Covid fear; noisy as hell; friend gravely ill; birds of paradise

The coronavirus lockdown has ramped up here, with grocery stores hanging protective plastic sheets at the registers to separate clerks from customers. Customers are required to wear a mask. My daughter Joanna used to treat masks like tissues, using and losing three or four a day. She's a kid and doesn't like restrictions. She wears the mask without a fight, but she would take it off as soon as you looked away. Same with shoes, come to think of it. Being 4, the mask was left wherever, and as a result she was denied entry into a local market on two occasions. I will say that she's improved in the last week or so, possibly because we told her to put the mask she removes into her hat. We've only lost a couple in the past week since the mandate. My son Elijah won't even wear a cap, so a mask is out of the question, but since he's 13 months old he gets a pass from locals. He'll rip the mask off your face if you're not careful. Schools and most businesses remain shuttered and the coffee shop I used to frequent has a 10-customer limit, which means teenagers go in and use the internet for hours on end, so there's no point in waiting around. Another coffee shop down the road limits customers to 90-minute visits, which seems like a good idea to me. Some kids use the free wifi to do schoolwork, which is legit, but others use it to play video games and take endless selfies and put them on Facebook. I get it: they're kids like Joanna and Elijah and any time is play time. But the 90-minute limit seems cool so everyone can share in the fun dủring dismal times here. 

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Joanna and I go out into town every day, often twice a day, only because of the drilling and jackhammering on the wall. I guess the neighbors didn't like the way their remodel looked, so the jackhammering and pounding have started up heavy duty all over again .... or continued heavy duy again, depending on your perspective. You never know when the unbelieveable noise will start up. It's a guarantee at 7:10 a.m., but then it's off and on, and you never get any warning when it's on. The workers seem to know when I try to work with Joanna (or on rare occasions nap) because noise has ended class (and nap) very prematurely or before it even starts on at least 30 occasions. This project started May 6 and hasn't missed many days since there's work on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm pretty sure the neighbors aren't too concerned about Joanna's sleep or education (or my nap schedule). Or our son Elijah's sleep and comfort. Funny (not ha ha funny) but the incredibly loud drilling started 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23, just as I tried to work with Joanna after we enjoyed a quiet morning together. It upset her, so we took a walk -- again -- into a town where coronavirus is on the rise. In all honesty the number òf cases reported here hás been relatively small, but the sharp increase of cases in the towns nearby is a little disconcerting. 
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One of my best friends is in a U.S. hospital on a ventilator fighting for his life. It's not coronavirus, but heart and other issues, mostly related to his lifestyle. This is especially difficult for me since I'm estranged from most of my family in the U.S. for my past lifestyle issues. But this is about my friend, who would do anything to help others and to help me. It would be very difficult for me to try to go see him with a new variant of coronavirus ểmẻging here. It might be impossible to get back in Vietnam to be with my family, so I'll hope things take a drastic turn for the better for my friend and that we can visit in the near future. I'm not a religious man, but I'm praying for his recovery. 
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Joanna has gone from a fascination with dancing to dinosaurs, to African animals to sea creatures, to insects and birds, to frogs, and lately to iguanas and other reptiles. She still loves reading. Dancing remains popular as well, but the latest craze is art and depictions of Birds òf Paradise. It started with dot to dot and coloring and a Birds-of-Paradise video, but now includes drawing and making clay creatures. I got Joanna a Vogelkop superb bird of paradise T-shirt and posters (or maybe it's the superb bird of paradise Smiley Face).  We had to buy tons of clay on a recent trip to Mega Market and my wife and I have obtained more crayons. The art is non-stop at the moment, which has given me my first chance to really relax with Joanna in the same room at the same time. Part of it is her maturity -- she's changed so much in the past two months. All for the better, in my view. Her inquisitiveness, temper and stubborness remain unparalleled, but now I know how to negotiate better, compromise and make deals, let her win some of the battles, answer her barrage of questions to the best of my abilities, and clearly and firmly explain the rules and expectations ahead of time. It's made a remarkable difference. No doubt this is Parenting 101 for Dummies, but it's really helping this dummy cope. 

Accepting Covid restrictions; more creatures and reading

We're living with a lot of restrictions here. I guess you'd call it lockdown light.  No more than 10 people together anywhere, most notably in the coffee shops. Most restaurants and schools are closed. Masks are mandatory -- for real, this time. Coronavirus was detected in a factory that's in our province and suspected in a big hotel/apartment building nearby. Ambulances and police went to the hotel/apartment building, creating worrisome excitement for the locals. There are about 300 new cases of Covid in Vietnam each day. Other than my concern that I can catch the virus and die, I find that the lifestyle retrictions create a calmer and more peaceful attitude here. Dare I say pleasant? Almost everyone wears a mask, and there's a bit more respect for personal space and social distancing, although people still put their groceries on top of your stuff in the checkout line in a cheesy bid to get ahead or "hurry up." The motorbike traffic is lighter, even on the sidewalks. You're not really supposed to go out unless it's necessary. I consider pounding with mallets and jackhammering on our walls (for 37 days now) a "necessary"  reason to go out in the heat and Covid. My daughter Joanna and I walk daily in the grim conditions for quite a while because of the situation next to our house. We've gotten to know some wonderful shop keepers and their kids, and we've met friendly street folk on our walks and "creature" searches and adventures. Joanna insists on a trek to Z88, a milk tea stand, and I oblige. We've moved her lessons to the third floor in an effort to get away from the noise, but jackhammering and mallet work on the walls next to us are, well, noisy regardless of where we are in our house.
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Our creature adventures have become highly successful thanks to my daughter's eyesight. I'm just happy I can see my daughter. She spots birds, toads, geckos, grasshoppers and lizards like there's no tomorrow, and the way things have been going in the world, who knows if there will be a tomorrow. A small crowd of moms and dads and kids come to the park around 4:30 p.m. each day, and I can tell Joanna looks forward to being around new folk even if she doesn't speak the language.
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 I'm reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder to my daughter each night. This book contains extensive detail on things like smoking meat, making maple syrup, churning butter, and calico dresses. It's a bit much for a 4-year-old so I tell her to do whatever she wants when I read ...  but try to keep the noise down. It's interesting and satisfying watching her slowly getting into the book, and she clearly enjoys Pa's stories about the black panther, the bears, and the cows.
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I'm in the middle of Frank Herbert's fifth Dune book, Heretics of Dune, and it's OK but a bit of a slog for a dullard like me. My Kindle streak continues thanks mainly to reading before sleep and the length of the Dune books. Actually, I read one night last week when our internet was down and it looked like the streak incorrectly ended. My reading "insights" said my streak was 0 the next day. I really didn't care and figured I'd read a hardback Jack Vance book I've been saving, but the following day the numbers were corrected and the streak -- I'm at 555 days in a row now -- is back on. And so is Heretics of Dune.