This is our mountain top experience, say our officials here in New York City. The deaths will shoot up into the skies just in time for Easter. This is the week of fire. The officials are talking about turning on the ice skating rinks so that bodies can be stored. Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the U.S. Open is played, is a spill-over hospital.
Churches and other religious organizations are trying hard to keep the personal touch going. They email, zoom noonday prayers, handle emergency material needs, and stream services. For the first time, we heard from an elder at Redeemer East Side. They are calling each congregant. Our call and email was from an oncologist.
That vocational identity as a medical professional who deals with life and death was a background to the call that was a little disturbing, not his fault of course. His reach out was really appreciated.
Everything nowadays feels disturbing. Not all out screaming disturbing, if you are holding it together. But disturbing with skin-tightening, headache inducing vibe which causes its own fears.
Being on the computer screen so much, I get a headache sometimes. Now, the symptom plops down on the virus petri dish. I ask, is this a preliminary symptom of you-know-what? After some exercises, it goes away, but the wave of relief is chopped with, maybe?
Does everybody do this, hold your breath for 10 seconds? If you can do it, the folk wisdom goes, then you don’t have the virus in your lungs. I find my mind wandering during conversations as I hold my breath while counting to 10. (Note: folk wisdom here is inaccurate as the test doesn’t reliably indicate the presence or absence of the coronavirus.)
Evidently, there was a slight decrease in the admissions to the Elmhurst hospital. Governor Cuomo cautions that this change could just be a blip. And also the admissions are turning toward more seriously ill patients. People have been holding out going into the hospital and now have no choice.
We got our backup modem today through online ordering. Modems are pretty reliable, but what if ours did one of those occasional dives into the dumpster? Darilyn and I couldn’t work, communications would slow, etc., etc. We celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday by zoom. Such fun should continue!
I also got some printer ink. We suspended our paper delivery on the slight chance that it carries a virus risk (oh, please don’t do this just because I did!) So, our news now comes only through electronic means. We doubled our tip to our old fashioned paperman/woman.
Delivery trucks are still rumbling our neighborhood. I haven’t counted how many, but there are a quite a few of these boxy behemoths. Not yet extinct!
I cautiously went closer to an UPS deliveryman, not ours, to thank him for his work. He was pretty cautious back, but when he returned from dropping of the package, he had a happier gate to his walk and nodded slightly from the middle of the street. A happy moment.
We are running Chef Debbie J. Yeung’s cooking show this morning on our website A Journey through NYC religions. Another happy moment, though we can’t get asparagus right now. We dream. It is like having joy with wine and toast as your hor d’oeurves (h/t to Tim Timothy C Morgan).
However, our grocery stores are only making deliveries by appointment, and their booking slots are all full. You have to order food from out of town, and it will get here at the end of the month. Some of the big grocery stores are open, but visits are emotional drains.
Last night, we took our walk on a rather abandoned block of sidewalk. As we were crossing the street, a person appeared in the shadows, and let out a watery, rasping cough. We made a sudden U-turn back onto the empty sidewalk across the street.
Distancing is so obvious and isolating in the city. As I walk down the sidewalk, people veer away. A skateboarder came by us and turned his head sideways away from us. Was that for his benefit or ours? Optimistically, I flatter the city’s social trust with the thought that his turn of the head was for the benefit for both of us.
It is now morning time in New York, the sun is bright, but its beams are fighting weakly through our fears. You tell yourself: be happy, exuberant, it is a beautiful day. But… Be strong and cheerful for Darilyn. I feel like a cheerleader for a losing team. I am game for the play, but let’s just get this over with!
And I don’t want to hear that in the next wave of the virus season, we will do better. Well, I really do hope it is true sort of in the spirit of a Yankee fan nowadays. Go Yankees! Go New Yorkers! Go Americans! Go World! Go God! It has been educational.
See you next season, I hope.
