So, today I heard the craziest thing. Something I thought at first was parody or published in poor taste in The Onion. What I heard was that President Drumpf said he was taking hydroxychloroquine on the regular. Like daily.
What an unadulterated fool. Has he finally lost what little mind he was born with?
There are so many things wrong with his statement that one wonders where to begin.
But first, I sincerely doubt he's even taking the stuff. Drumpf is a convicted and compulsive liar. He would find it easy to say he's taking it, whether he was doing it or not. And by lying about it, he has the best of both worlds. He bolsters the use of it (and we suspect some kind of monetary gain - or point of pride) AND he avoids dying from it.
Of course, his TrueBelieverFollowers won't be so lucky.
It's so irresponsible to pretend this is a valid treatment - how many of his True Believers will demand this treatment, to their own detriment? How many more people will die because of this idiot-fool?
During medical trials, hydroxychloroquinine hasn't proven to be effective - or any more effective than a placebo - in treating the disease. In fact, in some cases, it was worse.
The side effects of the drug can be lethal, as it can result in irregular heartbeats, especially in older, overweight men with heart disease.
There could be dancing in the streets?
It was never understood to be a prophylactic - unlike a vaccine, it won't prevent the disease. It's only suspected usefulness was to shorten the course of the disease. Is Drumpity trying to tell us he has Covid-19?
By his actions, he's taking the drug out of the hands of the patients who need it. It works well, with close consultation and oversight by a trained physician, for malaria, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis. Now those patients find their supplies threatened and treatment sometimes delayed.
His doctor simply said Drumpf could take it if he wanted to? Really? What kind of a doctor says that?
Is he certifiably nutz? (Drumpf and/or the doctor).
Look for Drumpf to be back-tracking from this statement in the next couple of days. With the usual supply of lies.
Holy Toledo, Bat-Poop Crazy Man.
Most measured source reporting on this event from The Guardian: Trump is Taking Hydroxychloroquine
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/19/trump-hydroxychloroquine-covid-19-white-house
Thursday, May 21, 2020
May 18, 2020 - Monday -SIP Pandemic Journals - Starting the Engines
We may be heading back toward something that resembles commerce, but I find myself reluctant to rejoin the fray. My part-time gigs could be resurrected - or I could let them go. Not sure I'm ready to mix and mingle with society just yet. With the increase of travel and commerce, comes the increase of the chance of coronavirus infection -- unless we are diligent about testing, contact tracing and isolating discovered cases. All things the Fed Gov't should be supporting, so we can have faith when entering a store or bar or other venue. I thank the stars that our Governor Newsom, among other staunch and ethical State Governors, is implementing those necessary steps.
Some links with info about contact tracing, how it works, what states are prepared, how the Federal Government can help, not hinder.
Contact Tracer Training in California
Contact Tracer is Virus Sleuthing
First Person Accounts of Being a Contact Tracer
NPR - What We've Learned About Contact Tracing Capacity
Links
Cal Matters https://calmatters.org/health/2020/05/california-coronavirus-contact-tracing-training/
STATNEWS. https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/18/coronavirus-contact-tracer-sleuthing-stress-veering-off-script/
Tech review https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/10/1001534/first-person-america-covid-19-contact-tracer-experience/
NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/28/846736937/we-asked-all-50-states-about-their-contact-tracing-capacity-heres-what-we-learne
May 16th , 2020 - Saturday SIP Pandemic Journals - Rebecca Solnit and "The Way We Get Through This"
Rebecca Solnit writes about the role of mutual aid in times of communal trouble and she offers some solace and hope. At least to me. "One of the most striking aspects of this
global crisis is how many forms of aid and solidarity there are. These
new forms of generosity we are seeing – organising, networks, projects,
donations, support and outreach – are numerous beyond counting, a
superbloom of altruistic engagement." (Solnit, "The Way We Get Through This" The Guardian 14 May, 2020)
Mutual aid is community support; it's coming together to help each other in times of crises. It's what we do in order to get through. It's that well of generosity that gets us through tough times, that defines us as human. Think of the millions of volunteers in the World Wars rolling bandages for hospitals, of the Victory Gardens or gathering scrap metal in WWII. Things ordinary citizens did to help out the national efforts in time of war.
These days of the pandemic, it's the home-crafters sewing millions of face masks and donating them to health care personnel. It's sharing sourdough starter and recipes when no one could find yeast. Swapping puzzles for entertainment during our stay-at-home orders. Shopping for the more compromised in our neighborhood; putting teddy bears in our windows to give kids something to search for on their walks.
And it's the artist in our neighborhood who leaves these artful tiles around for folks to discover - I've seen several all over Santa Venetia. A walk becomes a treasure hunt on the path of distractions, with the balm of gratitude because someone had the kindness to gift us with a bit of beauty. An uplift to the day. A reminder that not everyone is a nut job; that humans really can be generous towards their fellows.
.
Solnit, Rebecca, The Guardian "The Way We Get Through This"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/mutual-aid-coronavirus-pandemic-rebecca-solnit
 |
| Green Plant, Blue Tile |
These days of the pandemic, it's the home-crafters sewing millions of face masks and donating them to health care personnel. It's sharing sourdough starter and recipes when no one could find yeast. Swapping puzzles for entertainment during our stay-at-home orders. Shopping for the more compromised in our neighborhood; putting teddy bears in our windows to give kids something to search for on their walks.
 |
| Green Tile, Green Plant |
And it's the artist in our neighborhood who leaves these artful tiles around for folks to discover - I've seen several all over Santa Venetia. A walk becomes a treasure hunt on the path of distractions, with the balm of gratitude because someone had the kindness to gift us with a bit of beauty. An uplift to the day. A reminder that not everyone is a nut job; that humans really can be generous towards their fellows.
 |
| Blue Wolf - to aid in the evening's howling |
Solnit, Rebecca, The Guardian "The Way We Get Through This"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/mutual-aid-coronavirus-pandemic-rebecca-solnit
May 15, 2020 - Friday. Pandemic Journals- Beginning the Slow Return
 |
| lovely tulips in the evening sun |
In Marin, we've kept our metrics steady with under 300 cases and 14 deaths by some pretty drastic staying at home actions. The low number of cases and the fact that the deaths have not risen lately makes it look to some like it wasn't such a big deal after all. But those numbers are so good because we performed the correct protocols, stayed home, stayed masked and thus starved the virus of new territories and sources to continue. Not that it's gone completely; it's still lurking about.
And let's be honest, our demographics helped us a lot here, too -- we have a deep sector of the population with adequate financial resources, plenty of professionals who can work from home and many who are already retired anyway. There are many small markets for supplies, and delivery options aplenty. Our county began restrictions even before the State of California fully required it, which was just about the earliest of them all.
Now the talk is that beginning Monday, May 18, retail shops can offer curbside services, construction requirements have loosened, gardeners, too. No haircuts, mani-pedis, or dentists quite yet. With this loosening, of course, come nervous fears of an uptick of infections and cases. The hope is that we have learned the lessons of physical distancing, wearing masks, washing hands. We'll see. I am in no rush to get out into commercial life. I will sit a lot of this out. I'll chose to go for long hikes at less-populated parks rather than sit in a movie theater; I'll get take-out from a delish food-truck rather than sit in a confined space for dinner; I'd rather hang out with my granddaughter than play bingo or go to a bar.
Meanwhile, New Zealand is beginning the process of economic recovery. Their method of shutting down hard and early protected them from the worst ravages of the disease -- and they used the time they gained from the shut-down wisely, testing widely and using contact tracing to isolate cases before they could spread any further. We didn't - all the hemming and hawing from this Administration is going to cost lives once again that otherwise could have been protected.
 |
| From SF Chronicle |
May 14th, 2020, Thursday. SIP Chronicles: Bacon Bits
From the Department of Bacon Bits, a collection of small remarks and important connections. Rain, rain, rain.
Another Socially Distanced birthday - three of us, marking out a triangle in camp chairs 8 feet apart in a tidy garage, hiding from the rain, sharing space with a very neat woodshop bench. It's a joy to be able to speak face-to-face, even if we can't touch or get close. Once again, sensory gifts in this time of physical deprivation: wine, chocolate, books, a richly-scented candle of rum and brown sugar.
ND Writes
My friend writes about the challenges of being an Echocardiographer in the Time of Covid-19; she has stories from the front line.
