april 30
Remdesivir seems “promising” for COVID-19 treatment. And I only mention this because Anthony Fauci said it.
Today I canceled our May 6 flight to California. It’s the right thing to do, but I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather go at the moment. It was to be a quick getaway to the central coast with Jeff for sun, wine, and beach. We were also supposed to see Mudhoney play in my small, unlikely hometown. We never received any information that the show was canceled, but I’m 100% certain.
In fact, we haven’t received any official notices about canceled shows in the last 8 weeks – and for some reason, we had tickets to many. Like ten. Yesterday we did get a notification about a canceled How I Built This podcast event with the SubPop founders. It was scheduled for March 26. The ticketing platform provided an option to donate your ticket purchase cost or to keep it as a credit for a future event.
Little League International announced today that they’ve canceled the World Series this year which means definitely no All Star season and puts me and my local Little League board one inch closer to canceling our season altogether. We’ve been waiting and evaluating. Waiting and evaluating. I really can’t imagine implementing “safe” enough measures for kids to be congregating by June. But I guess the plan is to wait and evaluate another few days. All I know is that as treasurer of this organization, the donate/defer/refund plan for 500 players will be pretty messy for me.
Coronavirus observation: it’s getting ugly and extra partisan-y again. For a hot minute, it felt like we were in this together. We collectively (albeit reluctantly for some) acknowledged the real danger we faced and the sacrifices we’d have to make. Well, that moment has passed. My little California red belt is beside themselves with Newsom’s shelter-in-place extension, beach closures, yada yada.
may 1
Today I wore pants. Like, real ones, with a button and a zipper.
One of the hardest days for me was recently, when I really wanted to hug a friend. She was super sad and it was heartbreaking. How weird to not indulge that basic instinct of compassion.
I think a lot about the ways we will be different after this. Cynically, I think we’ll quickly forget how fully-funded social services are critical, why it’s crazy that healthcare is tied to your employer, and how modifications to our behavior, like driving less, can have an immediate and positive impact on climate change. We almost had a moment when stuff like that crystalized. And it’s hard to think of anything besides a global pandemic that could’ve driven those points home any harder.
I hope I’m wrong.
But I think about other lasting scars like new social norms – seriously, will shaking hands still be a thing? Actually, I could see that being some partisan badge – whether or not you stick your hand out for a shake. Of course, the biggest scar will be the economic devastation. I hope, I hope, I hope it’s not the boarded up downtown anywhere, USA that I have envisioned.
Coronavirus observation: the monotony of each day is sucking the life out of me. My friend described every minute of every day as being 54 degrees, cloudy, and 4pm. It’s oddly true.
diary of coronavirus 