Covid 19 April update

Another three weeks have passed in this shelter in place world and not much has changed. Well, the one thing that HAS changed is that the state is finally testing people in large numbers, but it's still not available to everyone. If you have significant symptoms, are a front line worker or know you have been exposed to someone with it, I believe you can get tested now, but it's not easy. One testing location yesterday stopped taking new people about 5 minutes after they opened because they already used their allotment for the day. Crazy. The state is testing like 15k people per day for the most part which means that the number of cases has jumped up (makes sense) to about 2k new cases per day but deaths are pretty erratic still. Yesterday I think there were only like 50 deaths in Illinois. Over the last 5 days actually, the deaths have dropped steadily: 123,107,79,59,50. The two prior days were 119 and 97 so we may be really bending the curve and buying ourselves some time to come up with a vaccine.

A study on 6 Rhesus Macaque monkeys heavily exposed to Covid 19 after given an experimental vaccine, have been symptom free for 28 days. Very promising!!

More people around the country, mostly in states where they believe gun ownership is a God given right and not just a constitutional one, are protesting businesses being shut down, especially as unemployment hits 20%. Their argument is stay home if you want to or are at risk, but don't force me to stay home. They don't really consider that potentially infected people will: go to nursing homes, go shopping, engage in social activities, etc which will jeopardize the employees there and, in turn, their at risk contacts. It's just more of the selfish, ignorant Americana we've come to know and love, especially the last four years.


Anytime there is nice weather, the family heads out for a walk. Our nanny still shows up 4 days a week and goes through e-learning with the kids while Laura and I work.  Not too much has changed there except the kids don't go to school of course or Daisy Scouts or dance. I don't go to the grocery store daily, or almost daily, like I used to. Now I go maybe twice a week and we stock up. Neither of us go into our office one day a week like we used to, so that's saved commuting time, gas and such.

Oh, gas! Let's talk about this whole pandemic and oil. Late last year, the Russians got pissy with OPEC about limiting oil production and went AWOL from OPEC meetings. So the Saudi's said eff you and flooded the market causing oil to plunge to depths we have not seen in some time. THEN the pandemic hit and nobody is driving. Nobody is flying. Nobody is producing things. Smog around LA has lifted. Venetian canals are hosting jellyfish. The world is a much cleaner place as its demand for oil dropped dramatically. Last I checked, oil was around $10 a barrel. If you actually had storage for oil available, you would have gotten paid a week or two ago to accept a contract. Crazy! Gas at the pumps around here are still $1.89 or so, but just 40 minutes south in Kankakee, gas was $1.35. I've heard it's even cheaper in Indiana.

The New World Order

It's been a really busy couple of weeks since I last wrote. My consulting clients (who are no longer going into the office and doing all of their day to day work) have been monopolizing my time with conference calls as we make progress on "other" projects. On the real estate side, I had one closing on 3/31 that had a hiccup on 3/30 that was resolved, but if it hadn't been, the closing would have been delayed. Another deal was supposed to close in late March and that buyer lost his job, so we went onto one of the other offers we received initially and have been trying to keep that on track for a 4/20 closing. And today we had pictures for a new listing going up on the MLS next week. Crazy busy!!!

Two weeks ago on a Monday, I went out with clients in Kankakee to look at some homes that were on the market and to get my oil changed and tire repaired. Later that week, the dealership would close due to Covid-19. My clients have a dog and some of the homes we looked at had dogs, all of which caused my allergies to flare up. Then the grass starting coming out as well trees, so my allergies hit with full force. Tueday-Thursday or so I had post nasal drip and my throat started getting sore. The coughing started Friday and has persisted. Wednesday morning of this week, I woke up and had several minutes of coughing while laying in bed (not unusual for the last week) but really hacked up some mucous from deep in my lungs. Again, not unusual for me in the spring. At no point have I had a fever (88% of covid patients have a fever) nor have I had fatigue, lack of a desire to eat, or lost my sense of smell or taste. It seems unlikely that I have Covid, but boy would it be nice to have enough tests around so that I could actually go get tested and find out!! That's not possible right now though, at least around here. 

After new cases of 900+ and 700+ the last two days, I was wondering if we were flattening out the curve here in Illinois. Unfortunately the number of new cases jumped to 1200, so that thought is out the window. Today Pritzker suggested that we wear masks whenever we leave the house, however he didn't say where we were supposed to acquire these masks. I have a drywall mask out in the garage, but that's about it. 

So that's about it. I'm hoping I don't have Covid-19 and am pretty busy with work. LL has likewise been very busy with work, but the last two days were supposed to be part of our vacation (a trip to St. Joe's with the kids) so she has been back to focusing on cleaning while our cleaning lady is stuck in Poland. Not sure when she's going to be able to get back home, but I think she's scheduled for 4/12. We'll see!