Storms, floods and inches of freedom

me and James in the river

A strange bug -- saved by Edward

June has been the rainiest month in the past 60 years. Our president blamed the heavy rains on climate change and he is likely correct. A dam broke on the Timis river and so they closed the iron bridge, which is one of the two main bridges in Lugoj. However, by the end of June, the water has mostly retreated and the danger seems passed. The clouds were dense enough that the sun did not have power for more than two weeks. It felt like fall instead of summer. The rain was impressive -- it was the heaviest rain I have witnessed to date. It rained so hard that there was ankle deep water in the garden and this happened every day, several times a day. Seven of the chickens and our three baby ducks fainted due to exposure to the cold rain water. We managed to revive the ducks and four of the chickens with the hairdryer.  This was the driest year for decades because it also did not snow in the winter or rain in the spring, and then it became rainiest with all rain happening almost at once. The fields were flooded in many places as was our garden in Salbagel. There were frogs everywhere. The children played in the garden instead of at the river. It's been a year to remember.

With COVID-19 discussions about climate change came to a halt. World-wide farms and produce have been destroyed. This is not seen as important -- it's just the economy and lives -- human ones -- matter more. Every once in a while an article makes it to the media about cruelty on farms where animals are destroyed in even crueler ways than before because there are not enough people to handle the individual destruction. Germany and the US closed some  big meat processing plants. Then the men-power to slaughter each animal is gone. It's so much easier to destroy than to give away produce since no infrastructure in place for getting rid of 'excess' produce that is not perfectly packaged and warranted. Of course, all excesses are local maxima, meaning need can be found pretty close to the place of 'excess'.

Farms in Romania has been spared as far as the COVID-19 outbreak went. Agriculture went on -- it suffered from drought, and from the floods, and soon it will be suffering from extreme heat combined with occasional heavy rainfalls, but it was not closed because of the pandemic. The number of COVID-19 deaths were minimal -- did not surpass 20-30 per day (to put this in perspective, the daily death is 800 per day on average due to all other causes combined; so COVID-19 has been negligible to date) -- and now there is a secondary peak in the number of cases. The government is discussing more restrictions instead of the relaxation that was promised with the 1st of July. So far we travel freely and are not locked in. Most stores are opened as are restaurants. They are discussing closing touristic areas since they think most spreading happens there -- it would be another blow to an already struggling industry when countries like Spain and Italy are putting COVID-19 behind and are trying to attract tourists.

The borders opened to most European countries and flights restarted without quarantine. Andy managed to squeeze through after four canceled flights -- once he gave up on a direct flight from the UK and flew through Germany. We debated flying through Serbia and/or Hungary. We, however, were worried about the randomness of the measured that change from day to day and by the lack of regular transportation from the airports. So, he chose to go through Germany, which is the safe/known route. He is now in self-quarantine in Chizatau -- he has 9 days left of almost quiet time.

David was allowed to take his final exam and should start highschool next year. However, the long time spent on the computer and on the phone due to this pandemic affected his ability to function properly. His room looks like that of a drug addict and his behavior is not much better. So, once school finished I took his phone and computer away. I now hope that in time the situation will improve. To be a role model, I also put my computer and my red phone away. We both have cracked phone for calls...and no other means of communications. I cheated today to write this blog post. He keeps reminding me every day he wants a new phone. I pray and hope that in time he will get over this and have actual goals in mind beyond gadgets and toys.