Tag Archives: Covid19

dear world, not having fun

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The view from my window. I love the view but people, this virus completely sucks. I feel like hell.

Another fever overnight. The kind where your joints hurt and your eyelids feel hot.

Oh and the cough. My ribs hurt at this point and for COVID it’s not too bad in the cough department. I also don’t dig the congestion. I am so congested that if I bend over so my head goes lower than my shoulders, it is the worst feeling of just pressure you can imagine.

And I wake up every couple of hours during the night, I know that my COVID is relatively mild since I have all shots available, but wow this is so not fun.

My husband is thankfully fine, but he gets to do lockdown too.

I pretty much figured out where I came in contact with someone with COVID. It was high school reunion that for the non denominational private schools around here this past weekend. My own reunion year a couple of years ago didn’t happen because of COVID, and I knew people who were coming back this year, so I wanted to see people. I mean don’t you just miss seeing people?

So yes I believe I picked up COVID at the Shipley reunion weekend Friday events because I literally have not been in other crowd situations even if not so crowded. And I wasn’t anywhere leading up to this event. Has anyone else ‘fessed up getting COVID last weekend? Or am I the only one who was honest? I get the COVID is everywhere, but given that I have pretty much been an immunocompromised homebody since COVID started, that is the logical point of origin.

Slight pity party of one here. It’s my birthday week and no herb sale Thursday in Historic Yellow Springs Village and no art show plus the things we were invited to this coming weekend.

I think part of the problem with this virus is the stigma one feels when you contract it and have to tell people you were around to get tested and then there are the people who don’t tell you they were exposed or who go out sick. And then there are the people who could get vaccinated and just didn’t. They didn’t want their rights violated during a pandemic, a public health emergency but it was OK if they made others sick. And I am unapologetic about my perspective.

Yes I wear the scarlet C for COVID this week. I know some people think it’s funny, but it’s really not. I don’t wish this on anyone.

I still have almost no speaking voice. That was the first thing that happened incidentally that made me wonder if I had COVID. I never lose my voice. I am still just so tired. Fever at night and I should buy stock in paper companies that make tissues and more.

And I keep reminding myself I have a relatively mild case of COVID compared to others I know. I am also glad my mother is visiting my sister on Mother’s Day because I would not be able to see her.

I may never know who actually gave me COVID, but whomever they are I wish they had stayed the hell home last week.

Well I am making tea with fresh mint and ginger and then I’m going back to sleep.

Be well and enjoy the beautiful day.

when the COVID bug bites

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Well, it finally got me. I have been careful since Covid appeared on our scene and this weekend I was exposed to someone with it. I have no idea if it was someone who was unvaccinated and carrying it or just dumb luck.

I have had to tell everybody I know that I was around.

I did four things this weekend, and literally I have not done that since 2019. I have been absurdly careful, almost paranoid at times.

I woke up early this morning finding it hard to breathe like I had a cold. My voice is pretty much gone and when I have it, it sounds like Kermit the frog lives in my body.

Now I am achy. And my eyelids feel kid sick hot. Everything in my life now grinds to a halt. No herb sale at Yellow Springs on Thursday or Art Show. Also no gathering Friday or Saturday and I actually had plans. And Mother’s Day is Sunday, but my sister has mommy custody. Thank goodness.

I do have my sense of taste, however.

I made it this long so that’s a pretty good lucky streak. Look for those of you out there who think this virus doesn’t exist or it won’t strike you, it got me and again I have been extra careful for three years because I am a cancer survivor and patient.

I feel like crap but mostly I feel kids sick. I don’t know how else to explain it other than it’s reminiscent of how you felt when you got sick and your mom took care of you when you were little.

I have had to tell so many people because I saw so many people over the past few days. And right or wrong I feel like some people are mad at me for telling them. Like I did it on purpose.

God damn it. Sign me pissed.

scrooge, still a timely character. file under: life lessons for christmas.

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Ebenezer Scrooge. One of the most remembered characters in literature. Created by Charles Dickens in the 19th century for A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol was published December 19, 1843. 179 years ago this year. And the characters are still relevant today…179 years later.

The most recognizable and remembered of the characters is Scrooge. Also his clerk, Bob Cratchit. In his time Bob was the symbol in Victorian England of the overworked, essentially abused working class person. Long hours, low pay. The irony of course? This also sounds like today, doesn’t it?

In a Christmas Carol the Ghost of Christmas Present debunks Ebenezer Scrooge’s “un Christian” beliefs on religion and the “sabbath” in the context of business. This ghost also talks about how many people who claim a religious justification for their actions, yet in reality live literally not getting or caring about the true meaning of Christianity. Sort of a do as I say, not as I do thing and utter hypocrisy. Now today, we experience that hypocrisy of true Christians every day. You know like Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism and their ilk?

In any event this ghost thinks man should judge morality by the deed, not by how a man doing describes/labels his actions. Under the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present are two ragged spirit figures. They are supposed to be like starving children.

