Coronavirus prep
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I was at the store yesterday and there was a full supply of everything, especially meat (of course, it was a meat market). I felt compelled to avoid a few parts of the store (I'd intended to get some more frozen berries and veg, but someone was always hanging out at that area so it was hard to avoid). From what I've heard, the mainstream groceries and TJs are pretty normal but that TP still tends to be low later in the day (I really don't get why that is continuing to be an issue).
When I briefly went to MBA school, it was a marketing platitude that typically 20% of your customers use 80% of your product, generally.
Now, huge numbers of people who normally go out to workplaces daily are staying home. Substantial numbers of the 20% of people who've used 80% of the supply are now using home TP instead of industrial-roll TP.
When I was last at Costco (3 weeks?) home TP was out of stock, but there were still cases of the bigger industrial rolls. Coincidence?
(
<== please note LOLs, and refrain from arguing the point logically. I'm joking. Mostly.)
ETA, with some extra : Not two minutes after I typed the above, I heard an NPR story (on All Things Considered) in which they mentioned that the shift from workplace to home TP was probably one (small) factor in the TP demand, though far from the most important one. Weird coincidence!
I realized earlier this week when I was putting a new TP roll on the dispenser that I really didn't have a good idea how long a roll lasts me -- I would have guessed two or three days. It's not something I ever worried about before. So I made a note in my phone of the date I changed it, and discovered today that it had lasted me four days. So my supply is going to last me 1.33X to 2X longer than I was guessing, which is good news.
I've now gone three weeks without grocery shopping. Other than fresh produce (down to two or three mandarin oranges, a few carrots, and four or five yellow onions, a couple of which are starting to sprout -- they had a BOGO sale when I bought them), I'm really not running out of stuff yet. I guess I've been shopping for this for years.
I was thinking of holding out one more week, when I'll probably be getting low on dairy too, and then go to see what I can find. I'd been thinking about getting ham of some kind for my home-alone Easter, but from some of the posts on here, it sounds like I might be overly optimistic. Maybe I'll find some canned or frozen pineapple and I can open a can of Spam (spiced ham in a can) and see what I can make out of it.5 -
The pneumonia vaccine won’t directly protect against pneumonia caused by Covid-19. However, it can protect against pneumonia complicated by secondary infections, which as I understand it are a major contributor to death from Coronavirus.Diatonic12 wrote: »'Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against the new coronavirus?'
No. Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus.
The virus is so new and different that it needs its own vaccine. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, and WHO is supporting their efforts.
Although these vaccines are not effective against 2019-nCoV, vaccination against respiratory illnesses is highly recommended to protect your health.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Thanks for the previous replies.
This particular answer does seem like more doubletalk in some ways. Sigh.
Pneumonia is just a type of lung infection. It's a very broad term. There are many things that can cause lung infections (various types of bacteria, viruses and even fungi). According to one source I read, there are more than 80 bacterial causes of pneumonia, alone (not counting viruses, fungi).
The "pneumonia vaccine" protects against some of the common bacterial causes of pneumonia (not all, I gather it protects agains 20-some of the 80-some).
Coronavirus is a family of viruses, with different members of that virus family causing different diseases that have varied symptom sets. (Some versions of "the common cold" are caused by viruses in the coronavirus family, as I understand it.)
This novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a new disease to humans. One of the the things that can happen as a result of this disease is lung infection, i.e., pneumonia.
So, it's good to get the pneumonia vaccine to protect against the 20-some bacterial forms of pneumonia. But it won't protect against pneumonia caused by coronavirus.
Does that help sort the double talk at all? :flowerforyou:
However, given the likelihood of encountering plague in a healthcare setting right now, I would think if you’re not already vaccinated your safest bet is staying at home as you are.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »Good piece on cursive and differences: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you
This is pretty much what I was thinking of. Cursive writing isn't some kind of universal writing beyond the ages. I have a whole bunch of stuff from way back when from my dad and I can barely make it out...I read cursive just fine...my cursive...the cursive I was taught in 2nd grade, not cursive from somewhere in the 1700-1800 hundreds. It mostly looks like chicken scratch to me. This notion of not being able to descifer something it's in cursive if our kids don't learn this obsolete skill is kinda funny. Like I said, I can read cursive just fine...just not that of the 1700-1800 and even early 1900s.
