My latest article on Medium

 Hey, when you have a moment, kindly head over to my latest article on Medium.

I received a new distraction-free device recently, one that had been crowdfunded quite a while ago but whose production and shipment were delayed by the pandemic.

So I decided that the obvious way to get acclimated to using it would be to use it to write about my experiences using it. 

It has been a while since I wrote an article. I forgot how much I enjoy doing that. I will have to amuse myself by writing more often. 😀

Micro-dosing on News Media

 My return to the office was pushed back to this past Monday, as the room I work in was full of chairs (which I presume had been removed from the waiting room, as there are far fewer chairs to allow for proper distancing).

Meanwhile, yesterday was Election Day, and due to the high number of mail-in ballots, several crucial states (PA among them) are still tallying votes.

News outlets have long since designed their programming to grab and hold attention, and attract eyes and ears. They try to get the audience's head in a spin such that they can't bear to look away. This leads to stress-inducing reports, and this is by design, not by accident. After all, how else can their advertisers sell you their stress-relief pills if you aren't worked into a frenzy by the nees?

Well, as anyone who reads my social media knows, there are individuals involved with this election who have been driving my BP up for the past four years. The last thing I need is to have my BP inflated even more by news reports that are intended to incite stress and keep viewers and listeners tuned in.

So this is how I am handling it, for the state of my own mental health. First, I am limiting my time on social media, and when I AM on there, I am gravitating toward groups where I will see little or no politics. Second, NO TV OR RADIO NEWS. Period. I even skipped my evening Alexa news roundup because I was concerned that it would be too stressful. Thank God that SiriusXM's music channels do not do news reports. I am tuning that son of a gun in during the workday and giving thanks that I can just immerse my ears in music.

Third, I am micro-dosing on written-word news by peeking at headlines that pop up on my phone. If I think it won't give me an ulcer, MAYBE I will read it. I tried glancing at Google News headlines, too, but I kept having to bail on them or heading to politics-free areas like their Tech News subsection.

Meanwhile, I am trying out a new method of passive income. This radio station is free to listen to, and the more folks listen to it, the more points I get. At the end of the month, the points would be converted such that I would get a few dollars. So kindly support your local blogger who lost a truckload of work hours thanks to the Rona, and give it a listen. Thanks!

Prepping for Monday

 

Monday will be my first time working from onsite since the end of March. I haven't been in the clinic since April 1 when we all were removing our personal items from the premises, because the entire floor was about to be converted for use as possible overflow beds for the hospital across the street.

I just set up a bag with SOME of said personal effects to bring back in, and rummaged up my work ID that I have not used in over 6 months. I am all set to go.

I will be carrying a carafe of coffee into the building in the mornings for the time being, as I am not sure what is up with the break room or if we are still doing things like sharing the coffee machine. For that matter, I have no idea if they have even been keeping up with providing the supplies for said coffee and tea, because COVID has trampled all over every budget everywhere on earth.

In other news, we got some dreadful news on Thursday. JFM's cousin, with whom I went to high school, had recently been getting some medical tests done to discern what was causing her to be sick. The worst possible answer came back: she had stage 4 breast cancer and the prognosis was that she had 2-3 weeks to live. What a horrendous shock! 😢 

The situation became even more difficult today. After swiftly declining on Friday, she passed away this morning. I am heartbroken for her, her husband, JFM, and all her loved ones. She and her husband were inseparable. 

I thought two weeks would be a hard time frame to acclimate to what was happening, and we didn't even have two days. So please send up some prayers for her and her family and friends. What a sad day it is!

Recruiting Volunteers

Some of the recent text-message batches are geared toward recruiting folks to take part in phone banks for the Candidate Of Our Choice.

I am delighted to report that there is no shortage of people who responded that they were ALREADY volunteering to make calls, send texts, mail postcards, and so on.

I sincerely hope this bodes well for the outcome on November 3.

Oh, also, I got the email yesterday that my mail-in ballot has safely arrived at our county's election office. So now I know that my vote will be getting counted when the time comes, and I need not brave the crowds. I regret to report that the COVID numbers are starting to creep upward in this region, and who knows what they will look like in three weeks' time? So hooray for not having to go out into crowds of people to cast a vote.

Blue Wave 2020! 

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

Sign Language at the NHL Draft

I watched the NHL draft last night, as I am a hockey fan. The first round was on TV last night, and the rest of the rounds are going to be conducted today. The NHL draft consists of teams choosing from 18-year-old players in juniors, college, or in European leagues.

When we don't have the freaking plague shutting everything down, the draft is held in a hockey arena, with players and their families sitting in the stands, along with hockey fans, and the teams go and announce their draft choices, one by one. Cameras turn to the players and their families, then the kid goes up and puts on the jersey of the team that selected him and poses for pics with the team's GM and staff. They know which players they want to choose because they have spent time with their scouts going to games, and watching videos and looking at the stats of the young guys. They talk to players and their families, too. They do their homework.

This year, we have restrictions against travel and convening in large groups, so it was handled differently. Teams had their general managers and staff all in one place, and cameras where there when they went up to announce who they chose. There were also cameras in the players' living rooms, where friends and family were gathered around televisions waiting to see who was chosen by which team. They must have had a lot cameras set up in a lot of houses, knowing which of the very top players were most likely to be selected in the first round.

So, fast-forward to the last selection of the first round of the draft. The San Jose Sharks director of scouting goes up to the microphone, and says, "The San Jose Sharks select", pauses to fingerspell OZZY, then resumes, "Ozzy Weisblatt."

Ozzy's mother is Deaf. His family signs.

Cut to the camera in Ozzy's house, as they are all jumping up and down and cheering in a massive family hug. Then they started turning to the camera in their house and making ILY signs into the camera.

It was great! I am a Flyers fan, but I will keep an eye out for Ozzy as he makes his way from juniors, to the minors, to the NHL. And kudos to the SJ Sharks for adding a touch of consideration to the selection process. That was a classy gesture on their part, making sure his mom was fully involved in enjoying the sight of her son being chosen by an NHL team.

