Covid Support Thread
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@alafair, I try to limit sugar intake although I have no medical condition that requires a special diet. I make fruit smoothies using fresh or shelf- stable tofu, frozen fruit, some plain yogurt and orange juice and a bit of organic honey. The tofu has no taste and adds a lot of protein. The tofu and frozen berries make a nice, thick smoothie that is quite enjoyable. I hope you can find something that meets your requirements.
(Hopefully) Rare LA UPDATE:
Man, do I ever miss the desert!
My drive in last night was treacherous, through pouring, blinding rain. So much so my car even hydroplaned a few times. Minor hydroplaning, you know, skidding a few feet but scary nonetheless. (And I was only going 60.) But yeah, scary. I was like: “Great. Here I was worried about catching Corona in LA and instead I will die now in some stupid car crash…”
Happily, I did not.
As I was with Charley — the owner of the desert house — all of last week, I was able to go see his cats. All of whom I love dearly and who were thrilled to see me — especially Clementine. (The “gateway” cat or the cat that made me LOVE cats. Long story.)
Hell, this morning — I awoke so stressed about filing for unemployment (this has seriously been producing near panic attacks in me for over a week now, strangely) I strolled back over to Clementine’s and did all the work with her snuggled right up to my side. That was truly the only thing that kept me sane through that FIVE HOUR process. The website kept crashing. The questions were not at all suited to my situation. It all seemed very hopeless…
At any rate, I did it. I filed and now I can only wait.
It’s raining here again and so I will don my makeshift mask and walk three usually bustling, lively blocks —- now A shuttered, totally deserted ghost town — to see the cats again. Tonight, I will lay low and then drive back out to the desert again tomorrow first thing in the a.m. Oh, I just found out I can pay me rent online, so I suspect I may be out there now for many more weeks.
Another perk of civilization? I did order take out. First meal not prepared by me since Arizona. So, yeah. Nearly a month. Excellent Greek salad from my favorite place. Also had a can of Coco-cola. Which was so good it was like crack!
Glad to hear you seem to be on the mend, Helen! Keep taking it easy.
Glad you made it back to the desert safely, BGM! And fingers crossed your unemployment goes as smoothly as possible.
Also, I feel you on the coca-cola. I got a pint of Americone Dream for the first time in years last week and that shit is amazing!!!
Just came on here to say that I just placed an Instacart order in which I ordered brownie mix, vanilla ice cream, Reese’s cups and cinnamon rolls and I am not ashamed. I rarely eat sugar but damn, I’m getting my monthly visitor in 2 days and we’re in quarantine. I haven’t seen my boyfriend in almost 3 weeks. I need sweets. And prosecco.
I walked my girls over 2 miles tonight and they literally walked into the house and passed out on the floor. Lol. They’re 8lbs each and I’m 4’10”, so it’s a lot for us!
Helen, thank you so much for updating us and I hope you feel 100% better very, very soon. So glad to hear you’re on the mend.
BGM, I hope unemployment comes through for you quickly! My boyfriend is going through the same thing as an independent contractor and someone whose gigs have been cancelled because of the virus. It’s so much harder for people who are self-employed. There seems to be a lot of money to be had right now, so I hope it comes through quickly for you!
If you have the time and motivation I’d love to learn how Clementine stole your heart BGM. I’ve always had cats and dogs growing up. Love them both but if I had to choose only one…..don’t tell my dog Penny….cat. They freaking self clean! My dog is currently snuggled up to me and smells like fritos. As soon as I’m able she’s getting a bath. She’s a pound puppy and a beautiful copper color (hence the name) found out she’s likely a mixed Hungarian pointer also called a vizsla. That breed is known to be incredibly smart & often trained as guide dogs. My girl, bless her, is dumber than a sack of rocks. Bedrest day 16. I’m so fucking bored lol
a can of coke sounds so good right now, BGM. I may have to grab one from the vending machine at work (after wiping it down of course).
Gorgeous day yesterday in Chicago. Went for a run with the toddler after work and stopped to look at the crocus in Grant Park. Smoothies for dinner (we do whole fat greek yogurt plus collagen+coconut water+mango juice and fruit/veggie blend). The nausea this second time around is serious. Not in a “I’m going to puke” way, more of a general “I feel like garbage” way that merits eating small bits of salty snacks and drinking massive amounts of ginger tea.
Helen I’m so glad you’re starting to turn the corner back to health. There was only one cat I ever truly loved, or even tolerated. He was our neighbors beautiful, enormous orange and white Persian ball of fluff. He would come running when I called him, lounge in the sun on our porch, and peer into our family room windows at night from the window sill waiting for me to open the window and pet him. He was so good and gorgeous and funny. He would even bring me moles to eat- usually we’d go halvsies and he’d eat half and leave the rest for me by my deck door. Which was super, duper gross. But I appreciated the gesture. I thought he was doing it out of love, but I read an article that explained he was actually doing it out of obligation. The good news was he considered me a part of his family, but the bad news was he thought I was too stupid to hunt for myself and felt he had to do it for me or I would starve. Go figure.
Helen – I am so so glad you are starting to get a little better.
BGM – I also would love to hear the Clemintine story. I’m not allowed to have pets in my place and I miss it.
So my boyfriend – who is sheltering in another country right now because he was visiting his mom who lives alone there when everything closed – managed to send me a care package. He sent me bone broth, some of the protein shakes I am used to, toilet paper and some coffee pods for the office machine. (I’m an essential employee in a defense business; I have no choice but to go to the office. We got a letter from DOD mandating that we stay open as long as possible.)
