Quarantine: What Does it Mean?

 I've been reading a lot of information, and seeing results on social media. Information about how the Spanish flu epidemic (as it was called in those days) was handled.

The most popular social "call to arms" concerns wearing masks.

They didnt legislate masks back in those days. People weren't forced to wear them.

While it is true that the federal and state governments weren't creating mandates on the issues, most towns and cities did make laws.

Rather, they enforced existing laws.

Back in those days, there were laws called Quarantine laws. 

If your household had a contagious illness (measles, diptheria, whooping cough, smallpox) public health officials came and posted a great big, very red sign on your door.

QUARANTINE by order of...

With that sign on the door, no one left the home. No one entered the home, or if they did, they had to remain throughout the quarantine period.

Doctors, nurses, and police were the only people allowed access, and even then had to follow strict routines, which included sanitizing. Sanitizing sometimes included complete changes of clothing.

Groceries and medicines were delivered to the doorstep. Neighbors could drop off gifts on the porch. 

Once they left, the subjects of the quarantine could bring in the deliveries.

There was no question of going to work.

There was no thought of going out to eat.

No one went to the park or the playground. In some cases, even the back yard was off limits.

People didn't protest this, although they grumbled and had the same worries we do today. Keeping job, paying rent, nor having machinery repossessed.

They didn't protest because they knew.

Infectious diseases were frequent, common, and deadly if the protocols were not followed. There were fatalities any time one of these visited a neighborhood, or a town, or a city. 

But the quick imposing of a quarantine could lower the deaths and limit any lingering impairment. Centuries of experience had proven this many times. And if it could be stopped in the neighborhood before it reached into the town, there would be even fewer deaths and disabilities. Everyine wins.

No one questioned it.

If anyone thought of their constitutional rights, they tended to focus on the one first mentioned. The right to Life. They knew the quarantine laws were the most effective defense of the right to life.

After the Spanish flu, we became more educated. 

We made new discoveries.

We discovered bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, and vaccinations.

We learned surgeries and therapies. Epidemics, renamed pandemics, were a thing of the past.

And

We forgot.

Time was proving out how much better off we were, overall. There were outbreaks of things, usually in strictly limited geographic areas. These were handled by the combination of better medicines and the routines of the quarantine programs.

We were smug.

We could handle it.

Until the day and the disease came and there was no controlled access. Everyone was going everywhere. With everything.

And the virus spread around the world. 

It's still spreading. 

So.

Do not share information without understanding it, if you can help it. 

Before you condemn proven effective actions, consider the history behind them and ask yourself in what ways things have changed and what changes we should keep and which are not working as we have hoped.

Above all else, remember that the right to life comes before the right to liberty.

Names for All

 I read a lot of advice columns -- or I did before the internet decided everybody needed to pay everyone every day for the privilege. I miss them, and no one is eating in restaurants and leaving their papers for the next guy. 

Anyway, people can write to advice columns about some pretty silly things. Which way to hang your toilet paper roll comes up semi-regularly. 

Lately, a popular topic has been names.

Did you know people are stealing names? If you've been named after someone, your parents were unoriginal name thieves. If you've been named a common name, your parents are name thieves and unoriginal.

Did these people really never go to school with classmates bearing the same name? No reason to know Chris C is not Chris S. That Jennifer H is not Jennifer G?

How did that not happen?

Someone wrote in crying that his sibling stole the name Nola from him. He thought it would be cute to name her after the Big Easy, when he saw it written that way, once upon a time. 

Sorry, bud, it's not a new name, nor a newly invented one. It's been around a few hundred years in one language or another. Probably several. 

I do have more respect for those trying for something original. (As long as it isn't bulky, awkward, or too weird.) Jayken and a middle name, for grandpas James and Kenny and Uncle Mark (middle name). Little girl's names can be pretty if one wants to go for the feminine or the flowing. (Sometimes dangerous in today's belligerent society.)

Nobody owns a name. Even if you put together a unique portmanteau name, someone will see it on a birth announcement, or on social media, or hear you say it in a store, and think, oh that sounds so (adjective they like) and will remember it, and within a few weeks everyone will be naming their child your unique name. 

They may be the first with it (unlikely, but possible) but tell that to a high school sophomore with a lot of freshmen with the same name. 

