Amazing what you don’t notice until you do. Once the pigeon chorus woke me up, the only thing that registered was my bladder. I should have noted the absence of my “white nose machine” because the pigeons aren’t usually so loud without the windows open. I didn’t register the variety of other calls either, with doves, quail, and others filling in the chorus. I didn’t notice the ceiling fan wasn’t working. I wasn’t overheated, and it’s only been the last couple days it’s been on overnight. This was one of the rare mornings where I didn’t crack an eyeball to see what time it was to determine whether I really wanted to get up. One thing and only one thing registered until I was in the bathroom.
Then things started to add up. The motion sensor light in the hall hadn’t turned on. I peeked down the hall to see sun shining on the living room blinds. An extra light pool meant the front door was open. Didn’t Steve realize that the AC was on and we needed to keep the house shut? (Yeah, still not fully awake yet.)
But hey, morning pill time, dutifully observed because the thyroid pill comes first and nothing, not even other pills, can follow for 20 minutes. I glanced at the clock to mark the time. Blank. Black. No green light on the pacemaker monitor next to it either. A little light bulb came on, the only one in the house powered by my brain. The only one powered… barely.
Power Outage! Alarm bells: it’s another 3-digit temperature day in Phoenix!
At least my cell phone works - it is, isn’t it, or are the towers down too? Nope, I’m good. I have our power company number in it. And now I know it was pushing 6:00.
The recorded voice ”recognized” my number, the voicemail system had me verify my address, then gave me my account number (Why would I possibly want that? Come on, get on with it!!!) and assured my there would be no power shut-offs for non payment of bills in the heat, not even late fees tis year. Didn’t care, it’s always paid promptly. Then the important bit came, fed in even before I could be asked if I wanted to report a power outage. They noted there was an outage in the area and it was already being worked on. It should be fixed by 7:51.
OK, that’s good, but couldn’t they just have said 8? How do they know that close to the minute? Murphy still rules, you know.
The mental list kicked in, reviewing what I can and cannot do in the meanwhile. The rest of morning pills, fine, but no coffee. No cooking at all until I figure out where the matches got put in the great cupboard cleanup a couple weeks back. I knew they weren’t back on top of the microwave. But water is ok, and the cold water dispenser of the freezer door should still have cold water in it. I hope. With ice cream in the freezer and lots of meats and things in the fridge, there’s no way I’m going inside for either food or cold beverage. So I push the lever and … nothing. OK, that’s not a simple lever, there’s a circuit in there somewhere. Interesting. At least the tap water still works. I did, after all, flush the toilet this morning without noting anything amiss, right? And even though there is no actual cold water in the summer, it should have cooled down enough overnight to not make me gag. I hate plain hot water, and our pipe got rerouted back in 2012 after a slab leak to its new route through the attic. The sun was just now up so this would be my best chance. If not, there’s slightly cooler bottled water sitting of the floor. No need, tap OK.
I’d shut the front door on my way to the phone, thinking to keep the heat out, then thought the better of it since the outside was still about 15 to 20 degrees cooler then the house. So I reopened the front door, then went outside to the patio with my water and pills to enjoy the only entertainment in the neighborhood along with the coolest air available, now circulating throughout the house. That mental list, well before I got my reassurance that power would return before I baked, reminded me that there was no cool place to congregate and wait this out. Not now. Even scratching the “cool”, there was no congregating. Last resort would be wearing wet clothing and hoping for some breeze to come along. But it shouldn’t get that far. Unless Murphy….
Road trip, anybody? Tank's full. AC works.
Patio entertainment means noticing the early rabbit hopping around, seeing the parade of 4 quail cross behind the neighbor’s fence, noticing someone walking their dog, visible between houses very briefly, and being mildly surprised that the dog the newest neighbors have wasn’t barking as usual at my being outside. He probably doesn’t understand that this side of the fence is Mine! Mine! MINE!
Then, of course, there are the pigeons.
Every year some pair tries to make a nest in one spot where roof sections overlap, offering what looks like shelter from, say, hungry hawks. While it is possible that part would work, they seldom figure out that round sticks on a sloping roof do not a nest make. What we get is a pile of sticks falling down into the aloes. This year they actually got farther along, but Steve went out and used his walking stick to knock it down (into the aloes of course), and they’ve not successfully rebuilt. There are fewer sticks however, so perhaps they’re recycling them for a new location. I know we haven't gone out for cleanup. Too damn hot.
But it’s definitely mating time. This morning there was a pair on the power wires running over and between the back yards, one of their favorite spots. I happened to be looking when one of the pair mounted the other. OK, I mentally labeled which was male and which female. Duh, you’d think.
Well, that’s when it got interesting. When they were both on the wire afterward, the one I’d labeled female reached its head over in a caress to the other, then immediately flew up on its back. It sat there, calmly balanced, for over a minute, while the new “bottom” just quivered. Then “she” mated with “him.” Hmmmm….. Gay pigeons? Or is this a regular part of their mating ritual, just one I’d not observed?
There were other things to observe while sitting out here. My desert willow tree is sporting a full crop of light green buds. In a week or so I’ll be seeing purple flowers all over. I’m sure I’ll be out here with my camera, trying one more time to get some kind of satisfying picture of them. Every year I try, and every year I just can’t capture them to my satisfaction.
The ocotillo have shed their leaves from our March rains, and while the small ones we planted after we moved in have never bloomed, I discovered the big one, struggling for its piece of sunlight while blocked by the neighbor’s unpruned citrus trees, finally managed two blooms. Sort of a last gasp before dormancy again.
The baby mesquite tree is filling out nicely, now that the quail have quit jumping up on the tiny branches to pluck the leaves off . Now, what were just leaves along its branches, regrew and became the start of new branches while I wasn't watching. I’ve been watering it without seeing the changes, only noting it still lived. There was a plan to get bird netting, but it got dropped after two stores didn’t carry any. Now I won’t bother. At least the rabbits don’t go for it.
Another recovery has happened. We have a Mexican bird of paradise along the south fence. It blooms lightly every year, another semi-victim of the neighbor’s plants growing taller and shading it. Every year we cut it back like we’re supposed to, about 12” from the ground. The instructions say ground level up to 12”. All those dead branches were crowding pretty solidly together, so Rich and I got together this winter and took it down to a set of knuckles too big for the pruners to take out, even using our feet to knock over some really stubborn ones.
That can be interesting when the foot slips and you’re on blood thinners!
I watched the bush for months, never seeing any hope of regrowth. Had we been too extreme? I added Miracle-Gro to the watering. I’d given up on it when Rich showed me some tiny red buds just popping up from the knuckles. Cool! A few days later they weren’t visible. Dratted rabbits! Chicken wire time again. It’s now a dense clump of light green about 20” tall and almost as wide. - growing through the chicken wire, of course! Too late to pull it off now. Nice problem for next year's pruning.
The neighbor’s oleander bushes are just past their peak of spectacular blooms. One is white, the other a beautiful hot pink. The petals are just beginning to decorate the ground, as their branches push through our fence, though in this weather it’ll be brown again in no time.
There is a spreading clump of dark green agaves along the back fence. I think they started on the other side, as those cover more territory. Ours sent up the first blooming stalk a few years ago, and we had the yard crew take it and the dead agave out after it was done. Next year another offshoot did the same, and we ignored it. I decided finally to go pull the dead stalk out, easily done by tilting it over. The remains of its base are too shabby to bother with. But there are now 4 stalks in the patch. One is a dead one from last year in the neighbor’s yard. Of the three blooming, two are in our yard. In the week since I pulled out our dead stalk, the three flowering ones have developed a southward bend on the top, which none of the previous ones had. They’re pretty woody, so it’s another puzzle to entertain somebody waiting for the power to go back on.
