April 2021



Total Covid in the US at the end of April:

Cases:  29,970,052

Deaths:  543,808

 

  • By April many people have the Covid Vaccine and other age groups are opening up.  Gil and I both got our first shot on the first Saturday of April.  We’ll be getting our 2nd shot on May 1st.  My parents are getting their second shot about a week before we are.  Lots of vaccine out there and lots of places providing it.  Just a matter of people getting it done at this stage.
  • I did my 3rd Marathon on April 10th: Paris Marathon.  The medal is very pretty.  I tried to do it the weekend before, but then the vaccine became available to us and it didn’t work out.  Went to Gator Creek Preserve in Lakeland for the marathon.  It’s a good park with lots of trains and not too much crowd or photo opportunities.  Which is why I chose it.  Of course, on my first loop, without a camera, I saw 2 herds of deer, a great horned owl and a runaway cow.  I need to give this park another chance for the early AM wildlife possibilities. 
  • Still struggling to keep my protein up.  Lost another week of plasma donations when I failed protein.  But the pay schedule has increased to $60 per donation, so I can’t really complain.  I had a day-before meal that worked really well.  But then when those items are sold out, I have to do substitutions and that doesn’t always work out. And sometimes its just hard to get 200 grams of protein into your system.
  • Had the Disney Star Wars Rival Run this month.  I signed up for the 5k, 10k and Half.  I also signed Bree and Gil up for the 5k.  I did the 5k with Gil on 4/18 and he did pretty good.  Took a little break for coffee about 2/3rds of the way in and took some ibuprofen.  I took my camera and took a million photos of dragonflies, they were everywhere.  Got some butterfly shots too and a number of baby ducks.  It was a good day.  Did the 5k with Bree on 4/27 and we did well too.  Did that one at Eagle Lake and the weather was good for it.  I keep trying to encourage Bree to work up to a 10k, but not sure I’ll get there.  Perhaps the shiny Star Wars medal will inspire her for more.
  • Gil and I did WDW Animal Kingdom on 04/24 and it was hot and busy.  Luckily Gils disability pass made it bareable.  I honestly can’t see him ever being able to do Disney without that pass.  The walking is excessive to begin with, and then standing in line for an hour for every major ride is just not do-able.  He ate a lot of ibuprofen, but he lasted to the end.  We did dinner at the Rainforest Café and I found a new sauce I’m going to try to make for my seafood.
  • I’ve been off diet since the Disney trip and I play on staying off until our next Epcot trip on May 15.  Unfortunately, I’m not being that careful and I’m gaining weight.  I’m also not walking because its HOT.  I need to start getting up in the morning and doing my walks like I did all winter.  Even more important now, because the heat makes it unbearable during the daytime.
  • Covid cases are finally starting to slow down.  I’m really starting to think a lot about the traveling.  Much depends on how other countries are doing.  I invested money in cryto this year and its doing really well.  This is going to allow me to do a really nice jump start trip.  I’m thinking Alaska or Africa…but much depends on other countries.  An African safari would be awesome but that could be half a dozen countries that are open to American tourist.  In order to drive to Alaska, I need to drive through Canada, and they currently have closed borders.  I could do a REALLY big Disney trip…which I’m already partially doing, but staying onsite rather than offsite would increase the budget and my crypto money could help support that.  So much to think about.

 

After a little over a year during a global pandemic and social distance/masking madates, we are finally seeing a slowing down of cases.  In reality, during last April, when we knew it was coming, we should have been able to control it.  Everyone went on lockdown.  Theme parks closed.  Restaurants closed.  Concerts and sporting events closed.  People were instructed to stay home.  You control the virus by stopping the spread of it.  But Americans value their freedom too much.  They continued to do what they wanted because “I’m an American and its my right”.  Lots of people didn’t follow the rules because they didn’t understand the science, and if they didn’t understand it, it probably wasn’t that important.  Some people thought that Jesus would keep them safe. So, in the last year we have half a million dead Americans, who’s lives weren’t as important as someone’s weekly poker games.  You can see the initial hit in April 2020, where we were all on a full lockdown.  Many of those cases came through in March before the lockdown came.  The holiday’s posed another spike, as people wanted to spend time with their family, even if it might kill them.  And sometimes it did.  But vaccines came out in late 2020/early 2021 and slowly the country is coming back under control.

 

 

 Individual statistics for each month

2020                  Cases                       Death

Januar                7                             0

February            16                             1                                             

March                185967                     3805

April                  875037                     53331                 

May                   713006                     40822

June                   813983                    19069

July                    1895595                  25036

August               1441419                  29893

September          1168755                 22823

October             1821020                   23125

November          4191064                 35287

December           5899923                 73675

 

2021                       Cases                        Death

January                   5621254                   91276

February                 2099624                   68081

March                     1573816                   35164

April                       1669565                   22420




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