Day 222 of Corona Virus Diaries...
Oct. 8th, 2020 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatOR gaslighting diaries... or gaslighting on roller-coasters diaries..
Even though the sign on the door stated the power would be off all day in the apartment complex - it wasn't. Thankfully. But I worried about it going off up until 3PM. After 3 - I figured it wasn't happening, and I was safe. They didn't put up a notice about a change in days, so I think I'm fine for now.
And I woke up with the sinus/tension headache from hell this morning - which did not dissipate until 5pm. (
I used ice packs, sinus headache meds, chocolate, water, and finally just lay down for a bit listening to a non-fiction audio book (I've discovered audio books, which I can listen to - even though podcasts tend to bore me. I don't understand myself either.). For a while I worried it was COVID, because I was blowing my nose and coughing for a bit (no more than five minutes.)
Mother: Do you have a fever? Have you taken your temperature -
Me: No, I don't have a fever.
Mother: Cough -
Me: No more than five minutes if that -
Mother: I have that - for years. It's not COVID.
I keep wondering if I should brave the lines and wilds of hot spot Brooklyn and get tested for COVID. It would be one thing it it was at Wallgreens or my Doctor's Office - that I could do. But a long line in front of hospital location that has been getting COVID victims, and is through COVID infected neighborhoods...eh.
Last night one of the folks at Bible Study Zoom announced she had Mono - a development that she found highly amusing. Apparently that's going around too - since my niece also had it. (Most likely from the idiot boy she made out with last winter in the movie theater. He apparently made out with her best friend too. Hey they don't call it the kissing sickness for nothing.)
New York vs. the Corona Virus
Per the governor's email, who also had a conference call with reporters:
Yesterday 145,000 tests were reported to the state — a record high number. We're focusing our testing efforts in two areas — statewide and then we are doing additional testing in hot spot ZIP codes. The positivity rate in the hot spot ZIP codes is 5.8 percent, while the statewide positivity rate, excluding these ZIPs, is 1.01 percent. Our robust testing efforts allow us to narrow hot spot areas down to the range of a block. As part of our Cluster Action Initiative, there are new restrictions in six clusters in the State, which allows us to stop the spread from these clusters and protect our progress in the fight against COVID-19. Look up your address to see if you live in a COVID-19 Hot Spot Zone and take precautions as always.
Well, that's not all that bad. It could be worse. We were at a 20-30% infection rate in the spring.
Guess whose zip codes are in the COVID Hot Spot Zone? They announced on my FB neighborhood page that our zip code made it into the Hot Spot Zone. Actually I live literally on the boundary line between the red (hot spot) and orange (semi-hot spot) zones. Lovely. My area has a 5.86% infection rate. And my crazy org still hasn't backed off of the 10% reduction in pay.
[Note - living in the hot zone doesn't change anything all that much - at least not for me. It just means no in-worship gatherings of more than 25% capacity - my church has been doing zoom and isn't changing that policy any time soon. Non-essential businesses closed - I'm working remotely from home with a 10% reduction. Wear masks - which we should be doing anyway. No school - don't have any kids (thank god - I was extremely smart - nieces are so much easier - let my brother handle the whole child-rearing bit). No indoor or outdoor dining - I don't enjoy dining out anyhow. So pretty much the same situation as in the spring and well.. I also haven't gone to the stylist - mainly because it's easier letting the hair stay long and tying it back. I don't wear make up - unless I have to, and I put very little on, and I'm not into hair styling. I'm not girly at all folks - nor really into grooming myself to look pretty. Never have been. Partly because makeup has always made me break out, I'm allergic to eye shadow, hate lipstick, and I'm allergic to most perfumes.]
Meanwhile according to news (I've not seen it but I've also not exactly been gallivanting about the area) orthodox jews are erupting into violent outbursts or protests about not being allowed to worship en mass, and being discriminated against. Also it turned into a Doofus Rally. All the while - we're starting to hear ambulances again. Each day, I hear sirens. Not all day, but at least once a day now.
The White House vs. the Corona Virus
Well..this made me laugh - which I'm kind of embarrassed to admit, but you know, 2020..
President Trump has lauded the experimental treatment he received for his coronavirus infection, releasing one enthusiastic video on Wednesday and another today.
In Wednesday’s video, Mr. Trump called the cocktail of monoclonal antibodies being developed by the drug maker Regeneron “a cure,” a term he repeated today. He said he would make the treatment free to anyone who needed it, stressing “the seniors” in today’s video.
