Feeding

Next to air and water, food is our most basic need. Nutrition keeps the mind and body working. It is the fuel that makes us go.

Times like these remind us of the abundance we are able to consume, but forget the others who do not have access.

And those who are detained or incarcerated or imprisoned, what is on the menu? Soup kitchens or school lunches bring hungry faces and empty bowls.

Humanity wants to tend to the sick and hungry, but who pays for it?

Farmers and chemist and corporations grow and refine and distribute substance to all points of the country, but not the globe.

Going to the grocery at this time of panic and finding shelves barren of produce, dead animals and noodles; one wonders if it was always like this?

Without the option of calling for a pizza or the drive thru burger joint, would we starve? Have we grown so accustomed to a flick of a finger to satisfy our gluttony we’ve forgotten what our forefathers had to do to prepare a meal for a family?

Today I had a cheese pizza for my daily meal. Someone else made it and wrapped it in plastic and put it in a box and shipped it to my store’s freezer department for me to pick up and bring home. Fifteen minutes @ 400 degrees and I had something that looked like food and filled my tummy.

I’ve worked the food banks. I’ve worked the feeding lines pouring donated leftovers into a bowl of a hungry but shamed face. While they will be appreciative, they will be back again tomorrow. They have no other choice.

If the children did not have lunch at school, where would they eat? If those in detention had no food delivered, would they all die?

Who celebrates Thanksgiving with a steaming turkey?

Have You Taken The Test?

Back in my day, no one wanted to take a test. Tests were mainly meant to see if you were listening in class. Everyone had to be silent as the teacher’s pet handed out the paper and then given a timeline to finish, then turn over the paper that was collected, viewed and graded by the teacher.

Test back then got an alphabetical judgment of A,B,C,D or F (my favorite). Much like the rest of life, these were to score if you moved on or just faded into the darkness of education. A grade qualified you in comparison to others in your class.

To take a test was to see if you passed or failed. The test grade placed you in which caste you would fit in.

There are lots of test throughout life. Sometimes we pass and sometimes we fail.

Now this test is suppose to see if you got the bug that is going around. Take a swab of spit and send it off to some lab to later get a text message if you ‘passed’ or ‘failed’.

Except these grades are ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. You got it or you don’t.

Don’t know if they have a summer school to make up these grades, but everyone wants to take the test.

Maybe that is why the medical profession is so popular? Everyone thinks they have the ‘hibbie-jibbies’ or the ‘cooties’ and want a medical professional to confirm their self-diagnosis.

That is what annual examinations are for. Weight, height and a thermometer stuck in somewhere so a doctor can fill out a chart and compare it to your last visit.

If everything looks ‘normal’ you get a pat on the back, a lollypop and an appointment for the next year. If there is some variance, additional test will be performed.

This latest pandemic doesn’t seem to have a bag of tricks ready for the humanity request for microwave solutions. Frantic scientists are feverishly working on finding the source, matching cells to similar boogeyman and concocting a cure.

Until then the solution is ‘wash your hands’, ‘stay away from others’ and ‘buy as much toilet paper as you can find’.

If you take the test and it is ‘positive’ is that a death sentence? If you take the test and it is ‘negative’ are you scot-free until you run into another person who may not have taken the test. Then you have to take another test.

Should we have health test every time we walk into hospitals? Should we have to take the test when we enter schools? What about office buildings or airports or churches? Seems we don’t have the answer so we just shut them down.

Have fun watching films and eating everything you grabbed off the shelves. You may be sheltered from the contamination until you can’t get off the couch.

Is there a test for obesity?

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

Friday 13^th - Rain started at 4:35 AM. Even when it is dark out, one has to check to see if the world still exists. It did so it was back to bed for another 3 hour nap. After a long bike ride the sun was coming up and the news on the radio could only talk about the stock market and the coronavirus.

All morning with juice and coffee, the report and repeat was a loop I’ve been hearing all night. Has the sky fallen?

Climbing into worn jeans and some shirt sold 20 years ago, the yard seemed the same. Why isn’t there panic and screaming in the street?

Instead the city street crews had patched the big hold at the end of the alley and took off today. Traffic wasn’t bad, sort of normal with a few more parked vehicles than expected for a Friday.

Pulling into the flattop of the Tummy Temple I see where everyone was. All those who had taken off work had decided to hoard whatever ‘essentials’ they could pack in their car.

Couldn’t find a zip cart so had to drive one of the battleship sized around the crowded aisles. There are long line and lots of unfamiliar faces. The staff seemed overwhelmed.

Not expected to be cooped up for two-weeks, I got just enough to get through the weekend. A couple of pizzas, two packs of blueberries, some rice and what was left of the beans. Luckily the beer was free.