According to my laptop clock, they are one minute late. Think I’ll go inside and check. Time to shut the doors anyway since it’s warmed up 10 degrees out here. Plus, there was that glass of water with those pills….
The power company”s recording now says power will be restored by “8:57 AM.” Why do they do that?
Now they say “10:57 AM.”
OK, 9:41 and power’s back. The fridge is humming, the TV clicked, the wi-fi router’s flashing it’s 1st light trying to restart, and - best of all - Steve’s lift chair works again. Think I’ll go see what’s
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Getting "Paraded"
At first we weren't sure what it was. Besides a ruckus, that is. A vehicle went by honking its horn. A lot. Noisy, long and obnoxious. So did another, then another. It started to get annoying. We tried to mostly ignore it all, continuing on with reading, watching TV, or surfing. Not sure who was doing which, when. They do tend to blend together these days. A glance out the window from our chairs provided few clues as to what was going on. We assumed it had nothing to do with us, and did our best to ignore it all.
It didn't stop. A few wimpy beeps came from a golf cart, getting new attention from us. Since I was now distracted enough from what I was doing, my bladder successfully claimed my attention enough to get me standing, where the window view was much more informative. It wasn't a golf cart, it was a dozen, at least in that half a minute. One car went by in the middle of them with red, white and blue mylar helium balloons attached.
No signs, not on any of the vehicles. Had something been on the first car and we missed it? Was it for a wedding, a way of social distancing while celebrating? Somebody's... oh, what, 90th birthday? Had the Governor just opened up some part of the economy we hadn't heard about? Were we supposed to be celebrating our first responders this new way and time, but nobody got the message out... enough? Had our ignoramus-in-chief died or maybe even just stepped down? Hmmm, not likely, hence "ignoramus." Too brain dead to realize his limitations. And if either happened, this is still republican territory. How would they find this many to celebrate this publicly?
(Speaking of brain dead, he just commented that if, according to rumors, Kim Jung Un was actually brain dead after cardiac surgery, he could still run North Korea just fine. Trump should know. He's doing it here, skipping the "fine" part.)
The parade of vehicles eventually sputtered out. We went back to appreciating the quiet and resumed whatever is was which had been interrupted. Speculation petered out, and we weren't too upset by the notion that we'd never know the cause. Other things caught our attention, like the heat. I still fought turning on the Ac, but went to bed last night determined that tomorrow's forecast justified finally turning it on for the first time this year. 84 should do it. Heck with that, make it 83. For the incurably inquisitive, I didn't make it past 1:48 PM before turning it on. Fans and wet t-shirts only do so much.
This morning when Steve joined me in the living room, he announced he'd learned the reason for yesterday's parade. All those people were celebrating us. All of us. For staying home, not making things worse. Sweet. If only we'd known.
But kinda makes me feel guilty for taking Steve to that appointment he has tomorrow. You can bet I'm coming inside too, not sitting in a car in the sun when it's likely to have hit 103 by then. Hey, I've even got a mask.
It didn't stop. A few wimpy beeps came from a golf cart, getting new attention from us. Since I was now distracted enough from what I was doing, my bladder successfully claimed my attention enough to get me standing, where the window view was much more informative. It wasn't a golf cart, it was a dozen, at least in that half a minute. One car went by in the middle of them with red, white and blue mylar helium balloons attached.
No signs, not on any of the vehicles. Had something been on the first car and we missed it? Was it for a wedding, a way of social distancing while celebrating? Somebody's... oh, what, 90th birthday? Had the Governor just opened up some part of the economy we hadn't heard about? Were we supposed to be celebrating our first responders this new way and time, but nobody got the message out... enough? Had our ignoramus-in-chief died or maybe even just stepped down? Hmmm, not likely, hence "ignoramus." Too brain dead to realize his limitations. And if either happened, this is still republican territory. How would they find this many to celebrate this publicly?
(Speaking of brain dead, he just commented that if, according to rumors, Kim Jung Un was actually brain dead after cardiac surgery, he could still run North Korea just fine. Trump should know. He's doing it here, skipping the "fine" part.)
The parade of vehicles eventually sputtered out. We went back to appreciating the quiet and resumed whatever is was which had been interrupted. Speculation petered out, and we weren't too upset by the notion that we'd never know the cause. Other things caught our attention, like the heat. I still fought turning on the Ac, but went to bed last night determined that tomorrow's forecast justified finally turning it on for the first time this year. 84 should do it. Heck with that, make it 83. For the incurably inquisitive, I didn't make it past 1:48 PM before turning it on. Fans and wet t-shirts only do so much.
This morning when Steve joined me in the living room, he announced he'd learned the reason for yesterday's parade. All those people were celebrating us. All of us. For staying home, not making things worse. Sweet. If only we'd known.
But kinda makes me feel guilty for taking Steve to that appointment he has tomorrow. You can bet I'm coming inside too, not sitting in a car in the sun when it's likely to have hit 103 by then. Hey, I've even got a mask.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Bizarre
By now we've all surely heard our Idiot In Chief propose fighting covid 19 with antiseptics like bleach. No, not on surfaces, where it has efficacy. On us. Scratch that: IN us! Inject, inhale, swallow, whatever.
Knowing how many idiots hop on his bandwagon, Lysol felt compelled to issue a very public disclaimer that it should NEVER be ingested. They must have assumed that those stupid enough to give it a try never heard about gassing in the trenches in WW1, never read the label about using in ventilated areas, or heard the warnings about combining bleach and ammonia because it releases chlorine gas. And after all, people poisoning themselves with Tide pods is a real thing. Those kinds of people are out there.
I think they've got a pretty good basis for believing they needed to make that disclaimer. So do the vast majority of us. We already put locks on the cabinets where we store similar chemicals when there are babies and toddlers in the house. Can our Idiot In Chief magically make those poisons not only safe but a virus cure?
Well, of course they would cure the virus. Covid 19 can't survive without a living body. Other similar cures would be bullets, hanging, driving your car into a bridge embankment at 95 mph, a full bottle of any of many medications downed with your booze, stepping in front of the subway or a train or....
Well, lots of cures. Now those would finally justify those signs about the cure being worse than the disease.
I kinda get where he's coming from though. Obviously we're not there yet, but wouldn't it be wonderful if there were something they could put in an inhaler like we do with albuterol, only geared to kill this virus? However....
We're just beginning to realize how necessary to human life microorganisms are. We'd have to find something which only targets this virus and leaves everything else alone. At this point, this is beyond daunting. We'd likely need one of those Star Trek transporters, carefully programmed to beam us up without all those nasty little covid particles. (They had an episode years ago like that. DS9 perhaps?) Then we'd just have to solve the problem of preventing us all from getting reinfected, since nobody would have antibodies.
Bummer!
I have further questions. Remember early on they said donating blood was OK, that the virus was only in the respiratory system? So how does that tally with finding out now that other effects of the virus include cardiac arrhythmia, blood clotting causing embolisms and strokes, kidney damage, and who-knows-what else they will discover? Why do we lose smell and taste, have all-over muscle aches, gastrointestinal issues?