The identities of the sprit figures are “Ignorance and Want.” I have never been sure that was other than the proverbial metaphorically speaking of it all: this ghost cares for these children because society, or man, should care for ignorance and want always, and not just talk about it. For the good of mankind.

There are some on this earth of yours… who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us….they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. The boy is Ignorance. The girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

~ghost of christmas present in a christmas carol

I started thinking about the metaphors in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol again a few years ago, when I read this article in The Guardian, a U.K. paper. I was able to find it again:

The Guardian: Ignorance and Want: why Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is as relevant today as ever

By Chris Priestley
Wed 23 Dec 2015

…A Christmas Carol is more than just a story. It is a tirade against greed, selfishness and neglect. It uses the story of a rich man – the startlingly nasty Scrooge – to highlight the plight of those affected by the greed and meanness he exemplifies.

The famous child in A Christmas Carol is poor “Tiny” Tim Cratchit but there are two others. When Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Present, he is shocked when two wild and ragged children tumble out from the giant’s robes.

He thinks they must belong to the giant, but he tells Scrooge that they are Man’s. He tells him the boy is called Ignorance and the girl Want.

“Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy…”

Every Christmas through the 70s (I was now on a council estate in Newcastle where snow was more familiar), the BBC showed an Oscar-winning animated version of the story by Richard Williams, with Alistair Sim voicing Scrooge. It is beautifully animated in a style that evokes the John Leech illustrations from the original publication, but whereas the children are fairly bland creations in those engravings, here they are snarling beasts. I was – and remain – fascinated by them.

It is a brief moment in the story but surely a key moment – and a big part of why the story is still so relevant. Ignorance and Want remain the prime movers behind so many of the worlds ills….But Dickens was having a go at his complacent readers – he was chastising them about their own ignorance…

 

A Christmas Carol is actually life lessons wrapped in a Victorian Christmas story. Allow me to liberally quote an article by a professor at Indiana University named Richard Gunderman in a publication called The Conversation:

…The story begins on Christmas Eve. The “grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner” Ebenezer Scrooge is toiling in his office, where he turns away two fundraisers seeking to provide for the poor, rudely rebuffs his nephew Fred’s invitation to Christmas dinner and berates his underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, for expecting to get Christmas Day off with pay.

At home that night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner Jacob Marley, who “died seven years ago, this very night.” Now wandering the earth dragging heavy chains forged by his own avarice, Marley warns Scrooge that he will meet the same fate if he does not listen to the three spirits who will visit him during the night.

The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to scenes from his earlier life, where he is reminded that he was once a kinder and gentler person….

he reexperiences what it is like to be lonely at the holidays until he is rescued by his sister. He then visits the holiday party of his employer, Mr Fezziwig, who despite modest means embodies the spirit of celebration.

He then sees his younger self with his fiancée Belle, to whom he intended to devote the rest of his life, until he was gradually overmastered by the love of money. Belle eventually breaks their engagement and marries another man, whose large and happy family Christmas the ghost takes Scrooge to witness.

The Ghost of Christmas Present whisks Scrooge to celebrations of Christmas in different settings throughout the land. They then travel to the home of Fred, who valiantly defends his uncle against criticism, choosing to pity rather than condemn him. Then Scrooge finds himself at the modest holiday feast of the Cratchit family, where he meets Tiny Tim, their ailing youngest child, and learns that unless the course of events changes, this will be the boy’s last Christmas. Finally, the ghost shows Scrooge two starving children, Ignorance and Want…The ghost of Christmas Yet to Come transports Scrooge to the holiday one year later, where he witnesses the reactions of various people to the recent death of a “wretched man.” A businessman states that he will attend the funeral only if a lunch is provided, and various people sell stolen items from the dead man’s estate to a fence. The only people who feel any emotion at his passing are debtors who now have more time to repay their loans. After returning to the Cratchit home, where Scrooge sees the family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim, he is taken to a neglected grave, where to his horror, he sees the name Ebenezer Scrooge.

Dickens was always about teaching us lessons. Read any article about A Christmas Carol especially, and you will see that it is a cautionary tale wrapped in a tale of redemption. Dickens refers to the lessons of the present to see the effects on the present and into the future. He also makes us think about how the past influences it all.

That should give you chills, because this is so very true today. And it’s that old thing about ignoring the past means we are doomed to repeat terrible things. That is why some history, although unpleasant, should not be made to disappear. Look what the dumbing down of America has currently given us. If we don’t persist in being and doing better, where will we all end up?

I have felt this way since before the onset of our COVID-19 world view existence. But COVID and the Trump years and Trump mentality have definitely thrown us into a post Victorian world that once again shows the vast chasms of life between the haves and the have nots.

We live in a world full of exceedingly selfish and mean people a lot of the time. That is not being a Debbie Downer, as anyone in corporate America and they will tell you it’s a harsh and true reality.