Many of the shelves were barren. Why was everyone buying toilet paper? If they were quarantined were they planning on just gorging? This coronavirus affects the respiratory system and not the bowels. Still it might be a good time to be a plumber?

Everything is shutting down from the museum to the library to the schools to the churches to the Greek Festival. There are only sports on television (don’t forget to rescan) and social media avoided President’s handshaking press conference.

Being in a place where isolation is normal, this is just another day in just another life. There is no place that has to be attended. There is no one to have to see face-to-face. There is no one coming by and there is no reason to leave. The music (of my choosing) sounds fine, the radio repeats the news over and over again, the beer is cold and the bunnies frolic.

Life goes on and tomorrow will be another adventure out into the sunshine to see if the Tummy Temple is restocked or closed. The rest of the month will be interesting to see who has decided to spend the time at home with the kids. Will the neighbor’s kids be out all day looking to get into trouble? Will the next-door neighbor work on his jeep? Will the dogs just lie in the new mulch or have a singing contest? Will the street repair come back or are they done? Will I have soup or pizza tomorrow?

If the sky has fallen and we are all going to die, why fret? There is no way I can control it. If the sky does not fall and by June this will all be over, then there was no cause to worry.

I thought Friday the 13^th was cancelled, but it came and went anyway. Now it is time to go back to the dreams to see if Ginger ever took that photo of me that Pat was trying to get done.

Happy dreams and hope you wake in the morning.

Out-Of-Work

Are we over-reacting or just being cautious?

We’ve already discussed we should not PANIC! While we are washing our hands and sneezing into our elbow we are overwhelmed in news reports of society closing down due to some cooties floating around.

Schools are closing and there wasn’t even a shooting. Churches are closing which will put a squeeze on weddings, funerals and baptisms. Conventions are cancelling so people selling screwdrivers or copiers or even medical appliances will no longer fill the conference rooms of hotels.

If people are to work at home (with their kids) and tele-communicate who keeps track of their time? Will the sales goals be met when the staff is binge surfing on Netflix and downing chips and beer with their kids?

If all the sports activities are shut down to keep from assembling large crowds, what will people do on weekends? How will they root for their favorite teams? What will the local pub have on the twelve screens?

What will become of the cheerleaders?

Those giggly scanty clad gals bouncing around on the field of play have no audience to entice to cheer on their team. Without any fans will they just root-root-root for the home team to the coaches and the bench? Sorry ladies but you are out-of-work.

Empty stadiums will not support the hot dog vendors or the parking attendants or those poor smucks who have to mop up the bathrooms. No one will be there to buy souvenir t-shirts or programs or foam fingers or cheese heads. The beer sales will drop faster than the stock market.

With no one traveling to the games, the hotels and restaurants and sports bars will become vacant, cutting staff and inventory refurbishing. On the plus side arrest for public drunkenness or rowdy behavior will go down. Law enforcement can get back to picking up homeless and migrants and pot smokers.

The extended sick days sounds interesting (unless you are the employer paying for it) and the tax cut would be nice except these are unemployed people now with No Paycheck to tax.

The advice to stock up certainly hit my Tummy Temple. The congregation was bigger than Thanksgiving or Christmas. Water and t-paper were rationed and the staff was overwhelmed. Lines went out the door and carts were stacked mile high. Send in the troops!

 I had the flu once. It was after I got a flu shot (let that sink in). At the time my wife was a teacher and also got the flu (think about it). I remember it being a couple of miserable days and then we got better. I called in sick but didn’t care if I was getting paid or not.

I also used to give blood until the medical assistant couldn’t find the vein and there was more blood on the floor than in the little jar.

I don’t recommend anyone else live his or her lives the way I do, but I avoid the medical and pharmaceutical professionals. I have medical insurance (in case of getting hit by a car) but do not have a personal doctor. The medicine cabinet holds some ten-year old aspirin and some cough drops. There is an unopened bottle of Tylenol and some Tums. There is an unused thermometer back there but I don’t like them.

If I have a fever, I know it. If I have the chills, I know it. If my tummy hurts, I know it. If my head hurts, I know it.

Old Doc Page would tell my mom, give him liquids, chicken noodle soup and plenty of rest. Seemed to work.

All those with medical experience will be aghast by my lack of concern to live longer than my diet, exercise and rest routine, but it works for me.

I feel for those who have to deal with this emergency. The stress and concern and the fear of the unknown must be making you all crazy?

If you are exposed or lose your job, will there be unemployment insurance? Who will be there to answer the phone or reply online? What happens when the banks close??

Maybe if I have to take the test and pass, there will be thumbs up. If the neighbor’s houses start going for sale, I might wonder. If I run out of food and the Tummy Temple is closed, I’ll have to plant a garden.

Good luck to all the cheerleaders and food truck operators and teachers and janitors and referees and street hawkers and musicians and dancers and airplane pilots and people working for tips and Uber drivers and vacation directors. These look like tough times, but hang in there.

