Nothing brutal yet, but lockdown is getting old

   No need to be dramatic, but things are a little difficult here. We're approaching three months of living under lockdown due to Covid. It's not easy or fun, but it's not brutal yet. Characterizing life as brutal here is going a little too far. Life may be brutal in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Haiti or probably the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Vietnam, we still have internet, TV, and a market around the corner where we buy what's available. The variety of food is limited, and that's inconvenient, but no one is going hungry or wanting for food to the best of my knowledge. At least not in our area. So while life is a little bit boring, or challenging, or inconvenient, or a hassle, it's not brutal yet. I don't want to go there -- ever.
   I've no doubt mentioned before that certain foods are not considered essential by the government during the lockdown and are nearly impossible to get. Things such as butter, raisins, peanut butter, and, oh my God, now coffee, are getting extremely difficult to find. Deliveries have ground to a halt, so to speak, which has made the delicious coffee I've been buying from my mother-in-law the past seven or eight years impossible to get, so I battle for what may be available at the market. I guess there's still instant coffee, but regardless of what anyone says, ground coffee is an essential for me. With deliveries halted in our area, our bottled water could be the next casualty. That means there's a possibility we'll be boiling tap water for drinking -- at least that's what I would do since I'm reluctant to drink straight from the tap. I wasn't born here so my body probably isn't ready for the tap.
   There was talk the lockdown would be lifted Sept. 15, but the cases continue to cluster around Ho Chi Minh City, and we're close to Ho Chi Minh City. Our province, Dong, Nai, has been reporting close to 1,000 new cases a day. The lockdown has been extended at least until the end of the month and is expected to last even longer. One of our neighbors lost his eldest daughter to Covid. She caught it from her husband and died only a week after getting ill. I was told she had no pre-existing conditions.  A couple of items were gossiped to me: 1) The rent-by-the-hour motel behind us reported yet another Covid case, and apparently (and finally) has been shut. 2)  Police came and told our mask-less, outdoor-badminton-playing neighbor to either go inside or go to the police station to pay a substantial fine. He chose inside. I think a lot of people in our area, like me and my wife, are sitting on one shot waiting for the next jab to come. I also heard the Army may be sent to our area to enforce social distancing and curfews, and assist with food distribution.
 We shall see.
   The goodwill of people has become more evident here the longer the lockdown continues. People share food like pomelo and other fruit, coffee jello, and assorted vegetables. Neighbors have purchased stuff for us and have refused to take money. Tough times can bring out the best in people.
  The lockdown is starting to get to our kids a little. Some parents defy the rules and let their kids outside sans masks to ride bikes and such. Our daughter Joanna sees this and wants to play outside. Our son Elijah really seems to miss kicking the ball around outside, so he'll play soccer with anything that's loose on the floor in our house -- stuffed animals and even Legos are fair game. Joanna is a little impatient and bored with our classes, even the drawing and coloring, so we're playing more games and doing stuff like scavenger hunts. It isn't brutal, but it's certainly difficult and challenging to keep the kids entertained.
• • •
   I continue to read a lot, which is more difficult than it sounds even with the lockdown given the rigors of child care, cooking and cleaning. I'm at 95 weeks and 657 days in a row. I finished Jack Vance's Night Lamp, which is 384 pages, in three days. Now I'm reading Big Fella, a biography of Babe Ruth. ... Joanna helps a little with my cooking, but mostly grabs and eats food I've just cooked, or pleads her case for candy. ... Elijah constantly goes up our dangerous stairs, and I slipped and fell while carrying him back down. I sacrificed my left knee to make sure he wasn't banged around and now there's a little clicking sound in my knee when I go down the stairs. It's not a big deal because Elijah didn't get hurt and hardly noticed the fall, and I'm still walking. 

