“Life is delicate, fragile, and short. There’s so much to learn and so much we’ll never know. Embrace the insanity.”
—Nitesh Ambuj
It was a beautiful brisk sunny morning for what turned out to be an over 20-mile bike ride. From where my friend and neighbor Bill Rothenberg and I live in Los Gatos, CA, one could see the snow-capped mountains overlooking the City of San Jose which was our destination. We took the scenic route: The Los Gatos Trails. There were more people walking their dogs, running, and biking like us, than usual. Given the surreal COVID-19 world we are living in, we knew that there would be little traffic. In actuality, the downtown area was like a ghost town. Most everything was closed or empty, even in San Pedro Square, San Jose Museum of Art, and the like. The only place open for lunch was in a seedy area and though we were hungry we resisted the temptation to order and eat on the outside empty patio and instead made do with a packaged Kind breakfast bar.
As long as you are not sick, taking a walk, going for a hike, running and biking appear to be on the safe-to-do-list of Karen Glanz, an epidemiology and nursing professor at the University of Pennsylvania and various County Public Health Departments around the country as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. The caveat is as long as you avoid groups, and practice social distancing (six feet from each other) which helps to limit the spread of the virus. Getting outside as much as possible and engaging in regular physical activity along with getting enough sleep, keeping up with proper nutrition in times of stress are essential, basic, healthy practices that affect our wellbeing every day, the experts tell us.
As we were making our way home Bill and I came to “Woz Way,” named after the co-founder of Apple Computer. Ironically, Wozniak had recently claimed that he and his wife contracted the coronavirus on a trip to China in early January. He became the butt of a joke, as he claimed on CNN he and his wife were patient zero. She said it was her sinuses. Critics complained it he just wanted to steal some headlines.
As Bill and I crossed over Woz Way, and Park Avenue just before the on-ramp to 87 north, we witnessed a downed biker in the middle of the road. His wife or lady friend was rubbing his back attempting to comfort him. Bill actually saw him spin out of control and crash to the ground. He was breathing but appeared to be in shock. Bill called 911 and within 10 minutes with sirens running the paramedics arrived, placed a neck brace on the injured man and took the couple off to the nearest ER. Like us all, all this couple wanted was a respite from the COVID-19 pandemic news.