This article provides both text and video: https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2020/10/07/sharks-use-sign-language-to-draft-ozzy-wiesblatt-in-touching-moment/

A difficult anniversary

 Today is a tough day. It's the seventh anniversary of a double bereavement. Within the same 2:00 PM hour on this date in 2013, we lost both my beloved mother-in-law and my first dog, my little Chihuahua known as Mini the Wee.

We were at the veterinary ER finding out that Mini was in kidney failure, with no real treatment options, when my sister-in-law called to tell us that my mother-in-law, who had been in hospice care since earlier in the week, had passed away peacefully. Shortly after that, we assisted Mini to the Rainbow Bridge.

And it felt like being hit by one semi truck, and being thrown right into the path of a second semi and hit again.

The world shrank when my MIL left it. I am so thankful that she was completely unlike all the stereotypes of harridan mother-in-laws; I was fortunate enough to have one of the nicest people who ever walked the earth as a mother-in-law.

She is with my father-in-law, who had passed 13 months earlier, a few weeks before what would have been their 65th wedding anniversary. So it's a consolation that we have a couple of patron saints up there keeping an eye on things.

And I also still miss my Tiny Dog. Mini was a little sweetheart, the absolute perfect first dog.

So today is a tough day.

Tweaking the Blog Layout

 I'm adding a few features to the blog layout... it's been more than long enough since the last time I refined the look of the blog.

In this case, I am looking at what it takes to actually monetize the blog. As long as I am putting in the work, it only makes sense that I should be able to also earn from my efforts..

Have a Nice Day... I Think

 

Soooo...

While sending texts for the Dems, I got a response from someone in a language I don't recognize.

Which, according to Google Translate, was identified as the Croatian language and the F bomb.

I got the translation of "Have a nice day" in Croatian, sent them that, and archived the convo.

It takes all kinds.

 

Update: Ooo, my Croatian speaker is cranky. They responded again. Now I know how to say F and MF in Croatian, not that I expect to be able to make use of that skill anytime soon.

Archiving the convo. Again.

Support Your Local Blogger

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Come as You Will Be party

 Yesterday, I took part in a fun party on Zoom. It was a Come as You Will Be event. The premise is that we were our 2026 selves, after having achieved the goals that we set for ourselves waaaay back on New Year's Day of 2021. We were to dress as our future selves, and tell everyone what we had accomplished, how we had reached our goals, what pitfalls we had to avoid, who helped us along the way, and so on.

I dressed for the beach, as my goal is to have a shore house.  I had my tankini top, a beach coverup, sun had, sun glasses, battery-operated fan, and my beach radio., Behind my head, on the mirror behind the sofa, I had a whole bunch of summer-related window clings.

I was hobnobbing with folks who were published authors, audio book narrators, and folks who had started their own companies. One lady had pics of her house in Hawaii, and a few people had magazine covers from Time, Smithsonian, and Rolling Stone with themselves on the cover. 

Then we had a question that I hadn't been expecting. Where did we see ourselves in the next five years, in 2031?

My answer was that I expect to be renting houses at the shore to other people, so that others can enjoy the shore as much as I do.

The truth is that this is a realistic answer, when you get right down to it. There is no reason why I can't do exactly this, if I play my cards right. There are people who use rental income to pay the mortgage and property taxes on their shore properties, and I see no reason why I can't be among them.

One thing at a time. First, we have to have the one shore house. Preferably, one that is either a duplex where we can rent out one floor, or has a separate in-law's quarters so we can rent the main house (or if it's a duplex, get two rentals from it). Once that has been achieved, and I have already notified Mark that I fully intend to see this through, then we can figure out what the next steps look like.

I am all about it. Watch this space.

Let's Go, Flyers!

The Flyers started early today, at 4 PM, vs. Washington. Fortunately, my work schedule allows for me to watch without difficulty, because I work from 7:00 - 3:30. 😀

We also get to watch a second screen including all the in-arena stuff that we would get to see and hear if we were at an actual game. I'm loving this.

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/fans/playoffs?mi_u=545994

Bye-bye, Isaias!

Well, that was an interesting morning of weather. Tropical Storm Isaias blew through town, literally and figuratively, dumping a monsoon of rain on us. It was pouring like a sheet off the awning while the storm was at its height.

All morning, the Weather Channel was giving alerts for this locality. First, it was a stream of Tornado Warnings (of which, the first one was for this county and triggered my phone and watch to blare an alarm). It was easy to tell what direction the storm was moving by tracking where the Tornado Warnings were being given next.

Now, the sun is out, and the Tornado Warnings are over with for this area. However, we are now getting strings of Flash Flood Warnings for the entire region. Every river and creek just got inundated, and I suspect a lot of them are or will soon be spilling over.  Between the NOAA radio and the Weather Channel, it has been a continuous stream of alerts for different counties and bodies of water.

At least we were at low tide when the storm was at its worst. I was kind of cringing on behalf of the shore, because when we are at low tide, they are at high tide, so they were dealing with the tides AND the storm together. Reports of beach erosion are starting to come in.  I'm not surprised.

I'm test-driving the new Blogger website, even as I type. I'm not convinced I like it better than the previous layout, but it's not up to me, lol. I'm sure they have their reasons for doing a redesign, and I suspect a lot of those reasons are transparent to the user. Sometimes, upgrades and updates involve a lot of changes under the hood, not out where the users can see them.

Hey, as long as they stay in business, it's all good.

Zoom fun

I am going to have some fun with Zoom for the next few days.

First of all, I am on a Zoom call even as I type, for users of the Orbit braille device that I own. I figure I can learn more about it this way than any other thing I can think of.

Then, next Saturday, there is going to be a "Come As You Will Be" party, where some folks with whom I took an online class will be dressing as the person we want to be five years from now. I have decorated the mirror wall behind my computer seat with various window clings for summer and the beach, and I will be dressed for the beach with my swimsuit top, coverall, sun hat, and sunglasses. 🌞🌴🌊

In other news, it looks like both of my normal side gigs are back up and running! Not only have I resumed interpreting, but my deafblind friend and his mom are at a point where they are ready for me to resume being his aide on Fridays. So life is good on that score. I'm seriously missing the income from the OT that I can't work, and losing the two side gigs was just an extra financial kick in the rump.

