People opting out of writing class today, including me. We canceled our trip to Quebec at month’s end, which was itself a substitute after canceling a trip to Rome. Even a dinner party for Saturday is likely to be deferred til later in the year.
People are freaking out.
My brother, who is sixty and has two underlying conditions that put him at risk, is an ER doctor. This weekend, he has two shifts at a Long Island hospital with recent cases of coronavirus.
How not to worry?
One son is a security guard who doesn’t even get sick time. If they close the building and force telecommuting, he will be out of a paycheck indefinitely.
K rides the T for about 80 minutes a day. In and out of Boston.
How not to worry?
K’s brother cancels trip to see their father at the nursing home. Visitors allowed, but with restrictions.
During Finn’s and my walk just now, I listened to a podcast about the necessity of local community. Consider getting my street linked up by email so that we can help each other out.
- Future Primitive:
In other news, I found a manuscript consultant and her name is ‘Joy.’ I spent the weekend muttering to myself, “I’ll be conferring with Joy.” “Joy is going to help me with my writing.” “How sweet to have an agreement with Joy!”
Thanks for this post, Dee. So very much to consider… time for lots of definitively deep breathing
Deep breathing is the best advice I’ve seen in days!
think it’s fairly unrealistic to seek not-worrying status of any duration. especially where you live in this state.
Fortunately I don’t need to go much of anywhere, but there is the T ride of K’s, day in and day out.
(((Dee))) we all need to look out for one another with respect and kindness, I am still giving big hugs to friends but asking first if they want one. I won’t buy into a scare campaign designed to divide and isolate us at this point in time for our beautiful broken world.
Actually, hugs are better than hand shakes. I think the fear is rational, at least about the means of transmission.
have you handed over money to the girl at the cash register in the supermarket? or at the post office? have you touched a coin to put into a parking meter? just wash your hands it’s no big deal!
I use a credit card and don’t even need to tap the pad. I am washing my hands constantly and using lyesol but if the hospitals get overwhelmed it will be a very big deal indeed. Just read a thread or two about Italy by a medical worker for an idea of what’s coming in US.
If you’d been listening to the lying propaganda being uttered by this administration, you’d understand why I prickle at a “it’s no big deal” response. Our government has blood on its hands for its casual and incompetent lack of response. Even now, the intervention is mostly economic. Trump does not give a shit about people. This is the week where I’ve gone from seeing him as a person who is epically stupid and suffering from a personality disorder to seeing him as a sociopath. He keeps telling us “it’s no big deal.”
I went to yum cha on Saturday in Chinatown, washed my hands when we got home. Went to a very crowded opening at Artsite, ate grapes that other people had touched and washed my hands afterwards. If I get sick I will self isolate but until such time I will continue to go to work and function as a human being who cares for my friends, customers and their gardens. I touch the earth for a living with no reserves in the bank to take any time off as is the case with most self employed workers. Yes this is a scary illness that needs to be treated with respect and kindness but there are lots of scarey things in the world.
I went to Costco on Friday and out to dinner at a bustling restaurant on Saturday night. Grocery shopping on Wednesday. But the news has shifted. Until we get a sense of the level of contagion here, I don’t mind modifying my behavior a little. I’m not worried about getting sick myself so much as I’m worried about health care workers and friends/family who are a little older.
My Sunday lecture at the library was cancelled a few minutes ago. I am relieved. My neighbor has offered to buy my groceries (I don’t know why but it was kind of her). The local Music Theater is considering canceling all productions for the summer but also not refunding money we paid for tickets. We’ve been told to NOT go to the movies. And Maine has no confirmed case as yet.—but we also don’t have testing kits.
Well as you know they are sending college kids home here in Boston area. I noticed the Met in NY is closed. Hockey games off. Of course, the NBA.
All of the theaters downtown are closed, many local colleges…same. Yet, the country is low on testing kits etc. It’s a mess!
Here, too. The MFA just closed for a month. I think the people I feel the worst for are all the kids who won’t get to have a graduation ceremony.
