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shadowkatIt wants to thunderstorm but won't. I wish it would, it's making me edgy. I didn't go for a walk around Greenwood Cemetery today on account of the humidity, and well, the tension in the air due to the fact that the weather is unsettled. (My body over the years has become increasingly sensitive to the weather. To such an extent that I get vertigo headaches when it wants to storm - so I take meds to keep them at bay. Feeling better now.)
Instead, I walked to Carnival Fruit and Vegetable Stand for veggies and fruit, chips, popcorn, pickles, hot dogs, and chocolate. Also Kombauchi.
Mainly got greens, because I was running out again. I think in a past life I must have been a rabbit - I seem to eat a lot of spinach, shard, argula, celery, radishes, green onion, cucumber, strawberries, blueberries, and red onions. That said? I've never been fond of carrots. I don't like sweet vegetables.
The store felt safer than expected. Everyone in it wore a mask. It had maybe five people shopping, if that, and all did their utmost to socially distance themselves. Also there were plastic protectors between us and the cashiers.
And we were permitted to use our own bags. (I hate using the plastic bags - which by the way have popped up again with COVID-19.)
And along the way, I noticed another change - the little libraries on the go are open again. These are basically little wooden depositories where you can leave a book, and take a book. They were boarded up from March to June, now they are un-boarded and books are in them again. (I think people figured out that it's unlikely they will contract the virus from a book. A person yes, a book, no.) The information provided now is that you can only get the virus from direct contact with someone carrying it or in an area in which they've recently been. While the virus can survive up to 72 hours on hard surfaces, you have to get a full viral load for it to make a difference. Which basically means in order to get it from a hard surface - someone who is ill would have had to sneeze, cough, breath heavily or dispense the virus on to it and you'd have had to touch it immediately thereafter and touch your mouth, nose or eyes. It diminishes as time passes, particularly if in sunlight, outdoors or cleaned.
Another interesting tidbit? G Adventures, the Group Travel Agency that I journeyed to Costa Rica with and was considering going somewhere else - prior to the virus, sent me the following information:
G Adventures has suspended tours up to August 31, 2020.
As COVID-19 continues to create global uncertainty, we have made the difficult decision to further suspend all of our G Adventures tours through to August 31, 2020. We can’t tell you how disappointing it is for us to write that. But the safety and security of our travellers, along with that of our staff and partners, has always been what matters most to us. And because we don’t know what the next few months hold, we feel this is the right thing to do.
This provides travellers with assurance and the flexibility to postpone their trip to be enjoyed fully at a later date.
We thank you for your patience and understanding in these unprecedented times and we are communicating as efficiently as we can. We will get to everyone - and are working with customers on a priority basis.
We know you can’t wait to get back to exploring the world, so we’re doing everything we can to make you feel even more confident about your choice to travel again. That’s why we’re introducing the Travel with Confidence Plus Collection of 37 incredible small group tours. These tours include all the health and safety measures we’ve put in place as part of our Travel with Confidence policy, PLUS new features that go that extra, physically distanced mile:
Our maximum group size has been reduced to 12 travellers on most tours
Exclusive use of private transportation (except planes)
My Own Room option is available for 50% off and includes extra space on all our private vehicles
All rooms on trip will have en-suite bathrooms
Go HERE for more details.
They also provided a Link to which countries are opening back up again. Although with what is currently happening in the US at the moment, I seriously doubt they'll let US citizens visit. G Adventurers is Canadian based.
Spoke to my mother...we'd both watch church services via streaming. I watched the UA General Assembly which was available via Zoom and Youtube. The Zoom connection was horrible so I went with Youtube. It was very moving in places - the musical numbers were so beautiful they moved me to tears. There was one song... There will be better days that had me bawling. The sermon, however, irritated.
I'm not doing very well with lectures and sermons right now - music yes, sermons no. But I've always struggled with "preachers" and "sermons" - in that I am not a person who likes to be told what to do, I prefer to figure it out on my own - and prefer metaphor through music and fiction, to the direct literal approach.
My mother stopped streaming her church's service, when the Eucharist began.
Mother: Okay there's no need to continue - they are doing communion and we can't partake anyhow.
Father: Why can't we? We should be able to.
Mother stares at father - and holds up phone.
My poor mother.
Me: I feel for him. Zoom is confusing.
Mother: It's not Zoom though - it's my phone.
They aren't attending the church. For one thing, they are still under lockdown for the most part. South Carolina is one of the states that is increasing with cases - over 1,000 or more a day. They aren't quite as bad as Arizona and Texas but rather close. My parents are for the most part safely ensconced in an independent retirement community. But, the area outside of them is not being safe. Their church was holding services, and had recently had one of the people who give out the Eucharist daily come down with the virus. So they have to check everything now for the virus - since this person was opening up and closing the church, etc. And while people are wearing masks for the most part - he or she was handing out communion.
