My mother's assisted living facility did another round of point prevalent covid-19 testing today. Mom said that a dining room worker told her the results were supposed to be back tomorrow. The worker was rearranging tables in preparation for when at least some of the residents can once again dine together. I told Mom that unless it was some special deal with the company doing the testing, the results would not be back tomorrow and it would probably be next week when they came back, if then. I am, of course, hoping all the results come back negative for covid-19, but with one staff member having tested positive, I have to wonder. That staff member only got tested because they were told of possible contact. If they'd been asymptomatic and not told of possible contact, the virus could have spread like wild fire through the facility when that person came to work. Fingers crossed as much as I can and still type.
My mother spoke with my brother over the past weekend. She told me that she didn't think he could have done what I have and simply stayed away from the world for so long. Funny. I always thought of him as being almost as introverted as I am. Mom said he's tired of there being nowhere to go. He and his wife were planning a trip to Canada for September but won't be going now. He's mentioned in his letters that he liked it when coffee shops reopened even if you had to sit outside to enjoy your coffee. I owe him a letter and will have to ask him how things are going in one of the states rated very positively in terms of how they've been handling the novel coronavirus.
The numbers here in Virginia, while still higher than they used to be are not increasing quickly. Things could change when colleges and universities welcome students and staff back on their campuses, though. Online classes at the local university start two weeks from today, though students living on campus don't come back for about two weeks after that. In other words, there's plenty of time for the university to change its mind one more time.
So far it appears as if the Power Five in college football is only going to lose two conferences. So far, the Atlantic Coast Conference is still planning to play. I don't know if the conference will set attendance limits or if that will be up to each university. I'm not sure how the money from ticket sales compares to the money from broadcast media. Broadcast money is probably a lot more, but that doesn't mean loss of ticket sale dollars won't hurt.
New Zealand had some new cases that apparently did not come from outside the country. They immediately locked Auckland down and reimposed all sorts of restrictions. As older son said, that's much easier to do for a smallish island nation than for a large land-locked one. The point is, though, that they took it seriously and took action; they did not quibble over details and let things go from bad to worse in the process. Of course, the US is something of an island in terms of all the countries that will not admit people coming from the US. Maybe substituting "pariah" for "island" in that last sentence would be more appropriate.
The husband and I got up earlier than usual this morning hoping to see the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not cooperate. It was cloudy and drizzling. I shall consult with the husband over dinner as to whether we should try again tomorrow morning.This morning, he went back to bed, and I stayed up to read news and do the New York Times daily crossword puzzle on my phone.
Dinner tonight will be steak, salad, and rice. I'll make extra rice since I want to make Mongolian beef on Saturday. I never would have found and tried out that recipe were it not for the pandemic. Yay, pandemic!
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