Bare Hands Research Articles

Preventing Infection of Patients and Healthcare Workers Should Be the New Normal in the Era of Novel Coronavirus Epidemics: Reply

We read the letter from our colleagues in Spain with tears in our eyes.1 When we submitted our editorial2 to Anesthesiology on February 29, 2020, there was much that was not known about this virus. We were uncertain about how dire the shortage of personal protective equipment would be, although we believed there would be a shortage.We now know that airborne spread is likely during aerosol-generating procedures, and that the shortage of personal protective equipment has been a major problem around the world. Ironically, the equipment we need the most to protect patients and ourselves, ordinary surgical masks, respirator masks (such as N95), eye protection, and hand gel, are very inexpensive to produce, but the world’s capacity to manufacture these materials in a short time is limited, and overly centralized.U.S. healthcare workers have also needed to adapt to shortages of personal protective equipment. Inequalities, at both the facility and individual levels, are impacting disease and outcomes. Facilities with lower resources, such as nursing homes, are having to deal with lack of supplies, lack of staff, and a population of residents at risk for severe disease and higher mortality. American acute-care hospitals are also experiencing these shortages, forcing us to find innovative ways of developing personal protective equipment, such as manufacturing three-dimensional printed respirators and eye protective equipment. Small businesses and individuals are stepping up to help by repurposing their factories to make masks or by sewing masks in their homes.All of us must honor our heroic colleagues in Spain and other severely affected places by making sure that we do not rest until we have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for all healthcare providers. In our opinion, personal protective equipment should be manufactured and stored throughout the world, not simply in a few geographic locations. This would ensure that during times of utmost need, there is a robust reserve and a manufacturing supply chain that does not rely on a single country or even a few countries. This week, the state of California announced that it would spend a billion dollars buying a massive supply of masks and that it would serve as a distribution center for other western states of the United States. This is a good start, but much more needs to be done.We must not rest until we are sure that in the future we will not have to fight with our bare hands. Mucha fuerza colegas!Dr. Munoz-Price has an investigator-initiated grant from Cepheid (Sunnyvale, California). Dr. Bowdle declares no competing interests.

Food safety risk during the pandemic

Food safety risk during the pandemic

Multimodal Smart Wheelchair Integrated with Safety Alert System

Elderly and people with disabilities often rely on others for their locomotion. With this emerging world of automation and technologically advanced society we live in a smart wheelchair with appropriate automation can be a life changing innovation for them. One might wonder what is the need for a wheelchair to be smart or for that matter why anything needs to be smart. The answer is simple, to overcome the limitations of the existing technology. We aim on integrating a simple Manually operated wheelchair with features like Obstacle Detection with appropriate technologies such as voice control or gesture control for people who are not able to locomote like a normal person can. With this project, not only do we help a person using a normal wheelchair more easily but also make life easier for those who have other disabilities which are standing as an obstacle making it difficult for them to walk. For instance, a blind person can use a smart wheelchair that allows voicecontrolled movement or even gesture-controlled movement. Another might be of a person who can’t speak, will now be able to control everything with his bare hands. Wheelchair coupled with the appropriate sensors that automatically detects the obstacles/objects in the proximity and takes appropriate action consequently and In addition to that it may also be controlled by another person taking care of the disabled by giving commands such as forward, backward, upright etc. This not only reduces the user's efforts but also helps people to take care of their elderly. Voice/gesture control system makes everything simple. Just visualize the application of it in a hospital where the nurse has to manually handle the patient's wheelchair for even the slightest of movement. This system on the other hand needs only text or voice input command, and based upon the predefined command received from the user, the system will execute the task. This project even enforces a GSM module which uses the sim card, which can help in tracking the wheelchair when required, like in case where a user is in difficulty and needs emergency help, a message asking for help can be sent to the intended person.

Exposure of Live-Line Workers to Magnetic Fields: A Dosimetric Analysis.