I also am on a mailing list that keeps suggesting work-from-home ideas, so I have been following those suggestions to see if I can come up with any that will replace the missing OT income.

Meanwhile, there are an awful lot of COVIDiots out there flouting safety precautions. Unsurprisingly, now the numbers in the USA are starting to rise again as a result. I could scream. Science really doesn't care if you believe in it or not; it's going to be true regardless. Unfortunately, what's true is that if we don't take safety precautions, we are going to spread this blasted virus at an ever-increasing rate. If the risk-takers were only harming themselves, I would say that they have the right to apply for their own Darwin Awards. The trouble is that they are also hurting lots of other people who did NOT sign on to take any such risks. Not only are they infecting innocent people, and possibly killing the medically fragile people in their lives, they are also causing infection numbers to rise. This, in turn, creates delays in the reopening of society, which then hurts small business owners and their employees. IMO, no one has the right to hurt other people in that way.

I can't blame people for being tired of taking precautions. We're ALL tired of taking precautions. This has been going on since the middle of March, with no end in sight. But the world doesn't revolve around our entertainment, and the virus isn't going to say, "Oh, you're fed up with masking? OK, I will stop spreading." The same precautions we needed in March are still needed now, and whether or not we are bored with doing these things is not a factor. We have to put our grownup pants on and just deal with it.

Wash your hands, wear your mask, and keep your 6' distance from people.

Zoomies

Merlin: (crouches and hides beside the foot of the stairs)

Pyewacket: (comes down the steps and turns the corner)

Merlin: (POUNCE)
 
(Ball of wrestling kitties rolls across the living room)

(Two kitties get the zoomies and race into the dining room)

(Zoomy kitties come tearing out of the dining room, through the living room, and up the stairs)

#spoiledcats 

My most recent Medium articles

After three weeks of hearing nothing from the publication to which I had submitted these two articles, today, during my lunch break, I bailed and withdrew the submissions. I have since published them myself.

Vacationing in the Era of the Rona

It's OK to Stand Your Ground

I will keep writing, as well as trying to connect with publications within Medium that are a bit more prompt about getting back to authors who have submitted articles. 
 

Still writing for Medium

I am still writing for Medium, but I have tried a new tactic to see if I can get my name in front of more people's eyes.

Within Medium, there are different publications that accept submissions from writers. If you want, you can submit directly to Medium.com, but there are so many articles submitted there, it will be challenging for your work to gain traction if you haven't already got an established audience of followers. More paid members reading your article translates into more money being paid to you at the end of the month.

The publications within Medium are geared toward stories of a given type. There are publications that accept submissions about relationships, career, tech, writing, and a lengthy list of other categories. If your story fits into one of these niches, then it will be worth your while to attempt to submit it to the requisite publication. The good news: more eyes that are interested in your topic will see your story if it gets published there. The other news: the editors of said publication have to review your work first, and that can take time.

So, I have three articles sitting and waiting for editors to review them. Hence, I have no links to recent articles, even though I have been writing steadily.

Cross your fingers that my articles will make their way into their respective publications soon. I am impatient and I want to see what happens to my stats when an article is in a publication.

I'm all set to carpe freakin' diem.

Vacation in the times of COVID

Vacation in the times of COVID:
Socially distant beachgoing
Pizza delivery for dinner
Sitting on the porch, people watching, in the evening

My kind of day! 😀

I'm HOOOOOME!

My vacation began at 3:30 this afternoon, upon my logging off from work. 😃

I promptly turned off all weekday alarms (for getting up, logging on, conference calls, and logging off). Sleeping in is now a thing.

My inbox will probably be overflowing with faxes upon my return. That's OK. Call it job security. I'll get them done ASAP when I am back to work again. Till then, it's RELAXATION TIME.

Second half of 2020

I received a sad bit of news yesterday. Joey D's dad passed away. It was not COVID-related, and it was not a complete surprise as his health has been failing for a while, resulting in his recently entering hospice care.

But still... right on the last day of June, arguably the final day of the first half of the year, 2020 has managed to fetch us all another swift kick. This year has been nothing short of brutal so far.

I am praying that the second half of 2020 is less grueling than the first half was. The bar is set immeasurably low on that score.

Saints preserve us if we haven't yet seen the worst this year can throw at us!

A sign from above

Yesterday, Baxter passed away.

This morning, I had a Facebook memory of his picture, showing him smiling in his sleep.

I do not think it's a coincidence.,

Sad PUPdate

Things started out good this morning. The vet sent me some pics of Baxter looking alert last night, and I was happy to see them when I woke up this morning and checked my email.

His numbers had improved a little, too, and the vet was all set to update me this morning with good things.

But then his blood pressure crashed. They had to move him to the intensive care unit to get him stable. It took a lot of effort to get him stable, but he was no longer alert.

At this point, I knew there was really only one option. The treatments all week barely budged his liver and kidney numbers and they were still pretty bad. He was diagnosed with severe cardiac issues from having leaky heart valves in all four chambers. And the little momentary "zone out" moments that I had noticed a while ago, but thought nothing of because they were so brief, were diagnosed as seizures, to my great surprise. Unfortunately, in a dog his age, the most likely cause would be a mass in the brain.

Even with all this, if there was any chance of achieving quality of life, I would have been interested in hearing about it. But now we are talking about his blood pressure being ready to bottom out without warning. No. I can't subject him to that, too. It took a team of ICU vets in the best animal hospital in the region to straighten his BP out this morning. Suppose by some huge miracle he had come home, and it happened here? I don't have the equipment or the training to bring him back from an episode like that. He'd be gone on the spot.

I had to recognize that all these thing point to just one answer. It was not the answer I wanted, but I have to be honest with myself.
We were at the point where prolonging his life would have meant suffering, not recovery, and under no circumstances would I let him suffer. Mark and I drove up to the animal hospital to be with Baxter while he had the Final Act of Mercy.

