We flew from Rome to JFK in New York, a virus hot spot, which was a bit of a worry. Our only other option was to fly through London. I didn't want to do that because I wanted a direct flight to the US. I didn't want to run the risk of any border quarantine issues in another country. So much is so unpredictable. I felt like everything was changing so rapidly. As we arrived we all had to fill out a form declaring where we had been in the past 14 days. As we left the plane we each had our temperature checked on the Jetway before they let us into the airport. JFK was also strangely quiet. There were only a few people working there and a few more passengers. It took awhile to get through security and screening, but we made it just fine. Our next flight was directly to SFO. The flight was pretty empty so we each had our own row to stretch out and get some sleep. After a bit of a rest it was so nice to get back home.
That day I celebrated Dantedi, This is a relatively new Italian holiday to celebrate Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet know by some as the father of the Italian language. Next year is the 700th anniversary of his death. Big celebrations are planned. He is best known for writing the Divine Comedy. It isn't funny. It is called a comedy because at the time, writing was divided into tragedies and comedies. Tragedies were written in Latin. Writings in Italian, the common language, were considered comedies even if they chronicle a trip through horrific layers of hell. What better way to celebrate Dante than a 19 hour flight fleeing a center of a global pandemic. It seemed fitting somehow. The celebration continued when I grabbed a copy of Dan Brown's Inferno I had picked up at a used bookstore weeks ago, to read on the planes. It was oddly appropriate, or inappropriate depending on your view, since the plot centers around a madman's plot to infect the world with a bioengineered virus. I don't think I can recommend the book overall. It is typical Dan Brown with conspiracies centered around great works of art and architecture, but it all fell a little flat and seemed formulaic. My Boy really likes Dante's Inferno. He read an English translation a couple years ago. He was introduce to the story by a series of YouTube videos on a channel he really likes.
Even though we are home in California we aren't back in our house. We rented it out while we were planning to be gone. We stayed in an Airbnb for our days of self-isolation before moving in with my in-laws. John has been there since January while he has been working on tax season. The tax deadline has been extended by three months and the people who get their paperwork in at the last minute now have an extra three months to procrastinate so his work has slowed for awhile. We were able to stop by the house and pick up bicycles we had stored in the backyard shed.
The kids are continuing with their online schooling from Rome. It is more difficult now with the 9 hour time difference. Some of My Boy's teachers are having two online class sessions at different times to accommodate the students who are temporarily in the Western hemisphere. Other classes are recorded or he communicates the best he can with email and in class messages. These online classes aren't the best environment for him. It is a struggle. My Girl decided she wanted to attend her last class of the day. That means getting up for a 5 am online video class. It works for her. These classes have group projects and things that would be difficult to do outside of class. She got put into a new project group with a couple of boys she considers complete slackers because one of the boys is in Mexico and the time zones are more similar. She hates it because neither of the boys show up for their planned group work sessions. One of her morning teachers records his lectures, which is helpful. The online learning stresses her out completely because it takes more effort to keep on top of things and know if you are getting 100% or not.
It is a little strange to be back. There are things I appreciate that I never thought of before, clothes dryers, garbage disposals, driving, Target, and restaurants open for take out. Some of the changes I find strange. The shortage of toilet paper baffles me. All of a sudden Americans have turned into bakers emptying the shelves of flour, yeast, and eggs. The "social distance" in Italy is 1 meter. In the US it is 6 feet. Why? No one knows. Stores are implementing their own social distance policies differently, leading to strange new protocols for grocery shopping.
My landlady and other Italian friends thought we were crazy for leaving Italy to come to the US, especially California. From the headlines it didn't look good. American political leaders were making strange statements. Italians considered the American attitude cavalier.
The restrictions in Rome are getting more and more strict. The rules are becoming more restrictive and the enforcement is tightening. I'm glad to be back in California. There are social distancing restrictions, but it just isn't the same.
I wondered if I was jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. The number of cases in California was growing, it looked like it could become one of the global hot spots. The day before we left Rome had 1,287 cases for a city of nearly 3 million. The region of Lazio, which includes Rome, had 1,545 current cases and 1,723 positive tests. Nationally for a population of just under 6 million there were 54,030 current cases, 6,820 had died and 8,326 had recovered. The daily death count continued to rise, but the number of new cases was down for 3 days. Since then deaths are still high, but flattening, and the number of people in ICU and the number of new cases daily continues to fall. It's a ragged trend down, but encouraging. Now Lazio has 3,448 cases with a total of 4,266 testing positive. Nationwide out of 143,636 positive tests there are 96,877 active cases.
At the same time, Santa Clara County, California had 375 confirmed cases for a population of just under 2 million. They are now up to 1,442 cases which is a lot, but is far from the catastrophic spike that everyone had worried about and a much better situation than Italy is facing and what is happening in New York. Of course these numbers are all questionable because of limited testing in both places. Some scientists have a theory that the virus arrived in California last fall and there is now a degree of herd immunity in the area. There are studies going on now to test for virus antibodies. We'll soon see if that is the case or not. It now appears that the situation in California is moving in the right direction with the number ICU patients coming down just a bit.
We are settling into a new routine in a new place. The celebrations have continued. We celebrated two birthdays, including My Boy's 15th birthday. How did he get so old and so tall? He is now taller than me and closing in on Dad. We got him a book called Bad Days in History. It was fun to see what bad thing happened on each of our birthdays.
We celebrated carbonara day. Carbonara is a classic Roman pasta dish with a few simple ingredients, eggs, pasta, pepper, pancetta, parmesean, and pecorino. Our home made version was tasty, but nothing compared to the carbonara at Core de Roma, our favorite neighborhood pasta/pizza place.
This weekend is Easter, making tomorrow Good Friday. Last weekend our church had our twice yearly general conference. It was unusual this year in that the only people physically attending were the speakers and those giving prayers. Even the choir music was prerecorded. The messages were encouraging and inspiring. Our church president called for Good Friday to be a day of prayer and fasting for members of our church and all of God's children who might wish to join us. During this day of devotion we will pray for healing, "that the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy strengthened, and life normalized." Anyone is welcome to join in any way they feel would contribute to the spirit of the day.
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