Welcome to the weekend! One thing is certain about our brave new world: It’s given Cutetropolitans all over the world a lot to talk about. And to start the conversation we turn the floor over to Anna G. from Italy, who sent this yesterday:
Here in Milano we are at the 10th day of isolation. I’m alone at home, but coping quite well because I’m sharing my space (their space) with MiMi and Cipi. We are three senior ladies, but they are so cute and funny and purring and… furry, I mean, everything is furry now.
Morning, everyone! MiMi and Cipi are very pretty girls. Hope everyone is doing okay. My goal today is to find my thermometer. I have a digital one that appears to be dead and I can’t find my other one, but it has to be here somewhere. Woke up kinda warm; hoping it’s just my room (not coughing or anything). A little scared.
Worked from home since Tuesday, but I’m supposed to go in Monday then work at home the rest of the week. Then we’re supposed to be in the following week. Very scared of that.
I saw this on facebook (I can’t find a good image link for it) that was apparently written by someone named Thomas Zimmer on Twitter: “The weirdest part of living through the #COVID19 pandemic is this strange mixture of normalcy and emergency that we’re all experiencing. I constantly feel like I’m either over- or underreacting, or really both at the exact same time. It’s surreal.”
Yes, yes it is. I watched the 6:30 news last night and in very urgent voices they were talking about NYC being the “epicenter” for the US now (hope our NYC folks are doing okay). I’m not all that far away (a couple hours drive in normal traffic). They showed a bit of footage from inside an ER in Italy. Four people in the same family died in the hospital in my town. I’m terrified.
Allein, keep reaching out to friends and family – including us here. You are NOT alone. Take all the precautions you’re supposed to, and know you have been doing your best. I spent yesterday dealing with “everything is lava” and today my goal is to remember that I wash my hands as directed, as often as directed, and there is a limit to the human capacity for perfection. Fear is exhausting, so try to do something you enjoy. Re-read a favorite book, maybe?
Im in the same boat as you Allein. I’ve been feeling kinda blah and every so often check my temperature. No fever so I’m thinking it’s a combo of my allergies and not being in my usual routine. I’m have a dr appoint on Monday to follow up on something else and I’m debating if I should pre-warn them or if I’m being a little hypochondriac. Like the person on Twitter, I’m swinging between stages of panic, annoyance, and thinking it’s like a long holiday weekend. Just trying to stay positive. Hugs through the web.
I’ve been feeling off a bit too! I haven’t decided if I’m really sick or just paranoid. Been erring on the side of the latter, even though clerks in my local grocery store have been confirmed with Coronavirus.
Ciao, Anna G! Thank you for sharing Mimi and Cipi with us, they are beautiful!
I’m glad you have them for company. I would be climbing the walls if I didn’t have Bibi.
Something soothing (be sure to read the credits)…
Thank you for sharing Allein, this was a very calming video. Such a great variety of animals roaming thru.
Tx Allein. That was very nice.
And my daily tx to you Mike for this forum. The posts and the conversation is a bright spot.
Here’s the original Log movie. There are bebeh bears!!!!!!!
And the rest of his videos:
Bush’s Pennsylvania Wildlife Camera
Beautiful kitties Anna. Glad that they’re there to keep you amused during this difficult time. Stay safe and healthy.
My friends have youngish children, who are struggling with the idea that they won’t be allowed to play with their friends for the foreseeable future. We’re still being allowed to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, but not with people not already part of our home “quarantine”. Kids in high school have to give up prom and graduation and a senior trip to Europe. It’s like this year will have never happened, since all our existing plans have been canceled.
I watch the Coronavirus-ometer and as I see the death toll rise, I get why we have to stay away from each other and that a couple weeks of this isn’t going to fix the problem; this is a long term scenario. But try to explain that to a little child.
We’re tryin* the be creative and use FaceTime for virtual parties and meetups. Maybe this is something that Cutetropolans could also explore. We haven’t been able to meet in person because we live so far apart from each other, but the internet is a great bringer-together. It’s hard to feel isolated when you have friends checking on you from all over the world.
I’ve also been toying with the idea of a “social isolation block party.” As a way of coping with lockdown, I have been upping the time I spend taking the kittens for walks on leashes, just around the neighborhood. And I see other people escaping the confines of their homes too, and we wave across the street at each other, and laugh at the craziness of our lives and the world. I have met a BUNCH of neighbors this way. Maybe that’s something to consider as a small benefit as well — the larger citywide events have been canceled, giving us more time to get to know our little neighborhoods and neighbors better.