We are grieving, but we know that it was the only real option.

Blast all these ailments that impact our innocent little furbabies. All they ever do is love us unconditionally.

Baxter was brought in to a local rescue as a stray in 2013, and the vet there estimated him to be six years old. We never knew his birthdate, so we marked his Gotcha Day as his birthday. We treated him like he was 12 and would be 13 in the Fall on the anniversary of when we got him.
They let both Mark and me in the room with him, and he sat getting cuddles on my lap the whole time. My lap was his favorite place, and cuddles were his favorite thing. I told him over and over how I will love him forever and ever.

Morning PUPdate

I am glad to report that Baxter is more alert and aware today than yesterday (and he had improved yesterday, as well, being better in the evening than in the morning). We need his bloodworks back to see if his numbers are also improving.

I asked the vet about traveling to the shore with him, as we do every year, or if I would have to find a medical boarding solution. She said that if he improves enough to go home, she can't see why we couldn't have him at the shore with us. So that's a good thing. I mean, it's only a drive to the NJ shore; it's not like we have to take a plane there or drive for days to reach the place.

So now, we wait for the numbers to tell the tale of what is going on. Keep praying.

Evening PUPdate

I just heard from the vet for the evening update.

Definitely, he has heart disease and leaky valves. And she asked about Baxter's tendency to sometimes seem like he's not attentive to his surroundings. That's not a new thing. Sometimes, he seems like his attention is turned inward, not outward. That, to my surprise, could be seizures. They'll give him some meds for the heart and anti-seizures, and recheck blood tomorrow in the hopes that the kidney/liver numbers are improving with treatment.

He is more alert tonight than he was this morning. I’m hoping that their treatments have him feeling better, and that whatever they’re doing is something a person can duplicate at home.

PUPdate

Here is the latest on Baxter, as of this morning.

To recap, Baxter is 12 years old, with known kidney issues, for which he has been doing well on a special kidney-diet dog food.

On Saturday, he started losing his appetite and showing signs of nausea and soft bowel movements. This continued through Sunday. His appetite stayed down, to the point where we were handfeeding him on Sunday and Monday. I have some over-the-counter meds for upset tummy and gave it to Baxter, but the symptoms didn't abate.

We brought him to University of Penn's emergency vet yesterday, because I know they can do labs and get answers back right away. When you go to a regular vet, it can take a couple days for the bloodwork numbers to return, and I didn't think that was a good idea with his history of funky kidney numbers. The hospital admitted him for testing and supportive care.

I just got a Baxter update:

Kidney and liver numbers are off. He also has a heart murmur (which we knew), but he will have an echocardiogram to see just how much treatment he can tolerate for the kidneys without causing heart failure.

The liver numbers were unexpected. They are also giving antibiotics just in case there is an infection hitting both kidneys and liver, even though there is not anything pointing strongly toward infection.

The trouble with the heart/kidney issue combo is that the treatment for one is bad for the other. So it's a waiting game until we establish just what is the cause of the symptoms, and just how to handle both situations without causing a crisis.

And if all the worst answers come back and palliation is not an option, they will allow me to be there with him. I made sure of that.

But right now, we are just looking at finding a source of the symptoms, so we can figure out if there are any treatment options and what they are, and getting him feeling better in the meantime.

Everybody at the hospital loves him. They're all making a point of telling him how sweet and handsome he is. So I know they are taking care of that aspect of his needs, as well.

The cats are walking around calling for him. They were too busy playing last night, but now they are certain that their brother isn't here. They love their doggie brother.

I am worried about my little munchkin. I know when our furbabies age, we have to face the fact that they aren't going to be with us forever, but I am hoping we will be able to have him with us a while longer. I love that little bitty guy.

The vet will call later with another update.

Baxter and the vet, Part 2

Baxter's appetite waned away to nothing during the weekend. By yesterday, he barely ate anything, but was queasy anyway. I spent the night sitting with him on the sofa. Neither of us got a restful night's sleep, and he had a couple moments of puking a little liquid.

Obviously, this is neither normal nor normal-adjacent. I will be calling the emergency vet about bringing him in today. Right now, he is resting comfortably in a normal-looking nap. If you didn't know he's been unwell, you wouldn't guess from looking at him. He has been walking around like it's no big deal, but the only food he's had today was some yogurt I hand-fed him under protest (which he did keep down).

I want bloodwork numbers and I want them NOW. He has been on kidney food for a year, and his kidney numbers last year were deemed "watch them, but not a crisis" because they were a bit off. (Hence, the k/d food.) I have some concerns that the symptoms are related to his kidneys taking a turn.

Say some prayers that whatever the vet has to say will involve a viable treatment or reasonable palliation of symptoms. I love my little pup and I want as much quality time as we can achieve. 💓🙏

From Yellow to Green

I am seeing headlines about some counties in PA turning from yellow to green on June 12, but I am not seeing any indication that Philly is on that list.

I wanted to get back to being an aide for my friend Joe J, which I was doing on Fridays after work when we were pre-COVID-closures, and I was all set to do it when Philly and Delco both went to condition yellow. Trouble is, now he has freaking SHINGLES and his mom got attenuated chicken pox from his case of shingles.

So now, we are waiting for both counties to be yellow AND for them to be free of shingles and chicken pox. Grrrrr.

I am just crossing my fingers that the reopening of PA and NJ doesn't precipitate a big spike in COVID cases. I need my dose of Vitamin SEA, dang it! I will be really irked if things start closing back down right now. 😉 If that happens, I will comply, because preserving lives outranks even doses of Vitamin SEA, but I will also reserve the right to grumble about the timing.

Holy Moley

This arrived in my email at work today:

As [employer] pivots to resume normal operations across the system, we know many members of our team who have been working remotely during the pandemic are awaiting details about plans for when they may return to the workplace. Employees who quickly pivoted to working from home at the start of the pandemic, and those who are flexing or rotating their schedules to reduce density, have made it possible for our clinical teams to remain safe on site.  At this time, those who can work from home–for some or all of their hours–should continue to do so until after Labor Day.

