Saturday, May 16: 90,000+ deaths, 1,500,500+ cases. Another 3 day interval between 5,000 deaths. I decided to start keeping daily counts, since each new count erases last one posted, and my memory can't keep track either. So following are numbers and some bits of additional info/comments on the day's tallies. I need a better source for MIS-C numbers, now that they're releasing them intermittently.
Monday 5/18: 91,981 deaths, 1,550,294 cases.
Tue, 5/19: 93,533 dead, 1,570, 583 cases. News leaks that multiple Governors are squelching data release. Generally in red states, don'cha know. 'Cause can't stop opening 'er up, don'cha know.
Wed, 5/20: over 95,000+ dead - didn't get number of cases.
Thur, 5/21: 1,620,902 cases, 96,354 dead. 300 cases Multisystemic Inflamatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a complication of Covid 19. One recovered patient described it as every part of their body being on fire. AKA torture. For kids. There are both recoveries and deaths. Don't know if these deaths are added into the total deaths numbers.
Fri, 5/22: 330 MIS-C cases, 1,654,094 cases, 97,647 deaths.
Sat, 5/23: 1,666,828 cases, 98,683 dead.
Sun, 5/24: 1,686,436 cases, 99,300 dead.
Memorial Day, 5/25: 1,706,226 cases, 99,805 dead. Note that case numbers are rising much faster than deaths, reinforcing both larger number of new cases, and support for squelching of numbers of deaths because... bad PR, don'cha know. Whose dead are we mourning today? Too many heroes being picked off, whether by war or virus. No doubt somebody soon will be counting those in war zones dying from the virus as a whole 'nother category. Meanwhile celebrations (? Celebrations? Seriously?) on the home front with thousands of people squeezing tightly into all kinds of spaces. On TV of course. And since that's not enough invitation to death, Minneapolis cops killed another black man, George Floyd, by keeping pressure on a knee on his neck while he was still and not resisting, and ignoring his complaints that he couldn't breathe. I guess now suspicion of forgery has become a capitol crime. Maybe we should just call it BWB: Breathing While Black.
Today, 5/26: Reached & passed the number Trump said we'd never make. 100,441 dead. Also 1,722,059 cases. New York Times says the number of dead is more likely 130,000, based on how much higher all deaths are right now than a year ago. They do allow for some where people died for not getting into the ER when they needed to, whether from fear or lack of capacity in the emergency infrastructure to get them there in time. AZ reports 55 cases in Sun City zip code, does not sort out whether in congregate living facilities like nursing homes, nor any outcomes by zip code.
Trump still won't wear a mask, pushing everybody to get out there and mingle without one, ridicules Biden for wearing his. If that doesn't say it all....
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
"Signs" Of Change
Drove Rich to his new job orientation this morning. The bus from this area into Phoenix left 5 minutes early. The next would have been in an hour. Even if it hadn't already made him late, it could easily have had its limit of 10 (!) passengers, and he wouldn't have been allowed to board. That actually seems likely because "full" buses these days don't bother to even stop once they are full unless somebody's getting off. So they go past early. Doesn't make the next one arrive any sooner - except for maybe also being full. It'll be just as much fun heading back here, though at the start of rush hour leaving downtown, I have even less hope for him securing the rides he needs, especially including a transfer.
Along Grand Ave., the shortest way be car to where he was going, there were protesters. There were a whole lot of "Jesus Saves," "Honk for Jesus," and "Jesus Loves Everybody"along the way. At the tail end, we saw "Jesus Heals." I guess they're hoping believing makes it so, because - you guessed it - not a face mask among the whole big bunch of them out there.
(Who would Jesus ... purge?)
Our rec centers are opening up. Today is the first day of Phase 1. Ta Dum!!!
Nobody exactly explained to us what that means besides the pools being open, not to mention what phases 2 or 3 entail. Nor when. What our club president was notified of was the need to present the governing board with a detailed plan for how we plan to keep everybody safe, with face masks, sanitizing, and distancing. So this morning our board met.
In my patio. (Social distancing was observed with only 3 board members able to attend. We didn't even have to yell, despite a stiff wind busy playing in the wind chimes.) Turned out they wouldn't even let us inside our room to do essential things like measure distances so we could plan where to allow seating and how to limit people inside the doors. We spent over an hour trying to think of absolutely everything, with a ''number to be determined" space for after the measuring. If we can't get in until after we've gotten in....
Details cover where hand sanitizer bottles go, not allowing eating inside the club room, and what members must do when they return from eating / bathroom breaks / etc., how to mark off tables and what to do with extra chairs (which we fought for until we finally got more tables and chairs for more crowding in the club this winter. Timing, eh?) We'll be looking for keyboard covers so sprays don't mess them up, rags just for wiping tables with the bleach solution which we'll also be shopping for supplies for. We decide what all surfaces we need to wipe - or not because somebody using them will always be washing immediately afterwards to mark their progress with the stone or metal or whatever. Plus those hands will be covered with saw oil or something so they will never approach eyes, noses or lips until clean.
Right?
And yes, it does take 20 seconds to get that saw oil off. We're not used to singing for it, though, but that may change.
We'll have to make our own signs, letting members and visitors know the new rules and that they will absolutely be asked to leave if, for example, they show up without a mask on. Or if they can't come shop in the store right now because 2 people already are shopping in it.
