Shut-in

Never thought I'd be anxious to get on the trainer

So it was another work week at home, and the feeling of frustration is even stronger. Being stuck in the house is bad enough, but being stuck in the house and at the same time not being able to do much is making it even worse. I am still kind of limping around on crutches trying to keep most of the weight off of my left leg. The ribs and pelvis are hurting less and less, and I've been getting along without Tylenol for a few days now. I've developed a post-nasal drip that I'm just hoping isn't from COVID-19 and is instead from allergies or something else...anything else. Since I got back from the hospital on March 11th I've been out of the house only once and that was for the followup at the UMC clinic on March 23rd. To make matters worse, the weather has been pretty great, at least as far as I can tell from sitting on the front porch. I can kind of tell that sitting on a bike saddle is still going to be bad, so I've been holding off on even trying. Even so, yesterday I hobbled around the basement and put the old Orbea on the even older wind trainer. Then I changed the existing stem for one I had around from when we were fitting Danielle to her Cannondale. For her, we had it set so that there was a distinct negative slope in order to get the bars lower. For me, I installed it the other way, which put the bars about even with the saddle. I had to disconnect the front brake since the cable wasn't long enough, but I won't be needing a front brake on the trainer. I also tilted the nose of the saddle down a few degrees on the assumption that might make it easier to sit on. That old trainer has an interesting history. I was riding home from a morning ride on the levee about twenty years ago and spotted it out on the street where someone had put it out for the trash. I picked it up and rode home with it, and have used it a few times, mostly after breaking collarbones. It works fine. This evening I downloaded Zwift, but had a lot of trouble with it and even after waiting forever for it to update the software I couldn't get it to actually run. I think my internet speed is running really slow right now for some reason, so that may have something to do with it.

Anyway, most days lately have been spent immersed in COVID-19 news, legislation, and Zoom meetings and I'd be lying if I said is hasn't started to get me down. I'm still getting up around 6:30, which seems ridiculously late compared to normal, making coffee, which is something of a chore when on crutches, and sitting down at the desk around 8:00. It's starting to feel like a routine It would probably help if I could go outside and ride, even if it was solo, for an hour or two every day. It might even help if I could do it inside while staring at the computer. Back in 2008 when I broke my collarbone the first time when the dog ran out into the middle of the Giro Ride, I was back riding the trainer about 20 days later. Right now I'm 27 days out, so this is the longest I've been off the bike in, well, recorded history. I may do a little experimentation on the trainer this weekend if all goes well. We'll see. It's not like I need to get back in shape right away for a race. Speaking of that, we're looking at dates in the late August to early October timeframe for the Tour de La. I can't imagine that things will be sufficiently back to normal by early June, they way they're going.

Basically, everything is up in the air right now. Bike Easy is trying to get an SBA loan through one of the new CARES Act provisions in order to keep everyone going for the near term. I guess USAC is going to have to extend their event cancellations beyond the original May 3rd date, but they are in no rush to do so quite yet. COVID cases in New Orleans are still increasing, although the testing lag has made that trendline pretty questionable. What's not questionable is the death line, which is still increasing slightly.

See the blue? That's New Orleans.

Some new data from Unacast based on cellphone locations showing how much people are moving around indicates that while New Orleans has actually done a not too terrible job of heeding the "stay at home" edicts, the rest of the state hasn't. You can see a similar pattern from the Google mobility data when comparing Orleans Parish to the rest of the State. The Governor has actually been doing a pretty good job thus far and is showing some good leadership. Our own Mayor has been doing OK, although it seems to be more with messaging than action.

Google Mobility Data for New Orleans. You can see when the Shelter in Place order went out and its effect.

Tulane Medicine has been pretty impressive. In the midst of dealing with the unprecedented chaos at Tulane Hospital and nearby University Medical Center, they have managed to get the coveted Roche rapid testing up and running at Tulane, splitting the daily number of tests equally between the two hospitals. Bob Garry and company have gotten their PCR-based testing up and running at the Medical School, currently restricted mostly to patients and I think healthcare personnel. There's also drive-through testing at Tulane's Perdido Street building. They have produced a number of informative videos, and I watched the Grand Rounds yesterday which was as interesting as it was depressing. Or office has been having morning Zoom meetings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday that have been helpful and somewhat reassuring. Candy has likewise been doing multiple Zoom meetings every day. This afternoon, with Danielle's help, she ordered groceries to be delivered, which worked out fine and at least kept her out of the grocery store.