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shadowkat1. It was another beautiful day today. The snow storm they predicted never hit Brooklyn, went completely north of us, and the cold temperatures? Worse was maybe the forties on Saturday, got up to the sixties today. Lots of sunshine. I'm somewhat annoyed by it - I wanted a rainy or snow weekend to binge curl up and read during. Instead, I spoke to my mother, watched the governor, texted my sis-in-law, and walked around Greenwood Cemetery. Also got food deliveries.
Tonight, I ordered take out for the first time since..I can remember, I think the last time I did it was in the old apartment and in the 1990s. I ordered a gluten-free pepperoni mid-size pizza and a side salad of mixed mesculin greens, strawberries, tomatoes and asiago cheese, with oil and vinegar on the side. It was yummy and I have enough left over for tomorrow. I did it as a no contact delivery, they rang the buzzer, came upstairs, knocked, and I told them to leave outside the door. They left, and I opened the door and got the food. Much easier than expected and ordered via "Slice". It gives money to local restaurants and businesses, keeping them in operation during the pandemic.
I may try the Thai place next. There's a huge list of local restaurants on the COVID-19 Neighborhood Support Page.
I wasn't planning on walking around Greenwood Cemetery, but after I'd finished watching "Rosewell, New Mexico" and had ordered the pizza, I got antsy. It's the time of month - when I have the equivalent of insane PMS for two weeks straight or until my stupid period pops up. If it does. Perimenupause is hell. I'm sorry, it is.I cry at a drop of a hat now, or get furious, or laugh -- and all sometimes within a minute - and the COVID thing is just making it more intense. If you have a woman in your life who is going through this? Please be kind to her - her body has decided it has a mind of its own and wrecking havoc. Anyhow, to get rid of the extra energy - which made it difficult to sleep last night -- I chose to take a walk towards Greenwood Cemetery - not sure if I'd go in or not. It's mother's day and beautiful outside, so bound to crowded with folks visiting their mothers graves and wandering about. I did however go around 3:00 PM or thereabouts, and did not plan to stay longer than an hour or so. Most people went earlier and were winding down their visits when I got there. Found out later from the Facebook Neighborhood board that Greenwood Cemetery was discouraging folks from entering who weren't specifically visiting mother's graves - eh, this wasn't clear at all. I didn't see any signs regarding it, nor did anyone stop me to ask. And the vast majority of folks I saw appeared to be walking aimlessly around like I was. In fact, I saw someone camped out in the middle of the grave site, complete with a wheel barrow, and another guy was walking his bike. I stopped to tell him he wasn't supposed to have a bike in the cemetery, he informed me that he already knew this and was just walking it home - and going through the park to get home. Which I decided was possible, also not my job to stop him, and he's bigger and younger than me. I just said, okay, just be careful because there's a reason you're not supposed to be doing that. I was on my way out of the park anyhow, and he was the only cyclist that I saw them let in. Another group of cyclists had been turned away.
What I love most about Greenwood Cemetery - is no cyclists. I kid you not, the cyclists in Brooklyn have gotten out of control. They make it difficult for pedestrians. Too many amateur bike riders with no regard for people who want to walk. But in Greenwood Cemetery - they aren't permitted to ride a bike. The other thing I love about it - is it's so vast and so peaceful. There's all these cobblestone pathways. And the groundskeepers keep it really well maintained, you don't see the litter that you see elsewhere in the city. The best time to go though is during the work week or week days, around 4 or 5PM. It closes at 7PM, so that is plenty of time to amble a bit. And since sunset isn't until 8PM now, I can wander from 5:00 until 6:30PM and head back in time to make dinner.
I may start doing Prospect Park in the early morning hours, if I can get up that early. Don't know. I'm used to walking 2-3 miles a day, the quarantine has limited that to maybe 1.5 -2.5 miles a day.
2. Mask wearing in the city, and social distancing
It's a mixed bag. I have to say that ninety percent of the population is following it pretty strictly. But you always have a handful of people who refuse to follow the rules, no matter what you tell them to do. Fact of life.
