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I'm tired. And my allergies are making me crazy - between the heater, the dust, mold and tree pollen. I'm using a humidifier and air purifiers, which may require changing again soon. Also cleaned some stuff.
Yesterday and last week were exhausting. It's overcast today, and raining, which is kind of good - since it makes me less stir crazy. I like rainy days right now - I find them comforting. Sunny days make me restless. It's the oddest thing.
Talked to Wales finally, she's fine. Everyone thinks they may have had it - but aren't certain. I had something weird during Thanksgiving, way back in November, around November 18th - that I thought was just a cold and got weird. It became this dry chest cough that would not quit until sometime in February. I even got a chest x-ray because of it. And looking back over the journal entries...it sounds like a mild case of COVID. But there's no way of knowing, for certain, at least not without the antibody test. And an accurate one at that. They don't have it yet.
Oh, here's a link to a streaming of the MET at Home - singers from various countries around the world singing - The VOICE Must be Heard. It is a fund-raiser - so I'll warn you about that.
Wales hasn't done laundry either. Hers is in the basement, and she has to get the key. So she's been doing it in the sink, much as I have, until Saturday. Honestly who knew owning a washer and dryer was such a luxury? She said all the laundramats in her area were closed. Every one. Not one was open. They are all very small. My area does have laundramats open - one stated from 7am to 1am. I was surprised. She said she figures they don't want to touch the clothes. You can't send them out - because you risk having someone else touching your clothes. Think about it? How do you do laundry in a shared space with shared machines during a pandemic?
Church was on Zoom and a beautiful service, with the reading of a children's book, and the central theme being dealing with a life of uncertainty and being kind to oneself and others. One woman shared her story of being hospitalized with COVID and recovering - two weeks of sheer hell, and how in recovery, she'd broken out in a full body rash that was itchy. Weird virus - the symptoms seem to run the gamut.
What was inspiring about her story, was how various people in the Church's caring ministry reached out to help her, and how she managed to feel the flow of her spirit through it and find a way out the other side. We ended with the Beatles song, Let it Be. Now I'm listening to comic opera in Italian...and the radiator heat is playing havoc with my allergies again. But not like it did back in November, making me wonder if I had a mild case of this weird thing then? I hope not. I went to work during it. But so did everyone else in my workplace who had it. That's one of the things coming out about this - how our idiotic work culture makes people work while sick, and doesn't tell them to stay home. Also, methinks, biometric clocks may soon be a thing of the past.
1. Why You're So Irritated by Everything - if you are feeling cranky right about now? You aren't alone.
Sci-fi writer, John Scalzi posted a rant about the people on social media pressuring everyone to start a new hobby or discover something new, when he'd been busy getting a book out that made the best seller list, and wanted to sleep all the time.
While Dockhawk in FB posted on about people taking photographs in various areas of LA, while social distancing. He was upset they were taking these great shots and he wasn't able to. This in turn annoyed me, because I just posted a group of photos that I'd taken on a walk last night - to cheer myself up after an incredibly stressful day. It had cheered me up and made feel like I was in control of my anxiety and fear.
People can be selfish assholes under stress.
I am not immune. I apologized to my mother yesterday for losing it. I'd called her after doing two stressful things, I was proud I did them, but irritated because of the anxiety and stress. She innocently asked if there COVID-19 protocols in place at my apartment complex, stating that my brother's friends had protocols in place. (There aren't). And stressed I lost it.
At church today they dealt with the fact that we were all beginning to hit a wall. We've been quarantined now between 40-60 days depending on when you went on lock-down. More than a month. And there's no discernible end in sight, and if there is - it's not a safe or reassuring one.
( Excerpt from the article )
2. Bob Dylan's 50 Greatest Songs Ranked
I've never been a fan of the song "Don't think twice, it's alright", unless of course it is sung by Joan Baez. Interesting story? Dylan allegedly wrote the song in a snit after he broke up with Baez. So when Baez sings it - it's a lovely commentary and somewhat ironical one on Dylan. (Dylan is one of those artists in which I love their songs, but can't stand them performing them or them personally.)
It does however bring forth a lovely memory of my old college friend, Richard Walker, who died of leukemia in 1989. After a boyfriend (we'd just broken up) sang the song in public to hurt me - it was in response to my passionate and angry poetry readings about love and friendship and loss. I was 21. He was 20. We were young and stupid and full of ourselves. Anyhow, Richard came up to me afterwards, and walked and talked with me for hours about the relationship, about what happened, and was exceedingly kind. I remember him clearer than the boy I had a romantic relationship with, the boy who got married and had a kid. Of the two men, Richard was the kinder one. A tall black man from Western Kansas, who had a voice that could melt your heart. He wanted to help the world. Switched his major from music to History. Kind and gentle, and filled with empathy and little judgement, the exact opposite of my boyfriend, who was shorter, white, from privileged white family in Georgie, and full of himself, and thought he was a great singer...and well he's not as good as Dylan.
The boyfriend went on to get married, become a psychologist/sociologist specializing in mindfulness in the Hudson River Valley, with a kid, and self-published his own albums. While Richard, bless his soul, died tragically of leukemia.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy the boyfriend survived and is happy. But I'll always miss Richard, who still resides in my heart and memories.
3. The Day The Native Americans Drove the KKK Out of Town
4. The Good Guy/Bad Guy Myth in Pop Culture
5. Gossiping may actually be Good. Uhm...okay.
6. What it's like to live in a california ghost town
7. Taking a break from the whole NY vs. the Corona Virus thing. I just know the numbers went up. I'm listening to opera at the moment, while the rain falls. Debating going downstairs to get yet another package. (It's the blueberry muffin mix.)
