Category: disease outbreaks

  • there’s a lot that goes into going crazy AKA losing one’s sensibilities…

    there’s a lot that goes into going crazy AKA losing one’s sensibilities…

    I just don’t get it. It certainly seems like the world is going bonkers right now. The whole planet. One thing leads to another… As predicted it seems. I’m not as sensitive as some, however…

    The Doomsday Clock. Nostradamus. The Book of Revelations. The Farmer’s Almanac? Well maybe not the Farmer’s Almanac… but certainly, enough people are doing crazy stuff as well as our ongoing experience with “the virus” (doesn’t that sound like it’s out of some dystopian movie?)… Finger pointing and blaming. Scarcity. High tensions. Saber rattling. High stress. Anxiety. Good grief, we can’t ask what’s next, because “what’s next” could be really much worse than what was before!

    Salvador Dali’s melting clocks always come to mind.

    The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

    We’ve referred to the weather often on this site.

    Because if it isn’t hotter than hell, or what we imagine hell to be in terms of warmth, it’s either raining cats and dogs (sorry cats and dogs!), or snowing like it’s raining cats and dogs and burying everyone in snow, or flooding, and burying people, places and things in muddy silt which is worse than snow because floods pick up all kinds of “nasties” that later get deposited wherever as the water goes away, the mud and sand and literally “shit” stays behind in a toxic goo-like gluey stuff that gets hard and is hard as hell to dig out.

    Man oh man. Is there any good news?

    I would think that some of the Oscar winners are happy, but then there are always people that go, “oh, she shouldn’t have won that” or “him? why him?” or whatever… Debbie Downers.

    There is so much going on that is bizarre, none of it really funny – unless you think wild hog invasions could provide some sort of humor, or pythons coming north… Imagine – pythons getting into New York, then there’s another “hell freezes over event” – uh oh. Frozen snakes! At least they’re not on a plane!

    The worst is hearing of kidnappings, and the toddler playing with Daddy’s gun and shooting another toddler in the face, killing him (or her). A three year-old shoots a four year-old. What are these people thinking? They’re not thinking. That’s the trouble. Dumb, stupid, ignorant – pick one.

    More tragedy, more politicians deregulating guns, more after effects of deregulation…but, no – they are not truly “de-regulators”, they are regulating vaginas instead, or sexual preferences, or what kids can learn about history, or books related to certain subjects… It goes on.

    The cross-pollination of religion and politics. Our founders did not think that the two should mix. I think we know why they thought this.

    The people who have co-opted Christianity, taken it hostage, and are holding it for ransom… those who have created the “big friendly” mega-churches with the pastors who ride around in their Cadillac’s, Benz’s, or Rolls, or fly around on their own private jets… We pay for this with our tax dollars! Criminal!

    “Cowboy Church” where gunslingers come inside to worship. The most totally bizarre concept ever. Back in the day, there were… wait for it… missions and churches, and nobody called them anything but. What would they say now?

    Saying that they are “for the family”, when that is just a code-phrase – they are for THEIR family and that’s about it. The concept that they have in their heads of how they are “protecting life”, when the next moment, children are being slaughtered by crazed angry usually guys with military-grade weapons who can mow down multiple children and adults with them in less than five minutes. This is the complete hypocrisy of what these people who profess to be “conservative” believe. I think that they are master-manipulators, con artists, and snake oil salesmen…

    There are a great number of “good” Christians but, they are not in your face or across the news pages… That is not a part of being Christian, the flashy headlines, the constant recruiting, especially the grooming… Just saying.

    Something extremely self-righteous and pious about the chronically angry white conservative evangelical males (especially), and holier than though stuffed up Botox faced females (that’s even more irritating)… just rubs me the wrong way. It’s hard not to say something like, “get out of my face”, or “you’re really full of shit”, or just to test them, something in another language that they cannot understand. That’s not Christian behavior. That’s the hard part. Turning the other cheek. Keeping your mouth shut and watching it all.

    I know what my grandmother and my mother would both have said – and it’s not nice.

    OK, I’m not nice, then. Not about this, for sure. I’d rather just sit it out, the whole regular church-going thing. Holidays, I love to celebrate. I find meaning in those. My church, yeah. But to visit one of “those” churches where the shiny people present themselves as “Christian” yet underneath they are racist controlling awful personalities? Nah. Just to go and walk around and feel awkward amongst people who you don’t know and likely won’t ever – nah, that’s okay. I’ll stay home and avoid the close contact, especially now.

    Somehow the lines are not as distinct so much, not supposed to be, rather, but then they are. My mom and grandma would not set foot in a Baptist Church, a Church of Christ, or any of the “evangelical” churches. Only occasionally would they set foot in another non-liturgical church – but, they would go to a synagogue or a Catholic church before they would go to sit with the Baptists. Something must have happened to them one time or another. Something did to me. The taste never wore off after that episode. In my adult life I’ve been in other churches just a few times to weddings or funerals. I just try to avoid the stress and the conflicts that these experiences produce. Plus, they always have their hands out for money. Uh, that would be a no.

    Mixing Religion into Politics is a Destructive Recipe

    Anyway, religion hasn’t helped much of anything in our world that I can see. Greed has just about destroyed it. And the former president of the USA and several other former presidents of other countries who emulate him (or maybe he them?) are the epitome of all of these horrid character traits rolled up into tangled balls of hot mess.