Big problems are never simple. In some form or another they are systemic. Insert any name for the problem, you'll have nearly countless causes and interactions. Big problems have their own ecosystems. Poverty, poor education, homelessness, unemployment, overcrowding, pollution, global warming. Even hurricanes, where our Idiot In Chief thought nuking them would dispel them. Like every other problem/solution combination, "cures" have consequences. Not only would a nuke not work to diminish hurricane forces, it would spread radiation. I know: DUH! Well, for us, anyway. Too obvious to bother to mention.
Except for the guy who thought it was a good idea. On television. "Advising" the country.
Bringing it back to healthcare, here's another example of consequences: immunizations. What could be wrong about eliminating smallpox? Or freeing us from polio, measles, chicken pox, tetanus, etc., etc., etc.
Overpopulation, for one. We live longer and with better lives, but keep reproducing. Overpopulation MANDATES new pandemics arise, since we're no longer isolated enough from other populations to keep whatever latest germ which evolves from spreading widely and with lightning speed.
False security, for another. We forget what we have to learn about in books rather than experience ourselves. This gives rise to the anti-vaxxers, more concerned with extremely rare or imagined effects of a shot than with a disease people now don't have immunity to. Measles is a name with an inconvenient rash, rather than a death threat.
It is a death threat.
UV light, our Idiot In Chief's other suggestion, actually will kill virus. Sunlight is its major source. Objects left in the sun long enough will be cleaned of it. Whoa Pony, before you gallop away with that idea for your cure-all....
We're not objects. UV light, to us, will cause cancer. Need that in your lungs on top of the virus? It won't kill as fast as bleach inside us. But it will kill. Like your odds on that one?
There is no magic.
Knowing how many idiots hop on his bandwagon, Lysol felt compelled to issue a very public disclaimer that it should NEVER be ingested. They must have assumed that those stupid enough to give it a try never heard about gassing in the trenches in WW1, never read the label about using in ventilated areas, or heard the warnings about combining bleach and ammonia because it releases chlorine gas. And after all, people poisoning themselves with Tide pods is a real thing. Those kinds of people are out there.
I think they've got a pretty good basis for believing they needed to make that disclaimer. So do the vast majority of us. We already put locks on the cabinets where we store similar chemicals when there are babies and toddlers in the house. Can our Idiot In Chief magically make those poisons not only safe but a virus cure?
Well, of course they would cure the virus. Covid 19 can't survive without a living body. Other similar cures would be bullets, hanging, driving your car into a bridge embankment at 95 mph, a full bottle of any of many medications downed with your booze, stepping in front of the subway or a train or....
Well, lots of cures. Now those would finally justify those signs about the cure being worse than the disease.
I kinda get where he's coming from though. Obviously we're not there yet, but wouldn't it be wonderful if there were something they could put in an inhaler like we do with albuterol, only geared to kill this virus? However....
We're just beginning to realize how necessary to human life microorganisms are. We'd have to find something which only targets this virus and leaves everything else alone. At this point, this is beyond daunting. We'd likely need one of those Star Trek transporters, carefully programmed to beam us up without all those nasty little covid particles. (They had an episode years ago like that. DS9 perhaps?) Then we'd just have to solve the problem of preventing us all from getting reinfected, since nobody would have antibodies.
Bummer!
I have further questions. Remember early on they said donating blood was OK, that the virus was only in the respiratory system? So how does that tally with finding out now that other effects of the virus include cardiac arrhythmia, blood clotting causing embolisms and strokes, kidney damage, and who-knows-what else they will discover? Why do we lose smell and taste, have all-over muscle aches, gastrointestinal issues?
Big problems are never simple. In some form or another they are systemic. Insert any name for the problem, you'll have nearly countless causes and interactions. Big problems have their own ecosystems. Poverty, poor education, homelessness, unemployment, overcrowding, pollution, global warming. Even hurricanes, where our Idiot In Chief thought nuking them would dispel them. Like every other problem/solution combination, "cures" have consequences. Not only would a nuke not work to diminish hurricane forces, it would spread radiation. I know: DUH! Well, for us, anyway. Too obvious to bother to mention.
Except for the guy who thought it was a good idea. On television. "Advising" the country.
Bringing it back to healthcare, here's another example of consequences: immunizations. What could be wrong about eliminating smallpox? Or freeing us from polio, measles, chicken pox, tetanus, etc., etc., etc.
Overpopulation, for one. We live longer and with better lives, but keep reproducing. Overpopulation MANDATES new pandemics arise, since we're no longer isolated enough from other populations to keep whatever latest germ which evolves from spreading widely and with lightning speed.
False security, for another. We forget what we have to learn about in books rather than experience ourselves. This gives rise to the anti-vaxxers, more concerned with extremely rare or imagined effects of a shot than with a disease people now don't have immunity to. Measles is a name with an inconvenient rash, rather than a death threat.
It is a death threat.
UV light, our Idiot In Chief's other suggestion, actually will kill virus. Sunlight is its major source. Objects left in the sun long enough will be cleaned of it. Whoa Pony, before you gallop away with that idea for your cure-all....
We're not objects. UV light, to us, will cause cancer. Need that in your lungs on top of the virus? It won't kill as fast as bleach inside us. But it will kill. Like your odds on that one?
There is no magic.
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Decisions
Happy 866,148 US covid19 cases day. (Anybody explain oxymoron to you?)
Steve has been complaining of all-over body aches and shortness of breath for a few days now. No fever, no coughing, but who doesn't take that seriously these days? Besides Steve, of course. I finally convinced him to call his doctor. We were thinking that his prescription for metoprolol ought to be changed. Sure, it controls his blood pressure beautifully, but it also slows the heartbeat. That's why it was prescribed for me back when I was first diagnosed with A-fib. That's also why it was discontinued after bradycardia requiring a pacemaker. We took Steve's BP and pulse, and the latter registered 61. Borderline.
Steve finally got his arm twisted enough to make that phone call. He'd need a visit to change his prescription if the Doc thought that was the way to go. With his insurance, he has no option but to go through his primary first and then wait for his insurance to OK a referral. That's why it took a full year to get his back pain fixed last year. AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
His doctor's staff wanted nothing to do with him. They offered two options: go to the ER or hit Walgreens for one of those finger blood O2 meters. He'd already been thinking about Walgreens this morning for a couple other things, so that was the choice. Still, he just sat in his chair, perched between in and out. After asking whether he didn't feel steady enough to drive himself there, and offering to drive him, we headed over there. I stayed in the car while he went in.
I waited. And waited. Nearly everybody - but not all - who came out wore a face mask. A couple came out empty-handed. I was informed later that 1: TP was coming in on the truck ... later, 2: ditto for several other things on Steve's list too, and 3: due to a recent run on blood O2 meters, Walgreens was out. Frys was out too, but might get some Friday or Saturday night. Maybe. Walgreens had no pending order. But hey, milk and ice tea were available, so the trip wasn't a complete bust.
We arrived home with the same idea: order on line. His go-to is Amazon. Mine is eBay. He found something that would cost around $100. But it came from the Us instead of China, so he figured both the higher price would insure better quality and US origin would mean faster delivery. My eBay search found over a dozen sites with a $15 price tag, a US delivery, and every item was identical. Further research revealed several reappearing seller names, but all with few sales and zero feedback to judge them by. Color me sceptical. Further down the list was a site with the same item at twice the price. Normally I'd laugh at what they thought they could get away with. Research showed this seller with nearly 99% satisfaction level and thousands of sales. After a short discussion, that's the one which got ordered. I even accompanied the order with a note about choosing this one at the higher price solely because of their sales history.