Take this time of the year, for example. It’s the time of year when employees receive year end bonuses. Only that is at the discretion, more like whim, of corporate overlords. I have remarked before about the year of the canned Polish Ham or a box of chocolates that then Prudential Securities offered hard working sales assistants, other support staff, and operations personnel in the early to mid 80s while the stock brokers all got fat, monetary bonuses. I know it happened, because I was literally there. Essentially all of the people who slaved to make brokers look good, got the short end of the stick. If you were lucky a broker gave you a monetary bonus, but it was not a requirement.

Total Scrooge moments, indeed back then.

Then there was always working in an office where the proverbial office pets got bonuses, and the rest? Nothing. It didn’t matter how hard you worked, you were just forgotten. You got to watch as others received bonuses, as you were deliberately overlooked. Yet another Scrooge moment, but then you figure Karma is a bitch and everything that goes around will come around eventually. The universe is funny and true that way. Oh wait, another Dickens lesson, correct?

And then there were the generous and kind bosses. I had a few of those over the years. They remembered Christmas and the actual spirit of the season. If not with a monetary bonus, then a nice gift. I wonder, do those bosses still really and truly exist?

But there will always be the bosses who will Bob Cratchit as many as possible, whenever possible. For them, it is always how much money they can make, and everyone else is well, kind of expendable. I do believe those people will indeed have a reckoning. We may never see it, but it will happen. These are a lot of the people who end up terribly alone…wait for it….like Ebenezer Scrooge.

The holidays are supposed to be pleasant, and while business might always be business, it seems like today more than ever you hear these tales of being Scrooged. And here we are supposed to be living in a world and a time where worker bees are supposed to be respected and have rights, but do they?

We will always live in a world where the next guy might have a lot more, or a lot less. But it’s all about how do we deal with this in our world, isn’t it? It’s also about being kind once in a while.

My critics like to tell me I am not kind. That I am mean. But am I really, or is it just about speaking my truth? That’s for them to figure out, incidentally. I know who I am, and my self-worth.

Now I know speaking my truth comes with a cost. My cost is corporate America. I am like a whistleblower after a fashion, so they will shun me until I am of retirement age. So it is a good thing I am content as being self-employed, a variation on a gig worker. I use my talents for various gigs of varying durations. I am not and will never be wealthy, but it has become enough. That probably makes some uncomfortable because I should want more. But what will more get me precisely?

When more becomes too much, and more of too much becomes the focus you get the Scrooges. Self focused, bullying, miserly, cold. No spirit of generosity. Lacking in actual joy about anything.

So sure, would it be nice to have more? Yes, because having a little more makes paying the bills easier. But our society has become one where we live seemingly only to work, and there is no balance. And those who crave balance, are often punished for that. If you think about it, we seemingly live in a world at times which punishes us for being happy or even wanting to be happy.

We all deserve to be happy, don’t we? So maybe we have to hit the pause button and reflect? We all struggle at times, right? So why can’t we reflect and be human and move forward?

Life is short. Re-read A Christmas Carol and learn from it. Hopefully it is not on a banned or book burning list somewhere. Life and Dickens, still true today.

Thanks for stopping by.

there is right and there is wrong. this is wrong. time to say “enough already”

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NO. This is WRONG. Hassling a small business over their policies is wrong. It’s not OUR business it’s THEIR business and when we enter THEIR business we are a GUEST.

If we don’t like their policies, and that includes businesses which never required masks or encouraged people to take them off, we don’t patronize them we quietly go elsewhere but we don’t try to ruin them because they feel masks are still prudent.

People like to talk a good game about supporting small town America and her businesses, so trying to DESTROY a business over their mask policy which is within their rights is wrong.

I am not a rock climber, so I don’t patronize Downingtown Rock Gym personally, but I respect their right to try to do what is best for their business, their employees, and their patrons. If you are a climber and a rational human being, I encourage you to support their business.

Our forefathers granted us freedoms and fought and bled and died for them so we had the freedom of choice among other things. And freedom of choice does not mean destroying a business because you disagree with their masking policy, it means just going someplace else.

And I have been told this person has family members with businesses in Downingtown and is that correct? How would this person feel if people started posting about those businesses in this manner? It would be wrong too, so not encouraging that AT ALL, but asking HOW it would make them feel?

COVID19 has been long enough and terrible enough for all of us, no matter what you feel about masking and shots, and some of the people who have felt this the hardest are small business owners.

We need to respect small business owners and what they choose to do with masks versus no masks until COVID19 is but a nasty memory.

Business shaming over mask requirements is wrong. Plain and simple.

Enough already.

#supportlocal

here we go again

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Oy vey, my dear, this isn’t very Christian of you now, is it?

There is a massive difference between opinion and slander.

I offered opinion, not slander, based on things publicly out there, that YOU put out there including but not limited to flipping out at public meetings, things in the media, and the judge’s public opinion last week on your law suit with the others where YOU are named plaintiff, correct? (Please note the phrase “flipping out” is opinion, a descriptive opinion.)