Friday, May 15, 2020
May 13th, 2020 - Dispatches SIP- Taking A Moment
Another coldish day, thick low grey skies, wind that combs the branches of the peppertree into slanting swags of green fronds and brittle pink pepperberries hanging over the backyard fence. Every so often it drizzles -but not enough to matter, just enough to wet your whistle.
I may go down to my friend's pond, walk the circumference two or three times, listening for the sweet lyrics of the song sparrow, the warlbling tunes of the finches, the guttural croak of an egret, so incongruous of its elegance.
I may go down to my friend's pond, walk the circumference two or three times, listening for the sweet lyrics of the song sparrow, the warlbling tunes of the finches, the guttural croak of an egret, so incongruous of its elegance.
May 12th, 2020 Tuesday - CHronicles of SIP
The anxieties pile up and threaten to freeze me, immobilize my will. Action is the antidote -- and so, I have re-activated the Petaluma Postcard Pod, which had been in a slow-down, a hibernation the past two months. Yep, climbing back in the saddle and getting geared up for the 2020 election. With this new campaign, I've already distributed 400 addresses to my writers, ready and eager to bring about change in November. Have to do something or I'll go booger-nutz. Writing postcards ticks off a whole bunch of boxes: contacting voters reminding them to vote is a sound strategy for 2020; it's a physical, tangible action, which helps the stress-related cortisol to drain away; we're buying plenty of stamps from the USPS which might help support them. We hope. We love the post office-- it's an emblem of civilized society to have a functioning, reliable, federally-supported post office system.
Okay, off to write cards!
Monday, May 11, 2020
May 11, 2020 - SIP Chronicles - More Bacon Bits: Just the Facts, Man.
Check out these two sites:
One, by Dr Erin Bromage, (Microbiology and Immunology) offers a detailed look at how this virus moves within enclosed spaces. This knowledge will help us understand the risks we face as businesses and offices and restaurants open up. It's quite precise, with charts and graphs.
The Risks Know Them Avoid Them
by Erin Bromage from his blog
https://www.erinbromage.com/
Another one is from this article in SF Chronicle today about UCSF Students who host a site debunking various myths and misinformation about the virus: COVID-19 FactCheck
Bookmark 'em, Dano! Both are worth returning to.
One, by Dr Erin Bromage, (Microbiology and Immunology) offers a detailed look at how this virus moves within enclosed spaces. This knowledge will help us understand the risks we face as businesses and offices and restaurants open up. It's quite precise, with charts and graphs.
The Risks Know Them Avoid Them
by Erin Bromage from his blog
https://www.erinbromage.com/
Another one is from this article in SF Chronicle today about UCSF Students who host a site debunking various myths and misinformation about the virus: COVID-19 FactCheck
Bookmark 'em, Dano! Both are worth returning to.
May 10, 2020 - SIP Chronicles - Mom's Day
Mom's Day 2020 - Zooms and Quiet Times.
Heather Cox Richardson wrote about the origins of Mother's Day and it's not quite what I thought.
Her essay opens this way:
"If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced American women that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change modern society."
Mother's Day by Heather Cox Richardson
.... and it's quite a story.
You're welcome.
Happy Mom's Day - and Persistence is Resistance !
Heather Cox Richardson wrote about the origins of Mother's Day and it's not quite what I thought.
Her essay opens this way:
"If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced American women that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change modern society."
Mother's Day by Heather Cox Richardson
.... and it's quite a story.
You're welcome.
Happy Mom's Day - and Persistence is Resistance !
May 8 2020 - SIP Chronicles - Cattitude?
Last
year, our cat disappeared for three nights, returning l mid- afternoon
on this date in 2019, lethargic and injured. A visit to the vet revealed
severe trauma - animal fight and bite or else hit by a vehicle. I spent
about 10 days nursing him back to health - he wouldn't eat, wouldn't
move, could barely pee. But I syringed food and water into his mouth, slept with him at night and dragged him back into our house when he
thought he should hide under the neighbor's deck.
I think back to that time: what a demanding, insecure experience it was, not knowing if he'd make it, existing in a state of anxious caring. And I think back to what has happened since then - the upheaval of moving out of our house of 25 years, wildfires returning to Sonoma County, evacuations from the Kincaid Fire, power outages meant to control the potential fires. The sense of a State of Emergency that hung over the West Coast all fall. And now the Pandemic. Sheltering in place with husband, grown duaghter, and this same cat, who has some residual effects from the trauma -- pain in the hindquarters at times, and damage to the optic nerve that leaves his pupils at slightly different sizes.
What does the cat know of our troubles? His meals still arrive at regular intervals, he watches the birds in the back yard, he patrols the little transit alley beside the house and sleeps in the garage most of the day. For him, almost every day since mid-May, 2019, has been a better day.
I can't say that about our country, right now.
But I do try to adopt enough cattitude to enjoy what I can of what we still have: the sun across the lawn, the walks around the quiet neighborhood, the quietness of the streets, the tasty meals we make, the letters I attempt to write, because after all, what else are we going to spend out time on?
And you know what? We will have mail in ballots in California in November, yes!
Thank you, Newsom!
I think back to that time: what a demanding, insecure experience it was, not knowing if he'd make it, existing in a state of anxious caring. And I think back to what has happened since then - the upheaval of moving out of our house of 25 years, wildfires returning to Sonoma County, evacuations from the Kincaid Fire, power outages meant to control the potential fires. The sense of a State of Emergency that hung over the West Coast all fall. And now the Pandemic. Sheltering in place with husband, grown duaghter, and this same cat, who has some residual effects from the trauma -- pain in the hindquarters at times, and damage to the optic nerve that leaves his pupils at slightly different sizes.
What does the cat know of our troubles? His meals still arrive at regular intervals, he watches the birds in the back yard, he patrols the little transit alley beside the house and sleeps in the garage most of the day. For him, almost every day since mid-May, 2019, has been a better day.
I can't say that about our country, right now.
But I do try to adopt enough cattitude to enjoy what I can of what we still have: the sun across the lawn, the walks around the quiet neighborhood, the quietness of the streets, the tasty meals we make, the letters I attempt to write, because after all, what else are we going to spend out time on?
And you know what? We will have mail in ballots in California in November, yes!
Thank you, Newsom!
May 7th, 2020 - Thursday - SIP Chronicles
Why Weren't We Ready for the Coronavirus?
by Ali Khan in the New Yorker, May 11, 2020 issue.
(Discussion under construction)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/11/why-werent-we-ready-for-the-coronavirus
May 6th, 2020 - Tuesday SIP Chronicles
Knitting is my go-to activity these days, the clicking of the smooth, bamboo needles masking the ticktocks of time. Right now, a soft, wooly, dark turquoise hat, thick and squishy, is growing off the round needles in as circle of comfort: a watch cap kind of hat, meant for winters, not the quickly approaching summer.
By the time I'm done with the hat, we might be starting to shake off this enforced hibernation and the hat will have fulfilled it's purpose, a threaded glide from the Time Before to the Time After.
By the time I'm done with the hat, we might be starting to shake off this enforced hibernation and the hat will have fulfilled it's purpose, a threaded glide from the Time Before to the Time After.
May 5 2020 - SIP Chronicles - New Yorker
"April 15, 2020 A Coronavirus Chronicle. 24 hours in the epicenter of the pandemic. "
A powerful collection of experiences from one day near the height of the pandemic in New York City.
From the New Yorker, May 4th 2020 Print edition.
May 4, 2020 - Monday -SIP Journals - THings Will Get Better
According to Newsom, we must continue to stay home but ... things are loosening up. Some construction can begin again, especially outdoor construction or on sites without residents. And some retail - if they can do curbside pickup. Social distancing rules still in place. Restaurants are take-out only; no sit-down or sit-in service.
Still.
Idiots out on the beaches in So Cal - 3,000 arrested in Huntington Beach, I heard?
And of course, protests in Sacramento.
That said, today, construction trucks were definitely around the area. The house across the street, having been quiet for more than a month even though in the middle of a remodel, was visited by a small crew wearing masks and a white panel truck.
Still.
Idiots out on the beaches in So Cal - 3,000 arrested in Huntington Beach, I heard?
And of course, protests in Sacramento.
That said, today, construction trucks were definitely around the area. The house across the street, having been quiet for more than a month even though in the middle of a remodel, was visited by a small crew wearing masks and a white panel truck.
May 3, 2020 - Pandemic In Place Journals
Some hope now, with new orders from Newsom about how we will open, return from this hibernation.
Some dismay, too.
Some dismay, too.
