Arbitrary Steps

 

 It's easy to make life sound like it's hell or the apocalypse is happening, neither is true, but life really is bizarre and a bit scary right now. Currently California is pretty much out of ICU hospital beds, this means regardless of Covid if you break a leg or have a heart attack you will be hard pressed to easily find help. Also southern California reported today that hospitals are having a hard time keeping up with oxygen demands in their hospitals. As I stated before we are being VERY careful so we don't need to seek out care.  Our home life is normal mostly, the big change is that our home life is our ONLY life. Everything is either closed down, limited, or not safe to go into. My husband offered to take me with him to his doctors appointment just to get me out of the house, I couldn't go because of my period....but that would've been my "big" voyage out; sitting in a parking lot and riding back and forth to and from the appointment. I've started...

  The vaccine is COMING! Health care workers worldwide are being vaccinated, many here in the USA, but even with a massive rollout it's at .35 % vaccinated so far (yes, one third of 1 percent). They say most of us can start to have hope of a vaccine around April at the EARLIEST so my plan is to go buy 4 advent calendars and use them to count down the next 4 months. The point is there is hope

 There is nothing left untouched by this pandemic...nothing. I can lock our doors and have the mirage of normalcy and pretend, but in truth everything is different. For us it's not horrible, but it creates anxiety and worry, for many others it is a living nightmare. - Foreclosures and job losses are staggeringly high - Businesses are going under daily - Prices on many goods have skyrocketed I can sit my house and block it all out but then I'll read a story online, see a story on the news, or talk to friends and family and reality sinks in yet again that all is not well. One of the worst "Side effects" of this pandemic for me is the loss of health care. Doctors are doing virtual  visits online, but I am in pain everyday in my back and my knees. I need a chiropractor but no one...and I mean NO ONE is taking new patients. I have been dealing okay with the pain so far, but this is far from good, add in the loss of my gym and my body is not happy. I just cannot wait for th...

 To a certain extent life feels fairly fake. On the one hand most of day to day life is somewhat normal, and then something happens and you are reminded "Oh yeah, the Pandemic". Today we are on a statewide stay at home order, which means businesses can only be open for pick up, and everything deemed non-essential is basically shutting down. Business owners are terrified, and rightly so....but this is happening globally, there is no escaping the virus to save their business or any other one. We can do pick ups, so we will do our best to *try* to support local small businesses this holiday season. This also means we are likely spending Christmas and New Years at home...just us...like every other day this year. I miss family, I miss browsing stores, I miss spontaneity. Now every action from putting on a mask to where we cannot go is a carefully choreographed routine. Yes, vaccines are coming. The first to receive them starts in a few days. For the average person the wait will la...

 I keeping day dreaming about how this will end. We get our vaccines and everything slowly gets back to normal. In truth it's more like:  We get our vaccines, wait a month, get the second dose. We continue wearing masks etc in case we are carriers. People still refuse to get vaccinated, politics abounds in every decision. Stores are still closed and few restaurants are open, so we are still eating at home without much to do. In truth we have a long road to go even after we are vaccinated, maybe even 2 more years worth of major struggle. Then comes the rebuilding of the economy and trying to help friends and family rebuild their lives. Then there's the global issues of the economy and countries that will be very slow to get vaccinated, because of supply chains, financial reasons, and perhaps local beliefs. This is FAR from over....but I do have hope. I can see the end coming into view

 Pfizer's vaccine arrives on the 15th, Moderna's on the 22nd. The first in line is health care workers (nurses, doctors, caregivers) and then the elderly. After that medically fragile and front line workers. We have a long way to go...and I'm not sure if I'd be in the fragile group or if my stepson would be (he has severe autism), or if I have to wait until at least April to be vaccinated. The upside though is there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and for once it doesn't seem like it's a train headed straight for us!   https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/health/first-pfizer-vaccine-shipments/index.html  The first shipments of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine will be delivered on December 15, according to an Operation Warp Speed document obtained by CNN on Tuesday. The document, provided to governors ahead of a call with the Vice President Monday, also estimated the first shipment of Moderna's vaccine will be delivered on December 22. Those distributio...