Tag Archives: covid

Book, Burgers, and Covid

Catalpa collects and rots I cleared this area yesterday.

Book-focused weekend. Ken’s been playing with format — shifting a margin this way then that, tweaking the line spacing, bigger, smaller. The goals are to make a readable page (i.e. with enough blank space) and to keep the page count down. These two aims run counter to each other. I’m happy to say that it’s looking like the print edition will be in the neighborhood of low-300’s. This may change but it’s a really good page count.

Still working on my blurb. It’s about 80 words too long.

Yesterday I applied for an LCCN. That’s a Library of Congress Control number which apparently helps librarians find your book. I hadn’t heard of it before yesterday. It can also lend a little credibility to a self-published book, though I’m not sure how since if you’re like me you really don’t even scan the copyright page. I’ve been STUDYING them this week.

We’re under a tornado watch. There was a voluminous and angry downpour at dawn. Branches along our walk were down. It is muggy.

I made the best turkey burgers yesterday. Really really good. Not even sure why.

Mixed in: homemade bread crumbs, cilantro and a little basil, a shallot, S&P, garlic powder and three cloves of garlic, the usual egg. Served with homemade aioli and a nice seeded, toasted bun.

We’re getting ready to go to California this week for a wedding. The two people I know who attended outdoor weddings recently reported six to eight people getting Covid. I think that makes them superspreader events?

I’ve grown a little self-conscious about masking. I’m expecting to be the only person wearing one at this wedding. Should that bother me? Maybe not if you consider I might also be one of the only guests who hasn’t had Covid.

I read twitter still. It’s grown more and more worthless but I learn about fires and floods and I watch portions of political speeches (important to know for myself how degraded Trump is). It’s where I’m learning about Project 2025.

But here’s what else I’m learning. A succession of mild Covid cases in a small but significant percentage of people results in long term health damage. People forget that it’s a vascular disease. Heart problems may result. Immune system weakening. There can be brain and liver damage, strokes and aneurysms. If Covid was just the week you lose to exhaustion and a lack of smell, I would not give a shit.

(And maybe I shouldn’t qualify the number of ugly outcomes as “small” since some of those strokes, for instance, may happen when younger folk turn 35 or 40).

It’s on Twitter where I found out that San Francisco’s wastewater count of the virus is higher than 2020 and that there’s a surge of Covid cases in Oregon. I also learned that it’s a good idea to run the bathroom and AC fans for an hour in a hotel room before settling in.

I ordered more N95 masks and I have my iodine-based nasal and throat sprays out for packing. My last booster was in March so I guess I’m good there? Not much else I can do besides stay home.

Hello! It’s cold

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Temps plummeting here so I made Finn a coat. It’s already been modified since its debut.

There’s a polar fleece underlayer and a top layer of gorgeous Irish wool. I know, I know. High quality imported wool for the dog?

Well, yes and why not? It’s been sitting in a bin for twenty-plus years. I think my mother gave it to me. Or it was hers and ended up with me. Since this picture was taken, I revamped the neck edge and moved the straps forward. Not ideal but it will work for the next walk in 7 degrees. Going to -10 overnight. Whew!

We went to Colorado last week. Saw the boys. We enjoyed it, our first gathering in EIGHTEEN MONTHS. One evening at the XGames in Aspen was a bit of a scene and memorable, other nights in front of a fire more relaxed (with YouTube offering much better viewing of the boarding events). C had a GoPro camera strapped to his chest on their days on the slopes, so even though I wasn’t skiing, I was treated to video of their descents.

I’m proud to say that we shopped the first day for what seemed like a huge amount of food, but we very nearly consumed it all. Except for the acorn squash. For some reason, on no night did I feel like stuffed acorn squash. I brought them home in my suitcase!

Our flights out of Aspen were cancelled because of a localized storm, so we ended up driving to Denver. Everyone made it home safe and sound. And no, the passes through Loveland and Breckenridge were not the white-knuckling, guard-rail-free nightmares I was anticipating.

I will never not be amazed by flying. That’s one of the Great Lakes above. K and I got four upgrades to first class. Sigh. The end of an era, since his Global Services status is due to expire. He may try to squeeze a couple of trips to China in before he retires, but given the ferocity of their Covid outbreak, it’s a problematic idea.

