ellenspictures

Category: Climate Changing Signs

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
January 24, 2022
the balance and Katrina was a cakewalk compared to this…

OK folks, day by day, this experience (better to call it for what it is) is unfolding. Observing the culture, so many things have been re-arranged. Seriously. Priorities shift attitudes. Truth. Humans change in attitudes as they are submitted to more and more change. Truth.

Change is happenin’. Dynamic, by the minute change. On one hand, we have the numbers – not as accurate as we would like, but enough to chart the scary trends and who is doing what that works… Let’s say we can believe our friends in Singapore and South Korea. As draconian as their measures might be assessed by some of our asshole fellow-citizens, driven by racism as their numero uno priority, and of course, just being generally angry… What S. Korea and Singapore have done has worked pretty well at “flattening the curve of the outbreak”. Also, they had some pretty sophisticated and clever ways to test people without exposing their medical workers. I am in AWE of that shit. Seriously.

But, here in this country that is supposed to be civilized, we have ZERO leadership that is moving between Keystone Cops and some skit out of SNL. We have the grand poo-bah looking more confused every time he gets on TV for his “press briefings”, even today slipping in some reference to his experience with models (and not of the mathematical type). What a freak. Can you believe it?

Then there is his “Senior Advisor” son-in-law, that looks like some sort of ghost and of course, he’s trying to throw what little weight (and brains) he has around to make himself look important – well the Dumb-Ass leader puts his son-in-law in charge of “supply chain” for important medical equipment. Oh. My. God. The dude gets up and says that the “stockpiles are for the US government, not the states”. OK, shit-for-brains, since you escaped having to take American history or political science classes, what the hell do you think that the “government” is vs. “the states”? Oh boy. We are in true deep doo-doo that is getting deeper by the minute.

All that I have to say about this right now is “that this is some weird shit.” Taken from our former President George W. Bush from his statement at Trump’s inauguration.

God, I even miss that guy… he would have done a better job, even though at the time I thought HE was useless… he was quite better at his job, actually – and at least he wasn’t shameless like this *wad. Sorry, I really must curse here. It makes me feel a bit better and for the record, we have some scary stuff to get through over the next few months…

I’m praying for survival – praying for my family and friends and most of all – praying for a merkle (miracle).

-Hope Never Vanishes -ellenspictures- April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020
observations. squeezing or collaborating?

Competition. Humans are hard-wired to compete. It is in our DNA as we have evolved into more sophisticated competitive spaces – for all of those streams that give us the ability to survive, at the most basic innate levels, we have various mechanisms inside us that drive us to compete.

Populations are growing. Food, water, and shelter sources are threatened. Weather is becoming more erratic and threatening to human populations. What we are witnessing is change. Fractional evolution going backwards to more tribal less global.

Why is this? Economic. Oppression. Suppressed feelings from ages back where our ancestors held rage and the festering over generations occurred to this point. License to rage by leaders who rage.

Where are we now? Facing serious historic changes – and it is happening everywhere. Some places more dramatic than others. Where are we headed? This remains to be seen.

For every dismal forecast, there is the forecast of the possibility of hope. When we are at our lowest points, we have fewer expectations for the broader scope. Small steps towards hope vs. large leaps towards some nirvana. Perhaps more down to earth. More realistic.

People without food or resources see any food or resources differently than those who say, “What shall I cook for dinner tonight?” Children without toys, see imaginative play in any object whereas children with many toys get bored easily at times because they are overwhelmed with choices and their minds are numbed to be able to make them.

Nothing like something life threatening to crystallize your opinions about the value of life – and what comes after. On a spiritual journey some of us have gone down variant paths to find that the journey we thought we were on wasn’t what we thought it was. Lose your religion? It happens. Looking for birds of a feather? It is deep within our human core to seek out other humans to enable ourselves to feel less lonely. Yet loneliness can occur even if you are with someone if there is distance or estrangement.

Now more than ever, we need to have the capabilities to be prepared for what happens next. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that “everything will be all right” when suddenly, it looks as if our worst nightmares are coming true. But hope and pleas for sanity to prevail are two things that we who see the situation for what it is to be, carry around within our selves and act upon.

It is a dark time. Zero Dark Thirty. Not quite the 11th hour, but that will come soon. Despite sunny days, it is dark right now. What we hope for is that there will be light after the darkness.

January 21, 2020