how many have the virus, rather than only testing those who are very sick and very likely to have it.

Article https://www.koaa.com/news/national/coronavirus/colorados-first-drive-up-covid-19-testing-facility-opens-in-denver-is-free-of-charge?fbclid=IwAR161rJw5TtnUnZLCH4EORmmS55eyhgoi6hAC5cxN1nBEGI_7gqtL6qoVvI
Photo comes from the same article

Please cancel Grandma's party!

My Grandmother is turning 90 next week and my family has been plannign a party for months. I'm so proud of her accomplishment, so glad she's still with us. I wish I could fly over from Italy to hug her and see everyone in Oregon at the party next month. One uncle will fly from Connecticut, and one from California. My sisters will drive hours to Grandma's Retired living village.

I keep bringing up how we need to cancel the party. There are 15 Coronavirus cases in Oregon already and 67 tests pending. The elderly are the most vulnerable and while she's plenty feisty, she's not plenty fit. I feel like the dark voice of doom no one wants to be caught listening to, but I don't want the message at her party to be "Happy last birthday, Grandma!"