Year 2 - Day 191- Peace Train
Sep. 24th, 2021 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatMother: When this year finally ends? I'm going to celebrate.
The only wing under quarantine in the Preston is my father's wing. The rest of the facility is fine. Mother is frustrated. She got to visit with him for two days. That's it. Two days out of three months.
Oh well it could be worse.
She's also still in pain, but it's not severe at least. And she's mobile.
There's a woman who is 91 - that does nothing but scream. The woman's son asked if they could give the woman morphine, and maybe if at all possible? Just a little too much one day - let her die. They said, uh no, we really can't do that. Mother isn't sure what is wrong with this woman - possibly a broken hip or something else? But they can't do anything for her - it seems. So they aren't quite sure why she's even there.
Mother: Really this doesn't bother me at all. It's not distressing or anything.
Me: No, it's just distressing to me apparently. [And I'm not there. She's telling me this, because I can hear moaning and screaming the background.]
So too did a long FB post from a church acquaintance, who is isolated and alone, and undergoing cancer treatment for metasized breast cancer. 2021 - when everyone seemed to get Cancer. Or a lot of acquaintances did. Kind of distressing. She's terrified of getting the vaccine. And the things she enjoys most are group activities - or extroverted ones. I want to help, and I did give a lot of money already. But I don't know what else to give? Also I don't know her that well and we don't have a lot in common. She's unemployed. Can't type or talk that well. Is dreadfully lonely. And depressed, while fighting cancer.
Mother: Where's she live?
ME: She's not far, probably just a short train ride or walk. It's just I don't know if she'd even want my company. We didn't quite click when she was well and active.
I'm debating it at any rate. (I don't want advice. I'm not sure you could anyhow. These situations are odd ones.)
But after I saw her post - I saw my Senior Minister's - where she's happy, feeling loved, and had been given all sorts of things for her birthday.
And I thought, why is it one person has nothing, and is suffering horribly, and another is on top of the world? The inequalities in this world are staggering. And I wish I didn't see them. I want everyone happy (well except Trump - who I keep hoping would just keel over.).
Also, came across this beautiful video.
Every time I watch it, it makes me cry. Particularly the section where Yusuf/Cat Stevens sings: "oh I've been crying lately, thinking of the world as it is, why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss?"
By the way, this is great channel on youtube - Playing Songs for Change - Songs Heard Around the World - Musicians basically play a song around the world and edit it together in one video. It's so beautiful, it makes me cry. Music is my joy.
The Biko one - brings back memories - I feel old. I last saw Peter Gabriele sing that song in 1987 at Wembley Stadium in London, we were sitting until he sang it. Then we stood up and held up lit candles and lighters. Singing it with him.
As a I am writing this, a little brown mouse scooted across the floor. I talked to him and told him to go away. He's not allowed in the house and knows it. Silly thing. I have mouse poison around, but alas not working. Maybe traps next. He is in the other apartment now, or the wall.
Me: I thought about applying for a job with Google, but then I...I don't know how to put it? I imagined myself doing it and realized I do not want to work for Google.
Mother: You're 54, they want youngsters. They wouldn't even look at you.
Me: I thought about applying for a job with the Department of Sanitation which is looking for folks but, they are also looking for 20-30 somethings. A friend's job was downsized at the Department of Sanitation and the bulk of her position was handed to a 25 year old who graduated with her daughter. She's in her sixties, and is now relegated to writing grants. No wonder there's so much rage and anger between the generations. Twenty year olds are taking their parents and friend's parent's jobs. I used to be angry at the Baby Boomers for making it impossible for me to get a job.
Mother: There's no job security any longer. There used to be. Regan changed all of that, with the weakening of the Securities Act. Companies could merge and downsize. People used to be able to stay in the same job for years...now, there's no guarantees.
Why, I wonder, do we continue to hurt each other? There's plenty to share - why can't we do so? No one needs a huge house to themselves, or two or three. No one needs expensive things. You can actually live off of very little. The older I get the more I yearn for a kind of communal living system - where everyone contributes whatever they can, and shares stories.
But such a thing may not be possible within the world in which I currently live?
***
Ah well. It's Friday. And a lovely one weather wise. I even cracked a window. The sky a pristine blue, even as it gets darker with the waning of the light. It's the Fall Equinox, so the days get shorter...until we hit Winter Equinox where they will soon get longer again.
