Day #18 of the 60 Days of Gratitude Challenge

This gratitude meme is not easy, just saying..

Today's prompt is What trait do you have that you are grateful for?

I suppose they mean something other than a physical attribute? Otherwise I feel like I already did this one.

I'm an empath. I can feel energy in living things, locations and have a natural ability to see another person's perspective and feel their emotions, although I don't always understand where they are coming from.

This is a gift and a curse - but I'm grateful for it. It's kept me safe for the most part. And it's helped me understand others. I thought everyone had this trait, but apparently not. I realized this when I saw my grandmother's body and instantly knew her energy or soul was gone. It was empty. No one had to tell me. But other people didn't pick that up at all.

It's hard to explain to people - and I've always had it. I just thought everyone did. It took me a very long time to realize this is not the case - and it is a gift, for which I should be grateful.

Day #22 of the 30 Day Book Challenge

Not only is this meme getting difficult, the dang link keeps disappearing or breaking.

This is Day #22 of 30 Day Book Challenge.

The prompt is ...a book that scares you

Books don't really scare me. My mind thinks visually, and when I read, it processes the information kind of differently than it does with movies or television series.

There's been a few that have come close though..

1. Haunting of Hill House by Shirly Jackson
2. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston about an ebola virus outbreak
3. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

But usually, not so much.

Please share this video and story - and make it viral - it could save lives..

Please share this video and story and make it go viral. Please. Maybe we can save lives.

Watch on YouTube

As the pandemic rages across the United States, breaking records nearly every day for deaths and cases, some nurses and doctors are reaching a breaking point.

Some have battled surges in their areas for months. Others have been more recently overwhelmed. Many are physically and emotionally drained and suffer from a crushing sense of inadequacy and anxiety. Experts say health care workers are ever more susceptible to post-traumatic stress. Some are closing their practices or leaving their jobs because of the toll on themselves, their families, their patients and their colleagues.

Particularly anguishing, some health care workers say, is the cavalier attitude many Americans display toward the virus.

“There is such a disconnect between the hospital and the surrounding communities,” one doctor wrote in an exchange later posted on Twitter. “I don’t drive home to bells, whistles and clanging pots and pans … I drive home stunned through a college town with lines out the doors for the local bars.”

In an attempt to break through that disconnect, about 100 of the nation’s largest and best hospital groups released an ad campaign today, in print and video, that is a call to arms — or rather, a call to mask up.

“We put our lives on the line daily to keep you safe. So, do something for us. Wear. A. Mask,” a caption in the video reads.

I reached out to Ashley Bartholomew, a registered nurse who recently resigned from her job in a Covid ward at an El Paso hospital, but stayed on for another two weeks because of the desperate need. She said identifying a single breaking point was difficult, but told me about an exchange with a patient who was improving.

She went into his room in full P.P.E. as he was watching the national news cover El Paso’s need for more mobile morgues.

“He said the news is making it a bigger deal than it really is,” she recalled. She tried to remain professional, but couldn’t hold back her tears. “I said: ‘You know, I’ll be brutally honest. This is my last shift and I’ve never seen so much death, so much sickness, in the last two weeks than I have my entire 10 years of being in health care.’”

Taken aback, the patient said he thought everyone in the ward was doing as well as he was. Of the 25 rooms she had been in that day, she told him, he was the only patient able to chat. Everyone else was too sick.

“This is a pandemic within a pandemic,” she said. “A pandemic of misinformation along with the Covid-19 pandemic. And health care workers, we can’t fight both at the same time.”

American Health Care Workers Issue A Call To Arms For Wearing Masks

Day 246 of Lockdown/Corona Virus Diaries

According to the Governor's email it is Day 260, but I went under lockdown two weeks later - on March 17, around the same time as elisi, actually.

The news in the US is not good. In NY it's somewhat better - we have a 2.68% infection rate.

From the Governor's newsletter:

The positivity rate in the micro-cluster focus areas dropped slightly to 4.11 percent. Excluding these areas, it was 2.38 percent. Of the 195,239 tests reported yesterday, 5,310, or 2.72 percent, were positive. Total hospitalizations rose to 2,276. Sadly, we lost 31 New Yorkers to the virus.

