Alone Together

April 18, 2020



Petey

Reverend Peyton





Alone Together

We have sort of settled into a quarantine groove as the days pass by during this Covid-19 pandemic that continues fairly unabated throughout the United States and across the globe. As of today there are currently 701,610 confirmed cases in the United States with 37,055 people who have died as a result of the infection. Here locally the numbers have jumped to 73 confirmed cases, with 35 of those being here in Key West, 9 people have been hospitalized here and we are holding steady with just 3 deaths locally.









The numbers continue to grow and while the curve growth may be slowing a bit here, overall the growth seems to still be on the upswing. It hasn’t mattered though as each day that passes more and more people seem to grow impatient with the restrictions and people have begun pushing back against the stay at home directives. Pressure is slowly building to reopen businesses and the economy in spite of the fact that it would certainly mean a spike in infections and death. This movement is being encouraged and instigated by President Trump and many Republican governors and leaders and the talking heads at Fox News whose continuous irresponsible actions are both dangerous and shameful.









For our part, we are just trying to get by day by day, obeying the stay at home directive other than our daily walks and bike rides, during which we take great care to avoid basically any human contact. It is tough being alone so much, isolated and away from family and friends. We continue to make good use of things like facetime, skype zoom and other social media that allows contact with people who are far away.

Lily

Petey



We do regular chats with our friends Dakota and Andy and their daughter Sloane who celebrated her second birthday this week. We also chatted with Kathy’s cousin Alex and his wife and baby Petey, which was great fun. In addition we have had a few drive by visits from our friends, who stop by to say hello while maintaining a safe distance. Our friends Bonnie and Mike dropped by some yummy food and we have had others stopping by as well, which always cheers us up.









We try and avoid watching too much news coverage. The daily White House press briefings are the absolute worst, propaganda with no real plan on display and mostly nauseating misinformation, outright lies and incredible amounts of shifting the blame for the horrific federal response to the ongoing disaster. The media seems to play along for the most part and it is depressing to say the least.

Dakota and Sloane

Smokey







What keeps us sane and happy are the good people who are trying to make this all bearable. These include our musician friends like Carter Sampson who broadcasts a daily web broadcast from her home in Oklahoma where she plays songs, reads uplifting stories and basically keeps her friends and fans company. Locally our friend Landon Bradbury does a similar daily broadcast called Coffee with Landon that serves the same purpose of bringing friends together, seeing a familiar face who is calm and reassuring during this crazy time.











I have been watching a lot of live concert broadcasts including weekly shows from Todd Snider and Frank Turner and the first live concert broadcast by our friends Reverend and Breezy and their band Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. The show was live from a studio in Nashville, Indiana and was a wonderful, upbeat and positive celebration of music and solidarity that was watched live by several thousand fans. We simply loved it.







It is a dark and mostly scary time and we have been relying on each other and our friends and positive people to keep us sane and focused and to help us get through the long and seemingly endless days of solitude and isolation. We have been spending more time with our pets and in our yard than we have ever done in the past and our recently upgraded yard has been a source of great joy. Watching our local chicken population has been pretty fun as well, at times our yard is like a wild kingdom.







We have been enjoying nightly cocktails and lots more time in our yard, watching our neighbors as they get out for their walks and seeing the many dogs that our walked by our house each day. Trying hard to maintain an upbeat attitude in spite of the obvious hard times that so many are going through.

Easter

April 13, 2020









Easter

Kathy and I have never been particularly religious people, but we have always enjoyed celebrating Easter. Usually with family or large groups of friends, it has been something of an annual tradition to celebrate the holiday in some festive gathering. That makes this year especially tough on us, especially Kathy as spending it virtually alone when we would so much like to be out among friends is hard. It is just another of the many, many ways small and large that the Covid-19 virus pandemic has impacted our lives. Of course we have our health and we are in a decent position to ride things out so we are very thankful and understand that so many others are suffering at the moment.











As of today there have been 525,704 cases of coronavirus here in the United States, with 20,486 individuals who have perished due to the disease in this country. Here in Monroe County, Florida we have to date seen 59 confirmed cases, with 28 of those being in Key West including 7 who required hospitalization and sadly three people here who have died. The local numbers, while rising, offer a ray of hope as the rate of growth has slowed and the number of hospitalizations have stabilized.













I would attribute this to the very successful efforts of isolation and social distancing that the vast majority of people here have been following. We got a bit of a slow start, not really shutting things down until March 17, but once we started, local efforts have been pretty much spot on and people seem to be following the guidelines for the most part. I have noticed a tremendous uptick in the number of people wearing face masks in public, especially since it became mandatory to enter any store or business that happens to be open. Really only essential businesses remain open and I myself witnessed a Winn Dixie employee kick a guy out who entered the store without a mask.













Kathy and I have been doing an excellent job staying away from people. We still take our almost daily walks around the island, avoiding the busier and more populated areas and generally avoiding contact with others. For Easter, Kathy baked a ham and some of her delicious Easter bread and we went out and delivered it to a few friends, all while maintaining at least the 6 foot distancing as required. It was bittersweet to see friends but not really be able to interact with them.











 
 

We also took the time to participate in the Easter hunt on Stock Island organized by our friend David Sloan, who put bunny ears on 100 lobster buoys and stashed them all around Stock Island, encouraging people to walk, bike or drive around the island to spot them, all while maintaining the proper distancing etiquette. It was a fun distraction and an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours out of the house in a safe and fun way.









We also spent time on Easter using social media and the good old phone to talk to family and friends. I spoke with my mother Marta and my sister Marika and her husband Brian who were enjoying their Easter isolation together by sharing Easter dinner. My mother is doing really well having moved back into her condo from the assisted care facility she was in just before pandemic restrictions took effect. We were certainly nervous about that but with the help of my sister and a visiting nurse, it has worked out well.



Dakota, Elmo and Sloane

Kathy had nice long conversations with both her brother in Colorado and sister in Boston which is a rarity in itself and was a welcome diversion from the daily grind of isolation. Speaking with family and friends always helps lift our spirits. We have been trying to find productive uses of our time, spending a lot of time cleaning the house and yard.









I also continue to watch Netflix, HBO, read and even have been watching the virtual I-Racing Indy Car races on my computer, the most recent one was run on the Michigan Speedway and was won by Simon Pagenaud. It is a poor substitute for an actual race, but is still fun to watch, especially watching from the individual driver’s perspective. This week was also our friend Reverend Peyton’s birthday and his wife Breezy asked his friends and fans around the world to take a photo for him and Kathy and I having plenty of time, did a “Tiger King” themed birthday message.









Lately we have taken to doing our daily walks at night, which gives a different perspective to the quiet deserted feel of the island. It is also somewhat practical since it is somewhat cooler in the evening. The walk on Easter Eve took us down Truman Avenue where we visited the Grotto at St. Mary’s church which was quiet and reverent and then just past on Truman we passed the equally quiet Adult Book store and Bare Assets strip club. When saints and sinners are closed and quiet, you know it must be a serious situation.