Tomorrow is another day.

DON'T PANIC!!

Stay calm. Take a deep breath. Sit quietly and have a cup of warm coffee or tea. Doesn’t that feel better?

What is with all this panic?

There have been health alerts before. Remember getting your flu shot? There have been HIV and Ebola and somehow you came out on top. So why is this one so scary?

There is no medical solution yet, but from the data seems many of those who are contracted get over it. Unfortunately the news alerts are of the body counts and everyone panics.

Plan on stocking up for a 14-day quarantine (or more)? Packs of toilet paper and cases of water fly off the shelves. Cleaning and hand washing fluids are in short supply. Not a bad marketing ploy?

Working at home sounds like a way to keep sick people apart until they beg to come back to work from going stir crazy. Where is the overtime? Where are the conversations in the lunchroom? Where are the endless meetings in the boardroom? Where is the pressure of the boss looking over your shoulder to make sure you are working?

How will you get any work done when your kids are home too because they have closed all the schools?

For that matter the Irish Festival has been postponed, also the championship basketball game and annual barn dance. There will be no assembly of more than two people and they must be three feet apart.

The congress and local general assemblies will be dismissed. The security personnel will wear HAZMAT suits and must take your temperature (sorry, they are not oral). Hospitals will run out of beds and even the Red Cross will stop giving away donuts.

This is a pandemic or at least that is what the news tells us. They also tell us when the lettuce is bad or the milk should only come from cows. How old is that cheese?

No one seems to listen to the folks talking about the pollution of the waterways and the landfills as long as it doesn’t smell bad in their backyard.

No one has looked on the brighter side of this ‘situation’. It is an invisible enemy that you cannot bomb or chase away so wash your hands and cover your face when you sneeze.

You can walk the streets with placards and signs and chant to rid the area but it won’t go away.

The bright side is that you have more time to spend with your family. No need to wander outside to the grocery for you have stocked up on toilet paper (and after that are the magazines and the leaves of spring). The gas will be really cheap but there is nowhere to go. The commute would be fast due to lack of traffic but you are told to stay home. There are adventurous quarantine cruises that go nowhere and those cheap prices on air travel on 747max that are more exciting than Disneyland (which is closed).

If you have a seasonal summer business, you can take a vacation. Hotels and restaurants can cut back on staff and free up their orders. Event planners can start looking for real jobs like trash removal or disinfectant specialist.

No worry about additional health day’s off for you won’t be working that long. Without a paycheck you and the homeless will be in the same class.

You don’t have to go to the gym or dress up for work. You don’t have to stress out about not having the minutes ready for the meeting due to the network being down.

Delivery may be questionable due to sneezes that happened before you picked up the box. What about the pizza?

What about the animals? Will they start dropping out of the trees? Will the cute little critters so beloved start to stagger around and then fall down dead? Will the birds start falling out of the sky?

No one has looked down the road of what this ‘pandemic’ is doing to us.

It is an electoral year for a new (or old) president. A couple of years ago we gave the excuse of a foreign intervention into our voting process. The news presented the numbers but what happened before that?

There were all sorts of distractions. Strange E-mails and embassy burning and possibility others kept the eye on the prize fogged and confused. Most were accused to the Russians who had already shot down a passenger plane and taken over the Crimea without resistance.

There are still many months ahead for the social media to try and suave our opinions and biases to the final vote.

Wear your mask and take your cough drops. Put on your gloves and look away if someone sneezes. Stay away from others.

Who is going to line up to vote?

Easy Open

Do you remember the days when your mother called you into the kitchen to help her open a jar?

Try to twist it, get a rag and try and twist it again, run the lid under hot water and try to twist it. Bang it with a hammer and some how it would finally come loose.

Then celebrate your success of Samson defeating the manufacture of food storage.

Well now I’m getting to that age of complaining about opening a package.

Since then there are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to twist with torque or squeeze with the grip of the jars of life.

The packaging themselves have developed all sorts of techniques to be called “easy open”.

There are perforated boxes with pull strips, but the perforation is never deep enough and the whole lid will have to be torn apart.

There are fold up tabs that are suppose to fit in the slot on the other flap, but they tear apart or will not slide into the narrow slit.

There are pull up tabs on beer cans which are pretty well done except when the ring breaks off and you don’t have a church key.

There are power appliances (and hand held) to open cans without tabs, but they slid off if the rim is not tall enough and another can opener that cuts the lid on the side of the can must be used. If that doesn’t work you find a screwdriver.

There are twist off caps with a rip off ring and a second seal of plastic before the liquid will pour.

The favorites are the press down ‘child proof’ caps on medicine, chemicals, and anything you have to open when you are in the dark.

