Two
good, long bike rides! By me! After six weeks this is something to write
about! Literally!
Enough with the exclamation marks. It was not as liberating as I thought it
would be. I got up at 7.00am and was out
of the house in double quick time, adopting the normal swimming pool technique
of brushing teeth, quick wash and shower after the ride.
There were far more people around than
normal. There were the usual unhappy
looking runners of all ages; couples taking a walk; dog walkers; people walking
on the beach; surfers and we cyclists.
It will be interesting to see if the same numbers of people are around
tomorrow after the delight of pseudo-freedom has worn off and the unaccustomed
aches in parts of the body that have been ‘resting’ for the last number of
weeks are a little more real!
We have seen pictures of television where
the numbers of people who came out onto the streets made physical distancing
very difficult, and my perception is that people are disinclined to continue
the restrictions. This does not bode
well.
As an example, as I am typing, a group of
(noisy) people have made a little party around and in the communal pool. The composition of the group includes
parents, children and rat dogs – with dogs being specifically banned from the pool
area. In some ways I suppose it is good
that they are able to act as though there was no Covid-19 crisis at all. Good luck to them, one might say. But the one thing that has demonstrated
itself with crystal clarity is that the virus does not fall back in baffled
frustration when confronted with people who do not take infection seriously, it
feeds on such irresponsibility and thrives and does not restrict itself. And kills.
Over a third of those who are ill enough with the virus to go to
hospital do not leave it alive. That
puts silly sociability into proportion!
Castelldefels is a seaside town, where
walking the Paseo is an essential part of living! As we move into the clear summer months and
more and more people (quite understandably) want to be by the sea, and it is
going to be more and more difficult to sustain anything approaching the
requisite distancing that shows the necessary respect to reject the fatality of
slackness. I think that previous
sentences is stupidly complex and involved, but I’m too lazy to strike it
out. People are going to become more and
more easy going, as the weather gets hotter.
And we are not going to take things seriously until there is another spike
in the virus deaths and then it will be too late. For some.
Perhaps people are seriously thinking in
percentages and thinking that it is probable if they are young(ish) and healthy(ish)
that in percentage terms that they are likely to survive. And they are, of course, likely to be
right. Unless they are wrong.
But I did go out for a ride. I should look on the positive side, and go
out for another one when our next authorized period starts. I can go out just after the daily 8pm clap
for the health and essential workers.
In
my third ride of the day on my bike I actually saw two people whom I knew, but
didn’t stop to talk. There were still
lots of people about (and three illegal kids – NOT their time to be out) with
many groups and people talking and interacting with an ease that suggests that
they consider that the crisis is just about over. Which it most assuredly is not.
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