I won’t write anymore at the moment. Just leave you with this for now:
I scarcely know where to start. I am on self-quarantine because I am 60. I have food enough for weeks. And plenty of toilet paper, which evidently is more important than food to some people. Didn’t see anyone fighting over the last chicken or can of tomatoes, but toilet paper? I wish I had started this additional diary when we first heard of COVID-19, but like so many others I thought it was going to be okay. And today it is anything but okay.
My husband left for KSA on February 25th. When his plane landed, before they could disembark, they had their temperature checked. Everyone was cleared. I asked him what would have happened if someone had registered a temp. No idea. The flight crew was as surprised as everyone else on the plane. They didn’t know about it until they landed.
In those three weeks since I dropped him at the airport, things have rapidly changed. I was not terribly concerned until about a week ago when the whole world seemed to be unraveling at once. I still tried to downplay my worries because well, when Dad isn’t here I feel an enormous burden of responsibility. Those feelings seemed to be multiplying exponentially with every news cycle. News started coming fast and furious from Europe, specifically Italy where their medical community began to drown in new and more serious cases of COVID-19. It now has gotten to the point that they are having to decide who to treat and who to let die. It is heartbreaking. To flippantly say it can’t happen here is both ignorant and a disservice. Italy’s health care ranks 2nd in the world. The US is sucking hind-tit at #37. Which is just absolutely disgusting. The richest nation in the world and this is where we are today. And add to that the complete incompetence and disregard to human suffering of our federal government, well we are up that proverbial creek.
As of 9:30am CST this is my home state’s statistics.
Up from 103 confirmed cases yesterday at 5:30pm. And unconfirmed there are now 133 confirmed cases at 3pm today.
If you are so inclined to guess-timate the number your community might see, here is a great FB post that is straightforward.
Okay – I will be back tomorrow if all is still well here. Stay safe and until then I am
I got a little dragging out accomplished over the weekend. You know, the precursor to culling and packing. And also accomplished two things:
and
Not my best cake work but the little guy it was for liked it and that is what matters. The car (a Bugatti??) is made of cereal and covered in fondant. The cake is just a plain yellow sponge with buttercream icing. And chocolate candies on the edge. The car replica must have been close enough because several men that saw it said: “Is that a Bugatti?”. LOL
Okay – back to the grind! I have some pretty great things coming up after we move house so stay tuned.
Until then I am
Well, we made what we think is a pretty bold decision to move to an apartment while our house is on the market. Apparently, that is how things are done these days. So say our realtor and our bank. So that’s done. We will move in the first week of April. I don’t know how all this will work – I have a 2500 sq ft house full of stuff, moving to a 1500 sq ft apartment. It will be a new experience. We will have no choice but to downsize and purge. Might as well adopt a minimalist attitude now. We planned on buying a house no larger than 1500-1600 square feet when this one sells, so this should lessen that adjustment when it comes.
I read a book not too long ago called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Better to do when we are still kicking than leaving it all for one of us or our kids to do. They don’t want all this crap and we don’t need it. Do we really need everyday dishes for 16 anymore? If we are all together we usually use paper plates – don’t judge! So I will be sending out notices to the kids – first come, first serve. You want it, speak for it now. If they are one of the ones that don’t live locally, I will make ONE box of stuff for them to keep in storage with their name on it. And there will be some major garage sales happening and then trips to donation drop-offs. Some of the family we don’t talk to as often will wonder what in the world we are thinking – but we have been thinking. A good while. And plotting and planning and this is the best solution we could suss out. I can’t say I am super happy about it, but not everything has to make us super happy. After all, I have survived our youngest grandson moving 1000 miles away. Just barely, but I have survived.
Recent events in my life have made me think about what is important and things aren’t. I feel comfortable mentioning my little health issue now that it is mostly behind me. I had my regular mammogram on the 13th of January and got a phone call a couple of days later that there was “an area of concern” and I needed to have another one done. So, no it wasn’t a shadow, it was what we now know is a tumor. I had a biopsy done a couple of weeks later and it is benign. However, the pathologist, my GP and GYN want me to see a surgeon for a consultation. That appointment is today. My thought before the appointment is: If it’s not hurting anything, leave it be. I will take what he says into consideration. Him being a surgeon, me having insurance, I can say with a good amount of certainty he will recommend removing it. But that is ultimately my decision. And I have a pretty full schedule right now. I was really hoping the biopsy would shut the door on this little inconvenience but evidently we are going to drag things out a little longer. Feeling very thankful it was not malignant. I really didn’t have time for that diagnosis.
Not going to lie, I had some dark days contemplating things and waiting on the results. I wasn’t scared, I was just very aggravated. Plenty of people have terrible health problems and don’t have the resources to even find out until it is too late. And even if they knew, could they afford to do anything about it? SO yeah, healthcare for all is my battle cry! How would America pay for it? The same way we pay for wars. Only we would be saving lives and not taking them. Yes, I do look at it as it is just that simple. It would be extraordinarily selfish of someone with all that I have to consider the idea that all people don’t deserve healthcare. I won’t get off into politics. Not today anyway. But from this paragraph’s veiled attempt at hiding my affiliations, I think you can guess.
Okay, enough of all that. Until next time, I am