 My employer, not I, added the bold print for emphasis.

This tells me that my employer does not expect COVID to just disappear magically any time soon. They are taking precautions at least throughout the summer. Moreover, there is not any indication that after Labor Day, they will reduce their precautions appreciably. Rather, it appears to me to be a case of "We will revisit the policies and see whether to extend them or not".

It looks like I get to keep my ten-second commute for a while longer.

Baxter at the vet

We had an appointment at the vet yesterday. Baxter needed a little once-over by some trained eyes.

The verdict: his luxating patellas (wonky kneecaps) are a little worse now than last year. This is not uncommon in older dogs. We were getting concerned because at times, his gait is affected such that his front half walks fine, and his rear half looks drunk. No evidence of pain and no incontinence; just intermittent issues with rear leg weakness and some challenges navigating on stairs.

Solution: glucosamine-chondroitin supplements.

There is also a skin tag that we are keeping en eye on, a little thinning of fur on top of his tail (he sits on his tail), and some eye irritation.

Solution: the first two are no biggie, and he appears to have "allergy eyes", so I have to give him some ointment twice daily for the next few days.

I am relieved that all these minor things are, in fact, minor things. But when your pup is 12, going on 13, you want to keep an eye on all these little things lest they turn into a big thing.

He was a Very Good Boy for his exam. And he was so keyed up from the experience (not)  that as he sat in my lap in the car (with Mark driving), he fell asleep with his head on my purse and was snoring before we had exited the parking lot, lol. My mellow munchkin pup.

This morning, I put the ointment in his allergy-eyes for the first time, NO reaction whatsoever. Thank God I can do pretty much anything and he tolerates it. A lot of dogs would go through the ceiling if you were doing things anywhere near their eyes. 

I ordered him a ramp for the sofa last week, but between the Rona and the demonstrations, it hasn't arrived yet. My tiny little old man. ❤️ 🐶

Ben Franklin was right

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are” -Ben Franklin

From Red to Yellow

My county, and the surrounding suburbs, are planning to go from Red (full COVID lockdown) to Yellow (partial lifting of restrictions) on Friday, June 5. Churches will begin reopening on Saturday. My first interpreting since March 8 will happen on the second Sunday in June.

We had a Zoom chat with the local Catholic Deaf community to discuss what will be happening. Here is how that is going to play out. As an interpreter, I need to walk into the church with the mask on, but once I am in the sanctuary, I will take the mask off. Communion lines will ensure that people are standing 6 feet from one another. Everyone will have to take Communion in their hands, and I think carry it back to their seat before consuming the Eucharist.

I don't even know how many Deaf will be at the Mass two Sundays from now. There is one person who is both a regular attender and sits up front; however, there are some others who come sporadically and sit elsewhere in the congregation, so I can't reliably predict whether they will be present on any given Sunday. But hey, no matter what, the interpreter will be there if they decide to brave the crowd and attend Mass.

Then there's my deaf-blind friend who I normally help on Fridays. I miss going there and they miss having their signing aides coming in. I told his mom that I was willing to start coming back again as soon as their county and mine both went to Yellow. She called me yesterday and said we might have to hold off on that for a little while longer, because he has freaking SHINGLES and gave her chicken pox. Un-freaking-real! They can't catch a freaking break. 😡 So when both our counties are in Yellow *and* the freaking shingles/chicken pox are gone, THEN I can resume going there on Fridays.

In happier news, my parents celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary yesterday. It also was the 100th anniversary of the birth of my maternal grandmom. So that was nice. I really hope that we are able to go out and celebrate like normal humans NEXT year, which will be my parents' 60th anniversary.

Oh, and last night, the city did not send out the very jarring cell phone alert to signify the beginning of the curfew. I thought we would have a break from being deafened by that shocking noise, after getting the alert every day since Saturday when curfew began. But no such luck. We got the deafening cell phone alert because of a TORNADO WARNING instead. At least I knew it was coming. When we were on the Zoom chat, someone's phone sounded the alert, and just then, our weather radio started talking about tornadoes. So I figured my phone was about to go off at any moment with the same alert, and a couple minutes later, the alert came in. Fortunately, we only got heavy rain and high winds, but as far as I know, no tornadoes. The storms we did get yesterday, one around lunchtime and the other around 7:30 PM, were pretty severe, with a ton of trees and branches down and power outages, but tornadoes would just have made an already-serious situation even worse.

We are supposed to have feisty weather today, too. I hope it's not as insane as yesterday's storms. The news called it a derecho, which I had to look up, and this is what it means: a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds. Yikes! That's a big NO THANK YOU to any more of those!

With Liberty and Justice for All

You know what I want?

I want the country that I THOUGHT we had when I was a little girl. I took the "Liberty and Justice for All" part of the Pledge of Allegiance seriously. I was too young to understand that we weren't at that point yet.

I was born in the early 60s, so I am old enough to remember things like the "Peace and Love" slogans, Flower Power, and all that. I saw all the talk about everyone of all races being equal and deserving equal treatment, and I internalized it. I was innocent enough that I thought everyone else did, too. It meshed so well with the "Love one another" teaching we were getting at that level in Catholic school, that wasn't it just OBVIOUS that this is what we should all be doing? I was too young to realize that we weren't there yet, either.

Now, I'm an adult, and I realize that we didn't then, and don't now, have a full implementation of justice for all, equal treatment for everyone, and love for one another. And you know what? I DON'T LIKE that, not one bit.

So I will be finding ways to volunteer, and I will definitely find ways in the voting booth, to get behind anyone who will be willing and able to create that equal justice and fair treatment for all in this society. Because sitting and grousing about what we ought to be doing is not going to get us any closer to making things better.

/rant

Woot, woot!

I am officially a paid author! 😀 I'll try not to spend it all in one place, lol.

Next up: curation on Medium. That's when Medium sends your article's link out to others, vastly increasing the number of visitors to the article. That's when an author will REALLY say, "Woot, woot!"

Rumor-mongering Idiots

There is no problem on this earth that can't be exacerbated by RUMOR-MONGERING IDIOTS.

