#covid reporting

[theschmerler]

Sign of progress

So Wednesday, I saw what I consider a gauge of progress here in Brooklyn. It was the first time there was no refrigerated truck parked behind the local funeral home.

My friend, Jeff, says that the portable refrigerated morgue they had outside the local hospital was also no longer there. I did see that the big covered wooden ramp that led up to it was still there, though,taking up a lane of the street, blocked off by orange parking cones.

[theschmerler]

Freedom = mobililty = state of mind

I need to thank my brother for sending me money and I used it to rent a car for a day. 

Nothing fancy, nothing exciting -- by most standards -- but having a car for a day in Brooklyn allowed me to go shopping and get a lot of groceries. Stuff that’s too heavy to carry like seltzer and gallons of milk and oat milk.

Parking it on the street, I realized how small my world in this Big Apple has been. And also, how the act of renting it upped my contact with others -- and my risk -- exponentially. The friend who, while wearing a mask, drove me to the car place; the two attendants at the car place, one of whom was wearing a mask on his chin. The latter was most helpful. I turned on the ignition, and it seems had inadvertently squeezed a “panic button” on the key fob. All the lights went off, the garage was filled with honks, and I was so startled.

I didn’t have my mask on my face while I was in the car, alone, and suddenly this lovely young man was over my shoulder, concerned, helping me and showing me what I had done wrong. 

I know, because I remember seeing the kind smile on his face. “No worries,” he said of my panic and mistake, but yeah, worries, because this world is full of nice people who are in contact with other nice people like me. 

So I got in my new car, and, totally aware of how sudden movements are not a friend to me in this new normal, I kept to the local roads, and was conservative in my freedom.

Can we control this epidemic? There are indeed some sudden movements in my daily life: joggers who whiz by me before I can skirt them (no mask on, or only partial mask wearers); guys in the grocery aisle pushing huge carts with zero clearance on either side (and I have to move around them); and more and more people just standing on the street, not paying attention, now that we are in Phase 1. 

What is freedom, anyway? The ability to move around all the other people who need to feel free? Or the willingness to take risks? I feel I have neither right now.

[theschmerler]

Empowerment during fear 1

June 10th, Today’s vocabulary lesson: “Risk Averse”: this is a term you need to use. How “risk averse” are you? Figure out where on the spectrum you are. How much risk you can take without getting too anxious to function. Communicate this status to your friends/neighbors/co-workers/family without shame or blame.

My friend, Jeff, taught me this term yesterday. He said, “Well, clearly you’re more risk averse than I am,” and I suddenly knew what he meant. “Crazy”; “Anxious”; “Unreasonable.” These were NOT terms that Jeff used to describe me. Thank you, Jeff.

[theschmerler]