Meanwhile, of course, I'm keeping an eagle eye on Steve. The second option is still open if needed. Fingers crossed. (Actually, that's a lie. Have you ever tried typing with crossed fingers? How about eyes? No? Me neither.)
On the way home from Walgreens we passed several flowering plants. Perfect excuse for going out of the house again, this time with camera. Turns out the timing was perfect.
No sooner was I down to the corner - in the car of course - than I stopped to shoot a landscaping crew pulling down a saguaro. In a series of 4 photos, it went from erect with a rope, to slight lean, to 4 feet off the ground, to down. Perfect timing! Still doesn't explain why anybody would do that to a healthy looking saguaro though.
My next stop netted me a slew of pictures, a long sniff of a lavender rose (the only one these days with an actual rose fragrance!), a conversation with the homeowner about her plantings, expressing my appreciation, her appreciation of such, tips for planting and plans for her yard, and permission to take a baby which had fallen off the agave which was the prime cause for my stop in the first place. If that last -"falling" - sounds unlikely, it was much like the one across the street that I took so many shots of last summer, when it bloomed red and yellow on paddles splayed around a tall stalk, giving it the appearance of a giant asparagus. Today's plant was a different member of the same family, but no red until now, as the bottom leaves were dying in spectacular fashion, and rather than seed pods it produced babies up on the stalk. After a year, these were now dropping down in search of new homes to take root in.
If this sounds like my octopus agave in the corner of the house, mine is different in producing only (!) a single straight stalk, having much less unfriendly leaves, and being a year behind. It should, however, also product babies along its stalk after flowering which can be removed and planted in new homes. I consider this baby as a trial run on propagating baby octopi. My agave should, like hers, produce hundreds to thousands of viable offspring. Hopefully, finding new homes will be much easier than placing puppies.
I know a few garden centers....
Half an hour of driving and shooting later, and here I am, home again, glad to have something a bit more cheerful to blog about. Two favorite things in one day. Let's just hope now whatever is going on with Steve will soon be going away.
* * * * *
In the time it took to write this, numbers changed to 867,089. Also 48,295deaths, one of whom is Elizabeth Warren's brother. And it's only lunch time.
Steve has been complaining of all-over body aches and shortness of breath for a few days now. No fever, no coughing, but who doesn't take that seriously these days? Besides Steve, of course. I finally convinced him to call his doctor. We were thinking that his prescription for metoprolol ought to be changed. Sure, it controls his blood pressure beautifully, but it also slows the heartbeat. That's why it was prescribed for me back when I was first diagnosed with A-fib. That's also why it was discontinued after bradycardia requiring a pacemaker. We took Steve's BP and pulse, and the latter registered 61. Borderline.
Steve finally got his arm twisted enough to make that phone call. He'd need a visit to change his prescription if the Doc thought that was the way to go. With his insurance, he has no option but to go through his primary first and then wait for his insurance to OK a referral. That's why it took a full year to get his back pain fixed last year. AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
His doctor's staff wanted nothing to do with him. They offered two options: go to the ER or hit Walgreens for one of those finger blood O2 meters. He'd already been thinking about Walgreens this morning for a couple other things, so that was the choice. Still, he just sat in his chair, perched between in and out. After asking whether he didn't feel steady enough to drive himself there, and offering to drive him, we headed over there. I stayed in the car while he went in.
I waited. And waited. Nearly everybody - but not all - who came out wore a face mask. A couple came out empty-handed. I was informed later that 1: TP was coming in on the truck ... later, 2: ditto for several other things on Steve's list too, and 3: due to a recent run on blood O2 meters, Walgreens was out. Frys was out too, but might get some Friday or Saturday night. Maybe. Walgreens had no pending order. But hey, milk and ice tea were available, so the trip wasn't a complete bust.
We arrived home with the same idea: order on line. His go-to is Amazon. Mine is eBay. He found something that would cost around $100. But it came from the Us instead of China, so he figured both the higher price would insure better quality and US origin would mean faster delivery. My eBay search found over a dozen sites with a $15 price tag, a US delivery, and every item was identical. Further research revealed several reappearing seller names, but all with few sales and zero feedback to judge them by. Color me sceptical. Further down the list was a site with the same item at twice the price. Normally I'd laugh at what they thought they could get away with. Research showed this seller with nearly 99% satisfaction level and thousands of sales. After a short discussion, that's the one which got ordered. I even accompanied the order with a note about choosing this one at the higher price solely because of their sales history.
Meanwhile, of course, I'm keeping an eagle eye on Steve. The second option is still open if needed. Fingers crossed. (Actually, that's a lie. Have you ever tried typing with crossed fingers? How about eyes? No? Me neither.)
On the way home from Walgreens we passed several flowering plants. Perfect excuse for going out of the house again, this time with camera. Turns out the timing was perfect.
No sooner was I down to the corner - in the car of course - than I stopped to shoot a landscaping crew pulling down a saguaro. In a series of 4 photos, it went from erect with a rope, to slight lean, to 4 feet off the ground, to down. Perfect timing! Still doesn't explain why anybody would do that to a healthy looking saguaro though.
My next stop netted me a slew of pictures, a long sniff of a lavender rose (the only one these days with an actual rose fragrance!), a conversation with the homeowner about her plantings, expressing my appreciation, her appreciation of such, tips for planting and plans for her yard, and permission to take a baby which had fallen off the agave which was the prime cause for my stop in the first place. If that last -"falling" - sounds unlikely, it was much like the one across the street that I took so many shots of last summer, when it bloomed red and yellow on paddles splayed around a tall stalk, giving it the appearance of a giant asparagus. Today's plant was a different member of the same family, but no red until now, as the bottom leaves were dying in spectacular fashion, and rather than seed pods it produced babies up on the stalk. After a year, these were now dropping down in search of new homes to take root in.
If this sounds like my octopus agave in the corner of the house, mine is different in producing only (!) a single straight stalk, having much less unfriendly leaves, and being a year behind. It should, however, also product babies along its stalk after flowering which can be removed and planted in new homes. I consider this baby as a trial run on propagating baby octopi. My agave should, like hers, produce hundreds to thousands of viable offspring. Hopefully, finding new homes will be much easier than placing puppies.
I know a few garden centers....
Half an hour of driving and shooting later, and here I am, home again, glad to have something a bit more cheerful to blog about. Two favorite things in one day. Let's just hope now whatever is going on with Steve will soon be going away.
* * * * *
In the time it took to write this, numbers changed to 867,089. Also 48,295deaths, one of whom is Elizabeth Warren's brother. And it's only lunch time.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Adventures In Caronavirus Land, Episode 771,214
Oops, that's not the number of these I've written. No, really. It just seems like it. But 771,214 is the number of covid 19 cases reported - aka tested - in this country this morning. Since people are now dying about every 23 seconds, I'm sure every number recorded anywhere is already obsolete.
Oh, not to be misleading, that every 23 seconds rate is worldwide, I believe. I know we're #1, but maybe not that good at killing off our own people. Not yet. Then again, I could be wrong. Though if I am, maybe by the time you read this, it'll be accurate.