95%-98% of New Yorkers are wearing masks. And in my area and building, most are. I don't really see many people without, and there's less people wandering around. I did laundry at 4pm today. It takes about two hours - so was between 4-6pm, and I don't stay down there. I go down, put it in, go up, and then bring down recyclables, and switch stuff into the dryer, and take up the delicates that have to be air-dried. Then I come down one last time to take the items out of the dryer, fold, put in my cart. Costs me about $15 for four loads. Not bad. If I were to send it out - it would cost $30. And I tend to do it every two weeks or so.

There wasn't really anyone down there. I didn't see a soul until I took items out of the dryer at 5:45pm. Prior to that - no one. Did however smell the curry and garlic dinner that the Bengali family was cooking in the basement apartment. It kind of stunk up the entire basement. The garlic came rather close to overwhelming the curry.

It doesn't bother me that much. I had a mask on - even though I didn't see a soul. (I wear one whenever I leave the apartment and am in a space that is public or someone can enter without warning. So even though I was technically in the basement by myself, anyone could leave that apartment at any moment (and they don't tend to wear masks) or the super or someone could come down. I don't take chances. The only time I take my mask off outside my apartment is when I am walking by myself around Greenwood Cemetery and no one is in sight or nearby for miles. I remember taking the mask off in my cubicle at work and it making me edgy, that was back in September - when we thought we had to return to work, only to find out five days later that we didn't have to.

Anyhow, New York for the most part is behaving itself. We have clusters, and we have cases, and we have deaths - far more than a lot of countries, but less than various outlying states. Right now, they are trying not to shut down their economy again - ie. keeping the salons, bars, restaurants, and gyms open. Instead they shut down schools - which as mother put it is problematic - since half the NY schools are charter or private, and the mayor has no control.

The difficulty in the US - is no one has control. If a governor dictates things shut down and people wear masks - it is kind of meaningless if local officials and the police refuse to enforce it. And with a federal government that refuses to do anything - we're kind of dead in the water. (Next time some nitwit tells me they want to make america great again by voting for a narcissitic reality star - I'm going to tell them to ingest arsenic or better yet shoot themselves in the head.) Although I haven't run into any idiotic MAGAs at work in some time. Workplace has been hit hard by the virus, we are broke. Worse - 16 billion in debt, and facing all sorts of cost reductive measures that aren't pretty.

The other difficulty is the people in charge care more about their personal freedoms them human lives - which is why the US has 250,000 dead and others don't.

It could be worse - I could work for the health department or be a nurse or doctor - god. What is happening in the midwest and northwest is painful.

1. It's time for New York vs. The Corona Virus
( Read more... )

2. New York wants everyone to stay home for the holidays. The folks on FB, basically my family and friends are complying without any argument whatsoever.

"A smaller Thanksgiving celebration doesn't mean you have to skip out on the great food. To help New Yorkers plan for smaller holiday gatherings, I Love NY created a list of scaled-down recipes that are great for smaller Thanksgiving celebrations - HERE. " - they are so desperate for us to do this - they've come up with recipes.

Okay this has some good recipes. I want the Acorn Squash With New York Pears & Apples.
( Recipe beneath the cut - more for me than for you )

3. I read the NY Times Corona Virus report, and wanted to scream. God. The United States is Stupid. Decided not to share why with you all.

4. It's a cold November Day - all of which I've spent inside. Apartment is so warm - I have the window open in my bedroom and living room. Heat is not a problem in NYC apartments. My right thumb hurts due to a torn hangnail. Making it hard to use it.

If I ignore the news? I'm in a good mood. The news breaks my heart and makes me furious at the same time.

And Social Media is as always a mixed bag of various connections and disconnects.

5. I got inspired finally to buy Christmas Decorations - I bought two small table top Christmas trees that can be lit by battery operated lights. I have another one in my closet. Mother said I could do an arranged. I might on the old coffee table. I also bought some snowflake lights - that are waterproof and heat resistant, and battery operated. Along with snowflake window decals.

Am considering getting a fairy lighted tree for the bedroom - but may pass.

I am also debating getting a sound buffer for my TCL Roku Television Set.
But am on the fence. I'm in an apartment, I don't require that loud a sound.
And it's not cheap. Nor are stand-up mixers - unless you get a cheap one. Tempting, but. Then again, it's not like I'm a baker or anything. I've not owned a stand-up mixer in over twenty years.

6. Speaking of buying stuff and the holidays...

Found an ad on FB that made me laugh..

Buy 1 Get 1 Free on all digital Lordship and Ladyship title packs.
What do you get a person who already has everything?
Make them a Lord or a Lady."

Here's the LINK - maybe the UK is broke from breaking with Brexit and well COVID, and is giving away titles?