Shelter In Place

The DSSF Board of Directors recommends that all club members follow the directions of the Governor’s office to “shelter in place” until April 7th. We are therefore cancelling club rides and events until that time.

There won’t be any club rides for at least the next three weeks and probably longer. In the overall scheme of things it’s not a big deal. Life, death, and serious illness and disability are.

Strange coincidence? Today the SF AIDS Foundation announced that AIDS LifeCycle for this year has been cancelled because of the coronavirus. In 1982 the club formed and it was about that time AIDS first appeared in the community. I had the sad and unreal experience—as did many members at the time—of seeing friends, loved ones, and acquaintences very rapidly get sick and die. First it was only one or two but later on it became a dismal commonplace. In the club before they died they often disappeared from riding regularly. We’d find out they were sick, or rather, rumors went out that they were ‘sick’. We’d just stop seeing them on club rides and then the word got out they had died. That was an ugly experience that scarred me and I’m sure others, a real coming of age. If you haven’t had an experience like that, then the prospect of a multitude of deaths due to COVID-19 is likely just an abstraction. We’re not there yet. But we probably will be even with the measures taken so far.

So yeah, the shelter-in-place is a PITA. But the shattering grief at losing a friend to a stupid disease is even more of a PITA.

Keep washing your hands often and maintain your distance for a while so you don’t get infected. Infected but asymptomatic people are apparently the primary vector for spreading this disease. (“What’s the fuss about? I feel fine!”) You’re perhaps not just saving your own life but the lives of others some of whom you know and cherish and some whom you may never meet.