Day #54 of Self-Isolation in Epidemic Central

1. It was another beautiful day today. The snow storm they predicted never hit Brooklyn, went completely north of us, and the cold temperatures? Worse was maybe the forties on Saturday, got up to the sixties today. Lots of sunshine. I'm somewhat annoyed by it - I wanted a rainy or snow weekend to binge curl up and read during. Instead, I spoke to my mother, watched the governor, texted my sis-in-law, and walked around Greenwood Cemetery. Also got food deliveries.

Tonight, I ordered take out for the first time since..I can remember, I think the last time I did it was in the old apartment and in the 1990s. I ordered a gluten-free pepperoni mid-size pizza and a side salad of mixed mesculin greens, strawberries, tomatoes and asiago cheese, with oil and vinegar on the side. It was yummy and I have enough left over for tomorrow. I did it as a no contact delivery, they rang the buzzer, came upstairs, knocked, and I told them to leave outside the door. They left, and I opened the door and got the food. Much easier than expected and ordered via "Slice". It gives money to local restaurants and businesses, keeping them in operation during the pandemic.

I may try the Thai place next. There's a huge list of local restaurants on the COVID-19 Neighborhood Support Page.

I wasn't planning on walking around Greenwood Cemetery, but after I'd finished watching "Rosewell, New Mexico" and had ordered the pizza, I got antsy. ( Read more... )

2. Mask wearing in the city, and social distancing

It's a mixed bag.( Read more... )

3. My mother has now talked to assorted family members who have had the dreaded virus. ( Read more... )

4. New York vs. the Corona Virus (and well the Federal Government, mostly the Federal Government)

The New York Times posted a map showing the counties most affected by the virus in NY. I live in the area with 2,000 plus cases next to one of the areas with 2500 plus. But Queens and the Bronx and Staten Island are by far the worse affected.

The New York Times is making me crazy - I'm this-close to cancelling the subscription (assuming I can figure out how to do it - it is ridiculously difficult to cancel a digital subscription - hence the reason that I haven't gotten any others). They keep reporting all the frightening things happening at the moment.
We have a Disney Supervillain in the White House. I mean...words fail.

Meanwhile, despite myself and much to my considerable chagrin, I have begun to fall in love with my State Governor. The man is reassuring me on a daily basis, he's also reassuring my parents down in South Carolina - who won't miss his briefings aired on CNN. Mine are on NY1 or the Governor's FB page - so I also get little announcements like - "don't worry about paying your COVID bills or for testing that will be free in NY" or "for unemployment claims please contact this number..." or "if you are hungry and need food, go here...". ( Read more... )

Here's what his office sent me tonight by email...
( Read more... )

Say what you will about Andrew Cuomo, here is a man that genuinely cares about others and is doing everything in his power to help them on every level imaginable.
He's fighting to provide food, to preserve jobs, and preserve lives. And when our federal government and WHO fell down on the job - he stepped up to the task and find the people to help him.

We may just survive this because of him. Even though our Federal Government has decided to kill us all. My mother got fed up and donated money to Biden and Amy McGrath's campaign in Kentucky - she calls it Ditch the Mitch Campaign, she also gave to Jamie Harris - the opponent of Lindsey Graham. McGrath is a war veternan and hero, mother read up on her first.

I love my mother dearly. She keeps me grounded. I talk to her every day. And am thankful for her. So I identified a bit with Cuomo who said the same about his.

5. Almost forgot to link to this lovely thing done by my church choir director..

Watch on YouTube

I cried during it - but have I mentioned that at this point in time, I tend to cry at the drop of a hat? Commercials make me cry. It's pathetic really.

More photos from Greenwood Cemetery..

I honestly don't know why some people can see them and some can't. Complain to DW?
What I can tell you is - the only way I can upload photos is via "copy image location" from either Facebook or Google. It's easier now - because FB usually had Save Picture As - which doesn't work. But now, has copy image location. If you click on upload image or copy image - it won't upload. Live journal allowed me to upload directly from my computer or Google docs. Dreamwidth requires copy image location, or you have to pay a lot of money and put it in Flicker or Photobucket - which charge now. For a long time, I stopped bothering with posting photos because it was a)time consuming, and b) I couldn't remember all the steps - you'd have to upload in Google, go to Goggle, click something, then something else, and finally get copy image location. It was a nightmare. Now - I can copy image location directly from FB and ignore the whole Google nightmare and most of my flist can see them.

If you can't? Complain to Dreamwidth about their horrid image upload system.

1. ( walk through the trees )

2.( tree with a globe of sun behind it - which is only possible to take with an iphone, or I'd burn my eyes. )

3. ( tree and graves )

4. ( crazy lovely tree...that has all sorts of love carvings in its bark )

5. ( statue thinking between flowering bushes )

6. ( another path through the trees and graves... )

7.( tree sheltering the graves )

8.( Differing pathway through the graves )

What these photos prove is that there wasn't that many people at Greenwood Cemetery today and the idiots on the Kensington FaceBook Page telling people that they shouldn't go unless they are visiting their mother's graves - because it was too crowded are wrong. Actually, there's a huge misconception that the cemetery is just a cemetery like any other cemetery - it's not, it's a National Historic Landmark and a park, which has tours, walking and otherwise. And has extended its times so people can stroll. Not to mention it's landscaping - it has turtle ponds. [I restrained myself from ripping these folks a new one on FB - because no good ever comes of correcting folks on social media. I'm not going to change their mind - it's very hard to change people's minds about anything on social media.]