The Corona Diaries, part 2, or, Stats, Haiku, #lockdownproblems

Welcome to the Coronadiaries, part 2, Spain version. Here's the low-down of statistics, a list of #lockdownproblems, and some more really bad Haiku. 
If you missed part one, it's here. 

We are officially at Day ?? of the Lockdown (I really have lost count here).

Toda va a salir bien: Everything's going to be okay. Lots of kids in our neighborhood are hanging these homemade signs outside of their homes.

#lockdownproblems, Spain Edition (volume 1): 

On March 14, a State of Alarm was set by the Prime Minister by Royal Decree (yeah, we have a Prime Minister AND a King).
State of Alarm means we can leave the house to buy groceries, to go to the doctor or pharmacy, and to take out of garbage/recycling. We can walk the dog to the nearest grass (we don't have a yard), but only for 50 m from the house. We cannot exercise outside of the house. Restaurants and virtually all businesses are closed.
There are rumors that the police are stopping and fining people 700 Euros ($760US) for being more than 50m from home.
That's a problem, and here's why. . . 

Exhibit A: a walk from our casa to the "Pipican," which is what the city calls the tiny area to let your dog relieve itself.

Pros: it's the closest green space to the house
Cons: it's rarely mowed, and it smells like a dog's toilet. It's also 150m from the house, a violation of the 50m rule.

No thank you; I'd rather walk to a park a little bit further from the house.

Exhibit B: park near the house (it has a name, I'm sure, but I've never known what it is)

Pros: larger space for doggo to do his business, usually mowed, a little more scenic

Cons: it's 200m from the house---clearly in violation of the 50m rule. 

Exhibit C: my street, thanks to Google street view. AKA the narrowest street in Rota.

Pros: it's less than 50m from my house (we are the 2nd house on the right)
Cons: my dog won't go in the street. I realize this is an anomaly amongst most Spanish dogs---we dodge dog shit every time we walk on a sidewalk or in the street in this country--but my Spanish podenco WILL NOT GO in the street.
Plus it's just disgusting. No thank you.

So he is going to the park for doggy potty time, which means whoever walks him has to carry the dog's identification (he has his own fancy European Dog Passport---yes, it's a real thing in the EU), a bottle of detergent to sprinkle if he sprinkles, and poop bags, all in case we are stopped by the Policía. Even then, we can be fined.

A Haiku for those who are on Zoom/Skype/Google Meet all day: 

Jowls, wrinkles, crow's feet

The things I never noticed

I'm sick of my face. 

30 March 2020
85,195 positive cases/7,340 deaths
5,405 in Andalucía
24,090 in Madrid

Two weeks into the State of Alarm, and it seems like a month already. It was extended last night and will continue for 15 more days.

Up until now, I had the choice of going into work (social distancing is not an issue---hardly anyone is there) or working from home. The benefit of working from my school is there is one less person on our already struggling home internet, I can actually get out of the house, and less people = less stress when you are locked down.

But not anymore.

This is coming from the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the King, again, and not from my work or the base. Now in Spain, nobody except those people who are absolutely essential are to leave their homes.

31 March 2020

Not only have most stores been closed for weeks now, but the grocery store has now closed off the section of clothes/linens. What few things we can buy is getting smaller and smaller. . .

3 April 2020
Yesterday, 950 died in Spain in a single day. To date, this is most people to die in a country in one day.

We spend a lot of time watching neighbors literally walk in circles on their roofs. And we are lucky to have both a roof and a huge patio surrounding our house. Many people are cooped up in apartments and can't exercise at all.

It's a teacher work day--end of the quarter. Sitting in front of a computer 8-10-12 hours a day has given me awful headaches and my eyes hurt all the time.
I'm worried that my students are also spending too much time in front of the computer. And my seniors---what a devastating year for them. If you have friends with seniors, check on them.

Seriously.

And now a Haiku break. 

Eighty-six students

to nag; there's one at home, too. 

This is exhausting. 

#lockdownproblems, Spain Edition (volume 2): 

My kids are eating us out of house and home. 

Cereal is their snack of choice. We have gone through at least 10 boxes since this started, and I now buy milk by the case. We buy the super homogenized stuff that can sit on a shelf for weeks before being refrigerated. Until now, I'd buy 1-2 at a time. Now I buy it by the case, and it only lasts a few days. 

Same with eggs---they are fresh and don't have to be refrigerated, either, and we are going through at least a dozen a week. This is a problem because you have to glove up/mask up/stand in a queue 6 feet from others/possibly take you life in your hands???  to go to the grocery store these days. 

4 April 2020
124,736 positive cases/11,744 deaths
7,869 in Andalucía
36,249 in Madrid

A larger number of people in Madrid have been diagnosed with COVID-19 than the entire number of people who live in our town of Rota.

