New strain of Covid in Vietnam; masks really matter

Coronavirus is on the rise here. CNN is reporting that the Vietnamese government is revealing that a new, highly contagious variant of Covid is present in the country, possibly some sort of combination of the UK and India variants. A religious gathering is believed to be responsible for the recent spread and perhaps the emergence of the variant. The numbers aren't like India or Brazil -- we've had 200 to 400 new cases a day for the past week or so in Vietnam -- but that's relatively high compared to what they've been. Most schools are closed, the streets are relatively quiet, and masks are pretty much everywhere -- on people riding bikes, on servers in coffee shops, and as litter all over the streets and in the park. Interestingly, I was walking in the middle of the street next to a car wash business (the street is the only place to walk since there's no sidewalk and cars are parked on both sides) holding hands with my masked daughter on our way to the park when one of the car wash guys, possibly a manager, came running out to scold me for having my face mask around my chin. He gestured at me to pull the mask up and raised his voice at me, but that's the style of talking here. Anyway, I started this little tale with interestingly because two employees in the car wash had no masks and another was wearing his mask like me, around his chin with mouth and nose exposed. Also, two customers were sitting inside mask-less. I saw the masked man two days later at the car wash with his mask around his chin. I good-naturedly gave him the fingers across the face sign, and he pointed to the cigarette he was about to smoke. I tried to communicate that I was practicing social distancing by walking in the street. I'm sure he didn't get it, but hey, even Covid gets a butt break, I suppose. But it's no joking matter in this country now, which until recently had kept Covid well under control. There aren't many or any vaccines to be had. I read where 29,000 people in this country of 96 million have been vaccinated. And the guys banging and drilling on the wall next to our house are all mask free, walking all over the streets and neighborhood. Most folks get it, but the ones who don't get it or refuse to get it put so many of us at an unnecessary risk. It's so selfish and stupid ... and dangerous.
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Komodo dragons remain my daughter's favorite animal for the time being, so I found a website that showed us how to build a little Komodo dragon from templates. It's made so the red tongue can be manipulated by moving the tail. Actual reading and writing are out of he question with the construction work around our house still in full effect, so we do scissor-and-construction-paper work on the third floor accompanied by loud music to minimize the effects of the drilling, pounding, sawing and light flashing. A day after we built the komodo we have no idea where it is, but it provided Joanna an afternoon of enjoyment, even at the park. With Joanna's encouragement, a little girl rode her bike back and forth over the komodo. Everyone thought that was the greatest since it didn't damage the komodo, but we pretended it did. I guess you had to be there. That little project was a good deal that only required two sheets of thicker paper, scissors, tape, and crayons since I don't have have a color printer. By popular demand, I helped Joanna make another komodo the next day, and funny thing, it turned out much better than the first one. This time, the mouth opens when we push the tail to make the tongue come out, and it shuts when we pull the tail to retract the tongue. 
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I want to pay my respects to children's author Eric Carle, who died this past week at age 91. My daughter loves Carle's stories, especially The Grouchy Ladybug, Mister Seahorse, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.  They were staples of our nighttime routine when Joanna was 2 and 3, and she still requests  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, The Mixed-Up Chameleon, From Head to Toe.  Really, we read many more, but you get the idea. Carle was amazing and an important author for my little girl.
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Joanna and I finished reading Charlotte's Web together and by the end the rat Templeton was the most intriguing character for my daughter. She was especially fascinated by Templeton's eating binge at the county fair. Maybe it reminds her of dad.