Even copyright laws acknowledge that names are void from being owned. The main we reason we all can't write Gone With the Wind is because one novel with that title so impressed itself upon the public that any others will look like pale copies, even if it's a completely different subject matter.

It's not illegal.

Names cannot be owned. 

I have to admit, though, I did feel a pang of ~ something ~ with/for the woman who wrote in that her aunt stole her planned baby name and gave it to her dog. I don't have a lot of patience for dogs with kids' names, although 1) it's none of my business and 2) it's okay in honor of someone or 3) named after the giver or other VIP. 

And imagine if it's a kid with a dog's name? Rover Fido Smith, you come back here right now. 

And that is why I don't know if I feel sympathy or mockery for that woman. Because I don't know if she was giving her child a dog name, or if the dog was getting a human name.

I just wish she had used an example in her letter!

Strange New World

 I think everyone can agree, at least here in the US, that this year has changed the world. Changed the norms. "They" keep talking about the "New Normal" -- which is a long way from normal, and isn't even all the new. It's just never affected so much population at the same time, largely because there has never been so much population at the same time before. 

The big thing for us all -- the world -- has been the pandemic; the covid; the coronavirus; the new plague; the new SARS. Whatever you want to call it. 

But it wasn't the only thing. The year started off wrong before then. Schools were already closing because people were getting sick, but this sickness in these great numbers has absolutely noithing to do with the one that came along later.

Australia was on fire. 

There have been eclipses and earthquakes. There have been floods and even more fires. (Last I knew, Colorado was still burning.) There have been killer hornets and hurricanes. There have been Supermoons and Micromoons and blue moons. Wearing -- or not wearing -- a face mask became a civil right, while people are still being denied housing or help or work and being waited on. 

I'm forgetting a lot. 

No doubt come the end of the year, everyone will have lists and stories and who-knows-what. 

The scary thing is there's still seven weeks for even more fun to be had. 

This week alone we've had elections and reactions and Boston was shaken.  Who knows what the future still has for us?

Many people have died.

Some have been born, yes. 

Births and Deaths, the most universal of human experiences were, for a while, legislated to be done alone, with no family near; with no loved ones attending. 

Imagine having ONLY strangers to share your most intimate, most human moments with no one of your own. You may not even know their names, and because of masks, you definitely don't know their faces.

Too many of these deaths were NOT caused by Covid. 

Too many of these had nothing to do with the Great Illness.

They were dying of normla things. Flu, and emphysema, and liver failure, and kidney failure. Aneurysms and strokes and hemorrhages murders and suicides. 

Accidents and terminal diseases. 

My oldest daughter died of a cancer of unknown origin. 

In approximately six weeks, she went from having achy legs to be dead. 

And I couldn't be there for her, in person. In myself. 

I couldn't talk with her -- she lost her voice. 

I couldn't hold her hand.

I couldn't say good-bye, let alone sit with her as she left us all forever.

This is unforgettable.

This is unforgiveable.

First? Frost of Fall

 Tonight's the night!

Put on the socks, wrap a quilt around my head and shoulders, wrap my hands around a hot cuppa (for me, coffee) and sit on the porch.

It rained today, so the light is shimmering.

The lowering temperature has the air smelling so clean.

The clean smell of falling leaves and fading greens; of pollen-heavy goldenrod and foxtails, and all those plants. Not so heavy, tonight, the pollen, because of the earlier, settling rain.

of long darkened evenings and darkening days and long nights ahead when warmth is the best aroma and even in our electric or gas or other technology age, the scent of warmth calls to mind woodfires and cooked food and family.

Too soon the coming cold will be tiresome.

Too soon,the wet, dark evenings will be an annoyance.

We'll be over it.

the plants will die, the greens will brown, and the trees will be bare.

But for now, for tonight, we can enjoy the changes in the air.

We can cherish the passing of the seasons.

We can await the coming hours of darkness knowing that, one way or another, the light will come again.

Eventually.

And the cuppa warms the hands, the nose, and the heart as surely as the socks and quilts warm the body

Don't Know; Not Sure I Care Much

 I don't know what's wrong with me. 

i can't sleep and I can't stay awake. I lie in my recliner day and night like a giant sloth. I do very little, and nothing holds my interest. I usually read or write or work puzzles or do some kind of busyness. But it seems to be too much work to hold up a book, or to hold up my blob of a body and type or write.