In this paper the authors present the results of a dosimetric analysis related to the exposure of live-line workers to the magnetic fields generated by high voltage overhead lines and substations. The study extends the work published by Dawson et al. in 2002, considering more evolved anatomical models nowadays available, the new reference limits given by the 2013/35/EU Directive, and a new methodology, based on the intercomparison of two alternative solvers and the use of data filtering. Moreover, additional exposure scenarios are here considered with respect to the studies already available in literature. The results show that for the exposure scenario of high voltage live line works with bare hand method, in any analyzed position, the exposure limits for the tissues of the central nervous system, as well as for all other tissues, are never exceeded, despite in some cases the action levels are exceeded. For the exposure of workers in substations near 220 kV and 380 kV line trap coils exposure is compliant with the regulatory limits if the current flowing through the line trap does not exceed the value of 1000 A. Finally, for the exposure of workers in substations near cable connections, electric field values induced in the body are always lower than regulatory limits with a phase current value equal to 1600 A r.m.s.

Comparative Study of Mechanical and Manual Compression in the Resuscitation of Patients with Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest

Objective: To analyze the effect of mechanical and manual compression on the resuscitation effect of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. Methods: The 40 trained medical personnel who are skilled in bare hand compression and cardiopulmonary resuscitation machines were divided into two groups with 20 people in each group. The control group consists of a bare hand compression group while the observation group consists of cardiopulmonary resuscitation group. The two groups of people performed heart compression on the simulated person and observe the effect of the two compression methods on the patient during the cardiac arrest operation. Results: The resuscitation success rate in the control group was 65%, the resuscitation success rate in the observation group was 90%. The systolic blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, the accuracy rate of compression depth frequency, and interruption time in the observation group (cardiac resuscitation compression group) were significantly better than the control group (bare hand compression group). Conclusion: The use of mechanical compression has a small error rate, a high success rate, saves time and effort, and can effectively help patients. It is worth promoting and applying.

A system for the deterministic transfer of 2D materials under inert environmental conditions

The isolation of air-sensitive two-dimensional (2D) materials and the race to achieve a better control of the interfaces in van der Waals heterostructures has pushed the scientific community towards the development of experimental setups that allow to exfoliate and transfer 2D materials under inert atmospheric conditions. These systems are typically based on over pressurized N2 of Ar gloveboxes that require the use of very thick gloves to operate within the chamber or the implementation of several motorized micro-manipulators. Here, we set up a deterministic transfer system for 2D materials within a gloveless anaerobic chamber. Unlike other setups based on over-pressurized gloveboxes, in our system the operator can manipulate the 2D materials within the chamber with bare hands. This experimental setup allows us to exfoliate 2D materials and to deterministically place them at a desired location with accuracy in a controlled O2-free and very low humidity (<2% RH) atmosphere. We illustrate the potential of this system to work with air-sensitive 2D materials by comparing the stability of black phosphorus and perovskite flakes inside and outside the anaerobic chamber.

Seroprevalensi Hepatitis B pada Pemulung Sampah di Kota Palangka Raya

Hepatitis B is a hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection which can exacerbate the liver and cause acute and chronic disease. The most susceptible group to hepatitis B transmission is waste pickers. This study aimed to determine: (1) the level of Hepatitis B virus infection among waste pickers in several temporary waste shelters in Palangka Raya, and (2) risk factors for hepatitis B virus infection in waste pickers in several temporary waste shelters in Palangka Raya. The observational analytic study using a cross-sectional study design was used in this research. The purposive sampling technique was carried out to involve 32 waste pickers in Palangka Raya. Examination of hepatitis B screening through HBsAg test to waste scavenger blood samples using the Rapid Test method. The results showed that the rate of hepatitis B infection based on positive HBsAg examination was 3.1% of respondents. Risk factors for transmission or exposure to hepatitis B that are directly related to the activity of garbage scavengers are not using protective equipment (PPE) gloves and bare hands waste collection, respectively 3.6% and 6.7%

Intuitive Virtual Objects Manipulation in Augmented Reality: Interaction between User’s Hand and Virtual Objects

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technological advancement which brings to reality the intuitive interaction that a user is attracted to virtual objects. In this paper, we focus on intuitive manipulation of virtual objects with bare hands. Specifically, we propose a method to deform, move, and join virtual objects by intuitive gestures, and aim at intuitive interactions with virtual objects. In order to manipulate virtual objects with bare hands, the position coordinates of the user’s fingers are acquired using the Leap Motion Controller. Additionally, we use Bullet Physics as an engine to represent virtual objects. On the other hand, in AR technology, since the three-dimensional (3D) model is superimposed on the image of the real space afterward, it is always displayed on the front end rather than the user’s hand (occlusion problem). Thus, the user cannot perform an intuitive manipulation. We solve the occlusion problem by performing appropriate hidden surface removal. From the results of a study using data gathered from a questionnaire survey, we found support for the intuitive interaction between the user and virtual objects.

