As I expected, the second covid test came up negative and the whatever it was is gone. Now I'm just biding my time til I get the second dose of the vaccine on February 11th.
You may have noticed I haven't done a covid post since December 28th. The following week the attempted insurrection happened and then all the details coming out and then finally Biden and Harris being inaugurated pretty much absorbed me and then once Biden was in the pressure to find the real info and share it eased off since now the adults and scientists are back in charge, we've rejoined the WHO, and the facts are finally being shared by our new administration. While we were all preoccupied with the insurrection et al, infections continued to climb because people couldn't be bothered to refrain from big Christmas gatherings for one lousy year and daily deaths started topping 4,000 and I think that is still holding, over 4,000 dead a day. The infection rate has started to decline again now and decline in deaths usually follow, especially since vaccines are starting to be distributed now that Biden is in charge with an aggressive plan to get it done. Biden also issued a federal mask mandate, reinstalled the pandemic response team, and has a plan for a national vaccination program. The CDC issued an order that everyone using any form of public transport must wear a mask. One out of every 500 people in South Dakota has died from covid. New, more infectious, mutations are occurring, the newest from South Africa but the vaccines seem, for the most part, to work against them. It is still a heinous disease that attacks all our organs and even those who had mild symptoms are facing health problems associated with hearts, lungs, kidneys, and re the Guardian "covid linked to brain disorders and mental illness", so please, continue to protect yourself and others. One easy way is to start taking a vitamin D supplement as a preventative as those with vitamin D deficiencies tended to get sicker and have a greater chance of dying, also from the Guardian, while a guy I talked to at the dermatologist's office in the waiting room who had it and whose doctor prescribed large doses of D, zinc, and C and who said he felt much better after just two days and was over it soon after.
This will probably be my last post mainly about covid. Hard to believe it's been a year since it first entered our consciousness and nearly a year since we started our self-quarantining in mid-March. Hopefully by summer enough people will be vaccinated and we will have returned to some form of normal. I'm curious how this time of restricted activity will influence life after the pandemic.
Current US statistics as of today 1/31/21, 21:40 GMT: cases – 26,736,283; deaths – 451,540. Texas is still #2 for infections and dropped to #3 in deaths.
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The predicted rain never materialized yesterday and it's a windy blue sky day today. Warm in the sun and out of the wind but that wind is chilly. My little sweet pea sprouts are 2” - 3” and I ended up with 15, I think, in all. My goal today was to go ahead and get them in the ground and maybe move the white butterfly ginger as it's just not doing well where it is. I did get the sweet peas in the ground but first I tied a piece of hog wire to the fence section and put some corrugated plastic sheeting between the two to help keep the weeds from the other side from encroaching and also to protect the plants when my neighbor sprays herbicide in that area, then I had to dig up the grass and weeds in front, add in the landscaper's mix to improve the under layer, bordered it in bricks from the planters that used to be inside the studio room in the house (you might remember I had them taken out after the flood), filled in with potting soil/composted peat/fertilizer and planted the sweet peas.
I also finally hung the other bird feeder that I repaired the perches on and so far the little birds have found it but no squirrels have made an attempt that I've seen but it looks to me like it's pretty much squirrel proof. They may climb on it but I don't think they can get the seed out. It may also be cardinal proof too as I haven't seen any of them on it and I'm not happy about where it's hanging but I need a teenage fearless tree climbing boy to get it where I want it.
Addendum to the pink blush of spring...
After I published the post, I saw this rare pink 10 petal anemone
and I while I picked a different viola, there is this little pink one.
Catching up here. That rash must have been scary and maddening too. I'm glad it's gone and glad your vivid test came back negative. I wonder if it was an allergic reaction to some medicine you're taking, or else something you ate that you developed a sudden allergy to? The body is a mystery.
ReplyDeleteI looked up allergic reactions to everything I could think of with no luck. and chilblains described it perfectly. why I got chilblains during a warm week is beyond me.
DeleteForgive me, but the wonderful anemone has 14 petals. So did the white one. Are four of the petals not petals? Huh, ma?
ReplyDeleteThis year that some of us observed and some of us didn't has really hit me like a brick recently. It was OK from day to day, but thinking back it was not so admirable as to make me want another year. I do fear we won't be out of this by summer. More like next fall, when it will be freakin' snowing again.
yes, I know. sometimes they even have less than ten but rarely do they actually have just 10. go figure. seeing as how such a large portion of our population seem to be absolute idiots, you're probably right about when normal will resume.