The treatment, however, is still in trials; costs a great deal to produce; and involves the use of a fetal cell line derived from an aborted fetus, a practice that the president has repeatedly condemned and his administration has tried to curtail.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug Mr. Trump also received, was tested using the same cell line. In addition, at least two companies, Moderna and AstraZeneca, are also using that cell line as they race to produce vaccines against the coronavirus, and Johnson & Johnson is testing its vaccine using another cell line originally produced from fetal tissue.
Regeneron’s treatment essentially takes antibodies from Covid-19 survivors and clones them, then administers them to current patients to help their bodies fight off the infection. The fetal cell line, derived from the kidney tissue of a fetus aborted in the 1970s, is used to create virus-like particles as a proxy for live virus, to test the antibodies on.
Mr. Trump’s certainty in the efficacy of the treatment far outstrips that of health experts, who say it is impossible to know whether the antibodies made a difference in his care. In addition, the president is receiving other drugs, including the powerful steroid dexamethasone, which can enhance feelings of well being that in some patients exaggerates into mania.
I found it ironically funny. But that's how I stay sane - my ironic dark sense of humor. I mean we have a crazy idiot in the white house, who is on stereoids - which makes relatively sane people crazy - and he's pushing a highly experimental drug that is made from material taken from an aborted fetus, while pushing for a Supreme Court nominee that is anti-abortion and running on an anti-abortion platform, and...his administration has fought to outlaw drugs utilizing aborted fetal tissue. I mean can we get anymore absurd? (I fluctuate between wanting to strangle him and laughing at him. Seriously Trevor Noah is right - it's like watching a giant asteroid headed towards earth that is shaped like a penis. You can't help laughing and being terrified at the same time.)
Meanwhile, the Governor felt the need to criticize the idiots in the White House again in a telephone conference. I wish he'd refrain. I know it's hard. But it would work better if he refrained.
Granted I'm not one to talk - I got into a pointless debate with a Doofus Supporter on FB - friend's FB. She was touting Fox News statement about it coming from China. And the idiotic Chinese woman who has been debunked multiple times about it - as proof. I threw Snopes at her, only to be told that this idiot considers any reliable news source that isn't run by yellow journalist charltain marketing folks as fake news. (Snopes - which is a site that has been debunking urban legends and false news reports since the 1990s.) I knew better than to respond - my hand was shaking so badly - I found it hard to cut and past the Snopes Fact Checking Links. I mean "Snopes" pre-exists Fox as a fact checking source. It's been around since the 1990s. It fact checks urban legends.
I've come to the conclusion that people will convince themselves anything is true. The human brain is extremely good at making up stories and lying to itself. I remember sharing a cubicle with a guy way back in 07, and he thought that 9/11 was a hoax - that it was caused by the Bush Administration in order to declare war on Iraq. All evidence to the contrary. Then there's the flat earthers - who could be floating around in space and they'd still believe it was a hoax and the world was flat.
Family
Mother got their ballots today.
Mother: Now, I need to get someone to witness it...maybe we can get our neighbors..
Me: Or you could get the home health care aids to do it.
Mother: Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
Apparently the health care aids at the Preston won't help mother put father into the car to get him home.
Me: The home health care aids won't help put him in and out of a car?
Mother: No, no, they will - just the one's at the Preston.
Me: Okay.
Mother: Nor will the drivers..
So apparently they have a driver.
Father is confused. He thought he was going home today. I get it. I thought today was Friday too - partly because I'm taking tomorrow off. I've vacation time to burn. So am taking lots of four day weekends. It helps stretch out the work - of which I don't have as much as I'd like. I have work, but I fear running out of it. Particularly since I have to fill out Work From Home Logs detailing what I'm doing each day.
Brother still has no power - and it's cold up there. Poor niece. She went to school today - because no power. She doesn't have class on Friday's.
Books
I'm not reading books at the moment - I'm listening to audio books. Why? Because my eyes can't take it. Too much time on lap-top. Also I'm having difficulty focusing.
Current audio book is Zealot:The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazereth - read by Reza Aslan who is also the author of the book and narrator.
It's the book selection of my Bible Study Group. The ones who'd read it - were touting it at the last session. So decided to grab it. It's not what I thought at all. It is delving into the history of Jesus through the Jewish and Muslim historical and cultural narrative. The author was from a family of non-secular Muslims and Jews, who'd abandoned their religion, and he'd fallen in love with Jesus as a youngster, then began to look deeper - got curious, and decided to figure out the actual historical narrative.
