Last Friday in April

The last Friday in April and we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The garden preparation is just about on schedule and today we will move a few more plants. That is pretty normal and we are thinking of planting our vegetables along the side instead of in the larger plot in the middle. The walnut tree has pretty much destroyed most of that plot in terms of good growth so we will plant more of the annual flowers in there this year and fewer along the side which can then have the peppers, tomatoes, carrots and beans. Onions seem to do well in the main garden and I think we should grow a hill of cucumber even if I do not eat it. Surplus we can always make into pickle and have a big container in the refrigerator to enjoy into the fall.

We will buy baskets of beans and peas to freeze ourselves this winter from local farmers. Tomatoes as well, they freeze very well actually. That was the way that we used to live until I went back to work full time away from the house. When I went back to work away from home (I did do contract proofreading and copyediting for about 15 years at home) I stopped doing all sorts of things around the house; I paid my daughters to wash clothes and clean the house. They did very well at their tasks and I did pay them minimum wage for all that work (the youngest was just eight when she started doing the washing) and I had already been paying my eldest for cleaning and babysitting.

Today's numbers, globally there are 2,732,445 cases of COVID-19 (increase of 82,765 over yesterday), 191,962 deaths (increase of 7,319 over yesterday) and 750,997 recovered (increase of 29,648 over yesterday). What I still cannot believe is that 1/3 of all cases are in the United States (1/4 of the deaths). By far they have one of the best medical systems in the world, they should have managed this pandemic in their usual efficient fashion with CDC and their massive Public Health system leading the way. One of the saddest parts of all of this is what has happened in the United States; we are after all their neighbour and good friend. Of course, we have sadness here as well especially with our long term care homes.

In Canada we have 42,110 confirmed cases (increase of 1,920 over yesterday), 2,147 deaths (increase of 173 over yesterday) and 14,761 recovered (increase of 775 over yesterday). The hardest part is seeing the downward slope of the curve. You really can not see it until you are a few days into it. I think we are on a plateau and we need to continue self-distancing. I am hoping that when the back to work happens that it is a very disciplined plan with a controlled re-entry using the existing busing/light rail service with self-distancing and masks to bring people to their places of work. The testing ramped up so that we have tested 10% of Canadians in each area before regular work begins.

Worked on Chromosome 3 yesterday and decided to redo the cross-over points and reconstruct the powerpoint chart. Today I will work on that again. There are mysteries in this chromosome for sure. I also downloaded the 23 and Me Aggregate Charts to examine them closely for each length between crossovers.

I must get back to some transcription soon but this time of year I find the spring sun hard on my eyes and always take a few weeks to get used to the brightness.