When life somehow became a science fiction movie and the Coronavirus crisis started unwinding, I started searching for reliable information about it (I was not buying the "It will go away" rhetoric our idiotic president had been spewing), I came across this great coronavirus world map put up by John Hopkins University. It's a simple map, breaking down the number of cases in each country on the left, with the number of deaths and recoveries on the right. For more detail, you can click on each country listed and get specifics about the number of cases, deaths and recoveries in a little box that pops up. The reason I found this so helpful is that I have friends spread out all over the place.
Initially the map showed individual hotpots. For example, the map that showed California showed there was activity in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento and other smaller towns you could zoom in and identify. The map has since become more generic, just one dot on each country/state instead of area of infection details as was shown when I took these photos.
My mother, brother and nephew live on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound just northwest of Seattle. With the outbreak that started in the retirement home there, the Seattle area has been of great concern to me, obviously. My mother is in her 70s. My brother is 52. Both have health issues. My mother is always running to one of her rental houses to work on projects -- and then to Home Depot to get supplies for it. My brother refuses to ever believe anything is wrong in the world. I worry about both of them. My nephew stays on his computer pretty much all of the time. He is still in high school and I'm sure he'll survive this. But the number of cases on the island has gone from none, to one, to three and then six. (I was speaking to my mother as I was writing this, and the total has now jumped to 7.)
I have a half sister (and her husband and son) who lives in Seattle and a half brother (and his wife, and two kids) who lives north of Seattle. Their mom also lives there. I am worried about them all.
My best friend, who is 69 and pushing 70, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is currently California's hot spot. I worry about him.
I have friends in Italy. Both have assured me that they are okay...but I check in now and again when I do not hear from them.
I have two friends in Colombia who seem oblivious to any of this. They don't have many cases there, though---yet.
A friend in London said that things are surreal now. She said that there was a silver lining in that the men are now properly washing their hands after using the "loo". I have not heard from my friend in Russia or my friend in Australia---and I worry about them.
And I have so many friends across the US. My oldest friend is a teacher in the Los Angeles area and she is now working from home. Another friend there is a translator and she is holed up in her apartment. I've heard from a lot of my friends---but others I have not heard from, and I worry.
Today I had a movie date with my recently retired former co-worker Mike. This had been planned for weeks. We were going to see the one-day-only showing of the original KING KONG. KING KONG is one of my all-time faves. I had never seen it on an actual movie screen before and was not going to miss this. I had purchased the tickets weeks ago. But as the date crept closer and closer and the virus' cases increased exponentially, the idea of going became less and less desirable. In fact, the night before, while I was at the market shopping the empty shelves, Mike texted me and bowed out.
I couldn't get anyone else to go with me. I thought about not going myself, but stupidly did not want to waste the tickets or miss my chance to see the film. Besides, I didn't think anyone would be there. Boy was I wrong. When I arrived at the shopping center with the theater complex, the parking lot was shockingly full.
There was a line at the box office. Color me surprised. I didn't expect that at all. I found it interesting though that the banner for PETER RABBIT 2 was still hanging over the box office, as the film has been pulled until July. It won't be playing at Easter as the banner reads.
There was no social distancing at the snack bar either.
There is a bar in the theater and that was not being patronized. So why not?
I am a huge tiki bar fan. In fact, the coronavirus caused a tiki event I was planning on going to at the Trader Vic's in Emeryville, California to be postponed until early May (when I am already scheduled to work. Swell...) At the bar, the flashing menu board announced they had cocktails available in collectible Geeki Tiki mugs. Ooooo, SOLD!
I have no idea what drink I was given. (The cocktails I asked for they couldn't find recipes for, so I just had the bartender make me her favorite whatever.) I had a choice of an aged Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams in the last STAR WARS movie) mug or a SHAZAM mug. I wasn't excited about either, but went with SHAZAM. I also scored a bag of popcorn when there was a lull at the snack bar. Popcorn is not on my diet, but if this was going to be my last movie ever, dammit, I wanted to do it right.
It was stupid to have risked it to go to the theater...but I was shocked at just how many other stupid people were there risking it with me.
I did get to see KING KONG and it was good. I walked away with my new tiki mug. I just hope I didn't walk away with anything else...
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