Halo-pelvic traction combined with stageⅡsurgical correction for the treatment of severe and rigid scoliosis

To investigate the clinical effects of the Halo-pelvic traction combined with posterior instrumentation correction and internal fixation for the treatment of severe and rigid scoliosis. From January 2015 to 2019 May, 16 patients with severe and rigid scoliosis were treated by the Halo-pelvic traction combined with posterior instrumentation correction. There were 7 males and 9 females, aged 14 to 28 years with an average of 17.6 years, Cobb angle was 90° to 140° with an average of (108.84±17.93) °. Including congenital scoliosis in 10 cases (6 cases of dyssegmented scoliosis, 3 cases of dysplasia, 1 case of mixed scoliosis), idiopathic scoliosis in 4 cases and neurofibromatosis in 2 cases. All patients in group had scoliosis corrected by Halo-pelvic distraction combined with posterior instrumentation correction and internal fixation. Among them, 7 cases were treated with self-made guide device for iliac bone puncture, and the other cases with traditional bare hands. The height, scoliosis Cobb angle, kyphosis Cobb angle and correction rate of 16 patients before and after surgery were observed. The body height was corrected from (144.88±6.32) cm to (154.56±7.87) cm ; Cobb angle of scoliosis was corrected from (108.84±17.93) ° to (42.12±7.29) °, Cobb angle of kyphosis was corrected from (64.18±16.39) ° to (33.81±6.06) °. After the Halo pelvic traction, the body height increase, Cobb angle of scoliosis and kyphosis were changed with the mean of (7.06± 5.65) cm, (41.50±9.09)%, (30.52±9.66)%, respectively. After the stage Ⅱ surgical correction, the body height increase, Cobb angle of scoliosis and kyphosis were changed with the mean of (2.63±1.78) cm, (32.47±10.80)%, (15.55±9.47)% (The baseline Cobb angle referenced by the correction rate was the Cobb angle of the previous treatment). The body height increase and correction rate of Cobb angle of scoliosis and kyphosis with staged traction combined with surgery was (9.69±5.42) cm, (61.09 ± 5.03)%, (46.07±8.60)%. There was significant difference in body height increase, correction rate of Cobb angle of scoliosis and kyphosis between before and after each period of treatment (P<0.05). Treatment of severe and rigid scoliosis with Halo-pelvic traction combined with stage Ⅱ surgical correction can significantly correct deformities and improve appearance, and has fewer surgical complications and strong clinical operability.

Peg-on-hole: mathematical investigation of motion of a peg and of forces of its interaction with a vertically fixed hole during their alignment with a three-point contact

The task of the peg-in-hole assembly is a very common task in industry. Despite its intuitive comprehensibility and everyday experience, the industrial assembly faces specific problems. The naive approach of inserting with bare hands an industrial peg inside into an industrial hole can very certainly bring to the jamming and damaging because of a very small gap between them. Therefore, the initial alignment of the details before insertion, so-called peg-on-hole phase, or simply peg-on-hole, is of the special importance in industry to avoid jamming. This paper develops the description and analysis of this phase based on the methods of analytical mechanics. As a common approach, the details in this study are considered as cylindrical, and such that peg is supported at the edge of vertically fixed hole, and could freely move keeping a three-point contact with three degrees of freedom, namely (i) nutation angle or align describing planar motion of aligning parts, (ii) precession angle or slide describing rotational motion around hole axis, and (iii) self-rotation angle or slip describing rotational motion about its axis. The analytical approach implies the system of Lagrange Equations for this particular case of motion, which is called Dynamic Differential Equations (DDE). DDE describes interconnections between motion in three degrees of freedom on one side, reaction forces on another side, and the external forces and torques on the third side. DDE includes geometrical properties of the details, and full descriptions of velocities, normal reactions, and friction forces at the contact points. It is the most general description of the peg-on-hole case. As the example of application, the normal reactions were found for relative large alignment angles far from reduction into a two-point contact, and for a small alignment angles, when system transits to the two-point contact. It was shown that for both cases, reaction forces become larger during alignment because they have to balance the force of gravity. For the larger angles, slip reduces the reaction forces, whereas for small alignment angles, slip and slide increases them.