Ran into a handful of people walking today with no masks, mostly men, many minorities, which was interesting - and all under the age of 30. There were a few old me without - just walking briefly outside their houses, a few old ladies pushing carts or dogs. And a handful of people sitting on front stoops talking to neigbhors, without them, the neighbors had them on, they didn't.
Going back home, the personal trainers where outside playing back gammon, or at least it looked like back gammon, it could have been dominoes - I didn't pause or get close enough to see. I kept a good eight feet away from them. They had no masks on. I considered taking a photo, but thought better of it, and just waved instead. I've known them for about six years now - we wave, we chat briefly, I don't remember their names, I doubt they remember mine. It's not worth fighting with them about it.
I'm not really that confrontational. I actually despise conflict and confrontations and don't tend to handle them that well - they have a tendency to make me physically ill and upset. It's why I did not become a litigation attorney and decided not to pursue a career in criminal defense or legal aid. I'd have developed an ulcer.
3. My mother has now talked to assorted family members who have had the dreaded virus. Sis-in-law, who I haven't spoken with yet - I just briefly texted to wish a Happy Mother's Day - informed mother that it wasn't like anything she'd ever had before. She thought she was dying. All her insides hurt. Everything ached. It was a pain she'd never felt before. Aunt reported the same, as did my cousins. Also various church members.
This said - there was this weird virus at the tail end of November, beginning of December that hit my workplace that no one understood. And if effected people differently - it was milder than what they are describing, but weirdly similar. I thought I was drowning with it too - I coughed but brought nothing up, and had shortness of breath - which has since disappeared. But I don't know. I won't know unless I get the anti-body test - and that's not happening until it's available, it may be in June via my doctor. I have doctor's appointment in June and she'll want blood work - I might be able to get it then.
I do not believe I have COVID now, but as the Governor states - there's no way of knowing - since much like AIDS or HIV, it has a carrier pigeon aspect, where you could merely be a carrier and never exhibit symptoms.
Mother and I discussed other things as well, including an old Elizabeth Taylor/Van Johnson film she watched with my Dad last night, entitled "The Last Time I Saw Paris" - now I know the entire plot of it.
We discussed the COVID symptoms, because I felt weird last night and went through the nightly terror of...do I have it? No, no, I've had this before, it's perimenopause not COVID, get over yourself already. My brother went through it today, he wasn't feeling well - and said that he didn't see how he could have it - since he hasn't been anywhere or near anyone. Well outside of his daughter, who has strep throat and isn't prepared for the math test, nor has finished the two papers that are due this week. They are pretty certain it is strep - since she's had it before. Like I said above - COVID is like nothing you've ever had before, it's not like the flu.
4. New York vs. the Corona Virus (and well the Federal Government, mostly the Federal Government)
The New York Times posted a map showing the counties most affected by the virus in NY. I live in the area with 2,000 plus cases next to one of the areas with 2500 plus. But Queens and the Bronx and Staten Island are by far the worse affected.
The New York Times is making me crazy - I'm this-close to cancelling the subscription (assuming I can figure out how to do it - it is ridiculously difficult to cancel a digital subscription - hence the reason that I haven't gotten any others). They keep reporting all the frightening things happening at the moment.
We have a Disney Supervillain in the White House. I mean...words fail.
Meanwhile, despite myself and much to my considerable chagrin, I have begun to fall in love with my State Governor. The man is reassuring me on a daily basis, he's also reassuring my parents down in South Carolina - who won't miss his briefings aired on CNN. Mine are on NY1 or the Governor's FB page - so I also get little announcements like - "don't worry about paying your COVID bills or for testing that will be free in NY" or "for unemployment claims please contact this number..." or "if you are hungry and need food, go here...". My parents aren't getting that - I know this because my mother was worrying over how people were paying for the COVID stays - apparently a woman in South Carolina had over $60,000 in hospital bills and no insurance to cover them.