I take a jab, pursue passport, visa and peace at home

 My wife's nephew saw old people like me getting Covid vaccines at a farm near our house. It was 7 p.m. on Sunday and we rushed to the farm. The vaccines ended at 7:30 p.m., and we just made it. Officials had the folks line up in single file, and all but a few people behind us were told to come back the next day. My wife Phuong got her vaccine at this location earlier in the day, but at that time she was told I was too old for AstraZeneca. Someone must have had a change of heart and I was in line waiting. My wife did my paperwork and after a little pushing, shoving, apologizing, and cutting in line from a few folks, all turned out well. (Lessons in queueing would be appropriate here.) After I got my shot, monsoon rain poured down, but my wife found the umbrella she left at the farm earlier in the afternoon when she got her vaccine. Fortuitous, indeed. My wife's side effects included soreness in her back, stomach discomfort, fatigue and headache. I only had a mild headache, but I don't know for certain if it was from the vaccine or from missing my after-dinner coffee. We will return for a second shot in 8 to 12 weeks. There were long lines at the farm for a few days after we got our shots.
Next up was the renewal of Joanna's passport. Because of the strict lockdown, Phuong had a friend in Ho Chi Minh City go to the embassy for us, and he paid the fee for the passport that we mailed in for renewal, and he also paid to have EMS deliver it to our house. We reimbursed him, of course, and paid him a modest fee for his services. It would require lots of paperwork and perhaps a quarantine, I guess, for one of us to go to the embassy with Covid still roaring and the lockdown in full effect. We don't know when the passport will be delivered. The embassy sent me an email saying EMS won't be delivering until the lockdown is lifted. There's talk that a limited lifting of the lockdown could happen next week. We need the renewed passport to get Joanna's resident card, which I'm told is required to leave the country. The resident card simply needs to be paid for at this point. Simply? Nothing is simple with Covid -- here and everywhere, no doubt. 
Last, our waiver application is about to be sent to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) by our lawyer either this week or next. If approved, my wife should get her visa to enter the U.S. after more paperwork, sweat, and tears involving the embassy. If rejected .... well, we'll see. Covid is raging in the U.S. even worse than here, and vaccines are happening now in Vietnam. Almost everyone is on board to get jabbed and I'm not really sure resistance or refusal to get the vaccine is an option here. I'm pro-vaccine, of course, so it's not an issue for me.
The lockdown is getting to my kids a little. Joanna and Elijah have been at odds over toys lately. Mostly, Elijah wants to grab Joanna's stuff and run away, and she'll go a little ballistic if he succeeds. But he was not well for a few days, throwing up and dealing with a low-grade fever. I must have taken his temperature about 20 times, driving my wife crazy. Elijah didn't mind because he loves gadgets and remotes of any kind, and the digital thermometer we have was exciting for Little E, who loves all things electronic. When Elijah was ill, Joanna was so sweet to him. She's got a wee bit of temper and is one of a kind to be sure, but she can be so kind and caring when the chips are down. We continue with her schooling, focusing on insects and animals  (that has to pass for my science instruction), math and reading comprehension. We're on a second go-around with bees, learning about beeswax, the proboscis and pollination. She'd rather draw, but she understands so much more than I think, and I love when she corrects my mistakes if I mispronounce or misidentify a body part or process of one of our creatures. Joanna has taught me more than I've taught her in so many ways.

