Week 4 Countdown Continues Day 24: 16th Day of Dallas County Shelter in Place

From a numbers perspective, yesterday was the half-way point for being quarantined in my home.  That is if the quarantine does not get extended.  

I work in an industry that produces something we call Business Intelligence (BI) - this deals with lots of numbers turned into grids and graphs.  We spend a great deal of time figuring out better an more meaningful ways to assess trends, evaluate curves and look at statistical averages, means, maxs, and mins. So this has been kind of fascinating to me to watch some of the various web sites as they stood up trackers, and watch how those trackers have changed over time.  I have sat with friends in the industry looking at them together trying to guess what software they are using.  Geek out stuff.

It is with some alarm, that I watch the United States.  We are NOT successfully flattening the curve.  We keep going up at the same pace overall.  Now we definitely have some states and even cities that have flattened their curves. But as a country, up up up we go at a steep ascent.  

By now we all know that flattening the curve is just about giving Medical Facilities and the states and federal governments a chance to catch up to what is happening.  It is about not overwhelming our medical system. It is about providing time to get assistance in place for those who need it.  The frustration that people who ARE following guidelines feel with people who ARE NOT following guidelines is real.

That fact should probably make us all a little worried. In recent US history, the way our people seem to react to things and circumstances that are out of their control, somehow involves guns.  Gun sales and ammunition sales are going up.  All of these facts put together have me more than a little worried.

I went out yesterday for a bike ride because it was a beautiful high 80's day.  Going to be even warmer today - closer to 95.  We will then plummet and be back to April 50s by the weekend of so.  JUST CRAZY WEATHER.  But on my ride, I saw people following the CDC guidelines to wear a facial covering of some point when out in public.

"Well crap", I thought... "Can I catch this stuff while I am riding my bike?"  "I mean it is not like I am stopping at all."  I could not really answer myself.  I just do not know, but I went on a search this morning to try and locate some bandanas and such that I own from my motorcycle riding days.  Not because I am afraid of catching it, but because I want to do everything possible to try and flatten the curve.  I could be an asymptomatic carrier for all I know.  And that is what the facial coverings are meant to help the most.  I want to do my part even if I think it might be ridiculous.  Because I just do not know.

I wish you all a good day.  A peaceful day.  Better days are ahead of us.  They are.  We just have to hold on.  Together.