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shadowkat
Went on another walk around Greenwood Cemetery - sometime around 3:30, I was planning on going around 2:30, but mother called, and needed to rant/vent about technological issues. Apparently her printer is out of color ink and won't work without it, and Staples and Amazon are sold out. Also, she can't order stuff from Amazon or follow the links I sent - because it has her old email address and not the new one and she can't figure out how to change it.
[Tonight I sent her the information on how to change her email on Amazon. Yes, I know various people online hate Amazon. I despise Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target.]
I love this cemetery. I've found it to be calming. This evening it was quiet as the light faded into twilight around four pm, and hit sunset roughly around four thirty. It gets darker earlier and earlier now.
There was a sharp breeze whistling through the trees and rustling through the dead and fallen leaves, startling me at times. And the sky was streaked with fading rain clouds, spots of blue and sun poking through.
At one point sunlight shone like a spotlight, bathing statues and trees in its warmth.
I'd planned on listening to an audio book on my way around the cemetery, but opted for the quiet instead. There was but a handful of people walking around it with me. And for once no bikes locked up in the bike rack. It was a cold day, brisk, with little sun, and mostly wind and rain. I'm thinking most people opted to stay indoors - the scant few who walked around the cemetery were much like me - single souls, needing some peace and some exercise. As a result I was able to walk for well on an hour, maskless, without seeing a soul, alone among the graves, bushes, tress, and cobblestone pathways. At peace in my solitude. Alone but not alone.
Apparently a friend of my niece came down with COVID. He got it from the Dentist's office, along with his father - who is immune compromised. They'd gone for a dental checkup and got exposed. Interesting. I find this out just when I got a notice from the dentist for a check-up. I'm thinking of passing. I saw him last year. I can wait another year. My teeth are fine. I've gone for years without seeing dentists. Also I don't trust him or his office - I've been in it.
NY has a problem - we are infested with nutty conservatives intent on committing suicide by COVID and taking the rest of us down with them. (Actually that's most of the US.)
According to FB the idiots are holding a rally tomorrow near Eastern Parkway - and plan on marching down it - protesting the State and City's COVID restrictions. (The thing of it is - the restrictions aren't that severe. We're not locked down.Most businesses are open. They can still meet in outdoor spaces. The only major restrictions are to wear a mask in public or outside your home, don't have large gatherings (more than 10 people) indoors or outdoors. But apparently this is an undue hardship that discriminates against their religious practices. Honestly, last I checked, God really doesn't need you to have a huge group orgy - that was actually kind of frowned upon in the Old and New Testaments.
The Eastern Parkway Rally - is blatantly in your face offensive - they actually culturally misappropriated Martin Luther King to support their cause. The march is to be held without masks. I'm so glad I chose Kesington, Brooklyn to live in and not Crown Heights or Prospect Lefferts area - which is where Eastern Parkway is located. It's also why I've been staying away from Prospect Park - the "libertarians" like the park, because no one tells them what to do, they stay away from the more monitored and guarded cemetery.
In addition, according to the NY Times, and Twitter, the Young Republican Club decided to hold their annual Christmas Party at an undisclosed location - without masks, thumbing their nose at COVID and Governor Cuomo. Except they did this by posting a picture of themselves at the location. There were over a hundred in attendance. And the location was across the river in New Jersey. New Jersey got wind of it, and shut down the restaurant, fined the restaurant for having the party, and removed its liquor license. Meanwhile the idiot who tweeted it - has received over 100 tweets telling them they are evil and should be ashamed. I reported their tweet as suicidal and/or guilty of inflicting self-harm to Twitter. Because it kind of is. "Suicide by COVID. Bonus points? I can take all my friends down with me and a few healthcare workers." Huzzah.
Apparently Doubting Thomas syndrome is alive and well in the US. Doubting Thomas syndrome is basically those who require something to personally affect them and their family and friends directly and literally - in order to believe it. In other words, they don't believe fire can hurt them until someone sets them on fire. Or that bacteria exists, until they are infected. Dumb is kind of understatement. These are the idiots who are turned into zombies at the beginning of zombie movies, or killed in horror flicks within the first half hour. And you're thinking - there's no way anyone would be dumb enough to do that. Uhm, yes, people really are THAT dumb. Avoid them like the plague - I do. That's all you can do. AVOID. If they are friends or family members? My sympathies. You may want to banish them from your lives until this is over, just saying.