Do I sound a bit pessimistic? Testing is still just a farce. And hideously expensive, it's reported. Clusters are becoming more widely reported all through the country. They cluster in meat packing plants for some reason. (Yeah, like terrible conditions and profit grubbing owners.) They haunt jails and prisons. Who needs a shiv now? They're ignored in ICE cages. They run rampant through nursing homes, perhaps because there's an attitude out there - now here's where I'm REALLY pessimistic - that all those old folks are supposed to die anyway, and why should (______ fill in the blank) have to keep paying for their care, particularly out of (_________ 's ) taxes. It's "just culling the herd," leaving the strong, healthy, and rich folk to enjoy the world.
But it's not. Other folks are also dying. Young people. Healthy people. First responders. Doctors. Nurses. Children. A week ago on a website which compiles statistics throughout the world, before they quit posting a percentage number of those who died compared to the number of cases, it stood at 7%. Another site compares active cases (97% mild, 3% critical), and one might think the virus is not all that severe, unless you remember that most cases start mild, then progress, and the vast majority of active cases are relatively new along their journey, thanks to the miracle of exponential growth. It's like compound interest. This same site also compares cases that have had a resolution. Of those, 80% have recovered. They're over it. Done. Able to go on with their lives. That leaves 20% who are just simply done. Passed. Transitioned. Gone to "something better". Singing with the Angels. D. E. A. D.
Twenty percent.
One in five.
No doubt that number, like all numbers in this pandemic, will change by the time it's "over." More cases that were never tested will be added to the rolls, particularly once antibody testing is established so we know who was asymptomatic. More recognized cases will progress to resolution. No doubt investigative journalists will be out "after", digging through the cover-ups, figuring out who never got tested before they died and can merely be presumed to have had the virus but got listed as "heart failure", "embolism", "pneumonia", "natural causes." We may have a better idea of the truth in a few years.
Then there will be the arguments about how many of those can be counted who died because hospitals were overloaded and they couldn't get treatment for a heart attack, or they had a car accident because of the idiots who think now they can go 95 in a 45 zone with predictable results, or any of the other ancillary casualties.
So yeah, I'm pessimistic.
I'm even more so because of all the idiots out there. Take the idiots who jumped on a medicine for malaria and lupus, just because Trump had a "hunch" it might work, not caring to know that Trump also holds major shares (still rising) in Sanofi, the company which produces it, nor caring that we spent however many obscene millions of acquiring a huge supply of those pills, now known to produce worse outcomes when combined with standard treatment than when patients only had standard treatment. That money could instead have been spent on PPE for those caring for the sick. Or testing chemicals and swabs. Meanwhile those suffering with malaria and lupus are... suffering. They can't find the medications they need. Some will needlessly die.
Those idiots don't care. They're not the only idiots either.
You know, like the Floridiots who crowd the beaches, the Georgia idiots who'll be crowding the hair and nail salons, the Trumpidiots who fall for all the stupid nonsense out there about their "liberties" and go protest about opening up the economy again because they think their life isn't complete without a haircut so they can sit down in a crowded restaurant and not be shamed by wearing last season's clothes. They somehow believe if they wield "Liberty" as their magic talisman, then they will be immune, or if they get sick, it'll be mild with no lasting effects and won't take away ventilators from other patients, or even if it does, they won't share it with anybody else, because... uh... because... magic?
None of them seem to have read far enough to realize or care that the "liberty" they all claim for themselves comes right in the middle of a threesome. It's followed by "pursuit of happiness," which is important but properly last. But first of all, most important of all, that which neither of the others can exist without, is "LIFE!" Just don't try to argue that point with the lieutenant governor of Texas. He's the very epitome of a Texidiot, publicly claiming there are more important things than life as he pushed to reopen their economy.
Yes, that happened.
Hmmm, ya suppose if Texas does reopen, he'll change his tune while he sits back in his splendid protected isolation and watches his constituents start to die off?
If only it worked that way.... That would be truly culling the herd, knocking off the stupid.
Plus their families. Friends. Co-workers. Associates. Checkout clerks. Medical teams. People standing in lines. Folks downwind. Drat!
Hmmm, maybe instead, when they come up with a vaccination, they can inoculate against stupid? You know, 'cause that would be ... MAGIC?
* * * * *
Oops: correction. Now USA's case count is 829,013.
Oh, not to be misleading, that every 23 seconds rate is worldwide, I believe. I know we're #1, but maybe not that good at killing off our own people. Not yet. Then again, I could be wrong. Though if I am, maybe by the time you read this, it'll be accurate.
Do I sound a bit pessimistic? Testing is still just a farce. And hideously expensive, it's reported. Clusters are becoming more widely reported all through the country. They cluster in meat packing plants for some reason. (Yeah, like terrible conditions and profit grubbing owners.) They haunt jails and prisons. Who needs a shiv now? They're ignored in ICE cages. They run rampant through nursing homes, perhaps because there's an attitude out there - now here's where I'm REALLY pessimistic - that all those old folks are supposed to die anyway, and why should (______ fill in the blank) have to keep paying for their care, particularly out of (_________ 's ) taxes. It's "just culling the herd," leaving the strong, healthy, and rich folk to enjoy the world.
But it's not. Other folks are also dying. Young people. Healthy people. First responders. Doctors. Nurses. Children. A week ago on a website which compiles statistics throughout the world, before they quit posting a percentage number of those who died compared to the number of cases, it stood at 7%. Another site compares active cases (97% mild, 3% critical), and one might think the virus is not all that severe, unless you remember that most cases start mild, then progress, and the vast majority of active cases are relatively new along their journey, thanks to the miracle of exponential growth. It's like compound interest. This same site also compares cases that have had a resolution. Of those, 80% have recovered. They're over it. Done. Able to go on with their lives. That leaves 20% who are just simply done. Passed. Transitioned. Gone to "something better". Singing with the Angels. D. E. A. D.
Twenty percent.
One in five.
No doubt that number, like all numbers in this pandemic, will change by the time it's "over." More cases that were never tested will be added to the rolls, particularly once antibody testing is established so we know who was asymptomatic. More recognized cases will progress to resolution. No doubt investigative journalists will be out "after", digging through the cover-ups, figuring out who never got tested before they died and can merely be presumed to have had the virus but got listed as "heart failure", "embolism", "pneumonia", "natural causes." We may have a better idea of the truth in a few years.
Then there will be the arguments about how many of those can be counted who died because hospitals were overloaded and they couldn't get treatment for a heart attack, or they had a car accident because of the idiots who think now they can go 95 in a 45 zone with predictable results, or any of the other ancillary casualties.
So yeah, I'm pessimistic.
I'm even more so because of all the idiots out there. Take the idiots who jumped on a medicine for malaria and lupus, just because Trump had a "hunch" it might work, not caring to know that Trump also holds major shares (still rising) in Sanofi, the company which produces it, nor caring that we spent however many obscene millions of acquiring a huge supply of those pills, now known to produce worse outcomes when combined with standard treatment than when patients only had standard treatment. That money could instead have been spent on PPE for those caring for the sick. Or testing chemicals and swabs. Meanwhile those suffering with malaria and lupus are... suffering. They can't find the medications they need. Some will needlessly die.
Those idiots don't care. They're not the only idiots either.
You know, like the Floridiots who crowd the beaches, the Georgia idiots who'll be crowding the hair and nail salons, the Trumpidiots who fall for all the stupid nonsense out there about their "liberties" and go protest about opening up the economy again because they think their life isn't complete without a haircut so they can sit down in a crowded restaurant and not be shamed by wearing last season's clothes. They somehow believe if they wield "Liberty" as their magic talisman, then they will be immune, or if they get sick, it'll be mild with no lasting effects and won't take away ventilators from other patients, or even if it does, they won't share it with anybody else, because... uh... because... magic?
None of them seem to have read far enough to realize or care that the "liberty" they all claim for themselves comes right in the middle of a threesome. It's followed by "pursuit of happiness," which is important but properly last. But first of all, most important of all, that which neither of the others can exist without, is "LIFE!" Just don't try to argue that point with the lieutenant governor of Texas. He's the very epitome of a Texidiot, publicly claiming there are more important things than life as he pushed to reopen their economy.
Yes, that happened.
Hmmm, ya suppose if Texas does reopen, he'll change his tune while he sits back in his splendid protected isolation and watches his constituents start to die off?
If only it worked that way.... That would be truly culling the herd, knocking off the stupid.
Plus their families. Friends. Co-workers. Associates. Checkout clerks. Medical teams. People standing in lines. Folks downwind. Drat!
Hmmm, maybe instead, when they come up with a vaccination, they can inoculate against stupid? You know, 'cause that would be ... MAGIC?
* * * * *
Oops: correction. Now USA's case count is 829,013.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Shelter-In-Place Exercise Regimen
We all know how important exercise is in our lives . We also know, at least if we are reminded, that there are many kinds of exercise other than what happens in the gym, many different muscles which each need their turns, all of which require a variety of activities to fit the bill. Under shelter-in-place orders, one often has to become creative to accomplish it all.
I've been thinking I haven't been getting any exercise these last several weeks. So I decided to keep tracek of what I actually do, under what circumstances, and how often. Following is a compilation, as well as I can make it, considering a somewhat swiss cheese memory.
Most frequent is a trip down the hall to the bathroom. If you have to ask the reason(s), your memory is in even worse shape than mine. Nevermind. Distance is usually from my chair in the living room to the bathroom, although it can often be combined with many or most of the following exercises. Let's just call that efficiency. After all, efficiency was one of the principles making isometrics a fad. Pushing or pulling two things against each other gives twice the workout for one.
Next most frequent is the trip either to or from the kitchen. 90% of these trips are getting food, returning food either to the refrigerator or the garbage, returning used dishes. Sometimes they involve a return trip to remove something from the microwave, as there has been a return to the living room during cooking time, just to exercise those sitting/standing muscles. Occasionally these trips
involve hand washing, depending on the sloppiness of the food in question, or the amount of capsaicin remaining on fingers. Hopefully that latter issue is discovered before the fingers go in the eyes. Um, nose too.
Not that I do that, of course. Ever. Purely a hypothetical example.
Ahem.
Now that weather allows, there is a once daily trip around inside the house to open windows, followed by a later one to close them. This exercise will soon be replaced by an early trip to close windows followed by a late one to reopen them as the comfortable part of the day changes. It has been noted that this exercise is often combined with such things as a trip to the bathroom, kitchen, or even one to the den for filing paperwork or procuring stamps and envelopes. These last do not get their own slot since they are always combined with at least one other exercise, and I'm not going to cheat! They may, however, include extra hand and arm exercises, useful in providing balance to one's regimen. One must always be mindful of being well-rounded. One's exercise regimen should be also.
Three for four times a week there is an evening trip out to the garbage can. There is never more than one trip, as all that needs to go out can be carried in a single trip. A few extra steps may be added, along with a slow stretch to lean back and look at the sky in search of whatever can be found there. This of course follows the long stretching dip to ground level, the lift of the lid, swing of bag(s) over to the hole, release of bag(s) and of lid, and return to full stand. On rare occasions, there may be an extra turn-pause-turn to scope out the neighborhood, although there is never anything much in the way of a reward for that extra aside from maintaining balance.
Twice a month there is a series of trips to fill the recycle can, return the smaller containers to their spot inside the house, then return to the can, lift the lid and with a controlled but powerful series of fist impact motions, secure the lid in place. This is actually an excellent exercise, as sun and rectangular shape have combined to warp both can and lid to quite a challenging combination of bad angles. Following that, the can is walked down the end of the driveway. This particular series of exercises are finished, as are many of the others, by the lowering of the body into the living room chair, doing leg raises while controlling the lever which is the end goal for foot positioning. It is never sufficient to just walk back and forth. Legs and glutes need their own bit of cross-training.
While it has not been mentioned that the vast majority of these exercises also include the major lift out of the chair to a full stand at the start of the exercise, it should be assumed. This is hands-down the most often employed exercise available in the house!
Small muscle exercises are also useful for maintaining conditioning these days. Throughout the day there are the finger strengthening exercises employed while managing the TV remote, pulling the lamp chain, using the cell phone, surfing or posting on the web. Larger muscles are also employed, such as lifting the laptop from its table onto the lap and back again. While much less frequent than the accompanying finger exercises, they must not be undervalued, as they are a necessary part of the process. There are also the frequent stretches required to accomplish locating and reaching for the proper charging cables, nail clippers, blood pressure cuff, pen and paper, and - neither last nor least - miscellaneous items which might be covering and hiding Steve's phone. In fact, in his role of encouraging exercise, his phone is often employed in such activity. He's really a big help.
Once a week or so, there is an actual daylight trip around the yard. Because it is daylight, another exercise precedes it: a shower. This is one of the few exercises which requires frequent lifting of the arms above the shoulders, another necessary stretch. In turn, it is followed by a series of grooming and dressing exercises. During this process one can manage a whole series of facial exercises as one looks in the mirror and practices reacting to what one sees, or imagine one sees, reflected there.
Grooming rarely requires more than a single trip to the closet, but always more arm lifting. Combined with puling our and pushing in drawers, ones arms can get a really valuable workout! Often this also requires reaching down to the floor to grab discarded items of clothing, followed by the lift to place them into the clothes hamper. Occasionally arm lifts are so extreme that they involve an extra walk down the hall to include Steve in the process of turning the back of a collar to its appropriate position. This can actually involve several tries, enabling both partners to get some unanticipated exercise, often followed by more facial exercise, particularly in the lips.
Once one is prepared for the appearance in public, there are more exercises. These involve stretches to locate the camera case and bring it into useful range, then manipulating both zippers into position where the lid can be lifted and the camera removed, then using those same zippers to close the case before the final stretch to replace the case. These keep fingertips in shape for the more frequent keyboarding uses, which i turn keep the fingertips in shape for manipulating zippers. It becomes a very productive feedback loop.
Now one of the big exercises begins.
There is walking around the yard to locate subjects suitable for shooting, repositioning to enable various positions from which to capture the desired images. and occasional pushes against the house to facilitate the previous activities without losing one's balance and falling into something very omnipresent and stabby. Balance exercises also come into play simply as one walks across the rocks covering the yard. It's fabulous for that. There is the occasional rock relocation and weed pulling to enable a satisfactory photo. Occasionally, though rarely, there is even a repeat of this whole cycle of exercises, justified merely by the claim of needing better light.
For variety, after one's shower, there can be an actual outing! While car doors are extremely heavy, they are generally well enough balanced that it rarely pulls a muscle in the process of opening or closing. Deep knee bends allow one to enter the car, and the process can be reversed with a full body workout. Neck swivels, eye positional shifts, and various arm and leg movements are all employed in getting to the destination and locating an open parking slot. A long hike often follows, though if one thinks it hasn't quite done the trick, one can always pretend lack of memory of the location of several list items and wind up panting after a pleasant cardio workout by the time the check-out is in sight.
Much lifting is involved once there, collection items, removing them from cart to conveyor belt, placing bags back in the cart, and after the hike out to the car, placing them inside. If that's not enough, one can also refuse offers of help to empty the car once home and make several trips in and out. Items can also be sorted, placed in a variety of locations at a variety of heights, opening and closing a variety of doors. This is truly the major exercise of the week.
But one is still not done. Those bags can now be distributed to the various garbage and trash collection receptacles around the house, replacing the full ones needing to go out curbside, thus completing a full cycle.
The use of these purchased items employ more exercises, often involved in other trips around the house previously mentioned. If by some miracle there were TP, it could involve a trip to the bathroom, a deep bend to place said fictional TP under the sink, and the opening and closing of the doors involved. However, this is often also used as a regular bathroom trip, so only the storage exercises count here. Same for prescriptions, toiletries, and other neverminds. Remember: no cheating in the count!
There are also all the exercises needed in preparing food items for consumption, whether scooping through frozen ice cream, opening boxes and microwaving the contents, spreading toppings on toast, pouring beverages from their bottles or by pushing the bar on the freezer for cold water. one of the most delicate series of exercises is transporting these items without spillage into the living room as each is ready. Note that all the above include opening and closing of often heavy doors, often multiple times.
Exercise even happens in the depth of sleep. Blankets get moved up or down, depending on temperature changes. There are all the whole body rolls throughout the night, depending on how uncomfortable pressure on any given point becomes, or how cool/warm the pillow has become. All this seems to be in aid of that supreme exercise of the day: lifting one full human body from a low horizontal position, first to a full sit-up, then to a full stand. This last also serves as a full rapid start of the first trek to the bathroom of the day, and the next cycle of exercising.
There is also the option many mornings of a strong cardio workout, but this cannot be planned ahead of time as it requires waking suddenly out of a nightmare. It can be debated whether one wishes for the benefits of that particular workout or desire to fill in for it by substituting other exercises. Again, I remind you it is not often an actual choice, and one quickly realizes upon fully waking that the car is not actually lost and life is not as scary as one's unconscious would have you believe.
Oh, didn't I mention cleaning? You're very observant.
I've been thinking I haven't been getting any exercise these last several weeks. So I decided to keep tracek of what I actually do, under what circumstances, and how often. Following is a compilation, as well as I can make it, considering a somewhat swiss cheese memory.
Most frequent is a trip down the hall to the bathroom. If you have to ask the reason(s), your memory is in even worse shape than mine. Nevermind. Distance is usually from my chair in the living room to the bathroom, although it can often be combined with many or most of the following exercises. Let's just call that efficiency. After all, efficiency was one of the principles making isometrics a fad. Pushing or pulling two things against each other gives twice the workout for one.
Next most frequent is the trip either to or from the kitchen. 90% of these trips are getting food, returning food either to the refrigerator or the garbage, returning used dishes. Sometimes they involve a return trip to remove something from the microwave, as there has been a return to the living room during cooking time, just to exercise those sitting/standing muscles. Occasionally these trips
involve hand washing, depending on the sloppiness of the food in question, or the amount of capsaicin remaining on fingers. Hopefully that latter issue is discovered before the fingers go in the eyes. Um, nose too.
Not that I do that, of course. Ever. Purely a hypothetical example.
Ahem.
Now that weather allows, there is a once daily trip around inside the house to open windows, followed by a later one to close them. This exercise will soon be replaced by an early trip to close windows followed by a late one to reopen them as the comfortable part of the day changes. It has been noted that this exercise is often combined with such things as a trip to the bathroom, kitchen, or even one to the den for filing paperwork or procuring stamps and envelopes. These last do not get their own slot since they are always combined with at least one other exercise, and I'm not going to cheat! They may, however, include extra hand and arm exercises, useful in providing balance to one's regimen. One must always be mindful of being well-rounded. One's exercise regimen should be also.
Three for four times a week there is an evening trip out to the garbage can. There is never more than one trip, as all that needs to go out can be carried in a single trip. A few extra steps may be added, along with a slow stretch to lean back and look at the sky in search of whatever can be found there. This of course follows the long stretching dip to ground level, the lift of the lid, swing of bag(s) over to the hole, release of bag(s) and of lid, and return to full stand. On rare occasions, there may be an extra turn-pause-turn to scope out the neighborhood, although there is never anything much in the way of a reward for that extra aside from maintaining balance.
Twice a month there is a series of trips to fill the recycle can, return the smaller containers to their spot inside the house, then return to the can, lift the lid and with a controlled but powerful series of fist impact motions, secure the lid in place. This is actually an excellent exercise, as sun and rectangular shape have combined to warp both can and lid to quite a challenging combination of bad angles. Following that, the can is walked down the end of the driveway. This particular series of exercises are finished, as are many of the others, by the lowering of the body into the living room chair, doing leg raises while controlling the lever which is the end goal for foot positioning. It is never sufficient to just walk back and forth. Legs and glutes need their own bit of cross-training.
While it has not been mentioned that the vast majority of these exercises also include the major lift out of the chair to a full stand at the start of the exercise, it should be assumed. This is hands-down the most often employed exercise available in the house!
Small muscle exercises are also useful for maintaining conditioning these days. Throughout the day there are the finger strengthening exercises employed while managing the TV remote, pulling the lamp chain, using the cell phone, surfing or posting on the web. Larger muscles are also employed, such as lifting the laptop from its table onto the lap and back again. While much less frequent than the accompanying finger exercises, they must not be undervalued, as they are a necessary part of the process. There are also the frequent stretches required to accomplish locating and reaching for the proper charging cables, nail clippers, blood pressure cuff, pen and paper, and - neither last nor least - miscellaneous items which might be covering and hiding Steve's phone. In fact, in his role of encouraging exercise, his phone is often employed in such activity. He's really a big help.
Once a week or so, there is an actual daylight trip around the yard. Because it is daylight, another exercise precedes it: a shower. This is one of the few exercises which requires frequent lifting of the arms above the shoulders, another necessary stretch. In turn, it is followed by a series of grooming and dressing exercises. During this process one can manage a whole series of facial exercises as one looks in the mirror and practices reacting to what one sees, or imagine one sees, reflected there.
Grooming rarely requires more than a single trip to the closet, but always more arm lifting. Combined with puling our and pushing in drawers, ones arms can get a really valuable workout! Often this also requires reaching down to the floor to grab discarded items of clothing, followed by the lift to place them into the clothes hamper. Occasionally arm lifts are so extreme that they involve an extra walk down the hall to include Steve in the process of turning the back of a collar to its appropriate position. This can actually involve several tries, enabling both partners to get some unanticipated exercise, often followed by more facial exercise, particularly in the lips.
Once one is prepared for the appearance in public, there are more exercises. These involve stretches to locate the camera case and bring it into useful range, then manipulating both zippers into position where the lid can be lifted and the camera removed, then using those same zippers to close the case before the final stretch to replace the case. These keep fingertips in shape for the more frequent keyboarding uses, which i turn keep the fingertips in shape for manipulating zippers. It becomes a very productive feedback loop.
Now one of the big exercises begins.
There is walking around the yard to locate subjects suitable for shooting, repositioning to enable various positions from which to capture the desired images. and occasional pushes against the house to facilitate the previous activities without losing one's balance and falling into something very omnipresent and stabby. Balance exercises also come into play simply as one walks across the rocks covering the yard. It's fabulous for that. There is the occasional rock relocation and weed pulling to enable a satisfactory photo. Occasionally, though rarely, there is even a repeat of this whole cycle of exercises, justified merely by the claim of needing better light.
For variety, after one's shower, there can be an actual outing! While car doors are extremely heavy, they are generally well enough balanced that it rarely pulls a muscle in the process of opening or closing. Deep knee bends allow one to enter the car, and the process can be reversed with a full body workout. Neck swivels, eye positional shifts, and various arm and leg movements are all employed in getting to the destination and locating an open parking slot. A long hike often follows, though if one thinks it hasn't quite done the trick, one can always pretend lack of memory of the location of several list items and wind up panting after a pleasant cardio workout by the time the check-out is in sight.
Much lifting is involved once there, collection items, removing them from cart to conveyor belt, placing bags back in the cart, and after the hike out to the car, placing them inside. If that's not enough, one can also refuse offers of help to empty the car once home and make several trips in and out. Items can also be sorted, placed in a variety of locations at a variety of heights, opening and closing a variety of doors. This is truly the major exercise of the week.
But one is still not done. Those bags can now be distributed to the various garbage and trash collection receptacles around the house, replacing the full ones needing to go out curbside, thus completing a full cycle.
The use of these purchased items employ more exercises, often involved in other trips around the house previously mentioned. If by some miracle there were TP, it could involve a trip to the bathroom, a deep bend to place said fictional TP under the sink, and the opening and closing of the doors involved. However, this is often also used as a regular bathroom trip, so only the storage exercises count here. Same for prescriptions, toiletries, and other neverminds. Remember: no cheating in the count!
There are also all the exercises needed in preparing food items for consumption, whether scooping through frozen ice cream, opening boxes and microwaving the contents, spreading toppings on toast, pouring beverages from their bottles or by pushing the bar on the freezer for cold water. one of the most delicate series of exercises is transporting these items without spillage into the living room as each is ready. Note that all the above include opening and closing of often heavy doors, often multiple times.
Exercise even happens in the depth of sleep. Blankets get moved up or down, depending on temperature changes. There are all the whole body rolls throughout the night, depending on how uncomfortable pressure on any given point becomes, or how cool/warm the pillow has become. All this seems to be in aid of that supreme exercise of the day: lifting one full human body from a low horizontal position, first to a full sit-up, then to a full stand. This last also serves as a full rapid start of the first trek to the bathroom of the day, and the next cycle of exercising.
There is also the option many mornings of a strong cardio workout, but this cannot be planned ahead of time as it requires waking suddenly out of a nightmare. It can be debated whether one wishes for the benefits of that particular workout or desire to fill in for it by substituting other exercises. Again, I remind you it is not often an actual choice, and one quickly realizes upon fully waking that the car is not actually lost and life is not as scary as one's unconscious would have you believe.
Oh, didn't I mention cleaning? You're very observant.
Monday, April 20, 2020
New Recipe
Are you ready for something besides covid 19 rants? You know, two minutes of thinking about something else, no matter how trivial.
First, this starts in citrus country, at the tag end of fruit picking season. A good friend brought a bag of lemons from her tree to the wedding. Nineteen days later, even though refrigerated, their age was starting to show. Bits of those bright yellow rinds were beginning to grey. Use 'em or lose 'em.
I also had three bananas left from a hand which needed to be used or frozen. As a long-time veteran of banana bread baking, I know how much lemon juice spices up the flavors. No, it's not in the recipes, other than a back-up way to add curdled milk. Since I don't keep that on hand, adding lemon juice to fresh milk does the job. Adding a little more lemon juice to the mashed bananas keeps them from browning.
But making banana bread is work. So add-water-only pancake mix is my go-to. Now if you read these regularly, you know that I'm that lazy. Perhaps we can both be kind and call me "efficient"? Because, you know, there's so much else to do these shelter-in-place days.
So here's the process. Mash ripe bananas. Wash one lemon, grate some of the peel (avoiding those grey spots if relevant) and juice the lemon, adding both. Add applesauce. Cinnamon is optional but wonderful. Mix in about 1/2/ to 2/3 box of add-water-only pancake mix. Stir/mix thoroughly. Add water to desired consistency for pancakes, cook as usual.
If you love to experiment, leave batter thicker and cook as muffins. Will be a heavy batter, not light and fluffy. Also will not need any extra sweetening so you save all those calories and can claim it's all healthy for you. Of course, you can spread peanut butter or jelly, even honey on top if you wish. I'm open to any of the above just to avoid boredom. Plus, peanuts and grains make a complete protein, so there's that.
Steve thinks adding the lemon makes these the best pancakes I've made. Perhaps, although banana/bacon/chocolate chip have always been my favorites. The bacon has to be fried to crispness and crumbled into the batter just before cooking, of course, and the bacon grease is a great way to keep them from sticking to the pan. Actually, it's great for cooking anything. Everything.
The rest of those lemons will be washed, grated, sliced, and frozen. Dried or frozen fresh peel bits have lots of uses, and frozen slices added to cool and flavor your drink are great.
The lemon flavor in the pancakes is strongest just after they are cooked. Leftovers have less of the kick, although I just munch mine cold, and reheating them may kick it up a bit again. I'll try that for lunch.
First, this starts in citrus country, at the tag end of fruit picking season. A good friend brought a bag of lemons from her tree to the wedding. Nineteen days later, even though refrigerated, their age was starting to show. Bits of those bright yellow rinds were beginning to grey. Use 'em or lose 'em.
I also had three bananas left from a hand which needed to be used or frozen. As a long-time veteran of banana bread baking, I know how much lemon juice spices up the flavors. No, it's not in the recipes, other than a back-up way to add curdled milk. Since I don't keep that on hand, adding lemon juice to fresh milk does the job. Adding a little more lemon juice to the mashed bananas keeps them from browning.
But making banana bread is work. So add-water-only pancake mix is my go-to. Now if you read these regularly, you know that I'm that lazy. Perhaps we can both be kind and call me "efficient"? Because, you know, there's so much else to do these shelter-in-place days.
So here's the process. Mash ripe bananas. Wash one lemon, grate some of the peel (avoiding those grey spots if relevant) and juice the lemon, adding both. Add applesauce. Cinnamon is optional but wonderful. Mix in about 1/2/ to 2/3 box of add-water-only pancake mix. Stir/mix thoroughly. Add water to desired consistency for pancakes, cook as usual.
If you love to experiment, leave batter thicker and cook as muffins. Will be a heavy batter, not light and fluffy. Also will not need any extra sweetening so you save all those calories and can claim it's all healthy for you. Of course, you can spread peanut butter or jelly, even honey on top if you wish. I'm open to any of the above just to avoid boredom. Plus, peanuts and grains make a complete protein, so there's that.
Steve thinks adding the lemon makes these the best pancakes I've made. Perhaps, although banana/bacon/chocolate chip have always been my favorites. The bacon has to be fried to crispness and crumbled into the batter just before cooking, of course, and the bacon grease is a great way to keep them from sticking to the pan. Actually, it's great for cooking anything. Everything.
The rest of those lemons will be washed, grated, sliced, and frozen. Dried or frozen fresh peel bits have lots of uses, and frozen slices added to cool and flavor your drink are great.
The lemon flavor in the pancakes is strongest just after they are cooked. Leftovers have less of the kick, although I just munch mine cold, and reheating them may kick it up a bit again. I'll try that for lunch.
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