I'd personally rather my kids do things like learning to type, learning software, learning how to do online research, etc...its far more important than an antiquated writing style. I'm 46 and haven't penned a damn thing since bootcamp in 1993. *kitten* moves on.
I will just presume this gets a general disagree from *kitten* morons...I'm apparently on the full on disagree button...take care *kitten* dip *kitten*...interesting that you have no actual opinion or anything like that and you just click your stupid *kitten* button. Don't be a *kitten* *kitten* and actually say something *kitten*...*kitten* cry babies...
You had me until your last paragraph, with its wide-scatter preemptive-strike insults, which I disagree with.17 -
T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.
From what we are being recommended here, it's not silly at all.
Basically, the more you drive around the greater chance of needing maintenance on your car, more fuel stops (potential contact with virus at the pump), more chance of breakdown or road accidents. If something happens, someone then has to risk exposure by going out to help.
We are expected to only drive to supermarkets/pharmacies/medical centres, or of course essential workers going about their jobs.
Unlike spiriteagle99's suggestion, we couldn't even get away with saying we are heading out for a hike...we are expected to only walk locally near our homes.
Though from the traffic on the roads when I walk the dog, I am sceptical that everyone is following the expectations.
This makes sense to a degree. But I know many cars are more prone to issues if left sitting too long. This is particularly true for my Prius and its hybrid battery. I've been going once per week for groceries and am nervous about not taking it out often enough. However, I just went for groceries and was able to find beef. I went to 2 stores as the first was limiting (maybe why they had some). They had none of the beef on sale this week (T-Bones), no surprise. And they were limiting to 2 packs of ground beef. The second store had no ground, so I ended up buying more expensive steak. So if this keeps up, I will be going 2-4 times weekly anyway.
Driving is not allowed here. It really isn't necessary in our case because we have a "corner store" culture. Most areas have at least one corner store that sells necessities within a reasonable walking distance. My area has 4 within a 500 meter radius, and more further down. Most products are available.
Because movement was limited from the beginning, the spread is limited here. Cases are found in localized clusters, and all but one case have been tracked down to their imported origin.8 -
Off topic, but: IMO a greater worry than cursive is that current-day records are not on paper, but electronic.
With each change in storage technology, records are lost. (An analogy is what happened to the then-sparse then-mostly-unimportant data when we moved from literal floppy disks to CDs/DVDs to USB storage, while upgrading our processing boxes along the way: Do you still have all your old household data, carefully transferred to the newer storage medium?)
If you believe the cloud-storage companies are converting every single thing they ever stored, forever, during tech changes . . . I think that's naive. (Yes, you may see all your data transferred. Did they transfer data from inactive/deleted accounts? Deceased account holders? etc.)
With each change in app fashionability, more data goes "poof". How about those MySpace pages? The older MFP logging data they said they'd dump? The photo-storage sites that have gone out of business? The blogging platforms? Social networks sites like Ning that are bye-bye? How will our great-grandkids read those?
Household records from history tend to be in family ledgers and record books. The online bills, blogs, photos, etc., that paint a similar picture of my household are spread all over the internet, and many companies aren't committing to leave infinite years of data out there. Historians will not have this data. (Are you thinking they won't care? They seem to care about analogous data from a century or two back.)
Furthermore, the electronic world has its own jargon, that will age and be near-untranslatable. Younger folks, how's your ability to interpret ASCII art? Will the future folks understand abbrevs? Emojis? (If you're not sure about some, you probably look them up online. Will that reference exist?).
Cursive gets people excited, but I don't think it's nearly as big a problem.
I think this is a valid concern. However, paper records tend to be ephemeral as well.
Only time will tell whether the accidents of fire, moving, and intervening generations just not giving a kitten have more or less impact on the preservation of history than the vagaries of electronic media. A whole bunch of people had webpages on Geocities back in the day, filled with what they considered important writing and original research. Most of it’s gone. But if those same people had been passing around typed manuscripts to their close friends, as used to be the case, most of those are gone too.