***
Should I stop there? I keep looking for the mouse. I could catch him, I suppose. But I don't know what I'd do with him. Throw him out the window to feed the feral cats? Seems kind of cruel. I'm currently worrying that it isn't a mouse - but I'm pretty certain it is. It had a mouse's tail. And wasn't very big. Also it disappeared underneath the wall.
**
From NY Times Briefing:
* Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, overruled her agency’s advice and endorsed boosters for people in risky jobs.
* The Education Department will reimburse a school district after Florida withheld funding over its mask mandate.
* The Times Briefing on German politics - that I couldn't follow due to my brain fog/focus issues - but here's a little of it:
Angela Merkel, 67, who has been chancellor since 2005, is retiring. And both of the leading candidates to succeed her are trying to persuade voters that he is the stable option who will continue many of her policies.
Still, Merkel’s departure sets up a choice for voters: whether Germany, the European Union’s most powerful country, continues to be run by a center-right leader or will have its second center-left leader since the early 1980s. The voters’ choice will shape Germany’s policies — and, by extension, Europe’s — on the social safety net, taxes, innovation and climate change.
The two top candidates are Olaf Scholz, 63, from the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, and Armin Laschet, 60, the head of Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union. Scholz’s party has led in the polls for weeks, but the race has tightened in its final days.
Both men are trying to focus the race on their leadership qualities, more than specific policies. Scholz has run a campaign ad that used the female form of the German word for chancellor to imply that he could lead the country like Merkel even though he is a man.
Laschet brought Merkel out onto the campaign trail this week, despite her desire to avoid it. The move was an acknowledgment of his trouble connecting with voters. This summer, a camera caught him laughing while visiting a stricken area after a deadly flood.
At one point the Green Party, whose chancellor candidate is Annalena Baerbock, 40, was at the top of the polls, before fading. A far-right, anti-immigrant party — Alternative for Germany, which in 2017 became the first far-right party in Germany to win seats in Parliament since World War II — is likely to finish fourth or fifth.
In Germany, voters do not choose the chancellor directly, voting for members of Parliament instead. According to Politico’s polling average, Scholz’s Social Democratic Party leads with about 25 percent of the vote, with Laschet’s conservatives at 22 percent, the Greens at 16 percent and the far-right party at 11 percent.
*A new E.P.A. rule will cut use of a category of planet-warming chemicals, hydrofluorocarbons, in air-conditioners and refrigerators. [ curious if my A/C and fridge have these. Both are new - for the most part. So no clue.]
* The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued its first subpoenas, to four close advisers to Donald Trump. [We're making progress...slowly. Maybe by 2024, he'll be indicted for Treason? You know hope springs eternal and all that...]
*Under pressure from Trump, Texas announced an audit of the 2020 election in four counties. A Republican-ordered review in Arizona’s biggest county slightly widened Biden’s margin of victory. [LOL! Oh that made me giggle. Wouldn't it be awesome if they all did? Maybe Trump could lose Texas and we could prove the Republicans were responsible for the fraud?]
* A senior U.S. diplomat for Haiti quit, citing deportations by the Biden administration. (The U.S. is also letting thousands of Haitians stay.) [Just so we're clear - those parentheses are the Times' not mine. I have no idea what's happening with the Haitian thing, except that it is horrible.]
* The House overwhelmingly approved $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.[Sigh. Can't we help Haiti instead?]
And, since this is labled Corona Virus...and is Year 2 - Day 191 of the Corona Virus Diaries...
COVID
Covid deaths have gone up around the world. The COVID MAP OF DOOM went up from 45,000 to 48,000 deaths over a 28 day period. We are now just short of 700,000 deaths in the US, with a little over 688,000. I'm not sure I believe India, Russia, and China's numbers.
* Daily Covid deaths rose to a new high in Russia, where vaccine hesitancy remains common.[ Yes, I've noticed a pattern within my own neighborhood - Russians and Eastern Europeans seem to have a mistrust of medical science for some reason. Maybe it's a flaw in their ethnic DNA?]
* Yemen, devastated by war, now faces a Covid surge, a nonprofit says.
* South Korea hit a record number of infections after a long holiday.
* My doctor's office sent me an email about the Booster for the Pfizer being available for those who qualify. I don't know if I qualify or not. I'm not exactly considered immune compromised and I'm under 65. I'm waiting for more direction. (I've yet to have a COVID test. Although fully vaccinated, just not a booster. I become eligible end of October/beginning of November.)