Selective Ion Sweeping on Prussian Blue Analogue Nanoparticles and Activated Carbon for Electrochemical Kinetic Energy Harvesting.

Kinetic energy is an ideal energy source for powering wearable devices or internet of things (IoTs) because of its abundant availability. Currently, most kinetic energy harvesting systems are based on friction or deformation, which require high-frequency motion or high material durability for sustainable energy harvesting. Here, we introduce selective ion sweeping in a hybrid cell consisting of an ion-adsorbing activated carbon and an ion-hosting Prussian blue analogue nanoparticle for electrochemical kinetic energy harvesting. The flow of electrolyte induced by kinetic motion of the cell causes ion sweeping only on the surface of the supercapacitor and induces current flow between the supercapacitor and the battery electrode. This method exhibits 24.9 μW cm-2 as maximum power of system with 34 Ω load in half-cell test, which is several thousand times smaller than the load used in conventional methods. In a long-term test with full cell, this method supplies a continuous current flow ∼6 μA cm-2 at the flow of 40 mL min-1 for 500 cycles without performance decay. The prototype of the hybrid cell demonstrated kinetic energy harvesting from bare hand press with the various flow speeds from 0.41 to 1.39 cm s-1 as well as walking, running, and door closing, which are representative examples of low-frequency kinetic motions in daily life. We believe that the simple structure of the hybrid cell will enable power supply to various applications from miniaturized systems (e.g., IoTs and wearables) to large-scale systems (e.g., ocean wave energy harvesting).

Hidden Surface Removal in Augmented Reality: Hand Region Extraction using PCA

Recently, augmented Reality (AR) is growing rapidly and much attention has been focused on interaction techniques between users and virtual objects, such as the user directly manipulating virtual objects with his/her bare hands. Therefore, the authors believe that more accurate overlay techniques will be required to interact more seamlessly. On the other hand, in AR technology, since the 3-dimensional (3D) model is superimposed on the image of the real space afterwards, it is always displayed on the front side than the hand. Thus, it becomes an unnatural scene in some cases (occlusion problem). In this study, this system considers the object-context relations between the user's hand and the virtual object by acquiring depth information of the user's finger using a depth sensor. In addition, the system defines the color range of the user's hand by performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the color information near the finger position obtained from the depth sensor and setting a threshold. Then, this system extracts an area of the hand by using the definition of the color range of the user's hand. Furthermore, the fingers are distinguished by using the Canny method. In this way, this system realizes hidden surface removal along the area of the user's hand. In the evaluation experiment, it is confirmed that the hidden surface removal in this study make it possible to distinguish between finger boundaries and to clarify and process finger contours.

Handling and Hygiene Practices of Food Vendors in Rivers State University and Its Environment

The study assessed handling hygiene practices of food vendors in Rivers State University and its environment. A survey research design was adopted for the study while the population consisted of food vendors who prepare and sell ready-to-eat foods in the study area. Snowball sampling technique was used for the study and a total of thirty food vendors constituted the sample size for the study. A self-assessment form was used for data collection and data analyzed with frequency, percentages and Pearson’s correlation. The result showed that majority of the food vendors had no access to portable water and the operating environment untidy. Most (60%) of the food vendors appeared clean and 70% of them use personal protective clothing while 70% and 97% of them handled foods and money with bare hands while serving food. Storage of cooked food was properly kept in covered containers by 70% of the vendors while 60% of the vendors did not separate raw and cooked foods. Seventy seven (77) percent of vendors did not keep cold foods in refrigerators or ice boxes as to maintain the temperature of the food. Only 40% of the food vendors covered unused utensils while 57% of them did not clean utensils properly after use. The study found out that all the food vendors washed utensils with cold soapy water and 90% of the vendors re-used water for washing utensils.

