The COVID Chronicles #45: Veteran's Day Happenings

 Good Morning. Before I get started with my post this morning, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Veteran's Day and I would like to thank any veterans who may be following this blog for their service to our country. Veteran's Day was originally called Armistice Day after the armistice that ended the stalemate that was World War I or as it was known at that time, "The Great War" or "The War to End All Wars". 


Active cases of COVID-19 have exploded here in Cochise County, as they have all over the country.  I was very sad to hear that Texas has become the first state in the United States to pass 1 million cases of the virus. Just 10 days ago, the active case count was 185. This morning that number is 480. The highest number of cases continues to be concentrated in the zip code of the border town of Douglas, AZ, which currently has 185 of those active cases; including one of my departmental co-workers who resides there and who has been out on sick leave since 11/3/2020. Other county "hot spots" include the zip codes for Sierra Vista and Wilcox, AZ with 58 active cases each as of this morning. In our zip code, the active case count remains at 6-10. 

Statewide, the highest numbers of cases continues to be concentrated the metropolitan areas of Phoenix (Maricopa) & Tucson (Pima). 


Evening Update - 5:40pm

On this holiday where we honor our veterans, I took the opportunity on the day off from work to dig up the remains of our vegetable garden. For those of you may have followed this blog back in the spring and summer, Wife and I planted a vegetable garden this year. We planted zucchini, carrots, bell peppers, beans, potatoes, and green onions. The zucchini sprouted quickly and produced steadily until dying. The 12 potato plants grew up and produced lots of Yukon Gold potatoes which were harvested in mid-late August. 

The beans sprouted and produced bean pods, but many of them also produced vines that took over the bed and made it difficult to pick beans. We also had some volunteer musk/honeydew melons & watermelons (that possibly cross-pollinated with a cantaloup) for some kind of weird hybrid melon. Only a few carrots sprouted and one bell pepper plant sprouted, but died when we had a freeze the week of Halloween. 

So today, I turned over all the soil, pulled out the weeds and dead plants, and threw them in the dumpster in the alley behind our house. I pulled up the green onion plants, but wife wasn't going to use them, so I replanted them this evening as the sun was going down and I now have the sprinkler to water them since they had wilted in the afternoon sun without any soil. Hopefully, they perk back up. 

I also used some weed killer spray on weeds and plants around our house. I hope it works and kills many of them. 

All for today. 

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