* Two hosts of “The View” tested positive for the virus minutes ahead of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. [Okay, aren't they vaccinated?]
*Moderna’s chief executive said that there should be enough vaccines for “everyone on this Earth” in one year, The Washington Post reports.
* Monday is the deadline for all of New York’s health care workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus. Thousands haven’t received their first shot.
* The Oakland Unified School District in Northern California will require vaccinations for students 12 and older attending in-person classes, KQED reports.
* New York City schools are preparing for staffing shortages as a vaccine mandate looms.
*Apple Wallet will contain verifiable Covid vaccine certificates as part of an upcoming iPhone update, Engadget reports.
* The Department of Health in New Mexico said two residents died from ivermectin toxicity, KOB4 reports. [Just so you know, it took me a minute to remember - this is the deworming drug that dingbat conservative radio show hosts and Fox News commentators were pushing, apparently. I don't listen or watch either ever - so wouldn't know.]
*A Turkish infant was accidentally injected with the Pfizer vaccine. [How can you accidentally inject someone with a vaccine?]
* Shareholder activists are pushing companies to keep annual shareholder meetings virtual after the pandemic, the DealBook newsletter reports. [Why did they have to push them to do that? You'd think it would be a given? I'm sorry, people continue to bewilder me. It's as if they skipped logic and common sense somewhere along the way, yet got hired and in management jobs. Go figure.]
Finally...since you've been so patient...photo of the day.
Interior of Subway Terminal at One World Trade Center.
The only wing under quarantine in the Preston is my father's wing. The rest of the facility is fine. Mother is frustrated. She got to visit with him for two days. That's it. Two days out of three months.
Oh well it could be worse.
She's also still in pain, but it's not severe at least. And she's mobile.
There's a woman who is 91 - that does nothing but scream. The woman's son asked if they could give the woman morphine, and maybe if at all possible? Just a little too much one day - let her die. They said, uh no, we really can't do that. Mother isn't sure what is wrong with this woman - possibly a broken hip or something else? But they can't do anything for her - it seems. So they aren't quite sure why she's even there.
Mother: Really this doesn't bother me at all. It's not distressing or anything.
Me: No, it's just distressing to me apparently. [And I'm not there. She's telling me this, because I can hear moaning and screaming the background.]
So too did a long FB post from a church acquaintance, who is isolated and alone, and undergoing cancer treatment for metasized breast cancer. 2021 - when everyone seemed to get Cancer. Or a lot of acquaintances did. Kind of distressing. She's terrified of getting the vaccine. And the things she enjoys most are group activities - or extroverted ones. I want to help, and I did give a lot of money already. But I don't know what else to give? Also I don't know her that well and we don't have a lot in common. She's unemployed. Can't type or talk that well. Is dreadfully lonely. And depressed, while fighting cancer.
Mother: Where's she live?
ME: She's not far, probably just a short train ride or walk. It's just I don't know if she'd even want my company. We didn't quite click when she was well and active.
I'm debating it at any rate. (I don't want advice. I'm not sure you could anyhow. These situations are odd ones.)
But after I saw her post - I saw my Senior Minister's - where she's happy, feeling loved, and had been given all sorts of things for her birthday.
And I thought, why is it one person has nothing, and is suffering horribly, and another is on top of the world? The inequalities in this world are staggering. And I wish I didn't see them. I want everyone happy (well except Trump - who I keep hoping would just keel over.).
Also, came across this beautiful video.
Every time I watch it, it makes me cry. Particularly the section where Yusuf/Cat Stevens sings: "oh I've been crying lately, thinking of the world as it is, why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss?"
By the way, this is great channel on youtube - Playing Songs for Change - Songs Heard Around the World - Musicians basically play a song around the world and edit it together in one video. It's so beautiful, it makes me cry. Music is my joy.
The Biko one - brings back memories - I feel old. I last saw Peter Gabriele sing that song in 1987 at Wembley Stadium in London, we were sitting until he sang it. Then we stood up and held up lit candles and lighters. Singing it with him.
As a I am writing this, a little brown mouse scooted across the floor. I talked to him and told him to go away. He's not allowed in the house and knows it. Silly thing. I have mouse poison around, but alas not working. Maybe traps next. He is in the other apartment now, or the wall.
Me: I thought about applying for a job with Google, but then I...I don't know how to put it? I imagined myself doing it and realized I do not want to work for Google.
Mother: You're 54, they want youngsters. They wouldn't even look at you.
