Easter Week 2020 and Beyond.... MON 13 APR to SAT 09 MAY 2020

MON 13 APR 2020-  Today I spent most of my time working on insurance issues, as well as finding appropriate recipes for COVID-19 quarantine time. I requested an 8.5 X 11 inch book on my insurance, and it was delivered on TUES 14 APR 2020.

Early in the day I filed a claim for my temporary furlough status, once every two weeks. There are many many many! people filing during this corona virus pandemic----I hear that the initial unemployment applicants in New Jersey crashed the online computer system in the first week.

I am saddened by the following article. Despite being married to a practicing Catholic, see what the US President thinks of Good Friday:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/12/trump-good-friday-christianity/

Pitt COVID-19 vaccine effort with partners in France, Austria seeks win for all of us | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
https://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2020/04/12/Pitt-COVID-19-vaccine-effort-with-partners-in-France-Austria-seeks-a-win/stories/202004120091

From MM:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/health/mobility-stay-at-home-cdc-report/index.html

One of America's largest meat producers has ominous warning about the grocery store supply
https://www.wfmz.com/health/coronavirus/pa-other-northeastern-states-to-coordinate-on-plan-to-reopen-as-they-deal-with-outbreak/article_93ce29ae-7dac-11ea-a4bc-a76bc7f8e9ef.html

TUE 14 APR 2020- Sent WA an email a few minutes before today and also in the morning with well wishes. Spent about 38 minutes stationary recumbent bicycle exercising. Prepared in the morning for two appointments in the early afternoon; one by smart phone, one by virtual video meeting. Both appointments went successfully. Afterwards, watched with M the ongoing interview of Madeleine Albright on FOX TV.

I have insurance issues on my "front burner," maintaining my health on my "middle burner," and organizing and simplifying living spaces on "middle and back burners."  Zooming with family and keeping in touch with friends via email and videos or video chats are great ways to reunite with others close to your heart but far away geographically (or practically). I have several kinds of masks----some emergency disposable ones from MM and WA's family, a disposable blue one from M, and a washable, recyclable homemade pleated one with a pocket for changing out the (coffee or Swiffer) filter, from Peg. Palms for Palm Sunday were from Claire G, thanks to E at the Oratory...D and I fashioned them into crosses, as usual. Thanks to SuEn, I had a vintage Ukrainian shrinky dink egg sleeve, which I shrink-wrapped to a blown white egg. And, as everyone says,
          "Wash your hands well and often
My corollary to that statement is,
          "and moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!"

Just finished being sous chef: Prepared green beans, onions, cabbage, and pork with the handy knives, scissors, and vegetable chopping board, for the sinigang (with the sampalok sauce)---all to the gravelly bass voice of Louis Armstrong, paired with Ella Fitzgerald for some tunes.

Illumination Ovation (2nd in the series) occurs again this evening for medical workers, food supply workers, and all others at the front lines of the coronavirus fight.

WED 15 APR 2020-Pennsylvania Department of Health had reported a trailer at the bottom of the 5 o'clock news tonight--26,490 cases of COVID-19; with Allegheny County reporting 904 cases (26 deaths).

Received an IRS payment today!


Note from SL; from Akwasi updating time of ~As Zoom meetings...


email to my pamilya: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/politics/trump-adjourn-congress-coronavirus.html

gruesome, but true, and on the NBC Nightly News tonight:
After Anonymous Tip, 17 Bodies Are Found at Nursing Home Hit by Virus - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/nyregion/coronavirus-nj-andover-nursing-home-deaths.html

5,245,000 People in the USA are out of work as of today (NBC NIghtly News).

I think this fellow was on the NBC Nightly News last week...Former serviceman..
A Grocery Store Owner's Account of Serving Desperate Clients in New Orleans amid the Coronavirus | The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/11/grocery-store-owner-new-orleans-coronavirus/?arc404=true

SAT and ACT Will Offer At-Home Tests if Coronavirus Closings Continue - The New York Times


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/fashion/reese-witherspoon-draper-james-coronavirus.html


The mini-marathon of Mister Rogers Neighborhood episodes was presented for all of us in quarantine and sequestered away due to COVID-19.