In the 90s, when the terrible Rodney King riots were devastating Los Angeles, I worked in Center City, Philadelphia. I went out to lunch, as was my wont, and when I got back to the office, I heard people talking excitedly that a riot was breaking out at Broad and Walnut. I joined the conversation to say that I had just eaten lunch at 13th and Walnut (which, for non-locals, is a block away from Broad), and had to cross that intersection on my way there and back. There was nothing out of the ordinary going on at Broad and Walnut.

At the end of the day, I took the Broad Street Subway home, getting off at Snyder, and walked home.  When I got to my street, neighbors were excitedly talking about how a riot was breaking out at Broad and Snyder. I told them, "I just got off the subway there, and nothing was going on. So unless the problems broke out within the last five minutes, I am going to say that's not correct information."

It was a Friday, and my parents and I were going to a benefit dinner in NE Philly that night. While we were there, the chatter started. "Someone said there is a riot at Cottman Avenue." I responded, "I already heard two false rumors about Broad and Walnut, and Broad and Snyder. People said riots were going on over there, but it wasn't true. I will bet anything that this report about Cottman Avenue is baloney." Which it was.

OK, so fast-forward nearly 30 years to just now. I had an eye appointment this afternoon. Had, being the operative word. They called me to reschedule and said they are closing early, because of looting on Oregon Avenue. Well, the stores they mentioned are mere blocks from here. Mark got in the car to go look, and of course, nothing is out of the ordinary there. I called the eye doctor back and told them everything I just wrote.

But clearly, some smacked arse(s) decided to create fear and loathing by spreading outright lies. Poxes on these lying imbeciles who do this stuff.

If you hear any of these "OMG WOE HORROR DISASTER IN OUR BACKYARD" rumors, take it with a massive grain of salt unless you can verify it. Because there are some sick wretches out there who get their jollies by upsetting people needlessly.

Civil Unrest

Last night, Center City had widespread looting and vandalism in the aftermath of peaceful, justified Black Lives Matter protests.

West Philly is getting hit with looting today.  has moved tonight’s curfew time from 8 PM up to 6 PM.

My employer’s primary locations are in University City, which is in West Philly. They’re sending text messages out to everyone who is subscribed to their emergency alert system. I just got two texts. I suspect there will be email alerts in my inbox when I log in tomorrow morning.

I just this minute, while I was creating this post, got a robocall from my employer about the street closures, curtailed SEPTA service, curfew, and the fact that police will let us pass *if* we have the essential-worker letter from our employer plus our work ID.

I’m grateful to be working from home, as every single bus/train I would normally use to commute runs through areas impacted by the destruction and looting.

I feel sincerely sorry for the businesses impacted by all this, whether it’s in terms of damage or loss of merchandise. They’re innocent victims, as are their employees. 

The curfew just went into effect. The mayor and community leaders are addressing the city live on TV, to try and quell the damaging behavior.

Pray for peace.

Today’s citywide alert:

Last night’s citywide alert: 

Quaran-TEAM

In five days, Philadelphia and surrounding counties will transition from Red to Yellow, in terms of COVID response. But TODAY the weather is utterly perfect. Brilliant sun, low humidity, comfortable temperatures... it’s the kind of day I’d gladly take all year, with just enough rain mixed in to keep the farmers and plants happy. 

So JFM, JR, Mark, and I quaran-teamed our way to one of those surrounding counties, to Styer Orchards. Sadly, only the store was open; the orchard itself was closed.  But the store serves hot food, so we had a heck of a lunch before heading back home. 

Other than Carmela’s funeral, and two quick drive-by visits to my parents, I have not been away from the house since picking up personal belongings from work on April 1.  It was wonderful to have a break in the routine.

Well, that was cool

I had a really interesting dream last night. I wrote about it at length in my journal, but the upshot was that I got to meet Barry Manilow and thank him for all the years of enjoyment his music has given me. We gave each other a huge hug.

I actually can’t recall ever having had Barry make a cameo in a dream of mine before, so I find this to be a noteworthy moment in my dreaming career. 🙂

That moment when...

That moment when you log off work for the day, and holler, "I'M HOOOOME!" 😂😜

Someone must have found a batch of faxes that needed processing, because I got inundated by the fax fire hose again today. Oddly, the ones that were not dated with a recent date were all dated for the third week of April. I suspect that there were some items set aside back then for whatever reason, and today, they were found and sent my way. Well, it's all good. The ones I couldn't finish today will be done on Monday.

In other news, I have enrolled in the Hadley School to take an online braille course. They took over for the Library of Congress, which used to offer a free braille transcription course. I had started the transcription course back in 1990, but at the time, I was working full-time, studying ASL interpreting, AND moving from my apartment into a house. Something had to give. So I didn't complete the transcription course.

I'm interested to see how they handle this online. When the Library of Congress was doing the course, we had to use a slate and stylus and actually braille the assignments. Obviously, I can't do that for an online course.

I will get started on it this weekend. One blessing of the lockdown is that we have all kinds of free time, lol. No commuting, no going out with friends, no going to church... that leaves a person with a whole lot of downtime, so I am finding constructive ways to fill it.

Social Distancing and Work

Today, we got an email from work.

Commencing June 1, folks who are working remotely will have their state and local income taxes deducted based on their HOME address, not their work address. This means, for example, anyone who lives outside the city, but works in the city, will NOT have the city wage tax deducted from their pay. Anyone who live out-of-state will have their own state's income tax deducted instead of that of the state where they work. This will not be retroactive to March 13, but it is how things will proceed going forward from June.

My first thought was that I won't be impacted, as I live and work in the same locality. Then, I thought some more. I started wondering exactly how long they expect things to continue as they are going, if the largest employer in the city (after the city itself) is going through employee records by the zillion and making changes. I realize that not everyone can work remotely, but even so, that has got to be a boatload of humans whose records are being adjusted. This is being done with the knowledge that as everything reopens, all those records will have to be returned to their pre-lockdown state.