Speaking of idiots...the meetup groups continue to bewilder me. Apparently, Dyker Heights Lighting Festival is VERY popular this year. Everyone has decided that no one else is going to it, so they will.
Facebook: Oh I think I'll do the Dyker Heights Lighting. There will probably not be any crowds or traffice because of COVID.
ME: Eh, I wouldn't count on it.
Ten different meetup groups sent me emails about planned activities at Dyker Heights - where they'll meet, and tour the neighborhood, and you should bring treats to share and consume on the way. With oh, forty-fifty some people.
They are all also going on group hikes at various locations. And one group said we could still have a holiday party with massage therapists. I'm thinking, uhm, how?
Meanwhile, we have more and more celebrities such as Bryan Cranston, advising of how they've had the thing and still haven't gotten their sense of taste and smell back. And the death rate has climbed to 281,000, and the case count to well above 14 million.
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Date: 2020-12-06 02:52 am (UTC)And, yeah, I've been skipping dental checkups since the pandemic. The next cleaning won't be fun.
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Date: 2020-12-06 03:08 am (UTC)Silence sometimes is very comforting. I'm lucky to have been blessed with a quiet apartment and a quiet place to walk.
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Date: 2020-12-06 02:57 am (UTC)Agreed about the Doubting Thomas factor. A friend of mine who REALLY SHOULD KNOW BETTER decided that the virus must not be all that bad, since no one in her circle had suffered much. I had to remind her that even the mildest of longer-term symptoms (a student of mine has lost part of her sense of taste and four months later, it's still missing) aren't something she wants to have. Or her at-risk husband. Ugh.
Thankfully she continues to be very careful because of her husband's health risks, but I'm worried that she'll downplay the virus in conversation with others who will listen to her because SHE WOULD KNOW...
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Date: 2020-12-06 03:25 am (UTC)Yeah, I kind of get where the Doubting Thomas's are coming from. I mean no one in my apartment complex has had it, none of my co-workers (as far as I know) appear to have had it. (Although a couple may have had it and not told me. There's been a few who were out sick but didn't tell us what was wrong.] People at work that I don't know have had it and died from it. Extended family members have had it - in other states. But no one in the immediate family. No close friends, but I have acquaintances from Church who have had it. And family members of co-workers have died from it.
And I remember February and March - where we'd all sit on the subway and stare at each other - waiting for someone to cough or sneeze. (No one did, after the fall in which everyone was.). It was very weird. You'd look into strangers eyes and see fear and uncertainty.
So there's a general sense of gaslighting going on. And I think a lot of folks feel like they are being gaslit. No one they know has had it. Yet their whole life has been turned upside down. But, the only people who have it are on the news. If they ignore the news, it's like nothing is happening.
And I've read a few epidemologists and doctors, who aren't on the front-lines of this thing, down-play it. There's so much misinformation out there. And way too many would-be experts. Plus, the mishandling of the virus early on by our Federal Government hasn't helped. I've had moments of doubt.
But, like you said, there are people with some detrimental long term effects. And I've had extended family members who got gravely ill with it. One, had various aneurysms pop up. She was almost killed by two of them - she's in her thirties. They are finally going away on their own - eight months later.
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Date: 2020-12-06 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-07 02:12 pm (UTC)Same thing happened with my Aunt and cousin.
This thing is bizarre. One cousin who already has a heart condition, wasn't as detrimentally affected as they two who didn't. Although it did take her a long time to recover - fatigue, shortness of breath.
And I read about a woman, who is 40, top of health, did a spinning classes four times a day, got it, and now gets out of breath just taking a walk. Her heart rate is now at 100 at rest. And she's been struggling for months.
Another told me on FB, she'd gotten it twice - first was mild and nothing, the second almost killed her. And it wasn't like anything she'd ever had before.
It's the weirdest thing I've seen - I've cousins who got it and no one else did in their families, and others whose entire families got it.
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Date: 2020-12-06 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-07 02:06 pm (UTC)