Our city's covid-positive count recently went from 7 cases to over 30 in just one week.
And this week we had our first covid-related death since mid-July.
And 2 people are currently hospitalized for it.
Why does our son mock us for wearing masks every time we go to the store, use sanitizer after we touch things outside the home, and refuse to go where there are crowds? Because like all young adults he feels indestructible, I guess. His attitude towards covid-19 is in line with Jeff Nelson's! This is why I wipe down everything he touches and try not to get within 6 feet of him. Easy enough to do because he works nights and we barely see him, anyway.
But schools open around here in 2 weeks - all the public schools and many colleges may be doing virtual classes but all private schools around here will be in-person, the high schools going full time, so the light rail trains and buses will be filled again. Because restaurants, theaters, etc. are still closed, even in NYC, going in to work at night my son says the trains are still pretty empty, but coming home during the morning rush hour the trains look back to pre-covid level capacity already and will be worse when school starts. Even Mr. Skeptic is now wearing his mask on the trains and scrubs up when he gets in, so deep down he does believe.
Time to lock myself indoors again. I already started to restock my supplies, much like Mary McDougall said she started doing in the interview she did recently with Chef AJ. I've got VitaCost coming today, 2 Amazons early next week on top of the 2 this past week, and I'll soon put in another Harmony House order. At least I now know what items I need and not over-buy like I did in the Spring. I'm still trying to use up those Harmony House soup and chili mixes! My doc says to hold off on getting the flu shot (Yes, with my medical history I DO take them yearly) until October so it'll last all season. If I get it now, even the senior-strength dosage like I did last year, I'd need to get another one around January. Once is enough, thank you very much!
Showing posts with label Covid-19. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Covid-19. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Good News for A Change
Our city just hit the second day with no Covid-19 related deaths!
Since March we did have 2 non-connected days with no deaths. but this is the first time we've gone 2 days in a row.
Since March we did have 2 non-connected days with no deaths. but this is the first time we've gone 2 days in a row.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
What?? Huh?? What's Going On in New York??
This article
NY issues do-not-resuscitate guideline for cardiac patients amid coronavirus
appears on the same page as this one:
Cuomo tells Trump NYC no longer needs USNS Comfort during WH meeting
and people wonder why I go around like Dilbert in today's strip in the previous post?
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Now THIS Is the Kind of Week I Had
With all my bitching and moaning about my sewing machines the past 2 weeks, I laughed uproariously at this video. When my husband saw it, he said that she was having a better day than I did this past Thursday!
Friday, April 17, 2020
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Hope My Hands Hold Out
A few years ago I had to stop making stuff using my sewing machines because hunching over hurt my already arthritic neck. The few things I had to sew I tried make do with a needle and thread and did it by hand. Then I got those stiff, slightly deformed and swollen fingers from rheumatoid arthritis and barely did any sewing at all. Fabric glue and double sided tape became my friends for mending jobs.
But now, I feel a real need to get sewing again. The first things I'm going to make are a few masks using this video for inspiration:
I've seen dozens of mask-making videos the past few days but this one is not only the easiest one but safest because of that pocket for inserting a filter. As many have suggested in the replies, I'll be sewing in a strip of wire at the top before folding up and sewing the pockets so the mask can be shaped to block out more air. I know I have various wires in this house - my son's an engineer and used a lot of it during some of his college courses, especially while getting his MS in electrical engineering. Some also suggested using those twist ties from bread or produce bags but I think they would be a bit too flimsy and break easily, especially if these masks get washed as often as they should be.
But first, I have to find my machines.
Oh, geographically, I know exactly where they are in the living room. But you know how people joke around about their treadmills are used more as clothing racks than for exercise? Well, my sewing machine table has been the dropping point for "stuff" ever since I covered up the machines a few years ago to keep them (Yes, more than one) dust-free. Computer components, extra keyboards, magazines waiting to be gone through and recycled, and I may have even seen a bag or 2 of beans on it, for some reason. Underneath the table it's even worse, with Nintendo Wii boxes, unused fans awaiting warm weather again, is that a grocery bag filled with my son's pasta sauce I see? I know he grabbed a few extra jars when we first started stocking up and I told him to find a place to store them out of the way, but why under my sewing table?? The chair I used to use has been shoved into a corner and is now holding boxes of books, a bag full of cables, wires, and extension cords.