April 29, 2020, Weds - Dispatches from Shelter in Place. Animated Cats
Today I need a break from all the news, all the events. No more radio, no more checking the News App, no more tv, no more talk about it.
But of course, that is all our species around the world can think about.
Time to take a walk. Time to play with animated cats. Neko Atsume.
But of course, that is all our species around the world can think about.
Time to take a walk. Time to play with animated cats. Neko Atsume.
 |
| From the game NekoAtsume |
Sunday, May 10, 2020
April 28, 2020 Tuesday - Dispactches from SIP - Socially Distanced Birthday
Carol hosted a Socially Distanced Birthday Gathering for our friend Gail. Three of us sitting outside on a shaded patio, 8 feet apart, no hugs, no shared cake with candles to blow out. Some slices of delicious banana bread and large strawberries on paper plates. We each brought our own beverage -- coffee or iced tea. The day was warm and sunny; the shade welcome. The birthday presents were a sign of the times: a bar of lovely yet strong soap, chocolates for sustenance, a bottle of lovely wine and a hand-sewn mask, made from a sassy pattern, fit to wear out to a party. Should that ever happen.
Hooray for New Zealand — they’ve declared the end of community spread of coronavirus. Yahooiee! A tiny bright light at the end of a long and treacherous tunnel! They did it by severe and early lockdown, lots of tests, two week quarantine for anyone coming into the country - all the things the scientists say to do - and few of which we did, due to our ill-prepared President who wanted this to just go away - and still wants it just to disappear, with out much effort on his part, it seems to me. Well, it's not gonna just go away and we're not returning to any sort of normal.
There's no going back -- just forward into an irrevocably altered world, at least for the foreseeable future.
Hooray for New Zealand — they’ve declared the end of community spread of coronavirus. Yahooiee! A tiny bright light at the end of a long and treacherous tunnel! They did it by severe and early lockdown, lots of tests, two week quarantine for anyone coming into the country - all the things the scientists say to do - and few of which we did, due to our ill-prepared President who wanted this to just go away - and still wants it just to disappear, with out much effort on his part, it seems to me. Well, it's not gonna just go away and we're not returning to any sort of normal.
There's no going back -- just forward into an irrevocably altered world, at least for the foreseeable future.
April 27, 2020 - Exhaustion in the Time of Coronavirus - Dipataches from SIP
I'm so pooped - and yet I'm doing pretty close to zilch all day long. Not teaching, barely writing, sometimes knitting. Can't focus on reading. My brain seems beat up. Walking, at times, is about the only thing I'm capable of.
It doesn't seem right, though, this tiredness, given the lack of activity or duties. I mean, all I'm required to do is Stay Home. And yet most everyone I talk to reports this same sense of exhaustion. Sure, everything takes longer - washing hands, standing in lines to get into stores, sense of rushing through any kind of shopping in order to minimize contacts, unpacking and wiping off groceries and delivered items. All the washing and wiping of door handles and counters and light switches. The anxiety itself wears on us, too, I think, burning up mental energy.
But Kella Hanna-Wayne thinks it's even more subtle than that. In her article Why Does Everything Feel So Hard Right Now? she writes that being unable to reliably predict the future adds its own burden to our brain and psyche, draining our energy. Even more importantly, all our automatic-pilot sort of routines are gone, the things we did without thinking too much, our habits that allowed us to save mental energy for other tasks. Routine things like going to the store are no longer simple. Our mornings are no longer dictated by the same automatic pattern of rise, shower, eat, commute to work. We aren't getting the kids ready for daycare - even if we are WFH, it hardly matters what we wear, when we get up, if the kids ever get out of their jammies. We have to think about everything again - when to get up, how to procure supplies, where we can actually walk. We have to come up with new patterns and routines, almost daily, as the restrictions and requirements shift quickly.
No doubt by the time this is over, the new behaviors will be routine and we'll have to re-learn new patterns. I'm tired just thinking about it.
https://medium.com/invisible-illness/why-does-everything-feel-so-hard-right-now-if-nothing-is-wrong-e16230a99a80
It doesn't seem right, though, this tiredness, given the lack of activity or duties. I mean, all I'm required to do is Stay Home. And yet most everyone I talk to reports this same sense of exhaustion. Sure, everything takes longer - washing hands, standing in lines to get into stores, sense of rushing through any kind of shopping in order to minimize contacts, unpacking and wiping off groceries and delivered items. All the washing and wiping of door handles and counters and light switches. The anxiety itself wears on us, too, I think, burning up mental energy.
But Kella Hanna-Wayne thinks it's even more subtle than that. In her article Why Does Everything Feel So Hard Right Now? she writes that being unable to reliably predict the future adds its own burden to our brain and psyche, draining our energy. Even more importantly, all our automatic-pilot sort of routines are gone, the things we did without thinking too much, our habits that allowed us to save mental energy for other tasks. Routine things like going to the store are no longer simple. Our mornings are no longer dictated by the same automatic pattern of rise, shower, eat, commute to work. We aren't getting the kids ready for daycare - even if we are WFH, it hardly matters what we wear, when we get up, if the kids ever get out of their jammies. We have to think about everything again - when to get up, how to procure supplies, where we can actually walk. We have to come up with new patterns and routines, almost daily, as the restrictions and requirements shift quickly.
No doubt by the time this is over, the new behaviors will be routine and we'll have to re-learn new patterns. I'm tired just thinking about it.
https://medium.com/invisible-illness/why-does-everything-feel-so-hard-right-now-if-nothing-is-wrong-e16230a99a80
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
April 26, 2020 - SIP Chronicles, Day Whatever - PODCASTS!
Yes, I am way out of order on the days and way behind.. I'm going to post as best as I can and then carry on forward. So some of these will be "Under Construction" while I tidy up the prose. And not all will have pictures. Or complete thoughts. Or complete sentences.
Two podcasts to consider.
Social Distance
Two writers from the Atlantic magazine team up to discuss the Covid Pandemic via phone calls in NYC in real time starting with the shelter in place orders issued in mid-March. I came to the podcast five weeks late, and began listening with the first episode posted on March 13, 2020. I find it both fascinating and, of course, already dated. How could it not be? Things have been moving so fast. Just tracking the advice about masks over the past month and a half will make your head spin.
One of the podcasters, Dr James Hamblin, is a medical doctor who reports on medical topics; the other, Katherine Wells, is podcast producer. This is an informed yet friendly conversation between friends that covers all the questions we have. I think the podcast highlights the growing realizations we experienced as the enormity of the pandemic dawned on all of us. While Dr Hamblin certainly understood it from the beginning (he had already been writing about the virus), his partner in the podcast, Katherine Wells, suffers from the bends, in a way, as she had just returned from an engrossing work assignment that had her not quite tuned into the new realities. We get to travel with her as she taps into experts to get a handle on the unknown.
I find the sound information and clear view of the issues re-assuring, even if somewhat terrifying at times - and with the rapid sequence of events, the podcast almost has the feel of a historical-doucment already.
The Way We Live Now - Hosted and created by the well-known writer Dani Shapiro. this is a fascinating day-by-day release of interviews with folks as they endure the pandemic and how they find ways to cope. Began April 14.
Two podcasts to consider.
Social Distance
Two writers from the Atlantic magazine team up to discuss the Covid Pandemic via phone calls in NYC in real time starting with the shelter in place orders issued in mid-March. I came to the podcast five weeks late, and began listening with the first episode posted on March 13, 2020. I find it both fascinating and, of course, already dated. How could it not be? Things have been moving so fast. Just tracking the advice about masks over the past month and a half will make your head spin.
One of the podcasters, Dr James Hamblin, is a medical doctor who reports on medical topics; the other, Katherine Wells, is podcast producer. This is an informed yet friendly conversation between friends that covers all the questions we have. I think the podcast highlights the growing realizations we experienced as the enormity of the pandemic dawned on all of us. While Dr Hamblin certainly understood it from the beginning (he had already been writing about the virus), his partner in the podcast, Katherine Wells, suffers from the bends, in a way, as she had just returned from an engrossing work assignment that had her not quite tuned into the new realities. We get to travel with her as she taps into experts to get a handle on the unknown.
I find the sound information and clear view of the issues re-assuring, even if somewhat terrifying at times - and with the rapid sequence of events, the podcast almost has the feel of a historical-doucment already.
The Way We Live Now - Hosted and created by the well-known writer Dani Shapiro. this is a fascinating day-by-day release of interviews with folks as they endure the pandemic and how they find ways to cope. Began April 14.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
April 25th, 2020 - Dispatches from the Pandemic. Ravens in the Gravy Boat. Arundhati Roy "Pandemic as Portal.".