Pre- and Post-Harvest Practices of Urban Leafy Green Vegetable Farmers in Accra, Ghana and Their Association with Microbial Quality of Vegetables Produced

Vegetable farming is the most practiced urban agriculture in Ghana. A previous study of our laboratory revealed poor microbial quality of, and presence of Salmonella on, leafy green vegetables grown or sold in Accra, Ghana. The aims of this study were to determine agricultural practices of urban vegetable farmers and the association between agricultural practices and microbial safety of vegetables produced. A survey was conducted among 102 farmers from 12 farming areas who produced exotic and indigenous leafy greens in Accra, Ghana to identify their farming practices. It was observed that water from waste drains pumped into shallow wells was used for irrigation by 70% of the farmers. Incompletely composted manure was commonly used (99%) in farming. Vegetables were usually harvested using bare hands (96%) and knives (73%) and transported mainly in sacks (94%) to market centers under non-refrigerated conditions. Over 60% of the farmers disagreed that the use of polluted irrigation water can contaminate vegetables or make consumers sick. According to the seemingly unrelated regression model, farmers with no formal education and less food safety knowledge and had been planting on their current farmlands for several years were likely to produced vegetables with higher fecal coliform and Enterococcus sp. counts compared to other farmers. Vegetables cultivated by farmers who disagreed that the use of contaminated water can make consumers sick were associated with the production of vegetables with high fecal coliform and Enterococcus sp. counts. Education and improved agricultural and post-harvest handling practices should be encouraged among vegetable producers in the area to improve food safety.

Hidden Surface Removal for Interactions between User's Bare Hands and Virtual Objects in Augmented Reality

Hidden Surface Removal for Interactions between User's Bare Hands and Virtual Objects in Augmented Reality

Examination of Physical Burden Experienced by Nurses During Senuki : Comparison of Muscle Activity and Feeling of Subjective Physical Burden Using Bare Hands or Glove

Examination of Physical Burden Experienced by Nurses During <i>Senuki</i> : Comparison of Muscle Activity and Feeling of Subjective Physical Burden Using Bare Hands or Glove

Pojangmacha People

Pojangmacha People Jung Hae Chae I am thinking of the sad old men I knew. The salt on their drunken foreheads, a sorrow. Of souls stained deep with glutamine and guilt. O, the beauty of MSG. I'm thinking of comfort, the kind rising out of the bodies of blood soups and strangers. Of longing. Inside the tiny drinking tent, the haloed bodies of haejang-guk, the mother of all soups, the soup that chased away tremors and trauma and money troubles and time and time and more time, that soup. The bodies. The into-the-wee-hour-drinking bodies, the sitting-with-bottomstouching-is-just-fine bodies, the bodies sweating out their failing livers, those bodies. Tired and failed as they were, huddled together inside this tiny domed cathedral were their tiny lives, powered by a tiny light, the 1970s-oppressive-cum-underground-guerrilla light, powering the dim city and its people and their small dreams, past the curfew. O, how holy was this light and this coterie, the men lurching headlong into this bloodbath of comfort, the guk chasing away their daily hangovers and bad deeds, only to pass on their karmic debt to their only sons, pass down the bloody mess of their lives. How its biliary notes and fraternal bodies bosomed, not mocked, their chronic bad lives and livers. My father. I'm thinking of him, but not him. Of souls cursed and caressed inside the pojangmachas inside a village. No, not a village but a nation full of sad, sad, old men, with their jaundiced faces riddled with the pock marks of postwar trauma, with their deadly breaths, who lowered their sorry heads into guk after guk, who fawned over their women and children, even as they beat them senseless. The women. I'm thinking of my dead grandmother and my mother, their mothers' mothers, the women gathered at the hair salon next to my grandmother's house, the one with the outhouse. The outhouse. I'm thinking of a childhood lost to dreams, of dreams lost, then found scribbled on the walls of an outhouse, a shit hole brimming with no-good fathers and husbands and lovers, and later of sons. And the women who made them. [End Page 208] 1 When he drank, only when he drank, my father smeared the brown goo with his bare hands all over the wall next to his bed, the smell so terrible it'd wake everybody up, the women. It was a house full of women without husbands or fathers or keepers. The boorish drunk, the women must have thought, who defied even the worst of their imagination about the war they and their mother have had to endure and the bad men made worse by the war. Torn up by years of drinking, his weak constitution would make him go on the bed prepared specially for him by my grandmother. When he drank, and only when he drank, my father broke through a kind of barricade that he'd self-imposed between himself and the world that had become wholly unpredictable; he was enabled, albeit temporarily, to become just a little more authentically terrible than his usual, more guarded, terrible self. My father and his father and his father's father all died from an alcohol-induced liver failure in their mid-fifties. While my father was alive, I saw him all of five or six times, and though I couldn't tell whether he was, in fact, intoxicated each time I saw him, he might as well have been, since he was a most sullen human to be around. He cracked a smile not once. His face, a brown jaundiced earth with its deep grooves and cracked furrows, a once-rich gorge now gone dry, would not have tolerated one. He was unpleasant and awkward around people. More precisely, he was reliably capable of inducing the kind of discomfort felt deep in the bellies of people when confronted, say, with a foul-smelling wounded animal in a cage corner, inspiring, at once, empathy and terror. They want to help and free the hurt animal but aren't sure whether he is safe to approach...