So it'll take me a few days to clear that corner of the living room out and find homes for all the stuff on and under it. Where will I put it all? I have no idea - that's why it all ended up there in the first place. If I chip away at it a few minutes here, a few minutes there, in the times my husband is taking a break from his work on his computer on the other side of the room, I might be able to get to see the machines by the end of next week. Over the weekend I'll have my guys help find homes for all the crap under the table. The chair may be a lost cause (Every horizontal surface in this apartment that doesn't move has a pile of books on it) so I can just wheel in my computer chair when I'm ready to sew.
Luckily, I have a lot of usable fabric from my quilt making days within reach and not all of it stuffed into storage. It'll be easy to find a few novelty prints in a woven cotton calico to make these masks. I have a whole plastic shoebox filled with various elastics, including elastic cording, so that's covered. I have to find where I put my sewing machine thread stash. I didn't see it in the space I used to keep it so it must have gotten moved, but where??
And after all of that is done, keep your collective fingers crossed that I can actually do it - the cutting out and the sewing of these masks. My fingers hurt just using scissors to open bags of frozen veggies, and on a bad pain day, especially when my knuckles are swollen, I can't even do that. My fabric scissors - expensive when I bought them over 30 years ago - are really heavy. That makes it easier to cut through tough fabrics like jeans-weight denim and such, but using them is tiring and usually painful, even before my RA diagnosis. Decades ago I bought a pair of electric scissors but they couldn't really cut all that well, and holding down the button while cutting was more tiring and painful than just using regular cutting shears, so I got rid of them, donating them to a senior center.
Oh, gosh, I'm rambling again. And now my hands hurt from typing so much.
Stay safe, everyone.
But now, I feel a real need to get sewing again. The first things I'm going to make are a few masks using this video for inspiration:
I've seen dozens of mask-making videos the past few days but this one is not only the easiest one but safest because of that pocket for inserting a filter. As many have suggested in the replies, I'll be sewing in a strip of wire at the top before folding up and sewing the pockets so the mask can be shaped to block out more air. I know I have various wires in this house - my son's an engineer and used a lot of it during some of his college courses, especially while getting his MS in electrical engineering. Some also suggested using those twist ties from bread or produce bags but I think they would be a bit too flimsy and break easily, especially if these masks get washed as often as they should be.
But first, I have to find my machines.
Oh, geographically, I know exactly where they are in the living room. But you know how people joke around about their treadmills are used more as clothing racks than for exercise? Well, my sewing machine table has been the dropping point for "stuff" ever since I covered up the machines a few years ago to keep them (Yes, more than one) dust-free. Computer components, extra keyboards, magazines waiting to be gone through and recycled, and I may have even seen a bag or 2 of beans on it, for some reason. Underneath the table it's even worse, with Nintendo Wii boxes, unused fans awaiting warm weather again, is that a grocery bag filled with my son's pasta sauce I see? I know he grabbed a few extra jars when we first started stocking up and I told him to find a place to store them out of the way, but why under my sewing table?? The chair I used to use has been shoved into a corner and is now holding boxes of books, a bag full of cables, wires, and extension cords.
So it'll take me a few days to clear that corner of the living room out and find homes for all the stuff on and under it. Where will I put it all? I have no idea - that's why it all ended up there in the first place. If I chip away at it a few minutes here, a few minutes there, in the times my husband is taking a break from his work on his computer on the other side of the room, I might be able to get to see the machines by the end of next week. Over the weekend I'll have my guys help find homes for all the crap under the table. The chair may be a lost cause (Every horizontal surface in this apartment that doesn't move has a pile of books on it) so I can just wheel in my computer chair when I'm ready to sew.
Luckily, I have a lot of usable fabric from my quilt making days within reach and not all of it stuffed into storage. It'll be easy to find a few novelty prints in a woven cotton calico to make these masks. I have a whole plastic shoebox filled with various elastics, including elastic cording, so that's covered. I have to find where I put my sewing machine thread stash. I didn't see it in the space I used to keep it so it must have gotten moved, but where??
And after all of that is done, keep your collective fingers crossed that I can actually do it - the cutting out and the sewing of these masks. My fingers hurt just using scissors to open bags of frozen veggies, and on a bad pain day, especially when my knuckles are swollen, I can't even do that. My fabric scissors - expensive when I bought them over 30 years ago - are really heavy. That makes it easier to cut through tough fabrics like jeans-weight denim and such, but using them is tiring and usually painful, even before my RA diagnosis. Decades ago I bought a pair of electric scissors but they couldn't really cut all that well, and holding down the button while cutting was more tiring and painful than just using regular cutting shears, so I got rid of them, donating them to a senior center.
Oh, gosh, I'm rambling again. And now my hands hurt from typing so much.