DeleteI'm glad to hear your 2nd Test came back Negative. We're presently waiting our Test Results and Status, since The Son Tested Positive and has been Hospitalized, so he was worried he may have exposed us. It is hard to believe we've endured a Year of this already, one of our Great-Granddaughters died of COVID last February, she was only 5 months old and the disease was so new then that it was harder to diagnose. That is why I was so angry when they kept saying Children were immune and then that they couldn't die from it, that was always a blatant lie and they knew it, and tricked Parents into thinking their Kids were Safer than the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteyeo, so send them back to school! the economy! sacrifice your oldest and youngest!
DeleteRash gone, tested negative, ok , then, carry on- It is good news week!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Linda Sue- good news for sure!
ReplyDeleteYour sweet peas look very happy in their new home. I think they will do well there.
It's funny how so many people feel a great relief upon getting their vaccines and yet I just feel...I don't know. Like I still want to isolate? But that's probably just me and my strange ways. And perhaps part of it is how I've lost so much faith in the human race in general after the past few years. First the election of DT and then watching his supporters accept his lies and attempts to hide the fact that he was in no way prepared to be a president. And now with people refusing still to believe that covid isn't some sort of hoax and that masks infringe on their freedom and add that to the storming of the capitol and I just want to hide away.
I have a cardinal on my feeder this very second. Whoops! He was replaced by his wife and now a woodpecker too.
I don't know if I felt relief, nervous, yes, as I am generally opposed to tinkering with human DNA and RNA because as much as we like to think we are god-like, we are not and the first two vaccines are RNA based and the first RNA vaccines to get approval. but I'm relying on Sabine and her knowledge and her connection to the scientific community and she says it's safe. as for the party of Trump and the unhindered rise of christian white supremacists in this country it's appalling what a large percentage of the population they supposedly represent. I'm not at all convinced our democracy is going to weather this, I think there's a good chance we are in our death throes. I worry for my grandchildren.
DeleteSo glad your test came back negative and that you are feeling well. Yay! Good advice about the Vitamin supplements. We take Vitamin D daily, but will now add C to the list. I hope the birds return and the squirrel is still stymied by your new feeder. Your flowers are so uplifting and beautiful. Thank you for posting the pics. Take care there and stay well.
ReplyDeleteOh, I like that viola. Looks like your spring is well on its way! Glad your test was negative. I can't remember -- did you get that rash after you got your first vaccine? Could it have been some kind of reaction to the shot?
ReplyDeleteI did but it was over a week later and side effects were more about anaphylaxis and they occurred fairly soon after the shot. I even looked for side effects of dilating stuff since I had had that done the day before but no, allergic reactions to that were all about eye inflammation.
DeleteCovid: Here the death toll is rising as the Christmas fools begin to die.
ReplyDeleteBeeautiful flowers. Thank you.
I am going to have to get out and hunt the wild anemone. That one's a beauty. I've seen some lavender ones, and of course white, but the pink's a new one for me. I do love me some springtime, but it sounds like we've got at least one more coldish blast heading our way this weekend. ("Cold" being relative, of course. No one's saying anything about a freeze, except north of Houston.)
ReplyDeleteI think the first time I saw a pink anemone in the yard was last year, one or two little plants. been seeing the lavender ones for several years.
DeleteSuch good news about the negative test. And that the weird rash is disappearing. I think we are getting all the rain in the world right now.
ReplyDeleteVit D is a good one, the thing about Vit C is that we usually get plenty via diet as long as we eat some fresh fruit/veg and since it's a soluble vitamin, anything above the daily dose, i.e. the quantity your body needs/metabolises in a day, you just shed (in your pee). Most supplements are way more than the daily dose and assume that you don't take any of it via food, so creating costly pee.
I knew that about vitamin C, people swear by the megadoses but most gets shunted out in your pee. I wonder how the zinc plays into into the prevention and as a therapeutic. I haven't seen any articles about it beyond the few that tout D, zinc, and C but without any research attached.
DeleteI've about decided the rash was chilblains even though it wasn't cold. just nothing else fits.
Remember when all of this was going to be over by Easter? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers make me happy :)
Seems like my statement of 'it's going to get worse before it gets better' is coming true. Three new mutations. Is this thing ever going to go away?? We're still waiting to get our vaccinations. We've signed up and still we wait. :/
ReplyDelete