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If concerned, contributions to the https://archive.org/about/ and the wayback machine may be useful!
https://archive.org/web/4 -
I don't know what historians will fine about this particular time period, when they look back. I do know that a small group of very intelligent online friends--who typically have thoughtful discussions about social issues, politics, etc.--recently had a very long string about their dishwashers. I thought, "This is what someone studying life during the Great Shutdown of 2020 will find; people debating the merits of one dishwasher product over another."
In defense of another poster here, I found the comment "horrifying" to be hilarious.2 -
I wouldn't call it horrifying, but I do think it's a shame kids aren't learning cursive anymore. It's a task that requires a rare combination of creativity and precision. And beautiful handwriting has always made me 🙂. But it's a different world now, and hopefully some parents will still teach their children penmanship as a craft or a hobby.
While Virginia deaths are still comparatively low, hospitalizations are starting to rise faster. Locally in Central VA our numbers are still relatively low out in the boondocks. Was pleased to hear that UVA is participating in a trial that's already started for an antiviral. Fingers and toes crossed that they can come up with a treatment that will give people with symptoms a better chance of coming out unscathed!
This discussion interests me because it was only last year that some experts, here in Italy, were commenting on the death of cursive writing with the use of computers and cell phone messaging. Their concern was that cursive writing triggers something in the brain and is important for learning other things. That's roughly the gist of it since I found it interesting at the time, but don't remember all the fine points. Here, all 3 of my sons (even the two dyslectic) studied Greek and Latin in high school. Being American, I considered Greek pretty useless, but the educational experts don't agree with me. All three studied or, are studying Law. The oldest is a Notaio, as is my husband, and the other two are still studying. We'll see the outcome of all these intense studies.13 -
snowflake954 wrote: »I wouldn't call it horrifying, but I do think it's a shame kids aren't learning cursive anymore. It's a task that requires a rare combination of creativity and precision. And beautiful handwriting has always made me 🙂. But it's a different world now, and hopefully some parents will still teach their children penmanship as a craft or a hobby.
While Virginia deaths are still comparatively low, hospitalizations are starting to rise faster. Locally in Central VA our numbers are still relatively low out in the boondocks. Was pleased to hear that UVA is participating in a trial that's already started for an antiviral. Fingers and toes crossed that they can come up with a treatment that will give people with symptoms a better chance of coming out unscathed!
This discussion interests me because it was only last year that some experts, here in Italy, were commenting on the death of cursive writing with the use of computers and cell phone messaging. Their concern was that cursive writing triggers something in the brain and is important for learning other things. That's roughly the gist of it since I found it interesting at the time, but don't remember all the fine points. Here, all 3 of my sons (even the two dyslectic) studied Greek and Latin in high school. Being American, I considered Greek pretty useless, but the educational experts don't agree with me. All three studied or, are studying Law. The oldest is a Notaio, as is my husband, and the other two are still studying. We'll see the outcome of all these intense studies.
I can believe that. Certain skills trigger certain brain functions. We become better or worse at certain things as our skillset changes throughout the ages.
Gaming, for example, can increase visual working memory and mental spacial rotation (like imagining a shape in your head and rotating the image to "see" different sides of it). We're better at this skill than we used to be, and some are better than others at it because of their skill set.
Plato was against writing because he thought it would affect memory. He was right. Humankind is collectively worse at exact recall and our long term memory is collectively worse. This is being made even worse by the internet. This doesn't mean "internet is bad", it just means that we are delegating some of our skills to new tools as we always have and acquiring the types of skills that benefit us right now rather than back then.12 -
I seem to have contracted something, possibly covid-19 (if so, very mild), and have isolated myself in a bedroom with it's own bathroom. I did groceries Mon morning at 9am, woke up at 2am with what I perceived to be symptoms. After failed attempts at falling back asleep, I set about isolating myself from the rest of the family.
We have a spare bedroom with its own bathroom that I moved into. I brought a spare kettle we had, a cooler with milk and frozen milk, a variety of shelf stable food including lots of fruit, coffee and tea, vitamins, toiletries, a laundry bin full of clothing, a humidifier, plates and cutlery, dish soap, and computer, phone, Fitbit, complete with chargers.