FRI 17 APR 2020-
I awoke very early (~4-5 AM), and went back to sleep until close to lunchtime. This first group of articles were from reading early morning...

Where all 50 states stand on re-opening during the pandemic

Marie Kondo: Achieving calm through the art of organization - CNN

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/us/coronavirus-photographers-diary.html

Late-night comedy - The New York Times: After protesters called for the end of stay-at-home orders, Jimmy Kimmel said, “It’s like if the Titanic was headed towards the iceberg, and half of the passengers were like, ‘Can you please speed this thing up?’”

18.30-- Need to eat my dinner in preparation for the ~as fundraiser's Zoom meeting tonight in half an hour.

The transfer/ conversion of tapes will be shipped...

WED 22 APR 2020-
HAPPY EARTH DAY, 50th of its kind!

I wrote and sent a letter regarding insurance, [regarding novel coronavirus and COVID-19] today.



THU 23 APR 2020-  
Chatted with my friend, via cell phone...



M and I enjoyed a video of Luciano Pavorotti's granddaughter singing "O Mio Bambino Caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. Such a lovely voice, and amazing breath control. Her carriage to indicate breath to the conductor, Andre Rieu, was impeccable. There were many in the audience wiping away tears!

Paid one of my bills tonight.

FRI 24 APR 2020-

Spoke with a friend today on the telephone and sent my insurance update before lunch.

From a concerned extended family member:  Daniel Lewis on Twitter: "Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. https://t.co/MVno5X7JMA" / Twitter

https://twitter.com/Daniel_Lewis3/status/1253482576699969537 

I have enjoyed some of these videos, shared with me by M, all throughout this week.The Sound of Music Tour - HD All Movie Locations in Austria and Germany Then and Now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNutlOE0yhQ&feature=emb_logo

I replied:  "It must be AWFUL, if his advisors are not FREE to speak out!
As if the pandemic weren't enough..."

Time to contact others regarding the Easter choir candy orders...

Help M with gamut issues first.

~~~~~~~~~~
From The Washington Post, today:


President Trump has muddied his national reopening strategy with contradictory messages about the right way to do it. At a news conference Thursday, for example, he said “it’s very exciting to see” states begin to reopen, but at another point said he was “not happy” with Kemp for beginning to reopen Georgia. Meanwhile, White House guidelines to phase out quarantine restrictions are so vague that governors can use them to potentially justify any hasty strategy.
Many doctors expressed horror after Trump suggested Thursday — then walked back as sarcasm today — the possibility of experimenting with injecting “disinfectant” into covid-19 patients, or blasting them with ultraviolet rays. “This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous,” the director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center told The Post. “My concern is that people will die.” Read more about the controversy surrounding Trump's comments.

More important reads:

The House overwhelmingly passed an additional $484 billion spending package Thursday, bringing the total amount of economic rescue funds to nearly $3 trillion. Trump signed the bill today, at which time a debate had already begun over another round of emergency funds.

The Trump administration is considering taking an unprecedented amount of control over the U.S. Postal Service by using the mail service’s desperate need of emergency funding as leverage.

(!) Help us, Help us...the novel Coronavirus is the least of our worries!
~~~~~~~~~~
SAT 25 APR 2020
Further (last?) update to candy purchasers---our order was cancelled! So, of course, I've been spending my spare time notifying them (this week and this weekend).

Did Trump Suggest Injecting Disinfectants as COVID-19 Treatment? 
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-disinfectants-covid-19/

Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim, sources say | Article [AMP] | Reuters
~~~
SUN 26 APR 2020
Watched with D and M the televised Mass from St Paul Cathedral this morning.
Contacted the last of the choir candy folks...just waiting for responses from one family.
Worked this afternoon on a LOI on behalf of ~as. I was home by 17.30.

Coronavirus Antibody Tests: Can You Trust the Results? - The New York Times
https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/chancellor-and-top-pitt-leaders-pledge-portion-of-their-earnings-to-university/



The University of Pittsburgh Commencement was broadcast on LinkedIn, and on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2374&v=lh0CJDk9t80&feature=emb_logo

MON 27 APR 2020-
Awoke early and spent the morning combining notes from various sources and sheets of paper, and 20 minutes on the bike. Coded emails with answers for me re: Easter choir candy order fate. I have heard from everyone except one person who wrote a check. I will absorb the cash people, should they want refunds, I suppose.
Time to write a list for DKF with this information tabulated.

TUE 28 APR 2020- 
Spoke by phone with the maestro, DKF, about the fate of each of my collected choir candy checks. I brought one to be deposited just outside his office building, and he presented one to be returned. I delivered the returning one to its rightful owner, along with the address to send a donation (which was requested by the check writer). Chez D and M: Lunch of Black Forest/ Schwarzwald Ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches with vegetables, thanks to M. I  made a concoction of lemonade for each of us. Fig newton cookies and granola bars for dessert.
Time for scanning various items now. Went home for an hour this afternoon, then helped prepare dinner: Mussel soup, lumpianitos from S with dipping plum sauce, salisbury steak, all with rice!
Soon it is time for NBC Nightly News, and Jeopardy!

WED 29 APR 2020-
This morning and part of this afternoon spent making phone calls.
Went on part of D's walk---we went to the garden with the babbling rock fountain, and back.

The NBC Nightly News reported that IV-drip antiviral medication remdesivir administered in the hospital acted to decrease the recovery time from 15 to 11 days for the most dire cases of COVID-19 patients tested. Mortality rate went from 11.6% for the control group to 8% of the experimental group.
Watched Jeopardy! with M.

THU 30 APR 2020-
Figured out how to print various documents off the internet today, with the assistance of people from the websites. Went shopping with D to two grocery stores, one in Friendship/ Shadyside, the other in Shadyside. No yeast available.
Watched Jeopardy! with M.

FRI 01 MAY 2020-
Spent a good portion of the morning preparing to answer a communique, and spoke to a supportive friend in the meantime. Drove to the post office, dropped off a letter that would get picked up within an hour and a quarter.
Spent most of the evening (3 hours total) with Lo, 'la, Les, WA, MM, JO, k and K, BF, and SC Zoom chatting about family tree structure and stories, playing games (including Pictionary), and listening to BF on the family guitar.

SAT 02 MAY 2020-
Awoke early to take care of smart phone issues and computer software issues for Trello. Have 2 Zoom discussions scheduled for this afternoon, then a telephone chat with another out-of-state friend scheduled for this evening. Fun times abound!

Zoom chatted with Akw from ~as noon to 13.00 about a document. Worked on it between 13.00 and 17.30, when I Zoomed with JAD, with a nice background of "Great Hall," among others...Cedar Point, etc., and her top floor. Talked about future plans for later this year, as well as her sis doing contact tracing in TN.

After dinner, watched Jeopardy! with M., went home to chat with JAH. ALso spoke about how the SARS-CoV-2 virus was making us think about how we [all] should have fewer babies. [Less "intercourse," as JAH said.] She and I spoke about Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, in which there is a dystopian, class society, and only certain women can have babies. We also spoke about science fiction...

SUN 03 MAY 2020-
Watched the Mass of Good Shepherd Sunday, celebrated by Bishop Waltersheid with Fr Kris Stubna and Fr Adam Potter. THere was a cantor and lector, and an organist at the von Beckerath.

At 11.30 SH and I chatted by Our Lady of Craig Street. Mostly about SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 and our experience of it, and our families' experiences of it.

Made macaroni and cheese and had lunch with D and M. At about 13.00 started watching the Rock with M and D on television (it started at 12.25, and will go to 15.00).

MON 04 MAY 2020- May the 4th be with you! Happy Star Wars Day!

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2020/05/03/Pa-leads-nation-in-virus-stricken-meat-plant-workers-CDC-says/stories/202005030095?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=editors-picks-frontpage-frontpage&utm_campaign=Headlines-Newsletter

posted by Grace @ 4/14/2020 01:58:00 PM 0 comments