If your lawyer wants to play with my lawyer, I can’t stop you from pursuing that but remember YOU took a photo of me, that I am not quite sure how you obtained (maybe it was public, maybe it wasn’t) of me in a hospital gown taken a decade ago as I was either preparing for breast cancer surgery (partial mastectomy), or after the surgery as I was getting ready for (back then) several weeks of intense radiation treatment.

You posted this photo as #Pinktober or #BreastCancerAwareness month was beginning. To an extent, life is about optics. Those, in my opinion, are not productive, positive optics for you, especially as a woman.

I did not create your issues, I expressed my opinions along with lots of others over what you have put out there in #MaskGate . I will ask people to pray for you. God’s Grace is always a good thing to discover.

like january 6th except august at a school board meeting

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Tonight there was supposed to be a Great Valley School District School Board Meeting. Except it was overrun quite literally by anti-maskers. (Here watch another video sent to me call it “takeover time”: https://vimeo.com/588137331 – not all but a lot of it)

Great Valley School District school board meeting was supposed to be recessed for this evening because of the people who refused to wear masks, which includes Republican Committee of Chester County school board candidates.

The police were called. F-ing ridiculous.

Kids first. Not freaking whatever self-serving politics.

Some random woman then running the meeting because she says that this is “their building” or something. Yeah, so January 6th, it is a little frightening and utterly UNACCEPTABLE. No clue who she was.

And these anti-maskers called those wearing masks “retarded” (their words) and they were wearing “face diapers”. Again, their words.

Chester County Republican School Board Candidate Sallie Campbell was observed flipping out and screaming at people in the audience….before the meeting. Obviously she is quite unstable isn’t she? And yes, Sallie the minute you became a politician as a a candidate for elected office (the school board) we can indeed wonder about you outloud.

Here is what got recorded that I could find so far by school district:

THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. IF YOU PAY TAXES IN THE GREAT VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT, WE SHOULD BE ASKING THE CHESTER COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE TO PAY THEM FOR EVERY HOUSE IN THE DISTRICT. IF THEY WANT TO RUN THE WORLD, THEY CAN DAMN WELL PAY FOR IT TOO AND PAY OUR SCHOOL TAXES.

OUR KIDS AND PARENTS AND EDUCATORS ATTENDING PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS SHOULD FEEL SAFE. WHO FEELS SAFE WITH THIS CRAP? AND THE POLITICALLY CORRECT ANT MASKERS, ANTI VAXXERS? NOT VERY PC TO CALL PARENTS WEARING FACE MASKS LIKE GREAT VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT REQUESTED “RETARDED”

Oh and the people who were the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers were recording this entire debacle. No one is quite sure where.

To the Great Valley School District: if you are going to do these meetings, enforce your policies. If people are non-compliant, have them removed.

Also tonight? People have NO IDEA who was vaccinated or not among the anti-maskers.

This is NOT acceptable. NOT Acceptable!

To the Chester County Republican Committee, and every local Republican committee within the Great Valley School District: these people were out there representing YOUR party’s SUPPOSED values. So are we to assume the Chester County Republican Committee is therefore OK with the events of January 6th in our beloved Nation’s Capitol? This is what being a Republican means? So you are ok with your people doing things like the man who yelled at the school board and called them “little bitches” and someone else calling a school board member a “pussy”?

These are the candidates NOT to vote for: Alex Enderle, Sallie Campbell, Lauren Dicranian.

Here are observations from a parent who was there:

“My recap of the GVSD SB meeting that almost was:
I got there around 7.10 and went straight inside. There were already 5 other masked people in there, and 3 non-masked. There were posted papers everywhere that said masks are mandatory, and boxes of surgical masks for those who didn’t bring one.
I asked Dr. O’Toole if the mask policy will be reinforced, and I was assured it will be as soon as the board members come in. It was uncomfortable sitting there as the number of unmasked people grew, and I knew at least a couple are not vaccinated.
By the time the board came in, I would say there were about 45ish people in attendance, half masked half not. The masked included 2 of the school board candidates(Andrea Rizzo Region 1 and Tricia Chasinoff Region 3). The unmasked were led by R candidate for Region 3 Sallie Campbell- who before the board came in turned to us and yelled that we don’t have her permission to take a picture of her- some of us had their laptops out doing some last minute work, some had their phones texting etc.
Board came in, and Dave Barratt asked everyone to comply with the mask requirement. Some angry dude called him the ‘p’ word, screamed that ‘this is our building, we pay taxes, we pay your salaries’ (nevermind that the SB positions are volunteer, apparently he doesn’t know such details). Same person insulted another mask wearing parent asking if they were retarded for wanting to wear a mask. It went on in the same style. Barratt called recess and said they will meet tomorrow on Zoom.
Most of the masked parents left. I stood in the hallway for a bit listening to what was going on. Some masked parents stayed. The R crowd decided to hold their own meeting and broadcast it somewhere- there were at least 2 people recording/streaming what people said. I have no idea where.
People were asked to state their name and address like in a SB meeting and speak; it was sickening to hear them and know that this shitshow will go on once school starts. Nurses stood up and spoke against masks and against the vaccine. Sallie C said a prayer and once again spoke against the book that teaches everyone that whites are racist, yada yada same old story as last meeting, and shed a tear as she told people how she had to leave certain FB groups where she wasn’t appreciated.
All had a common theme: the CDC ‘recommends’ and is not saying ‘mandatory’; the PA DOH ‘recommends’ and does not ‘mandate’. The government cannot tell them what to put on their kids(masks) and cannot force them to vaccinate; this is a public school and they can decide what is best for their children.
I am upset the police didn’t come and they were allowed to continue this nonsense, especially considering what happened in other states. I left as I feared for my safety. On my way out I chatted a bit with Dr Goffredo and Dr O’Toole- I don’t understand why the police wasn’t called or didn’t come(I left about 40min after the meeting was cancelled). I
I am so sad with how radicalized some of our own neighbors are, and how political this all is, and it will only get worse.”