My daughter has made me a large meal every day, but other than that I've been fairly self sufficient. She brings me the meal on a paper plate that I wash and dispose of in a garbage bag up here. Dirty laundry goes in another garbage bag to be laundered when this is all over.
I'd read previously about caregivers needing to wear masks and gloves to empty garbage and do laundry, but who has that many masks? I'm happier storing it and looking after it all myself later.
I've gone outside in our backyard a fair bit. I hold a kleenex over my mouth with one hand and hold a Lysol wipe or just another kleenex in the other hand to open doors. I did a little gardening but I was somewhat headachy and didn't like having my head lowered, so I mostly just paced in a big circle around our yard, or sat in a chair reserved (in this situation) for me.
I actually HOPE that this was covid-19. In any case, I've allowed myself to think that perhaps I (and my family) would be part of the 80% who felt only mild symptoms instead of worrying that we could be one of the 20% that has to seek medical attention. I'm not so positive that I had it that I wouldn't still follow all the rules to protect myself and others, plus I'm a rule-follower anyway, but I'm facing everything with much less anxiety.
I wasn't certain how long I had to stay here, but I've been told by a friend whose brother is a doctor, in fact a doctor who is leading the charge locally against covid-19 and considered to be as close to an expert as we have, that two days after symptoms subside is adequate. I've read elsewhere that it should be a minimum of 7 days from when symptoms started. With mild symptoms it's not straightforward to tell what's what. Yesterday I felt great for most of the day then a bit headachy again in the evening. The last of my chest pressure (real or imagined) finished the day before already.
Today's my birthday and I guess we're going to use FaceTime or Messenger to celebrate a little. Next week we are planning to have a little more of a celebration (still just family), but just to be cautious, we'll do it outside. Maybe our new normal.23 -
I love that!!Chef_Barbell wrote: »Every day at 7pm EST... there is cheering out of the windows across NYC for the essential workers. It's touching and chokes me up.
WTH is up with your disagree-er?? Does someone have too much time on their hands or very irritated with the way of things now?? Go find something NICE to do.
And as far as the total number of disagree-ers through-out this whole thread, go have a damn cookie. Or something.7 -
rheddmobile wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.
From what we are being recommended here, it's not silly at all.
Basically, the more you drive around the greater chance of needing maintenance on your car, more fuel stops (potential contact with virus at the pump), more chance of breakdown or road accidents. If something happens, someone then has to risk exposure by going out to help.
We are expected to only drive to supermarkets/pharmacies/medical centres, or of course essential workers going about their jobs.
Unlike spiriteagle99's suggestion, we couldn't even get away with saying we are heading out for a hike...we are expected to only walk locally near our homes.
Though from the traffic on the roads when I walk the dog, I am sceptical that everyone is following the expectations.
Right, that was my thought, especially avoiding unnecessary accidents. I do have to eventually drive my car to keep it operational, so will go to a grocery store that's slightly farther than my closest ones when I do, but I understand that we are being discouraged from driving too (although I have no fear that I will be arrested for doing so).
There are definitely pros to both sides of that issue.
Some people do not do so well with such limitations set upon their lives, especially the ones who are more social, more active, anger and frustrate easily, need some kind of outside stimulation, don't have a wonderful home life, etc., etc. Dh and I got soooo bored and antsy one Sunday a couple weeks ago, we went for an hour ride. It shifted our thinking seeing new sites and hearing the birds, etc. Sure, going for a neighborhood walk might do the same but there are some people who cannot do that, like my 69 yo dh who is an overweight smoker and we live in the middle of a steep hill. There are many people who are very depressed to begin with; add a family or living alone(either way can be stressful)enter this scary situation and overwhelming virus and you've got a catastrophe in the making.
Fining people for taking a ride in their car isn't the answer, IMO. 5 -
just_Tomek wrote: »Easter is next week. I already did get my parents upset telling them I will not be coming over for breakfast / dinner.
Anyone else? How many do you think are going to stay home and not visit family / friends???