"Whatever
it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a
halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and
forth, longing for a return to 'normality,' trying to stitch our future
to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture
exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance
to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing
could be worse than a return to normality.
"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
Sharing this quote from the WORK Newsletter by Natasha Juliana. These are the final paragraphs of a powerful essay that provides a close look at the political and social machinations in India over the coronavirus pandemic. I find disturbing echos of this behavior here in our country. I worry about our two democracies, struggling with the divisive actions of authoritarian-style heads of state, blaming others and ignoring the realities of the effect of the pandemic on their peoples, seeking to stay in power.
Roy's final paragraphs offer a road map -- and a call to action.
But oh my gosh, how I miss the gang down at WORK Petaluma. We would be having some discussions now, right? Scrolling around the website, looking at the pictures posted of the folks in the office in a Time Way Before, I wonder what the re-grouping will be like, when we get the chance to group up again. Hope it's soon -- but not too soon. I don't want to risk another round of this disease by gathering too carelessly and quickly.
Like Natasha says in her newsletter, I find that there are times when the only thing I want to do is dig deep into the earth, sit under our backyard tree with the wind and birdcalls around me. Watch the ravens dunk old bread crusts into the birdbath, like an oversized gravy boat. Ponder where they find those bread crusts. There is something here I don't want to miss, something I want to drink deep of, before we are ushered over the rupture, out of this portal, through the gates into an adjusted world.
"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
~ Arundhati Roy author of The God of Small Things and activist
From her essay "The Pandemic is a Portal" published in the Financial Times.
From her essay "The Pandemic is a Portal" published in the Financial Times.
Sharing this quote from the WORK Newsletter by Natasha Juliana. These are the final paragraphs of a powerful essay that provides a close look at the political and social machinations in India over the coronavirus pandemic. I find disturbing echos of this behavior here in our country. I worry about our two democracies, struggling with the divisive actions of authoritarian-style heads of state, blaming others and ignoring the realities of the effect of the pandemic on their peoples, seeking to stay in power.
Roy's final paragraphs offer a road map -- and a call to action.
But oh my gosh, how I miss the gang down at WORK Petaluma. We would be having some discussions now, right? Scrolling around the website, looking at the pictures posted of the folks in the office in a Time Way Before, I wonder what the re-grouping will be like, when we get the chance to group up again. Hope it's soon -- but not too soon. I don't want to risk another round of this disease by gathering too carelessly and quickly.
Like Natasha says in her newsletter, I find that there are times when the only thing I want to do is dig deep into the earth, sit under our backyard tree with the wind and birdcalls around me. Watch the ravens dunk old bread crusts into the birdbath, like an oversized gravy boat. Ponder where they find those bread crusts. There is something here I don't want to miss, something I want to drink deep of, before we are ushered over the rupture, out of this portal, through the gates into an adjusted world.
April 24, 2020 - Mixed Up Journals from the Pandemic
Out of sequence! Here are the links:
Just a LIttle Ditty - April 24, 2020
Disinfectants don't cure from the inside April 24, 2020
Just a LIttle Ditty - April 24, 2020
Disinfectants don't cure from the inside April 24, 2020
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
April 22, 2020 - Earth Day in the Pandemic
I don't know where this wind comes from, swirling, skirling, bagpiping over the marshland, then bossing about the big trees. Oak branches bounce and dance, wind-wrestled and wild. The tall white lillies, small trumpet-shaped blooms incandescent in the dull evening light, jounce and bow, stirred and restless. Ravens get tossed up, flutter in place, then dive down to safety on branch or power line.
I don't know where this wind comes from, why it scours this flat land, punishing it with a fury meant for someone else, some other target, the way a woman scorned burns all the dishes and never repents.
We don't know where this wind comes from, this crowned virus that burns through the human-scape. righting some ancient wrongs perhaps, settling old scores.
I don't know where this wind comes from, why it scours this flat land, punishing it with a fury meant for someone else, some other target, the way a woman scorned burns all the dishes and never repents.
We don't know where this wind comes from, this crowned virus that burns through the human-scape. righting some ancient wrongs perhaps, settling old scores.
April 21, 2020 Dispatches from the Pandemic - How can we re-open the parks?
Pondering the return to what might resemble normal life, because what else can we think about right now? Our brains search for some sort of predictions of the future - we want to be able to land on something. We need to be able to imagine our future.
I'm thinking that here in Northern California, we could start by opening county and municipal parks, local places to help ease the burden of SIP. Devise some system to limit the visitors -- odd numbered license plates on odd numbered days, even numbers on even days, as they did in the days of gas-rationing. Or by location: you can visit parks within your county or city, or within 5 miles or 25 miles of your home - different locales might have different rules. Cops can issue tickets of $1000 to violators when they run the plates. Maybe we can get the DMV revved up to send out special stickers to each county? Or randomized license plate numbers? Run this over a few weeks to see how it works. People have to have some room to roam. And I think they'd be willing to stay local and wear masks and practice physical distancing for the privilege of a long hike. I know I sure would - I crave the vistas of a long hill before me, the feel of waves pounding on the shore, the call of those pesky darn gulls.
Heard some places limit attendance by letting the parking lot fill up - then the next cars have to keep driving, maybe to another park or return home. This doesn't help the small kids in the car, antsy to get out and run. Hmmmm. Another tactic - hiking in one direction on loop trails, so you only have to worry about folks who pass, not oncoming hikers.
But what about the bathroom problem? Even if opened up, will people be too spooked to use the bathroom or porta-potty? Would they decide to go out behind a bush? or sand dune? That sure can't be sanitary. This argues for staying close to home - or wearing adult diapers.
Think about how we can possibly live with this disease for the next year or two, until immunity is built. What safe practices can we build into our lifestyles? What strategies will we employ?
Below the Fold
Drumpgf got his knickers in a twist today because some people want to vote him out of office.
Well, duh, that's how politics works. If he doesn't like the hot water, he better jump out of the pool. Seems like he dropped by the show Morning Joe and heard some "hatred and contempt." If hatred and contempt from a few opponents bother him, then what is he doing in politics? Go back to the business world, where people toady up, if that's what he likes, because if he's in public office, he's gonna be called names and he's gonna have opposition. That is what we do. Really, we don't care if his feelings get hurt. My heart does not bleed one teeny tiny little bit for him. Not even a nanometer.
 |
| Form a hike in February |
Heard some places limit attendance by letting the parking lot fill up - then the next cars have to keep driving, maybe to another park or return home. This doesn't help the small kids in the car, antsy to get out and run. Hmmmm. Another tactic - hiking in one direction on loop trails, so you only have to worry about folks who pass, not oncoming hikers.
But what about the bathroom problem? Even if opened up, will people be too spooked to use the bathroom or porta-potty? Would they decide to go out behind a bush? or sand dune? That sure can't be sanitary. This argues for staying close to home - or wearing adult diapers.
Think about how we can possibly live with this disease for the next year or two, until immunity is built. What safe practices can we build into our lifestyles? What strategies will we employ?
Below the Fold
Drumpgf got his knickers in a twist today because some people want to vote him out of office.
Well, duh, that's how politics works. If he doesn't like the hot water, he better jump out of the pool. Seems like he dropped by the show Morning Joe and heard some "hatred and contempt." If hatred and contempt from a few opponents bother him, then what is he doing in politics? Go back to the business world, where people toady up, if that's what he likes, because if he's in public office, he's gonna be called names and he's gonna have opposition. That is what we do. Really, we don't care if his feelings get hurt. My heart does not bleed one teeny tiny little bit for him. Not even a nanometer.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
4/20/2020 - Sheltering In Place Chronicles on National Weed Day
4/20 in 2020 is more or less a bust. No big gatherings, no contacts, no contact high. Don't even want to get high. Just want to get Drumpf out of office. True dat.
I can't quite keep up with the pace of this blog, folks, but I'm going to keep trying. I have gotten out of sequence with the days, so please bear with me. I might post a few pages as "Under Construction" so I can maintain the ordering of the posts.
Think it's time to employ the 25th Amendment, don't you? This President has endangered lives and allowed people to die because of his inaction, because he is more concerned about the state of the stock market and being re-elected. (Because once he's out of office - whooie, mamma -- those lawsuits are gonna fall down upon him.)