The meeting lasted an hour. Making sense of the details, so I could write some minutes that didn't jump around in topic as much as we ourselves had, took two.
Along Grand Ave., the shortest way be car to where he was going, there were protesters. There were a whole lot of "Jesus Saves," "Honk for Jesus," and "Jesus Loves Everybody"along the way. At the tail end, we saw "Jesus Heals." I guess they're hoping believing makes it so, because - you guessed it - not a face mask among the whole big bunch of them out there.
(Who would Jesus ... purge?)
Our rec centers are opening up. Today is the first day of Phase 1. Ta Dum!!!
Nobody exactly explained to us what that means besides the pools being open, not to mention what phases 2 or 3 entail. Nor when. What our club president was notified of was the need to present the governing board with a detailed plan for how we plan to keep everybody safe, with face masks, sanitizing, and distancing. So this morning our board met.
In my patio. (Social distancing was observed with only 3 board members able to attend. We didn't even have to yell, despite a stiff wind busy playing in the wind chimes.) Turned out they wouldn't even let us inside our room to do essential things like measure distances so we could plan where to allow seating and how to limit people inside the doors. We spent over an hour trying to think of absolutely everything, with a ''number to be determined" space for after the measuring. If we can't get in until after we've gotten in....
Details cover where hand sanitizer bottles go, not allowing eating inside the club room, and what members must do when they return from eating / bathroom breaks / etc., how to mark off tables and what to do with extra chairs (which we fought for until we finally got more tables and chairs for more crowding in the club this winter. Timing, eh?) We'll be looking for keyboard covers so sprays don't mess them up, rags just for wiping tables with the bleach solution which we'll also be shopping for supplies for. We decide what all surfaces we need to wipe - or not because somebody using them will always be washing immediately afterwards to mark their progress with the stone or metal or whatever. Plus those hands will be covered with saw oil or something so they will never approach eyes, noses or lips until clean.
Right?
And yes, it does take 20 seconds to get that saw oil off. We're not used to singing for it, though, but that may change.
We'll have to make our own signs, letting members and visitors know the new rules and that they will absolutely be asked to leave if, for example, they show up without a mask on. Or if they can't come shop in the store right now because 2 people already are shopping in it.
The meeting lasted an hour. Making sense of the details, so I could write some minutes that didn't jump around in topic as much as we ourselves had, took two.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Murders Ignored In Phoenix
Richard is back living with Steve and me again.
How that relates to the title is a story. I'll start in the middle.
I was on the phone when I spotted him walking up to the front door. It puzzled me because he knows we keep that one locked. Also puzzling was the fact he didn't knock, just stood there. Ending my call, I let him in. Being late afternoon, and him looking like he was at the end of his endurance, my first act was bringing him a bottle of water, which he gulped down in about a minute. It gave me time to wonder that he arrived without laundry, his most recent reason for showing up. Something was obviously going on.
We hadn't talked long before I went to wake up Steve. Even though he'd only been sleeping less than an hour, this needed to be a three-way conversation.
Rich has been out of touch for weeks now, not completely unexpected, due both to his not wanting to take a chance on bringing the virus here since he is unable to social distance, and the fact that his phone(s) keep getting stolen from him. Just like everything else, now, while he's been staying at the homeless shelter, CASS.
(For those who care to know, CASS is at 230 South 12th Ave., sandwiched between downtown and the capitol. The "tent city" spreads out from there.)
That was one of the first things he told me. When he informed me he'd left the shelter, I assumed the thefts were the primary reason he'd finally left. That's when he informed me about how dangerous it had become, or at least the beginning of the information. It took a day to get the rest of it from him. But that is what prompted me to wake Steve. What I had in mind had to be a family decision, taking him back in.
The part we both heard then from Rich is that there is a local gang in that area, and somehow they had set their eyes on Rich when some of their things went missing. They had taken all of his belongings as the first step in what they considered retaliation, and he now had to try to avoid being seen by any of them. The threat wasn't over. He'd left the shelter, had been sleeping in an alley under a bush, and so far had kept safe.
Rich never actually asked to move back in with us, but I asked Steve to help decide. He was instantly welcomed back. Now it was my turn to get moving. It would be dark soon, and Rich had a few things he'd accumulated after leaving CASS still sitting under that bush in the alley. I got dressed for outside and drove him there to pick them up.
His "new digs" were a couple miles from the shelter, and the bush was a very full white oleander hedge handing over the alley on one side, wide enough for him to work his way in between branches and become completely hidden once inside. He marked his location by some empty cabinets that had been tossed out and cluttered the other side of the alley. In fact, the entire alley was narrowed both by this hedge and other detritus tossed along the other side, making it a challenge for my little hatchback to dodge the large holes untended in the pavement. I just put the flashers on and hoped nobody else would need to use the alley for a few minutes as I now completely blocked it even from pedestrians.
I did mention that oleanders are poisonous when Rich noted they had been drippping sap on him, prompting a check for scratches to see if attention was needed. All the scratches he bore had scabbed over, however. Anyway, I had already insisted on him taking a full shower once home, doing laundry, and leaving any other items outside for a couple days to let any possible virus particles disappear before bringing them into the house, and this would also take care of any new oleander sap before it might cause issues. Not sure if it's a contact poison, if the contact isn't with the digestive system. but why take chances?