Squiddy, I bet everybody stops to admire the kitties and to marvel at cats on leashes!
Squiddy sent me this picture of Cheshire on a leash!
Life is good for kitty!
Physically I feel as strong and healthy as ever but I constantly need to work on my mental/emotional state. It would be so easy to sink down into despair but I know if I do that, it will be nearly impossible to come back from it. So I have a little pep talk with myself many, many times a day so my spirits don’t fall. Places like this help… a lot. ❤🙏
I have a bad habit of not eating properly when I’m home, or drinking enough water. At least at work I have a schedule and a lunchtime. So part of my problem might just be that I’m not eating consistently so that of course makes me feel blah. Then anxiety makes me feel like I can’t get a deep breath. That’s not anything new, but it freaks me out more, now.
Allein, have you tried yoga? Might help with the breathing/anxiety. There are a couple of free yoga classes on the YMCA’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEQ46rs7Q0_q_h3LV-6dchslnrv4TrlnL
I’ve also found a couple of them on my Amazon Fire Stick.
Maybe set an alarm on your phone for drinking water, eating lunch and dinner, etc?
I should do the alarm. I have a tablet; now I’m regretting putting off getting a smart phone since now I kinda can’t… though I guess I could do it online but I got so confused trying to figure out the plans and all that. Aldo don’t really want to jack up my bill right now…
I have lots of yoga videos bookmarked. Need to pull them up… I have a couple meditation apps on my tablet, too. This is all stuff I’m “going to do” and then never get around to…
If you want to support progressive causes generally, check out Credo Mobile. They use the Sprint network but are a small socially active company. Ive been with them for years.
I’ll check it out. I have Verizon but I have a discount through my company. Not sure exactly what it applies to and they make it so hard to tell what your bill will actually look like in the end.
Big fan of Yoga With Adriene here. Find her on YouTube. She has dozens of FREE yoga practices Yoga for Uncertainty, Yoga for Self Disciplne, etc) plus meditations and a new series for writers. She’s doing a livestream today. If anyone is interested, I can find the announcement/time.
She’s a lot of my bookmarks. I’ve actually had the Yoga for Complete Beginners video up in another tab for a while. But I keep getting distracted by other things.
Her main youtube page’s featured video right now is Meditation for Anxiety.
I’ve been thankful for NOMTOM, and this site, and all of you every day this week. So grateful to have you all in my life.
Right back at you DebG. My sentiments exactly.
💕
Anna G, your kitties are beautiful and I am sure they are wonderful company. I hope the tide turns soon in Italy. Stay safe!
The child care center I work for is remaining open, albeit with shortened hours and far fewer children than normal but some parents still have to work. Staff are working on rotation. I will work next week, then off for two weeks. Staff is meeting parents at the front door, bringing the child in and immediately washing hands, do it in reverse when kids are picked up.
I read some information from the cdc yesterday and please remember…most people who have coronavirus will have mild to moderate symptoms and will fully recover at home. But of course we need to do what we can to protect the vulnerable segments of the population. Stay safe and keep coming back for the qte!
Indefinite holding pattern here in the great PNW. I’ve been home this week, will be in the lab next. We’re only having half the staff come in on any given day, with relaxed schedules (so that we can space ourselves out even further). I think the biggest problem people are having is with the “indefinite-ness” of the situation. If there was a certain end-point, people could just lay in necessary supplies and hunker down. But when you don’t know how long this is going to last, it multiplies the uncertainties. [The media doesn’t help by spreading unnecessary FUD and allowing the Chinese to rewrite recent history to suit the needs of their dictators. Makes people feel a bit too much like jetsam. /rant]
Anyway, I’m trying to enjoy our glorious spring weather here. It’s shaping up to be amazing! Took this on my walk yesterday:
Beautiful! I’ve been mourning the cancellation of the Daffodil Parade, so I took a few daffodil photos on my lunchtime walk this week. I think on April 4th, which would have been parade day, I’ll post some photos of past parades on my Facebook page.
Anna, you and your ladies are lovely. Thanks for sharing your positivity with us.
Like everybody else, I’m finding the constant anxiety exhausting. My company is closed on Monday to figure out their next steps. But I’m pretty sure we’ll shut down for a while, since there’s just been an outbreak in Colorado: day skiers at a particular resort got exposed and didn’t know it, then returned home and fell ill. This is why we needed to close businesses sooner.