Ugh. I'm glad my parents are staying home. My mother is smart. And my father, while out of it due to the Alzheimers, is also fairly smart. (Seriously its saying something when a man with rear brain Alzheimers knows to socially distance and wear a mask.) The pandemic has however set him back a bit, and he is struggling to handle it. He was doing well prior to this.
I still fear that this virus may yet take my parents away from me. But I'm guessing this fear is not isolated to me.
Was somewhat reassured today to discover that I am not the only one ranting with impotent rage against the US federal government and in particular the Republicans responsible for it and their colossal mismanagement of the crisis at hand - resulting in millions of deaths, and various states struggling to stay afloat. Who continue to put money and the economy above everything. It's becoming increasingly difficult not to hate these people. Anyhow, it's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling this impotent rage. Obviously, I'm not or people wouldn't be protesting in the streets for weeks on end. My pal in Arizona is struggling with a different type of protestor - the evil entitled white folks who think they should have the right to wander about without masks and kill people at will. They have guns. And have been protesting a 1.5 mile from her house, and have destroyed property. She's staying in - so she can see her mother in ten days, and wishes others would too.
I'm feeling increasingly isolated and a little resentful of people who aren't. So the Fiona Apple song Relay seems apropos. Although I don't resent people for all the same reasons as she does...but many of them do apply. And I know it only hurts me. So I meditate to let go of the thoughts.
And..I took a break, with escapist television.
* Romancing the Stone - a 1980s Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner romantic/comedic adventure.
* What we do in the shadows - I adore Nadjia. Also Laslo, Colin, Nandor, etc are growing on me. There's some very funny lines. "We're vampires, we can't go into a church!" I'm on S2 now.
* Black Sails - the actor playing real life pirate Vane, is a very attractive man. Just saying. I'm also very found of the other real life fictionalized pirates in the cast. Doris Egan is one of the producers/writers of it. Doris is cjlasky's old acquaintance, and wrote for a bit on things like Reign, Homicide Life on the Street, Dark Angel, Smallville, etc. I was also following her blog on lj - tightropegirl.
I tried Atremis Fowl - but got bored. It's clearly targeted to kids. But it does not have a very charismatic lead - which is problematic. I have a feeling this would have been a flop if it didn't go straight to video.
I hope everyone else is hanging in there. I am. Trying to keep my demons at bay. Wasn't easy - a dog barked this morning for four hours. Finally stopped. I think it got hoarse? Or as mother put it, when I told her about it, someone took the poor thing for a walk or fed it. I had no idea where it was coming from or why it was barking, just that it was close and giving me a headache. And the people above me sound like they are moving furniture or have been - off and on all day long. There are days that I wish I lived alone in a nice modern house up in the mountains, the nearest neighbor - twenty miles away. Although, I agreed with mother - I don't think I'd be able to handle that for very long on account of hating to drive. I had another driving nightmare last night - which was associated with work, and trying to come back to the office with COVID-19. All my dreams are associated with COVID now. It's my own fault, I keep checking the COVID MAP OF DOOM numbers prior to bed - trying to make sense of them. I think if I look at them long enough - they will make sense to me, so far not so much.
During our last phone call, mother and I did crosswords over the phone. Movie quotes. That I could do. Then she wanted to do another one..
Mother:What's a four letter word that means yummy and sweet?
Me: Dammed if I know. Treat?
Mother: That's not a four letter word.
Me: See? This is why I suck at crosswords.
Last night's sunset outside my window after a major thunderstorm. There won't be one tonight, or I doubt it, since it finally raining and having a rather weird thunderstorm - it's half-raining, half not, there's lightening and not, and it's sunny but not. Weird. The weather has been very weird this year.
We need the rain desperately and it thwarts the folks setting off fireworks in the neighborhood. So I'm hoping for a downpour, but it appears to be teasing me with some wind, and a dimly light sky.
Instead, I walked to Carnival Fruit and Vegetable Stand for veggies and fruit, chips, popcorn, pickles, hot dogs, and chocolate. Also Kombauchi.
Mainly got greens, because I was running out again. I think in a past life I must have been a rabbit - I seem to eat a lot of spinach, shard, argula, celery, radishes, green onion, cucumber, strawberries, blueberries, and red onions. That said? I've never been fond of carrots. I don't like sweet vegetables.
The store felt safer than expected. Everyone in it wore a mask. It had maybe five people shopping, if that, and all did their utmost to socially distance themselves. Also there were plastic protectors between us and the cashiers.
And we were permitted to use our own bags. (I hate using the plastic bags - which by the way have popped up again with COVID-19.)
