COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Diary
I have mentioned my cousin's daughter Alexis, a nurse, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The good news is that she is recovering without serious complications and could be released from quarantine this Easter weekend.One amusing observation during a recent Tom Woods podcast. He was mentioning shopping recently when he felt this irresistible urge to sneeze--but he dared not for fear others would think he might be symptomatic COVID-19 infected. He managed to suppress the sneeze, eventually went outside to where, at last, he could have a satisfying sneeze and the moment had passed. I have to admit I've been concerned over perceptions of an innocuous cough, sneeze, runny nose, whatever in public. Over the last few weeks I've only ventured out for groceries or prescriptions and haven't had one of these issues, but I know if necessary I need to cough or sneeze into my elbow.
As an Amazon Prime customer, I had noticed anecdotally two-day, even same-day deliveries have gone away during the crisis. I was recently looking, for example, at face masks, and even if in stock, I was seeing delivery times of weeks, even a month or so (see here for a confirmatory post). One of my regular subscriptions (a 12-can pack of Antartica Diet Guarana) took an unusually long time to deliver. For unaware readers, guarana has been the leading soft drink in Brazil for years; it's hard to describe the taste, sort of like a berry-flavored ginger ale. I spent about 3 months working at a client site in Sao Paulo over 2 business trips in 1995 and developed a taste for it (not to mention very strong Brazilian coffee, multiple bags in my pantry).
My 14-month-younger sister is trying to deal with the stress of these times by making homemade face masks for her family. She says she's having trouble finding elastic pieces and is resorting to ribbons. I've asked her if she can put me on her list, promising to cover any out-of-pocket costs.
Have you noticed that wait times during the crisis have also risen? I'll give one example. I had expected a replacement credit card over the last few weeks for an expiring one. I had gotten notice the replacement card was in process but never got it (I've never had an issue in the past with replacements and I was carefully watching my mail daily.) Some vendors had noticed and sent out messages I needed to update credit card information. So I had to place 2 calls to my issuer on this issue and literally had to wait over an hour on the phone each time. I initially thought maybe during the crisis there had been delays sending out cards. No, the representative told me: it was mailed out according to their records weeks earlier. (In fact the voice system had noted I hadn't activated my replacement card yet.) So I asked for time to check if somehow I misplaced the card envelope because I didn't want to go through the trouble of changing my card number on various sites. Nope. So I had to call them to generate a replacement card. Now I don't think I've ever gotten straight through in calling my issuer. (They had declined a charge at a Tennessee hotel on my move back to Maryland. What the hell? I had plenty of credit on the card. Apparently I didn't contact them before I moved. Dude! You processed a U-Haul charge! Fortunately, I had a backup credit card, but I had never had a hotel charge denied in my life before, and it was embarrassing, like I was some sort of deadbeat running up my credit limit.) But delays in the past had been more like 10-20 minutes, not over an hour. Thank God for speakerphones.
My Mom recently had a brief stay at a Texas hospital where they wanted to do some tests and keep her overnight for observation. My Mom over the past year had a bout with pneumonia and is at an ar risk age range; I just didn't like the possibility of a COVID-19 infection at a hospital possibly treating COVID-19 patients. But this whole situation has changed everyday life in different ways. I now have 3 married siblings in the area. So normally I would be asking her which sibling she would be spending Easter with. She responded vaguely. My guess is the siblings want to minimize her risk. Right now she has car issues, so my baby brother is dropping off groceries.
It's strange to see what is/isn't considered "essential business" under stay-at-home regimens. I have a nephew who works at the San Antonio zoo; apparently the reptiles still need to be fed. I'm not arguing that we should leave zoo populations to starve; I'm just quarreling over the nature and extent of government fiats during the crisis.
Good Friday and Easter
There are things I've always loved about the liturgical tradition of the Catholic Church. The pomp and circumstance; the rituals; the bells; the incense; candles; sung Masses; colorful vestments. I was one of the few men who as altar boys served the entire transition of the Mass, from traditional Latin liturgy, to English; from hymns to guitar masses. I can still recall my proud first day as an altar boy (maybe 7 or 8), serving as the crucifer (cross-bearer) leading the procession to the mass. Latin didn't intimidate me; to me, there was a sense of unity, knowing the same liturgy in the same language was being said concurrently across the globe, to a shared community of hundreds of millions across the globe. I had basically memorized the entire Latin liturgy (and I think kids pick up languages easily).[I can still recall later trying to get my high school principal to offer Latin. He tried to humor me, telling me he needed at least 20-25 students to offer a class. So I personally gathered a list of students meeting his minimum, only for him to blow up at me, saying "I'm not going to hire a teacher to teach one class!" Dude! You changed the rules after I called your bluff! That's so dishonest! I proved him wrong: there was a demand for the class.]
Now I haven't been to a Latin mass since childhood. Oddly enough, some libertarians and conservatives (e.g., Tom Woods and Rick Santorum) love the Latin mass, which is apparently available in some settings. I'm not reactionary; in fact, I've occasionally enjoyed a guitar mass. But, as I've written before, my "jump the shark" moment was when a priest at the University of Texas delivered a sermon reflecting on Olivia Newton John's hit song, "Have You Never Been Mellow?" I can still remember the old disciplines, like fish on Friday's, fasting before mass (I remember Mom having to pack me a breakfast for after early morning mass in third grade, a personal favorite boiled egg sandwich). I have never been happy with the Church's seemingly desperate appeals to accommodate the culture to remain relevant, and it was a key reason I never pursued the priesthood after college. I may be conservative, but it doesn't mean I'm anti-change. I'm very receptive to the concept of female deacons, and I would welcome female and/or married priests--except I disdain feminist ideological rhetoric. The Church never gave us a choice, forcing New Coke on us, while a number of us still found profound meaning in Coca Cola Classic. I don't think the Church wanted us to choose because it knew many, if not most Catholics would stick with the traditional liturgy. (Let me point out my maternal Uncle Roger, a priest and political conservative, did not share my opinion on relevant Vatican II reforms, except he didn't want to be stereotyped, assigned to a dying Franco-American parish since he was bilingual. Well, he also knew Latin because his seminary in Montreal, where he earned his licentiate (think of it as a Master's degree in theology), did instruction and all exams in Latin. No nostalgia for him.)
And then are solemn days like today: with stark, minimalist setting and liturgy, memorializing the passion and execution of Jesus Christ. I also find profound meaning in this (although not an obligatory mass), probably one of the top 2-3 masses of the year I prefer (Midnight Mass on Christmas morning, Easter). I remember the Dominicans at UH Catholic let a group of us play parts during the passion reading. I've mentioned this in past posts: I eagerly volunteered for the part of Pontius Pilate, the most evil man in history, who sentenced Christ to death. With all due modesty, I'm a good public speaker, and I played the part convincingly, enough for one of the attendees approaching me after mass and telling me my performance reminded her of miracle plays she had attended in her childhood.
On a lighter note, I enjoyed Easter traditions, including dinner featuring baked ham. As a child, of course, there was the chocolate bunny and various treats basket. I still got one into my 20's, probably because Mom was determined to treat all her kids equally, so if my two youngest siblings got them, so did everyone else. I haven't had Easter candy in years, although I recall being partial to white chocolate bunnies and cream-filled eggs. As I've mentioned in the past, though, one of my rituals before exams at UH was a Hershey with Almonds bar. These days, if I eat chocolate, it's dark chocolate. I don't know if they make dark chocolate with almonds bunnies; it's amazing how often I do Google searches while writing posts. There are definitely dark chocolate bunnies available. Not sure from what I've seen if any have almonds.