Fortunately, the company owners want to do right by their employees. They’ve encouraged us to ask for wage advances if we’re worried about money, and they’re planning to keep paying us throughout a shut-down. For a small manufacturing company that makes products on site, that’s really something. I can work from home easily but most employees cannot.
Despite all these positive things from work, I’m still worried, sometimes to the point of tears. I woke up today and decided that it was okay to be anxious, but I wouldn’t let fear control me. There are lots of crafting, home improvement, and home organizing projects I’ve been meaning to start. Through these projects, I might also find ways to help other people. That’s the new mindset: take care of myself and look for ways to help others.
I need to stay away from my company’s employee facebook group page (not an official company thing, just a group some people started). But that’s hard because I also want to know what’s going on. I’ve seen a lot of arguments about whether they should close all the stores vs. “I can’t afford not to work”; also arguments about whether the company can really afford to pay people while stores are closed (as some are doing; they aren’t) or not. So far they’ve only closed where they’ve been forced to, as far as I know, though they have shortened hours and removed seating from the cafes. Then the comments saying if they have to close all the stores for a time the company won’t survive (trying to keep in mind that most of these people are store employees, not people with inside knowledge of the company’s finances). Sometimes I wonder what good being open for a couple hours less in a day really is. People still come in; if they’re spreading the virus, they’re doing it whether the store is open until 10pm or 7pm.
I work in the office at one of our distribution centers, and am trying not to think about the possibility of not having a job at the end of all this (if worse comes to worst, I have enough in my savings account to live on for a while), though I suppose I’m safer than the store employees on that front, at least for now (if they have to close stores they’ll lay off people with less than a certain amount of time in, then hopefully rehire later when things settle down; I assume that’s so those people can more easily file for unemployment, but the phrasing kinda seems a little…callous). We still have to service the website customers, at least. And I can work from home, but they want us there one day a week, which seems unnecessary for me at least, but I chose Monday since it’s my busiest day and it’s easier to work from my full size monitor and keyboard than my tiny laptop. And there are far fewer people around on the weekend, so I guess it feels a little safer at the beginning of the week. Then the week after next is the fiscal month-end which means lots of reporting and there are things that need to be printed and signed and whatnot (though not by me, except maybe two things) so we’re supposed to be in the office. But that was the status this past Monday and I don’t know if things will change. And warehouse employees can’t work from home, obviously.
People in the office who can’t work from home are staggering hours, taking shorter lunches to leave earlier, using paid time off to shorten their days…I worry that some will use their time for this and then end up getting sick and not having time left (I haven’t used any of my time yet this year; but I have vacation planned for the fourth week of April…part of me wonders if I should save it, but I have four weeks + two days, not counting sick days, that expire at the end of September). I hope the company will work with them if that happens. (And part of my department is accounts receivable, and a lot of our customers are schools, which are closed….) They’re also closing the cafeteria…but not until Wednesday. If they need to close it, why wait 5 days? I don’t know if that indicates things aren’t as bad as the media makes it sound or if they’re just being stupid by waiting. Being partially out of the office for two weeks seems like…not enough. I know the point is to delay/slow the rate at which people get sick so the hospitals can keep up, and odds are at least some of us will, but it just feels kinda hopeless right now.
Sorry, this got long. I guess I needed to get it all out of my brain. Don’t know if it helped, though. 🙁
Part of the fear and anxiety is not only the illness, but the economic results of the actions we are taking to quell the spread of the disease. Being afraid of what the year will do to your bank account is, sadly, a reasonable response. Everything is uncertain. But I have seen people looking out for each other, upping donations to food banks, postponing mortgage payments, forgiving late fees. Even corporations seem to have a bit of a heart for the least of us in this strange world we are living in.
Allein, vent as often and as much if you need to. Squiddy is absolutely right in everyone she says: the economic uncertainty is just as scary as the health news. But people have creative ways for helping each other financially. When even big corporations start thinking about the little guy, that’s a good sign. Or one of the Four Horsemen. I can’t tell!😃
I mean, everyone is going to be affected. Going after the people who already don’t have the money with late fees and whatnot is just going to make things worse and the companies still won’t get paid if those people are losing their jobs and surviving on unemployment and donations.
Trevor Noah said something about banks waiving ATM fees, too.