And along the way, I noticed another change - the little libraries on the go are open again. These are basically little wooden depositories where you can leave a book, and take a book. They were boarded up from March to June, now they are un-boarded and books are in them again. (I think people figured out that it's unlikely they will contract the virus from a book. A person yes, a book, no.) The information provided now is that you can only get the virus from direct contact with someone carrying it or in an area in which they've recently been. While the virus can survive up to 72 hours on hard surfaces, you have to get a full viral load for it to make a difference. Which basically means in order to get it from a hard surface - someone who is ill would have had to sneeze, cough, breath heavily or dispense the virus on to it and you'd have had to touch it immediately thereafter and touch your mouth, nose or eyes. It diminishes as time passes, particularly if in sunlight, outdoors or cleaned.
Another interesting tidbit? G Adventures, the Group Travel Agency that I journeyed to Costa Rica with and was considering going somewhere else - prior to the virus, sent me the following information:
G Adventures has suspended tours up to August 31, 2020.
As COVID-19 continues to create global uncertainty, we have made the difficult decision to further suspend all of our G Adventures tours through to August 31, 2020. We can’t tell you how disappointing it is for us to write that. But the safety and security of our travellers, along with that of our staff and partners, has always been what matters most to us. And because we don’t know what the next few months hold, we feel this is the right thing to do.
This provides travellers with assurance and the flexibility to postpone their trip to be enjoyed fully at a later date.
We thank you for your patience and understanding in these unprecedented times and we are communicating as efficiently as we can. We will get to everyone - and are working with customers on a priority basis.
We know you can’t wait to get back to exploring the world, so we’re doing everything we can to make you feel even more confident about your choice to travel again. That’s why we’re introducing the Travel with Confidence Plus Collection of 37 incredible small group tours. These tours include all the health and safety measures we’ve put in place as part of our Travel with Confidence policy, PLUS new features that go that extra, physically distanced mile:
Our maximum group size has been reduced to 12 travellers on most tours
Exclusive use of private transportation (except planes)
My Own Room option is available for 50% off and includes extra space on all our private vehicles
All rooms on trip will have en-suite bathrooms
Go HERE for more details.
They also provided a Link to which countries are opening back up again. Although with what is currently happening in the US at the moment, I seriously doubt they'll let US citizens visit. G Adventurers is Canadian based.
Spoke to my mother...we'd both watch church services via streaming. I watched the UA General Assembly which was available via Zoom and Youtube. The Zoom connection was horrible so I went with Youtube. It was very moving in places - the musical numbers were so beautiful they moved me to tears. There was one song... There will be better days that had me bawling. The sermon, however, irritated.
I'm not doing very well with lectures and sermons right now - music yes, sermons no. But I've always struggled with "preachers" and "sermons" - in that I am not a person who likes to be told what to do, I prefer to figure it out on my own - and prefer metaphor through music and fiction, to the direct literal approach.
My mother stopped streaming her church's service, when the Eucharist began.
Mother: Okay there's no need to continue - they are doing communion and we can't partake anyhow.
Father: Why can't we? We should be able to.
Mother stares at father - and holds up phone.
My poor mother.
Me: I feel for him. Zoom is confusing.
Mother: It's not Zoom though - it's my phone.
They aren't attending the church. For one thing, they are still under lockdown for the most part. South Carolina is one of the states that is increasing with cases - over 1,000 or more a day. They aren't quite as bad as Arizona and Texas but rather close. My parents are for the most part safely ensconced in an independent retirement community. But, the area outside of them is not being safe. Their church was holding services, and had recently had one of the people who give out the Eucharist daily come down with the virus. So they have to check everything now for the virus - since this person was opening up and closing the church, etc. And while people are wearing masks for the most part - he or she was handing out communion.
Ugh. I'm glad my parents are staying home. My mother is smart. And my father, while out of it due to the Alzheimers, is also fairly smart. (Seriously its saying something when a man with rear brain Alzheimers knows to socially distance and wear a mask.) The pandemic has however set him back a bit, and he is struggling to handle it. He was doing well prior to this.
I still fear that this virus may yet take my parents away from me. But I'm guessing this fear is not isolated to me.
Was somewhat reassured today to discover that I am not the only one ranting with impotent rage against the US federal government and in particular the Republicans responsible for it and their colossal mismanagement of the crisis at hand - resulting in millions of deaths, and various states struggling to stay afloat. Who continue to put money and the economy above everything. It's becoming increasingly difficult not to hate these people. Anyhow, it's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling this impotent rage. Obviously, I'm not or people wouldn't be protesting in the streets for weeks on end. My pal in Arizona is struggling with a different type of protestor - the evil entitled white folks who think they should have the right to wander about without masks and kill people at will. They have guns. And have been protesting a 1.5 mile from her house, and have destroyed property. She's staying in - so she can see her mother in ten days, and wishes others would too.
