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Saturday, March 28, 2020

Plague diary March 28


The freezer repairman came out first thing Monday morning, took some pictures with his cellphone (of what??) to "document" that the freezer is not working, and went away to order parts.  Later that afternoon they called to tell us the parts are on back order.  In other words, heaven knows when if ever they will come.  We went through the kitchen freezer to consolidate and pack tighter, and got a beautiful blackberry cake out of some of the stuff jettisoned. 

Gave away some meat to the children, thawed out a bunch of things for future use (good news: when you start at -30 it takes a long time before you really have to cook it).  Unplugged the new freezer.

When I reported this last week, Carol left a comment: "I would be calling the manager of the place you bought it and ask for a new unit.  Something is wrong in the mechanics of this one and it will probably stalk you all the live long days.  After two service calls the issue is beyond the serviceman.  Get tough."  Good advice, Carol, and I did call Home Depot.  The guy said to call the repair place Monday morning and see if they know when the parts will come, and if it's too far out, we can order you a new freezer.  Can you even get a new freezer?  I asked him.  Well, that's a good question, he said.

I have developed a new obsessive behavior, checking the Johns Hopkins coronavirus site once a day.  They keep a running total of cases around the world, updating the site every couple of hours, apparently.  My daily ritual is now to take a screenshot of today's map, then call up yesterday's screenshot to compare the two tables. 

on the left, Friday evening / on the right, screenshot of Thursday night

Some will think this macabre, but we all need our rituals, and often it helps to stare the danger in the face for a bit as an antidote to pulling the covers over your head.  It's here in the US with a bang -- on Thursday we topped China for the most confirmed cases in the world, and since we do so little testing, we probably have way more cases than the "confirmed" numbers show.  If nothing else, confronting the stark reality makes you more diligent about staying home and washing your hands.

If you have been worrying about virus on your groceries, you might want to watch this video, made by a doctor.  Although I wasn't really worrying until after I watched it...

the tag on this new little tree: "Magnolia Butterflies" -- what a great name!

We've been having beautiful weather here, unseasonably warm and sunny.  The trees are flowering everywhere; the breezes smell of new growth and spring.  People are out in the parks having a great time, walking in the neighborhood, not staying far enough away from each other.  They had to take down the basketball backboards from our parks because so many guys were out playing pickup, ramming into one another, breathing heavily and all touching the ball.  Would it be better for us all if it were cold and rainy and the call of the outdoors were not so loud?
 

4 comments:

  1. It is so hard...at the beginning, we were thinking 'thank heaven, we can still walk in our local parks', and were doing that, keeping respectful distance, until last weekend when the weather was very warm and sunny and everyone who does not live on the California coast came out and overwhelmed the tiny local towns. Now, all the public parks, beaches and trails are closed, and we are relegated to the streets of our town, which, fortunately, are empty of most vehicle traffic.

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  2. That blackberry cake sounds yum! I went to the supermarket for the first time in over a week. I cleaned, unboxed, washed & dumped contents into clean bags wondering if I was being paranoid. Instead of making me more worried, your linked video made me feel much better, and saner. Best wishes from Australia to you & your freezer ��

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  3. That freezer situation is out of control. Seriously. Just another way this virus has put our lives on hold.

    We recently had a few new locally owned restaurants open just before this hit. I hope they will be able to reopen when this is over.

    Our land buy is on hold. The office handling the deal is closed. So my Grandson started looking for land near ours. He found 134 acres with a nice house and two 2 bedroom trailers on it. Now we are thinking we will let the property go that we wanted and just move on his. This is probably a better deal...for us. Living on that much land should keep us safe if this virus hits again as predicted.

    I suppose one good thing that has come from it is that the pollution is a lot less. I wonder if it is helping the Global Warming situation.

    So here we are, sheltering in place except a trip to the store when necessary.

    Stay well
    xx, Carol

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  4. I agree that no-one can really know how many cases of the virus there really are. I have the virus, and am sick with every symptom except the respiratory ones that require oxygen or ventilators. I have ben in touch with our local dept of health and was told that if I start to have trouble breathing, to call an ambulance or go to emergency. Otherwise to ride it out at home. No testing, no treatment ( other than Tylenol). How many other people are like me across either of our countries. but I'm learning so many things trough social media, and I
    I've got several fibre art pieces planned and written down, while my DH does the cooking.

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