Love in the Time of COVID-19

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Like, something out of a “Twilight Zone” episode?

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I want details about this woman’s treatment - do you realize the impact this story will have? Or already has?

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Does she not realize what the current POTUS will do with this info in order to get re-elected? She sounds so naive, re her statement near or at the end of the article, “putting people over politics”.

Also, it says she’s used it before to treat her Lyme disease.

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Several thousand cars flooded the streets around the state capitol in Lansing, Mich. Wednesday to protest the Governor’s extended Stay-At-Home order. Cars stretched nearly a quarter mile for blocks around the capitol building, filling the air with a cacophony of honking. People draped in American and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags blared “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “God Bless The USA” out of car stereos.

The protest—called “Operation Gridlock”—was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and drew out militias, conservatives, small business owners, and ardent supporters of President Donald Trump, who characterize the Governor’s stay-at-home order as an unjust power-grab.

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The protest also blocked access to a hospital. There are photos of an ambulance trying to get through, without success. Stupid.

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I realize this is the wrong spirit, but I really hope they all catch it.

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The problem with that is, they will most likely pass it to other people who don’t deserve it.

Otherwise, I completely understand the impulse.

And please, believe me, #notallMichiganians. There are plenty of us who disagree with those fuckwits and their MAGA-hat-wearing, Confederate-flag-flying, Whitmer-as-Hitler-sign-waving idiocy.

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Journal of the Corona Year

4/15

The shortages encountered in stores is odd.

There are constant jokes about toilet paper being unavailable. I see plenty of it around. The preferred or best-known brands might not be on the shelves.

Rather than toilet paper, household cleaning products are hard to find. We have been quarantined approximately one month and so far the supply chain has not been able to catch up. It’s as if there is a vast section of the population that have never cleaned their houses before, and are now trying to make up for lost time.

The hardest cleaner to find is Comet. Comet appears to be sold-out everywhere. A few stores have Ajax, but I’m not yet desperate enough to make that substitution.

I don’t see a shortage of produce or meet. There is plenty of milk and yogurt, but not much cheese. In the past week there has been a sudden and mysterious disappearance of large canisters of Sun-Maid raisins.

The larger grocery stores appear to be having more problems than the small ones. The Brooklyn Market on 81st Street and the Foodtown on 92nd Street are large stores with their own parking lots. These two have the barest shelves. Foodtown in particular is always so crowded I’ve stopped going there. The Met Fresh on 96th Street is roughly the same size but does not have a parking lot. This store is decent place to go. The smallest in the area is the Associated just off 93rd. In this store, if it wasn’t for the absence of cheese and raisins, it would be hart to tell here was any pandemic at all.

I called a friend yesterday. She, I and another friend had planned on dining-out at the end of March. All three of us had worked at Macy’s together. Those plans have been delayed for the time-being.

She had been fired from Macy’s about six months ago. It hit her pretty hard, but it’s no dishonor. That anyone could hold a job there for 16 years is more than amazing.

I had planned on calling her for the past couple of weeks, but working from home has been oddly disrupting. Below is a summary of our phone call. Some details are bit vague because I didn’t want to be too nosey.

When I called she was just getting over COVID-19. She had a rather sever case of it too. There were some nights she couldn’t sleep for the constant coughing. She was tested, but by the time she received the confirmation, her symptoms were diminishing. She lost eight pounds.

She never said anything to friends because she didn’t want people to worry. All through the disease she never went to the hospital because she didn’t want to be alone. She said if her condition got worse she would have gone to the hospital. But from what she described, if it got any worse she would have died.

She treated the symptoms by taking cold medicine, and with home remedies such as inhaling steam. Her husband took care of her as best he could. Mainly providing encouragement. He of course is now showing symptoms himself, but to a milder degree.

She is still isolating herself in her apartment because she is still coughing occasionally. It has been just she and her husband in the apartment together for the past three weeks, only occasionally going out to walk the dog.

We continued talking a while. The subject of subways came up. She told me of her husband’s experiences riding to work on the largely deserted subways. It took a moment for this to sink in. I asked her about this. He’s still going to work?

She explained that you can’t stop a Mexican from working. And pointed out that in their current situation he provides the only source of income.

Her husband works at a small but prominent restaurant on Seventh Avenue, just kitty-corner to Macy’s. He has been preparing their above-average food there for about 15 years. Perhaps longer. Making cakes is his specialty. They are still open for take-out. As they are one of the few restaurants open in the area, they are doing great business.

So why isn’t he taking sick days? Is he not entitled to them because he is in the country illegally?

No, he’s entitles to 40 hours of sick pay. Management has gotten around this law, somehow, by reducing all staff to three days-a-week.

So he continues to go to work at the restaurant, coughing. He wears an N95 mask and has been assigned to wash dishes rather than prepare food.

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The fact that she was elected in that state is a good clue that #notallMichiganders.

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Toilet paper has been out, locally, for more than a week.

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:scream:

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I can imagine what would have happened if Obama had been in office when Covid19 hit and self-quarantine was ordered. Probably civil war.

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US now has 33000 deaths.

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Oh, they can all go jump in Lake Superior if they don’t like it! Why can’t they find constructive ways to work off their testosterone?

Meanwhile, despite the preview frame, intelligent discussion:


(…because they weren’t raised to do so? they never learned? what can be done about this? you can’t make people learn…can you?)
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Protesting stay-at-home directives is catching, at least.

“We want our freedumbz to spread the virus and die!”

These guys are the real zombies.

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