Hi Allein –
I run a small business and I am very confident that your company will survive this storm. I think you work for a major Book Store chain, right?
They will probably cancel orders of new products. They can pay people through unemployment insurance, if they have to. A lot of agencies are suspending bills (for example, Ohio’s Worker’s Comp has said that payments due in April are pushed back to June 1. Ohio is also enacting a 60 day grace period for employers to pay employee health insurance premiums). They will probably be able to work out some kind of deals with landlords, etc. As for the schools that are Accounts Receivables, they will most likely still pay. I have 2 part time employees who work in the local school system’s cafeteria and they are getting their full wages. The school system budget had an amount for books, so that money doesn’t go away bc of this.
I genuinely am confident that your job will still be here.
Try to stay off FB. Don’t believe something until it’s been corroborated by at least 2 reliable sources.
And as crazy as this sounds, I really think the people who are freaking out the most (unnecessarily) are the ones who have to stay at home. Those of us that have a place to go (work) are able to see that the world outside is still going on.
You are correct (albeit one that’s been through some turmoil in recent years) and that helps, thanks.
On another note, I fulfilled my goal for the day and found my thermometer about an hour and a half ago. In the interim, I looked at my thermostat earlier this afternoon and it was 75 degrees inside. When I found the thermometer I checked and it said 99.2, then I puttered around a bit and then put a load of towels in the dryer and just dozed on my bed for a bit (that kinda sleep-ish where your eyes are closed by you can still hear and respond to what’s going on – I was listening to NPR’s Ask Me Another). Was feeling blah but I also have a slight migraine and haven’t eaten a whole lot (had some carrots and then some yogurt before my sorta-nap). Got up maybe 15 minutes ago to a message from my mom that there were muffins in my door (she made blueberry banana muffins). I assume she knocked (my doorbell doesn’t work) but I didn’t hear. Took temp again and it’s 98.6. So I guess I’m okay for now. I hope.
Still feeling very anxious, though. Starting to feel like everything is contaminated. The muffins are in a freezer bag so I made sure it was sealed and I washed it with dish soap. I know getting out for a day will be good for me so going to work on Monday isn’t the worst thing (and safer than something like the grocery store, probably, and it’s not like I take public transportation). There’s even a decent chance that my cube has been sprayed with Lysol, since my boss apparently does that sometimes anyway.
Hi Allein – It’s normal for your body temp to fluctuate from 98.6. You don’t need to worry at all unless it gets to about 100.4 (Ohio is making employers take temps of everyone working and they have to be below 100.4 to work).
Definitely get outside a few times a day to take a walk. Sunlight will product Vitamin D in your body which is a mood lifter and – double bonus – sunlight kills micro-organisms. It’s a natural disinfectant.
As for your cube, I would bring my own Lysol or wipes and clean the cube before you starting using it. It will give you peace of mind, rather than having to wonder all day.
It’s sunny here in Ohio! Yay!
I know. It’s sunny here, too, but much cooler (only 39F) so it’s not so warm inside. Still have a headache (in a different spot; this is not unusual on weekends – I blame my terrible habit of staying up too late and then sleeping too late) but otherwise feel okay. Had a blueberry banana muffin and now drinking some tea.
Fabulous! We’ve all got time for dominos now. Though I don’t have that much open floor space.
This is fantastic! I love how it relies on cats being cats for it to succeed. Someone loves those kittens A LOT.
Thank you Allein! That might be the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen! It actually brought tears of joy to my eyes. Whoever made it is a wonderful person.
These are the same kitties we saw recently, ringing the bell for treats. Here’s another one.
Oh yes, I remember that. These are wonderful cats and the black and white one is a movie star.
Wonderful domino kitties! I will have to look at it again and see if the kitties are right or left paw dominant as they were in the bell ringing vid. 😁
The black and white one looks a lot like Mutz who has appeared in the Weekend Conversation thread before! Perhaps not so cynical…
IT’S… SO… BEAUTIFUL… <3
🙂
Jon Batiste at The Colbert Report from 2014.
The band on the Late Show is called Jon Batiste and Stay Human. The Late Show has been doing “A Late Show” from Stephen Colbert’s house (in one he was wearing a suit in a bubble bath), with Jon Batiste at his own house – “Jon Batiste and Stay Homen”. The Daily Show is doing a similar thing, cutting together video from Trevor and the other regulars from home. It’s a little weird but I love that they’re doing it. I hope they can keep it up.
