Pandemic: Life on the ground

[Res Ipsa]

Help I need an outlet and I need it quick! I just found out that one of the bubbles isn't secure. I'm devastated at this very moment! I mean like shot down, discouraged, and also kind of feeling a bit insulted by it. Like I just got punched in the stomach.

I will have to suck it up and figure this out now. I might have to rethink my approach for C'mas. My heart is broken. I need to get more information.

I’m so sorry. I know how excited you were about your plans.

[Jersey Girl]

Help I need an outlet and I need it quick! I just found out that one of the bubbles isn't secure. I'm devastated at this very moment! I mean like shot down, discouraged, and also kind of feeling a bit insulted by it. Like I just got punched in the stomach.

I will have to suck it up and figure this out now. I might have to rethink my approach for C'mas. My heart is broken. I need to get more information.

I’m so sorry. I know how excited you were about your plans.

I posed a few questions. I am afraid to see the answers when they come. I feel horrible. Just trying to hold on until I get some answers.

[Jersey Girl]

File this under--> just when you think life is poking along okay, the freaking bottom falls out.

Good news: Bubble is not broken.

Bad news: Two family members related by marriage. Sunbirds that have been hunkering down in godforsaken Arizona for two years now due to the pandemic. Husband age 70 (if he is a day) now hospitalized with Covid-like symptoms and waiting for test results (depends on who you hear from because 2 people are passing on information). This is bad. Really, really, bad. It's causing horrible stress for certain loved ones. If worst case scenario happens, wife is stuck and I mean freaking stuck.

Thanks for reading if anyone did and absorbing even a sliver of of our stress.

[Res Ipsa]

File this under--> just when you think life is poking along okay, the freaking bottom falls out.

Good news: Bubble is not broken.

Bad news: Two family members related by marriage. Sunbirds that have been hunkering down in godforsaken Arizona for two years now due to the pandemic. Husband age 70 (if he is a day) now hospitalized with Covid-like symptoms and waiting for test results (depends on who you hear from because 2 people are passing on information). This is bad. Really, really, bad. It's causing horrible stress for certain loved ones. If worst case scenario happens, wife is stuck and I mean freaking stuck.

Thanks for reading if anyone did and absorbing even a sliver of of our stress.

Damn. I am so sorry. If they’re waiting for test results, as opposed to rushing him to the ICU and intubating, that’s a good sign. It may be early enough for convalescent plasma to help prevent severe symptoms. Hoping he has mild symptoms and can be discharged soon.

My parents are in their 80s and live in the Phoenix area. I get this feeling of dread every time the phone rings.

[Jersey Girl]

File this under--> just when you think life is poking along okay, the freaking bottom falls out.

Good news: Bubble is not broken.

Bad news: Two family members related by marriage. Sunbirds that have been hunkering down in godforsaken Arizona for two years now due to the pandemic. Husband age 70 (if he is a day) now hospitalized with Covid-like symptoms and waiting for test results (depends on who you hear from because 2 people are passing on information). This is bad. Really, really, bad. It's causing horrible stress for certain loved ones. If worst case scenario happens, wife is stuck and I mean freaking stuck.

Thanks for reading if anyone did and absorbing even a sliver of of our stress.

Damn. I am so sorry. If they’re waiting for test results, as opposed to rushing him to the ICU and intubating, that’s a good sign. It may be early enough for convalescent plasma to help prevent severe symptoms. Hoping he has mild symptoms and can be discharged soon.

My parents are in their 80s and live in the Phoenix area. I get this feeling of dread every time the phone rings.

Thanks RI! So what we got were conflicting reports for most of the day and into the night. Conflicting in the sense that nothing added up and pointed to a specific diagnosis and as usual...it gave the impression that the folks there didn't know what docs were telling them or that they edited out information in an attempt not to stress out the family which of course only serves to stress out the family.

They have a history of both not understanding and editing out information. So there is that.

Patient is being discharged today with suspected flu or valley fever. Being tested for both before discharge. by the way, these folks are in Phoenix as well.

I know just what you mean about the phone ringing and dread. We have gotten "that" phone call in the middle of the night and without no prior warning nor preparation at all even when there could have been preparation and nobody told us what was going on. In the case of your parents, they are up in years so it's understandable that while you want to hear from them that particularly these days, you would cringe when the phone rings. I pray they remain protected from infection.