He's becoming erratic: see his whipsaw behavior around State responsibility for dealing with COVID -19. I mean, check this out:
Why is this not the time to enact the 25th Amendment and get him out of office, so the country can begin to re-assemble, begin to heal? Perhaps because the chaos would be insurmountable in this time of The Virus?
So we must VOTE HIM OUT.
You betcha.
I'm just not so confident that we will last that long at the rate he's going. He is acting more and more erratic and the campaigns haven't even begun yet.
* And yet how many people really showed up to these Liberation Protests? And who were they, exctly? Seems like many of them were organized as groups to participate in this exercise, rather than a true gathering of citizens. Most citizens with a solid understanding of the Germ Theory of Disease ( i.e. almost everyone except Drumpf) support sheltering as long as we can stand it. As Robert Hubbell asserts in his newsletter, there weren't that many Liberationsist, compared to the many more who stayed away, keeping quarantine. And given the contagiousness of the virus, how many of these protesters will be ill in two weeks, how many will need to be hospitalized?
So there is that.
We wish them well, we really do. But I didn't see much in the way of preventative action (masks, distancing) in the few pictures I saw.
p.p.s. will look for the articles to support my points above.
I can't quite keep up with the pace of this blog, folks, but I'm going to keep trying. I have gotten out of sequence with the days, so please bear with me. I might post a few pages as "Under Construction" so I can maintain the ordering of the posts.
Think it's time to employ the 25th Amendment, don't you? This President has endangered lives and allowed people to die because of his inaction, because he is more concerned about the state of the stock market and being re-elected. (Because once he's out of office - whooie, mamma -- those lawsuits are gonna fall down upon him.)
He's becoming erratic: see his whipsaw behavior around State responsibility for dealing with COVID -19. I mean, check this out:
- first, the states must take full responsibility to provide health care, get PPE supplies for their hospitals and devise thier own rules and regs about how to deal with the virus because he and the Republican Federal Gov't weren't taking any responsibility. They weren't going to provide PPE supplies on a national basis (even though that's their job), they couldn't supply tests, they weren't going to enforce a unified policy to defend against the disease. Enacting a full national shut down, due to our lack of testing and preparedness, would have been the only sure way to beat the disease - and he refused to do it. Up to the States, he said.
- Then, two months later, Drumpf insisted he had total authority to force the states to open their economies (which no President can do to a State) by May 1st. Clueless there, and obviously not listening to any advisor.
- When the Governors rightfully refused to budge, he acknowledged the Governors did have the authority over their own states about returning to full economies. Someone must have gotten through to him about the legalities. Wonder how anyone does that?
- Then he publicly urged people in those states to LIBERATE their states* --that is, to actively disobey the laws and regulations of their state and protest in groups for the right to re-start all commerce, to repeal the shut-down orders - in effect, calling for rebellion against a State Government. This is so against US Constitutional law that I can't imagine anyone with a grasp of how our government works is able to keep breakfast down.
Why is this not the time to enact the 25th Amendment and get him out of office, so the country can begin to re-assemble, begin to heal? Perhaps because the chaos would be insurmountable in this time of The Virus?
So we must VOTE HIM OUT.
You betcha.
I'm just not so confident that we will last that long at the rate he's going. He is acting more and more erratic and the campaigns haven't even begun yet.
* And yet how many people really showed up to these Liberation Protests? And who were they, exctly? Seems like many of them were organized as groups to participate in this exercise, rather than a true gathering of citizens. Most citizens with a solid understanding of the Germ Theory of Disease ( i.e. almost everyone except Drumpf) support sheltering as long as we can stand it. As Robert Hubbell asserts in his newsletter, there weren't that many Liberationsist, compared to the many more who stayed away, keeping quarantine. And given the contagiousness of the virus, how many of these protesters will be ill in two weeks, how many will need to be hospitalized?
So there is that.
We wish them well, we really do. But I didn't see much in the way of preventative action (masks, distancing) in the few pictures I saw.
p.p.s. will look for the articles to support my points above.
April 19, 2020 - SIP in Place
Walking a lot this week, trying to get the yayas out, cope with the anxieties of the age. Being cooped up. Not knowing how we will function in a newer world as we wait for the vaccine to be created, treatment to be developed, or for the virus to bloom out of existence. Thinking this one will be around for awhile, with all our sloppy handling of it. Hoping our finances will weather the storm. Ordering everything for delivery that we possibly can. As time goes by, we are sticking closer and closer to home, like agoraphobes. Time to get out the puzzles, card games, Boggle, Bananagrams.
On the Sourdough Front, we had cinnamon rolls fresh outta the oven. Oh my, yes. Thank you, Cory! We will be bakers before the end of this quarantino. There is a certain amount of pleasure on being able to rely on our own resources. Reminds me of the old hippie days. Bake your own bread. Grow your own food. Make your own masks. Share them with friends. Least amount of commerce as possible, certainly no purchase from corporate concerns. Help out your neighbors. The trade economy.
Meanwhile, reading these stories filed from around the world
NYR of Books Journals
April 6 - 12, 2020
Meanwhile, reading these stories filed from around the world
NYR of Books Journals
April 6 - 12, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
April 18 2020 - Dispatches from a Pandemic - Saturday morning: Holding.
Late morning and the birds are quieter now than those first hours of dawn. Still there's the wheeeeep wheeeep from a flurry of finches. And the wheezy high pitched whistles of the wax-wings, like listening to electricity escapoing from wires.
The air is soft and damp, full of impending rain. The sky, the clouds, the rain all feel held back, constrained, the way we feel right now, restrained, contained, quarantined. A lazy wind pushes the pepper tree around, rearranging the drooping branches, heavy with pepper berries. A mockingbird flutters out of the pepper tree down to the half-full bird bath and then back up to the fence, to hop along his personal train track.
The lilies along the back of the house have white trumpet-shaped blooms perched in rows along a central stem, little handkerchiefs draped along a slanting line. A particularly luminous, white catching and holding light, glowing even against the grey-white of the low slung sky. Tiny stamens drip with faintly yellow pollen and the pistil looks like a three-pronged fishhook of some kind emerging up out of the middle, the prongs tipping back in elaborate curls The fragrance is faint, at least to me, a hint of citrus, a touch of ginger.
The pollen, of course, makes me cough, makes me sneeze. And no one wants to be coughing these days. We hold back from coughs, we refrain from sneezes, not wanting to think of consequences, the train of possibilities, no matter how far-fetched. Any indication of illness, once brushed aside or ignored - a chill, a hot spell, aches in legs or shoulders - now carry that tiny electrical charge, that tiny bit of what if -- what if this is the first step.
We hold our breath, we hold ourselves, we hold back.
The air is soft and damp, full of impending rain. The sky, the clouds, the rain all feel held back, constrained, the way we feel right now, restrained, contained, quarantined. A lazy wind pushes the pepper tree around, rearranging the drooping branches, heavy with pepper berries. A mockingbird flutters out of the pepper tree down to the half-full bird bath and then back up to the fence, to hop along his personal train track.
The lilies along the back of the house have white trumpet-shaped blooms perched in rows along a central stem, little handkerchiefs draped along a slanting line. A particularly luminous, white catching and holding light, glowing even against the grey-white of the low slung sky. Tiny stamens drip with faintly yellow pollen and the pistil looks like a three-pronged fishhook of some kind emerging up out of the middle, the prongs tipping back in elaborate curls The fragrance is faint, at least to me, a hint of citrus, a touch of ginger.
The pollen, of course, makes me cough, makes me sneeze. And no one wants to be coughing these days. We hold back from coughs, we refrain from sneezes, not wanting to think of consequences, the train of possibilities, no matter how far-fetched. Any indication of illness, once brushed aside or ignored - a chill, a hot spell, aches in legs or shoulders - now carry that tiny electrical charge, that tiny bit of what if -- what if this is the first step.
We hold our breath, we hold ourselves, we hold back.
Friday, April 24, 2020
April 24 2020, Friday. Dispatches from the Pandemic - Drinking Bleach (don't do it!) and the USPS (save it !!)
 | |
| SARCASM! DO NOT INGEST BLEACH |
Is he mentally competent? Has he ever taken one science class? I think not. What a freakin' moron. He needs to be held accountable for making insane, dangerous suggestions to a country looking for leadership. Which we won't ever get from him.
You know, a true leader would offer to be the first to try a new cure. Wonder if he will take that challenge?
