The View from the Hermitage, Day 115

Starting off on a less-than-cheery note, older son sent me the link to an article reporting that the novel coronavirus can survive in air for hours. The researchers do note that they did the research in an artificial laboratory chamber as opposed to real-world atmosphere with light or wind. Still, it's food for thought and more evidence that following public health guidance (think mask and social distancing here) is needed if we are ever to slow the spread of the virus.

I Zoomed with my mother this afternoon. They did the point prevalence coronavirus testing at her senior care facility today. I told her that I'd heard the long swab up the nose was somewhat unpleasant and asked her how it had been. Yes, the long swab up the nose is somewhat unpleasant. It probably did not help that they interrupted her breakfast to do the test. She did not know when the results would come in. I'm betting that the facility will let both Mom and me know given that they sent the consent form to me first.

Mom said that if no one had it, perhaps they would let visitors come again. I explained that if no one had it, that was all the more reason to keep visitors out. If no one has it, the only way someone might get it would be if someone brought it in from outside.

I played with words in my mind as I skied to nowhere this morning. A reader used the word "hermetic" in a comment. Her-met-ik. I do like the sound of that. What if the word had a gender? Might "hermetic" be the feminine and "himmetic" be the masculine? My mind then drifted to other word pairs and related questions. Why is "inept" listed as an antonym for "adept" when "adept" is not listed as an antonym of "inept"? And isn't "inept" a good antonym for "apt"? If it is, why do we use "inept" rather than "inapt"? I know that I can look these things up in a good dictionary, but not while I'm skiing to nowhere on my NordicTrack ski machine. And let's not forget the oldie but goodie that we"drive on a parkway" and "park on a driveway."

This led me to thinking of a book I once read on survival. The following text is apparently read differently by people who will survive than by those who will not:

                            OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

Do you see that as "opportunity is nowhere" or do you see that as "opportunity is now here"? You can probably guess which group had a better chance of surviving. And are you "impossible" or "I'm possible"? Perspective can be everything.

Back when I worked for the public K-12 schools, I frequently heard the word "stakeholder" used. I typically then thought of "steakholder" and had images of the stake used to kill a vampire stuck through a steak on its way into the vampire's chest.

That's one thing I like about what could otherwise be a mindless cardio workout. It is often more mind-freeing than mind-less. It can be something like a weird dream where something that happens leads into something else with seemingly no connection or relevance. I find myself noting in the morning what a strange dream I had the night before but unable to remember what made it strange. I know where I started or ended up but the intermediate stops are missing.

How this all relates to the novel coronavirus I do not know. I do know, however, how nice it can be to find myself having gone an hour without dwelling on the virus or covid-19. Some days I spend that hour going through scenario after scenario of how things might or might not turn out. Today, I just played word games.