I usually host Easter and I am the Easter bunny as far as my neices and nephews preeteens all have known for their entire lives. My family will be having a zoom Easter dinner. We will eat lunch together online for Easter dinner. Don't tell my family but I intend to pull out an Easter bunny mask and join the family zoom in an Easter bunny outfit.14 -
Goldthistime....hope you're on the tail end of it and everybody else in your family stays well!
It sounds like you have a good plan for keeping it contained.
It's kind of strange how it can affect people so differently. We were video-chatting with our ds and his gf last night. She said a couple she knows has had it. The dh just felt very tired for a week but the wife got pneumonia(both are recovering), I wonder if our immunity protects us from developing it one way or another? It must.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Good piece on cursive and differences: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you
This is pretty much what I was thinking of. Cursive writing isn't some kind of universal writing beyond the ages. I have a whole bunch of stuff from way back when from my dad and I can barely make it out...I read cursive just fine...my cursive...the cursive I was taught in 2nd grade, not cursive from somewhere in the 1700-1800 hundreds. It mostly looks like chicken scratch to me. This notion of not being able to descifer something it's in cursive if our kids don't learn this obsolete skill is kinda funny. Like I said, I can read cursive just fine...just not that of the 1700-1800 and even early 1900s.
I'd personally rather my kids do things like learning to type, learning software, learning how to do online research, etc...its far more important than an antiquated writing style. I'm 46 and haven't penned a damn thing since bootcamp in 1993. *kitten* moves on.
I will just presume this gets a general disagree from *kitten* morons...I'm apparently on the full on disagree button...take care *kitten* dip *kitten*...interesting that you have no actual opinion or anything like that and you just click your stupid *kitten* button. Don't be a *kitten* *kitten* and actually say something *kitten*...*kitten* cry babies...
I hit the disagree button because I simply disagree with your point of view on the subject. Neither of us really have a say in the matter anyway, unless you work for the education department in setting policy for student learning standards. I thought I had already clearly stated my opinion, which is just that - my opinion. I hate to see any skill that lessens the ability of a person to be able to think and reason for themselves or to read what was stated in the past for themselves and not filtered through someone else's standards lost to an entire generation. I also don't see the point in trying to improve something that already works and has done so for centuries when it comes to arithmetic; though I understand that people perceive reality and non-tangible concepts in different ways, so teaching an alternative method that is more intuitive to them is not a big deal; its calling the old way "wrong" that irritates me.
In any case, I'm assuming you must have had a bad day that led you to resort to the name calling and cursing at the end of your post; hope your day today is better. Nice thing about this country; whether you think I'm a moron or not, we're both free to have our own opinions and I'm happy to see that you have the freedom to express yours in a way that you seem to think needs to be done; hope you have a happier weekend!
Meanwhile, on topic: my best friend and I definitely have to agree to disagree on the government shutdown. While I can't see how a complete economic shutdown can last for months, I see the need for it now in the beginning. She keeps insisting, thought, that its being blown out of proportion: Her words are "people need to take the emotion out of it. It's only killing 2% of the people it infects and that does not require the drastic steps that have been taken. We don't shut down the economy for heart disease or the flu? Why did we shut it down for this?" *sigh* There really is no reasoning withe some people. I cannot get her to understand that the death toll would have been way, way higher than 2% if we had not taken steps to slow this down, and the economy was going to be hard hit whether we did something or not; having 100,000 people die in a 2 month period because we did nothing at all would be just as devastating economically as the shut downs were, if not worse - and that's just a fact with no emotion involved whatsoever.
Further, I cannot get her to understand that the 2% is only the deaths due to the illness; that's not counting the deaths indirectly related to the illness because there wasn't enough medical equipment or facilities to handle everyone who needs them, both the COVID-19 patients and the other patients as well.10 -
If concerned, contributions to the https://archive.org/about/ and the wayback machine may be useful!
https://archive.org/web/
I love the waybackmachine! I've been able to resurrect several websites (I read amateur fiction and many of those sites have gone defunct when geocities went down). Though even the machine seems to be losing some things; there have been a few old links that I can't find at all.2 -
Goldthistime....hope you're on the tail end of it and everybody else in your family stays well!
It sounds like you have a good plan for keeping it contained.
