Day 11 of Phase 2 in Codiponte...
Not much has changed in Codiponte from when Phase 2 was kicked off on Monday, May 4th. The only hardship is the isolation from You and our friends, many of whom are stuck in a Holding Pattern awaiting entry into Italy to return to their homes here. All the rest is a God Send: still no airplanes flying overhead…
oh, I spoke too soon! The sound of a lone aircraft. What could it be? Hark! A Kenyan Air Force two-engine cargo plane flying from Milan Malpensa MXP to N/A, meaning Rome and then some military airport near Nairobi. Well, after delving into the headlines at BBC and The Guardian Newspaper, Africa is now up to the tips of their tribal spears with Coronavirus. And sadly, Kenya is another hot spot. All on the African continent are in need of medical supplies & equipment to battle the pandemic’s invasion into their countries.
One of my hobbies during Phase 1 & 2 of Lockdown has been to check aircraft flying LIVE above the entire globe at flightradar24.com. Previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sky above Codiponte was a multi-lane, multi-directional flight highway connecting Italy to the rest of Italy, Western Europe North of the Alps and the UK despite Brexit to the Near East and Eastern Africa… Egypt south to Kenya, for instance. At all hours of the day and night. I’d sit out with friends, happily sipping an excellently chilled white wine from their cellars in their lovely fattoria high above the valleys of Lunigiana and in line with the Apuane Peaks, offering stunning, unblemished skyscapes. The friends look at stars off apps, while I pull out the ol’ iPhone 11 Plus, for cryin’ out loud, click the flightradar24 app to see what’s what flying above. Just click on a yellow airplane icon to find out the from and to. I am easily carried away with fantasizing of the places on many of the aircraft’s itineraries… Istanbul, Cairo, Beirut, Port Louis, Mauritius! I’ve been to the first two. Not sure when for the others but, Beirut is tops. Since March 9th, the highway is empty but for the sporadic domestic flights flown by Alitalia to connect Milan & Rome to the country’s major centers: Napoli, Palermo, Turin, Venice, Bari, etc.; and slightly more often, Italian Air Force and Police cargo planes and Airbuses to shift personnel, supplies & equipment for the Italy’s fight in this Coronavirus pandemic. The majority of airplanes, however, flying in our skies, and are about 1/100th of the normal traffic, are cargo airplanes. Again, shifting stuff to combat the emergency. And yet, the Boeings and Airbuses are also carry general goods & foods since, the belly-cargos of the passenger aircraft are empty and parked on aprons and runways all over the place. Major hubs like London Heathrow, Vienna Schwechat, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok have become huge parking lots for B-777s, A-380s, etc.. And so too at many a minor airport. There is one airport out in California… Victorville, California… a famous aircraft cemetery… is now home to umpteen hundreds of furloughed though ready to fly airplanes of all sizes. Oh, well.
… and car & truck traffic has dwindled to a trickle though there are tiny Rush Hours in the early morning and late in the afternoon. The Codiponte Natives are out yet, rarely far from home or vegetable gardens and they rigorously wear masks but, NO GLOVES!!! And the church’s campanile still rings in the hours from 7:00AM to 9:00PM. Hope it stays like this.
Day 53: The Lockdown Masquerade 2020...
Yes, and gosh, here I am at my personal Day 77 Lockdown Codiponte. How time flies when one is locked-down. I haven’t seen You in 67 days or, 9.53 weeks. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? I believe so, though I have hardly had any time to notice, what with the number of telephone calls & Whatsapp messages from him. And, we will have to bear the separation as best we can for another 31 days or, 4 weeks. The Dog is thoroughly worn-out from my discussions substituting for the absent Dottore You. The exhausted canine naps elsewhere.
Passing quickly onto the Weather: cloudy, cool and there’s an infinitesimally fine spray today, Thursday, the last day of April and a day before May Day. What are people going to be able to do tomorrow to celebrate the holiday during a Global pandemic? Socialisms has been switched to Social Distancing. Not quite what was originally intended but then, who knew? And a parade of masked & gloved folk would be a no-no, unless there’s only family members… in Italy.
I have made light of You’s constant tele-communications but, his and those too of the masked folk of family & friends below have been A MAFOR MORALE BOOSTER!!! for this COVID-19 shut-in Codiponte, Tuscany, Italy. To thank them… one and all… for their constant messages, calls, emails, videos and cartoons, here below is…
Lockdown Masquerade 2020!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you… grazie, grazie, grazie!!!
