Have you noticed that the iPhone Facial ID does not work when you’re all masked up?

Momma Monday

“What a difference a day makes.” Ever since retiring, Monday in our home is the weekly house cleaning day, even if it’s the Monday after Mother’s Day. It’s quite a jolt back into reality for Julie the day after being lavished with love, luxuriating in a long hot bath, receiving loving cards and calls, champagne and a surprise social distancing visit from Blair and Rob, martini at cocktail hour, cedar plank salmon from the grill, a pinot noir from our favorite Willamette Valley winery then…Bam!!! Overnight, it’s Monday morning. A morning of cleaning rags, dusting and scrubbing tools and vacuum cleaners. It’s the day that we eat breakfast to move on, change into work clothes and get at it. Julie takes the upstairs and I take the main floor. Biggest jobs upstairs, of course: three bathrooms including the master bath. Biggest job downstairs: the kitchen. We used to have a cleaning service, or I should say, we went through multiple services, never satisfied with the depth of the job…and then there was the breakage. It was basically “mow and blow,” to use a phrase often describing the yard crews, and occasional carnage. So, it’s on us. Keeps us closer to the finer details in the goings on with and within the house. Keeps us grounded. We can get it all done and finished by lunch. Although after the cleanup, there’s a moratorium on walking too soon on the pristine “mowed” carpet…leaving footprints. 

Georgia COVID-19 cases: Which way is up?

Georgia bungles COVID19 data that misrepresents the progress of cases. The dating of cases and where they appear on a timeline were not in chronological order thereby not showing the true timeline history of the reported cases. “Where does Sunday take place twice a week? And May 2 come before April 26?” 

The state cases are not actually going down as the states presentation charts showed. And yet we’re opening. 

AJC cartoonist, Mike Luckovich, shows exactly what happened.

Opening Schools

I hear talk from the President about restarting schools since young people aren’t getting infected with the virus to the same degree as adults. Even with the new and very concerning presentation of critical health issues in children possibly linked to COVID-19, that remains true. Kids have been less likely to show symptoms of the virus.

However, and counter to what many believe, kids don’t run the schools. In order for schools to open will require teachers, administrators, building services employees, security guards, crossing guards and bus drivers to go back to work and mix with all of the children – who can carry the virus. 

Learning from being alone

This article in the AJC in the AJC last week suggests that a little (or a lot) of Henry David Thoreau would be a very good read during this time of social distancing and staying at home. I’ve got to do some digging to find my copy of Walden; or, Life in the Woods. It’s probably in the box of college books in the attic. I think the columnist is right. Thoreau learned a lot about who he was by moving away from the town folk into a small cabin, growing his own food and getting one with nature and that special pond in Walden. He was sort of the original transcendentalist and environmentalist. If we must be alone, or mostly alone, why not take advantage of the moment. It will be over and you’ll be back in the rush hour traffic and helter skelter you complained about so often in the “no time for me!” modern life. 

COVID TOES

Have you heard about COVID toes? It’s one of the “New Six” symptoms of COVID-19 infection. It’s weird but true. 

When the coronavirus pandemic first emerged, public health officials told the world to watch out for its telltale symptoms: fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. But as the virus has spread across the globe, researchers have developed a more nuanced picture of how symptoms of infection can manifest themselves, especially in milder cases.

After you get over the grossness of the toe picture, here are the other five:

• Chills/repeated shaking with the chills.
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore Throat
• Loss of smell/taste

We’re getting a “better understanding of how these symptoms express in the general population and not necessarily in hospitalized patients,” which is whom most of the earlier studies from China looked at. “So it’s a bit of a bigger picture,” says Charitini Stavropoulou, an associate professor in health services research at City, University of London in the U.K., who led an analysis of known symptoms in milder cases as part of a collaboration with Oxford University. [NPR]

Who wants to buy a Car? Uh, Nobody!

Coronavirus has hammered auto sales. Cox Automotive furloughed over 12,000 workers. No one much is driving. And few are feeling comfortable laying out the cash to buy a new or used car.

Top COX execs are taking no base salary for the duration of the pandemic!

By furloughing the employees rather than laying them off, the company continues to pay for the employees healthcare benefits for up to 16 weeks. Way to go COX! A company whose mission has always been employees first. The company is well aware that, even with health care covered, this is a very painful situation for each employee. 

Georgia passed a new state law that employers, not the furloughed employee, must file for unemployment benefits each week. This was an emergency bill passed by the legislature intended on easing the burden on recently unemployed workers out in the cold due to the virus. There’s differing opinions as to whether or not this has sped up the process of getting unemployment money into furloughed employees bank accounts. [AJC.com][Vox]  

Some things won’t go back to the pre-COVID

They call them “Stay Healthy Streets” in Seattle, which closed nearly 20 miles of city streets to make way for more pedestrian traffic…permanently! It’s one of the big changes from the city’s adaptation to the virus – providing more bike and pedestrian friendly streets. [Seattle Times]

Guilty/Not Guilty. That is not the question

Both of our kids were called for Jury duty during the virus, Clark, in Portland, and Blair, in Atlanta. It was a surprise to receive the notice, followed by a much welcomed and hoped for notice that they both were excused. Atlanta will not hold court through the month of May.

Here Kitty Kitty

On a personal level, one of the positive outcomes so far of the stay at home/working from home orders is that Blair’s extremely shy cat, Ramble, has turned a corner. It took a bit for Ramble to get used to Blair and her sig other, Rob, being home all day, every day. Especially Rob. And, believe it or not, this cat, that I think I’ve only seen out in the open in Blair’s small condo twice, is taking a liking to Rob. I’m sure that it doesn’t hurt that he is feeding her. She’s out from under the bed. Mostly. They’re seeing her playing. She’s openly displaying affection! 

It’s going to be a big deal when they go back to work…at work. 

 

That’s it for now. Tomorrow is another day. But wait! It’s not just another day. It’s Tequila Friday Already Day. Stay tune for the best margarita cocktail recipe ever, ever, ever.