It's kind of strange how it can affect people so differently. We were video-chatting with our ds and his gf last night. She said a couple she knows has had it. The dh just felt very tired for a week but the wife got pneumonia(both are recovering), I wonder if our immunity protects us from developing it one way or another? It must.
well, that's the thing with this being a novel virus: we have no immunity against it to protect us. With the number of corona-viruses out there, having antibodies against one doesn't apparent help against the next one that comes along; hence why there won't ever be a complete cure for the common cold, and why they have to reformulate the flu vaccine every year.
But in any situation like this, it seems that some people have a better response or defense against these sorts of things than others. There seems to always be a fraction of a given population who just seems to either not catch what is going around or who only has mild symptoms, while others are dying. Looking back in history at the various pandemics of the ages, from smallpox to diphtheria to typhoid to even tuberculosis and the black plague, all of which are serious, devastating diseases that spread and can wipe out a whole population, there are still records of survivors.
The good news with this virus is that while as much as 70% of the population will get it, 80-85% of those who do will only experience mild symptoms - their immune systems will quickly familiarize themselves with the virus as they're programed to do, deal with it, and move on. If you are healthy with no mitigating concerns, the likelihood is that if you catch it, its going to run its course and life will proceed as normal.
But its the number of people who DO have mitigating concerns, such as cancer, lung diseases, asthma, etc who are at the most risk. And even then its not forgone that they are going to have a serious case.
For anyone, yes, there is a chance that it could go bad, but there really isn't any good reason to dwell on the what-ifs and in fact, its harmful to mental health to constantly worry about the worst that could happen; its better to take sensible steps to protect yourself and your family and neighbors and not worry about the future or what may happen.
I'm not so worried about if I catch it; I'm the healthiest I've been in my life; I don't tend to catch things anyway - I can't remember the last time I had the flu - and I know that the odds are better than good that if I do get it, it will run its course in a week or so, and life will go on. Of course, I know there is always a chance that it could go bad, and I am taking precautions - I'd rather not catch it at all! But at the same time, while in all likelihood, I wouldn't have much of a problem with it, there are several people in my life who have a high to very high chance of it being deadly to them, from my dad, to my grandparents, and others. So I take precautions not just for my sake, but for theirs.
Such as passing by my grandparents' house yesterday on a walk. There are cases on the other end of the county, and I had been there the day before yesterday. While I was sensible while in that area, there is still a chance I was exposed, so I did not stop to visit; I simply waved at the house and kept going. my grandparents are 88 and 90 and both have several health issues even though they are still independent; I heartily don't want to be the person who passed this thing on to them! In fact, I can't imagine how one handles knowing that they gave this virus to others who died, especially in situations where the person who passed the disease along did so while defying the orders to isolate, such as these churches that refuse to abide by the rules.7 -
I love that!!Chef_Barbell wrote: »Every day at 7pm EST... there is cheering out of the windows across NYC for the essential workers. It's touching and chokes me up.
WTH is up with your disagree-er?? Does someone have too much time on their hands or very irritated with the way of things now?? Go find something NICE to do.
And as far as the total number of disagree-ers through-out this whole thread, go have a damn cookie. Or something.
Folks have nothing better to do...stuck inside and all. 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️2 -
Cursive triggers muscle memory and builds different neural pathways than "memorizing" alone. I can "carry the one" in my head for a few numbers if I am air-writing with my index finger. I have noticed lately that ability is less intact than when I was young--it was very reliable. I don't know if that is simply some type of age-related decline or failure to use the skill for many years. I had always, always been an excellent speller when writing--until the first time I went to write on a board as a teacher. I could not spell easily. Lots of practice since then means I am strong at spelling at the board now.
That does not mean that we "need" cursive, because other things work just as well. Typing the same word over and over would probably have the same effect as writing it; we just don't ask kids to do that anymore and we teach them instead to use spell checkers. Getting kids to check the dictionary meaning of a suggested word is a new skill and one which kids generally skip if they are just trying to get through an assignment. That's why we get "defiantly" when the student clearly means "definitely." But there have always been students who hurry through work, and that's a whole 'nother conversation.