Day 29 Lockdown Codiponte
Day 53 for me.
Weather continues to be outrageously sunny, meaning n’er a cloud, warm, meaning HOT & DRY, and often terrifically windy, meaning NO YARD WORK but to water.
Our lockdown continues and has been extended to April 13th, Easter Weekend. Dottore You said our confinement will be again extended. This bug currently menacing us on a Global level will need several more weeks, if not months to dissipate.
In the meantime, there’s already an obnoxious array of videos on YouTube with advice, suggestions or, recommendations on what & how you can fill all your lockdown time being constructive and not end up on the sofa balancing a bowl of potato-chips on your expanding tummy, sipping from a goblet filled to the brim with a chilly white wine, while struggling through the pitiful offering of movies or TV shows on Netflix…
I REFUSE to do yoga with my pet sheepdog… got no sheepdog, and, Thank God!… calisthenics with a rope and a closet door… I am NOT going to hunt for a rope… or, prop myself up into a horizontally torturous position for 15 minutes… NO WAY, man! I want to be able to get to the sofa afterwards. So much for physical exercise.
On the spiritual side of Life, one can YouTube it with learning Mindfulness while washing your hands to the cadence of Australian vowel sounds, listen to the prognostications of a very nice woman channeling an entity named Abraham, who encourages not to buy into all the Coronavirus hoopla and just think happy thoughts or, follow a former actor and now a professional consciousness coach who, in the video I caught, was sitting on a park bench in Chicago. He spoke of accepting The Now. In his case, his Now was walking on crutches after a hamstring accident. Apparently to him, a metaphor for the Coronavirus opportunity to recognise our Oneness with unbounded Nature. Whatever.
I find the most solace, humour and good-spiritedness in the videos and comical sayings exchanged on WhatsApp with friends & family. I thought I would share some of the fun…
Onwards to other Days!
Coronavirus in Italy...
Coronavirus, which got its start in Wuhan, China from human contact with an infected animal at a food market in the city, arrived in Italy last week. About 20 other countries had visitations at the same moment. The few Italian cases quadrupled in 24 hours. By mid-weekend, the cases had quadrupled again along with announcements of deaths from the infection. Worrying. The World’s attention turned upon Italy.
The majority were in two outlying provinces of Milan but, not in the city of millions. The Lombardy Region decided to put the two provinces in a lock-down: can’t get in, can’t get out. The World riveted its attention ONLY on Italy. The thinking of the Italian authority was… had the Chinese government sought to contain the virus’s spread from the first cases with a similar lock-down… an easily identifiable strain of the same SARS virus… a global scare of contagion might have been avoided. The attempt to contain the virus’s spread to more populated areas of Northern Italy was much publicised on the TV, radio and Internet. The last went viral.
We now have two rampant and insidious viruses.
One is an illness which threatens primarily… old people, sufferers from lung diseases, individuals pre-disposed to lung illnesses or, those who have issues with their immune systems.
The other is the viral dissemination of mis-information about Coronavirus. Its consequences may destroy people’s livelihoods and well-being, a country’s economy… I’m talking Italy but this applies to any country effected by the Coronavirus effect… and long after the virus has taken its course and petered out.
Coronavirus or, COVID-19, the name of this particular virus is… is a common virus which causes an infection in your sinuses or, upper throat. Symptoms of fever, coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath may occur as the illness develops strength or, descends into the respiratory tract. Deteriorate may lead to pneumonia and possible death.
400,000 people die each year from the flu. So far the death toll from Coronavirus is less about 3,500. If that.
There is no vaccine nor are antibiotics effective. As soon as symptoms are noticed, the best treatments are those for the common cold or, flu: plenty of rest, drink fluids, take aspirin for fever, use disposable tissues for sneezing or, clearing sinuses… don’t forget to wash your hands too… and restrict contact with others until the symptoms pass. Stay calm.
My information comes from my partner of 21 years, You, who is a doctor and a head of the ophthalmology department of a major Italian hospital. He completed his entire medical training at 24 years of age. Residency included, guys. He worked as a general practitioner and surgeon for 5 years before returning to medical school to specialised in ophthalmology treatments and surgery. He has worked for the Italian health scheme and in his own private practise for 40 years. I rest with his experience, knowledge and Good Sense which is what you have just read.
Outside an Italian supermarket…
P.S. China has 5 billion people. 80,000 have been infected by Coronavirus and deaths have been less than 3,000. Do the Math to put all this into perspective, if the Truth of the disease doesn’t work.