And he's delving into ancient history - which I love - such as the history of the Maccabites, and Egyptians, and the Romans, and the Ancient Jews.
What the cultural practices and rites were at the time, how the ancient cultures handled each other - etc. It's very detailed, and engrossing.
Also has a few side mysteries and murders.
Apparently the time of Jesus was ripe with Messianic energy - there were lots of would-be messiahs and prophets, and they were constantly being executed by the Romans.
I find the cross over of anthropology, history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and mythology interesting. Often over time historical record gets embellished to make it more interesting, and entertaining, not to mention palpable - until it becomes myth, legend, and religious doctrine.
He was talking about the gospels of the new testament - and how hard it was
to figure out any true historical record. For one thing - we don't know who wrote them - they weren't written by the people they are named after - because that was a habit of gospel writers - to name their books after people. In addition, the early Christians found a way to live under Roman Law by changing their religious historical narrative into a more vague spiritual one, with less details that critiqued or scrutinized their Roman overseers. (They kind of watered things down a bit - and made it more spiritual and metaphorical in character.) As a result, it's almost impossible to get much of a historical narrative from the new testament.
Also St. Paul didn't care about the history or life of Christ, he wasn't all that interested in that. So you are pretty much stuck with the Gospels of Luke (which skips the infancy completely, and barely touches on the resurrection story), Mark, and Matthew. All of which contradict each other.
But, the author states it's still possible to find a historical record.
I love analyzing myths, legends, and religions - digging into the historical narrative, and determining how and why it was spun a certain way. I am my father's daughter. He was a frustrated historian and loved this sort of thing as well - to logically break it down and make sense of it.
I miss being able to discuss these things with him. Maybe I still can - he has his good days and his bad days.
Anyhow better than expected, and weirdly calming. I listened to it when I lay down after work to get rid of my head-ache and it did the trick.
Regarding Crazy Workplace - I got the reasonable accomodation but the 10% reduction is still in effect. Ugga Bugga. Maybe things will change next week..at least I appear to be off the roller coaster ride for crazy apartment complex. One down, four to go.
Even though the sign on the door stated the power would be off all day in the apartment complex - it wasn't. Thankfully. But I worried about it going off up until 3PM. After 3 - I figured it wasn't happening, and I was safe. They didn't put up a notice about a change in days, so I think I'm fine for now.
And I woke up with the sinus/tension headache from hell this morning - which did not dissipate until 5pm. (
I used ice packs, sinus headache meds, chocolate, water, and finally just lay down for a bit listening to a non-fiction audio book (I've discovered audio books, which I can listen to - even though podcasts tend to bore me. I don't understand myself either.). For a while I worried it was COVID, because I was blowing my nose and coughing for a bit (no more than five minutes.)
Mother: Do you have a fever? Have you taken your temperature -
Me: No, I don't have a fever.
Mother: Cough -
Me: No more than five minutes if that -
Mother: I have that - for years. It's not COVID.
I keep wondering if I should brave the lines and wilds of hot spot Brooklyn and get tested for COVID. It would be one thing it it was at Wallgreens or my Doctor's Office - that I could do. But a long line in front of hospital location that has been getting COVID victims, and is through COVID infected neighborhoods...eh.
Last night one of the folks at Bible Study Zoom announced she had Mono - a development that she found highly amusing. Apparently that's going around too - since my niece also had it. (Most likely from the idiot boy she made out with last winter in the movie theater. He apparently made out with her best friend too. Hey they don't call it the kissing sickness for nothing.)
New York vs. the Corona Virus
Per the governor's email, who also had a conference call with reporters:
Yesterday 145,000 tests were reported to the state — a record high number. We're focusing our testing efforts in two areas — statewide and then we are doing additional testing in hot spot ZIP codes. The positivity rate in the hot spot ZIP codes is 5.8 percent, while the statewide positivity rate, excluding these ZIPs, is 1.01 percent. Our robust testing efforts allow us to narrow hot spot areas down to the range of a block. As part of our Cluster Action Initiative, there are new restrictions in six clusters in the State, which allows us to stop the spread from these clusters and protect our progress in the fight against COVID-19. Look up your address to see if you live in a COVID-19 Hot Spot Zone and take precautions as always.