Conan is doing something similar, and you can tell his extroverted self is LOSING IT. It’s hilarious to watch.
Happy weekend, everyone.
All is well in Duckieville. I have a runny nose and a canker sore. Little Duckie is preening under a heating pad. And hubby is wrapped around a thick layer of peanut butter with a slice of bread under it.
I managed to offend someone in the grocery store yesterday. I had three jars of pb in my basket, two creamy for hubby and one chunky for me. When I was told by the cashier I could only have two, I put the chunky back. The cashier asked if I wanted one of each, I said no, my hubby needs his pb more than I do. The lady behind me freaked out and started in on how I had just as much right to my choice of pb as my husband. I didn’t let her finish before pointing out in a rather annoyed voice that my husband worked hard everyday cleaning up after homeless people, and self-entitled people who thought they didn’t need to clean up after themselves, and if I chose to give up my comfort foods to support him, what business was it of hers.
She shut up so fast she choked on her words. It felt good to give way to some of my frustration.
Hubby and I are packing a lunch and running away for the day. No idea where we’re going, but looking forward to it.
Have a great day, everyone.
I’m sorry you had to deal with that woman’s outburst. And I’m really glad you, your hubby, and lil Duckie have each other. And that you have good ways of treating yourselves.
Colorado grocery shoppers seem to be intent on pleasantness. Coloradans are a friendly lot at all times, and I often have funny exchanges with random strangers. Yesterday, when I was stocking up on food and trying not to cry over the empty shelves, it was especially heartwarming to joke about putting cheese on cheese.
The first thing I noticed when I went into the back yard this morning was the sweet smell of melted chocolate from the nearby Rowntrees factory, which means that there are still adequate supplies of our favourite comfort food.
There was a funny incident at Marks and Spencers yesterday when I, and other people at the checkout, noticed that the woman in front of me was stacking seven packs of frozen Fruity Chicken Curry on the conveyor belt. The excitement was almost tangible – isn’t there a limit of four of each item per person? Would she be asked to put three of them back? Would fisticuffs ensue? No, she was allowed to buy them all.
MiMi and Cipi look very happy to have you home, AnnaG. I’m glad you have them as well.
Allein, and everyone, my sympathies are with you all. Thanks to everyone for posting so many extra photos and videos, and of course to Mr. Mike for hosting this site. Love the kitties and the dominos – think I’ll watch that again, the daffodils are just glorious, and the log – is that real? It’s incredible! And the sound of the water is so peaceful.
My anxiety is appearing in my sleep. I’m having horrible dreams every night. My car stalls at the top of a hill (I drive a stick) and I can do nothing to get it started, I’m losing people as in I can’t find them, SUVs with Delaware license plates are driving into my back garden, animals that are half wolf and half billygoat are getting in the back windows of the house and fighting the neighbor’s dog, who is somehow in my kitchen. In the waking hours, I can’t establish a routine of any kind. I keep forgetting to empty the litter boxes because that was the morning activity on my way out the door, and you’d think everything would be spotless due to boredom, but it. is. not. I do, however, have a freshly cleaned, repainted and newly organized pantry. Small victories I guess.
My Stitch & Bitch is planning on meeting virtually tomorrow afternoon and I am really looking forward to that. I touched based with my department yesterday via skype, and the school where I teach has arranged for us all to have Zoom accounts. Huge learning curve in my future for sure, but I think it will make teaching easier.
Sending peaceful thoughts to all, Duckie hope you and hubby had a nice picnic somewhere and fyi to everyone going stir crazy, Peloton is offering a free trial for 90 days on their app.
https://www.onepeloton.com/app. Apparently there is a lot more there than just a bicycle – yoga, walks, ???
Just put in some laundry. Sprayed the trash can I use for recycling down with cleaner and rinsed it. Now it’s drying in the tub. Watching TwoSet Violin videos on youtube. As much as I like the Daily Show I need to get away from news. Maybe catch up on my podcasts later.
Yes, get away from the news when you can. I am frightened as heck, being in a bad category:
eighty years old, a semi-invalid cancer patient. I am dependent on MyMike for just about
everything. I take care of the paperwork, he does everything else. In my philosophical
mode it’s What Will Be Will Be. The rest of the time it’s silent screaming. I’m not ready
to die just yet. I wish I could have a kittie. MyMike is wonderful and is my kittie substitute howesomever.
