Pandemic insights

Swimming is always good

During the Pandemic, starting in March, I realized that we were probably in this lock down for a long time. Our Governor urged: stay at home for the long haul; wear masks; and wash your hands thoroughly. All of this was for the benefit of  the most vulnerable and so we weren't spreading Covid. Masks have been proven to stop the threat of the virus. How I wish that this nation agreed with Inslee and me. Instead of a rather quick recovery, as witnessed in many parts of the world, we are going into our sixth month with no end in sight. Maskless idiots are ruining our chance for a "Get out of Jail Free" card.

Being an optimist I firmly, ha ha, believed that people would also want this stay at home order to end as quickly as possible. Erroneously people believed the nay sayers about staying safe, wearing a mask, washing hands carefully etc. and took to the beaches and bars and spread the virus far and wide. No help from the White House as Mr. T didn't want to muss his hair with a mask. Despite every evidence to the contrary, especially lessons learned from foreign countries that it was effective, T urged his followers to "liberate" themselves from the restrictions, be out there and party! 'Oh, no,' says I--- and about forty million rational people, 'here we go'. We're now at 160 K deaths, expected to go to 200 K in a couple of months. This is an outrage, unnecessary and the buck does stop at the White House. In sorrow and with great love,  I think of all those people and their families affected in that grim statistic and how they are mourning their loved ones. Because of the virus they aren't able to embrace each other safely or gather in large groups. 

One of the many revelations that I have had during this lock down was that I firmly believed I was an extrovert. I thought that I needed  a bunch of people to replenishes myself in times of stress. I found out differently. I am more introverted that I knew and am able to rejuvenate at home with my Mr. G, books, movies and guitar.  Taking matters into my own hands for the long period of few contacts with my friends and family, I decided to have this period of my life become meaningful and rich.

One of the things I vowed to do was read some of the books that I've collected over the years. One particularly beautiful book was The Renaissance. In this glorious, art filled, coffee table book each chapter was written by a different scholar, an expert writing about that period. This lovely tome weighs in at about three or four pounds and is huge. I could never read this book at night in bed, it would crush my chest.  

I started out most enthusiastically and roared into the 14th century thinking, "ah this will be such a reprieve from the pandemic"!  How wrong can one be? The Renaissance, from page one was filled with stories of the plague, constant wars, graphic brutal murders, political intrigue and many assassinations. Oh me or my. You can run but you can't hide. We are so not unique in history. 

Supposedly we are smarter than the citizens during the 14th to 16th centuries,  but some of  the United States citizens have proven that's not true. We have more sophisticated science, labs, literature and information but at this date, yet we haven't found a single vaccine and many of our citizens disbelieve the scientists and doctors. Exactly what century are they embracing? Alas we are stumbling along in the dark with this clever virus that is apparently,  always, ten feet ahead of us. 

What to do to avoid constant anxiety about the pandemic? Well, for one, set up a schedule. I read a column in the New York Times about women who went into space and were without human contact for more than a year. How on earth [tee hee] did they survive, even thrive in this isolation?  It turns out to a person they had a hearty schedule. Granted they were rigorously trained  for this extensive experience and they had important work to do. Some of you have the most important job in the universe: raising children. I am a mother but also a Grandmother with great longing to be near my grands, one of whom is starting [fingers crossed] college. [She is flying away but in actuality, really driving away.] So I started writing letters to each of the grands and have gotten three replies, not perfect, but I'll take it. One of my dear sisters and I have been exchanging letters and that has been wonderful. Receiving a letter in the mail is a delight. Now with the Threat of Starving the Post Office! by Mr. Cheating T, we are all in anticipation of theft by deprivation and a slowing of the mail so he can claim victory in November. Makes me sick. 

My schedule is nothing shocking or revelatory. My daily routines are fairly pedantic such as cooking meals although I try to make the meals varied and interesting, rarely boring.  I have a small garden that could overtake the world with cherry tomatoes. Who knew that they were as bad as over planting zucchini? Then I make a deal with myself to exercise each day knowing my reward is to be able to eat most anything I want. I schedule playing guitar and singing most days at 4 pm which I just read improves sleep and, for those of you who snore, one half hour of singing just might take that away. I relish all the time I can read especially at night in bed. Supposedly that is a no-no but I have always derived great pleasure being in bed with a good book. Then for the things that are only occasionally attacked like writing this blog, journaling and composing songs, I am an unfaithful attendant. I am a faithful attendant, and can take no credit, though I  value it deeply,  to the weekly zoom that I do with two of my sisters and three men from our guitar camp. We have a topic do discuss each week like "what is your favorite day of the week" and tell stories from our lives. Also each Monday Zoom includes a song that we perform from the topic at hand. This week the topic is HOPE and the song selection is Blues. It's always entertaining and enjoyable and I look forward to it. My husband and I watch movies at either educate or tickle us. Humor and education is very important at times like this. Weekly I do a bit of volunteering for the local Democrats group and hustle to get out the vote for various candidates. In ordinary times I would be volunteering with children at our local grade school or once most charmingly with a family that had triplets and a toddler.