Stay safe, everyone.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Time to Stop Looking At Covid-19 News, or, NOW Can I Panic??
When in danger or in doubt, Run in circles, scream and shout.
Popularized in Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny (1951), which describes it as an ancient adage.
My husband quotes that line frequently, and the above is taken from a Wikiquote post on panic.
Earlier I was reading on the Takotsubo FaceBook community how we people who have had this cardiomyopathy are having a tougher time with Covid-19, and people who have Covid-19 are experiencing new attacks, reoccurrences, or even getting myocarditis which could lead into Takotsubo. Since Takotsubo is also known as "stress cardiomyopathy", and these are very stressful times for everyone, not just those of us who went through this heart thing already, we’re sitting on pins and needles, waiting, watching , stressing! Will we get the virus? Will the stress of trying not to get it trigger another event? If we do get it, will either one then kill us?
Then there are the posts on the Mixed Connective Tissue Disease and other autoimmune diseases communities, again waiting , watching, and stressing, asking the same questions.
And of course there’s the data they already have on people with respiratory diseases, like my asthma. No guesswork there - just about everyone over 60 who had known respiratory disease and contracted this coronavirus died.
Those of us who have multiple medical challenges are either walking around wringing our hands, getting super hyper, reading and watching everything we can get our hands on, and have hair-trigger nerves, or go in the opposite direction and cower in fear, afraid to even open a window for fear of breathing in virus droplets in the air (Well, it’s also allergy season and another good reason not to open them) or go near even our immediate family who live in the same residence, especially if they’re going out frequently. Stay away! Don’t touch me! Don't come near me!! (Um, honey, we sleep in the same bed, eat in the same tiny kitchen, use the same even tinier bathroom. I can't not get near you.)
After listening to Dr. Lisle talk statistics in the Covid crisis in the first part of this video I’m even more scared. I’m a person over 65 with health issues, especially respiratory disease. If I do get the virus there’s statistically a big chance of my dying from it. (BTW, I never finished watching the whole video. I got too freaked out after the Covid part I just turned it off.)
AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
When in danger or in doubt, Run in circles, scream and shout.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
. . . sigh . . .
The more videos like this I see the more frustrated, sad, and scared I get.
From his Tips for Shopping:
1) Wipe down your cart (not just the handles) - Well, if I had any wipes, I would be able to do this, but stores here haven't had any since March 12.
2) Commit to buying any item you pick up - The stores around here had so few items on the shelves, as a McDougaller I have to read labels of everything first when they don't have what I usually buy. Most items I touched were put right back on the shelf.
3) Don't go to the supermarket if you have any respiratory symptoms or have been exposed - Food shopping is the ONLY thing I've gone out for since I had my 2 doctor's appointments earlier in the month. I could have been exposed then. No doubt everyone in our city has been exposed to *somebody* who has it, especially when supermarkets were elbow to elbow that first week and longer. Heck, my son works at Target and could be exposed every minute he works and then comes home to our apartment, so if exposed to him, does that count?
4) Don't allow your loved ones over the age of 60 to go grocery shopping - Well, I guess we just have to make do with what we have in the house, then, because my under-60 son works all day, would have a hard time carrying groceries home on the train ride home, and by the time he comes home, showers, and gets out of his work clothes the grocery stores are either empty or closed for the day.
5) Buy 2 weeks worth of groceries at one time - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!
Other tips are to leave your groceries outside of your house for a few days before bringing them in. Um, dude, I live in an apartment with no access to the backyard. If I leave my groceries on the front porch, well, remember porch pirates? They steal more than just Amazon packages! There's no place outside my apartment on the landing to put bags of groceries, and every square inch of space inside is taken so there's not even a space to put them aside once they get in. Groceries would go right from the car into the kitchen.
Sanitize your workspace - See #1 (lack of sanitizer) and #5 (lack of space to make into a workspace)
Disposable bags - Sorry, they've been banned in our city and all surrounding cities for months now.
Loose broccoli - I don't trust any fresh produce right now that doesn't come pre-wrapped. Not when you have idiots like that lady who purposely coughed on $35K worth of food (Thankfully she was arrested but not until after the store owner had to throw away all that fresh produce and meat) and teenagers who go around coughing on and even licking food items as a joke/dare. I see his is in a shrink-wrapped bag, so that I would trust. None of our stores sell broccoli like that. Then again, our stores have had no broccoli of any kind for a few weeks, anyway. Same with those oranges and apples (OK, they had some mealy looking apples last week, but ugh).