Oh, he also sent some of the vitamins that I haven’t been able to find. (There’s only ONE brand I’ve found that I can tolerate.) I feel so damn cared for. I don’t cry much, but I cried after opening that package. It was such an unexpected lift to my day. I figure if I’m careful I can get at least 2/3 of the protein goal the nutritionist gave me after surgery for the next two weeks.
Back in the Desert. Whew. So very, very glad to be out of LA.
I returned to find that we got nearly an inch of rain out here in my absence —- according to the new rain gauge I put out. (Yes, I clearly AM becoming my father…)
Even more exciting, yet another Beavertail Prickly Pear bloomed at long last. These bright pink flowers are gorgeous only to last but one day.
Anyway, it felt like the “planted desert” was saying: “welcome back.” I shot a pic and will post it up on the instagram. park_place_oasis.
PS — The Clementine story is kinda epic. (I need to do her justice.) But I will begin drafting it — so I can post it soon.
So glad you’re doing better, Helen! And congrats on the new job, LadyE! I’m also interested in hearing about BGM’s cattitude change. 😉 But will also settle for the evocative California desert travelogue. Next best thing to being there!
We are still doing okay here. Trying and sometimes failing to not lose my shit with my button-pushing 6yo. My husband and I are getting along swimmingly in quarantine, though- not really a surprise to me, but still nice! He’s diabetic, so I’ve been doing almost all of the grocery shopping. I went for groceries early Monday morning and omg, it was so crowded! and half the shoppers weren’t wearing masks, and the ones that were seemed to think it exempted them from properly distancing. People were wearing gloves but then fiddling with their masks! WTF. Way too much anxiety. I’m not setting foot in a grocery store for at least 2 more weeks. We have some CSA pickups scheduled so that should cover us for produce. But we will run out of TP at that point, so I’ll have to figure something out there. A few local restaurants are selling TP and other groceries so I might just get it with our once-a-week curbside takeout.
…you guys know who I was thinking about? Our pal Robert, from the Christmas parade/dating thread. I wonder if having all of that seasonal festivity stuff canceled for the foreseeable future, coupled with his desire to talk on the phone with potential dates, might actually work in his favor for finding a girlfriend?!
Also, has anyone seen Skyblossom or Ron comment lately?
This seriously concerns me: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/08/830310903/white-house-announces-new-guidance-for-how-critical-employees-can-return-to-work
If people who know they have been exposed to coronavirus go back to work, what if they are in the 1 of 4 cases that are asymptomatic, but can still spread it? Does anyone know if you can spread coronavirus while you are in the incubation period before you start showing symptoms? Sometimes I think the man in the White House is himself becoming a menace to public health.
I have been reading all your stories the past several days and am glad to hear Helen and others are on the mend.
Mark – may I say you sound happier in the desert.
Vathena – have you tried contacting your local business supply store (not the chains) but the smaller local ones. I use one for supplies for my work, but they sell to the public and have TP and other esssentail household goods coming in fairly regular.
I was excited to get a Walmart grocery pickup scheduled this evening – Saturday afternoon pick up was the earliest available and in the time it took to put items into my cart the available times where pushed back two hours and a couple of grocery items became unavailable. I left the substitutions button checked on all the items so Saturday’s groceries will be more like grocery roullete. May be revising my menu. Just happy not to have to go into the store.
I have gloves but no mask, a co-worker is making them and hopefully I will have one soon. Which means I will need to go into the office. A place I have been avoiding since I had to threaten to go on leave to work from home. Spent about 6 hours total there last week, and so far zero hours this week. There is a new staff in my department who lives near me and volunteered to bring paperwork to me this week – I was gratefully surprised.
On the work front I actually stopped mid afternoon today – migraine plus the realization that I have been doing 11 hours days. Working from home, when I think of something that needs to be done at 7pm, instead of doing it when I get to the office, I just walk down the hall to my desk and do it. Yeah, gotta’ stop that.
So, if you have read this far, I need some advice. I had posted a couple of weeks ago about my having to fight to work from home after a co-worker tested positive for Covid (she is fine) and my office not taking it seriously and not decontaminating the building. Since then I have realized that our leadership (who are both only 7 months with the company) are ethically and morally reprehensible. They are not complying with the Care Act and have no intention to do so. They are having attorneys review the Act in hopes of not having a “legal” not to comply with it. While they are allowing tele med and work from home because they had no choice. This is considered an essential business (health field) and had to stay open. But those staff who have to be out due to Covid related situations – illness, caring for a child, etc. are being forced to take their leave time, and once that runs out (because they will not let them accrue leave while out on leave) go onto Leave without Pay. Those participating in the company’s health insurance plan will then have to send in bi-weekly payments to cover their part of the insurance premiums and if they do not, their insurance will be cancelled – in the midst of a global pandemic.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. There is more, but no one wants to read that much 🙂
My questions is, do I out them? This is an agency that was locally fairly big news last summer/fall due to huge budget issues and almost closing so the media is always up for a story about them. They receive large state government grants, and plan on applying for FEMA relief for Covid related expenditures (PPE, cleaning supplies, etc.) I would do it anonymously but it would be obvious that someone from the company “tattled”.
I am just so disgusted with leadership as are many others in the agency.
So what do you all think I should do???