Yikes the conquering tomatoes

That's what I've come up with to keep me sane and smiling. To reach the people I love we do Zoom and Face Time, of course it's not enough. So people, my plea to you is simple, please follow the guidelines that have been successful for so many other countries and let's get out of jail, free.

susansmagicfeather  copyright 2020 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved

Bullock  Oriole stops by 

Trust Your Gut and Ignore the Liars

There's a pig in the White House and in the air

Law and Order is like patriotism---anyone who comes on strong about patriotism has got something to hide; it never fails. They always turn out to be a crook or an asshole or a traitor...

Bill Mauldin

 Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.                                                 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 

How about our current president is all three: crook, AH and traitor,  #45 and  this awful GOP administration.

As we have all seen, last month the Constitution of the United States of America was being tear gassed, the rights of citizens for a peaceful protest suddenly taken away from them for a photo opportunity by #45. Even the Marines head officer said, "there was use of excessive force" against the protesters and literally that has become a super aggressive and excessive force against the protesters in Portland, Oregon and now Seattle. These are men from the Black River militants who are owned by Betsy de Vos's brother and believe it or not hired to be militant. Who profits from all the chaos of unwanted militants sent into the Democratic cities? Why Betsy de Vos's brother of course. There is great profit in war for a very few...

Many of us fear mightily that before our eyes the country is losing ground to these right wing nut cases. Don't believe it. We need to keep uniting in our shock and disbelief that our own government could turn against us, the citizens. This is the mark of someone, I wonder who, wants to be a dictator. And who among us wants a liar, traitor, thief . I believe it's called grifting, one who  profits from being president and made all of his family rich at our expense.  That my friends is also called theft.

T's distraction and farce is suggesting that "we should postpone the election". Jimmy Fallon suggested that "what, like Republicans vote on Nov. 3rd and Democrats, TBD at a later date?" More ramblings from a very unstable idiot. Now he's attacking the Post Office, a treasured place to all of us, wishing to  destroy it hoping that will sway the election his way. This is not love for country instead it is love for self above all else.

Egomania in the hands of an ordinary man, while it is certainly irritating, is nothing in comparison to egomania in the hands of the man in the highest office in the nation. This folks is cause for grave concern. Speaking of grave concern, he "takes no responsibility" for botching the Covid recovery that we all deserved and didn't  get. I just read that Bret Stevens said "the important thing is for the GOP  to take such a shellacking in November that it will be as the political equivalent of an unsedated colonoscopy." Here, here! and hopefully everywhere the people will rid us of this nightmare of the #45 administration we've all been living for the past three and a half years. Please! I'm asking nicely and most sincerely. Vote them out.

Need I say more?

susansmagicfeather 2020 copy write Susan R. Grout all rights reserved 

A New Dating Site in an Improbable Place

With sisters in New Orleans

I had a surprise recently, when I was "forced" to go to the new app site for Scrabble, called Scrabble Go. I love playing Scrabble and play as often as I can.  I suspected the new app was created as a boost for advertisers but, gag, there is also  gambling and has loud obnoxious commercials as well. Sigh.  I naturally warned  all my favorites, my brother Bob and his singing partner Laura who regularly play with me, that I was signing off the site because of the grievances I foresaw playing this simple game on line. Well, I got spineless and started to get all these interesting challengers asking if I would play the game with them. Since my average number of points per turn was fairly high I figured that's why all the attention...well, no.

Interestingly, almost all of the challengers were males. I couldn't figure it out. Then there is a 'chat' feature which in the old Scrabble I used to converse with my favorites, old friends and my brother. Well, every single man that "challenged" me with point averages as great as mine or better [the only requests that I accepted] wanted to chat. You've probably guessed that's not what they really were after. 

I started to feel like I was a secret member of the lonely heart's club. To a man they wanted to know: exactly where I lived;  my occupation; one guy even typed "can we be special friends?"; was I married?; one man asked "can we could get to know each other better?"; it goes on and on. Curiously they would repeatedly ask the same questions and I realized that they were repeating themselves, I pointed this out. 

Very soon, I learned I could turn off chat, but at first I was perplexed by all the chatty men...then I figured it out. Almost all were in isolating jobs with lots of time on their hands. All were divorced, some widowed but generally hoping to find relationship on line in this peculiar fashion. My profile picture is a nice one, several years old so hard to tell my age. I'm blond and smiley. Hmmm.

Although I did feel sad for them, especially at their pathetic attempt to engage an anonymous woman who plays a pretty good game of Scrabble in a "relationship". Frankly it started to feel creepy and I could no long tolerate the distraction from the game.  

Finally I muted the chat line. Here is the suggestion I have for anyone who is a Scrabble player, female and might desire some male attention, sign up for Scrabble Go and use a nice somewhat flattering picture of yourself.  If you desire a friend,  soul mate or a relationship Scrabble Go could be the venue for you! Seriously though, I don't think this is a good idea. You never know who is on the other end of the game on their computer. It really could be a scammer, or could be lots worse than a scammer. So before you mute your chat my suggestion is you take the compliment of the all that attention then giggle with me and mute them ASAP. 

 

 susansmagicfeather 2020 copyright all rights reserved Susan R. Grout