~Parent at the meeting non meeting, storming of the school board/school district meeting

Here’s what was sent to me by people in the room (turn up the volume)

Litter some of the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers tossed aside as they were storming the school board meeting

living la vida loca…with covid

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A friend posted this and I grabbed it from her social media. It kind of sums it all up.

Here we are in August 2021, and the COVID of it all still hums around the edges of all of our lives, and threatens to cause uproar in our lives once again. We have not obtained herd immunity in this country because not enough have gotten shots.

Please don’t misunderstand me, there are people who are legitimately UNABLE to get the COVID shot because of health conditions like severe allergies. But then there are all of these people who either just haven’t bothered, or they see it as a Don Quixote political stand.

So now there are these variants of COVID. Delta and Lambda are two. Here is an article from Reuters from the other day:

Aug 2 (Reuters) – The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

Delta breakthrough infections likely contagious

Among people infected by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, fully vaccinated people with “breakthrough” infections may be just as likely as unvaccinated people to spread the virus to others, new research suggests. The higher the amount of coronavirus in the nose and throat, the more likely the patient will infect others. In one Wisconsin county, after Delta became predominant, researchers analyzed viral loads on nose-and-throat swab samples obtained when patients were first diagnosed. They found similar viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, with levels often high enough to allow shedding of infectious virus. “A key assumption” underlying current regulations aimed at slowing COVID-19 transmission “is that those who are vaccinated are at very low risk of spreading the virus to others,” said study coauthor Katarina Grande of Public Health Madison & Dane County in Madison, Wisconsin. The findings, however, indicate “that vaccinated people should take steps to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus to others,” she added.

Lambda variant shows vaccine resistance

The Lambda variant of the coronavirus, first identified in Peru and now spreading in South America, is highly infectious and more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the virus…In a paper posted on Wednesday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review, the researchers warn that with Lambda being labeled a “Variant of Interest” by the World Health Organization, rather than a “Variant of Concern,” people might not realize it is a serious ongoing threat. Although it is not clear yet whether this variant is more dangerous than the Delta now threatening populations in many countries, senior researcher Kei Sato of the University of Tokyo believes “Lambda can be a potential threat to the human society.”

~ Reuters 8/2/2021

Ok so locally and regionally it has been welcome to crazy town over to mask or not mask. And restaurants and other businesses are choosing to not have the non-vaccinated and even just the non-masked in their establishments. That is their prerogative, it’s their business.

A place called Martha in Kensington apparently is causing a hullabaloo over this. I read about Martha and their decision in Philadelphia Magazine first, courtesy of an article by Victor Fiorello. Comments across social media accuses them of being racist to very pointed and funny comments like:

“The government can’t tell them what to do! It’s their individual right as Americans to decide who to let in! Gee…. That works TWO WAYS!”

Let what is happening in Provincetown, MA be a warning via The New York Times:

By the Fourth of July, Provincetown’s tourist season had built to a prepandemic thrum. Restaurants were booked solid, and snaking lines formed outside the dance clubs. There were conga lines, drag brunches and a pervasive, joyous sense of relief.

“We really thought we had beat Covid,” said Alex Morse, who arrived this spring as town manager. “We had internalized those messages, that life will be back to normal. We beat this. We are the most vaccinated community in the state.”

Mr. Morse didn’t think much of it, five days after the holiday, when the town’s Board of Health logged two new cases of coronavirus. A week later, though, the cluster of cases associated with gatherings in Provincetown was growing by 50 to 100 cases per day. Alongside the numbers was an unsettling fact: Most of the people testing positive were vaccinated.

Provincetown, a quirky beach community at the tip of Cape Cod, has provided a sobering case study for the country, abruptly tugging Americans back to the caution of winter and spring.

~ New York Times 7/31/21

I happen to agree with the restaurant Martha. What they are doing is both common sense and brave. They represent an industry that took a direct hit across the country and all over the world because of COVID. They are choosing to try to keep their patrons and employees safe. Respect.

Now I read an editorial (also Philadelphia Magazine this by Ernest Owens) that came out yesterday:

The rise in cases caused by the Delta variant could be halted if we stopped coddling the source of the problem. More institutions should follow the lead of the Philly restaurants refusing service to those who won’t get vaxxed.

In one of my all-time favorite films, Mean Girls, there’s a scene in which the alpha-female of her high school, Regina George, decides to wear sweatpants on a Monday — a violation of the code of her inner circle, the Plastics.

“So that’s against the rules, and you can’t sit with us,” says Karen Smith, a member of the Plastics.

I’m reminded of this scene because this is exactly how we must treat those who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19: You can’t sit with us.

The infuriating rise in cases caused by the Delta variant has led to an increase in public restrictions, including, in some places, a return to mandatory mask-wearing regardless of vaccination status. This time around, the science behind what’s setting us back couldn’t be more clear: Unvaccinated people are at a higher risk of infection, given how much more contagious this particular variant is. In other words, if more people got vaccinated and practiced other safety protocols, we wouldn’t be wading right back into this clusterfuck of restrictions.

At the very beginning of this pandemic, I had a little more empathy for those who were hesitant to get vaccinated…..Which is why we should all cut to the chase and clamp down, both socially and institutionally, on those refusing to be vaccinated. It’s time to pull out all the stops, via more restrictions and peer pressure. I cannot emotionally afford another government lockdown….Playtime is over. We have the power to stop the spread, so let’s do so now.

~ Philadelphia Magazine, Ernest Owens 8/3/21

I am with Ernest. Read the rest of the op-ed. He also remarks on the unvaccinated by choice who wanted everything to open up, but didn’t do their part (get vaccinated or at least wear a mask.)

I am still leery going out. I still carry and wear masks. And I also carry my vaccine card with me. Sorry not sorry, I do not have a problem if someone asks me I am vaccinated, and would show my card. Do I like still wearing a mask here and there? No of course not, it’s no fun. It kind of sucks and we are all tired of the COVID games, but if we don’t pay attention, we will go back to lockdown.

Of course to mask or to not mask is also a hot topic with school districts. To me it is kind of maddening. What is the big deal? Little kids especially are among the most vulnerable of our population so why are masks such a big deal? The option is we can go into lockdown again and kids will not be IN school if that happens. And for those who can’t grasp students wearing masks, this just in: Penn State is requiring masks indoors on ALL campuses. And even Vanguard is offering employees $1000 bonus if you get vaccinated. Genesis Healthcare is making a COVID shot a job requirement. They own nursing homes, and people in nursing homes are SO at risk so who has a problem with that? Seems kind of positive to me.

To follow are THREE video snippets. Two are from a very recent West Chester Area School District School Board meeting. One speaker is the QAnon WCASD school board candidate Ada Nestor (@AnonymousAda on Twitter and yes she was in DC January 6th, correct?), and the other is some woman who was just good theater because she was so off the rails. Apparently she is the IHOP mom (as in International House of Pancakes) because she lets people of different races, etc into her home. The third video snippet is that delightful nutbag martyr running in Great Valley School District for School Board, Sallie Campbell. What makes her profoundly disturbing other than she is utterly clueless, is she used to be a nurse.

I just don’t understand. I don’t. Yo’ put on a mask already (you’re a long time dead). I had to miss a funeral of a friend because I knew there are too many who don’t want to wear masks or get the vaccine, and was afraid to run into that in an enclosed space with questionable ventilation.


For those of us who live immunocompromised and more, it’s not a political conspiracy, and I don’t care if you “don’t get COVID as bad if you have the shot” I don’t want to get COVID at all.

People are legitimately terrified of COVID. As a cancer survivor and still active cancer patient I live an immunocompromised life every day. It’s not discriminatory to want more to have shots or wear masks in certain situations, it’s just life as we know it for now even if it’s unpleasant to some. Just my humble opinion.

Your personal freedoms will enjoy you surviving COVID much better. So just wear a mask when you are out. And yes, I know of people who have gotten COVID who are fully vaccinated. And these were people who were careful.

And for those who think you are wearing a Superman and Wonder Woman costume with “natural immunity”? Natural immunity is not enough. Getting COVID and recovering (known as “natural infection”) doesn’t appear to generate protection as robust as that generated after vaccination.

Don’t believe me? Check out what National Geographic published today:

As the U.S. grapples with its troubled vaccine rollout, an alarming increase in coronavirus cases across the nation has resurfaced a long-simmering question: Do people who’ve already had COVID-19 need to be vaccinated?

Natural immunity is a powerful force against certain diseases, such as chickenpox and measles. Surviving a natural measles infection can yield immunity that is comparable—or in some cases, superior—to vaccination, says Ruth Karron, a pediatrician and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

But first, of course, the patient has to survive.

It’s also not yet crystal clear whether immunity from contracting COVID-19 is as powerful as the protection of a vaccine. What is evident is that the available vaccines mount crucial defenses against severe disease and death—even against more contagious variants such as Delta….Researchers already knew that COVID-19 vaccines “reliably induce antibody levels” that are as high or even higher than those of people who have recovered from severe cases of coronavirus, says Karron, who was not part of the new study. 