NY Governor said a couple of things in today's broadcast that blew my mind. This is the same governor who over a year ago was pushing for Amazon to set up shop in Queens and giving tax abatements to corporations to further business. I think the virus has changed him. Because he condemned Capitalism in a throw-away comment, stating that it didn't fund infrastructure or care about human life. And he also stated bold as day - and with writing and charts, that the Federal Government should not fund corporations unless the corporation promised to re-employ all the people it had laid off. Because, he explained, in detail no less, with facts, that in a capitalist system the corporations were going to lay a lot of people off, go lean, to show themselves as productive to the stock market...and then hire less people to get productivity up. So the taxpayers would be giving them money, but have no jobs and no benefits as a result of it. It would be the same mistake that the Federal Government made in 2008 when it bailed out the banks - it basically gave money to the very people responsible for the housing and mortgage scams and made it impossible for the taxpayers to get jobs or homes. Wow. That's a huge indictment of the Federal Government and the Republicans and our capitalistic system.
He also indicated that if you bail out only airlines, restaurants, hotels, retail, and millionairs (with the millionaire tax break that was in the last package), but don't fund police, hospitals, schools, public transportation, firemen, and food supply - then your whole system will fall apart. And if you don't provide
for the middle-income families - then you will cause society to break down.
The speech was factual, no-nonsense, and to the point - and it wasn't by some idiot running for political office or the presidency, it was by a man who was asking for funds to save his state and the people within it.
See that was my problem with Bernie Sanders - he never supported what he said with cold hard facts. He was too busy playing politics. And he's a Senator and doing nothing right now. NOTHING. Which is why I despised him and saw him as nothing but a hot air balloon.
Andrew Cuomo on the other hand, appears to have figured this out and is speaking from the heart. He's learned from his mistakes.
Here's what his office sent me tonight by email...
1. I will issue an Executive Order mandating that all nursing home staff be tested for COVID-19 two times per week. Nursing homes must implement plans to do so and report any positive test results to the State Department of Health by the next day. Additionally, hospitals cannot discharge a patient to a nursing home unless that patient tests negative for Coronavirus. Any nursing home or adult care facility found to be in violation of health protocols may have its operating license suspended or revoked or be subject to penalty.
2. On Tuesday, the Food Bank of Central New York will distribute food at the New York State Fairgrounds. As part of the Nourish New York Initiative, the food bank will be holding a drive-thru distribution on Tuesday, May 12 from 12:30pm - 3:30pm at the Horticulture Building on the New York State Fairgrounds, Syracuse.
3. New York State is notifying 49 other states of emerging cases of a COVID-related illness in children. We are currently investigating 85 reported cases in New York where children — predominantly school-aged — are experiencing an inflammatory syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome. The illness is believed to be related to Coronavirus. If your child is experiencing symptoms such as prolonged fever, severe abdominal pain, change in skin color, racing heart and chest pain, make sure you call your doctor.
4. Total COVID hospitalizations are still dropping. Total hospitalizations fell to 7,262, from 7,776 the day before. The number of new COVID hospitalizations yesterday was 521 — the lowest it has been since March 20. Tragically, we lost an additional 207 New Yorkers yesterday to the virus.
5. The State Department of Health is actively pursuing a new drug therapy in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is distributing an antiviral medication called Remdesivir that may help patients infected with COVID-19 recover more quickly. New York will use the medication to treat 2,900 people at 15 hospitals.
Say what you will about Andrew Cuomo, here is a man that genuinely cares about others and is doing everything in his power to help them on every level imaginable.
He's fighting to provide food, to preserve jobs, and preserve lives. And when our federal government and WHO fell down on the job - he stepped up to the task and find the people to help him.
We may just survive this because of him. Even though our Federal Government has decided to kill us all. My mother got fed up and donated money to Biden and Amy McGrath's campaign in Kentucky - she calls it Ditch the Mitch Campaign, she also gave to Jamie Harris - the opponent of Lindsey Graham. McGrath is a war veternan and hero, mother read up on her first.
I love my mother dearly. She keeps me grounded. I talk to her every day. And am thankful for her. So I identified a bit with Cuomo who said the same about his.