With the learning power of the human brain and the limit of hours in a day, we seem to prefer--as a species--dropping old skills in favor of new ones. In grad school, I went through the process of learning to write at a keyboard after an entire education-through college--of drafting everything by hand and having it perfect before I typed it. Word processing programs made the revision process much easier than the literal cutting and pasting I did before, but I had to work at getting the creative process going when typing vs. writing in cursive.
As a teacher and historian, I have never thought that cursive changed that much; 17th-century script--when well-written--has been as accessible to me as 20th-century. The same with medieval manuscripts; I can easily recognize letters. Spelling and language are much bigger impediments to my comprehension. And having seen the VERY wide range of cursive among students in the 20th century when cursive was taught, I think that individual style, more than changing conventions for cursive, are what makes reading cursive difficult. And I thank god that students who have struggled with cursive and impenetrable handwriting have access to keyboards. Many children--boys in particular--learned to hate school b/c their teachers were not kind about their handwriting, and when when has fine motor deficits, no amount of scolding is going to fix it.3 -
Back on topic... The US federal government now recommends face coverings when going outside. Quite the change.11
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Thank you ReenieHJ.
Obviously, I have no special insight in how to battle it. Still, I thought I'd share what I did. First let me say that I wouldn't have said I have a great immune system. I have had a lot of illness in the last few years, so much so my doctor suggested we investigate. I had just finished doing a blood test (nothing showed up) and I had a scheduled appointment with a doctor who specializes in sinusitis. So I've been pretty nervous of covid-19.
Rest - The beauty of quarantine is that I'm completely stress free, able to rest as much as I want to, and nothing interrupting my sleep. During previous illnesses, I was still babysitting my grandson a lot (he was the one bringing it home from day-care or kindergarten). Plus I wasn't getting great sleep, partly because my husband snores.
Liquids - The bathroom is just two steps away, I can drink as much as I want. I definitely wasn't drinking enough during previous illnesses.
Vit C - I normally just depend on the fruits and vegetables in my diet to provide enough vitamin C, but I started taking Emergen-C and the chewable ascorbic acid pills when I got sick. I've read about the Chinese using vitamin C intravenously to treat covid-19 and there are those who promote megadoses (Pauling followers).
Fresh air/oxygen - Luckily good weather allowed me to keep my window open at all times, and I went outside when I could. I'd been reading (might even have been from a link in this thread) how the virus not only attacks the lungs but does something to the blood (kicks out the iron/ferritin from the hemoglobin?) that result together in decreased oxygen supply and that can ultimately lead to bad things (like organ failure).
Mild exercise - I paced a lot. I have a pulse oximeter, purchased because during one of my illnesses I felt like my breathing was dangerously affected, but had trouble deciding whether it warranted a trip to emerg. This was something comforting to have, and I highly recommend buying one of you're able. When we first got it, I'd been sitting on the couch for a while and someone handed me the pulse oximeter to try and I was shocked at how low my reading was. I've never gotten that low a reading again, and in my mind, it's because I always had to get up and walk to where we kept the pulse oximeter.
Nasal saline rinse - I squirted saline (Opti-free that I have because I wear contacts) high up into both nostrils in the first couple of days. I've read that tests are often high nasal swabs, and that people who ultimately do poorly can show 60x the amount of virus. I've never read an expert or anyone else advising this, but it felt like a "why not?".
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »I was thinking of holding out one more week, when I'll probably be getting low on dairy too, and then go to see what I can find. I'd been thinking about getting ham of some kind for my home-alone Easter, but from some of the posts on here, it sounds like I might be overly optimistic. Maybe I'll find some canned or frozen pineapple and I can open a can of Spam (spiced ham in a can) and see what I can make out of it.
It really depends where you live. Early on here we were low on paper products and pasta or other dried goods in some places, and dairy in others, but never in meat. And for us things are largely back to normal in the stores now (based on my one trip plus reports on NextDoor).3 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »I was thinking of holding out one more week, when I'll probably be getting low on dairy too, and then go to see what I can find. I'd been thinking about getting ham of some kind for my home-alone Easter, but from some of the posts on here, it sounds like I might be overly optimistic. Maybe I'll find some canned or frozen pineapple and I can open a can of Spam (spiced ham in a can) and see what I can make out of it.