It is seriously time to question whether Drumpf is mentally competent to stay in office, to be offering advice to the country. I know, I know, it's been obvious for a long time to many of us that his elevator doesn't go to the top floor, doesn't even get to the hem of his bad toupee. But what is going to happen when someone attempts this cure and dies a wretched, mouth-burning, lung-destroying, stomach-churning death? I would hope Trump is brought up on charges for it (murder in my book), for his reckless, irresponsible suggestions. It looks like the disinfectant companies are worried enough about the issue that they are posting disclaimers on store shelves, pushing notices out on Twitter and making their own statements to the press. This is beyond irresponsible behavior by Trump - it is reprehensible. It's not even the sick-joke sarcasm he pretended it to be in today's (Friday's) press conference.
And we're not done yet. Today, Drumpf also called the US Post Office "a joke." I just about drove off the road on my way to mail home-made masks to my friend who works in a hospital in Utah. The US Post Office is a service for all Americans, it was never intended to be a business or make a profit; its a benefit for citizens and businesses. And we need it now more than ever, with all the stuff we have to have mailed to us in the Age of the Coronavirus. Not to mention our need to Vote By Mail later this fall.
Our MOCs need to stand up the Republicans and that bullying Trump and tell them hands off the USPS.
Give me a freakin' freakin' break.
We can't vote this doofus out of office fast enough. Give me Joe Biden any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Here are some good articles from The Atlantic that talk about the value ( The Quiet Heroism of the USPS ) and history of the USPS ( Why The Postal Service Is Worth Saving). They offer some background to Drumpity's comments and moves today.
Now I'm gonna go order a whole bunch of stamps and start mailing cards to my friends every day. Let's see if we can give some love to the USPS.
- https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/what-happens-mail-during-natural-disaster/581794/
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/why-postal-service-worth-saving/610672/
Thursday, April 23, 2020
April 17, 2020 - Cool Things!
Finding all sorts of neat messages painted on rocks or sprayed on tiles as we walk around the neighborhood. Such wonderful surprises.
Also, rainbows and teddy bears, to inspire the wee ones. I might put up a unicorn or two on our garage door. Why not?
The strategy is to take deep breaths. To feel the earth, to find the joy. To survive the chaos that envelopes the world right now. Take time to enjoy what is right in front of us right now, even the tiniest sliver of it, because we can.
We can't fix everything right now, but we can treasure a blue-painted rock with a funky-faced grin.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
April 15 2020 - Captain Bligh on the High Seas ~ Journals of the Contagious Times
This is the day this President compares himself to Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, stating that he has "total authority" over States' affairs and could order them to open their economies and change their Shelter-in-Place regulations. Ha, ha. Of course, anyone with a Sixth Grade education knows that he can't, that no US President has that authority. States enacted those restrictions and only States can reset them. Obviously Donald "Bligh" Drumpf doesn't know much about the Constitution, doesn't understand it, doesn't even care whether he does or not.
Does anyone else wonder about this reference, though? Does he remember how that movie plays out? It does not end well for sadistic little Captain Bligh. Should we take it as prophecy, that by the end of this, Drumpf, too, will be cast adrift in a tiny little boat on the high seas? We can hope - but we can't take this prophecy on face value; we must act to ensure that Drumpf is cast out of office.
For one thing, we must fight voter suppression by demanding the right to vote by mail in these contagious, courageous times. Text-banking, phone-banking, writing letters to the Editors, supporting our Democrats as they seek election or re-election; all of that helps. Support the ACLU; support the League of Women Voters, join Fair Fight 2020 as they strike back at unjust voter suppression tactics;
And yesterday, hooray, Obama came out for Joe Biden. For those who missed it:
Obama Supports Biden
LET"S GO!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
More info on various voter-suppression actions.
Common Dreams Voter Suppression
Does anyone else wonder about this reference, though? Does he remember how that movie plays out? It does not end well for sadistic little Captain Bligh. Should we take it as prophecy, that by the end of this, Drumpf, too, will be cast adrift in a tiny little boat on the high seas? We can hope - but we can't take this prophecy on face value; we must act to ensure that Drumpf is cast out of office.
For one thing, we must fight voter suppression by demanding the right to vote by mail in these contagious, courageous times. Text-banking, phone-banking, writing letters to the Editors, supporting our Democrats as they seek election or re-election; all of that helps. Support the ACLU; support the League of Women Voters, join Fair Fight 2020 as they strike back at unjust voter suppression tactics;
And yesterday, hooray, Obama came out for Joe Biden. For those who missed it:
Obama Supports Biden
LET"S GO!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
More info on various voter-suppression actions.
Common Dreams Voter Suppression
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Saturday, April 18, 2020
April 13, 2020 - "The Radius Of Love" (w/Amber Gray, Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz,...
Check this out ... and feel free to share. Cracks me up everytime I watch it ~
And yes, some strong language reminding us to stay the eff at home and wash your effing hands.
But oh the tunes!
April 12, 2020 - Easter Under SIP
A mix of weather today, soft breezes and a sun released from clouds and haze. Normally a day for family to gather over a meal and baskets of chocolate. But this year not much going on, with everyone staying in home. Zoom Passovers happened all week, with readings of the Haggadah downloaded and shared via video conferencing, and Zoom Easter get-togethers all weekend, with shared menus, gab-fests, eating of the chocolate bunny-ears.
Around the neighborhood, an Easter Egg hunt was improvised for the wee ones, with quickly painted eggs and cut-out bunnies in front of homes for kids to search for, each family gathered unto themselves in a car or walking in small groups. And while churches had online services and no physical gatherings, it seemed like the pull of family was hard to deny. On my peripatetic stroll in the late afternoon, I noticed two or three houses scattered around that had some extended family over to share chocolate and laughter and, in one case, a small barbacoa. The noise of people chatting and joking was uplifting, even if a bit nervy and risky.
Today, we've finally joined the Sourdough Coalition! We had purchased flour early on but never found yeast, so Cory buckled down and got our starter going about a week ago. The Bay Area is known for its sourdough yeastiness, so I figured we had a decent chance of capturing something tasty. Today, Cory made her first loaf - and we can hardly wait!
Fresh baked bread and lamb curry -- it's gonna make a fine meal and rich memories.
April 10, 2020 - Friday. Long Walk on a Good Enough Friday
 |
| Rabbit Tree on Santa Margarita Island |
We took a long walk over to Santa Margarita Island, a 3-mile round trip from our house, about an hour and a half all told. We walked on sidewalks past gardens just revving up and in streets eerily devoid of cars or trucks or even bikes. The island is more like an islet, not even 1/2 mile around the edge and back. Some big rocks in the middle, a few small oaks, madrone, some low brush, loud bees, busy birds. Grasses and wild flowers wave in the gentle winds that kick up now and again. Low, humid clouds dominate the sky, never letting the sun gain any traction on the day.
The island is fascinating and compact.There are few obvious lounging places until you climb up into the rocks, where there's almost a bower of small trees and rocky seats overlooking the marsh to the north and the creek wandering off to the east. Compared to China Camp with its grassy meadows, steep inclines and stunning bay views or Pt Reyes National Seashore, with all the beach-hikes, mountain-hikes, canyon hikes you could desire, this little County Park islet barely stands out. This whole experience in lock-down living would be very different if we could get out to something like wilderness, get closer to trees and waves and ocean breezes, go wander around the big, charismatic parks.
And yet. There's something to be said for local.
Right here in this little subdivision there are just enough vestiges of the wilder-world, of nature, grass, flowers, insects, ravens, yellow-capped sparrows with their distinctive descending minor-key three notes, towhees chinking away the afternoon, ravens fussing around the bird bath, murmuring and croaking, tall trees rustling in a rising wind measured by the clink of the wind chime, bees wandering in the open window and back out again. We think we have nothing or very little in the way of nature, of walking space, but now that we are forced to look, we find the hidden treasure all around us.
This island is a tiny jewel of grasses and big rocks and small trees, protected from habitation and therefore available to us Isolationists for a chance to look across water, to hear the calls of birds. It is enough - it is more than enough. All without driving and sticking closely to Physical Distancing Guidelines. Mt Tamalpais gives us her stern look through the grey skies; wrens and rails call and scurry through the mud and reeds.
This restriction to quarters has forced us to look and explore more closely to home, the way a kid might, who only had a bike and their sneakers to get themselves around. I want to return to Santa Margarita Island, with my journal, binoculars, some oranges - as good a place as any to sketch and create some verses and live in the outside world. And bask in the moments of joy we are able to wrest amidst the worry, confusion and consternation of the world in a pandemic.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
April 9, 2020 - Thursday; SIP Journals: Farmer's Market Protocal
 |
| Lilies in the slant of the afternoon. |
A grey-skied day this morning; a subdued, quiet focused mood. No music. No gabby gatherings of friends. No one lingering at the little round cafe tables with coffee and a spot of lunch. But still, busy enough. Just.
