Our regular meetings will resume online on March 31; watch for your easy connection info.
Inspiration: “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” Pablo Neruda
Introduction of Our Virtual Newsletter:
Hi, Rotarian Friends,
President Maureen has asked me (Susan Cole) to pull together notes on all of our members and produce a weekly newsletter that will keep us connected virtually both to Rotary and to each other. In order to do this, please send me via e-mail (susanc8@comcast.net) a short note, or even a sentence, letting us all know how you are handling this “shelter in place” order. What are you doing daily? Is anyone still at work? Working from home? What is positive for you? What is your greatest challenge? What do you want your Rotary friends to know about you and yours?
Message from President Maureen:
Next weekly meeting is ONLINE, Tuesday, March 31, at the convenient new time of 7:45 to 8:30 AM. Each member will receive Zoom instructions, and you need not have a Zoom account in order to join in.
March 24 will be dark for meetings, but please give a call to a fellow Rotarian to keep in touch!
Also, please note our request to send an update on what you are doing during this “shelter in place” and how you are doing with it.
All Rotary gatherings are cancelled until further notice, including SCARC and the District Training Assembly. The District Conference is postponed, possibly until fall.
For our first virtual newsletter, news from members who are traveling:
JB Leep and Carol Martin have been traveling and cruising in New Zealand and Australia, and report that it has been a great time! Now to get home, here is JB’s post:
Hi Friends,
I thought I would give you an update on things, since the situation has changed so radically in the last week or so.
All of us are currently in Sydney, safe and sound, isolated in our hotel rooms. It’s Friday afternoon, 2:00. We have just ordered pizza in through Uber Eats.
A few days ago, the Captain announced that we would not be visiting the last destination on our tours, Eden, Australia, and the national park walking tour there. We got a refund for that day. Australia has stopped all future visits from cruise ships, with some exceptions. And our voyage is the last for Celebrity for at least a month. Many people (300+?) on our ship were going on the next cruise back to Auckland, but got off at our last stop in NZ, Dunedin, and stayed in NZ.
There were no incidents of corona virus to our knowledge on our ship among the 2,300 or so passengers plus crew. The cruise line was scrupulous in their inspections, and there was not much virus going on in New Zealand anyway. But, though we were safe on our ship, the cruise had to end! The Australian government allowed us to tie up in Sydney, but any people staying in Australia had to self-quarantine for 14 days. Anyone leaving for foreign lands could do so but had to hole up waiting for departure. No bridge walk, no opera house!
American canceled all flights a few days ago. Fortunately their partner, Qantas, is still flying till end of March. So we moved our flights up one day, and if all goes well, we will arrive via Alaska Air through LAX (the original plan) at Santa Rosa Airport on Saturday evening.
Australia has been very proactive early in the curve to get people to stay home, but I don’t know that folks are paying 100% attention. There are signs for prevention all over the place. People in some cafes but not many cars. I hear the Qantas flight is half empty.
So, we’re not too worried about our getting back home. All our plans are in place for flights and we will see if they work out!
See you soon! Be safe and wash your hands!
Love,
JB and Carol, Jane and Sally
We received an email this morning that one passenger on our cruise ship (who got off early) tested positive! So we are now classified as having had ‘close contact’.
Sitting here in Sydney airport waiting to board flight! I’d say about 2% are wearing face masks! Pretty much all overheard conversations revolve around the virus and quarantine situations! We are healthy!
The above is from JB and Carol’s family member
Leslie Lewis and husband, Nirmal, sadly, had to cancel a planned trip to Germany for several family celebrations.
Ken and Pam Moulton have been in Hawaii on the Big Island, staying near Kona. Ken went deep-sea fishing with great success. They are now safe at home – here is a lovely note from Pam:
“We had no problems leaving Kona!! no masks but reminders for hand sanitizers…on the plane, we wore our masks at the outset but no one else did until we got to the airport (for a while) – on the little park and fly bus – the bus driver was wearing a mask and we were using hand sanitizer…Everyone was WONDERFUL and ATTENTIVE and concerned about everyone else!!!
There is no news other than we are finding that, as a community, everyone is looking out for others!! we live in a very loving and caring community where we have had offers to buy food or other sundries….Our dogs are so happy to have us 24/7 that I worry what is going to happen when the other life kicks in!!
Ken’s fish was a big hit and will carry the both of us through many conversations for a while – the marlin was tasty – and the kid that assisted in pulling that monster in is having it STUFFED (or whatever they do) and shipped to Seattle…in the meantime we have the story, the memory and the pictures to prove it!!
I loved that Ken said, with a disappointed voice, that he had only caught ONE fish – only to reveal that it was this amazing 177 lb BLUE MARLIN!!
Member and Doctor Rich Mucci offers the following to all of us:
I agree with Steve’s idea to cancel meetings all together.
Here is some info that I just learned although it may have been out there awhile. I think it will reinforce the idea to cancel.
As it turns out almost all the ICU meds used to treat the acute cases of virus are generic. Almost all of them are manufactured in China and India. Given the embargo’s imposed on travel and commerce from China there is likely to be a very bad shortage of medication to treat sick people. We have for so long relied on “On Time” delivery that we, meaning the USA, have no stockpiles of these meds. If for that reason alone we should all take extreme precautions and remain somewhat isolated at home.
Second reason, again having little to do with virulence of the virus, for everyone to stay home.
It turns out children can and do get the virus. However children very rarely get sick from it, in fact most of the time no one even knows they have it. We are closing all the schools. Children will be at home. Over 45% of all nurses are mothers with kids at home. The moms will then have to stay home to take care of the kids. That will create an increasing shortage of nurses again affecting anyone hospitalized for the virus. I’m not sure that plan was thought through with that in mind.
Thirdly the people getting sick are the ones with chronic diseases to start with. That was true in china and will be true here.
With respect to my presentation a few weeks ago we learned that 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy.
45% of Americans are obese and 110,000,000 are diabetic or prediabetic, all are serious chronic diseases that could lead to a corona disaster.
For those reasons (and a few more) I have changed my tune and am now becoming much more conservative.
Feel free to forward any or all of this to the club.
Sincerely,
Rich Mucci
On a happier note, March 21 is member Diane Brabetz’ birthday. We all wish Diane a happy and healthy birthday.
Here’s a note from Diane about Anna Smith, one of the employees in her corporate membership:
Anna and Stan returned last night from Cancun. Their granddaughter was married there at a Dreams Resort near us. They did not have any real issues getting home. One leg (plane) was canceled but they were put on another flight.
Tell everyone to continue to hand wash, stay at a distance, but overall eat well, hydrate, stay healthy and get some sunshine. We have to be prudent, avoid risks and crowds but at the same time keep our mental health positive. Miss you all, 💜
di
(Diane Brabetz, RN CPNP PHN)