It really depends where you live. Early on here we were low on paper products and pasta or other dried goods in some places, and dairy in others, but never in meat. And for us things are largely back to normal in the stores now (based on my one trip plus reports on NextDoor).
Things here in NYC are largely back to normal supply wise... just the way of shopping is so different.6 -
Chef_Barbell wrote: »
I love that!!Chef_Barbell wrote: »Every day at 7pm EST... there is cheering out of the windows across NYC for the essential workers. It's touching and chokes me up.
WTH is up with your disagree-er?? Does someone have too much time on their hands or very irritated with the way of things now?? Go find something NICE to do.
And as far as the total number of disagree-ers through-out this whole thread, go have a damn cookie. Or something.
Folks have nothing better to do...stuck inside and all. 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
And it could be an accident.4 -
Chef_Barbell wrote: »
I love that!!Chef_Barbell wrote: »Every day at 7pm EST... there is cheering out of the windows across NYC for the essential workers. It's touching and chokes me up.
WTH is up with your disagree-er?? Does someone have too much time on their hands or very irritated with the way of things now?? Go find something NICE to do.
And as far as the total number of disagree-ers through-out this whole thread, go have a damn cookie. Or something.
Folks have nothing better to do...stuck inside and all. 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
And it could be an accident.
Possibly... it doesn't matter to me either way. 🤷🏼♀️6 -
I read that a lot of renters didn’t pay their rent April 1st. Something to keep in mind. Property taxes are coming due soon and, at least in Minnesota, no grace period has been announced. Landlords have property taxes to pay on rentals too. I understand the reasoning, and sympathize, but please talk to your landlords, and homeowners, talk to your financial institutions. Everyone has financial responsibilities. No one knows how long this will last.14
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We received good(ish) news last week. The factory my husband works at is closed until at least April 19th, when they will reassess the situation and make a decision whether they will extend the closure. My husband thinks so long as the auto plants are shut down, his will be as well, since they manufacture OE.6
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »Back on topic... The US federal government now recommends face coverings when going outside. Quite the change.
Worries me a little bit. I'm still seeing way too many people just going about things as if they are on summer vacation...especially things like going to Walmart or Target just to get out of the house and browse. I'm hoping that this mask thing doesn't give more people a sense that it is ok to just be out an about because they have a mask on. I've already had a few people from work comment to me that if we have masks, we should just go back to work.8 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »Back on topic... The US federal government now recommends face coverings when going outside. Quite the change.
Worries me a little bit. I'm still seeing way too many people just going about things as if they are on summer vacation...especially things like going to Walmart or Target just to get out of the house and browse. I'm hoping that this mask thing doesn't give more people a sense that it is ok to just be out an about because they have a mask on. I've already had a few people from work comment to me that if we have masks, we should just go back to work.
I guess it's different elsewhere. Here, people are wearing masks and still observing social distance. Some folks have to learn things the hard way sadly.
ETA- They specifically say that the masks are not meant to be a replacement for social distancing. Just in addition to. If people ignore that, it has nothing to do with masks. 🤷🏼♀️7 -
Chef_Barbell wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »Back on topic... The US federal government now recommends face coverings when going outside. Quite the change.
Worries me a little bit. I'm still seeing way too many people just going about things as if they are on summer vacation...especially things like going to Walmart or Target just to get out of the house and browse. I'm hoping that this mask thing doesn't give more people a sense that it is ok to just be out an about because they have a mask on. I've already had a few people from work comment to me that if we have masks, we should just go back to work.
I guess it's different elsewhere. Here, people are wearing masks and still observing social distance. Some folks have to learn things the hard way sadly.
ETA- They specifically say that the masks are not meant to be a replacement for social distancing. Just in addition to. If people ignore that, it has nothing to do with masks. 🤷🏼♀️
It's only been a thing here for a few weeks and there were a lot of people that thought the governors response was over the top when we only had 3 cases...I thought it was very good and proactive but we've quickly gotten close to 600 now. Still, we are a very rural state and there are just a whole lot of people who think this is "city folk problems".7
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