5. Almost forgot to link to this lovely thing done by my church choir director..
I cried during it - but have I mentioned that at this point in time, I tend to cry at the drop of a hat? Commercials make me cry. It's pathetic really.
Tonight, I ordered take out for the first time since..I can remember, I think the last time I did it was in the old apartment and in the 1990s. I ordered a gluten-free pepperoni mid-size pizza and a side salad of mixed mesculin greens, strawberries, tomatoes and asiago cheese, with oil and vinegar on the side. It was yummy and I have enough left over for tomorrow. I did it as a no contact delivery, they rang the buzzer, came upstairs, knocked, and I told them to leave outside the door. They left, and I opened the door and got the food. Much easier than expected and ordered via "Slice". It gives money to local restaurants and businesses, keeping them in operation during the pandemic.
I may try the Thai place next. There's a huge list of local restaurants on the COVID-19 Neighborhood Support Page.
I wasn't planning on walking around Greenwood Cemetery, but after I'd finished watching "Rosewell, New Mexico" and had ordered the pizza, I got antsy. It's the time of month - when I have the equivalent of insane PMS for two weeks straight or until my stupid period pops up. If it does. Perimenupause is hell. I'm sorry, it is.I cry at a drop of a hat now, or get furious, or laugh -- and all sometimes within a minute - and the COVID thing is just making it more intense. If you have a woman in your life who is going through this? Please be kind to her - her body has decided it has a mind of its own and wrecking havoc. Anyhow, to get rid of the extra energy - which made it difficult to sleep last night -- I chose to take a walk towards Greenwood Cemetery - not sure if I'd go in or not. It's mother's day and beautiful outside, so bound to crowded with folks visiting their mothers graves and wandering about. I did however go around 3:00 PM or thereabouts, and did not plan to stay longer than an hour or so. Most people went earlier and were winding down their visits when I got there. Found out later from the Facebook Neighborhood board that Greenwood Cemetery was discouraging folks from entering who weren't specifically visiting mother's graves - eh, this wasn't clear at all. I didn't see any signs regarding it, nor did anyone stop me to ask. And the vast majority of folks I saw appeared to be walking aimlessly around like I was. In fact, I saw someone camped out in the middle of the grave site, complete with a wheel barrow, and another guy was walking his bike. I stopped to tell him he wasn't supposed to have a bike in the cemetery, he informed me that he already knew this and was just walking it home - and going through the park to get home. Which I decided was possible, also not my job to stop him, and he's bigger and younger than me. I just said, okay, just be careful because there's a reason you're not supposed to be doing that. I was on my way out of the park anyhow, and he was the only cyclist that I saw them let in. Another group of cyclists had been turned away.
What I love most about Greenwood Cemetery - is no cyclists. I kid you not, the cyclists in Brooklyn have gotten out of control. They make it difficult for pedestrians. Too many amateur bike riders with no regard for people who want to walk. But in Greenwood Cemetery - they aren't permitted to ride a bike. The other thing I love about it - is it's so vast and so peaceful. There's all these cobblestone pathways. And the groundskeepers keep it really well maintained, you don't see the litter that you see elsewhere in the city. The best time to go though is during the work week or week days, around 4 or 5PM. It closes at 7PM, so that is plenty of time to amble a bit. And since sunset isn't until 8PM now, I can wander from 5:00 until 6:30PM and head back in time to make dinner.
I may start doing Prospect Park in the early morning hours, if I can get up that early. Don't know. I'm used to walking 2-3 miles a day, the quarantine has limited that to maybe 1.5 -2.5 miles a day.
2. Mask wearing in the city, and social distancing
It's a mixed bag. I have to say that ninety percent of the population is following it pretty strictly. But you always have a handful of people who refuse to follow the rules, no matter what you tell them to do. Fact of life.
Ran into a handful of people walking today with no masks, mostly men, many minorities, which was interesting - and all under the age of 30. There were a few old me without - just walking briefly outside their houses, a few old ladies pushing carts or dogs. And a handful of people sitting on front stoops talking to neigbhors, without them, the neighbors had them on, they didn't.