Well, that's not all that bad. It could be worse. We were at a 20-30% infection rate in the spring.
Guess whose zip codes are in the COVID Hot Spot Zone? They announced on my FB neighborhood page that our zip code made it into the Hot Spot Zone. Actually I live literally on the boundary line between the red (hot spot) and orange (semi-hot spot) zones. Lovely. My area has a 5.86% infection rate. And my crazy org still hasn't backed off of the 10% reduction in pay.
[Note - living in the hot zone doesn't change anything all that much - at least not for me. It just means no in-worship gatherings of more than 25% capacity - my church has been doing zoom and isn't changing that policy any time soon. Non-essential businesses closed - I'm working remotely from home with a 10% reduction. Wear masks - which we should be doing anyway. No school - don't have any kids (thank god - I was extremely smart - nieces are so much easier - let my brother handle the whole child-rearing bit). No indoor or outdoor dining - I don't enjoy dining out anyhow. So pretty much the same situation as in the spring and well.. I also haven't gone to the stylist - mainly because it's easier letting the hair stay long and tying it back. I don't wear make up - unless I have to, and I put very little on, and I'm not into hair styling. I'm not girly at all folks - nor really into grooming myself to look pretty. Never have been. Partly because makeup has always made me break out, I'm allergic to eye shadow, hate lipstick, and I'm allergic to most perfumes.]
Meanwhile according to news (I've not seen it but I've also not exactly been gallivanting about the area) orthodox jews are erupting into violent outbursts or protests about not being allowed to worship en mass, and being discriminated against. Also it turned into a Doofus Rally. All the while - we're starting to hear ambulances again. Each day, I hear sirens. Not all day, but at least once a day now.
The White House vs. the Corona Virus
Well..this made me laugh - which I'm kind of embarrassed to admit, but you know, 2020..
President Trump has lauded the experimental treatment he received for his coronavirus infection, releasing one enthusiastic video on Wednesday and another today.
In Wednesday’s video, Mr. Trump called the cocktail of monoclonal antibodies being developed by the drug maker Regeneron “a cure,” a term he repeated today. He said he would make the treatment free to anyone who needed it, stressing “the seniors” in today’s video.
The treatment, however, is still in trials; costs a great deal to produce; and involves the use of a fetal cell line derived from an aborted fetus, a practice that the president has repeatedly condemned and his administration has tried to curtail.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug Mr. Trump also received, was tested using the same cell line. In addition, at least two companies, Moderna and AstraZeneca, are also using that cell line as they race to produce vaccines against the coronavirus, and Johnson & Johnson is testing its vaccine using another cell line originally produced from fetal tissue.
Regeneron’s treatment essentially takes antibodies from Covid-19 survivors and clones them, then administers them to current patients to help their bodies fight off the infection. The fetal cell line, derived from the kidney tissue of a fetus aborted in the 1970s, is used to create virus-like particles as a proxy for live virus, to test the antibodies on.
Mr. Trump’s certainty in the efficacy of the treatment far outstrips that of health experts, who say it is impossible to know whether the antibodies made a difference in his care. In addition, the president is receiving other drugs, including the powerful steroid dexamethasone, which can enhance feelings of well being that in some patients exaggerates into mania.
I found it ironically funny. But that's how I stay sane - my ironic dark sense of humor. I mean we have a crazy idiot in the white house, who is on stereoids - which makes relatively sane people crazy - and he's pushing a highly experimental drug that is made from material taken from an aborted fetus, while pushing for a Supreme Court nominee that is anti-abortion and running on an anti-abortion platform, and...his administration has fought to outlaw drugs utilizing aborted fetal tissue. I mean can we get anymore absurd? (I fluctuate between wanting to strangle him and laughing at him. Seriously Trevor Noah is right - it's like watching a giant asteroid headed towards earth that is shaped like a penis. You can't help laughing and being terrified at the same time.)
Meanwhile, the Governor felt the need to criticize the idiots in the White House again in a telephone conference. I wish he'd refrain. I know it's hard. But it would work better if he refrained.
Granted I'm not one to talk - I got into a pointless debate with a Doofus Supporter on FB - friend's FB. She was touting Fox News statement about it coming from China. And the idiotic Chinese woman who has been debunked multiple times about it - as proof. I threw Snopes at her, only to be told that this idiot considers any reliable news source that isn't run by yellow journalist charltain marketing folks as fake news. (Snopes - which is a site that has been debunking urban legends and false news reports since the 1990s.) I knew better than to respond - my hand was shaking so badly - I found it hard to cut and past the Snopes Fact Checking Links. I mean "Snopes" pre-exists Fox as a fact checking source. It's been around since the 1990s. It fact checks urban legends.