More testing, conservation, no school, rain and ants

We had our third Covid test in 8 days on Sunday, and it was handled tactfully -- no ramrod action. This test is supposed to be the most accurate and thorough of the three, with swabs going to a lab. The results are revealed in two or three days.  I've been told that three negative tests make you eligible for the vaccine. That sounds good to me, but so far, talk of a vaccine has been just that  – talk. The first test, administered by a nurse, was fairly comfortable considering a giant cotton swab on a stick is being shoved up your nose. The lady was as gentle as she could be. The second test was given by a policeman, who wasn't as gentle, and I think he brought back some brain on his swab from a few of us. Our 5-year-old daughter Joanna was supposed to take the third test with me and my wife Phuong, but the crowd and heat were a bit much. I'll endure quite a bit for negative results and vaccine shots because the lockdown is a bit of a hassle and it's extending indefinitely ,,, and Covid can be deadly.
• • •
There's not much bread now, no honey, and only very little (and very expensive) cereal. We found some wonderful wild blueberry and raspberry preserves, but with limited bread and butter it doesn't work so well. We got a little bread on Friday (for the weekend) and we're nursing the little butter we have. There's nothing quite so effective as a lockdown and shortages for forcing people (like me) to conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle. Aluminum foil is precious, since it's essential for keeping our frequently used toaster oven clean when we cook. Trash bags are gone, so we use grocery bags and recycle everything we can. Since almost all shops are closed, my wife gave me a haircut. She did a great job even though she had little to work with. A small, all-purpose store down the street stayed open through the restrictions and this week several people there tested positive. Obviously, Covid is all around us. That's why I'm baffled when I see folks on our street not wearing a mask and walking around talking to neighbors.
• • •
There's no school but there's talk of online kindergarten starting in the middle of September. Our daughter should be starting kindergarten now, but she's made it clear she would much rather continue with homeschooling with dad than go to a school here. The web and printer help me with lessons. We've been studying insects for the past month. We've just finished a week of ladybugs / lady beetles / ladybirds. We have a standard joke now: "Oh no, not the life cycle of the ladybug / frog / butterfly ...." We started dragonflies with a video on Sunday and starting Monday we will read, identify body parts, where they live and so on until we finish with a "test" on Friday. These lessons were from the teacherspayteachers website; it costs some money but it's worth it for me. Our 2-and-a-half-hour sessions also include: math, which she hates, except when I use jellybeans; singing and dancing, which she loves; drawing and coloring, which she super loves at the moment; reading, which she enjoys and excels at if the subject matter interests her; and trying to beat the timer tracing the alphabet and numbers 1-20. She loves playing with little plastic frogs, lizards, iguanas, snakes, crocodiles and alligators that we bought back when the Vincom mall was open before the lockdown. Otherwise, she'll hang on mom, bug her brother, and help me cook just a little. Elijah will kick a ball or anything else he gets his feet on around the house; climb the stairs up and down; and really hang on mom, although he's starting to single me out for rough-stuff play. Both will sort of watch Babytv.
• • •
Cooking is a real pleasure for me, even in our hot as hell kitchen. I cook most of the meals, although my wife has been nosing around the kitchen more of late. I'm soaked in sweat after cooking, but the new toaster oven and microwave keep meals warm while I tidy up ...  I finally finished the Dune series and I am so happy that the one Jack Vance book that I couldn't find online -- Night Lamp -- is finally available as an e-book. I found it just as I finished the final Frank Herbert Dune book, Chapterhouse. The reading streak continues with 630 days in a row ... Thunderstorms come almost nightly, and the rain is driving the ants inside. Every house is battling ants like crazy. I pick up my spoon to eat ice cream and there are ants on it, along with ants circling around the ice cream bowl. Not real appetizing.

Covid test (all good); bought butchered pig (super good)

Everyone on our street was asked to get a Covid test this past weekend. If you weren't contacted by police within 24 hours after the test, you don't have Covid. I'm enjoying the sounds of silence on this one. I was more than happy to be tested even if the nose swab was mildly uncomfortable. Lots of people milling around made it feel like it could be a super-spreader event, although everyone was masked. I was surprised that some people refused to be tested -- a couple of our neighbors, for example. People here often seem to focus on the greater good, the welfare of the group. I was told a neighbor got one vaccine shot and didn't think a test was necessary. Testing is as much about those around you as it is about yourself, but I won't waste any more (cyber)space on this topic. If you don't understand the benefits of testing by now, I'm not sure you ever will. We get about 500 new cases a day in Dong Nai, our province, and Vietnam is now recording 10,000-plus new cases a day. The Delta variant is obviously highly contagious; the amount of new cases in the United States is proof of that -- around 150,000 a day of late.  So we continue on lockdown indefinitely here with no word (to me at least) when the situation may change. No word on a vaccine I'm supposed to be on some kind of waiting list for, so ... I'll  just keep ... waiting.
• • •
A guy my wife knows sold us pork that he said his friend has just butchered. Sorry, Wilbur, but this is about the greater good. Maybe that's why the huge spider we called Charlotte came to our house a week or so ago. Anyway, folks, that was some of the most delicious pork I've ever eaten. We got quite a load, so I made pulled pork a couple of times and it was the best pulled pork I've ever made, and daresay, I've ever tasted. My wife's brother has supplied us with wonderful grapefruit three or four times a week, and we lucked into barbecue sauce at the little market around the corner, the only place we're supposedly allowed to go. I will walk to the pharmacy for vitamins, soap, shampoo, that kind of stuff. I do this as much for the walk as the for the items I purchase. My back struggles unless I walk a lot, so I find excuses to walk to the little market. It's not a long walk at all, but it's a little better than nothing. I probably could just go out and take the walk my back needs, but I'm nervous about, and uncomfortable with, mask-less people in front of their houses, some spitting in the street, or coughing (honest to God), so I pass on walking for exercise at this point. The heat makes it rough anyway. And rain kind of just pops up these days, although thunderstorms have been fairly regular at night.
• • •
The guy across the street started pounding on metal with his hammer one morning at 10 a.m. Once he crossed the 20-minute mark of pounding, as our son was being put down for a nap, I got pretty upset and went over and asked him to stop, telling him that Covid prevents us from leaving our house to get away from the loud noise he was making on a Saturday morning. He just smiled at me, so I told him in English I wasn't going to leave until he stopped and I would scream at him the entire time. This is the same guy who creates the welding light flashes and also pounds on metal for hours at a time. He didn't have a mask on, either, so I said let's talk to the police together about the noise and no mask. A neighbor intervened and he packed up his metal and went inside. I really don't think this guy is evil; he's just bored and not that bright when it comes to living in close quarters with people like me during a surging pandemic in his country.
• • •
I'd like to watch the news more to pass the time, but my son Elijah demands attention from any adult in the room, and the ones who leave the room as well. The situation in Afghanistan dominates TV news at the moment, and it's grim, of course. Also, it's not doing much to boost Joe Biden's presidency. My son served a tour of duty in northern Afghanistan, but we haven't really discussed the current situation there.  He just got married, and I just got locked down.  The lockdown is starting to affect my kids, especially at bedtime. They don't want to sleep, and bedtime has become wild time due to the unused energy in the day, I believe. It's fun to watch them chase each other ... until I'm ready to read or sleep. Then,  it's a little less fun.
• • •
My friend in the U.S. has emerged from his near-death ailments more alive than most of us. So happy to hear he's improving daily.