It's definitely asking a lot of myself to do dishes or sweep the floors. Or go to the store.

Or put things away.

Or anything besides  nothing, as I wait for the next round of sleep to bless me with unawareness.

Yes, this all sounds like the old demon Depression. I'm already drugging that and it's been working. Or I thought it was. 

Anyway, I don't think that's the problem, but that particular demon can be a great deceiver.

This feels different. I don't really know how to explain it, but it feels like a metabolic malfunction. But when I see doctors, there is nothing provably wrong with me. Everything is testing out fine, and within my established norms. 

I try to keep myself busy, which is quite a trick when doing nothing. When I have plans, when I can help, I do so, with pleasure. 

And I really, really really wish I could go for a long walk on these quiet nights. 

But I can't.

I Lost Yesterday

I lost yesterday.
I slept through it, for the most part.

I did wake up and eat, at some point.
Went to the bathroom and stuff like that.

But -- I woke up when the alarm went off.
I thought it was the 10 am alarm, so I got up and took my morning mrdicine, and picked up the phone to turn the alarm off. I had a lot of notifications, but Sundays can be like that sometimes.

I puttered around doing the waking up stuff, and turned on the TV, and it was there that I first noticed the time.

It wasn't 10 am. It was 7 pm.

What?
How did that happen?
I remembered the night before, going to bed about eight and waking up around 10, or maybe it was 2. I don't really pay attention to the time, unless I'm looking for something on the TV. I didn't do that this time. I did push the button for the TV, but it didnt matter what was on the tv. It made quiet noise so I wasn't hearing the sounds my ears make when on their own.

I drifted back off to sleep.

And didn't wake up until 7 pm?
So weird.

And its the second time this week I time-warped.

I managed it better this time.
I guess experience counts?

Loved the Rain, And You

I've always loved the rain, and sharing it with you.

The opening lines of a complete regretful eulogy of a song, complete with instrumentation and a wistful familiarity.I had the whole song, as I sat on the porch watching it storm and missing Tammy.

Yes, I know. I keep going back to that.
It was important.
It was something to look forward to.

And something that never happened.

I doubt I will ever realize it's raining again without that thought.
If you knew Tammy, you'd know.

Anyway, the song.
It was so familiar, and so wrong, but right at the same time.
Loving the rain, and enjoying it, and sharing it. The storms, lightning flashing, thunder booming or rolling.
The rain slanting down.
The clean smell of it, even those first soured minutes onto hot pavement in the heat of a summer afternoon.
Walking along under the trees.
Laughing at children running into and out of shelter, laughing, not knowing if they liked it or not.
But laughing at Mommy and Mammaw playing, dancing, jumping in the rain with them.

In and Out, In and Out, a tapestry (tap dance?) of rain and laughter and love. Every stitch, every step a part of a larger, joyous pattern.

And the Music stops and the pictures of what was, what is, and what will now never be stops also, frozen in a moment -- ah, but such a lot of moments! -- forever.
And the rain forever falling, and the laughter, and we, too, are falling and floating with it, because it is what it is, and we both loved it then, and love it still.


It was in a dream, so I lost a lot of the words when I woke up, but they've come back to me, a line or two at a time.
As yet, I can't put them in order.
Maybe someday...

The familiarity bothered me.
And I found the song.

https://youtu.be/ixa7-EG0YhE

See what I mean about it being both wrong and right?
And even if I do remember my words to the music, I'll not be able to use them, except privately, which seems almost a shame.  The music belongs to someone else, and most of the words. And I'm not someone to go begging for exemption from copyright infringement. That's a big deal.

Ah well.
It's one thing I know I did right, loving the rain, and sharing it with you.
Now you can ride the clouds, up and down,  in an eternal bonding with your beloved rain.
Enjoy, my pluvial Pisces.

Two Weeks In

Two weeks ago, My 32 year year old daughter died.
She had an unidentified rapidly spreading cancer.