I fully understand the challenge of packaging professionals to fill all the space with instructions, ingredients, warnings, barcodes, coupons, and some image to attract your eye, but a half filled chip bag will still tear apart sending chips all over the floor after the struggle to separate the opening.

At a certain age attacking a package with a pair of scissors (or a chain saw) is the easiest way.

Don’t forget to recycle all that glass and tin and cardboard.

Contagious

To spread from one person or organism to another by direct or indirect contact is being contagious.

Everyday we wake up, get dressed, then go out and intermingle with others. We travel with others, work with others, party with others, eat with others, dance with others and (if you are lucky) get into a close embrace with others.

Do we ever ask if they are contagious?

If someone is coughing and having a difficult time, we avoid them. If someone has a sniffle, we rationalize it is a mere common cold or an allergy.

We shake hands to make a sale; we hug tight for selfies and kiss ‘goodnyte’ without another thought…. until now.

What happens during coronavirus testing?

If your provider thinks you may have COVID-19, he or she will contact the CDC or your local health department for instructions on testing. You may be told to go to a special lab for your test. Only certain labs have been allowed to do tests for COVID-19.

There are a few ways that a lab may get a sample for testing.

·      Swab test. A health care provider will use a special swab to take a sample from your nose or throat.

·      Nasal aspirate. A health care provider will inject a saline solution into your nose, then remove the sample with gentle suction.

·      Tracheal aspirate. A health care provider will put a thin, lighted tube called a bronchoscope down your mouth and into your lungs, where a sample will be collected.

·      Sputum test. Sputum is a thick mucus that is coughed up from the lungs. You may be asked to cough up sputum into a special cup, or a special swab may be used to take a sample from your nose.

·      Blood. A health care professional will take a blood sample from a vein in your arm.

The FDA has approved more widespread use of a rapid test for COVID-19. The test, which was developed by the CDC, uses samples from the nose, throat, or lungs. It enables fast, accurate diagnosis of the virus. The test is to be used at any CDC-approved lab across the country.

Are there any risks to the test?

You may feel a tickle or a gagging sensation when your nose or throat is swabbed. The nasal aspirate may feel uncomfortable. These effects are temporary.

There is a minor risk of bleeding or infection from a tracheal aspiration.

There is very little risk to having a blood test. You may have slight pain or bruising at the spot where the needle was put in, but most symptoms go away quickly.

If you were diagnosed with a coronavirus infection, you should also take the following steps to prevent others from getting sick:

·      Stay home, except to get medical care.

·      Wear a facemask when you are around other people.

·      Do not share drinking glasses, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with people in your home.

·      Cough or sneeze into your sleeve or a tissue, not your hands.

·      Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

If your results were negative, you may need further testing and/or an exam by your provider. Until you get a diagnosis, you will still need to take steps to prevent spreading the infection.

Have you taken your test? Did you pass?

Is there anything else I need to know about coronavirus testing?

You can lower your risk of getting an infection by taking the following steps:

·      Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

·      Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

·      When possible, keep away from people who are coughing and sneezing.

·      Clean frequently-touched objects and surfaces with a household disinfectant spray or wipe.

Tomorrow will be different. There will be more reports of positive test. There will be more detentions. There will be more body counts. There will be greater fear.

Being contagious is unseen. Unlike measles with red rash or the plague with boils, the person on the street looks the same as they did yesterday. If those who were contagious would turn green, then the rest of us would know whom to avoid.

Still during the ‘Jim Crow’ era, the color of the skin seemed contagious, but it wouldn’t wipe off and you couldn’t catch it.

Are all those people invading the country from the southern border contagious? Are all those people trying to escape warfare contagious? Are those who don’t have the same faith contagious?

Our reaction for safety in the unknown will cancel the flight overseas for vacation. The weekend cruise could turn into months at sea without docking. The song and dance festival and the ethic gathering will be canceled. Sports events will have to be watched on television. Business meeting will be made on the phone.

Emergency workers will have to dress like spacemen. Emergency rooms will overflow with a cough or a sneeze. Sport arenas will become staging areas for those who are possibly contagious. If one is found positive to a test, are all the others who have been exposed? What about the armies?

Would you want to go to an office with others who ‘maybe’ contagious? Do you want your kids to go to school with other kids who ‘maybe’ contagious? Would you touch the tithing plate when passed or touch the communion?

Don’t worry. The pharmaceutical industry will come up with a pill or a shot or potion or concoction to ward off this latest threat to invade our bodies and wellness. It will be costly but it will be worth it (even if it is not covered by your health plan).

The real problem will become dating. How can the species continue to procreate without two people getting close to each other?

It seems, from all the comments on social media, that anger and disgusting language has become contagious. Maybe this is the plague of the mind?

Yawning is contagious. Laughter is contagious. Music is contagious.

I wonder when ‘peace, love and kindness’ will become contagious?