Thursday, 3/12

The NBA season is put on hold.  Schools are shutting down.  People from one part of the world (but not the others) can't come to the US.  Even Tom Hanks (Tom Hanks!) has been affected by it all.

Yesterday was not a good day.

I had actually written a blog about how the Coronavirus could have an effect on our trip to Germany at the end of next month.  And then an hour after I wrote it--one hour--all hell broke loose, and almost every single thing I wrote about (which I'll post below) was rendered moot.  While I really feel for NBA players and fans, for students who can't go to class (but can still live in crowded dorms) and even for Tom Hanks (Tom Hanks!) it's the 30-day travel ban on Europe that hits the closest to home.

In some ways, it just doesn't make sense to me.  Why ban travel from Europe but not for other parts of the world, where the greatest number of people have been infected?  The virus is already here; it's not like keeping people from countries with the infection will keep it out of the U.S.  That's like the whole horse/barn door metaphor, isn't it?

But maybe that's just me.  Maybe, just maybe, because the ban ends 16 days before I'm supposed to go over to Europe, I'm a little touchy about the whole thing.  And why just ban travel from countries in the European Union and exclude the United Kingdom, which has among the highest number of cases on the continent?  If I was a cynic, I'd say it's because the UK just left the European Union and, well, you know...politics?

Of course, maybe the whole thing IS turning me into a cynic.  With all the sensational news coverage and all the social media hype, it would enough to turn even the most sunny, optimistic person into a quivering pile of jello-like cynicism.  And, truth be told, I'm 48 days away from going to Europe.  Does that mean I won't be able to go?  And if I do go, does that mean that if something else like this happens I won't be able to come back home?

Is it any wonder this whole thing is turning me into a cynic?

Okay; I'll stop now.  You didn't come here to read about my first-world problems or my penchant for hyperbole.  I just hope that things calm down over the next few weeks, that students and NBA players and Tom Hanks (!) can get back to normal, and that everyone who's come down with this disease makes it through okay and comes out the other side with their health back to 100%

That's all we can ask for.

(jim@wmqt.com)

                      ******

(here's what I originally wrote for posting today)

Now I'm starting to get just a little nervous.

Yesterday, the government of the German state of Saxony—where Leipzig is located—declared that for the time being gatherings of over 1,000 people should be avoided. Red Bull Arena in Leipzig—where we hope to see a game at the beginning of May—holds 43,000 people.

You do the math.

RB Leipzig has one home game left this month, this Saturday against SC Freiburg, and it was also announced yesterday that the game would be played in front of an empty arena. Thankfully, we still have a month and a half before our game takes place, and hopefully, all restrictions will be lifted by then, but the way this whole Coronavirus panic is spreading around the world, you never know.

So like I said, I'm nervous, but I'm still optimistic that things will go off without a hitch.

But what if we get to May 2^nd or 3^rd and they're still playing games with no spectators? Loraine and I have had several people ask us that question, and I don't know that we yet have a ready answer. We can still go to Leipzig and just not watch the game; after all, it's an amazing place to visit, and we could always watch the game with a bunch of drunk Germans in a sports bar.

That would be a unique experience.

However, there's always the slight possibility that the German government—usually ultra-cautious about these things—does something like shut down the airports or train system, or advises people to stay inside and not go out in public. If that were the case, we couldn't get into the country or, if we could, then couldn't do anything once we were there. That would entirely defeat the purpose of us spending all that money and me having spend the past four months working ahead so that we could go. If that were the case, that would really, REALLY suck.

And if that were the case, I don't think we have any idea of what we might do.

Like I said, though, I'm nervously optimistic that things will go off without a hitch. We're still six and a half weeks out from leaving, and some experts say that the (now) pandemic should run its course by then. Who knows; maybe everything shutting down now is a good thing. Maybe it means that by the time we're ready to go things will be back to normal.

That's what I'm hoping for. If you feel like keeping your fingers crossed for us, as well, go ahead. I'm guessing that by this point it wouldn't hurt.

(jim@wmqt.com)