Wow. Yeah, the big picture looks a bit different to me now than it did before I logged on this morning. Don't get me wrong; I love my ten-second commute and I will enjoy it while it lasts. However, it might be lasting a little longer than I initially realized.

Double wow.

Resurgence, Part II

The health system for which I work is calling its gradual reopening from the COVID-19 minimal staffing "Resurgence". The clinic where I work is actually starting to see urgent patients, but they are still maintaining a skeleton crew, rotating days that they work from home vs. in the clinic itself to minimize the number of people in the clinic, and rescheduling as many appointments as possible to be telemedicine visits.

I, meanwhile, have been told to continue working from home until the clinic is operating more normally, which makes me happy because I can keep my ten-second commute a while longer. I only wish it was possible to have my ten-second commute forever, because getting to and from work is such a bear on a lot of days, but I will take what I can get. Plus, now that we know I can do this, I can work from home on days where Mother Nature is losing her mind with blizzards, hurricanes, etc.

But anyhow, that's how work is going. Meanwhile, the county in which I live is slated to go from Red to Yellow on Friday, June 5. The Archdiocese is going to resume having Masses as of the following day, which means that one of my side gigs will be back up and running in June, hip hip hooray! Next up, I am praying that the neighboring county where my deaf-blind friend lives will start easing restrictions. I would love to resume going there as his aide on Fridays, which is my OTHER side gig.

Every little bit helps. Between the zero overtime and the zero side gigs, this lockdown has been rough on my bottom line. But I still feel fortunate, because there are a lot of folks out there for whom the shutdowns knocked out ALL their income, instead of a noticeable chunk of it. So I absolutely am not complaining; I'm just observing.

I am also crossing my fingers that everyone who really needs their income stream to be jump-started ASAP will be among the first to return to work when the restrictions are lifted in earnest. We absolutely had to enact the social distancing and the closures, because the virus is no joke. But I know that the precautions that have kept people from getting sick (or worse) have caused hardships in a lot of households. Compared to their challenges, my altered bottom line is nothing. So I hope they can start returning to normal as soon as it's safe.

Singing the praises of distraction-free writing

I have a few devices that are basically portable word processors. I LOVE them. Love. They really help my just sit down and write, sans any kind of distraction.

So for my latest Medium article, I thought I would spend a little time singing their praises.

I actually started this article about 16 days ago, but that's right about when my laptop started to flake out. I spent so much time trying to straighten out all the laptop issues, and then working on migrating my files to the new machine, that I had no time or energy left to finish the article. Finally, this afternoon, as soon as I logged out from work for the day, I decided that the article was getting completed TO-DAY, period. It was actually pretty close to being done, but even then it took me three and a half hours to put the finishing touches on it (because perfectionist).

Anyway, I love me some gadgets.

Enjoy!

Distraction-Free Writing is the Way to Go

Medium Post

It dawns on me that I have got a Medium post sitting waiting to be completed and edited. Fortunately, it does not have time-sensitive content, but it has been sitting for a couple of weeks as I have grappled with computer gremlins.

Well, now that I have the new computer, I am not dealing with random freezes and crashes while I am trying to work, so IMO it behooves me to get this document edited.

I can get to work on that after work.

Also, there is now a Wildwood Tram Car app. Now we can pay fares with cashless transactions, the better to protect everyone from COVID this summer.  Needless to say, I downloaded it as soon as I found out it was available.

Still setting up

My music didn’t make it over to the new machine. I spent last night and today copying it first to Dropbox, and now to a thumb drive.

The old machine takes a long time to do all this. I found out the hard way that if I try to do ANYthing else while the copying is in progress, the computer will freeze and I will have to reboot. 

So I let Dropbox update itself overnight. Then I embarked on the thumb drive copies (currently ongoing at this time).

THEN I can transfer all that good stuff to my new PC. 

Thank God my old PC still works. I’d have lost a lot of things if it went kaput before I could get all these items off the hard drive. 

New Kid on the Block

Setting up the new laptop. 

I had intended to give the old machine one last once-over to make sure everything was on Dropbox, but it repeatedly locked up on me. I think it’s mad. 

So I gave up on the final once-over and moved on to setting the new laptop up. 

I’m going to have my head in Computer Land for the day. Catch you all on the flip side. 

That feeling when...

That feeling when you’re practicing with the braille display and Bulfinch’s Mythology, and correctly identify “Hyperborean”.

At first I thought, “What? That can’t be right”, so I looked at the display. Sure enough, that’s what it said. Yay!

21 years

Happy 21st Anniversary to Mark! Our marriage is now old enough to drink!

Fortunately, the Italian restaurant where we normally go on our anniversary is doing takeout, so we will still get to have their food today. 👍

It's heeeere

Good news! My laptop arrived this afternoon, at least a day earlier than I had expected it to. I will take tonight and tomorrow to make sure anything I need to migrate over to the new machine is safely stored in my Dropbox, so I can jump in and Retrieve All The Things and install them on the new machine over the weekend.

Tomorrow is our 21st anniversary. We usually go to Popi's on our anniversary, but of course that isn't an option until the lockdown restrictions are lifted. Therefore, we will get takeout from Popi's instead. The food will be just as good whether we eat it in their building or ours, lol.

Due to computer problems, I spent a couple of days where I was just too mentally exhausted to practice with the braille book.

But then, I got back on board with the braille last night, and I noticed something. Something must have been percolating in my subconscious during those two days off, because there was a noticeable leap forward in my ability to feel the letters. I think our brain must keep processing lessons whether we are actively working on them or not. So if we keep at them, and don't let too much time lapse, it seems as though we not only might not lose ground, we might gain a bit of ground if we play our cards right. Interesting stuff.

I think I can, I think I can

Keeping my ailing laptop running during the workday reminds me of the story about The Little Engine That Could. The engine had to scale a steep hill, and all the way up, he kept repeating to himself, "I think I can, I think I can!" Then, when he crested the hill, he was able to say, "I knew I could, I knew I could" all the way down the other side.

Well, aside from one glitch during my lunch break, when the computer wouldn't wake back up after going to sleep, I actually did manage to keep the laptop going throughout the workday without issue.

