Day 13 - LA County Dept of Health MANDATES indoor masking

I finished this book today…

It was only about 8 months ago when doctors and health care professionals got on their soap box and said that everyone was too obsessed with ‘variants.’  “All viruses mutate”, they said. “Viruses can mutate hundreds of times over their lifespan”, they said. “Look how many strains of the flu exist”, they reminded us. These talking points were disseminated at the exact same time a stronger, new variant was tearing through the UK.  Brits were being felled left and right while good ‘ol US public health officials encouraged my fellow Americans to look the other way.

The WHO got the bright idea to label  new variants after the Greek alphabet “to avoid stigmatizing other countries and ethnic groups” so this new variant, which is thought to have originated in India, but spent most of its time in England, before hopping across the pond to our shores, is officially known as “Delta, the UK variant.” 

So much for avoiding the stigmatization of a country.  Kind of like Prince. when he stopped calling himself Prince and adopted a stupid symbol as his new name…at which point, everyone began referring to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince”…so…he’s still Prince. Not to worry though…no one is stigmatizing the Brits for their inability to ‘tame and contain’ the Delta variant because they’re…wait for it, wait for it…WHITE.

This Greek alphabet idea was so stupid but what do you expect from an incompetent agency like the WHO?Why don’t we name the different variants after crayon colors…or animals…? “Cornflower Blue” is making its way through North Korea right now…the “Sloth Variant” is on the rise in Vietnam…”, etc.

It is just as I said in my blog post after the CDC told all vaccinated people to unmask when just a week prior, Rochelle had told us we were on the brink of a Covid-19 precipice.

“We don’t even know how effective these vaccines are,” I wrote in my blog. At the time the CDC encouraged us to “return to normal”, the only thing the American people knew was that vaccinated people were no longer dying. But so many questions were unanswered (and remain unanswered) when the CDC made the announcement to burn our masks and “party like it’s 1999” on July 4, “Independence day [from Covid].”   

For example, nobody knows if the current vaccines will protect us against new Covid variants.  Honestly, why would they? Every year, there’s a new flu shot for the most prevalent strain, because the flu is constantly changing. The flu shot you got in 2015 won’t protect you from the flu strain in 2019.

What about this one? If you’re vaccinated and you contract Covid-19, is there a possibility you could fall into the “long-hauler” camp? Sure, you won’t die…but who wants to be one of those patients. Just look at their social media platforms…these people are suffering.  Do you really want to take off your mask and risk becoming a long-hauler?  Some people would say it might be worse than death…I mean the quality of life for these long-haulers is so impacted, they can’t do anything.

Here’s another one.  If you’re vaccinated, can you still pass the virus to other people?  I’m sure all  “the vaxxed people in the house” are saying, “Who cares.  If those idiots don’t want to get vaxxed because they don’t want the “Bill Gates microchip” flowing through their veins, let them die.” But what about kids? Children under 12 can’t get vaccinated. A major question I have that NOBODY bothers to address is this: Mercifully, most kids have been unaffected by Covid-19…but what happens when a more virulent strain emerges? Could a new “better, stronger, faster” bionic variant start killing our children? We don’t know. 

What  happens if you’re vaccinated, but contract Delta from a MAGA loser? Or a Republican white male? You may never know that you’re infected, even when you’re shedding virus. Now, what happens if you’re shedding virus and you have little kids? Or young nieces and nephews? Or grandchildren? We still don’t know.

Shouldn’t we continue to mask until all of our children are vaccinated? For their sake? I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the CDC told the vaxxed to take off their masks.

And, finally, here’s the big one: What is the shelf-life of these vaccines? Why are we unmasking when we don’t know the expiration date? Two weeks ago, Big Pharma Pfizer announced that their vaccine was good for 6 months, at which point, a booster shot is needed.  Within HOURS of this announcement, Faucci and Friends [CDC] told the American public that boosters are unnecessary at this time so Pfizer sold their boosters to somebody else...Israel. The following week, Faucci and Friends quietly reversed themselves, stating that those who are 65 and older OR imuno-compromised should get a booster shot.

Too late – the booster shots were sold to the highest bidder, who, in this case, happened to be the only bidder.  Israel started administering their booster shots today, to individuals 60 and older, without any fanfare or headlines, while the Biden Administration has refused to purchase them. Israel lowered the threshold [60 and up, NOT 65] because this government actually cares about their people – the Jews are bonded by a common ancestry and ethnicity and there’s something to be said about their cohesion. Here in the good ‘ol US of A, Americans are bonded solely by ‘the almighty dollar.” If you’re not wealthy, you’re deemed worthless and kicked to the Covid curb. In my country, unless you have spending power, nobody cares if you live or die.

7/29/21. Thursday.

