We also learned that this may be only the tip of the iceberg, as the CDC estimates that for every reported case there are at least ten more that have not been recorded.
So the bad news is that some 25 million Americans may already have gotten the virus. The good news would then be that the death rate from the disease is apparently only one-tenth as high as we thought it was.
The entire world is reeling from this unfolding disaster. India is in deep trouble; Latin America is in full-on crisis mode; poor countries everywhere are suffering. The prospect of a vaccine? Our best bet is to listen to Bill Gates, as his resources on global health matters dwarfs anyone else's. He says December or January -- maybe.
So here we are, stuck at home, able to go out more than before, but the risks of getting sick may be greater than ever.
That nationwide rash of fireworks going off night after night remains unexplained. Authorities believe it may be a reaction by some to being cooped up so long.
***
The last night of our recent trip, grouped around the campfire, my family members and I played a game where someone starts a story and then everyone adds on. I'm not sure what the game is called.
Now my hearing could be better, but I was following along well enough to know this particular story was about a family isolated on a remote island that finds a turtle. My six-year-old granddaughter had just added her intervention when it became my turn, but I hadn't heard hers properly.
"The family boiled the turtle and they all enjoyed delicious turtle soup," I announced triumphantly, figuring people in such a circumstance would be overjoyed at finding a new source of food.
My granddaughter looked appalled. It turned out I was building on her sentence: "The family loved the turtle and adopted him as their pet."
***
Back here on the edge of the mighty Pacific, we all contemplate our futures. Some of our popular places -- bars and restaurants -- are open for business, and normally they'd be packed. But Californians, like everyone else, get noticeably uninhibited when they get a little alcohol in their systems.
And this is, after all, the center of wine country, with the gentle rolling hills covered with vineyards sprawling throughout Napa, Sonoma and other counties all around us.
What is a nice dinner out without the requisite bottle of wine?
"Song and melodies change and change
And sway
But they still stay the same
The songs that we sung when the dark days come
Are the songs that we sung when we chased them away
If I ever found a pot of gold
I'd buy bottles untold of the nectar of the vines
I'm going to die with a twinkle in my eye
'Cause I sung songs spun stories loved laughed and drank wine"
--The Cat Empire
-30-
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