Please take care Phredsmom! It is a scary time but isolating is effective. Even if it is scary too!
💕
Hi Phredsmom, the hashtag here is #andrà tutto bene- everything will be fine: take care, read a book, listen to good music and wait only few weeks. And of course look at Cutetropolis! Listen to this, the Teatro alla Scala did it for all the people working for our safety https://www.facebook.com/18928728164/posts/10157407698578165/
That’s awesome! I’m loving all these musical compilations. Saw lots of doggies in there, too!
Seen on facebook:
The cats are on day 3,721 of their stay at home quarantine. They have some lessons for us amateurs. Lessons like: Nap early, nap often. Seek out sunbeams. Eat on a regular schedule. Keep yourself clean. And most importantly, it’s ok to run up and down the apartment screaming when it all gets to be too much. Just take a nap afterwards.
Also was just informed that warehouses are exempt from NJ closures so will be open on Monday.
I hadn’t thought of learning from cats, but definitely worth considering their approach.
https://garfield.com/comic/2016/02/10
This was supposed to be in response to Deb’s comment about cheese!
Mice ARE uncomplicated! Thanks, Duckie.
Anna, your kitties are beautiful! Congratulations on staying in for such a long period. Have there been many folks singing from balconies in your neighborhood? I just love the way people have been coming together to do things in new ways!
And speaking of, here’s a lovely video of a high school chamber choir performing the late Izzy Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over the Rainbow,” each singing from his or her bedroom, all together. It’s just beautiful!
https://news.avclub.com/ruthless-school-choir-stages-direct-assault-on-human-he-1842401804
As for hubby and me, being in a spread-out suburb as we are, there’s not much COVID directly nearby, but that doesn’t mean we’re not taking every precaution recommended. My husband is the one who’s having the most trouble staying at home; he’s retired, so he has a regular schedule of sports on TV, therapy visits 3 or 4 times a week with Sebastian, and lots of shopping trips (he’s that strange man who just loves shopping). So now the therapy visits are canceled, all the sports he watches are canceled, and even the local casinos closed — they had gone to rather heroic measures, spreading out the only functioning machines to keep people apart, putting out tons of gel dispensers, etc., but the social pressure got to be too much for them. So the only thing he has left is to take the dogs out to a dog park every day. Fortunately we have multiple dog parks around us, so he can take them to different ones at different times of day to play with different dogs. It’s the only thing keeping his sanity other than audiobooks! He is NOT a homebody.
I am, however, so for me, there’s really no change (except for having to deal with his occasional bouts of antsiness, of course). Amazingly, I’ve had some actual work — not something we normally do, proofreading a massive report on climate change by a special congressional committee, hundreds and hundreds of pages, that two of us have split up, but we’re so good that we’re almost going too fast for the committee; we’ve been finishing up proofing one batch of sections before they get the next written! I don’t mind; that leaves me lots of nice knitting time. So it’s not all bad.
But I understand the fear people are dealing with. I think for a lot of people the cabin fever is greatly compounded by the fact that it’s not really voluntary. And yet, as that quotation Allein gave us points out, things feel normal at the same time. It’s very confusing. But it’s also bringing out the best in many, MANY people; the stories of people helping in both large and small ways are coming in from all over the world. So let’s stick together and try to stay sane for each other. I’m not going to say stay strong; everyone is allowed to fall apart now and then! But as long as Mike is willing to hold the doors open for a nice community like this one, we’ll all have somewhere to go to talk to friends, right? And we ARE friends. Thank you, Mike, for making such a warm and friendly home for all of us! You know we all love you, right? So you need to stay healthy, too!
So let’s all wash our hands and hang in there!
That was a great video, very talented group of kids. And one of my favorite songs from Bruder Iz.
We ARE friends. And we love Mike. And his brain.
I agree. Here is starting the second week of lockdown. We are worried for the deaths, for our own safety and for the economy of the entire country. Meanwhile, I think that a lot of people are doing special things for the others and we will go through this experience showing the best of us. Take care and be calm. I adopted a… groundhog attitude, waiting for the spring. Listen to this: https://youtu.be/JTVXEGIS3LE
The choir registered -each one at home- and their sound technician mixed it up. This melody is symbolic for all the Italians. Thank you for being such a nice community!
Mammaduck – that is both lovely and amazing! Thank you for sharing. My heart goes out to the Italian people – and all who are affected.