This was all on Thursday. Friday the full story came out. Rich and I were back in the car, back in Phoenix. Between the thefts and the virus, he had been unable to start his new job. Primary was having no communication, via phone or internet access. Even libraries were closed so there was nobody else's connection available either. Finally here, he was able to let the IRS know where to find him to send his check, enabling him to open a bank account, get a phone and wardrobe, and a new start.
First thing we did, now that he was cleaned up, was head to the bank where they were holding his badge for his upcoming security job. While there, he got his appointment for next Tuesday to start orientation. The last step, coordinating the location and shift for work, is delayed because the person handling that is out sick.
Uh-oh. Let's hope it's anything but that! Maybe just a case of the Friday Flu? He'll know more next week.
There was plenty of time for conversation on this trip, filling in the blanks. What he told me absolutely chilled me. In the time he's spent at the shelter, he's made friends, found out who he can absolutely trust, and who not. It is a fairly long-term tight-knit community, depending only on themselves and the latest charitable handouts. Tent walls are thin, and secrets difficult to keep. I have no reason to doubt any part of what he told me.
I've previously mentioned that for blocks around the shelter, homeless people who don't make it in are camped out in tents or whatever kinds of shelter they can organize. These are being preyed upon. There has been a series of overdose deaths. Not surprising, you think? Thing is, a large number of them are known in their community never to have used drugs, particularly injectible ones. These deaths are all injection ODs. There is one case Rich is aware of where a victim was in trouble with this same gang Rich has been trying to avoid, and it is believed widely through the community that the gang is responsible. Their primary "business" is drugs, and this particular victim was a customer, perhaps a minor dealer who didn't pay up. Or perhaps the gang had as much reason to declare him an enemy as they had with Rich.
The cops of course are aware. They are labeling these deaths as homicides. But nothing seems to be getting done about it, other than hauling bodies away and filing the requisite reports. To be fair, they don't usually go around telling everybody what they are doing about any crimes that don't make it into the news, so they may in fact be investigating. But nothing, nothing is making it into the local news. In the time not spent on Covid 19, weather, and graduations, it seems you have to be a cop who died in the line of duty to get any air time. Somebody murdering the homeless just doesn't cut it.
How that relates to the title is a story. I'll start in the middle.
I was on the phone when I spotted him walking up to the front door. It puzzled me because he knows we keep that one locked. Also puzzling was the fact he didn't knock, just stood there. Ending my call, I let him in. Being late afternoon, and him looking like he was at the end of his endurance, my first act was bringing him a bottle of water, which he gulped down in about a minute. It gave me time to wonder that he arrived without laundry, his most recent reason for showing up. Something was obviously going on.
We hadn't talked long before I went to wake up Steve. Even though he'd only been sleeping less than an hour, this needed to be a three-way conversation.
Rich has been out of touch for weeks now, not completely unexpected, due both to his not wanting to take a chance on bringing the virus here since he is unable to social distance, and the fact that his phone(s) keep getting stolen from him. Just like everything else, now, while he's been staying at the homeless shelter, CASS.
(For those who care to know, CASS is at 230 South 12th Ave., sandwiched between downtown and the capitol. The "tent city" spreads out from there.)
That was one of the first things he told me. When he informed me he'd left the shelter, I assumed the thefts were the primary reason he'd finally left. That's when he informed me about how dangerous it had become, or at least the beginning of the information. It took a day to get the rest of it from him. But that is what prompted me to wake Steve. What I had in mind had to be a family decision, taking him back in.
The part we both heard then from Rich is that there is a local gang in that area, and somehow they had set their eyes on Rich when some of their things went missing. They had taken all of his belongings as the first step in what they considered retaliation, and he now had to try to avoid being seen by any of them. The threat wasn't over. He'd left the shelter, had been sleeping in an alley under a bush, and so far had kept safe.
Rich never actually asked to move back in with us, but I asked Steve to help decide. He was instantly welcomed back. Now it was my turn to get moving. It would be dark soon, and Rich had a few things he'd accumulated after leaving CASS still sitting under that bush in the alley. I got dressed for outside and drove him there to pick them up.
His "new digs" were a couple miles from the shelter, and the bush was a very full white oleander hedge handing over the alley on one side, wide enough for him to work his way in between branches and become completely hidden once inside. He marked his location by some empty cabinets that had been tossed out and cluttered the other side of the alley. In fact, the entire alley was narrowed both by this hedge and other detritus tossed along the other side, making it a challenge for my little hatchback to dodge the large holes untended in the pavement. I just put the flashers on and hoped nobody else would need to use the alley for a few minutes as I now completely blocked it even from pedestrians.
I did mention that oleanders are poisonous when Rich noted they had been drippping sap on him, prompting a check for scratches to see if attention was needed. All the scratches he bore had scabbed over, however. Anyway, I had already insisted on him taking a full shower once home, doing laundry, and leaving any other items outside for a couple days to let any possible virus particles disappear before bringing them into the house, and this would also take care of any new oleander sap before it might cause issues. Not sure if it's a contact poison, if the contact isn't with the digestive system. but why take chances?