He took a reusable bag off the floor and put it on his supposedly "clean" surface! Well, it's no longer clean now, is it?!
That fresh baked bread - How many hands touched that bread before he put it in that bag to bring home?
Washing your fruit in dish soap or hand soup? I don't think so! Even the FDA says not do do that, not with dish soap or any soaps or detergents that aren't specifically labeled for use on food.
Take-out food - Sure, go ahead and fling it on a plate and then microwave it. Why not? Who doesn't like sandwiches with the fixings tossed all over the plate and then double-cooked so the bread is now hard and the only healthy stuff on them, the lettuce and tomatoes, are now cooked?
Corona and other viruses can live in the frozen state for up to 2 years? Well, luckily I cook all my frozen veggies, but I never washed those bags before putting them away. And wouldn't do so, anyway, even if I knew about all this when I bought them weeks ago. Take a close look at those frozen veggie bags, especially the steamer bags. Do you see those tiny, almost microscopic, holes in them? Yeah, go ahead and spray Lysol on them and onto your veggies.
You know, Doc, I would be more concerned about the crap foods you're purchasing and eating than worrying about washing my cardboard boxes.
Right now I have a time bomb, um, Amazon package containing 2 bags of Sari nooch, sitting in my apartment on the mat we use to hold our wet shoes and boots. If the virus lives on cardboard for 24 hours, I'll not touch it again until some time tomorrow (It was delivered around 7 last night). Will I wipe down the bags inside the box? Probably not. And the box has to hang around until Tuesday night when recyclables go out for Wednesday pick-up. It'll sit there with the 3 other delivery boxes that came this week from Amazon and Harmony House.
But if following all his cleaning rules is the only guaranteed way of keeping coronavirus out of my apartment, we're doomed.
From his Tips for Shopping:
1) Wipe down your cart (not just the handles) - Well, if I had any wipes, I would be able to do this, but stores here haven't had any since March 12.
2) Commit to buying any item you pick up - The stores around here had so few items on the shelves, as a McDougaller I have to read labels of everything first when they don't have what I usually buy. Most items I touched were put right back on the shelf.
3) Don't go to the supermarket if you have any respiratory symptoms or have been exposed - Food shopping is the ONLY thing I've gone out for since I had my 2 doctor's appointments earlier in the month. I could have been exposed then. No doubt everyone in our city has been exposed to *somebody* who has it, especially when supermarkets were elbow to elbow that first week and longer. Heck, my son works at Target and could be exposed every minute he works and then comes home to our apartment, so if exposed to him, does that count?
4) Don't allow your loved ones over the age of 60 to go grocery shopping - Well, I guess we just have to make do with what we have in the house, then, because my under-60 son works all day, would have a hard time carrying groceries home on the train ride home, and by the time he comes home, showers, and gets out of his work clothes the grocery stores are either empty or closed for the day.
5) Buy 2 weeks worth of groceries at one time - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!
Other tips are to leave your groceries outside of your house for a few days before bringing them in. Um, dude, I live in an apartment with no access to the backyard. If I leave my groceries on the front porch, well, remember porch pirates? They steal more than just Amazon packages! There's no place outside my apartment on the landing to put bags of groceries, and every square inch of space inside is taken so there's not even a space to put them aside once they get in. Groceries would go right from the car into the kitchen.
Sanitize your workspace - See #1 (lack of sanitizer) and #5 (lack of space to make into a workspace)
Disposable bags - Sorry, they've been banned in our city and all surrounding cities for months now.
Loose broccoli - I don't trust any fresh produce right now that doesn't come pre-wrapped. Not when you have idiots like that lady who purposely coughed on $35K worth of food (Thankfully she was arrested but not until after the store owner had to throw away all that fresh produce and meat) and teenagers who go around coughing on and even licking food items as a joke/dare. I see his is in a shrink-wrapped bag, so that I would trust. None of our stores sell broccoli like that. Then again, our stores have had no broccoli of any kind for a few weeks, anyway. Same with those oranges and apples (OK, they had some mealy looking apples last week, but ugh).
He took a reusable bag off the floor and put it on his supposedly "clean" surface! Well, it's no longer clean now, is it?!
That fresh baked bread - How many hands touched that bread before he put it in that bag to bring home?
Washing your fruit in dish soap or hand soup? I don't think so! Even the FDA says not do do that, not with dish soap or any soaps or detergents that aren't specifically labeled for use on food.
Take-out food - Sure, go ahead and fling it on a plate and then microwave it. Why not? Who doesn't like sandwiches with the fixings tossed all over the plate and then double-cooked so the bread is now hard and the only healthy stuff on them, the lettuce and tomatoes, are now cooked?
