Covid comes to town, so do serious shopping limits

Covid has arrived, with 250 cases reported in Dong Nai just on Saturday morning. Vietnam is averaging more than 8,000 new cases a day over the past week, which is a tsunami in this country. We were issued tickets a few days ago that enable us to go shopping twice a week. The little market down the street bypassed the ticket system Sunday for some reason, possibly because the shelves were almost empty. No cereal, oatmeal, or chocolate milk. I bought meat -- Australian beef that's pricey and chewy but OK. There were no vegetables except some stalky stuff that looked like scallions and two rotten onions. I had to wait in line for about half an hour to enter the market and there were crates outside to establish social distancing. I heard tensions ran high with line cutting and shouting at a government food giveaway last week around the corner from our house, and this may have helped spur the ticket system. My wife waited in line at a government site Friday to buy chicken, which she's become allergic to, and some pork and vegetables. Good onions have become something like golden nuggets during the recent Covid surge, and broccoli and cauliflower are in short supply. My wife, God bless her, got a few vegetables on Saturday and I made chicken soup for me and the kids. Since my wife is allergic to chicken of late, she can gnaw on the Australian beef.
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A  handful of people still go outside with no mask on in our neighborhood, but police or soldiers will stop you if try to go to another area of the city. That didn't stop our neighbor from bringing some guy over in his big truck to start jackhammering on our shared wall (AGAIN! -- these are the same people who did this for close to 60 days). The noise was so loud -- this during a Covid lockdown, mind you -- that it forced me to go outside, ask him if the incredible noise was really necessary. Then I spit a couple of C words at him -- Covid and cops. He defended his actions to my wife by saying he was having a clock put up. The noise did stop. Unbelievable.
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The lockdown has been tough on our kids, especially Elijah.  Both Joanna and Elijah are bored since they're stuck inside 95 percent of the day. TV and video seem to fire up Joanna in a bad way. Luckily, I can keep her fairly entertained and occupied with reading, school projects, art and lollipop stick puppets. But Elijah wants to play soccer, run as fast as he can, and chase his sister. Elijah, who isn't 15 months old yet, has done this stuff inside lately and the results haven't been good. He slipped while chasing his sister in the bedroom and smacked his head upsettingly hard on the corner of a desk. Huge knot and big tears. Horrible. He tried to ride Joanna's scooter the next day, fell and got a cut near his left eye. Frightening. He pulled over our giant plastic water container and the stand it sits in.  Fortunately, it was only half full (or half empty, depending on your perspective), and apparently missed hitting him head-on. We only heard a horrible crashing sound in the kitchen and came out to see him sitting on the ground next to the big water container and the stand. No tears. Nothing ... just shock. I had a back issue and could barely walk, but no way I was going to a clinic or hospital here with Covid raging.  Toughed it out for a couple of days and whatever was wrong with me went away.
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My friend continues to make remarkable progress in a USA hospital, going from damn near his death bed to sitting up and joking with nurses. Highlander. ... I walked to a pharmacy for eye drops and candy -- it's one of the few places open -- and I had to go past a clinic where there's been at least one confirmed Covid case. There were six people in Hazmat suits outside at the entrance along with a parked ambulance with its lights flashing. Creepy, like some scene from a sci-fi movie about the future. ... And speaking of sci-fi, working my way through Frank Herbert's finale in the Dune series: Chapterhouse. And I read in the forward written by Herbert's son that Frank Herbert was friends with Jack Vance, who encouraged Herbert to get his work published. Vance is my favorite writer, for whatever that's worth. ... My son got married Sunday and I wish him and his bride the absolute best. They're brilliant, kind, and wonderful people who deserve only the best.