You used to have to quarantine upon arrival in China for seven to fourteen days, depending. Even if you quarantined in one city, say Beijing, you’d have to quarantine all over again if you traveled elsewhere, say Shanghai. They’ve dropped those requirements.

It is so odd how China went from imposing the most draconian disease management protocols to having none at all. In our country, we seem to be suffering from a similar lack of will — or is it delusion? Covid is no longer an emergency? Oh really? Is that why 2,000 to 4,000 Americans are dying EVERY WEEK, not to mention the drastic effects of Long Covid beginning to be documented to a horrifying degree?

Two men behind me on the flight home coughed the entire trip.

Thirteen days

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And he’s negative! Only the test could tell because he’s actually more stuffed up now than when he was sick with Covid. Seasonal allergies have hit.

This “Covid suite” aka “wreck-of-a-bedroom” will get turned back into a peaceful place today. No screens. Will run fans and air purifiers all day.

The TV was one we got for my sister. K assembled that rocker from a Shaker kit (wove the seat and back and stained and waxed the wood). That was before we got married and it’s nice to remember. Usually the rocker is hidden away for lack of a good place and if that’s a metaphor for our marriage, I don’t want to think about it.

In other news, we hired a crew to paint the house. If you knew what a DIY-household this is, your jaw would hit the floor.

We get to luxuriate in having things done for us — long overdo maintenance, at that — and to enjoy a task that gets started and finished in the same week (never mind the same season or decade). It’s also a chance to notice, not for the first time, that abrasive noise is like clutter — it bothers you less when it’s yours.

I’ll work here this morning.

A movie recommendation to end. I love stories about second chances and “I Used to Be Famous” fits the bill. Very sweet.

Kushner snuck in. Do you see his malevolent B&W eye near the left margin?

Barcelona and Covid

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I borrowed a friend’s super duper HEPA filter. I have three fans in position, ready to circulate the air. My husband’ll take our bedroom and bath and I’ll take one of the boys’ bedrooms and their bath. We’ll wear masks.

Because? You guessed it. He caught COVID. K spent the week in Barcelona duking it out with Tylenol and room service. He didn’t make his presentation. “It’s like a bad cold,” he said, as many do. He stayed longer than his coworkers but is traveling home now after a positive test.

I know. I know.

I stopped to buy ham so I can make one of his favorite meals this weekend: ham, au gratin potatoes, and something green. I also bought a generous pack of chicken wings to add to the chicken carcass that’s in the fridge. This batch of chicken soup has to be good, silky-good. His senses of taste and smell do not seem to have been affected.

Today is cool. A beautiful first day of fall. Finn sniffed things on our walk this morning per usual and tried to roll in some very stinky soil amendment near The Terraces which was not usual.

I listened to This American Life — about a couple that travels to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. The husband had Alzheimer’s.

Did I already post this? (speaking of dementia!)

No one understood why I didn’t want to go to Spain with K. I kept saying, “It’s because I don’t want to get Covid.”

When K gave me the news earlier this week, I laughed and said, “You didn’t have to get sick to prove me right!” (Not immediately, of course. That wasn’t the first thing I said …)

I’ll be back to answer comments from last post. I seem to be missing some of my usual mojo lately.

How none of it seems to end

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The list of things imposing misery right now is quite long. Ukraine is never far from mind. For many of my friends, Russia’s atrocities are personal.

Things I’ve heard in the last month from people I am close to:

My mother grew up in Belarus.

My grandparents are Russian Jews, but from areas now Ukraine.

I just found out that I have a relative from Poland who died in the Holocaust. I was named after her.

I’m have very little family history, which is traumatizing too.

My grandfather grew up in Odessa.

I didn’t realize that H’s mother was Ukrainian.

Meanwhile, it’s Monday and K has gone into the office. He will travel into Boston every day this week. It strikes me as a signature Covid experience how the familiar becomes strange and the strange becomes familiar. Example: in spite of this being my husband’s commuting routine for decades before the pandemic, it now feels a little weird, a little dangerous, a little not-normal.

Also today: I get to make a friend lunch and we won’t have to be quiet because K is on the phone at his workstation (aka the kitchen table).

And, I get my second booster this afternoon.

Pattern and Outrage : Dee Mallon

cloth, justice, writing, and food