Going back home, the personal trainers where outside playing back gammon, or at least it looked like back gammon, it could have been dominoes - I didn't pause or get close enough to see. I kept a good eight feet away from them. They had no masks on. I considered taking a photo, but thought better of it, and just waved instead. I've known them for about six years now - we wave, we chat briefly, I don't remember their names, I doubt they remember mine. It's not worth fighting with them about it.
I'm not really that confrontational. I actually despise conflict and confrontations and don't tend to handle them that well - they have a tendency to make me physically ill and upset. It's why I did not become a litigation attorney and decided not to pursue a career in criminal defense or legal aid. I'd have developed an ulcer.
3. My mother has now talked to assorted family members who have had the dreaded virus. Sis-in-law, who I haven't spoken with yet - I just briefly texted to wish a Happy Mother's Day - informed mother that it wasn't like anything she'd ever had before. She thought she was dying. All her insides hurt. Everything ached. It was a pain she'd never felt before. Aunt reported the same, as did my cousins. Also various church members.
This said - there was this weird virus at the tail end of November, beginning of December that hit my workplace that no one understood. And if effected people differently - it was milder than what they are describing, but weirdly similar. I thought I was drowning with it too - I coughed but brought nothing up, and had shortness of breath - which has since disappeared. But I don't know. I won't know unless I get the anti-body test - and that's not happening until it's available, it may be in June via my doctor. I have doctor's appointment in June and she'll want blood work - I might be able to get it then.
I do not believe I have COVID now, but as the Governor states - there's no way of knowing - since much like AIDS or HIV, it has a carrier pigeon aspect, where you could merely be a carrier and never exhibit symptoms.
Mother and I discussed other things as well, including an old Elizabeth Taylor/Van Johnson film she watched with my Dad last night, entitled "The Last Time I Saw Paris" - now I know the entire plot of it.
We discussed the COVID symptoms, because I felt weird last night and went through the nightly terror of...do I have it? No, no, I've had this before, it's perimenopause not COVID, get over yourself already. My brother went through it today, he wasn't feeling well - and said that he didn't see how he could have it - since he hasn't been anywhere or near anyone. Well outside of his daughter, who has strep throat and isn't prepared for the math test, nor has finished the two papers that are due this week. They are pretty certain it is strep - since she's had it before. Like I said above - COVID is like nothing you've ever had before, it's not like the flu.
4. New York vs. the Corona Virus (and well the Federal Government, mostly the Federal Government)
The New York Times posted a map showing the counties most affected by the virus in NY. I live in the area with 2,000 plus cases next to one of the areas with 2500 plus. But Queens and the Bronx and Staten Island are by far the worse affected.
The New York Times is making me crazy - I'm this-close to cancelling the subscription (assuming I can figure out how to do it - it is ridiculously difficult to cancel a digital subscription - hence the reason that I haven't gotten any others). They keep reporting all the frightening things happening at the moment.
We have a Disney Supervillain in the White House. I mean...words fail.
Meanwhile, despite myself and much to my considerable chagrin, I have begun to fall in love with my State Governor. The man is reassuring me on a daily basis, he's also reassuring my parents down in South Carolina - who won't miss his briefings aired on CNN. Mine are on NY1 or the Governor's FB page - so I also get little announcements like - "don't worry about paying your COVID bills or for testing that will be free in NY" or "for unemployment claims please contact this number..." or "if you are hungry and need food, go here...". My parents aren't getting that - I know this because my mother was worrying over how people were paying for the COVID stays - apparently a woman in South Carolina had over $60,000 in hospital bills and no insurance to cover them.
NY Governor said a couple of things in today's broadcast that blew my mind. This is the same governor who over a year ago was pushing for Amazon to set up shop in Queens and giving tax abatements to corporations to further business. I think the virus has changed him. Because he condemned Capitalism in a throw-away comment, stating that it didn't fund infrastructure or care about human life. And he also stated bold as day - and with writing and charts, that the Federal Government should not fund corporations unless the corporation promised to re-employ all the people it had laid off. Because, he explained, in detail no less, with facts, that in a capitalist system the corporations were going to lay a lot of people off, go lean, to show themselves as productive to the stock market...and then hire less people to get productivity up. So the taxpayers would be giving them money, but have no jobs and no benefits as a result of it. It would be the same mistake that the Federal Government made in 2008 when it bailed out the banks - it basically gave money to the very people responsible for the housing and mortgage scams and made it impossible for the taxpayers to get jobs or homes. Wow. That's a huge indictment of the Federal Government and the Republicans and our capitalistic system.