Yesterday and last week were exhausting. It's overcast today, and raining, which is kind of good - since it makes me less stir crazy. I like rainy days right now - I find them comforting. Sunny days make me restless. It's the oddest thing.
Talked to Wales finally, she's fine. Everyone thinks they may have had it - but aren't certain. I had something weird during Thanksgiving, way back in November, around November 18th - that I thought was just a cold and got weird. It became this dry chest cough that would not quit until sometime in February. I even got a chest x-ray because of it. And looking back over the journal entries...it sounds like a mild case of COVID. But there's no way of knowing, for certain, at least not without the antibody test. And an accurate one at that. They don't have it yet.
Oh, here's a link to a streaming of the MET at Home - singers from various countries around the world singing - The VOICE Must be Heard. It is a fund-raiser - so I'll warn you about that.
Wales hasn't done laundry either. Hers is in the basement, and she has to get the key. So she's been doing it in the sink, much as I have, until Saturday. Honestly who knew owning a washer and dryer was such a luxury? She said all the laundramats in her area were closed. Every one. Not one was open. They are all very small. My area does have laundramats open - one stated from 7am to 1am. I was surprised. She said she figures they don't want to touch the clothes. You can't send them out - because you risk having someone else touching your clothes. Think about it? How do you do laundry in a shared space with shared machines during a pandemic?
Church was on Zoom and a beautiful service, with the reading of a children's book, and the central theme being dealing with a life of uncertainty and being kind to oneself and others. One woman shared her story of being hospitalized with COVID and recovering - two weeks of sheer hell, and how in recovery, she'd broken out in a full body rash that was itchy. Weird virus - the symptoms seem to run the gamut.
What was inspiring about her story, was how various people in the Church's caring ministry reached out to help her, and how she managed to feel the flow of her spirit through it and find a way out the other side. We ended with the Beatles song, Let it Be. Now I'm listening to comic opera in Italian...and the radiator heat is playing havoc with my allergies again. But not like it did back in November, making me wonder if I had a mild case of this weird thing then? I hope not. I went to work during it. But so did everyone else in my workplace who had it. That's one of the things coming out about this - how our idiotic work culture makes people work while sick, and doesn't tell them to stay home. Also, methinks, biometric clocks may soon be a thing of the past.
1. Why You're So Irritated by Everything - if you are feeling cranky right about now? You aren't alone.
Sci-fi writer, John Scalzi posted a rant about the people on social media pressuring everyone to start a new hobby or discover something new, when he'd been busy getting a book out that made the best seller list, and wanted to sleep all the time.
While Dockhawk in FB posted on about people taking photographs in various areas of LA, while social distancing. He was upset they were taking these great shots and he wasn't able to. This in turn annoyed me, because I just posted a group of photos that I'd taken on a walk last night - to cheer myself up after an incredibly stressful day. It had cheered me up and made feel like I was in control of my anxiety and fear.
People can be selfish assholes under stress.
I am not immune. I apologized to my mother yesterday for losing it. I'd called her after doing two stressful things, I was proud I did them, but irritated because of the anxiety and stress. She innocently asked if there COVID-19 protocols in place at my apartment complex, stating that my brother's friends had protocols in place. (There aren't). And stressed I lost it.
At church today they dealt with the fact that we were all beginning to hit a wall. We've been quarantined now between 40-60 days depending on when you went on lock-down. More than a month. And there's no discernible end in sight, and if there is - it's not a safe or reassuring one.
( Excerpt from the article )
2. Bob Dylan's 50 Greatest Songs Ranked
I've never been a fan of the song "Don't think twice, it's alright", unless of course it is sung by Joan Baez. Interesting story? Dylan allegedly wrote the song in a snit after he broke up with Baez. So when Baez sings it - it's a lovely commentary and somewhat ironical one on Dylan. (Dylan is one of those artists in which I love their songs, but can't stand them performing them or them personally.)
It does however bring forth a lovely memory of my old college friend, Richard Walker, who died of leukemia in 1989. After a boyfriend (we'd just broken up) sang the song in public to hurt me - it was in response to my passionate and angry poetry readings about love and friendship and loss. I was 21. He was 20. We were young and stupid and full of ourselves. Anyhow, Richard came up to me afterwards, and walked and talked with me for hours about the relationship, about what happened, and was exceedingly kind. I remember him clearer than the boy I had a romantic relationship with, the boy who got married and had a kid. Of the two men, Richard was the kinder one. A tall black man from Western Kansas, who had a voice that could melt your heart. He wanted to help the world. Switched his major from music to History. Kind and gentle, and filled with empathy and little judgement, the exact opposite of my boyfriend, who was shorter, white, from privileged white family in Georgie, and full of himself, and thought he was a great singer...and well he's not as good as Dylan.
The boyfriend went on to get married, become a psychologist/sociologist specializing in mindfulness in the Hudson River Valley, with a kid, and self-published his own albums. While Richard, bless his soul, died tragically of leukemia.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy the boyfriend survived and is happy. But I'll always miss Richard, who still resides in my heart and memories.
3. The Day The Native Americans Drove the KKK Out of Town
4. The Good Guy/Bad Guy Myth in Pop Culture
5. Gossiping may actually be Good. Uhm...okay.
6. What it's like to live in a california ghost town
7. Taking a break from the whole NY vs. the Corona Virus thing. I just know the numbers went up. I'm listening to opera at the moment, while the rain falls. Debating going downstairs to get yet another package. (It's the blueberry muffin mix.)