I’ve been thinking about you and your trip to Italy……now cancelled I see. We’re stockpiling and hoarding toilet paper!!!!! here in Oz……women have been charged fighting over it. I’m down to my last roll, and as I gaze in disbelief at the empty shelves, I wonder why people aren’t stockpiling tinned food……the tp thing is ludicrous. I feel for the people who aren’t physically able to go from store to store, or don’t have the spare cash to stockpile. We have no cases in my small country town, but I’m being prudent, and careful. As we all must. We had Tom Hanks eating at a local restuarant last weekend, he and is his wife are now in isolation in hospital after testing positive, after staying at the same hotel on the Gold Coast where another person had been tested positive. It’s sneaking closer, and I’m pleased to see our local health system is talking about how they’ll manage cases, do we have enough beds, staff, test kits, how to protect hospital staff…..it’s better than burying our heads. Stay well Dee.
Thanks Nanette. You stay well, too. What will you do without TP?! My pantry always has a couple weeks ( or more) of food.
Thankyou. Yes I have a well stocked pantry, in preparedness for flooding, and had recently added tp to my shopping list as I was running low…..visitors shortened my usual usage time……only to find the over the top hoarding had begun. I’m being mindful of how I use it but gave in and bought a box of tissues just in case, but they’re nasty bleached things, and all I can think is trees were wasted, and a lot of energy and resources went into producing them. I never buy tissues or paper towels. I’m not too bothered about the lack of tp, I’ve lived in India on and off for years, so “there are ways”. My son suggested I knit some, which isn’t too far-fetched an idea…..maybe cloth rather than knitted 😁
Gonna add my two cents, provided by my nurse-in-training daughter: if you ever gave birth, you were given a squeeze bottle to use for toiletting. As my daughter said, “to moms everywhere, we’ve trained for this”
I don’t get the birthing reference? Tho I do remember taking a crap on the floor next to my bed just before it was time to push. TMI? I don’t need to tell you that the midwife wasn’t phased in the least.
Dee, our neighborhoods here in Sedona are linked up by the Nextdoor app…enables everyone to keep in touch, engage with the police, fire dept., city hall, etc. It works well.
I use nextdoor and it’s useful but Newton has twelve far flung neighborhoods and it doesn’t feel “local” enough, even tho I’ve filtered for my and adjacent areas.
I poked around by “topic” a bit more and found it more helpful. Thanks for the suggestion.
it’s very spooky
The list of closures on the news right now is unbelievable.
having seen your huge table I now have table-envy…..how useful is that for the bigger quilts!
I realise there are larger issues, however I’ve decided not to worry or panic about corona, as I feel I’m not at risk personally…..
I wanted to write more and then thought: too much preaching!
so table-envy it is and keep on breathing
xx
That table is the BEST. It has two leaves that live right under the top and can easily be pulled out. It’s no accident that the quilt panels I’ve made are almost exactly the width of the table.
Please show how this quilt goes…I love the colors together and the wide field of calm.
It is so unknown here, maybe I’ll post more on the weekend. I’ll be home.
Been thinking how glad I’ve been that you cancelled your Rome trip! Seems so long ago now.
I always look for your posts.
Hey there. Lots to worry about and needless to say worry feeds the problem. But I wish you, your beloveds and all who visit here safe passage through this storm. As for the TP hoarding…here too and so crazy. I shopped for essentials at a local Trader Joe day before yesterday. The line to get in was around a half block outside when I exited and the lines inside wrapped around three aisles. However, thanks to TJ policy, I get to go right to the front with my cane so it was not too stressful. Meanwhile…the Federal administration is just what it is…disorganized and dumb. I am currently fine. Been taking my temperature daily, carry and use alcohol (fortunately had a big bottle cause it’s gone from all shelves) and have been taking immune boosters since way before the outbreak. The two monks of my Zendo teach in Kyoto Japan every year and returned healthy, but, for safety reasons and out of concern for all of us, have self quarantined at home for fourteen days just in case. I’ve been qoing to twice weekly meditations and am supremely grateful for the community there (short bus ride across town). I’m sending love and a hug for Finn.
It gives me great comfort to know that you have your zen community. Hope you get some rest this morning!
I read tons of dystopic fiction when I was a kid, so my imagination is fertile ground for times like these … then reading about Italy, tragic beyond imagining, and all too real
Ive read were a week from being Italy. I hope those projections are wrong. But when you hear (Maddow’s interview with journalist last night) how we’re even doing quarantine wrong, it’s stunning. China set up fever clinics so the sick didn’t infect their families.
Yeah. People are watching “Contagion” and referencing The Stand and zombie movies all over the place!