Me: I thought about applying for a job with the Department of Sanitation which is looking for folks but, they are also looking for 20-30 somethings. A friend's job was downsized at the Department of Sanitation and the bulk of her position was handed to a 25 year old who graduated with her daughter. She's in her sixties, and is now relegated to writing grants. No wonder there's so much rage and anger between the generations. Twenty year olds are taking their parents and friend's parent's jobs. I used to be angry at the Baby Boomers for making it impossible for me to get a job.
Mother: There's no job security any longer. There used to be. Regan changed all of that, with the weakening of the Securities Act. Companies could merge and downsize. People used to be able to stay in the same job for years...now, there's no guarantees.
Why, I wonder, do we continue to hurt each other? There's plenty to share - why can't we do so? No one needs a huge house to themselves, or two or three. No one needs expensive things. You can actually live off of very little. The older I get the more I yearn for a kind of communal living system - where everyone contributes whatever they can, and shares stories.
But such a thing may not be possible within the world in which I currently live?
***
Ah well. It's Friday. And a lovely one weather wise. I even cracked a window. The sky a pristine blue, even as it gets darker with the waning of the light. It's the Fall Equinox, so the days get shorter...until we hit Winter Equinox where they will soon get longer again.
***
Should I stop there? I keep looking for the mouse. I could catch him, I suppose. But I don't know what I'd do with him. Throw him out the window to feed the feral cats? Seems kind of cruel. I'm currently worrying that it isn't a mouse - but I'm pretty certain it is. It had a mouse's tail. And wasn't very big. Also it disappeared underneath the wall.
**
From NY Times Briefing:
* Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, overruled her agency’s advice and endorsed boosters for people in risky jobs.
* The Education Department will reimburse a school district after Florida withheld funding over its mask mandate.
* The Times Briefing on German politics - that I couldn't follow due to my brain fog/focus issues - but here's a little of it:
Angela Merkel, 67, who has been chancellor since 2005, is retiring. And both of the leading candidates to succeed her are trying to persuade voters that he is the stable option who will continue many of her policies.
Still, Merkel’s departure sets up a choice for voters: whether Germany, the European Union’s most powerful country, continues to be run by a center-right leader or will have its second center-left leader since the early 1980s. The voters’ choice will shape Germany’s policies — and, by extension, Europe’s — on the social safety net, taxes, innovation and climate change.
The two top candidates are Olaf Scholz, 63, from the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, and Armin Laschet, 60, the head of Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union. Scholz’s party has led in the polls for weeks, but the race has tightened in its final days.
Both men are trying to focus the race on their leadership qualities, more than specific policies. Scholz has run a campaign ad that used the female form of the German word for chancellor to imply that he could lead the country like Merkel even though he is a man.
Laschet brought Merkel out onto the campaign trail this week, despite her desire to avoid it. The move was an acknowledgment of his trouble connecting with voters. This summer, a camera caught him laughing while visiting a stricken area after a deadly flood.
At one point the Green Party, whose chancellor candidate is Annalena Baerbock, 40, was at the top of the polls, before fading. A far-right, anti-immigrant party — Alternative for Germany, which in 2017 became the first far-right party in Germany to win seats in Parliament since World War II — is likely to finish fourth or fifth.
In Germany, voters do not choose the chancellor directly, voting for members of Parliament instead. According to Politico’s polling average, Scholz’s Social Democratic Party leads with about 25 percent of the vote, with Laschet’s conservatives at 22 percent, the Greens at 16 percent and the far-right party at 11 percent.
*A new E.P.A. rule will cut use of a category of planet-warming chemicals, hydrofluorocarbons, in air-conditioners and refrigerators. [ curious if my A/C and fridge have these. Both are new - for the most part. So no clue.]
* The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued its first subpoenas, to four close advisers to Donald Trump. [We're making progress...slowly. Maybe by 2024, he'll be indicted for Treason? You know hope springs eternal and all that...]
*Under pressure from Trump, Texas announced an audit of the 2020 election in four counties. A Republican-ordered review in Arizona’s biggest county slightly widened Biden’s margin of victory. [LOL! Oh that made me giggle. Wouldn't it be awesome if they all did? Maybe Trump could lose Texas and we could prove the Republicans were responsible for the fraud?]
* A senior U.S. diplomat for Haiti quit, citing deportations by the Biden administration. (The U.S. is also letting thousands of Haitians stay.) [Just so we're clear - those parentheses are the Times' not mine. I have no idea what's happening with the Haitian thing, except that it is horrible.]