~ National Geographic 8/4/21

Don’t try to tell me that everything about COVID is “all political.” That is a bunch of happy horseshit. And I am very unapologetic in my opinion. TOO many people have gotten and/or died from COVID. Mortality ain’t politics. It’s being dead in the morgue. I know someone who couldn’t say goodbye to an immediate family member because they hadn’t gotten a shot. That will weigh on them for years to come.

The COVID shot is FREE. Death, however, is expensive.

Sorry, not sorry but I am low on patience and becoming increasingly leery of going out again because of all of the people who can get shots and don’t, people protesting safety protocols in schools, and who are telling me COVID is as real as the tooth fairy.

Just stop. Because if y’all don’t stop, we are going to be back on stay at home orders faster than whiplash. I like being at home, and don’t have to gallivant, but these people who put the rest of us at risk, and I do have a problem with that.

I don’t want to infringe on anyone else’s rights, so kindly stop infringing on my right to live. Being careful and wearing a mask and getting a shot are still not a big deal. But getting COVID is a big goddamn deal, often leading to death.

Yes, this was somewhat of a rant, but no one has a gun to your head saying “read this blog.”

xoxo

Orgy at my place': The world's best Covid cartoons from the past year

today was covid shot #2 day

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Today it was back to West Chester and the Sturtzebecker Health Science Center. Yes, I just had my 2nd COVID shot.

Finally.

I feel like a weight is off of my shoulders. I know that sounds weird, but I was super nervous going to get the second shot. Now I feel relieved.

It was a much bigger area at West Chester than last time. Awesome nurses like last time. The girls signing me in (very young like college age) were kind of cranky. Probably because when they told me I “had” to give them my health insurance card so Chester County could bill my insurance company for some sort of fees, I said no.

I said no because although I have great health insurance, according to the federal government we do NOT have give ANYONE our health insurance card. So no thanks, because we all know whatever they bill health insurance companies for will come back to the insureds in some way. Sorry not sorry I pay enough now. The front desk gals did not like that “no” answer. But I don’t care as they didn’t even look at any of us as we came in. We were just part of the conveyer belt of life.

My nurse however was awesome and so were the rest of the people. These people are our heroes. This is hard work, every day, long hours, until it’s done. Right now my arm hurts and I have a bit of a headache, and achy joints, but other than that, so far so good.

Something I noticed around the Sturtzebecker Health Science Center today? People are just littering their parking lot with used masks. I wish I had had gloves with me as I would’ve picked them up and thrown them away. That bothers me because we are guests on that campus and they are nice enough to let us get our COVID19 shots there. So not cool.

It’s been a long week. A friend is gravely ill. One of the nicest people and getting my head wrapped around the fact I will never see them again is just hard. This is one of those people who is the shirt off of their back kind of people. And friends and family can’t do anything. No it’s not COVID related. It’s just surreal and it sucks.

Another friend lost her mother. Her mother had been ill for a very long time, but she was a lovely woman. And so beloved.

And while nice people like this won’t be with us much longer or have left us, there are nasty people who continue to roam the earth and it just makes you wonder why nice people are taken from us and those who are as mean as rattlesnakes survive?

Life is what we make of it. It always involves beginnings and endings. In the category of beginnings, another friend had a baby today. A beautiful baby girl.

Other friends are going traveling with no COVID shots. I think that’s nuts and I hope they are ok on their trip.

Beginnings and endings. And COVID shots. That’s all I have got today. Thanks for stopping by.

no devon horse show for 2021 either….

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The Inquirer headline screams the bad news. Devon Horse Show is 86’d for a second year. However, Savvy Main Line broke the news before the articles and blog posts started.

And this is devastating news. The Devon Horse Show isn’t just about a tradition that has survived two World Wars, it’s a beloved player in the equestrian world. (The equestrian world in my opinion is shrinking in this area due to development, but that’s a conversation for another day.)

Read more at http://nancyjaffer.com/disaster-devon-horse-show-cancelled/

See the screenshot just above? This is interesting blog post to read. I don’t know the author.

I will note that there is a lot of misinformation going around in local Facebook groups about The Devon Horse Show. And I think it is a horrible disservice to all parties involved to put forward false information. That’s why I haven’t blogged about this personally until today. I’m not a Devon insider so I don’t know why exactly the show was canceled other than I believe it is the Covid19 world in which we live that is the reason at the end of the day. Essentially I wanted to think about this for a few days.

But for some to take the knee jerk reaction and try to blame ongoing zoning and other issues around the horse show for the cancellation is patently false information. That has nothing to do with this decision and the Devon Horse Show in and of itself has not so much to do with the current zoning issues either in my opinion. And that’s not to say that there haven’t been zoning issues about the horse show itself because there have been.

The zoning kerfuffle has always been in part about about the residents who live around the horse show who don’t want everything around the horse show super sized and overly urbanized. They don’t want the horse show to go away they just don’t want development to overrun everything.