This was all on Thursday. Friday the full story came out. Rich and I were back in the car, back in Phoenix. Between the thefts and the virus, he had been unable to start his new job. Primary was having no communication, via phone or internet access. Even libraries were closed so there was nobody else's connection available either. Finally here, he was able to let the IRS know where to find him to send his check, enabling him to open a bank account, get a phone and wardrobe, and a new start.
First thing we did, now that he was cleaned up, was head to the bank where they were holding his badge for his upcoming security job. While there, he got his appointment for next Tuesday to start orientation. The last step, coordinating the location and shift for work, is delayed because the person handling that is out sick.
Uh-oh. Let's hope it's anything but that! Maybe just a case of the Friday Flu? He'll know more next week.
There was plenty of time for conversation on this trip, filling in the blanks. What he told me absolutely chilled me. In the time he's spent at the shelter, he's made friends, found out who he can absolutely trust, and who not. It is a fairly long-term tight-knit community, depending only on themselves and the latest charitable handouts. Tent walls are thin, and secrets difficult to keep. I have no reason to doubt any part of what he told me.
I've previously mentioned that for blocks around the shelter, homeless people who don't make it in are camped out in tents or whatever kinds of shelter they can organize. These are being preyed upon. There has been a series of overdose deaths. Not surprising, you think? Thing is, a large number of them are known in their community never to have used drugs, particularly injectible ones. These deaths are all injection ODs. There is one case Rich is aware of where a victim was in trouble with this same gang Rich has been trying to avoid, and it is believed widely through the community that the gang is responsible. Their primary "business" is drugs, and this particular victim was a customer, perhaps a minor dealer who didn't pay up. Or perhaps the gang had as much reason to declare him an enemy as they had with Rich.
The cops of course are aware. They are labeling these deaths as homicides. But nothing seems to be getting done about it, other than hauling bodies away and filing the requisite reports. To be fair, they don't usually go around telling everybody what they are doing about any crimes that don't make it into the news, so they may in fact be investigating. But nothing, nothing is making it into the local news. In the time not spent on Covid 19, weather, and graduations, it seems you have to be a cop who died in the line of duty to get any air time. Somebody murdering the homeless just doesn't cut it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
New Math #2
Remember that every-5-days check on how fast we're getting killed off, versus "flattening the curve?"
Well, the model* I've been following just put us over 85,000 a bit ago. It was under by less than 500 when I checked in this morning, but now it bounced over.
It's the 13th. That's a 3-day interval, not 5. Deaths, not just new cases.
Trump announced victory. States are opening back up. Our own governor, Republican of course, is opening up pools and gyms. Driving by our nearest community center this afternoon, we saw a chemical tank truck with its hose attached to the building on the end where the pool is, and presume it will be opening soon. The news shows stories every day of people taking advantage of openings by assuming it's an announcement that the danger is over, then getting drunk in a small space with 200 of their nearest and dearest fellow careless drunks. Whee. So many are belligerent about some imagined curtailment of their "rights" to do whatever they damn well please, whenever, wherever and with whomever they like.
Gotta wonder how free they'll feel on a ventilator.
Individuals out getting their exercise in the mornings walking down the street tend more and more to be wearing masks. Steve had a phone appointment this afternoon, a follow up from his last visit, rather than an in-office visit. (He will still have to go in to see a pulmonologist and cardiologist later this month.) Orders from his favorite Mexican restaurant take-out with big tips, though they just opened up with half the tables inside blocked from seating. There's a totally inconsistent combination of open/closed and home/out and masked/not masked out there right now.
Cases are returning - literally returning to those who've apparently recovered from the virus. Children are getting and dying from what appears to be a new connection to or twist in the virus attacking only them, with rashes and high fevers, among other things. There was a new report this morning of the virus causing heart attacks in babies.
I'm not sure we need any new kinds of math to sort out how many and which people will get sick. I believe it's entirely predictable it'll all wash out to who's lucky enough to stay home because of financial stability, who's wary enough to avoid all those sparkly temptations dangled in front of our eyes, weighed against the length of time it takes to produce a reliable immunization.
* For those wondering where I'm getting my info, it's:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1
Well, the model* I've been following just put us over 85,000 a bit ago. It was under by less than 500 when I checked in this morning, but now it bounced over.
It's the 13th. That's a 3-day interval, not 5. Deaths, not just new cases.
Trump announced victory. States are opening back up. Our own governor, Republican of course, is opening up pools and gyms. Driving by our nearest community center this afternoon, we saw a chemical tank truck with its hose attached to the building on the end where the pool is, and presume it will be opening soon. The news shows stories every day of people taking advantage of openings by assuming it's an announcement that the danger is over, then getting drunk in a small space with 200 of their nearest and dearest fellow careless drunks. Whee. So many are belligerent about some imagined curtailment of their "rights" to do whatever they damn well please, whenever, wherever and with whomever they like.
Gotta wonder how free they'll feel on a ventilator.
Individuals out getting their exercise in the mornings walking down the street tend more and more to be wearing masks. Steve had a phone appointment this afternoon, a follow up from his last visit, rather than an in-office visit. (He will still have to go in to see a pulmonologist and cardiologist later this month.) Orders from his favorite Mexican restaurant take-out with big tips, though they just opened up with half the tables inside blocked from seating. There's a totally inconsistent combination of open/closed and home/out and masked/not masked out there right now.