* The House overwhelmingly approved $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.[Sigh. Can't we help Haiti instead?]
And, since this is labled Corona Virus...and is Year 2 - Day 191 of the Corona Virus Diaries...
COVID
Covid deaths have gone up around the world. The COVID MAP OF DOOM went up from 45,000 to 48,000 deaths over a 28 day period. We are now just short of 700,000 deaths in the US, with a little over 688,000. I'm not sure I believe India, Russia, and China's numbers.
* Daily Covid deaths rose to a new high in Russia, where vaccine hesitancy remains common.[ Yes, I've noticed a pattern within my own neighborhood - Russians and Eastern Europeans seem to have a mistrust of medical science for some reason. Maybe it's a flaw in their ethnic DNA?]
* Yemen, devastated by war, now faces a Covid surge, a nonprofit says.
* South Korea hit a record number of infections after a long holiday.
* My doctor's office sent me an email about the Booster for the Pfizer being available for those who qualify. I don't know if I qualify or not. I'm not exactly considered immune compromised and I'm under 65. I'm waiting for more direction. (I've yet to have a COVID test. Although fully vaccinated, just not a booster. I become eligible end of October/beginning of November.)
* Two hosts of “The View” tested positive for the virus minutes ahead of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. [Okay, aren't they vaccinated?]
*Moderna’s chief executive said that there should be enough vaccines for “everyone on this Earth” in one year, The Washington Post reports.
* Monday is the deadline for all of New York’s health care workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus. Thousands haven’t received their first shot.
* The Oakland Unified School District in Northern California will require vaccinations for students 12 and older attending in-person classes, KQED reports.
* New York City schools are preparing for staffing shortages as a vaccine mandate looms.
*Apple Wallet will contain verifiable Covid vaccine certificates as part of an upcoming iPhone update, Engadget reports.
* The Department of Health in New Mexico said two residents died from ivermectin toxicity, KOB4 reports. [Just so you know, it took me a minute to remember - this is the deworming drug that dingbat conservative radio show hosts and Fox News commentators were pushing, apparently. I don't listen or watch either ever - so wouldn't know.]
*A Turkish infant was accidentally injected with the Pfizer vaccine. [How can you accidentally inject someone with a vaccine?]
* Shareholder activists are pushing companies to keep annual shareholder meetings virtual after the pandemic, the DealBook newsletter reports. [Why did they have to push them to do that? You'd think it would be a given? I'm sorry, people continue to bewilder me. It's as if they skipped logic and common sense somewhere along the way, yet got hired and in management jobs. Go figure.]
Finally...since you've been so patient...photo of the day.
Interior of Subway Terminal at One World Trade Center.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 05:18 pm (UTC)The other day I read that the vaccine basically has two jobs: in the first months, they create an active army to fight against the virus. But after that, the active army is sent home and it's up to the reserve forces. They still do a good job, but "the enemy" may get through at first before those reserve forces are in place. I thought that was a cool explanation.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 08:26 pm (UTC)It's odd, I've not been sick with anything other than allergies since November 2019 (and that had a cough (not bronchitis) that lasted until March 2020).
But, I've also social distanced, not traveled much at all, worked remotely until July (now hybrid), worn a mask, live alone, and was vaccinated with the Pfizer.
My understanding of the vaccine is that it doesn't necessarily prevent all variants of the virus, but it does prevent severe illness. Folks who are vaccinated - don't get much more than a mild cold symptoms, and are rarely hospitalized. Except, one of my mother's cousins, who was vaccinated, got a breakthrough case and died from it (he was immunocompromised and got it from someone who had not been vaccinated at a rehab facility).
So the description you provided makes sense. The difficulty with the vaccine - is it would have worked beautifully - if everyone got vaccinated, everyone wore masks, and variants weren't able to develop. But alas, people are harder to persuade to do stuff than cats.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-25 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-26 04:49 pm (UTC)Shareholder activists are pushing companies to keep annual shareholder meetings virtual after the pandemic, the DealBook newsletter reports. [Why did they have to push them to do that? You'd think it would be a given? I'm sorry, people continue to bewilder me. It's as if they skipped logic and common sense somewhere along the way, yet got hired and in management jobs. Go figure.]
Go figure indeed. Obviously these meetings should always be virtual given that it would both save the company money and make it easy for shareholders to attend. But of course the latter is exactly why they don't want to do it.