Noisy times, "whirlybirds", SOME PIG and bad manners

Our neighbors decided to remodel their house, focusing on tearing out the wall next to our house. That has meant 13 days (and counting) of heavy duty sledgehammering and obscenely loud drilling, which has made it extremely difficult to live or have a conversation in our house from about 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., although the pounding and drilling stops from about 11:15 to 1 for lunch. The real slam-bam stuff slowed down a little this past Thursday. But the guy who lives across the street has picked up the slack by sawing metal bars with an electric saw, and spot welding to create light flashes that can cause eye damage. All this has meant no homeschool for Joanna. Or looking out our front door. Joanna and I take long walks in 97-degree heat and hang out at the mall or coffee shops during a Covid burst here to get away from the noise, sand, dust, and flashing lights. I've become even more of an ugly American among our neighbors -- and my wife -- by complaining about things that seem worth complaining about to me: motorbikes and cars riding on sidewalks hitting or nearly hitting my daughter;  heavy metal and the head bangers ball along with a light show from spot welding; noise so loud we have to leave our own house; public peeing; and motorbikes and cars roaring down our street at insanely high rates of speed. I got into a heated argument about the reckless drivers and behavior here with the neighbor from the house being remodeled. I gave up and said "forget it man", which he was dead sure was f---- you and he started running around saying f---- me? .... f--- me? I was confused by his behavior -- I thought he flipped out because I walked away from him while he was still jawing at me.  Anyway, I thought he was going to hit me, but to his credit he didn't. He told me he would never have anything to do with me again and said something like ... go back to your own country.  I don't want to misquote him or accuse him of saying something he didn't. I can be a real forgetting idiot sometimes, so I've been told. Later, I told him I had said, "forget it man" and not the big one, and I apologized for the whole scene. We shook hands and hopefully all is well.
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I found some "whirlybird" seeds on the sidewalk -- I don't know their real name, but Joanna and I decided to call them "twins" -- and we tossed them into the canal, watching them spin like helicopters. She enjoyed it so much that we gathered three or four hat-fulls of the seeds and kept the show going over several days. I remembered doing this as a kid. Spending so much time with Joanna has sparked countless childhood memories for me, and these are the pleasant memories. Now, Joanna and I spot frogs and toads, butterflies, bees, lizards, salamanders, geckos, caterpillars, centipedes, stink bugs, slugs and snails, worms, tadpoles and little fish (in outdoor flower pots), touch-me-nots and tons more.  We saw a large lizard going into the park on Saturday. So while over-the-top construction noise and an unhealthy light show has halted her schooling for the time being, we're doing more exploring and started reading and discussing Charlotte's Web by E.B. White every night. We've read 130 pages so far, and Joanna's interest has picked up as we've gone along. And we both agree, that's SOME PIG. Joanna's not quite 5 years old yet, but for someone who runs around the bedroom, colors and draws komodo dragons, and looks at other books while I read to her, her questions and answers to my questions about the book are impressive. We're also watching the movie Charlotte's Web in conjunction with the reading. Our son Elijah doesn't have the book bug like Joanna yet. I'm trying to get my wife to keep him in Joanna's room while we read. He's seems physically gifted with his walking, running, kicking of a soccer ball, and climbing, but he's also clever and I want to encourage that aspect of his development.
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A little specialty food store that sells marshmallow "eyeballs" is our one of new daily destinations. On our way to the store, our family gathers at the park every day at about 5 p.m. Joanna races around on her new scooter.  She's improved on the scooter by practicing in our living room, dining room and kitchen at night. The only thing that slows Joanna down on the scooter rides at the park are searches for touch-me-nots.  Once at the park, Elijah walks constantly -- the crawling has stopped; Joanna takes off her shoes and rolls around the grass, which is none too clean but the only place she can really play other than on the concrete and bricks. After a half-hour or so, Joanna and I will walk to the little store, which also sells exotic fruits like dates from Israel. It's pricey, but so what? We get what we can afford (eyeballs and little cakes). They also sell little cakes from South Korea that aren't bad. It's a new store, and the lady behind the counter is very nice, and like a few other people here, she's taken a shine to Joanna. She has a daughter who's about 11 or 12, and the daughter will play with Joanna a little. It's been a good scene. The nuoc mia (sugarcane drink) lady next door is fairly nice as well and there's the Coffee House on the corner, so including the park we've got a little area bordered by busy streets to hang out. It ain't the greatest for a 4-year-old girl, but our options are limited.
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Our trips outside the house can be fraught with danger and unsavory behavior sometimes, but we'll endure those difficulties along with the heat so we don't go stir crazy being stuck inside, especially the kids. This past week, Joanna was scootering on the sidewalk when a motorcycle quickly cut in front of her to park next to a coffee shop, missing her by inches (honestly) and forcing her to jump off the scooter and skip behind the bike in one motion. She laughed. I didn't, but the kid on the motorbike acted like nothing happened. I pointed out to the kid that he just missed hitting a 4-year-old girl, to which he responded "Oh, oh, sorry, sorry." Those quotes are accurate. A car rode toward us on the sidewalk last week flashing its lights and Joanna was on her scooter, not paying attention or expecting to see the car continue to come toward us. I ran to get ahead of her and held up my walking stick to halt the car. It didn't stop, and when the driver finally stopped the car, he got out and glared at me like he wanted to fight. Two days earlier, some guy with two buddies at the park stood across the canal from us and peed in front of my wife, daughter, son and some other lady and her son. Phuong got upset so I yelled at the guy to use a restroom located about 25 yards away, and when he continued I told him to stop embarrassing himself with his little manhood in front of my wife and daughter and other folk. His buddies tried to stare me down but the one thing I can do is stare -- the last vestige of my tai chi. Pee brain reacted by grabbing a stick, presumably to copy my walking stick, whistling really loud, cursing at me, and whistling and cursing some more. I didn't understand his cursing ... or whistling, so I didn't pay attention and played with Joanna and Elijah. My wife said my indifference must have frustrated the trio because it set off an avalanche of whistling and cursing. The other mom went over and told the guys to cool it and take a break on the language.  So let's recap. Guy pees in public near toilet. My wife objects. I ask him to stop. He curses and threatens. Another mom tells him to cool it. The thing is, we go to the park to relax and enjoy our children. A small group of people choose to ride motorbikes through the park, pee in full view, litter and bring their dogs to poop everywhere. Almost defeats the purpose of going, doesn't it? The ugly American is at it again. I was wondering why so many unnecessary and unpleasant things happen to me here, but I figure that I'm big and white and I'm out so much with my daughter walking around town that I'm an easy target. I don't see anyone else taking really long walks every day with their kids other than women who sell lottery tickets. I guess I'm in a slump, which hopefully will end real soon.