She wasn't even sick.
She had back pain and leg swelling.
She worked on her feet eight or ten or twelve hours a night, five or six nights a week, overnights at McDonald's for approximately 10 years.
Of course her back hurt.
Of course her leg(s) swelled.

These are the same symptoms that forced me out of work, despite an extended medical leave for rest and treatment.


Her daughter was 80 days from her 12th birthday.
Already taller than her mother (and grandmother), already more curvy, a good artist, largely self-taught and still self-teaching.
She made her mother so happy.
She made her mother laugh.
She made her smile.


Her son turned 7 the day she was admitted into the hospital.
They had his party on Saturday, his birthday would be Sunday.
By midnight, by Sunday, by his actual birthday, she was in the hospital.
He would not see her in person again.
He, too made her laugh and smile and play, and just beam with happiness.

She was so pleased with her kids even when they frustrated her. That was part of the fun, part of the job, part of the love.
The largest part of her reason for existing, for working her legs off.

He would not see her again.
Hailey would not see her again.
I would not see her again.

She died in a local, neighborhood hospital, with no final hugs from her kids, no good-bye from her mother, no farewells of any sort from the rest of the extended family, who tried to organize a parking lot banners-and-waves for her.

She did not die alone. On the last day, they finally allowed her husband to be with her, and he was there for her.

He was there for her, holding her as she left us, helping her to ease into the long good-bye that she couldn't bring herself to acknowledge.
He, better than anyone, could get her to face hard facts, to admit to hard truths.

He. too. is way too young to be facing this, and left with these bereft children while his own being is split into parts, as if an amputation. If Hailey was 80 days from her 12th, he was 78 or 76 (sorry, cant remember the day right now) days from his 31st.
Too young.

They have been part of one another for over a quarter century. They had been a couple for more than half their lives.

He is handling it in the ages old way: One task, one chore, one minute, one hour, one day at a time.

Me, I guess I'm handling it the same way, but I wonder.
It just seems too damn big to be true.
Too crazy.
Too wild.
Too fictional.

I'd like to think this is one of my crazy story-telling dreams, but I know it is not.
I'd like to think this is an alternate reality, and somewhere she's sending me a text or pictures of the kids, but I know it isn't and I know she's not.
She just isn't.

Even if there were to be an alternate reality, that isn't where I am.
Although it remains where she isnt.

I wake up between 3:30 and 4 every morning, if I sleep at all.
That is when she would be getting off work and we would talk, text, chat, and often meet. Usually across the street at Kroger's store, just before they opened.

I want to show her things from my house, I want to share jokes about tv shows and brief flurries of arguments about songs, and ...

Well, if you've lost someone, you know.
If you haven't, you can't know.

Tammy, oh Tammy.
I miss you so.

Just one Second...

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."




This is the second amendment to the Constitution.

As you can see, it is not wordy, nor does it go into in-depth detail.




The details are available, for anyone who cares to look. The Founding Fathers were verbose men, and not only did they use words, they refused to mince those words. They meant what they meant.

There are letters.
There are recorded (on paper) debates.




"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state"

What is a free state?

What must a state be free of or from?

A free state is one where its citizens makes its laws, makes its decisions, and decides on the details of everyday living.

A free state is NOT a police state.

A free state is not a subject to a nation. It is a part of one, by consent of the citizens.




What is security, in a free state?

Being able to live a life is a good start.

Family, home, job, friends, income, knowledge, and the ability to come and go freely sound as if they may it that description.




I'll leave "well-regulated" alone. That has been, and continues to be the most debated part of the amendment.

Regulated in what ways? By laws? By common practices? By individuals' rights?

Who is to say? Who says who gets to say?

It has always been a contentious point, and I believe that is why those words were deliberately chosen and placed at the front of the amendment.




The last words are "shall not be infringed."

Infringement.

Regulated.
Are these words opposites? Are they synonyms? How? Why?




The heart of the issue, in the center of the amendment is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."

This is also the heart of the controversy.




I am not a gun person.

I think having guns in every home and every vehicle is (if you will) overkill. I don't think they are necessary in daily life, and I do think they are dangerous to daily life.




I am, however, a believer in the Constitution, and in the intents of the Bill Of Rights.


The times we are living in are proving the wisdom of our Freedom Founding Fathers in creating this amendment, and the clever wording they used.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms, so that no government can overpower them. So that no organized troops may overwhelm them.