Every single American (and actually citizens globally) are dealing with their own particular set of stressors right now. In my view, we need to be pulling together as best we can instead of letting politicians pull us apart.

[Res Ipsa]

Amen

[Jersey Girl]

A quick appeal here in case anyone needs it. Do not shield your kids from impending tragedy. If you think a situation has the potential to tank, tell them the truth. Adult children can handle the unvarnished truth. Even the youngest can understand something.

If you edit your information to soften the blow, your adult kids will know when you are covering and they won't appreciate it.

In my view, stressing out is better than trauma. Write that down.

[Jersey Girl]

I wanted to say what I did about Christmas. I went to a gathering of 7 people total. I wore a mask the whole time except for 4-5 times when I uncovered for a few seconds to put food in my mouth. I spent most of the time sitting directly in front of an open window. All the first floor windows were wide open with a nice breeze. I had driven my own vehicle in case I felt I needed to leave. I didn't do that. I stayed right on about 2 hours. I kept my distance but I didn't avoid hugging my people and I did NOT ask the little one scooching up next to me to move away.

And when I got home...I learned that one of the hosts got a call directly after the gathering, that their bubble was broken by the friend of a friend and that there could have been possible exposure to a covid case.

After I stopped crying about it, I decided not to worry. If I end up getting sick, I'll try to fight my ass off like I would anyway.

[Res Ipsa]

I wanted to say what I did about Christmas. I went to a gathering of 7 people total. I wore a mask the whole time except for 4-5 times when I uncovered for a few seconds to put food in my mouth. I spent most of the time sitting directly in front of an open window. All the first floor windows were wide open with a nice breeze. I had driven my own vehicle in case I felt I needed to leave. I didn't do that. I stayed right on about 2 hours. I kept my distance but I didn't avoid hugging my people and I did NOT ask the little one scooching up next to me to move away.

And when I got home...I learned that one of the hosts got a call directly after the gathering, that their bubble was broken by the friend of a friend and that there could have been possible exposure to a covid case.

After I stopped crying about it, I decided not to worry. If I end up getting sick, I'll try to fight my ass off like I would anyway.

You were very careful. Thoughts of good health are winging their way to Colorado.

[Res Ipsa]

I have this picture in my head of COVID-19 circling around like a shark, picking off victims from time to time. And the shark spirals inward, growing ever closer. It first picked off some famous people that I knew from reading about them in the medium. It circled closer, taking parents of people I had met at some time in my life that I also followed on Twitter. It took one the mother of one of my friends on Thanksgiving day.

Yesterday it got much closer, killing the first person I knew personally. Her name was Kerstin. She was one of the kids I grew up with in the LDS church in Bellingham, Washington. I took piano and organ lessons from her mother for many years, and so got to know the family. The oldest daughter, Rachelle, was my age (our birthdays are on consecutive days) and we were friends for years growing up. Where Rachelle was quiet and a little shy, Kerstin was much more feisty. I liked her.

When I went to BYU, I became best friends with my roommate. We lived in the dorms, and expended a fair amount of effort getting ourselves invited for Sunday dinner with gals who lived in apartments with kitchens. I got ahold of Rachelle, and finagled an invitation for us. The met and almost instantly hit it off. She and my roommate eventually married and have been together happily since. I only half jokingly say that introducing the two of them was the best thing I ever have done, outside of my own family life.

The last time I remember hearing anything about Kerstin was right after I came home early from my mission. Someone told me that she was very upset about learning that I was leaving Mormonism. I never spoke with her about it. Over the years, Rachelle mentioned her a few times, but I never spoke with her.

I saw Rachelle's announcement on Facebook this morning and cried. We LDS kids were a pretty tight group growing up, and Kerstin is the first that I know has passed on. It also the closest that the coronavirus shark has come to me, striking at someone who was part of my formative years. It's still circling, spiraling inward. I know it will come closer before it swims away.

When death strikes someone I know, I listen to Duruflé's Requiem, performed by the Choir of St. John's College. I sang in a performance of this Requiem in college. I love its simplicity and its pleading tone. It's how I imagine one would plead with God for the soul of a loved one. The boys in the all-male chorus have beautiful voices that give it a soaring quality, and the organ that accompanies the pieces is gorgeous. I'm listening to it now and find it a comforting companion when thinking about death.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.