He also indicated that if you bail out only airlines, restaurants, hotels, retail, and millionairs (with the millionaire tax break that was in the last package), but don't fund police, hospitals, schools, public transportation, firemen, and food supply - then your whole system will fall apart. And if you don't provide
for the middle-income families - then you will cause society to break down.
The speech was factual, no-nonsense, and to the point - and it wasn't by some idiot running for political office or the presidency, it was by a man who was asking for funds to save his state and the people within it.
See that was my problem with Bernie Sanders - he never supported what he said with cold hard facts. He was too busy playing politics. And he's a Senator and doing nothing right now. NOTHING. Which is why I despised him and saw him as nothing but a hot air balloon.
Andrew Cuomo on the other hand, appears to have figured this out and is speaking from the heart. He's learned from his mistakes.
Here's what his office sent me tonight by email...
1. I will issue an Executive Order mandating that all nursing home staff be tested for COVID-19 two times per week. Nursing homes must implement plans to do so and report any positive test results to the State Department of Health by the next day. Additionally, hospitals cannot discharge a patient to a nursing home unless that patient tests negative for Coronavirus. Any nursing home or adult care facility found to be in violation of health protocols may have its operating license suspended or revoked or be subject to penalty.
2. On Tuesday, the Food Bank of Central New York will distribute food at the New York State Fairgrounds. As part of the Nourish New York Initiative, the food bank will be holding a drive-thru distribution on Tuesday, May 12 from 12:30pm - 3:30pm at the Horticulture Building on the New York State Fairgrounds, Syracuse.
3. New York State is notifying 49 other states of emerging cases of a COVID-related illness in children. We are currently investigating 85 reported cases in New York where children — predominantly school-aged — are experiencing an inflammatory syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome. The illness is believed to be related to Coronavirus. If your child is experiencing symptoms such as prolonged fever, severe abdominal pain, change in skin color, racing heart and chest pain, make sure you call your doctor.
4. Total COVID hospitalizations are still dropping. Total hospitalizations fell to 7,262, from 7,776 the day before. The number of new COVID hospitalizations yesterday was 521 — the lowest it has been since March 20. Tragically, we lost an additional 207 New Yorkers yesterday to the virus.
5. The State Department of Health is actively pursuing a new drug therapy in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is distributing an antiviral medication called Remdesivir that may help patients infected with COVID-19 recover more quickly. New York will use the medication to treat 2,900 people at 15 hospitals.
Say what you will about Andrew Cuomo, here is a man that genuinely cares about others and is doing everything in his power to help them on every level imaginable.
He's fighting to provide food, to preserve jobs, and preserve lives. And when our federal government and WHO fell down on the job - he stepped up to the task and find the people to help him.
We may just survive this because of him. Even though our Federal Government has decided to kill us all. My mother got fed up and donated money to Biden and Amy McGrath's campaign in Kentucky - she calls it Ditch the Mitch Campaign, she also gave to Jamie Harris - the opponent of Lindsey Graham. McGrath is a war veternan and hero, mother read up on her first.
I love my mother dearly. She keeps me grounded. I talk to her every day. And am thankful for her. So I identified a bit with Cuomo who said the same about his.
5. Almost forgot to link to this lovely thing done by my church choir director..
I cried during it - but have I mentioned that at this point in time, I tend to cry at the drop of a hat? Commercials make me cry. It's pathetic really.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-11 02:49 am (UTC)I knew I was in trouble when I was sobbing over AT&T commercials.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-11 07:26 pm (UTC)Ugh. I can't wait for menopause.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-11 11:00 pm (UTC)