That is huge, because the 17" screen REALLY makes a difference. Some of the software that I have to use for work looks like heck on a smaller screen, and it's not just my eyes that are the problem in this case. The different columns of data are all getting smooshed together (that's a technical term 😆), and it's a pain to read.

I am crossing my fingers for the new device to arrive soon enough that I can spend the weekend setting it up.

Last night, after I set Mark's computer up to work from home, I realized that there were 25 faxes that had come in after my workday ended. So I started putting the patients' medical record numbers on them, on my own time, just so I wouldn't have to go insane first thing in the morning doing that cumbersome task. It was two hours well spent, believe me, because when I logged on this AM, the fire hose of faxes was going full blast and I had truckloads of new items coming in. If I hadn't taken the time last night to do what I did, I would have been running around with my hair on fire today. Instead, I got ALL of last night's faxes processed, plus the avalanche that came in this morning, and the normal level of work that arrived during the afternoon. So there was nothing left undone by the time the day ended.

Now, will the fax fire hose reactivate itself after I logged out for the day? It certainly did yesterday. So who knows what my inbox will look like when I log on in the morning, lol. Watch this space.

Oh, and I got some sad news this afternoon. A former organist from my parish passed away of COVID-19 today. He was 76. This blasted, no-good virus! That's two nice folks that I personally know who passed away because of it, plus there is one person from the local Deaf community who passed away about 3 weeks ago.. We really need our researchers to develop meds that target this rotten thing, because I think that will be at least as important as the work they are doing to create a vaccine. It's fortunate that most folks who contract COVID do not have severe symptoms, but unfortunately, the ones who DO develop severe symptoms wind up in a LOT of difficulty. For their sake, as well as for the sakes of everyone who loves these patients, we need to create medications that will beat back the virus so the patients are in less danger of a health catastrophe.

Laptop woes

My laptop is fritzing out again. I think it’s on its last legs for sure this time.

I just ordered a new one. Le sigh. Thank God that’s an option, but boo hiss on surprise expenses. 

If I can’t revive my machine, I’ll have to work on Mark’s laptop until my new one arrives.

It’s harder than it ought to be to find a 17” screen with touchscreen AND (hardest of all) an optical drive. I’m old school that way. HP came through on all counts. 👍🏻

Resurgence

Today, the medical system is officially embarking on what has been termed "resurgence". This is the gradual reopening of our clinic, which will be seeing patients for the first time since April 1. That was when we began transitioning it to be repurposed as surge beds for non-COVID-19 patients.The good news is that we never reached such a level of overflow that our clinic was pressed into service for inpatients. The other news is that all the things that were done to ready the clinic in case it was needed for overflow beds, has had to be UNdone so we can use it as an outpatient clinic again.

We were a Tier 4 surge area. The hospital got as far as Tier 2, to the best of my knowledge, when making use of overflow beds. I don't know if Tier 3 was used, but Tier 4 was not.

We will be resuming the skeleton crew staffing that we had prior to the changeover. Only a very limited number of urgent patients will be seen in person. The rest will continue to be scheduled for telemedicine for the time being.

I, however, have been instructed to continue working from home for the time being. That works just fine for me. There is no shortage of electronic faxes to process. That goes double since today, it seems like they have turned on the fire hose of faxes now that the resurgence is underway. Holy moley but it has been busy today! I have had over 30 faxes so far today, and it's only lunchtime.

That's fine by me! Bring it! 👍

Reading, With a Twist

Everyone who knows me, knows I like reading.

I have decided to give myself a challenge. I downloaded a .txt version of Bulfinch’s Mythology, to read on a used electronic device I picked up at a price I couldn’t refuse. 

So, what’s the challenge?

This is the device.

Yes, that’s braille.

I’m watching my mom’s eyes change for the worse, drastically since in the past month, and thinking that preemptive strikes might be a good idea if these issues prove to be hereditary.

Plus, I need to keep my brain active during this lockdown. That’s a really major need on my part. 

Therefore, I have hit on a method for addressing both of those issues simultaneously. I have decided to read a book on this device, tactilely.

It’s slow going, as I expected. But it’s an intense brain workout, so it’s not tedious at all. Since I already know how to read braille visually, I can cheat and peek at the display if I hit on a letter I’m just not getting. But I am using that as an option of last resort. I keep thinking of one deaf-blind friend who dived in and just practiced nonstop, and learned braille that way after her vision failed. She’s living proof that it can be done. If she could do it, so can I.

I contacted the Hadley school, which offers free braille correspondence courses for both blind and sighted students, as well. Did I mention that I really need a brain workout these days? 

Besides, those of us who volunteer as SSPs for deafblind consumers rarely learn braille. We probably should spend a bit of time learning that, alongside the effort we make to learn to sign. I learned Grade 1 (uncontracted) braille a lot of years ago, like 1989. But there are numerous braille contractions that I don’t know, and I’ve always wanted to study those, too. Now’s the time.

I’m reading the book in uncontracted format. Who knows how long it’ll take? But it’ll be time we’ll spent.

Farewell to Carmela

On Thursday, we bid farewell to our dear friend Carmela with a Mass. It’s the first time I’ve been to church since the Archdiocese closed down everything in March. We respected social distancing. 

I read the first reading. Joe M. cantored. Afterward, the Misfit Toys had a social-distancing hoagie lunch in Joe’s back yard.

We’ll miss that wonderful lady very much. I’m sure she got on the express elevator up.

The AHL Cancels The Remainder of the Season

This should come as a surprise to nobody, but the AHL officially cancelled the remainder of its season and playoffs today. The news started leaking on Friday, as the Board of Governors was convening to discuss the matter.

It's the only really viable course of action. Minor league teams can't afford to play to empty arenas like major-league ones can. The NHL, NBA, et al have big TV contracts that would guarantee them a bunch of revenue even if the attendance in the arena is 0. Minor league teams rely on people packing the seats as their primary source of income. We just can't safely be crowding into arenas, or anywhere else, until this COVID-19 situation has been gotten under control.

Still, I'm disappointed.

COVID-19 can kiss my grits.