Day 27-BA5 takes the lead

Monkey Pox is here…!!!

Monkey pox is spreading…among the GAY male community. There are 600 cases throughout the US and 50 in Los Angeles. Health officials are panicked…PANICKED!!…over this outbreak, and are reporting Monkey Pox as a “super spreader”, even though it is primarily affecting members of the GAY male community. Seriously…are we really going to use the same language we used to describe Covid 19 (a pandemic that killed over 1 million of my fellow Americans) to describe Monkey Pox? Especially when Monkey Pox doesn’t kill anybody? What the hell are we doing?

The Biden Administration is on it and has rolled out a national Monkey Pox vaccine strategy. They’re sending hundreds of thousands of “small pox” vaccines to outbreak areas throughout the United States because the small pox vaccine is all we have. If Monkey Pox is so serious, why are we treating it with the small pox vaccine? And where are these alleged “outbreak areas” throughout the United States?

The small pox vaccines were designed to treat small pox, but there are some side effects associated with the vaccine, like fever, headaches, and body aches…however, some of the side effects are more severe, like heart inflammation (myocarditis) or inflammation of the lining of the heart (pericarditis). Because small pox is such a deadly disease, possible side effects associated with the vaccine have, historically, been minimized, because, hey, you either die from small pox or your heart swells up [“until it’s two sizes too big” (Grinch Stole Xmas)]. But, Monkey Pox doesn’t kill people. So why are the “health experts” telling gay men to get a small pox vaccine, when the small pox vaccine has the potential for causing an even bigger problem than Monkey Pox?

LA County received 6000 doses of small pox vaccine this week. Who cares? In two months, Monkey Pox will be gone…

Last week the LA County Department of Public Health reported 18,158 new positive Covid cases and 39 new deaths since the preceding Saturday. Since the pandemic began, LA County has logged 3,178,242 positive Covid cases and 32,451 deaths.

Covid 19 (3,178,242 cases)

vs.

Monkey Pox (50 cases)

Which virus are you more afraid of?

7/18/22. Monday

9:00-9:30-It is so hot today - all the days are hot - but at least my A/C is working now. I’m awake, but I lie in bed for transition time. I hear the trash trucks outside and realize I forgot to put my trash cans out. great. The dog is licking my hand and trying to lick my face, which means its time to take her out.

-I put on shorts and a tank top, wash my face, and brush my teeth. I weigh myself - back down to my set weight of 95 pounds.

9:30-10:00-Downstairs and I take the dog out so she can go potty. Return inside, cheese for her; coffee for me. I report to my office.

I tweek today’s course content slightly, then publish it for both classes at College #2.

10:00-10:30-Finished with that, I grab my remaining ice coffee from yesterday and take the dog for a walk.

10:30-12:00-I water all of my plants and soak the beds with the hose. God, it’s hot outside. I listen to Today Explained and it’s an interesting episode about the murder of a Pakistani female journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. I also listen to Citations Needed.

12:00-1:30-Back inside, my office is dirty and a little disorganized which means it’s not inviting…I don’t want to go in there. Especially since I need to change the lightbulbs in an hard-to-reach ceiling fan light kit. Not wanting to go in my office is a problem because this is where I do all of my class prep. If I don’t go in my office, class prep or any work, for that matter, doesn’t get done. I need to clean it and make it more inviting, stat!

-I change the lightbulbs in the overhead ceiling fan.

-I dust my entire office.

-I’m ready to get some work done, so I send a personalized email to every student, in Core Class #2, who got a D or F on last week’s quiz and ask them to explain themselves. Yesterday, it was Core Class #1.

-I drop six students.

I go through my College No. 2 file and purge memos and emails from Spring Semester 2022, since it just ended. Then, I go through my archives. Adjuncts are encouraged to keep records for seven years so I store grades and Attendance in my office closet, in magazine holders, on the top shelf. Today, I purge the oldest records and make room for the newest records - Spring Semester’s 2022 grades/attendance.

1:30-1:50-I brush my hair, then freshen up. After being outside in 100-degree heat, I’m wilted. Then:

1:50-2:00-I drive to my 2:00 eye appointment while eating a Lara bar for breakfast.

2:00-3:30-Today’s appointment consists of undergoing a battery of tests to check for glaucoma and then meeting with the doctor to discuss those tests. It’s official: I still do NOT have glaucoma. In between tests, I read Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl.

3:30-3:45-Drive home. It is so hot.

3:45-6:00-I heat up the chicken teriyaki bowl that I I froze in June and have it for lunch/dinner. I’m hot and tired and a little depressed…but, hey, at least I don’t have glaucoma. Then again, I’ve NEVER had glaucoma. Why do I have to keep undergoing these tests every year?

I watch the Killing Eve series and catch up with my bullet journal. The Killing Eve series is just…okay. The Villanelle main character is fat, which is surprising.

6:00-7:00-I go outside and strip the palm fronds from the two yucca trees in the corner of my backyard.

7:00-8:00- After, I enter my office and finish compiling my “master” packing list so I’m ready to go for my next vacation. I include photographs of the outfits that worked for me on this most recent cruise so I’ll have a template for my next vacation, whenever that is.

L. surfaces and says she’s going to Trader Joe’s for her groceries.

8:00-10:00-I close out L’s college account and request the remainder of the funds. The 529 college account that I created for her with the money my parents diligently forwarded to me over the course of her lifetime is now…dead. In the end, I was able to parlay my parents base contributions to $50,000, through aggressive investing, especially during the early years of L.’s life. As she got older, I became more risk-averse as the market seemed to become more volatile over the years. I transferred the money to safer, long term investments to ensure that L. would have enough for a college education.

Who knew that $50,000 would NOT be enough to cover TWO years at Otis? Remember, L. completed all of her general ed requirements at COC, a community college. She has three AA Degrees. This means that she technically enrolled in Otis as a junior. She’s in her second year at Otis and the $50,000 is gone. L. still has another 18 months to go.

This means, the next $50,000 is, unfortunately, on me.

-I go through my personal email.

-I print out the directions for tomorrow’s hike.

10:00-11:30-I have too many loose receipts in my office in-box and they make my desk look messy, so I log my receipts into my appropriate, monthly budget, trackers and discard.

L. has been working on a wonderful tomato, goat cheese dip, so she can spread it on the baguettes that she purchased. I have ONE baguette because eating more than one, this late at night, will pose a problem…especially since it’s a carb.

11:30-1:00-Blog post

1:00-1:45-I change into workout attire and do a 30-minute, Insanity-Sweat workout.

1:45-2:30-As usual, L. left most of her dishes in the sink so I wash all of them, ready my coffee for tomorrow, and take out an oatmeal packet for breakfast.

2:30-3:15-Sunless tanning lotion. Nighttime routine and I pick out my hiking outfit for tomorrow and set my alarm for 6:00 am.