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Pandemic Diary IV

I keep thinking about what I was doing this time last year, and if all this had been happening a year ago, how massively disruptive it would have been for me. On March 20, 2019, I was about a week away from departing on a four-week trip to central Europe. And I was getting my house ready to go on the market. I was under contract to buy my house here in Ajijic, and planning to move down here in June.

If this had happened last year instead of this year, all of my plans would have been halted.

Who knows whether that would have been better in the long run. If that had happened, I'd most likely have canceled everything, and I'd still be working full-time at POP and living in Seattle (if I'd still be living...) Would it have been better to be in Seattle for this? Only time will tell.

I've been getting up and walking four laps back and forth on the malecon every morning. It's close to 10,000 steps (I actually counted steps this morning.Well, I only counted a single half-lap, and it came to just under a thousand steps, so four laps would be almost 8,000, and with the walk from my house there and back, I'm rounding up to 10,000.

It's pretty quiet on the malecon at 8am. There are a few people out that early, some dog walkers, a guy with a gas-powered pump irrigating the lawns and gardens with lake water, some fishermen in small boats or casting nets from the shore. I can walk at a good clip and maintain appropriate social distance.

I went out to breakfast at Scallion again. I saw three different bridge players at the restaurant, all there independently. Now that the bridge club has closed, I guess we all have more time on our hands. ACBL and BridgeBase Online are partnering to offer online duplicate games to benefit the clubs, and working on actual club games that we can host. I played yesterday with one of my regular partners, but after about 4 boards her internet went out and she got disconnected. I ended up with a replacement partner who was pretty bad, and we came away with a 46% game. I'm going to try again over the weekend.

And also over the weekend I'll be getting my kitchen emptied out. On Monday the workers will show up to start demolition.

I'm still worried that things will get very very bad here. I think we're likely to have an explosion of COVID-19 cases very soon. And the economic impact on locals could be devastating far above and beyond what US residents will face.

At least I haven't seen the panic buying that's been reported elsewhere. I went into a couple of markets today, and there was plenty of toilet paper, Clorox, and so forth.

My improvised wipes

Tonight Casa Domenech is hosting the first in what they promise will be a series of live-stream concerts. They're calling it the Hoping for the Best "Tour." Their excellent jazz trio will be playing to an empty house in the restaurant, and a friend is going to come over to watch and listen with me. And we'll order takeout from them. I've spent several evenings over there (it's just a block from my house) listening to music and enjoying their great food. It won't be the same, but I'm so appreciative that Ray Domenech is going out of his way to keep hope alive, for all of us as well as for himself.




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