So I think the funniest thing about this is watching what sells out at groceries vs what they always have tons of.
Our groceries here never seem to have any deli meat and regular meat (and of course, TP).
But every store seems to be fully stocked on fruits and veggies. LOL! What a great time to be a vegetarian!!
I saw an article last week about the things people weren’t buying. Apparently no one wants chickpea pasta.
Julie, I’m veg too and have had the same reaction!
I tried to stock up on as much fresh fruits and vegetables as I could – longer lasting stuff like root veg, apples and oranges etc. But lettuces, cukes, toms and peppers have a shorter lifespan. It would be hard to buy these to last.
Dulcie, very true about longevity. I have had to be at groceries and other stores every day for the past couple of weeks, looking for supplies for my employees, so my mindset is not on what can last for a week or so.
BTW when I tried typing “Dulcie” the iPad autocorrected to “Euclid” and then “Dulcimer” LOL!
Ha ha! Dulcie is a cat from a series of books that features a mystery solving bunch of cats. I loved her character!
Don’t know what her job is, exactly (some kind of bio/medical research, I think), but I just learned my cousin’s daughter has been working on this thing since January.
We’re enjoying glorious spring weather here in England, but unfortunately thousands of idiots have been congregating at seaside resorts as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Thousands more idiots have left the cities to self-isolate in the “safety” of their rural holiday cottages and caravans, thereby running the risk of causing Lombardy-type situations in areas which have very limited health resources. What the hell is wrong with these people? We should all behave as though we’re asymptomatic carriers of the virus and just STAY AWAY from others as much as possible. I’m so glad that gun ownership is comparatively rare in Britain, because I can perfectly understand why people in lightly populated regions such as the Scottish highlands and islands might be tempted to take extreme measures to deter interlopers.
I usually just lurk on NTMTOM but want to thank you again Mike for bringing sunshine to the world in general, and especially now. This is such a scary time for everyone. And it all seems so surreal. I feel for you Allein, and Phredsmom, and everyone going through this rough time. I recently noticed what I worried were symptoms, but I wasn’t sure they actually were, or just my usual cough, body aches and stomach upset (getting old tanks). So I called the hotline ad they said the symptoms didn’t seem acute but to be on the safe side we set up an appointment for a week from tomorrow. This way if I feel better, I can cancel it (since tests are in short supply) and if I fee worse they said to call them back.
Just taking that action made me feel better, and calmer. Also the realization that a lot of people (and businesses) are trying to help. And if it helps anyone, I found this YouTube video from David Abel (a recovering Coronavirus diabetic and former passenger of the Diamond Princess) very comforting and uplifting:
https://youtu.be/H2E1t3yMXgE
Hello, everyone! I’ve been reading through some of the conversation here and I’m very happy that all of you are supporting each other as we get through these trying times.
Everything is fine here and I’m in good health. Ani and Teddy are doing well, although Ani had a small health scare about a week ago, when she abruptly stopped eating. This had happened before, and so once again I rushed her to the vet that afternoon for x-rays and an exam. She wasn’t looking too happy, as you can see.
Happily there were no signs of an intestinal blockage, and they sent us home with an appetite stimulant. By that evening Ani was her old self and eating like a pig.
Meanwhile, I’ve been taking Teddy Bear out in my backyard on a leash. Since he’s FIV-positive, he can’t be allowed to roam the neighborhood, but he can be outdoors. He seems to enjoy the experience and will often lie down and sniff the air, but more than anything he wants to escape through one of the many gaps in the fence, like the one behind him.
He doesn’t head for the exit right away — he will pretend to be relaxing on the ground, but little by little he makes his way closer to one of the gaps, his tail whipping back and forth to convey his annoyance with me hovering over him.
💖
A little socially distant humor (with a little language, just FYI)…
(Also, if someone could please identify the original song, that’d be nice.)
Is it from Moana?
Found it, it’s “I can Go The Distance” from Hercules.
Thought I’d share this one, too. Be sure to read the title card at the end.
The whole channel is worth watching (I suggest starting from the bottom; he’s been all over the world and does multiple videos from each location so several videos will go together). This is the son of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (hence his name in the page URL; the earliest videos are his, some book promos and music and stuff, but then it becomes all Rare Earth videos).
Late entry here, but a solid 26 minutes and 52 seconds of non-stop smiles!
Crufts rescue dog agility: