Month: March 2020

Observations from the 3rd floor (III)

Looking out my 3rd floor office window today shows me a windy and wet day. The wind is so strong, it blew the top off the covered parking area next door. Fortunately it doesn’t appear that anyone was injured and other than the top, the cars below seem to be undamaged.

Otherwise, what I see is a city still in a lock down waiting for the tsunami of Covid-19 to wash over a city that is trying to prepare but is getting no help from a large portion of it’s residents. Too many people gathering and not enough medical preparation.

Dose Mesas Dallas

The streets, while not empty are very near empty. McKinney Ave. is lined with shops, restaurants and other businesses, most are shuttered now for over 2 week. Many will not survive. Some places are offering take out and can now sell wine and drinks…to go. In Texas, that’s unheard of. Trying to convert inventory to dollars.

Room & Board
Cole at Armstrong
Cole & Armstrong

On a brighter note, this past Saturday, I hosted a Global Virtual Camino Reunion with friends I knew and some I met on my Camino in 2017. We had 16 attendees from the US, N. Ireland, Germany and South Africa. We used Zoom meetings to host it and with that many people it was a bit hectic, it sure was good to see everyone and I think they appreciated the opportunity to free themselves of lock down if only for 45 minutes, I know I did. You take that little bit of good wherever you can find it.

I’ll sign off with what I told my Camino Family : Buen Camino Amigos mios. Os quiero y estad seguros.

If my Spanish is correct and I conjugated correctly it’s Buen Camino my friends. I love you all and be safe.

Observations from the 3rd floor (II)

For the U.S. and Texas particularly, we’re now entering the 3rd week of enforced isolation.  We’re not experiencing the severe lockdown which for many of my European brothers and sisters is their new norm.

We can go outside but the parks are closed, people are ignoring that edict though.  Most food stores are open, and any shortages are self-inflicted, people buying dozens of rolls of toilet paper is crazy.  Some restaurants are trying to stay open by making meals for pick up and delivery.  I don’t know how sustainable that is for a small business.

Finally, the rules are more or less uniform in Texas, the Governor, not wanting to upset his wealthy Republican backers in Collin County didn’t want to mandate closings from Austin, he finally relented because locking down Dallas County while Collin and Denton counties (10 minutes north) were not made no sense.  We still have no leadership in Washington D.C., we’re our own worst enemy.

As I look out, there’s very little traffic, there’s no place to go.  Business is grinding to a halt and if this lockdown continues, I expect the economic impact for the average American to be significant and long lasting.

We still have no idea how many people are infected as we still don’t have tests available except for the most grievously ill.  Trump is talking about drugs which were designed for malaria as a potential treatment even though they’ve never really been tested for efficacy against this virus.  But then, not long ago, he said this (pandemic) will pass like a miracle.  The man is intellectually, morally and socially deficient.

I don’t know anyone who’s been diagnosed as positive yet but, I know a couple on mandatory isolation because of potential exposure, best of luck to you my friends.

On the bright side, we had a virtual birthday for my friend Leighton.  We set up a Zoom meeting, we played Evil Minds, chatted and had a few beverages.  It worked pretty well, and we hung out for 2.5 hours.  You should try it.

I heard from my friend Chris that her trip to Spain is now officially cancelled.  She was looking forward to taking another group of students to walk the Camino.  Maybe next year.

For anyone who’s reading this, I hope you don’t feel alone.  It’s very trying times but we’re all in this together even though it may not feel like it sometimes.  I’m reminded of a saying which is often mis-attributed to Winston Churchill that appeared in England during WWII, “keep calm and carry on”.  So, that’s what I shall do.

Coming soon, the first global virtual Camino reunion, stay tuned.

Observations from the 3rd floor.

It’s not often that you get to watch as the world economy slowly winds down as we all try to limit both exposure and transmission/retransmission of the Novel Corona Virus-19 (CV).  What appears to have begun in China back in late 2019 is now, thanks to air travel, a global pandemic.

Here in the U.S., I look on as the rest of the world takes this very seriously while the President and his administration continue misleading the public about the breadth of the problem, the status of proper testing supplies (which they refused from the W.H.O. and others) and the future availability of a vaccine.  I’m very generous when I use the word “mislead” because lie could just as easily be substituted.

I don’t want to rant about something that I can’t change, I can only do my part to help over come this natural disaster and to help those who I can help.  We’re trying very hard to keep some semblance of a normal routine as well.

At a time when people are at a near panic, mobbing stores and buying up toilet paper (?) and salsa (?) we’ve maintained our normal shopping routine and in the unlikely event of a true shortage as opposed to a shortage caused by panic buying, we have plenty of staples that would get us through for quite a while and, a well-stocked wine cellar.

So, what else can we do?  I’ve heard from my friends here as well as from friends around the world who are experiencing the same drama in their lives.  Shortages, working from home, travel bans (the Camino de Santiago is abandoned) and the literal closing of borders as well as true medical crises.  Here are a couple ideas that we plan to do.

  1. Do our part in limiting both our exposure and the exposure threat that we pose by responsibly limiting our travel and presence in public.
  2. Continue business as usual using readably available technology.  Business can continue.
  3. Support the local businesses that remain open.  Many restaurants are open, but it must be take-away of delivery.  If you would normally go out on a Friday for dinner, go pick up your pizza or Thai and eat at home.  But, continue to support those businesses.  Their employees need to be paid so they can pay their bills too.  When the consumer is hit by a cash flow crunch, then financially we’ll get sideways real fast.
  4. Help our family and neighbors however we can.  In our townhouse community, we check with neighbors to see if they need anything from the store.  No point is 16 households being exposed.  If you have older neighbors or family, check on them too.  Not only for food and essentials but also as a mental health check.  Maybe the travel limitations have left them feeling isolated. 
  5. Finally, don’t panic.  We’ve seen difficult times before, this will make us stronger, maybe even better.

Everyone looks forward to the pandemic abating or ending completely.  We can’t let down our guard though because I expect that CV will return next fall, history shows that it probably will reappear.  So, we need to recover and prepare and hope for a vaccine sooner rather than later.

From my home office, I hope to continue observing how we all handle ourselves.  I look forward to sharing my observations from the 3rd floor.  Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised and not sadly shocked.