👉🏻See www.saveeasttown.org and http://www.preservedevon.org/. 👈🏻

I think that is perfectly reasonable and I have good friends who live within the shadow of the horse show and have for years. It’s a lovely area that is facing extinction because of development. Those people are trying to preserve what makes the area special including the horse show. And just because some of these people also have had issue with the head of the horse show over things like the ongoing BS with boxes, whisper down the lane wants to blame THEM for the horse show being cancelled? (Follow this LINK to an article where Devon was taken to court over the box issue…and LOST.)

Come on! I am not a fan of what some of the Devon Horse Show had evolved into in the past few years complete with the ridiculous women who don’t know one end of the horse from the other showing up in all their tacky glory for Ladies Hat Day which used to be truly lovely, but even I am concerned about Devon.

But even with my concern about Devon because of the past fond memories I actually have, I’m not going to run around and blame the neighbors. That’s crap.

No one could have predicted a global pandemic, but I think plenty could have predicted future problems with Devon Horse under current leadership.

Maybe, just maybe, the keyboard critics could get off their proverbial high horses and take a long hard look at Devon and it’s financial structure and current leadership and maybe decide from there how to save it. Because it’s going to need saving.

Devon circa 2007

When I was growing up Devon to me meant summer was here. And my friends and I would go in our old school Lilly Pulitzer and Vested Gentress dresses and Eskil’s clogs or Pappagallo espadrilles and khakis or jeans and wander the then much smaller vendor area and midway.

We would stop and get Devon fudge to take home, check out the antique dealers booths, the hospital’s thrift shop booth in what seems like an old spring house across from the burgers, ride the Ferris wheel and then go to the stands and watch the horses go round and round from someone’s family box. One of my favorite things were when the carriages would enter the ring and the majestic Clydesdales. It was so exciting.

Devon 2012

I used to love Devon Horse Show. I remember things like the person who used to have cool antique prints next door to the woman who would bring her Jack Russells who would hang out in her booth. Or all of the years getting a Devon burger and hanging out at the picnic tables watching the world go by. And Betty Moran there to greet you in that booth next to where you entered the show.

I stopped consistently going to Devon Horse Show in 2012. I actually went to the fall classic show a few times between then and Covid19. I liked that show. It was more chill then the see and be seen that May Devon had morphed into.

A great little history of the show can be found at:

A Look Back at “Old Devon”, An All-American Horse Show by Nina Fedrizzi

One of the Devon related events that I was honored to attend was October, 2015. It was the dedication of the Devon Horse Show historical marker. I still have never understood why the horse show seemingly found it so objectionable, but the sign actually had to be placed across Lancaster Avenue from the horse show. A few of my friends, including the late Michael Morrison, poured their hearts and souls into getting the marker erected. The dedication ceremony was October 2015.

I will note this is not the only time in its history that Devon has not had a horse show. There was no show between 1900 and 1910. In 1918, with the US in World War I the show was supposed to be cancelled, but apparently a much smaller show instead happened. The show that year benefited emergency aid and war relief. According to the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society it was the following year in which Bryn Mawr Hospital became the recipient charity for the first time. During the Second World War there was no show 1943, 1944, 1945.

The Devon Horse Show is a beloved tradition. If the show’s nouveau patrons and box holders continue to support the show even through these closures, I think the show will survive. But the thing is this: are the people today who pretend to be philanthropic really as philanthropic as those who came before us? Because that’s in my opinion one of the things that is going to have to happen for this show to survive and come back: philanthropy.

I also feel that for the Devon Horse Show to come back and thrive they need to make peace with their neighbors for real. There also needs to be more transparency on the part of the horse show on the financials. Break all of the costs down, and work out future scenarios, maybe go more back to basics? Go a little retro?

Devon can survive. But perhaps the decision to hold off another year will end up giving the horse show folks the gift of reflection? Maybe they need a new Chairman? I realize some people will think I’m being horrible by saying that, but I don’t see how the show has been well …..consistently thriving under his leadership. And I’m entitled to that opinion.

Here’s hoping Devon uses this cancellation to improve, and step forward to an even better future. Get back to the tradition.

Thanks for stopping by.

shot #1 done!

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Hello everyone and greetings from West Chester University!

Yes….. I JUST GOT MY FIRST COVID SHOT!

It has been a perfectly crappy day full of babysitting adult toddlers in Facebook groups so this is the highlight of my day.

Truthfully today is the highlight of 2021 so far.

I was beginning to wonder if this day would ever arrive.

The registration process was pretty seamless and the people here are so nice!

I am on the 30 minute post-shot wait and so far I just feel a little warm and somewhat thirsty. I can be shot reactive so I sit for 30 minutes while most everyone else sits for 15 minutes. There is a paramedic sitting with us in the post shot room.

I was surprisingly emotional when I got my shot.

I feel like I can breathe again.

This has been a hell of a year since we all entered the COVID19 world in which we now exist.