I've come to the conclusion that people will convince themselves anything is true. The human brain is extremely good at making up stories and lying to itself. I remember sharing a cubicle with a guy way back in 07, and he thought that 9/11 was a hoax - that it was caused by the Bush Administration in order to declare war on Iraq. All evidence to the contrary. Then there's the flat earthers - who could be floating around in space and they'd still believe it was a hoax and the world was flat.
Family
Mother got their ballots today.
Mother: Now, I need to get someone to witness it...maybe we can get our neighbors..
Me: Or you could get the home health care aids to do it.
Mother: Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
Apparently the health care aids at the Preston won't help mother put father into the car to get him home.
Me: The home health care aids won't help put him in and out of a car?
Mother: No, no, they will - just the one's at the Preston.
Me: Okay.
Mother: Nor will the drivers..
So apparently they have a driver.
Father is confused. He thought he was going home today. I get it. I thought today was Friday too - partly because I'm taking tomorrow off. I've vacation time to burn. So am taking lots of four day weekends. It helps stretch out the work - of which I don't have as much as I'd like. I have work, but I fear running out of it. Particularly since I have to fill out Work From Home Logs detailing what I'm doing each day.
Brother still has no power - and it's cold up there. Poor niece. She went to school today - because no power. She doesn't have class on Friday's.
Books
I'm not reading books at the moment - I'm listening to audio books. Why? Because my eyes can't take it. Too much time on lap-top. Also I'm having difficulty focusing.
Current audio book is Zealot:The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazereth - read by Reza Aslan who is also the author of the book and narrator.
It's the book selection of my Bible Study Group. The ones who'd read it - were touting it at the last session. So decided to grab it. It's not what I thought at all. It is delving into the history of Jesus through the Jewish and Muslim historical and cultural narrative. The author was from a family of non-secular Muslims and Jews, who'd abandoned their religion, and he'd fallen in love with Jesus as a youngster, then began to look deeper - got curious, and decided to figure out the actual historical narrative.
And he's delving into ancient history - which I love - such as the history of the Maccabites, and Egyptians, and the Romans, and the Ancient Jews.
What the cultural practices and rites were at the time, how the ancient cultures handled each other - etc. It's very detailed, and engrossing.
Also has a few side mysteries and murders.
Apparently the time of Jesus was ripe with Messianic energy - there were lots of would-be messiahs and prophets, and they were constantly being executed by the Romans.
I find the cross over of anthropology, history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and mythology interesting. Often over time historical record gets embellished to make it more interesting, and entertaining, not to mention palpable - until it becomes myth, legend, and religious doctrine.
He was talking about the gospels of the new testament - and how hard it was
to figure out any true historical record. For one thing - we don't know who wrote them - they weren't written by the people they are named after - because that was a habit of gospel writers - to name their books after people. In addition, the early Christians found a way to live under Roman Law by changing their religious historical narrative into a more vague spiritual one, with less details that critiqued or scrutinized their Roman overseers. (They kind of watered things down a bit - and made it more spiritual and metaphorical in character.) As a result, it's almost impossible to get much of a historical narrative from the new testament.
Also St. Paul didn't care about the history or life of Christ, he wasn't all that interested in that. So you are pretty much stuck with the Gospels of Luke (which skips the infancy completely, and barely touches on the resurrection story), Mark, and Matthew. All of which contradict each other.
But, the author states it's still possible to find a historical record.
I love analyzing myths, legends, and religions - digging into the historical narrative, and determining how and why it was spun a certain way. I am my father's daughter. He was a frustrated historian and loved this sort of thing as well - to logically break it down and make sense of it.
I miss being able to discuss these things with him. Maybe I still can - he has his good days and his bad days.
Anyhow better than expected, and weirdly calming. I listened to it when I lay down after work to get rid of my head-ache and it did the trick.
Regarding Crazy Workplace - I got the reasonable accomodation but the 10% reduction is still in effect. Ugga Bugga. Maybe things will change next week..at least I appear to be off the roller coaster ride for crazy apartment complex. One down, four to go.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-09 08:40 pm (UTC)