The market management (AIM) has it down. The aisles between the rows of vendors had been widened considerably, so there was plenty of space for folks to maintain the requested 6-foot margins around themselves. There were marks on the pavement to indicate adequate spacing while waiting in lines or walking around. We wait our turn, scoping out what's available - asparagus, artichokes, avocados, apples. (Isn't alliteration fun?). Then you tell the vendor your choices, they collect it, bag it and hand it to you or place on a package pick-up table. Often you pay a separate person, so the person handling the food isn't handling the cards or the cash. It all feels very clean and contained. Certainly under more control than many grocery stores, where someone could paw over the piles of oranges or mishandle a bunch of grapes and no one would know. And I liked being outside, not in the constricting, narrow little aisles of the local stores.
I'm impressed. It's not the lively scene of the Time Before Covid (TBC) but for being out in society, it feels safe enough. And this is true - we enter grocery stores, public spaces as if they are DMZs, as potentials intersections with an enemy. I'm sure we'll get back to something that resembles normal at some point, but until we have robust testing and medical protection, our actions will always be proscribed and constrained while out in public. Wonder if that will mean a richer interior life, steeped in contemplation and a deeper appreciation for the gifts of being alive? Will it mean more and more of our social and commercial interactions will take place online?
Also, there's a vendor with veggie-starts. Think I'll have to come back next week with the garden in mind.
 |
| Tree -- or Rabbit? Now that is a question. |
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
April 8, 2020 - Weds -SIP Chronicles -Language of Quarantine
This evening, in our Writing Group Zoom-In, we wrote to this prompt: transmission.
You can write one, too.
My response was short, ragged, disjointed. Rambling about the transmission of energy from soil through roots to plant. But I was avoiding. Transmission has become a loaded word now, dripping with the implication of disease jumping from one body to another. We are but transfer points for this virus, transmission joints, in a more medical, scientific parlance, we are known as vectors.
Think of all the terms we have become so familiar with so quickly: isolation, self-isolation, isolate, contact tracing, cordon sanitaire, droplets, aersol-borne. Essential activities, essential workers. Fomites - inanimate objects that transmit disease, not the coronavirus strongest method of attack, but what our constant cleaning (no longer considered OCD) of doorknobs, countertops, packages, bags attempts to defeat. Community transmission. Negative-pressure rooms - not the place you want to spend your last hours on this planet. R0 - reproductive rate. Viral Shedding - what we might be inadvertently doing before any symptoms show.
New terms: quarnatini, quarantime (the inability to determine any particular time of day or week or season while sheltering in place), quarantizzy - what the cat does at the end of the day. Quarantune - songs of the coronavirus. To Zoom. Drive-by birthday parties.
Think of the ordinary words that have acquired newer meanings. Surge. Flatten the Curve. The peak - that rapidly moving target of the height of infections.
Think of the terms we may never forget. First million cases. Antibody tests. Plague. Masks. Pandemic.
First Spring Spent Indoors.
Coronavirus Glossary
You can write one, too.
My response was short, ragged, disjointed. Rambling about the transmission of energy from soil through roots to plant. But I was avoiding. Transmission has become a loaded word now, dripping with the implication of disease jumping from one body to another. We are but transfer points for this virus, transmission joints, in a more medical, scientific parlance, we are known as vectors.
Think of all the terms we have become so familiar with so quickly: isolation, self-isolation, isolate, contact tracing, cordon sanitaire, droplets, aersol-borne. Essential activities, essential workers. Fomites - inanimate objects that transmit disease, not the coronavirus strongest method of attack, but what our constant cleaning (no longer considered OCD) of doorknobs, countertops, packages, bags attempts to defeat. Community transmission. Negative-pressure rooms - not the place you want to spend your last hours on this planet. R0 - reproductive rate. Viral Shedding - what we might be inadvertently doing before any symptoms show.
New terms: quarnatini, quarantime (the inability to determine any particular time of day or week or season while sheltering in place), quarantizzy - what the cat does at the end of the day. Quarantune - songs of the coronavirus. To Zoom. Drive-by birthday parties.
Think of the ordinary words that have acquired newer meanings. Surge. Flatten the Curve. The peak - that rapidly moving target of the height of infections.
Think of the terms we may never forget. First million cases. Antibody tests. Plague. Masks. Pandemic.
First Spring Spent Indoors.
Coronavirus Glossary
Sunday, April 12, 2020
April 7, 2020 - Tuesday - Journals of the SIP - NYR of Books. Three Weeks and A Howling Moon.
Here we are, the end of Week Three. This would have been our day of release from the original SIP orders, but no one much notices, they don't give a fare-thee-well. What we do notice is that we've had some slowdown in the growth of cases in California, even as the nation races towards half-a-million cases of the virus. We've noticed the folks that didn't make it - like the magnificent musicians John Prine, Ellis Marsalis, Bill Withers - and the folks who did, like Dr Matt Willis, Marin County Public health Officer, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 23, just after California's SIP was put in place. After two weeks in bed and full-on quarantine, he released a video today, sharing his experiences with the disease and his gratitude for the care he received, for the organized and supplied emergency room he went to, for the fact that our hospitals in Marin, at this point, are not over-whelmed. He looks -- well, he looks like he went through something, he looks humbled and full of gratitude. Check it out here.
I've also been fascinated by this series of reports, as collected by the New York Review of Books, ThePandemic Journals, first-hand accounts from around the world on the impact of this virus, this new global reality. I can't stop reading them. They are not grim; they are just true.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/04/06/pandemic-journal-april-6-12/
And boy, howdy, was the moon ever full and the howls loud and vigorous tonight!
I've also been fascinated by this series of reports, as collected by the New York Review of Books, ThePandemic Journals, first-hand accounts from around the world on the impact of this virus, this new global reality. I can't stop reading them. They are not grim; they are just true.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/04/06/pandemic-journal-april-6-12/
And boy, howdy, was the moon ever full and the howls loud and vigorous tonight!
 |
| A Howling Moon |
Saturday, April 11, 2020
April 6th, 2020 - Dispatches from SIP: Hike Out For Beer
Today we figured no cars, no stores. But we forgot about no beer.
So we decided to walk to the nearest store of any kind, a 7-11, about a mile away and see what that was like. I mean, we could have driven. And a few months ago, I would have refused to walk that far. But I've been clocking a mile or two every day now for awhile -- and so, what the heck. We hiked out for beer.
A low, grey sky, impending rain. It was still damp from the morning's rain. But it wasn't so cold that a jacket, a scarf (that could double as a mask), and some good socks couldn't deal with it. My daughter and I had sturdy canvas bags and plotted the most efficient route through the meandering drives in our neighborhood.
Along the way, I found colors - purple mostly, but yellow too, and pink, the palette of spring and Easter eggs. it became a Color Walk. Try it, it's the most fun - pick a color, take a walk, take notes - and write about it.
So we decided to walk to the nearest store of any kind, a 7-11, about a mile away and see what that was like. I mean, we could have driven. And a few months ago, I would have refused to walk that far. But I've been clocking a mile or two every day now for awhile -- and so, what the heck. We hiked out for beer.
A low, grey sky, impending rain. It was still damp from the morning's rain. But it wasn't so cold that a jacket, a scarf (that could double as a mask), and some good socks couldn't deal with it. My daughter and I had sturdy canvas bags and plotted the most efficient route through the meandering drives in our neighborhood.
Along the way, I found colors - purple mostly, but yellow too, and pink, the palette of spring and Easter eggs. it became a Color Walk. Try it, it's the most fun - pick a color, take a walk, take notes - and write about it.
April 5, 2020 - Dispatches from SIP- Podcast Palace
We're calling ourselves The Podcast Palace around here.
With the end of Week Three of Sheltering In Place closing in, we're resorting to podcasts as a way to create aural and psychic space around ourselves. Not that this is news to anyone in the tech world or those who have already been WFH. But it's a different look for us. All of us have our earbuds in - some with dangling cords, some cordless. Two of us have over-the-ear noise-cancellers, which gives us the look of spaced-out bears. Coming around the corner with a basket of laundry or a clutched notebook, we have more than once scared the bejeesus out each other, all of us similarly and earfully entranced in some other dimension.