A Fundamental Study on Hidden Surface Removal for Interactions between User’s Bare Hands and Virtual Objects in Augmented Reality

A Fundamental Study on Hidden Surface Removal for Interactions between User’s Bare Hands and Virtual Objects in Augmented Reality

The River, and: Elegies of Gathering, and: Self-Portrait as Fly Fisherman, and: Devil's Walking Stick

The River, and: Elegies of Gathering, and: Self-Portrait as Fly Fisherman, and: Devil's Walking Stick Benjamin Cutler (bio) THE RIVER Mother had chosen two names, but when she heardthe thirst in my first cry, she touched her lips to mineand whispered a third in the language of water. She knew by then that a name sinks into a bodyand becomes a shady bower, a flowering grove, or a massgrave—and she thought to let me choose. But the choice does not matter; the same wide river runs through them all,and though I have given it every name I know, it refusesto be anything other than river: river of gray; river of green;river of gold; river of every season's turn; river where the silent,silver heron glides over the white bends and every long day; river where the voiceless, copper trout, who have no namefor themselves, never mistake a fallen petal or fall leaffor a fly; river where the mayflies rise from their hatch like glittering, unspoken prayer; river of rest. Come, sitwith me on every bank; we will fill our naked, nameless thirst.This river is as cool as a new day's morning and never still— it will lose nothing to our cupped palms and ardent, ready lips. [End Page 75] ELEGIES OF GATHERING IWhen I first heard the father, I mistookhis lamentation for laughter. How could I—a boy who had lost nothing, not even his way—know anything of how a heart can crackagainst the belly, spill from the mouth, and thickenthe air? I should tell you they sat in the kitchenand how the mother took my hand—her workhardenedthumbs against my un-calloused knuckles—and wet my wrist with her tear-softened cheek.Don't ever be so stupid, so stupid, don't ever be, she said,and because I could not stand the sight of griefmingled with promise, I looked away into the basketheldsilence of her fresh brown eggs—gathered by herson the morning before we gathered to mourn him. IIThese counted years later, I—a man who has not losteverything—can think only of the chickens, our threehens lost in the dusk of last summer's storm;of how the drenched dark kept them from the roost'sdry refuge; of how they did not return in the dawn'sclean light, the light of a rainless day; and of how we bakedthe last of their laying into a cake as sweet as forgivenessand ate it warm with our bare and blameless hands. [End Page 76] IIIDid I tell you there were eggs in the kitchen where grieffilled the air like laughter? Did I tell you how griefand laughter both begin in the belly? Watch with me, love:I see a father and a mother the morning aftera night of rain. She takes three eggs—no, two—in her practiced hands, cracks and whips them wellinto a buttered pan. He fries, salts, and serves—a shared meal from a shared plate. Did I tell you, love—yes, I must have—how a belly promises only to emptyand always knows what it needs? Can you see them, love?Yes, you must now. They cry (or laugh) as they sharewhat steams between them. He washes, she dries, they walkoutside—walk together to gather the new day'seggs in the early morning fog, enough light to see the lovewornway through bowing grass, enough to reach into a nestand feel what is round, warm, and not yet broken. [End Page 77] SELF–PORTRAIT AS FLY FISHERMAN He stands still and the creek does not—a waist-deep shortcut to nowhere. An arm, bareto the elbow, nudges the morning fog. A thread of watershinetongues the air. The impossible reach, his expectant watch.O to hold in your careful grip this perilous truth and finesseits length into a grace: longing is a long line stretchedand taut in the current—hidden, wet and waiting. The tugof a phantom...

