Coronavirus (Covid-19) Update June 25

Time for a quick update on the pandemic. It's been 14 weeks of self-isolation for us.

Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in Bell county. Wednesday's confirmed new cases, totaling 84, more than doubled the previous daily high of 41.

Total cases; 903; 357 recovered, 11 dead.
Ever hospitalized: 89
Ever admitted to ICU: 39

Yesterday the County announced a mandate for businesses to require all employees and patrons older than two to wear masks, beginning Monday, in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus.

In this phase of the pandemic, many people are taking political stands on wearing masks. To some, the mask is seen as a symbol of blindly submitting to government authority; while to others it is a sign of responsible compassion.

Sadly, sides are even being taken among fellow Christians, some saying avoiding crowds (including church assemblies) is evidence of a lack of faith; others saying it is our Christian responsibility to protect the vulnerable and at-risk members of the congregation, and that assembling together now will only prolong the pandemic. Thankfully, the majority of our brethren are not being judgmental and are encouraging each individual to decide for him/herself.

We are living in very troublesome times: a contentious, upcoming presidential election; rioting in the streets over racial issues; destruction of businesses, historical statues and memorials; cries for "defunding" the police; high unemployment; and the stressors of life amid a pandemic.

As for Dan and me, we are still worshipping at home, through live-streaming, and have made the difficult decision to cancel our trip to Japan this fall. We had begun eating an occasional meal out and had gone inside the grocery store to shop one time. But with the steeply rising case numbers we have back-pedaled some and are once again doing curbside shopping and avoiding eat-in restaurants.

We are still holding out hope that our friends, Lee and Joanne, from Australia, will be able to come and see us in November, as planned. But as we continue to see more discouraging data, our hopes are waning.

Pipsqueak - Our Baby Mockingbird Guest

For three days, now, a baby mockingbird (I call him Pipsqueak) has made our patio and backyard its home. Some of our neighbor's trees hang over our fence, and I believe this little fellow fell out of his nest from one of those trees. He's almost ready to fledge. He can fly a little bit, but can only get about two feet off the ground, so can't make it over our fence.

What has amazed me is how the mama bird is still taking care of him. Constantly, during the day, she visits him and pokes meals into his gaping mouth. She sometimes just sits on top of our fence and watches him.

I'm hoping he'll be able to fly over the fence and start his life as a free mockingbird soon. Until then, I'm enjoying listening to him call for his mama and watching her bring him food.

Mama keeping a watchful eye on her youngster.

This spot on our patio has become Pipsqueak's home base. It is near our BBQ grill, and sometimes he hides in the shade beneath the grill. (Yes, we'll need to do a power-wash clean-up after he leaves.)

Sometimes he ventures out into the lawn, and sits near the fence crying for mama.

Markarian's Chain - An Expanse Full of Galaxies

Self-isolating has had its advantages. It's given us time to work on fun things. I've spent a lot more time than usual on my genealogy projects. And, together, we've spent many hours learning and improving our astrophotography skills.

Before we got into this avocation, I envisioned a quick trip to the backyard; snap a couple "star pictures"; come inside to download the pictures; a little editing in Photoshop; and BINGO, we'd have a couple of beautiful, framable-quality photos for our wall.

Thant's NOT how it works.

Setting up the telescope, aligning the mount, focusing (rough and fine), polar-aligning, locating the object in the sky, finding a guide star; initiating guiding; and taking a test picture - all of this before the actual photography takes place - is about an hour-long process.

Then it's time to take the picture. No. Not THE picture. To get a good set of data to work with, we have been taking about 30 three-minute images of the same object in the sky, which totals at least another 90 minutes.

Then the fun starts. The 30 photos of your subject (called your "lights"), have to be processed, which includes "stacking" these pictures with an equal number of "darks," "biases," and (sometimes) "flats," in order to create one image with reduced noise. After this comes a process called "stretching," which involves using the levels and curves tools in your photo editor.

