The last day of the month and I completed my Microsoft Solitaire games. I have been playing this set of five games every morning since October 2013. It has been fun actually. I love Solitaire and Microsoft has chosen my five preferred solitaire games. Occasionally I do play some of their other games but not very often. There are not enough hours in the day!
Isolation day 18 and the 31st of March. I wonder how many people saw this coming. I wondered how long it would take to reach us here in Canada. Memories of the adults talking about the Spanish Flu swept back into my mind in late January; how it crept around the world; crept into Canada. No TV in those days to keep us up to date by the hour on how the contagion is spreading. There was real fear in the faces of my relatives as they talked about the Spanish Flu. They were still washing their hands vigorously in those days; washing mine vigorously as I recalled. Perhaps that will be what stays in the minds of people this time too; the need to be constantly washing ones hands.
A month ago I started to really think about it. Being 74, our age group is most susceptible to succumb to COVID-19 although not exclusively it would appear. It was wonderful that younger children are less affected. Our youth must inherit this world. Are they enjoying, around the world, the fresher air as industry has ground to a halt? They will eventually inherit it all and control it all. What will they think of our generation; the generation that follows us. I was born in September of 1945. The war in Europe had been over for four months and the war in the East had been over for one month. I am a baby boomer in those terms but I was a year ahead in school so never really thought of myself as a baby boomer. All of my classmates for the most part were born in 1944 or 1943.
I accomplished very little on Chromosome 2 yesterday. Just a few lines but they were interesting, a match with my Pincombe cousins that I had missed earlier although I had noted that the individual could be Pincombe; but they are actually matching one of my third cousins but not the other six Pincombes that are in that particular database.
I managed 188 minutes of active exercise; we went for a walk in the rain. It was quite pleasant actually and we weren't the only ones. Although most of the people were walking their dogs. Today looks a little brighter but no sun yet.
Started the weekly task of cleaning and scrubbing. I spread it out these days; the arthritis in my hands does complicate all of those chores.
The WHO website keeps us up to date on life during COVID-19. Today there are 801,117 (increase of 67,054) cases worldwide, 38,540 deaths (increase of 3,718) and 161,542 recovered (increase of 9,753). There are now 161,542 people with antibodies worldwide. That is wondrous to see. In Canada we have 7,435 cases (increase of 1,118), there have been 89 deaths (increase of 23) and 1,079 recovered (increase of 571). We are now 16th in the world, Portugal has passed us.
Tomorrow is April 1st and my paternal grandmother's birthday. She was born in 1876; 144 years ago. I know so much about her mother and her mother's parents with whom she lived until her mother married William Taylor in 1882. Her grandparents didn't care that she was illegitimate; she was their daughter's child and they loved her I assume. It was wondrous to discover her on the census with them in 1881 listed as their grand daughter. I have a picture of that grandfather and he has a big smile. His sons have held him up in the picture because he was likely paralyzed by them (mentioned on his death registration). Family pride showed in their picture. They weren't wealthy; they were hard working. It is a family that has spread around the world but particularly to Australia. Will I ever discover my grandmother's father? DNA has led me towards that individual but no close matches yet although I do have one match that is 77 centimorgans (one solid length) that I think might be his line. I just marked it the purple colour I use for her line and haven't really thought beyond that yet. Perhaps in these months ahead I will think more about it especially when I reach Chromosome five.
Goodbye March; you will be a month forever remembered and the generations to follow will carry in their souls the reminder that COVID-19 came to Canada in March (it was already here but in March it dominated our lives; controlled our lives and had the biggest impact on our skies than anything in the past century).
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