Corona and other viruses can live in the frozen state for up to 2 years? Well, luckily I cook all my frozen veggies, but I never washed those bags before putting them away. And wouldn't do so, anyway, even if I knew about all this when I bought them weeks ago. Take a close look at those frozen veggie bags, especially the steamer bags. Do you see those tiny, almost microscopic, holes in them? Yeah, go ahead and spray Lysol on them and onto your veggies.
You know, Doc, I would be more concerned about the crap foods you're purchasing and eating than worrying about washing my cardboard boxes.
Right now I have a time bomb, um, Amazon package containing 2 bags of Sari nooch, sitting in my apartment on the mat we use to hold our wet shoes and boots. If the virus lives on cardboard for 24 hours, I'll not touch it again until some time tomorrow (It was delivered around 7 last night). Will I wipe down the bags inside the box? Probably not. And the box has to hang around until Tuesday night when recyclables go out for Wednesday pick-up. It'll sit there with the 3 other delivery boxes that came this week from Amazon and Harmony House.
But if following all his cleaning rules is the only guaranteed way of keeping coronavirus out of my apartment, we're doomed.
Friday, March 27, 2020
COVID-19 Q&A with Dr. Fauci and Stephen Curry
Dr. Fauci is my new hero. I'm so glad he did this straight talk Q&A to get the correct info out there to the people.
My family is one of those on the "scared to death" side of the equation. We live within 5 miles of NYC on one side, less that a quarter mile over a bridge on the other, so many people who live here work there. My son and I both have asthma, my husband and I are classified as cardiac patients, and I have a slew of auto-immune disorders. Oh, and my son is in a job classified as "essential" so he's on the train to Target every morning working with the public for 8 hours each day. While he doesn't cover up or strip down when he gets home as much as Dr. and Mary McDougall do, he still has a routine he goes through, and I follow behind him with the wipe down.
My younger brother lives in the city adjacent to the NJ hotspot, so close he can walk to the hospital that has dozens of Covid-19 patients. His city is also close to NYC, only 7 miles, so close that over half the population works there. He's on drug therapy that makes him immuno-compromised, and his wife is a cardiac patient.
And all of us, except for my son, is over 60, my s-i-l and husband both will hit 70 their next birthdays later this year.
To say we're all shit-scared is putting it mildly. We may not like everything Dr. Fauci had to say because we all live in the areas needing to be most restricted, but we certainly understand why that's happening and lets us see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel.
My family is one of those on the "scared to death" side of the equation. We live within 5 miles of NYC on one side, less that a quarter mile over a bridge on the other, so many people who live here work there. My son and I both have asthma, my husband and I are classified as cardiac patients, and I have a slew of auto-immune disorders. Oh, and my son is in a job classified as "essential" so he's on the train to Target every morning working with the public for 8 hours each day. While he doesn't cover up or strip down when he gets home as much as Dr. and Mary McDougall do, he still has a routine he goes through, and I follow behind him with the wipe down.
My younger brother lives in the city adjacent to the NJ hotspot, so close he can walk to the hospital that has dozens of Covid-19 patients. His city is also close to NYC, only 7 miles, so close that over half the population works there. He's on drug therapy that makes him immuno-compromised, and his wife is a cardiac patient.
And all of us, except for my son, is over 60, my s-i-l and husband both will hit 70 their next birthdays later this year.
To say we're all shit-scared is putting it mildly. We may not like everything Dr. Fauci had to say because we all live in the areas needing to be most restricted, but we certainly understand why that's happening and lets us see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Plant Strong Podcast - Corona Virus
Last week Rip spoke with his brother in law (Jane's husband) Brian Hart in a podcast titled Reflections on Food and Pandemics:
This week he talks with his father, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. He wrote:
Hello Friends,
Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for my dad, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. I had originally planned to fly to Cleveland to capture this conversation in person, but right now he and my mom are in protective isolation in their home. Thankfully, my sister, Jane, lives next door and checks on them each day. To us, our parents are national treasures and we are taking no chances in exposing them to any of us.
So please forgive the audio—we did the best we could given the technology. But I hope you enjoy this candid Q & A podcast with my dad in which we talk about nitric oxide, iron, cholesterol, and more. We will schedule more of these so keep the questions coming.
I hope you are all staying healthy, staying home, and staying positive.
Peace, Engine 2, Plant-Strong,
Rip Esselstyn
Founder, Plant-Strong by Engine 2
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