So, if you got bored reading all of that, I'll do the math for you. To get one finished image takes about 3-1/2 hours ... if you are lucky! Since you can't begin photographing until it is dark, that means it is usually midnight before we come inside. The logical thing, at that point, would be to call it a day and climb in bed, but that's not what's been happening. We - well, Dan especially - is usually so pumped about seeing the results that he stays up later, working on the processing.

Most of our efforts, so far, have resulted in less-than-acceptable images. BUT, last night, we took our 30 shots of Markarian's Chain. It is an expanse of galaxies that lie in the Virgo Cluster. Here is a link to a map of this same region of space, with the multitude of galaxies circled. Dan centered the photo on two galaxies, known as "The Eyes." You can see The Eyes in the very center of the image below, one-above-the-other, rather than side-by-side. This is our first really successful astroi-mage, and success is oh-so-SWEET! (Be sure to click on the images to see them a bit larger.)



Here are a couple crops of some of the galaxies, so you can see them larger.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Update June 10 - Baby Steps!

Yesterday marked another "first" for me in this time of pandemic. I went inside the grocery store and did my own shopping, instead of ordering on-line and picking up at the curb. (The last time I was inside a store was March 16.) I arrived at HEB around 7:45 a.m., and there were not very many shoppers there yet. All of the staff were wearing face-masks, as were about half of the shoppers. It was easy to keep at a distance from other shoppers. I was able to purchase items that haven't been available through on-line shopping, which probably explains why my grocery bill was higher than usual.

Although we are easing up on our self-isolation, we have agreed to go slowly and continue to avoid group activities. For awhile, we will continue with live-streaming worship on Sundays, and we have chosen, reluctantly, to skip our astronomy club's star party coming up this Saturday night.

Bell County's number of infections and number of deaths due to the virus is still on a moderate rise. Here are the Bell County statistics reported in this morning's newspaper: Total cases: 476 (180 in Temple); 237 recovered; 6 deaths

Most of the new cases, and three of the deaths, are due to an outbreak at a Temple nursing and rehabilitation home.

Coronavirus (Covid 19) Update June 1: Our "Coming Out" Party

Last evening, for the first time since March 15 (a little over 11 weeks), we saw friends, in person, and went to a restaurant for dinner. It felt strange. A little scary. But WONDERFUL!

We met up with Kay and Andy at Texas Roadhouse. The restaurant was doing its best to make it a safe place for patrons. One person in a party could come inside and put a name on the waiting list; everyone else had to stay in the vehicle until the restaurant host/hostess called. The tables being used were set well apart from any other occupied tables. The employees all wore facemarks and disposable gloves. Nothing was left on the table from previous patrons; if we needed to use salt, pepper, sugar or sweetener, a freshly disinfected container was brought to us. And the only menus were photocopies, which were immediately discarded after our use (however, they were printed in really small font, which neither Kay nor I could read - haha!).

We all felt like birds released from a cage! It was such a blessing to see and talk with our good friends once again. Kay and I even sneaked a couple side-to-side hugs.

This feels like the year there was no Spring. We started isolating just before the beginning of Spring, and now we are just a couple weeks from Summer. The virus is still a threat, and there is a lot of controversy about the benefits vs the downside of "social distancing." Dan and I are still being very cautious, which is why last evening's outing felt so strange.

Our congregation will begin meeting in person again this coming Sunday, but we have chosen to continue the live-streaming for awhile yet. Our building will have been professionally disinfected. Everyone (or each family) will be spaced at least 6' apart. Facemarks are optional, but advised. People who wish to hug or visit in closer proximity will be encouraged to do that outside the building, following the service.

Here are the current statistics from Bell County:

*Total cases - 367; 206 recovered; 4 dead
*Ever hospitalized - 57
*Ever admitted to ICU - 35
*Temple - 129
*Killeen - 140
*Belton - 39
Harker Heights - 26
Other - 33

Nursing homes are now being hit hardest. One Temple long-term care facility is reporting 27 people infected as of yesterday.