Cases are returning - literally returning to those who've apparently recovered from the virus. Children are getting and dying from what appears to be a new connection to or twist in the virus attacking only them, with rashes and high fevers, among other things. There was a new report this morning of the virus causing heart attacks in babies.
I'm not sure we need any new kinds of math to sort out how many and which people will get sick. I believe it's entirely predictable it'll all wash out to who's lucky enough to stay home because of financial stability, who's wary enough to avoid all those sparkly temptations dangled in front of our eyes, weighed against the length of time it takes to produce a reliable immunization.
* For those wondering where I'm getting my info, it's:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1
Sunday, May 10, 2020
The New Math
No, this isn't another rant on how inadequate school education is/was. Nor does it have anything about how working math problems in schools changed enough to confuse parents so they had problems teaching their children in the school-approved methods. (Although I still never will understand how long division works from right to left!)
This new math involves covid 19 statistics. Here in the UA. Post- opening up the economy.
It was supposed to happen more safely after we leveled out our curves and social distanced and wore masks and used sanitizers and.... It isn't happening that way.
Just May 5th, we passed 70,000 deaths.
Today, May 10th, we passed 80,000 deaths.
Note the numbers change by their sources and times of day they are reported, but those are consistent for suppertime checks - my time zone - from one source, tracking world cases by country. Even with that consistency, we all know the numbers are under reported. Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, all have documented stories of blocking accurate information. Sometimes the blocking is done by county, or company. So much for caveats.
That's 10,000 more American deaths from the virus in just 5 days.
Already these numbers are being blamed on opening the economy too soon. It's not a completely fair assessment. Yet. First you go out and mingle, catch the virus. Then you take up to 2 weeks to come down with enough of a case to get tested, if and where testing is available! After that, you can die in a few days or last a few weeks before dying. (Maybe even recover, but you're not being counted here, lucky you.) So if you want to blame the common May 1st reopening date for the new deaths, you really have to wait until much later in the month for them to start to qualify. These deaths are from people already going out - however necessary their reasons - before the easing of restrictions. They caught it a while ago. It just finally caught up to them.
It should take another week, at least, to start to see the rise in deaths from all the new mingling. To keep it in perspective, with 10,000 deaths in 5 days, another 10,000 deaths in the next 5 days, aka 80,000 on May 15, will be merely flattening the curve! Flattening doesn't mean no more deaths, just a steady level of increase. So the real telling of the tale of the reopening will be in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 days.
This is the real new math we have to pay attention to.
Hopefully from home. Not a funeral.
This new math involves covid 19 statistics. Here in the UA. Post- opening up the economy.
It was supposed to happen more safely after we leveled out our curves and social distanced and wore masks and used sanitizers and.... It isn't happening that way.
Just May 5th, we passed 70,000 deaths.
Today, May 10th, we passed 80,000 deaths.
Note the numbers change by their sources and times of day they are reported, but those are consistent for suppertime checks - my time zone - from one source, tracking world cases by country. Even with that consistency, we all know the numbers are under reported. Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, all have documented stories of blocking accurate information. Sometimes the blocking is done by county, or company. So much for caveats.
That's 10,000 more American deaths from the virus in just 5 days.
Already these numbers are being blamed on opening the economy too soon. It's not a completely fair assessment. Yet. First you go out and mingle, catch the virus. Then you take up to 2 weeks to come down with enough of a case to get tested, if and where testing is available! After that, you can die in a few days or last a few weeks before dying. (Maybe even recover, but you're not being counted here, lucky you.) So if you want to blame the common May 1st reopening date for the new deaths, you really have to wait until much later in the month for them to start to qualify. These deaths are from people already going out - however necessary their reasons - before the easing of restrictions. They caught it a while ago. It just finally caught up to them.
It should take another week, at least, to start to see the rise in deaths from all the new mingling. To keep it in perspective, with 10,000 deaths in 5 days, another 10,000 deaths in the next 5 days, aka 80,000 on May 15, will be merely flattening the curve! Flattening doesn't mean no more deaths, just a steady level of increase. So the real telling of the tale of the reopening will be in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 days.
This is the real new math we have to pay attention to.
Hopefully from home. Not a funeral.
Better Science - Out Of School
It appears I'm somewhat addicted to 4th through 8th grade science. Who knew? Has it always been at this level, or just declaimed as such now for the kids at home?
I've been watching this on TV for years, though never regularly. Some of it just appeals. And frankly, I was offended when I saw that age label on the screen corner. This is kids' science? Isn't that the realm of Bill Nye, the science guy? Something just to prove science can be fun? Surely this PBS show is for adults? I mean, prime time, not daytime, plunk-'em-before-the-electronic-babysitter level "science". It's way beyond Myth Busters too, and that was science with a lot of fun mixed in. Not as compelling though - or maybe it's a guy thing to have all those explosions and stuff.
But then, why can't something as in depth and interesting as this is be also directed at students kept away from their classrooms? There are plenty of boring science teachers out there. When I grew up, it was the class taught by the coach, apparently a way to justify his payroll. Incidentally it never got into the physics of sports, for example, something which might (?) have given him some real interest in being there. He could have been an excellent coach for all I knew, but I managed to get out of high school thinking I hated science. The only memorable thing about it all was the day the P.A. system announced that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.