The aural pitch of news-talk radio and disaster-TV-news deliberately calibrated to raise our hackles and anxiety drives me batty, the endless repetition of the same words over and over, nothing new and very rarely much hope. Yet. I'm sure the time for hope will come, a time when we will regain something that looks like normal life, a time when we can even envision what that might look like -- but for safety's sake, it's a lot further down the road than the current President pretends it is. I rely on our Governor Newsom for direction - and I will listen to his news briefings, for they are based on facts and figures, on science and safety. Otherwise, podcasts it is. I'll knit, weed, paint, walk, clean -- so much cleaning in this world, right? and listen to stories and songs to get me through time. Yes, you surmised that right, I don't watch much TV news. Virtually none. They lost me when the FCC deregulated tv, allowing news to lose the tenets and ethics of true journalism and become partisan mouth-pieces.
And there are sooooo many good podcasts, enough to fit any mood (sad, anxious, energized, cranky) or need (information, distraction, humor, connection). Here are some that get me going.
I've been listening to Family Secrets, too, by Dani Shapiro. She's been offering bonus episodes, as many podcasts are right now, to handle the issues and the influx of listeners. The April 4th Bonus Episode is an interview with Stephanie Wittles Wachs, creator and host of the podcast of Last Day. They have a wide-ranging discussion on the global trauma we are all facing right now. It is rather mind-boggling to comprehend that everyone in the world is being affected by this virus, to a greater or lesser degree. I mean, everyone. Even though we had World Wars, in which most people were affected - not everyone was. This is truly a global event, affecting all countries, all peoples.
And then Dani Shapiro, in her wisdom, reminds us that, in terms of family, we will never have this time again, when the family unit is so tightly sealed unto itself. Many of us are finding more out about our children and parents that we ever thought possible. We are making meals together, watching shows together (like the old days!) sharing podcasts, things that wouldn't have happened in that other, more regular life when we were all out and about. I find myself telling family stories that I hadn't really shared before, about the 60s, the protests, the riots, the Viet Nam War, the marches. I talk about my mom and her three sisters, born of Finnish immigrants, speaking Finnish as a first language. I try to describe my father, a WWII vet, with untreated, undiagnosed PTSD. Perhaps it's boredom, perhaps it feels essential, perhaps its just what people do when we're hunkered down in our bunkers, seeking to pass the time.
So here is a very partial list of what I've been listening to. All of them can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, so I am not making them all live links.
Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam
By The Book with Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meizner
Memory Palace by Nick DeMeao - memorable snippets
Happier with Gretchen Rubin and Liz Craft- I love the banter between the sisters, the happiness hacks, the variety of ideas.
The Kitchen Sisters- history-keepers, thoughtful stories, artfully crafted.
Satellite Sisters - wide ranging, poitical and cultural insight, reflection
On Being with Krista Tippet - as thoughtful and insightful as they get
99% Invisible by Roman Mars- design is everywhere.
Anthropocene by John Greene- essays by the earful
Sleep With Me by Drew "Scooter"Ackerman - when I need to sleep, this is the one that does it.
Of course, there are more. Share your favorites in the comments below.
With the end of Week Three of Sheltering In Place closing in, we're resorting to podcasts as a way to create aural and psychic space around ourselves. Not that this is news to anyone in the tech world or those who have already been WFH. But it's a different look for us. All of us have our earbuds in - some with dangling cords, some cordless. Two of us have over-the-ear noise-cancellers, which gives us the look of spaced-out bears. Coming around the corner with a basket of laundry or a clutched notebook, we have more than once scared the bejeesus out each other, all of us similarly and earfully entranced in some other dimension.
The aural pitch of news-talk radio and disaster-TV-news deliberately calibrated to raise our hackles and anxiety drives me batty, the endless repetition of the same words over and over, nothing new and very rarely much hope. Yet. I'm sure the time for hope will come, a time when we will regain something that looks like normal life, a time when we can even envision what that might look like -- but for safety's sake, it's a lot further down the road than the current President pretends it is. I rely on our Governor Newsom for direction - and I will listen to his news briefings, for they are based on facts and figures, on science and safety. Otherwise, podcasts it is. I'll knit, weed, paint, walk, clean -- so much cleaning in this world, right? and listen to stories and songs to get me through time. Yes, you surmised that right, I don't watch much TV news. Virtually none. They lost me when the FCC deregulated tv, allowing news to lose the tenets and ethics of true journalism and become partisan mouth-pieces.
And there are sooooo many good podcasts, enough to fit any mood (sad, anxious, energized, cranky) or need (information, distraction, humor, connection). Here are some that get me going.
- For current affairs, The Daily from the New York Times offers insight about the news that I can handle - most of the time, that is. Or a darn good story, like The Sea Monkey Fortune
- RadioLab is a classic that has accompanied my ears from its days on FM radio, late at night. Now Bob Krolich has retired. Oh my goodness. But the podcast rolls on with some great Dispatches
- Wait Wait Don't Tell Me -- will have you in stitches, even if it is closely tied to current affairs. These are necessary laughs, because without humor, we just might not make it.
- Ologies with Alie Ward pretty much tops my list, though. Her concern for everyone, her genuine enthusiasm for science, her approach of asking "dumb questions of smart people " pulls all of us into the journey of discovery, because don't we all feel dumb about some things? Her episodes about Fearology (April 30, 2018)and Virology (March 9 2020) are not to be missed in the current climate -- but all of them are fascinating, even when you don't think they will be. I mean, who knew I'd get any feels for hagfish (Hagfishology) ? She's my go-to when I feel most fragile.
I've been listening to Family Secrets, too, by Dani Shapiro. She's been offering bonus episodes, as many podcasts are right now, to handle the issues and the influx of listeners. The April 4th Bonus Episode is an interview with Stephanie Wittles Wachs, creator and host of the podcast of Last Day. They have a wide-ranging discussion on the global trauma we are all facing right now. It is rather mind-boggling to comprehend that everyone in the world is being affected by this virus, to a greater or lesser degree. I mean, everyone. Even though we had World Wars, in which most people were affected - not everyone was. This is truly a global event, affecting all countries, all peoples.
And then Dani Shapiro, in her wisdom, reminds us that, in terms of family, we will never have this time again, when the family unit is so tightly sealed unto itself. Many of us are finding more out about our children and parents that we ever thought possible. We are making meals together, watching shows together (like the old days!) sharing podcasts, things that wouldn't have happened in that other, more regular life when we were all out and about. I find myself telling family stories that I hadn't really shared before, about the 60s, the protests, the riots, the Viet Nam War, the marches. I talk about my mom and her three sisters, born of Finnish immigrants, speaking Finnish as a first language. I try to describe my father, a WWII vet, with untreated, undiagnosed PTSD. Perhaps it's boredom, perhaps it feels essential, perhaps its just what people do when we're hunkered down in our bunkers, seeking to pass the time.
So here is a very partial list of what I've been listening to. All of them can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, so I am not making them all live links.
Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam
By The Book with Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meizner
Memory Palace by Nick DeMeao - memorable snippets
Happier with Gretchen Rubin and Liz Craft- I love the banter between the sisters, the happiness hacks, the variety of ideas.
The Kitchen Sisters- history-keepers, thoughtful stories, artfully crafted.
Satellite Sisters - wide ranging, poitical and cultural insight, reflection
On Being with Krista Tippet - as thoughtful and insightful as they get
99% Invisible by Roman Mars- design is everywhere.
Anthropocene by John Greene- essays by the earful
Sleep With Me by Drew "Scooter"Ackerman - when I need to sleep, this is the one that does it.
Of course, there are more. Share your favorites in the comments below.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
April 4, 2020 - Saturday Dispatches SIP
I fuss around the side yard today, creating a Kitchen Garden. I want herbs, tomatoes, basil, pomegranates. I listen to Gavin Newsom's press conference as I shift rocks and look for worms in the drizzle; I find it impossible to listen or watch the ones from the White House, so full of misinformation and lies; the bad behavior like a five-year-old bully. A bully who has endangered the lives of all Americans. 
I'm so proud of our Governor Newsom. He installed the lock-down hard and early (March 17) and saved lives; he's even strengthened the orders, as the weeks have gone by, not even promising an end date for them, preferring to gauge the release of SIP on the actual health of the state. Though for sure we're on SIP through April. And into May. Newsom has shared accurate knowledge even if it doesn't reflect well on him and today owned the lack of accurate and fast testing. Though I have to say, testing is something the Federal Government should have been doing right away, early and often. Newsom is acting more like a President than the one who's in the White House right now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)