I'm feeling increasingly isolated and a little resentful of people who aren't. So the Fiona Apple song Relay seems apropos. Although I don't resent people for all the same reasons as she does...but many of them do apply. And I know it only hurts me. So I meditate to let go of the thoughts.
And..I took a break, with escapist television.
* Romancing the Stone - a 1980s Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner romantic/comedic adventure.
* What we do in the shadows - I adore Nadjia. Also Laslo, Colin, Nandor, etc are growing on me. There's some very funny lines. "We're vampires, we can't go into a church!" I'm on S2 now.
* Black Sails - the actor playing real life pirate Vane, is a very attractive man. Just saying. I'm also very found of the other real life fictionalized pirates in the cast. Doris Egan is one of the producers/writers of it. Doris is cjlasky's old acquaintance, and wrote for a bit on things like Reign, Homicide Life on the Street, Dark Angel, Smallville, etc. I was also following her blog on lj - tightropegirl.
I tried Atremis Fowl - but got bored. It's clearly targeted to kids. But it does not have a very charismatic lead - which is problematic. I have a feeling this would have been a flop if it didn't go straight to video.
I hope everyone else is hanging in there. I am. Trying to keep my demons at bay. Wasn't easy - a dog barked this morning for four hours. Finally stopped. I think it got hoarse? Or as mother put it, when I told her about it, someone took the poor thing for a walk or fed it. I had no idea where it was coming from or why it was barking, just that it was close and giving me a headache. And the people above me sound like they are moving furniture or have been - off and on all day long. There are days that I wish I lived alone in a nice modern house up in the mountains, the nearest neighbor - twenty miles away. Although, I agreed with mother - I don't think I'd be able to handle that for very long on account of hating to drive. I had another driving nightmare last night - which was associated with work, and trying to come back to the office with COVID-19. All my dreams are associated with COVID now. It's my own fault, I keep checking the COVID MAP OF DOOM numbers prior to bed - trying to make sense of them. I think if I look at them long enough - they will make sense to me, so far not so much.
During our last phone call, mother and I did crosswords over the phone. Movie quotes. That I could do. Then she wanted to do another one..
Mother:What's a four letter word that means yummy and sweet?
Me: Dammed if I know. Treat?
Mother: That's not a four letter word.
Me: See? This is why I suck at crosswords.
Last night's sunset outside my window after a major thunderstorm. There won't be one tonight, or I doubt it, since it finally raining and having a rather weird thunderstorm - it's half-raining, half not, there's lightening and not, and it's sunny but not. Weird. The weather has been very weird this year.
We need the rain desperately and it thwarts the folks setting off fireworks in the neighborhood. So I'm hoping for a downpour, but it appears to be teasing me with some wind, and a dimly light sky.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-28 11:43 pm (UTC)But maybe that was good.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-29 12:35 am (UTC)I found your blog post yesterday today and it was very reassuring, in particular various comments wishing the Republicans would just die. I thought, oooh, I'm not the only one? This is very comforting.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-29 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-29 06:46 am (UTC)Mmm, I should watch that again, it's a great flick and it's been a very long time. Pretty sure I have it in the library, probably on laserdisc, not sure about DVD.
It is a sign of how some things have changed for the better that when that movie was first playing, it startled / surprised quite a few viewers when, at the end, Kathleen Turner's character is in mortal danger, and Douglas' character is trying to save her and being kept from doing so-- she saves herself.
These days, sometimes the girl even saves the guy, and pretty much no one bats the proverbial eye.
I feel your pain with the dog barking. There's a couple around here that do that sometimes, although not usually for more than 20 or 30 minutes. My own impotent rage the past few weeks has been directed at the damn fireworks idiots. One of them somewhere down he street set off about six or seven very loud firecrackers tonight, for example-- AT 11:30 PM!!!
Grr, arrgh, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-29 01:58 pm (UTC)Yep, why Jewel was horrible. Romancing is great because she basically saves herself, and he's kind of inept - the movie in a way makes fun of the Indiana Jones romantic hero trope.
My own impotent rage the past few weeks has been directed at the damn fireworks idiots. One of them somewhere down he street set off about six or seven very loud firecrackers tonight, for example-- AT 11:30 PM!!!
They've calmed down in my area, shockingly. I expect a resurgence this week since we have area fireworks this year. I hear them, but not as loud, and much earlier.
I feel for you though.
I think people are bored. There's no amusement parks, or anything really. So bored.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-29 07:48 pm (UTC)Your comment "I have a feeling this would have been a flop if it didn't go straight to video" is an intriguing one. Studios have certainly buried movies they lost confidence in by sending them straight to consumers but I wonder how much better such productions would do right now, simply because they're new.