A Parlour for a Plague

In the above video, I feel the most important piece is from 23:23 through 26:00


When to go to the hospital?
When you're short of breath. If you're feeling short of breath go to the hospital. That is the rule.
If you get up to go to the bathroom, and you're short of breath, go to the hospital.

Of the entire population with COVID19, 10% need to go to the hospital.
Of that number that go to the hospital 1 to 3% need the ICU.

So for the 120K confirmed cases in the US, 12K need to go to the hosptial, and 120 to 360 need to be on a ventilator.



WASH YOUR HANDS
WASH YOUR HANDS
WASH YOUR HANDS

So...how are we all?

My right ear feels funny.

I was chasing my donkies around this morning.The little bastards figured out how to undo the swing latch/lock on their stable room. I hadda find em first. They were over on another pasture so I led em with some donkey chow over to the pasture that contained the sheep .

I don't recall how many years back it started, but I am a compulsive hand washer already. Unfortunately I have been a face toucher and that part is tough to break away from.

on the very rare times I have left the property in the last 3+ weeks, I have tried to carry something in each hand so I'm not tempted to face touch. and if my hands move up, seeing the stuff brings those hands right on down. carry hand sanitizer and wipes and other stuff in my pockets. when coat weather is over I'll definitely be wearing a pocketed vest to carry the junk around in.

Someone was asking a grammar question about this poem on another thread.
I really like it.

Eyes Fastened With Pins
Charles Simic - 1938-

How much death works,
No one knows what a long
Day he puts in. The little
Wife always alone
Ironing death's laundry.
The beautiful daughters
Setting death's supper table.
The neighbors playing
Pinochle in the backyard
Or just sitting on the steps
Drinking beer. Death,
Meanwhile, in a strange
Part of town looking for
Someone with a bad cough,
But the address somehow wrong,
Even death can't figure it out
Among all the locked doors...
And the rain beginning to fall.
Long windy night ahead.
Death with not even a newspaper
To cover his head, not even
A dime to call the one pining away,
Undressing slowly, sleepily,
And stretching naked
On death's side of the bed.

New York City yesterday



https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-anthony-fauci-cdcs-14-day-travel-advisory-will-ultimately-will-help-stop-the-virus

I seem to get less junk email every day. I don't read any of it anyway but I go through it every day to be sure nothing important gets deleted.

I saw a piece on the news about potential overcrowding at city morgues.

Alive.

Of course if I cough even once or feel tired (even at 3 a.m.) I get edgy. Add to this the allergy season has started so I have those symptoms.

But, my temp. is a healthy 97.4° so all is as it should be.


Here's hopping things are good for you too.

I just got back from my daily long walk. This was the worst day yet. Only maybe one in five or one in six were practicing distancing. People suck.

Most people are oblivious.

What we need is a good purging by lions and tigers and bears.

That grocery store experience from the other day?
There was one woman who was on top of things. I had walked up to the prepared bags of salad and had to look for a second for the kind I liked. As I was straightening up, a voice said “right behind ya” and as I turned my head she was already heading away.

From spending time in Mexico, I see just how unobservant Americans are, and how we require these big grand gestures and overblown expressions to communicate.

Down there, when driving, there isn’t all this wild hand waving from drivers to let the other person in. People don’t grin like monkeys at each other when they meet or pass on the street.
Mostly it’s small nods of the head to “go ahead” or “thanks” or “nice day” as you pass.

I never worry someone hasn’t seen me when I’m driving. They use their peripheral vision a lot. Both drivers and pedestrians are expected to know what’s going on around them. Even really little kinds.

Something you never see are adults talking to children like “Look at this! Look at this! Do you see that! Look!” Or being told/asked to do something multiple times.
Also refreshing is that no one really pays much attention to children that aren’t theirs. So the children don’t gain this false sense of importance.
Now this is the interior. I don’t know how it is around the border. I do know though that Mexicans that move to the US many times start treating their kids like we do, and they quickly turn into screaming brats.

Heh. Last trip there I was driving in Cento with my friend. We were in the usual 15 mph speed that the narrow streets and cobblestones require. This little girl, maybe 4, was grandly passed off about something. Her faced was scrunched and there were tears, but her mouth was closed. Her mother was looking at something, and then she just started walking again. Little girl just followed. Still mad, but she was learning the lesson of dealing with her own emotions, and not making it the problems of anyone within hearing distance.
You never hear kids acting up really. Except for tiny babies of course. But mother’s, fathers and older siblings are always holding the babies in their arms, so crying doesn’t last long.

I think a big part of it may be diet. Lots of fruit and juices being eaten all over. No fast food really, and candy and chips are a treat.



In normal times, women will great other women, and men and women great each other with a kiss to the check. Men do it to with other men, if they are family. It’s a quiet subtle dance.

My friend is closing his restaurant, due to the virus backlash.

He and the family have operated a successful Italian restaurant for over 50 years; it’s the center of our little town.

He downscaled to takeout or curbside delivery 10 days ago. But people are now afraid that the takeout containers carry the virus, like the pizza boxes.

Very sad. The staff is stressed out. Some of them literally live from day to day on tips.

Field hospital being build in Central Park to support Mount Sinai Hospital. Makes me feel something too big to want to examine.

Very sad about the Restaurant Punkey.

People where I am are distancing very well. Restrictions get tighter every day....some possible signs of our curve flattening. Some Australian scientists have invented a new test...as people all over are doing. However, we are still not testing enough to be really sure

Not enough masks etc for frontline health workers so you can’t get them for love nor money

Roberta....I read a field hospital was being built in Central Park?

Morgues everywhere are going to be overflowing

I’m surprised Canadians are being dumb re distancing. I’d have thought you were getting good information as opposed to what anyone in the US who listens to Trump is getting.

I read NPR stopped broadcasting him because the corrections became too burdensome.

Anyone got any great books, films and TV series to recommend?

I’m having trouble getting engrossed.

I clearly didn’t lock my front door properly on Friday night as the wind blew it open at some point and I woke to find Sebastian escaped.

My community has its own Facebook page, so I was able to track his movements.

He had a long chat with a neighbour behind me, then they meditated together.

He visited Molly, a lovely little cat on whom I believe he has a crush, but she wasn’t in the mood.

He disappears at that point, but re-emerges to the north, watching chooks at Jacquie’s, where he is captured and brought home.

Now he’s sulking because the door is remaining firmly shut

they/we aren't particularly.

You do have to pick and choose when and where you go. We do live near an area where there are a lot of open businesses as they are in the essential category.

I walk in the opposite direction for the most part ,except for last night when I did a quick walk to our grocery store as the owner had put out a call for a cable he needed to do more deliveries. He's is overall a good community member so I went down. it was about 1/2 hour before store closure. No one in line outside so the security guard waved me in . dropped off my cable, grabbed some groceries, only person in line in checkout. Fast, extremely low exposure. Between walk down and walk there, saw a total of less than 10 people - all of us moved around each other with small waves, smiles and in one case a quick greeting around a row of parked cars.


The most difficult part was following all the navigation lines on the floor in the store. I managed. Mostly. It might have actually been easier with a few more people in the store. With no one in most aisles it was easy to get distracted from those traffic markers (which all seemed counter-intuitive).

More what I expected.