More roadblocks; cooking, coloring, stairs help us cope

Our street was locked down on Saturday and police patrols have increased with the rise of Covid cases. Apparently, the Delta variant spreads rapidly, and children seem to be more susceptible to it than they were from the previous versions. One of our neighbors was outside sans mask and police nabbed him, made him pay a fine of 2 million dong (about $100 U.S.) and sent him to a clinic to get tested for Covid.  He was pissed. Mini-roadblocks are set up all over the city, not just our street, to keep people in their neighborhoods. You supposedly can only go to the market or pharmacy with a pass, but no random or spur of the moment trips are advised, unless you have deep pockets to pay fines. Some people do, but if they're caught before they reach their destination, they're sent back home lighter in the wallet. Rice, noodles and potatoes, along with pork, beef and chicken are always on the menu. Inexpensive local vegetables are available sporadically at government buildings around town, but items like peanut butter, yogurt, cereal and cheese are hit and miss, and it's mostly miss due to hoarding. The biggest change for me in all this is less walking for coffee breaks, and no cheese and peanut butter. So I drink more coffee at home and I've gotten creative with cooking with help from the Internet. One nice treat I discovered is baked eggplant chunks gently drizzled with olive oil and a spicy salt and pepper mix. It takes about 30 minutes in the new toaster oven and is quite tasty. To replace not walking as much,  I chase my son up and down stairs. Adding to all the fun is that it's been remarkably humid because it's rainy season -- and this is south Vietnam. Government did well staving off Covid in the first year, but the new variant seems to have changed the dynamic. I don't think the old tactics of contact tracing and isolation can control the new variant. There's lot of talk about vaccines, and it seems everybody has signed up to be vaccinated.  Including me. The U.S. apparently doesn't vaccinate Americans overseas.  My wife's dad got jabbed, but that's the only person I know here who's been vaccinated. While I've signed up to be vaccinated, I've learned to hope for the best and expect the worst in situations like this.
• • •
Our kids are sick of being locked down, especially Elijah. He's the guy who loves to run, play soccer, be outdoors, run, and play soccer. Most kids still go out a little here – some with masks and some without –  but my wife doesn't really roam outside much with Little E. That's why he's the reason I've become the stair master. Sometimes, he'll go upstairs just to practice coming back down. Talk about scary stuff. These faux marble stairs are unforgiving as my ugly toe and woeful back and knees will attest to. Joanna has handled lockdown really well. I know she doesn't super love the super hot weather here, so she'll stay indoors and color and read books. Thank goodness two thick Birds of Paradise coloring books I ordered a long time ago finally arrived. The books are well done and Joanna has been coloring in them with her cousin. She's started to help me cook as well, and loves using the big knife to cut the zucchini and eggplant. School continues and her interest waxes and wanes depending on subject matter, which is her teacher's responsibility. It's a challenge, but sometimes we'll stumble into fun lessons, like subtraction with jellybeans and a unit on butterflies.
• • •
Joanna's passport is about to expire, so we're trying to renew by mail, which makes me nervous because we have to mail in her old passport to the embassy, which is pretty limited in operation. If we went, we'd have to spend 14 days in quarantine in Ho Chi Minh City, and then another 14 days in quarantine in Bien Hoa upon our return. In email communication with the embassy, they've done everything to discourage renewing the passport by mail and have told us to either come in (and face quarantine) or wait. Too late. We need the passport to get her a new resident card, which has expired. She can't leave the country, my wife says, unless she has a resident card.  So even if my wife got a waiver for a U.S. visa, we'd be stuck.  And 'round and 'round we go.

