Day 34-Quarantine-I’m Sorry

Posted on 19/04/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Back on Day 12, I wrote a sarcastic piece about GM and their promise to build ventilators for COVID-19 patients. I really didn’t believe they had a chance of coming up with something that looked different from a Chevy or Cadillac. What I failed to remember is that they had an empty plant in Kokomo, Indiana where they made electronic parts for Chevies and Cadillacs. It was a natural for making ventilators. Where they got the workforce to assemble them I don’t know. Maybe they rehired all the workers they laid off when they stopped making starters and alternators in the USA. What ever, I owe them an apology. I am sorry GM for making you the butt of my disbelief, and thank you for coming through for the country.

In my secret life I have always wanted a Cadillac, but changed my mind after owning a Toyota. The reason is that I take my trusty Avalon to the dealer for oil changes and tire rotations. Each time I walk through the shop on my way to the customer waiting area I walk between piles of Cadillac parts like motors, and transmissions spread all over the floor under skeletons of Cadillacs on lifts I Don’t think I have ever seen a Toyota spread out on the floor. When I first bought my car the dealer handled  Cadillac, Toyota, and Jeeps. They lost the Jeep line when Obama manhandled the automotive industry during the 2008 economic melt-down.

 

 

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Day 33-Quarantine-Paranoia

Posted on 19/04/2020 by Grumpa Joe

During my walk yesterday an incident occurred which caused me to become paranoid. The trek was nearing one hour and I was just a couple of blocks from my home. I took a path that followed a power line. It is little traveled but very scenic. It passes a three acre lake that my back yard swamp (wetland) empties into. A father played with his young son. Their house backed up to the power line easement and thus they had a huge back yard. Dad was pitching and the son was batting. I heard the knock of the bat against the ball and watched the ball head toward me. It dropped about twenty feet in front of me and rolled to a stop in the tall, rough grass. Being a good citizen I trotted over to the ball and slung it back to the dad, as I did he shouted “we’ll pick them up at the same time.” They must have had a dozen balls to practice with. Then it occurred to me, what if the ball had the virus on it? From my perspective, I could have gotten the virus just by picking up that ball and throwing it. But, the dad was thinking that old guy just passed the virus to me. None of us knows if we have it, and we are all enemies of each other. It is a cruel, cruel thing when you have to distrust everyone that comes close to you to feel safe.

When I sleep I dream. My dream this morning concentrated on a real quarantine. Particularly from my point of view. How would I handle a true quarantine? A strict quarantine where I am not allowed to leave my house. I experienced a true quarantine when I was fifteen years old, but I was too sick to notice how restrictive it is. At my current age and health being locked in a house without any freedom to go outside is the same as prison. I don’t think I would deal with true quarantine very well. Yet, the chances of me having to live through a quarantine are pretty high. At this time if a person is tested and found to have COVID-19, but is asymptomatic, (meaning he has no fever, aches & pains, no drippy nose or cough), or if one has the bug, he is to go into quarantine for two weeks. I am not anxious to go into a strict quarantine, but I will if necessary. I’d rather play by the rules with Stay In Place to keep from picking up the bug.

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