The right of the state with its well-regulated militia, so that no national government can overpower them. So that no national troops can overwhelm them.

These are the rights that are not to be infringed upon, both at the local state government level, and also for individuals.




But individuals don't need assault weapons, you may say.

Do police need those? Why?




You can bet, if the city police or the national guard marches down my street shooting at my homes, businesses, neighbors, and children, I want myself or my defenders to be equally if not better armed than they are.

That is the intent of the amendment. That government must not be better armed than the citizenry.

How will you defend yourself against the assault weapons?

How will you defend against the National Guard?

Where the hell are the Constitutional STATE militias meant to defend their neighbors and friends?

no Quit in That Girl : david saved her from herself one more time

From Dave Ruhstaller: Tan is being set up for continuous dialysis she has a been passing any water or fluids for a little bed so they're gonna do A-line and do continuous dialysis as of the CT scan done a bit ago to do the dialysis, it shows that her kidneys have failed. The IVC as been strangled by her lymph nodes. and is and has shut down a few other organs. tam is not going to last the next few days. shes on a ventilator, they cannot dialyze her blood. her time is anything from a few hours to a day or so. they asked to hard ones, and she is now DNR. do not resuscitate. there is nothing that can be, no treatment options. her comfort and not prolonging her suffering is the only thing to do now. + I'm on my way up there to the hospital add that to it and that's where I'll be until until it happens 5/21/2020 approx 1030pm, Tammy passed away. because of the advanced state of her cancer, her lymph nodes cut off circulation to her kidneys by cinching the IVC. which feeds blood to the organs and her lower half. this evening before i made the decision to make her comfortable, and let her pass rather than let her suffer kidney and organ failure while on life support. She went in her sleep, loved and held as tight as i could.

24 hours later

So.  They will be moving Tam either to Anderson or Christ.   They still have not been able to get any good samples to identify type. But whatever it is,  it's late stage 4.
They want to start treatment but The wrong treatment could be worse than no treatment.  (I could argue that point with one word. How?)

Will know more after David meets with oncologist.  There was,  I think, (but I'm not sure) some mention of her seeing the kids before anything else happens.

To anyone wondering, Tammy told us,  while still competent,  that she IS going to fight this thing.  She has held to that decision even when not mentally composed.
That has been her expressed wish to any and every person it's been discussed with,  so far as I know.

Her family is following her directives,  even if  they haven't been formalized. (again an area where I am an outsider. )

SO much B.S.

Yesterday the governor of Ohio made an announcement That they were easing up on restrictions and allowing more places, more businesses to be doing more things and allowing more people.


This in general was met with sighs of relief -- as well as a lot of finger-crossing. People in situations like ours were hopeful but not convinced.

Once again, there was nothing specific or detailed about hospitals and other health care facilities.
But surely, if other, unprepped places are less restricted, those places with precautions and prohibitives already in place as a matter of business would also be doing so.

Wouldn't they?

And then this happened.


This came directly from my daughter's husband, David Ruhstaller, after we both received phone calls at 3 am. He went in response to the phone call. Forgive any spelling or syntax errors -- this was written under/during great duress.
(I stayed with the children.)

From Dave Ruhstaller:
I got a call a little bit ago from monarch meadows saying that Tam has been sent to Adam's regional medical center for low blood oxygen levels and basically being incoherent and borderline unresponsive at times Upon arrival I was given the run around about seeing your wife they had me do the normal thing of putting her information in signing for her and had me wait and lobby for 25 minutes or so before I even talked to a nurse and before I talk to that nurse to Japanese word called in to see if I was going to be a problem because while I was doing Tams information they said we can't let you back there so I don't know what we can do I said like funk I'm not going to see my wife apparently that stared them enough to have through deputies come out while I was standing at the door waiting to be led back to see Tam After a few minutes of talking with them I was led back to see Tam for maybe 10 minutes at most before they pulled me out and put me outside so they can put the said drawing in her hack she basically can't speak she's incoherent I don't even know what she's saying. After going outside a deputy tells me that I should sit in my course so I'm at least close by and that if they were to requested he would have to eject me from the property because me being back there can cost someone their job to which I responded I'm sorry their job is more important than being with my wife before she goes
Now I'm sitting up here in the parking lot and every 20 or so minutes a deputy comes role in through here to make sure I'm still in my car

Who's Ruling the Hospitals?