Big spider scares us; nearby school now Covid clinic

Part of our daily routine is to give our kids baths before dinner. Joanna takes care of her own business, from filling her small bathtub to barely washing her hair for fear of getting soap in her eyes. A couple of days ago as she's getting ready she says, "Dad, there's a Charlotte in here. Look!" I was half-listening and the words didn't register because I was making dinner while she prepared for her bath. Actually, I was soaking the salmon in milk to reduce the fishy smell.  She repeated herself, and said something about "a creature", so I walked into the bathroom and saw a pretty big spider next to her tub. The picture is on the right. Joanna, who still wasn't ready for her bath, didn't act scared since she's always on the lookout for creatures (geckos, ants, flies and spiders in the house due to Covid lockdown). I was a little nervous at first, but regained my composure and captured the spider in a tin can, and Joanna and I set him free in the street. Two neighbors came over to watch. Not much happening with Covid in full bloom. Joanna went inside and got on with her bath and I got on with dinner, which turned out quite nice by the way. Later, I asked Joanna: "Did the spider scare you?" She paused for a moment and said, "Yes, he said 'boo!'"  Funny kid. The Charlotte reference is from Charlotte's Web, of course, which we've read twice together, and the inspiration for the "Boo!" line came from The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Shadows, which we've read countless times. Comments like this from my daughter make me so happy that she and her dad have read –– and still read –– so much together. Our son Ellijah likes Llama Llama Hoppity Hop, but he prefers sports and the outdoor life to books. After all, he's 15 months old and he can make up his own mind now.
• • •
The surge continues here with little relief in sight. There's a school on the street behind us that's been turned into a Covid hospital. An ambulance sits out front. I was told that only one or two doctors were assigned to the site, which everyone knows is an issue here -- there just aren't enough doctors. A country that controlled the virus so well for so long seems to have more than its hands full with the Delta Variant. We had 347 new cases in Dong Nai on Friday. Every day there's 7,000 to 8,000 or more new cases in the country. Without a real vaccine program, it will be the ultimate challenge to control the new variant. Most people wear masks now, but there's a handful who don't and still take walks and gather for exercise near the park -- since you can't go in the park any more. I'll go out once or twice a week in full regalia to get some stuff from the pharmacy and to go the local market. I'll also sneak a walk around the block in the middle of the street to get exercise and provide some relief for my back, usually when I return from the market or pharmacy. Otherwise, I'll watch my masked daughter ride her scooter up and down the street, provide daily lessons for Joanna, play with Elijah, cook, clean, read and lay real low.
• • •
The simple pleasures in life have taken on added significance with the Covid surge and subsequent lockdown. My wife came home from her family's house and said almost triuphantly,"I've got bread." Then she producced two small sandwich rolls. I was expecting a bigger haul, but we made do. I used one roll for Joanna's "toast and jelly" breakfast and the other for her sausage sandwich at lunch.  Bread is a strange commodity here all the time, not just during Covid. There's usually a lot floaing around in the early morning, but it's OK to eat for only an hour or so after purchase before it gets rock hard. Sliced bread is scarce unless you go to a specialty store or bread shop. We've never really wasted food in our family. Once in a while part of a potato Joanna didn't want might have gotten tossed in the past. Not these days. All meals are eaten completely, and it doesn't matter who finishes what.  At the local market, candy bars and ice cream remain in ample supply while peanut butter, honey, cereal and other essentials are gone, as in GONE. That's OK with me. I can live on Snickers indefinitely. It's funny because I was just chatting online with a friend about how healthy my eating has become since the lockdown and with the purchase of a new toaster oven. That was true ... until I discovered the mother lode of candybars and ice cream at the little market.

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.
• • •
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.
• • •
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.
• • •
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.