Dadgummit! Dadgummit! Dadgummit!

 

 Late last week, my daughter came down with bronchitis.  Our family CRNP listened to Kareema's symptoms and prescribed a 5-day antibiotic regime, which, in the past, has always worked licketty-split to knock out infections such as this.  (Kareema is prone to bronchitis, every year about this time.)  On Friday, after there was no improvement, our doctor asked how soon could she get to urgent care.  I waited out side for her.  

Doc did a covid swab and told daughter to finish the antibiotic.  She (doc) would call as soon as the test results were in, in 3-5 days.  Doc called today; daughter tested positive for Covid.  I could hear her ask Kareema how I was doing.  I had a cold, with low-grade fever, started Saturday night, but nothing else.  Doc wanted me to stop by for a swab right away.

I knew it was only a head cold. 

I was wrong.

Dadgummit!

We thought we were safe because we diligently followed the CDC protocols.  For the most part, we were...until we weren't.

We will continue to follow CDC guidelines.  Donovan, who is in a tech school, will not be allowed near us for two weeks.  He planned to come home for ten days, but cannot now. We all are disappointed but realized it's better if he doesn't.

My "cold" started Saturday afternoon, so, technically, I am now Day Three into this new adventure.

I wish you all a Covid-free holiday season, on through to the end of this mess.

Bless you all!

Martha

No Words of My Own

 Emmolation of America

  Another four o'clock in the morning; can't get to sleep yet.  I try not to watch news stories; can't fix anything.  I stare out the windows of my daughter's fourth-floor apartment, watching the night trains roll by  The apartment shakes from trains on the closest track, twenty yards from the building.  I feel detached, isolated; numb.

Jumbled thoughts rule my brain; nothing makes sense, there is no order to any of it.  Everything is raw, bloodied and bruised.

I seek solace in music.  Solace isn't the right word: distraction, probably.  This morning the song is "It's Been Burning for a While"  by Chris Pearce.

Outside the morning bird choruses are beginning; time to go to bed.

1030AM, with first coffee of the day before I go vote: WORDS OF WONDER

On a Different Note

 

Thank you, Mr. Bush 

 There are times when partisanship has its place, but now is not that time.  Now is when we need encouraging messages from anyone who can put party politics aside and reach out to all of us, regardless of where we live.

I found this video clip this afternoon and was lifted by George W. Bush's message.  I hope that you might also find it encouraging and find hope in what he has to say.  This how I think a president should speak to us, to help us reunite and work together to rebuild our country.

(In case any of you wonders, I consider myself a Democrat, though I tend to vote for the person and not the party.  I voted for GWB the first time he ran because I didn't want anyone connected to the Clinton administration back in the White House.  Then I listened to Barack Obama's keynote address at the Democrat convention and realized he had to be president, even though he wasn't running that year.  I wrote in his name in 2004; was thrilled the following election to help put him in office in '08.)

Getting Through Today

Like millions of others around the world, I live with clinical depression.  On bad days, if I am momentarily clear-headed enough to think outside my uncontrolled, self-imposed misery, I wonder how those others get through their tough times.

One thing that helps distract me from my omnipresent Unseen is laughter; the belly-shaking kind from watching stupid movies or drunk squirrels videos or listening to musical parodies.  Political parodies reign supreme.

To paraphrase Rod Serling, I gathered and submit for your approval/amusement the following videos from YouTube (not all are comedic, some are tributes):

1. DIE, DIE CORONO VIRUS/FAUCI
2. QUARANTINE SONG/TRUMP 
3. STAYING INSIDE/BEE GEES  
4. THE VIRUS SONG/BEATLES 
5. CORONA BATTLE SONG/SIMON&GARFUNKEL 
6. WE DIDN’T START THE VIRUS/BILLY JOEL/MASSIVE OZ
7. GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP/CUOMO/TRUMP
8. GOD ONLY KNOWS/FOUNDERS SING/BEACH BOYS

May laughter fill your dark moments throughout your days.

(I owe several of you responses to your previous comments.  Let me say now, in case the Unseen interferes with answering you yet again, that I deeply appreciate your comments, which let me know you are still here and doing relatively well.  I am cheered by reading your blog posts and your comments.)

Martha

Reaching out.

...and touch somebody's hand-i-work...

I've been staying with my daughter for the last ten months and have felt disconnected from the rest of the world, especially after the quarantine began.  In fact, depression is my constant companion, leading to more flare-ups of PTSD than I've had since it first blindsided me in 2013.  I haven't reached out to my blogging friends in so long, it seems I don't even know how anymore.

Yesterday, friend Francesca surprised and amazed me by sending a mask she made for me.  I was at work, the one day that I may go in to the office, since the historical society is closed down for the duration of the COVID-19 siege.  Before going in, I dropped by my house to see if I had any mail.  Didn't look through it until I got to the office.  That I had any personal mail at all was a nice surprise, but that it was from a blogging friend was even better.

Then I opened the package and burst into tears.  Fresca's gift spoke volumes of her friendship and concern for friends during this terrible time.

While I can't "reach out and touch..." her hand, I can touch what her hands made...and what her heart felt in the making.

Thank you, dear friend. 

Here we go again!

Hands up!  I surrender!

Aww, Bernie...again?  What the hell?!?

This is the political version of the boy who cried wolf, only the candidate cried, "I'll save us!  Vote for me!  Believe in me.  My plans will work for everyone.  No one will be marginalized or left behind!"

I doubt I'll be around to vote for a candidate I can believe again.  I feel like it's the Hillary choice (no choice) farce again.