There is a distinct divide in policy and opinion over who is running what and how during this pandemic.
There is an immense schism in communication.

If you ask the hospital (or nursing home, or rehab center, etc) if they are allowing visitors, they say No. Not Yet.

If you ask when they will be, they say that that is up to the government.

If you ask the government offices, they say that that is up to the discretion of the institutions. They are, to some degree, making their own decisions.

If you tell the gov people that the health office people say its not up to them, but to the government, the gov people say, "Oh, they've just misunderstood."

Well, whose job is it to make them understand?
Whose responsibility is it to clear up communication problems?
Who (else) do I have to call to get an answer other than "somebody else"?

I don't mind, really, that there are rules.
I don't even mind that the rules, by necessity, are rather loose as far as dates and times and such.

I do mind that the government offices are uniformly giving one type of answer, and the health institutes are giving a completely opposite answer.

I have talked to different levels of government.
I have called toll-free ask-a-question numbers.
I have called automated numbers, left an automated message and received an automated response.

I have called, just to see, different types of medical establishments.
Just to see what differences different types of places with different goals and priorities were doing differently.

I got the same types of answers from the two categories.

Who do I have to talk to to be able to see my daughter before she (probably) dies?

I'm NOT the only one wondering.

I am asking for all of us.

Does anyone have an answer?

Do It NOW

Don't wait.

This was going to be the summer things got right for Tammy and her family.
This was going to be the summer we'd be able to do day trips and weekend getaways. There would be time (carefully arranged) and money (little, but enough)

And then the world shut down.

But before the world shut down, my daughter, 32 years old, mother of two, went to the hospital because she could no longer stand the pain in her back and the swelling in her leg.


She was admitted on March 29, her son's 7th birthday.

Her last day home.

We have not seen her since.

We will probably not see her again. Ever.

Barring a miracle, which could happen but by its nature is unlikely.

She has no diagnosis, no treatment, no prognosis of her disease.

The labs are backed up and all their efforts are fighting this coronavirus. EVERY other ailment, illness, or disorder has been shoved aside.

Now, I understand that it is a "good of the many" situation, and the many are, and should be the priority in an impersonal way, but I'm having a hard time understanding why everything else is being shoved into a corner, swept under the carpet, etc.



THERE WILL BE NO DAY TRIPS as a Family.
No weekend getaways.

Not with her; not for her.

If you have a healthy child, hug her.
I can't.

If you have a beautiful daughter, fill your eyes with her.
I can't.

If she's talking and driving you nuts, going on and on -- listen to her.
I can't.
My daughter can no longer speak.

It's been six weeks, barely, and my girl has vanished from my life.

From her husband's life. (But not really. He still has the burden of decisions when they will need to be made.)

From her children's lives.
Need I say more?




So, if you can, follow up on those plans. Do IT. Go THERE.
You may not get another chance.

From Tammy's Husband.

For those who are not in the know. i am getting a lot of questions that i keep getting wound up answering over and over again.


Tammy is in hospital, and has been for a bit over a month.

initially because of her leg swelling and anomalous blood work.

that was determined to be a set of lymph nodes swelling. at first things didn't seem too outta place. but to be sure further testing was done...
a few biopsies, a battery of tests, then moved a few times.
Its determined that Tam has a cancer that developed in her lung/s, liver, thyroid, pelvis, and to an extent, lower spine. As well as the lymph nodes in those areas. it has been very aggressive, and her oncologist is not optimistic.
put simply, Shes dying.
Its progressed so fast that it's outpacing the tests and the results. It went from swelling in her leg and anomalous blood work, to her current condition inside of a month. And they still don't know what kind it is. so treatment is not happening right now. On top of being alone the whole time and results delayed from labs due to this sars2 horse shit. so the process is slowed down and the odds are stacked against her.
she is at Cleremont mercy in the efforts to fight it. but is awaiting diagnosis from DNA testing on the biopsy from her liver.
then her treatment can start.
she needs her rest and is medicated. so she doesn't want to be blown up. and calling isn't really an option as her ability to speak and be heard is seriously hindered.


I'm putting this up here because there is a lot of questions and a lot who want to be kept in the loop. updates will come as they are available.

my Tammy

Tammy has cancer. Everywhere. She has only been ill since March 29. Today we discussed -- over the phone because quarantine -- how to treat her final days. They have not been able to identify the type of cancer, and the way it is running through her, IF they do get the chance, it will most likely be too late for any effective treatment. Practically, it probably already is too late. She has cancer in her spine, her pelvis, her thyroid -- she can no longer swallow --and in her lungs and her liver. She is starting a pneumonia which is probably from aspirating something. She is hallucinating and not always all there mentally. She is currently in Clermont hospital for the pneumonia. The plan is once that is taken care of, she will come home. I can only hope it happens, because they are still allowing no visitors and oh my god we dont want her to die alone.

What Is Essential?

Once, the things that were essential were as obvious as they were hard to come by. Water, food, shelter, heat, clothing, family.

Now, and for a long time,it has taken more than a cave or a few trees, a river, and a garden to provide these things. As we have learned to live with more people in less space, our essential needs have to be provided by others. Food is shipped, water is piped, fuel is distributed, clothes are made elsewhere, and the people we live among may be complete strangers who behave, well, strangely.

With a pandemic going on, many places have shut down all non-essential services.

If you go driving through our towns and cities, you see very few businesses that have actually closed. Those businesses are likely to be privately owned, personally run largely unstaffed family-owned businesses.
Some families last desperate attempt at continued survival in a world where someone else is in charge of supplying the necessities.

All the businesses are essential to someone. 
All stores have a niche market for their goods; all food places have a demographic, all shops have a clientele.

But do all the dollar stores need to be open? (Yes, if you want/need inexpensive goods while unemployed or working reduced hours.)
Does every McDonald's need to be open, when sitting on a strip of road that also has Wendy's, Arby's, White Castle, Skyline , and others, all sitting nicely in a row just waiting to feed the hungry?  (People still need to eat, and there are many people who cannot or will not cook, for whatever reasons. And why should Wendy's ask McDonalds to be the one that closes, the one that loses during this type of a shutdown? Who chooses, if not the customers?)

Do crafting and hobby shops and hardware stores and home improvement centers need to be open? (Yes, if you need to keep people occupied and busy. Yes if you need home repairs done, if something needs fixed.)

And the truth is, this fierce competition to be needed has in many cases and in many places prevented the price gouging that so often comes with shutdowns.
Lord knows, there are people who went our and created a false demand -- or at least, a false lack of supply -- for specific products.

But, because we do have good supply chains and ingenuity, those people are now stuck with their greedy proceeds and no outlet for them.
And it is the competitive  services that are, for the most part, holding prices steady.

There are some businesses that are non-essential except in some circumstances, for some people. Many of these, such as beauty salons have adapted. If you really need to be beautified, you can usually find a place that will make an appointment just for you, or for a select few. And whether the need is physical (perhaps a skin scrub to prevent acne that becomes infected) or mental (sometimes you want to stab that ugly person in the mirror), it is still a need.

But who gets to decide if you're on the brink of collapse or not? Who gets the right to tell you you have to be unkempt another day?

Who should be deciding who can work and who must close, when there are several places offering the same products and services, and equally as important, providing price controls?

It seems that someone should be, yet why should any one body wield that kind of power? 
That isn't right.

I don't know the answer, especially in these small world, big city days.
In small towns, in villages and hamlets and crossroads, if there are competitive services, maybe they could take turns. Mondays for McDonald, Wednesday for Wendy's. But they -- the business owners, the chambers of commerce, the 'ruling agencies' -- would need to be scrupulously fair, and that could be difficult in ordinary circumstances. It is certainly an extraordinary chore when face to face meetings and around the table handshakes and smiles, nodding heads, etc are not part of the conflict resolution.

No, I don't know the answer.

I just wish someone(s) did.

Constantly Changing.

The situation with this coronavirus (COVID-19) changes every day. If there isn't always new news, there are always new rumors.

Always.

2 days ago , gastric symptoms were added to the cases of the infection.

1 day ago, it was suggested that pinkeye (conjunctivitis) may be becoming yet another manifestation of this illness.

There have been rumors from the beginning about pets (dogs especially) having and spreading the virus. People have been dumping and abandoning their dogs in record numbers, (shame on them) although there has been, as yet, no proof of truth to this rumor.

I did see one item about the first case diagnosed in a dog. It was a reputable source, but it was one source only. No confirmation, no accreditation, and no spread of information. I am also unable now to find the original article, so it may have been pulled.

It's easy, and possibly optimistic, to think these reports are being inflated by the politicians and spread by the mindless media. Every time it starts to look as if we're getting a handle on this thing -- some kind of control -- here they come with another wave of hysteria and histrionics.

But let's take a minute.

Let's think a minute.

What if this rapid mutation and constant adaptation is what first had the specialists watching it so closely to start with?

What if the viral infectious disease as first noticed was never the reason or the problem?

What if it was the mutability?

What if it was the adaptation?

What if it's been the possibility of it becoming that is what the WHO (World Health Organization) first noticed, and they alerted the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and just said "Watch this. Look what it is doing."?  

What if those organizations said the same to the governments they answer to, and said governments said "Meh. It's another flu."

And the WHO and CDC are saying, but look, watch out, and no one would do that?

This virus has already crossed species.

If the unsubstantiated dog story was true, or the rumors, then it has once again crossed species.

This virus already accelerated (mutated) from an upper respiratory infection into a pneumonia.

This virus has adapted from the respiratory system to the digestive system.

This virus is destroying senses. Loss of taste and smell are becoming more common reports. Not a big deal, on its own. Those senses are affected by colds, so maybe it's been there all along.

Or maybe not.

Now the theory exists that the eyes may be affected by yet another adaptation.

Is that a move into the central nervous system?

Could it be a move into the brain itself?

One thing is for certain. This particular coronavirus is a survivor. It's doing everything to keep itself alive and reproducing. 

And that is why we are having to both observe and avoid it. 

And let us hope we have a reasonable population that can out-mutate it.

We will survive. 

(Probably)

But there may be many who do not adapt to this before it adapts to us.

Pandemic Pandemonium

In just two weeks, our world has rearranged and changed. Priorities are different. They have become, as it has not been for a few decades, about survival itself.

There is a plague. Not THE literal plague, but a plague just the same. Global governments are doing a balancing act between shutting down and taking over. Some are doing well; others not so much, but they are trying.

A lot of people don't "believe" in this illness, named COVID-19. It is being caused by a coronavirus that has a few different names. SARS2; novel coronavirus are the two that come to mind.

"They" are saying now that the illness has been around; that they were warned. Most of the population doesn't believe this.

The general public doubts the reality of COVID-19. They doubt the death rate -- flu kills more by percentage. An ill person is more likely to have a cold than a corona. The media is spreading hysteria. The states and cities are in on a conspiracy. The disease has been around since November, only no one knew it. It wasn't bad then; so it can't be that bad now.

I agree with some of these thoughts.
But do you know what?
It doesn't matter.

At this point, it doesn't matter.

Hysteria or conspiracy, the only way we are going to get out of this is by complyng. It can be a reluctant compliance. It can be a rebellious compliance. It can even be malicious compliance.

But the sooner everyone -- and I mean every single one of us -- complies, the sooner the conspirators will be disarmed and there will be no need for spreading propaganda.

If there is disease, it will be stopped in its tracks.
If there is no disease, they will be stopped in their tracks.

Please.
I want to see my grandchildren.
I want my grandson to have a fantabulous birthday party. (not gonna happen)
I want to go to the store and buy hamburger and toilet paper.
I want to walk in the parks and along the streets and be able to stop and speak to people I know and those I don't. Yet.

We have the power to end this.
By doing what we are asked, before it becomes what we are told.
By closing the doors of our homes from the inside, before they are closed for us from the outside.

Let's stop this illness in its tracks.
Let us defang and declaw it.
Let it starve to death for lack of fresh victims.

If it's not real, no one will be harmed.
If it is real, many may be saved.

Let us pause in the race for the dollar.
Let us pause in being best, first, leader, boss.
Let us become ourselves.
Let us enjoy ourselves.
Together.

KILL THE CORONA!