Spring Training at the End of the World

Spring Training at the End of the World Richard Black (bio) Baseball is the only sport I know that begins each year at its peak and goes downhill from there. —Furman Bisher, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1981 The mother on the airport shuttle was wearing a tank top. I first noticed the tattoo on her shoulder as we waited curbside in a brisk, north wind for the Parking Spot van to arrive. The sky was spring-gray, and her brood surrounded her. One daughter in particular caught my eye. She was wearing sunglasses and what seemed like a long, blue fleecy robe. In her hands was a toy ukulele. When we boarded the bus I studied the family in some detail. The dad was military, I judged, by his tattoos and close crop and the way in which he seemed to hold their five children in check purely through his presence. There was one young boy, around eleven, the eldest child, and four girls. My eye kept returning to the youngest, clad in that comfy oversized blue fleece sweatshirt that looked like a robe on her small frame. Her sunglasses. That ukulele. "Will we see Natasha tomorrow?" she asked her mother. "No sweetie. And school is cancelled for a little while. And we may not see Nana for a few weeks either," her mother replied. "Because Nana could get sick?" another daughter asked. Her mother nodded. "See. Even if you get it you'll be okay, because you're young and strong. But Nana doesn't have the immune system you have. That's why we can't see her for a little bit." I was impressed by the way the kids seemed to take this news in such easy stride, like if they'd first learned how to skip, and also by the way their mother was able to communicate so clearly and yet honestly with them. I looked out the bus window. It was going to snow. About a decade ago I attended an academic conference in Albuquerque at the end of February. It was in the seventies and sunny all weekend. I had only packed a light fleece for the desert nights. My car had eight inches of snow on [End Page 59] it when I arrived back home to Kansas City on Saturday evening. The jacket I'd packed was no match for the raw northern wind, and my bare hands chapped and cracked in the cold as I had to brush the wet, heavy snow off my car and scrape the windshield. I thought of that trip when I saw the mother in her tank top and her daughter in the fleece robe and sunglasses, desperately clutching her ukulele like some totem of a sun-god they'd just abandoned. I knew from experience what it was like to return to a cold gray home after a stint in a sunny paradise. I knew it this day, as well, for I had to retrieve and don my Braves hoodie when I exited the plane and entered the chilly KCI terminal. The red and yellow of the script "A" logo-within-a-logo on my cap seemed incredibly muted in the dim slant of afternoon light after days of illumination in the spring training grandstands. I felt as if launched from sun-ripe Florida onto the gray and barren surface of the moon, stepping foot off of one planet and into an entirely different atmosphere, for this was the week that COVID-19 caused the sky to fall. ________ Daylight Savings Time began at 2 a.m. on March 8, 2020. This would mean a lost hour of sleep for an already-early drive from the northwest corner of Missouri to Kansas City International Airport to catch a 10 a.m. flight to Sarasota-Bradenton. My dad and I were going to spring training with the Atlanta Braves. We wouldn't be alone, though. We were joining the inaugural Road Scholar program entitled "Atlanta Braves Spring Training in Sarasota County." I was somewhat familiar with the Road Scholar outfit: my former colleague Jeff, a Tennessee Williams scholar, had recently completed a tour called "Ohio: Cradle of Presidents...