Tranquility

June 8, 2020



Meredith 







Tranquility

It has been a tough year, watching the news has been one horrible news cycle after another with the current focus being on two weeks of social unrest due to the inequality of justice in our nation that was once again brought to the forefront with the video of the tragic death of a black man named George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The incident brought forth a torrent of pent up anger and resentment among the black community that has spread into what is hopefully a full scale movement that hopefully will bring actual change.

Meredith and Kathy



 




 
It hasn’t been smooth or easy and scenes of social unrest have dominated the news cycle in the past two weeks as protests have been held in communities across the country that have pushed the daily dose of pandemic news from the airwaves almost completely in spite of the fact that the covid-19 coronavirus seems to be continuing and is in fact increasing in many places including here in Florida where this week has seen the highest daily total of new cases three times just this week.





 





It figures that the cases would be increasing as the sanctions and restrictions as far as social isolation have started to come down and stop all together in some places and social distancing, mask wearing and closed businesses seem a thing of the past as the rush to reopen and restart the stalled economy has happened. The Florida Keys opened for business on June 1^st and after a long period of hardly any new cases, suddenly we have had three new cases in the past two days. The totals for Monroe County are currently at 114 confirmed cases, with 44 of those being in Key West and the number of deaths rising by 1 to 4. 

 









The United States case total is currently 2,018,228 confirmed cases with 112,823 deaths, still climbing at an alarming rate and still in what many consider to be the first wave of what could possibly be multiple waves of virus based on the history of previous pandemics. You would not know it based on the resumption of activity here in Key West as the gates have opened, hotels are filling up and it is back to mostly business as usual for many of the bars and restaurants in town.





 





Kathy and I have continued to maintain a low profile, keeping within the CDC standards as far as wearing protective masks and not going out and only having small managed gatherings that limit the risk factor. We are in no rush to head out to bars and restaurants, choosing to take a wait and see attitude before rushing out and potentially exposing ourselves.

 









This doesn’t mean we are living like the hermits we were for the better part of the last two months. We have tried to get out and do low risk but rewarding activities when we can. One of the things we wanted to do was to visit the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy which is one of the Key West attractions that reopened to the public this week.





 



The last time I was there was a few months ago with my sister and mother while they were visiting Key West and it was so crowded that you could barely navigate the place. I figured that since it was just reopening and that the island is not back to full capacity, we could visit with very limited people there. We went early in the week but turned away when we saw that there was actually a long line waiting to get in.







I returned alone a couple of days later, just after they first opened and was able to go in and be in there with only a few other tourists and was able to enjoy the place pretty much on my own and it was just a tranquil, quiet, beautiful escape from the current situation in the world today.  This week has been one that has featured the return of the summer rainy season and there have been rain and storms just about every day. After months of drought like conditions it is nice to get the rain, but it has limited outside activities.









We have also had the opportunity to have our friend Meredith visit our house for a couple of days this week, Kathy has been looking after Meredith since she was a baby and she is now nearing the age of six and having her spend the day at our house has been a fun diversion. She enjoys playing with Jack, swimming in our new pool and just hanging out with Kathy.