    Right now with these extreme conservative thinkers (that’s an oxymoron for sure), they are hell bent to push their religion on everyone through legislating their morals, yes and it is indeed a weird mix. The combination of “freedom” with the 2nd amendment for everyone having a gun at their disposal no matter what type and who you are, to the high restrictions on women’s ability to control their own health and whether they have a pregnancy or not – this isn’t freedom – nor is freedom to be who you want to be whether you were born that way or not.

    These yo-yo conservatives (hah! actually extremists) want only certain freedoms that they want and they are very picky but, for other people not so much. Their interpretation of Christianity is as warped as we’ve seen interpretations – as if the whole time they profess their religion they have fingers crossed behind their backs. As if we’re going back to the dark ages, rolling back the rock to a time when everyone had muskets and women wore long skirts with lots of underwear. It’s truly bizarre with every headline you read, to think that these people are in control of a lot of stuff.

    It makes one wonder: if there is a God, what is God thinking about all of this? Is God just waiting until there is a certain point or line or polygon and then…

    We don’t know. But, thinking about it makes my head hurt and some days… It makes me feel very crazy – like am I the only one that thinks that all of this is extremely nuts? Hmm? Clowns. A bunch of clowns. And guess what, they really just want the power to push people around. I just want a sign that says, “Our governor is an asshole bully” and be done with it. But, don’t get me started… this time. I’m done here…at least for today.

  • Pandemic Version 20.22?  Entering Year Three…

    Pandemic Version 20.22? Entering Year Three…

    Favorite old phrase from a Neil Young song title… “Here we are in the years…”

    2022 kicked us off with one of us having a moderate case of COVID-19, Omicron Variant presumably. The rest of us were either mildly affected briefly, then asymptomatic. Some of us got tested and that is how we determined that we actually had the virus – else, our symptoms would not have driven us to be tested. That was the vaccination effect – according to our doctors, that is what the vaccinations do for us. Our moderate case likely would have been more severe, and could have become a hospital case, without the help of the vaccination immunity boosts.

    We didn’t lose our taste or smell, thank goodness, and our lungs were not impacted. The rest of it was headache, cough, sore throat, fevers and chills, and brain fog – then the residual tiredness that you hear about, that comes on suddenly and says “whoa, stop and rest…”

    The asymptomatic of us never lost energy, had fevers or chills, or were impacted any more than having a sinus headache and itchy eyes for one day, then a bit of stuffiness – but at the same time we had a high pollen count alert, due to the warm weather – so, who knows? We had both.

    It’s difficult now to say how to approach this. We continue to mask-up, avoid large crowds, don’t eat out unless it’s outside… We go outdoors and that is our haven. I find going into stores extremely stressful. I come out and am relieved to be out of there. People are weird and rude and it’s just a strange experience. Some without masks look defiantly at those of us that wear them. But, it’s hard to tell.

    We have the attitude that we will still do what we can, because we believe that we could get infected again. It’s like I feel about the flu – even if you had your shots, you may still get some variant that wasn’t in the shot. Vaccines for COVID-19 are different, but the main thing is to keep your immunity up as much as possible.

    If you think about it, it’s grim – but, there are those of us who try not to lose hope…

    We haven’t seen some our family for going on three years. One of us has parents, still living, that are advancing into their eighties. We have missed birthdays and will miss a wedding. My mother-in-law is very sad and breaks out tearily, but tries not to upset us, but this actually does bring on the emotions that are being kept inside.

    All sorts of prickly emotions happen these days. Adapting since early 2020 has meant more isolation, and less socialization, which really plays with how you interact with people. It’s very tough on some of us.

    We hear news that gives us glimmers of hope for what may be opening in six months – but that, we know, is really too far away to make plans – we now know that something could emerge in a short period of time that could change everything.

    Coping is Hoping

    What we now do is try to anticipate hopeful times. There are countries where this virus variant is just now arriving and spreading. Let’s say that we were third, maybe fourth in line… that leaves many countries at risk, and the virus will ravage their unvaccinated, and leave behind the vaccinated and those who would never get the virus or not know that they have had it – even though science says that most everyone will.

    We have to cope and anticipate what we have to do differently with every wave that comes along. We believe that this will be versioned and each version will require a slightly different surfboard to ride the waves – hopefully, we can still do that without falling off.

    Hope for 2022?

    • That our coping mechanisms will be refined.
    • That we will have better structures and rules to deal with this that can lend us the ability to travel confidently again.
    • That we will be able to travel to see family and friends more.
    • That we will be able to understand how better to bring fun into our lives, rather than the doldrums of work and everyday routines.
    • Anticipation of every visit from our grandchild, or friends who are brave enough to venture out and socialize with us.

    By this writing, we are still here. We hope to be here. I have health on my agenda. I swim every day that the weather permits. I try to eat healthy and do other things with my time towards health – because it’s up to me to do that.

    -Hope Never Vanishes

    January 24, 2022

  • 2020 – It’s Coming On Christmas… Santa, please bring us some peace from this nightmare… We can’t seem to wake up (yet).

    2020 – It’s Coming On Christmas… Santa, please bring us some peace from this nightmare… We can’t seem to wake up (yet).

    We just want some peace – please. This has been the craziest year – and it continues. Dear Santa, can you puleeezzze bring us some peace and relief – please let the new president come in without a hitch and please have this nutjob go off into some silent oblivion. It’s truly exhausting. Thanks in advance.

    apartment cabinet chair contemporary
    What has happened to “understanding”?

    The ongoing pandemic. The lies from the White House Oval Office current occupant who will not be there much longer, thank God. The lead-up to the election was brutal enough, but he just won’t shut the “F” up!

    The world-wide situation still looks rather grim. Where are we going, here?

    Christmas is coming. Can’t we just give peace a chance for once?