The government has yet again extended the quarantine/lockdown until April 26. Fun! Fun!!!

My main exercise has been walking up three sets of steps to the roof to do laundry. I washed pretty much anything you can wash in this house to keep busy and to exercise.I joked that I've washed everything but the dog. . . well, today I also washed the dog. He wasn't too happy about it, but he never is. He does, however, smell better.

I think he's having a hard time figuring out why everyone is in his space every day, all day long.

Starting Tuesday, we have to wear face masks on base. Everyone is basically wearing them in Spain, anyway, but as of today, Americans have to wear them while on the American base, as well.

#lockdownproblems, Spain Edition (volume 3): 

We have been directed to wear masks everywhere. You even see people wearing them while driving cars. Yes, while driving a car. . . that nobody else is in. I'm so confused. . . 

A new problema grande is we cannot buy masks here. We've been told to make them out of hankerchiefs/scarves/hand towels. Americans look ridiculous. Spanish do not. Where are Spanish people getting masks? I don't know. 

I took out my trusty sewing machine and made some masks for us (and for a few friends).  Maybe we will look less ridiculous with a homemade mask than with a hand towel wrapped around our faces.

5 April 2020

Semana Santa, Spain's Holy Week, one of the biggest (if not biggest) holidays in Spain, has been postponed. Instead of floats carried on men (and women's) shoulders, with parade participants wearing scary Capriotes, or those tall, conical hats, the streets are eerily quiet. 

It's also Spring Break. We are supposed to be in Paris this week. 

Also, guess what??? Travel insurance does NOT include a pandemic. 

9 April 2020

152,446 positive cases/15,238 deaths

9,261 in Andalucía 

43,877 in Madrid 

11 April 2020

Time for a Haiku break: 

Desperation hit.

Took clippers to hubby's head.

We are still talking. 

(our oldest son helped. . . and it looks good)

13 April 2020

Factory workers and construction workers went back to work today. We are hoping the numbers don't spike again. 

We've given up on getting packages to our American post office box---I am still waiting on something I ordered in February. I know the base is doing the best they can with the backlog of mail, and much of our mail is stuck somewhere else, so who knows how much longer. There is no point in buying anything online to our American box because it may take another month to get it (if it can be shipped, to begin with). The solution: Amazon Germany and/or Amazon Spain, which both deliver. 

And today: a puzzle arrived! So exciting!! Something to do!!! 

17 April 2020

Mini crisis. . . there's a problem with the puzzle. Five days of working on it, and on Friday evening, we find this: 

One thousand pieces

But nine-hundred ninety-nine

The dog ate one piece. 

18 April 2020

191,726 positive cases/20,043 deaths

11,020 in Andalucía (967 deaths)

52,946 in Madrid (7,132 deaths)

Spanish dogowners can be the worst of people. But in our experience, we also find they are the best. 

People here socialize their dogs early so they can take them to parks, festivals, neighbor's houses, outdoor cafés. Some restaurants even allow dogs. 

People usually don't come up and pet your dog, but they do introduce their dog to yours, and socialization of dogs is something we've gotten used to, and our dog, who spent a few years in a Spanish house before we adopted him, is very well behaved in public and fully expects to get a few good sniffs in during park visits. 

He is so confused right now. We not only have to social distance from humans, but he hasn't been around another dog in a month. This has to be difficult on him, too. 

I'm looking forward to doggie dates with friends, for socialization in the parks, for sipping coffee at my favorite café with my dog by my side.

January 31 was the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Spain. Since then, the numbers have drastically jumped each day, some days at unbelievable rates. 

We have been locked indoors since mid-March with threats of arrests and fees if we violate the decree. The word draconian is thrown around a lot these days, and I have to agree with that analysis of our predicament here. 

Our youngest son has only been out of the house a handful of times since. 

At 8 pm, we still go on our stoop and applaud the first responders and medical personnel who are working so hard. Many of them have become casualties of the virus. 

It's become a nighty ritual, watching our elderly neighbor with her walker (she's in her late 90s). Her daughter lives there, too, along with her husband who had a stroke a while back and cannot talk.  Multi-generational Spanish households are the norm in our neighborhood. The daughter sometimes has a bullhorn and goes to neighbor's gates, yelling at them to come out and applaud. 

I see the same neighbors sitting or standing on window sills, balconies, front porches, and roofs. Some are alone; others are crowded together. Some folks I only see at this time of day. Some are smoking; some are drinking and lift their drinks to their neighbors, as if to acknowledge that we are all in this together. 

It's something I will probably miss, this sense of coming together, and also silently acknowledging, at least for me, that the lock down is totally worth saving the lives of my elderly neighbors. 

And as of today, 74,662 of Spain's cases have completely recovered. 

sources of statistics: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus research center and Naval Station Rota, Spain facebook page.