Week of 20th April, 2020

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Sunday, 26th April

Yes, I know I've been remiss in posting for the last 9 months. I got out of the habit.

Well, I'm going to try to resume that habit.

Now, where did I leave off... Dunsfold 2019 was its usual self, albeit the last of its kind. The airfield is being redeveloped, or so I understand.

That said, everything seemed to tick over well, until about February this year, when we heard the first mutterings about a new flu-like disease first seen in Wuhan, China. Then it spread... By mid-to-late March, everyone was likening the new lurgi to the Spanish Flu of 1918. And TPTB had finally given it a name, CoViD-19, for coronavirus disease 2019, and attributed it to a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, which appeared to have high transmissibility, resulting in runaway infections. There were predictions that severe cases would overwhelm hospital intensive care units.

As a result, the world went into lockdown, with all but essential personnel confined to their homes, except for sharply limited permitted excursions into the world.

That was for most people. Those deemed particularly at risk - the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems due to previous medical history - were instucted to self-isolate, "to shield", for 12 weeks, or until mid-June, at the earliest. It is permitted for non-shielding persons to assist shielding persons with such things as food shopping.

I am in the group that is considered at high risk - age, high blood pressure, type II diabetic, immunosuppressed due to the cancer treatment - so I'm housebound. And I'm climbing the walls with boredom.

We are all also instructed to maintain "social distancing", i.e. do not approach anyone, unless they are immediate family that you live with, closer than 2 metres - even in shop queues.

Of course, this has resulted in a severe curbing of economic activity, to the extent that bailouts, to prevent the total collapse of the economy, are bidding fair to cause that collapse in the future, leading to a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

We managed to survive that, and I feel that we will survive another such in the future. It'll be uncomfortable, I have no doubt, but it will be survivable.

As far as economic activity is concerned, I've been buying more things online, mostly from Amazon, although there is one major item from a UK reseller of American kit. They order on demand, on about 3 weeks delay, so hopefully middle of May. This is the Powerfilm Solar Lightsaver Max, which consists of an 18AH (of course, they list it as 18,000mAH, because marketing) lithium battery, with a roll-up solar panel to recharge it. They claim 6 hours recharge time from solar, but it can charge from mains, and it gives out 12 volts, or 2no USB-A.

Several others of those purchases are for the MkII carputer, although that is becoming a serious misnomer. The way things appear to be going, it'll be used far more during on-foot excursions, to provide an internet hotspot and various services appertaining thereto, plus support for add-on boxes, such as an expanded version of ads-pi, with VHF airband voice, ACARS, and the ACARS replacement VDL2, which I'm planning to implement via this tutorial.

 
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