7:00 – I wake up at 7:00, but am able to go back to sleep.

9:30-10:00 – I’m up again at 9:00, but I need transition time. At 9:30, I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog.  She’s awake and running around so we go outside immediately. She appears to be tracking a scent of some sort and I see that the patio next to the fountain is covered in rat droppings!! This is so disgusting and unhealthy!! The dog goes potty and we return inside: cheese for her, coffee for me.  L. needs my car for work, so I have no vehicle today.

10:00-10:30 – I was too tired to straighten the kitchen last night so I do it now.

10:30-11:00 – When I’m done with kitchen duty, I enter my office and publish today’s content for my summer class. The students have a Discussion Board assignment, but I change the prompt slightly so that it’s easier to understand.

11:00-1:00 – I read Formation  and eat the lemon custard L. bought for me at Eataly, yesterday. It is so smooth and creamy! It tastes incredible.

1:00-2:00 – Blog post

2:00-2:30 – I do a 15-minute Insanity – Cardio Abs workout.

L. leaves for the art studio and takes my car.

2:30-3:45 -  I finish Formation.

This is a memoir about a young woman, Ryan, who enlisted in the Army, in 2001, as a linguist with a specialty in Japanese. Then, 9-11 happened and she was deployed to Iraq, where she was reassigned as an auto mechanic and forced to endure the most horrible experiences imaginable. Of course [we know this is coming], she’s raped by a fellow soldier, which is absolutely tragic, but the indignities that she and her female colleagues experience at the hands of their male counterparts is shocking.

I feel a little guilty saying this, but, although well-written and fascinating, it is difficult to understand how a memoir about a woman who served in the armed forces from 2001-2003 is relevant today.  Had she published her memoir in, say 2005, I think it would have been extremely well-received…but, 20 years later? Of course, everybody has a ‘story’, no matter when it’s written…

Recently, I’ve read several memoirs by female authors and I’m starting to see an unsettling trend…all of the women seem to have “non-trajectory career paths.”  By this I mean, it is difficult to understand how these authors are supporting themselves or if they’ve ever worked for any significant length of time. They come across as shiftless and drifting, taking time to write their memoir, but not doing much else [three of the female authors have ONE school-aged child so he/she is out of the house most of the day], while their male partners support them financially. Maybe they’re happy with this arrangement…maybe they don’t mind being financially dependent on their partners.

Although well-written, I’m on the fence with recommending this memoir.  This is Ryan’s debut, but it comes 20 years too late.  The sexual harassment she describes in the military has changed – it’s no longer so overt.  This doesn’t mean the armed forces have improved with regard to the treatment of women – I know they haven’t – but the blatant harassment that Ryan experienced no longer applies. Now, it’s a more sinister, nuanced “polite” sexual harassment that, in some ways, is even more insidious than the in-your-face male aggression of the past. It’s easier to label sexual harassment when it’s front-and-center…when it’s secretive and done behind closed doors, it is more difficult to name, more difficult to call out the perpetrators.

None of this changes the fact that, statistically, 1 in 4 women are still raped in the military; this is the same statistic for college co-eds.

I’ll let you be the judge if and/or when you read Formation.

3:45 – 4:30 - Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform.  I listen to By the Book.

4:30-5:30 – I double-mask and sweep up the rat poop outside.  Then, I sweep the rest of the patio and clean out the pine needles from the flower beds surrounding the Astroturf. I listen to the Political Gabfest.

5:30-7:00 – I make the same sweet potato dish I made for L. last Sunday and listen to Organize 365. Then, I clean the kitchen and ready my coffee for tomorrow.

7:00-7:30 – I eat dinner and read an article on Slate - Mr. Bailey’s Class - from a victim of the author and former 8th grade teacher, Blake Bailey [he wrote Philip Roth’s autobiography…another guy I can’t stand], who raped several of his former 8th grade students, in the 2000s, long after they graduated junior high.  This guy’s a predator and needs to be in prison. He groomed his victims for years, via email and letters, after they left 8th grade, so he could rape them later or force them to perform sex acts, once they became adults.

7:30 –8:00 -  L. returns from work with churros from a new place that opened in Newhall. I have a few bites and they taste amazing! I ‘plate’ a sweet potato for L.

8:00-8:45 – I take the dog for a walk and listen to What Next.

8:45-9:30 – I hose down the Astroturf and the section of the patio where the rat droppings were found.  Then, I water my plants. I listen to PBS Newshour segments.

9:30-11:00 – Blog post and I also log my time for today.

11:00-12:30 – I read a Money Diary then do a 40-minute Insanity – Cardio and Recovery workout

1:00-3:00 – I start watching the last episode of Catch and Kill, but accidentally fall asleep.

3:00-4:00- Nighttime routine. Bed.