Yeah. I'm that old.
So what's all this fuss about? Nova. I used to pick up a show here and there, but never had time enough working long hours and raising kids single-parent style while also working to recover from my first marriage without giving up on the males of the species completely. Now, kids are grown, years of support groups and therapy have made great strides, and retirement allows much more entertainment and learning time. With sheltering in place, everybody's got more time to fill. Kids gotta learn something too, something interesting, and this presents the very best of teaching with the best of technology and educators.
I just set the timer for "all" and watch them whenever I get to them. I don't have to turn in any papers, after all. They just finished showing a series on the planets. When I learned about them in school, not much was really known. Telescopes were limited and nobody had sent satellites out of orbit on fly-bys. Astronomy was a process of learning how many planets (wrong!), how many moons (wrong!) what they were made of (wrong!), how they rotated (wrong!) and so forth. Boring numbers and names. Memorization only, no imagination needed. Ever.
We also didn't have those wonderful Hubble photos of the universe, nebulas, black holes, gazillions of other galaxies.... I wanted to be interested in astronomy as a kid, growing up in a small town where you could clearly see the Milky Way or pick out "all" the Pleiades. (There were more once I got glasses.) Even college astronomy's most memorable part was having to fight for telescope time and discovering that the moon had already moved out of frame for whatever it was we were supposed to see. Class ended before my turn at Saturn.
Nobody managed to make it as fascinating as it truly is.
Nova does. I envy today's students who are assigned watching it for school. Better yet, they cover all sorts of topics, and by far the majority of them I find interesting: things I wished I'd known, things I never knew I'd missed out on. These days they are particularly good at getting me out of my head, away from covid numbers and staying home frustrations. I still have to make sure it's not the last thing I watch before going to bed. Even the most exciting drama can lull me to sleep under those conditions so I miss the good stuff. Just not a fair way to judge.
I am sure though, that had I had that quality of science training back in school, I'd have been a different person in a different career throughout my life. I am glad to have found good ways, periodically, of learning more science along my way. I'm hoping today's students can get good starts in fields which interest them, and keep it up throughout their lives as well. Whatever their topic.
It's not "fake news" that we landed on the moon when a decent telescope can show what we left behind. When knowledge of physics shows what a sufficient number of people with simple technology are able to accomplish, you don't need space aliens to explain the pyramids, Nazca Plains, or the Easter Island statues. Even drunken high school students can work out elaborate crop circles and scrape a few flecks of radium from a watch dial in the center - and do. Perhaps with more of that knowledge we can solve other critical problems, producing more good leaders and fewer blind followers.
I've been watching this on TV for years, though never regularly. Some of it just appeals. And frankly, I was offended when I saw that age label on the screen corner. This is kids' science? Isn't that the realm of Bill Nye, the science guy? Something just to prove science can be fun? Surely this PBS show is for adults? I mean, prime time, not daytime, plunk-'em-before-the-electronic-babysitter level "science". It's way beyond Myth Busters too, and that was science with a lot of fun mixed in. Not as compelling though - or maybe it's a guy thing to have all those explosions and stuff.
But then, why can't something as in depth and interesting as this is be also directed at students kept away from their classrooms? There are plenty of boring science teachers out there. When I grew up, it was the class taught by the coach, apparently a way to justify his payroll. Incidentally it never got into the physics of sports, for example, something which might (?) have given him some real interest in being there. He could have been an excellent coach for all I knew, but I managed to get out of high school thinking I hated science. The only memorable thing about it all was the day the P.A. system announced that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.
Yeah. I'm that old.
So what's all this fuss about? Nova. I used to pick up a show here and there, but never had time enough working long hours and raising kids single-parent style while also working to recover from my first marriage without giving up on the males of the species completely. Now, kids are grown, years of support groups and therapy have made great strides, and retirement allows much more entertainment and learning time. With sheltering in place, everybody's got more time to fill. Kids gotta learn something too, something interesting, and this presents the very best of teaching with the best of technology and educators.
I just set the timer for "all" and watch them whenever I get to them. I don't have to turn in any papers, after all. They just finished showing a series on the planets. When I learned about them in school, not much was really known. Telescopes were limited and nobody had sent satellites out of orbit on fly-bys. Astronomy was a process of learning how many planets (wrong!), how many moons (wrong!) what they were made of (wrong!), how they rotated (wrong!) and so forth. Boring numbers and names. Memorization only, no imagination needed. Ever.
We also didn't have those wonderful Hubble photos of the universe, nebulas, black holes, gazillions of other galaxies.... I wanted to be interested in astronomy as a kid, growing up in a small town where you could clearly see the Milky Way or pick out "all" the Pleiades. (There were more once I got glasses.) Even college astronomy's most memorable part was having to fight for telescope time and discovering that the moon had already moved out of frame for whatever it was we were supposed to see. Class ended before my turn at Saturn.
Nobody managed to make it as fascinating as it truly is.
Nova does. I envy today's students who are assigned watching it for school. Better yet, they cover all sorts of topics, and by far the majority of them I find interesting: things I wished I'd known, things I never knew I'd missed out on. These days they are particularly good at getting me out of my head, away from covid numbers and staying home frustrations. I still have to make sure it's not the last thing I watch before going to bed. Even the most exciting drama can lull me to sleep under those conditions so I miss the good stuff. Just not a fair way to judge.
I am sure though, that had I had that quality of science training back in school, I'd have been a different person in a different career throughout my life. I am glad to have found good ways, periodically, of learning more science along my way. I'm hoping today's students can get good starts in fields which interest them, and keep it up throughout their lives as well. Whatever their topic.
It's not "fake news" that we landed on the moon when a decent telescope can show what we left behind. When knowledge of physics shows what a sufficient number of people with simple technology are able to accomplish, you don't need space aliens to explain the pyramids, Nazca Plains, or the Easter Island statues. Even drunken high school students can work out elaborate crop circles and scrape a few flecks of radium from a watch dial in the center - and do. Perhaps with more of that knowledge we can solve other critical problems, producing more good leaders and fewer blind followers.
Friday, May 8, 2020
Living In The In-Between Days
Sheltering in place results in some bizarre perceptions and reactions to the world of time. It's more than just needing to find new ways to keep track of times and dates. Time compresses and expands so it's difficult to even know how many days or hours have passed to be kept track of. I find myself having to go over these pages to figure out whether something happened a week or two months ago. But once I do, surely that isn't right....?
Even things with more finite time limits still tend to leave me hanging. Take the roof. We knew which day the yard crew was going to trim overlapping pine tree branches, but were they due imminently or not even this day. (It was Thursday.) Then there's the insurance adjuster's visit, with results coming back in "a few days", which we have to wait through before a few more days have to elapse until we can hear the final estimate and things can be ordered. Then it's about another week before the new roof is on.
Will that still be May? I think it's supposed to.
It happens with little things too. Wow - have I been going through that bottle of pill this fast? Check the refill date on the label... and another bottle... OK, two more trips to the pharmacy have to be planned in the next two weeks, and they can't overlap because that insurance has rigid rules. (So who abuses statins and thyroid pills so they can't be refilled further from their refill dates anyway? ) I've taken to looking in the bottom of the bottles each day to try to plan it better. Nope. Still two trips.
Other medical stuff clutters the calendar. I have a series of two appointments coming up, first a test and the following week discussing the results. Unlike other appointments, these aren't cancelable. Hopefully no actions need to follow, but it's still a reason to keep track. It may actually get easier if/when more appointments are added. Steve will need appointments to help figure out some things that are going on with him now. My been-there-think-I-know-something diagnosis is that there will be another pacemaker in the family soon. We're keeping track of BP, pulse rate, and O2 blood levels at home these days, and his pulse has been as low as 41 bpm twice in the last few days, 45 one other time. When that happened to me, it got a lot of attention! Along with a battery and some other stuff. Nice scar too.
And if he's like me in the same way, the pulmonologist won't be needed once the heart pacing is corrected. So of course, that's the appointment that's scheduled before the cardiologist's one. Do they do that on purpose?
By now you may be wondering about another possible culprit, but yesterday we received word that his covid 19 test showed negative!
Other kinds of reminders pop up to show time is skewed. Foods disappear from the refrigerator when we think it was too soon ago that we shopped for it. We couldn't possibly have eaten it all already, could we? Asking myself why there is so much laundry makes exactly as much sense as simultaneously wondering why there isn't more. Dirt on walls where hands touch surprises me by how much time must have fled since those places were last washed - and aren't we washing our hands more now anyway?
I used to always wake up knowing which day of the week it was and what that meant for what I needed to do for work. Even recently, I was tuned in to the club schedule and my responsibilities. Now it takes reflection, not just which day, but which month? Season? At least the clock on my headboard offers the time so I can decide whether to come back to bed after my bathroom trip. I don't need to figure out how much light is coming in from outside and put that in its proper date slot to make that decision. Just being tired or not doesn't count any more.
Even waking itself has changed. My body was attuned to the alarm, and I would reliably pop into full alertness about 5 minutes before it went off. Now I awaken being aware of having some knowledge of the last several minutes and my increasing level of "here-ness". This was what I was dreaming. Those were the noises I heard over the last several minutes. And this is finally me. I wonder which is weird, the pop into alertness before the alarm, or the slow dawning?
Until this week I was sure that garbage pickup days were a way of keeping track. Then yesterday I took a bag of garbage out. Being Thursday, the can was supposed to have been emptied around 6 AM. This was afternoon, and the previous three bags were still in it. Lucky they are all small. I'm confident we can survive on the remaining space until Monday's pickup. Then I call the company.
Now I see a new problem. I know I was told twice yesterday that it was Friday. I recall both conversations and why it was necessary to establish the day. But I found myself fighting to find ways to prove to myself that it was really Thursday. None of them worked out, of course, because it really was Friday. But if you read the previous paragraph, you'll see I'm still doing it. I know if I just turn on the TV all the programming will be screwed up because it's Saturday. Though, yes, our garbage did miss getting picked up. I double checked with Steve that he hadn't taken three more bags out after an actual Thursday pickup.
This all leaves me with two choices. I can find a new way to keep track of time for the duration. Or I can decide it rarely matters. Hmmmm...... Let me decide tomorrow. Whenever I think that is.
