Plague diary 12/10

[liv]

Aten't dead. 29 weeks at home, we passed 200 days and I didn't even mark the milestone. 14 weeks since restrictions were lifted; they're sort of closing back down but only sort of, schools are still open and pubs are still open if they are part of a chain whose owner is mates with Johnson and Cummings, and I'm in the half of the country still considered only medium risk. There's no support for shielding or furlough or housing the homeless any more. Whereas hospital admissions are back at the level they were just before the first lockdown in March, and we've had days with over 15K record new cases even though the testing system is still not really coping. This_is_fine dot gif.

We resumed social distancing from our partners in the other household when the local case rate started rising again; we're long past waiting for the government to tell us what socializing is safe. It sucks.

ghoti_mhic_uait lent me a gazebo which served as a pretendy succah, though it has an inappropriately solid roof and I didn't get round to making even symbolic walls. I was excessively sad about not being able to invite even my polycule, let alone any other guests, to come and sit in it. But the children came over with home-made decorations, including a drawing made by tiny baby Gráinne; I had no idea babies under 4 months old could make art! And we got to play for what turned out to be one last time before we had to separate again.

I took a couple of days off work last week, which I'd hoped to spend with OSOs but we basically left it too late. jack and I did have another outdoor, distanced visit with his mum, this time at Brixworth Park which has a magnificent reservoir and a bunch of gnomes related to the mid-20^th century children's book Little grey men. It was sunny at least, though with a rather biting wind. And cjwatson came to sit in my pretend-succah, unfortunately getting soaked through in a downpour on the way, and I was so tempted to give up our resolution and invite him in to dry off, but he was a model citizen and just sat there shivering. In the end we only had the one date while the local infection rate was low.

We did Simchat Torah online, dancing in our separate Zoom windows with Chumashim (printed books of Torah) and plush Torah toys instead of the real scrolls. It reminded me all too much of that line from the Isaac Bashevis Singer original version of Yentl about how there was never any joy in the house. We tried, it was really good to be with my community, but Simchat Torah in isolation is just rubbish whichever way you slice it.

The main good thing in the last couple of weeks has been resuming bridge (one game of duplicate with emperor &co, and one of rubber with my brother and mother), and wildeabandon's readthroughs, now I actually have weekends free again. I picked a great time to rejoin because we did the absolutely bonkers 17^th century lesbian drama The Convent of Pleasure. It's kind of terrible poetry but an amazing cultural artefact! I also had not previously known that during the Puritan prohibition on live theatre, people deliberately wrote 'closet dramas' to be read by groups of friends at home, extremely convenient for these stay-at-home times.

I also got to help with the children's science experiment, which they carried out outdoors, partly because they expected it to be messy. We were trying to catalyse the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide, adding detergent and food colouring to make the reaction more exciting. But it didn't really work well; possibly we didn't use enough H₂O₂ or possibly we didn't stir the reaction mix well enough, and also I wasn't very competent at using fivemack's thermal imager to measure the reaction temperature.

Now I'm back at work, carrying out an appraisal for my report (which is a first for me), and starting a new exciting course about how to teach genomics, and other generally good things. Work have returned to a higher level of restrictions, again not waiting for anything resembling useful guidance from the government; this means only 300 people on campus, mostly working on Covid-19 or supporting Covid work. So the chances of my being asked to return to the office are even more remote than before.

Basically I'm bouncing back and forth between grumpy and scared, though enjoying virtual social things with my partners and friends and community.

Comments

[superborb]

Very likely that the H2O2 was too old or not concentrated enough -- that's the most common error I've seen for similar experiments! Gotta get the fresh stuff

[liv]

We think probably not concentrated enough; it was brand new. But yeah, we may try again with a stronger solution.

[silveradept]

Your final sentence is the entire mood for me about the entirety of this pandemic. I am glad that there are still some things that you are doing.

[liv]

Yeah. I should have given up hope long ago of the government ever being slightly competent, but I somehow held onto the idea that they wouldn't want another 50 thousand preventable deaths on their hands. Back in March we had a lot of bluster and rhetoric and then eventually they admitted we did in fact need a lockdown, and I thought that might happen again this month, but no.

[silveradept]

I still find it aggravating that "we thought about it and decided no" is still leagues beyond where the States are, because the official federal policy there is "catch it. If you die, that's on you.

[ephemera]

I honestly don't know if I would have the willpower to stop seeing my kidlets if geography permitted it - I commend your commitment to their safety and well-being. This whole situation is so - relentless in it's grinding along.

[liv]

The thing is it's not just me tearing myself away from the children by force of willpower. Their parents also want the children to be as safe as possible, and the children themselves, 8 and 11, are old enough to understand that we have to practise social distancing to avoid infection risk. As it is, I lie awake at night trying not to cry because I miss them, and I enjoy hanging out with them distanced in the garden or over video call.

Relentless is a good word, thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

the children themselves, 8 and 11

They're not personally in any danger, then. The latest MRC report puts the IFR in the 5 - 14 age group as between 0.00063% and 0.0025%; see: https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/report-on-nowcasting-and-forecasting-12th-october-2020/

The only concern might be them catching it and spreading it on, but even then consensus seems to be that younger children not only have milder cases but don't seem to spread it much either.

[doseybat]

Wow it is hard. Would be good to talk especially if you have time the coming weekend.