Oh, but one way time is crystal clear. You can't have missed how Trump refuses to wear a mask when around other people. While some speculate it's because it would show the orange makeup, his stated reason is that wearing one would make him look ridiculous. Baby, that ship has lonnnnnng since sailed. I mean, way back even before all that birtherism nonsense back when Obama took office, way back to the first time anybody noticed him, ever. Trump is just simply ridiculous and can't run away from it, not even when he's demonstrating how evil he also is. Always will be. Somebody will be sure to put laughing, falling down clowns on his gravestone. Bet they'll be wearing masks though. Wouldn't want the Trump to wear off on them.
Even things with more finite time limits still tend to leave me hanging. Take the roof. We knew which day the yard crew was going to trim overlapping pine tree branches, but were they due imminently or not even this day. (It was Thursday.) Then there's the insurance adjuster's visit, with results coming back in "a few days", which we have to wait through before a few more days have to elapse until we can hear the final estimate and things can be ordered. Then it's about another week before the new roof is on.
Will that still be May? I think it's supposed to.
It happens with little things too. Wow - have I been going through that bottle of pill this fast? Check the refill date on the label... and another bottle... OK, two more trips to the pharmacy have to be planned in the next two weeks, and they can't overlap because that insurance has rigid rules. (So who abuses statins and thyroid pills so they can't be refilled further from their refill dates anyway? ) I've taken to looking in the bottom of the bottles each day to try to plan it better. Nope. Still two trips.
Other medical stuff clutters the calendar. I have a series of two appointments coming up, first a test and the following week discussing the results. Unlike other appointments, these aren't cancelable. Hopefully no actions need to follow, but it's still a reason to keep track. It may actually get easier if/when more appointments are added. Steve will need appointments to help figure out some things that are going on with him now. My been-there-think-I-know-something diagnosis is that there will be another pacemaker in the family soon. We're keeping track of BP, pulse rate, and O2 blood levels at home these days, and his pulse has been as low as 41 bpm twice in the last few days, 45 one other time. When that happened to me, it got a lot of attention! Along with a battery and some other stuff. Nice scar too.
And if he's like me in the same way, the pulmonologist won't be needed once the heart pacing is corrected. So of course, that's the appointment that's scheduled before the cardiologist's one. Do they do that on purpose?
By now you may be wondering about another possible culprit, but yesterday we received word that his covid 19 test showed negative!
Other kinds of reminders pop up to show time is skewed. Foods disappear from the refrigerator when we think it was too soon ago that we shopped for it. We couldn't possibly have eaten it all already, could we? Asking myself why there is so much laundry makes exactly as much sense as simultaneously wondering why there isn't more. Dirt on walls where hands touch surprises me by how much time must have fled since those places were last washed - and aren't we washing our hands more now anyway?
I used to always wake up knowing which day of the week it was and what that meant for what I needed to do for work. Even recently, I was tuned in to the club schedule and my responsibilities. Now it takes reflection, not just which day, but which month? Season? At least the clock on my headboard offers the time so I can decide whether to come back to bed after my bathroom trip. I don't need to figure out how much light is coming in from outside and put that in its proper date slot to make that decision. Just being tired or not doesn't count any more.
Even waking itself has changed. My body was attuned to the alarm, and I would reliably pop into full alertness about 5 minutes before it went off. Now I awaken being aware of having some knowledge of the last several minutes and my increasing level of "here-ness". This was what I was dreaming. Those were the noises I heard over the last several minutes. And this is finally me. I wonder which is weird, the pop into alertness before the alarm, or the slow dawning?
Until this week I was sure that garbage pickup days were a way of keeping track. Then yesterday I took a bag of garbage out. Being Thursday, the can was supposed to have been emptied around 6 AM. This was afternoon, and the previous three bags were still in it. Lucky they are all small. I'm confident we can survive on the remaining space until Monday's pickup. Then I call the company.
Now I see a new problem. I know I was told twice yesterday that it was Friday. I recall both conversations and why it was necessary to establish the day. But I found myself fighting to find ways to prove to myself that it was really Thursday. None of them worked out, of course, because it really was Friday. But if you read the previous paragraph, you'll see I'm still doing it. I know if I just turn on the TV all the programming will be screwed up because it's Saturday. Though, yes, our garbage did miss getting picked up. I double checked with Steve that he hadn't taken three more bags out after an actual Thursday pickup.
This all leaves me with two choices. I can find a new way to keep track of time for the duration. Or I can decide it rarely matters. Hmmmm...... Let me decide tomorrow. Whenever I think that is.
Oh, but one way time is crystal clear. You can't have missed how Trump refuses to wear a mask when around other people. While some speculate it's because it would show the orange makeup, his stated reason is that wearing one would make him look ridiculous. Baby, that ship has lonnnnnng since sailed. I mean, way back even before all that birtherism nonsense back when Obama took office, way back to the first time anybody noticed him, ever. Trump is just simply ridiculous and can't run away from it, not even when he's demonstrating how evil he also is. Always will be. Somebody will be sure to put laughing, falling down clowns on his gravestone. Bet they'll be wearing masks though. Wouldn't want the Trump to wear off on them.
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