the probable last covid post and sweet peas

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 11^th.

You may have noticed I haven't done a covid post since December 28^th. 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. 

another test and the first blush of spring

I'm writing this part Thursday evening and as of Thursday evening, the whatever it is on my hands and feet has resolved itself and it has pretty much cleared up. Tuesday was probably the worst day. Even so, there was a bit of drama going on here this afternoon. We got a phone message from one of my readers expressing her concern (for which I am grateful) and suggested I look up covid toes and wished me to be well. That had not occurred to me this whole time so I did, it strikes the toes and fingers, hands and feet, palms and soles and the redness and swelling and sometimes lumps so it was sounding too possible. Also said it can be mistaken for chilblains. I did read about chilblains as it had come up in my searches and it described it perfectly but I discounted it since, one , it doesn't get that cold here and two, it had been warm the week I broke out.

I called my sister...so, this happened. Call your doctor, call your dermatologist and see what they say. So I called both but only got a call back by the dermatologist so far. So, this happened, I told her, and what did she think since she hadn't seem to know right off oh this is...whatever. She's waiting to see the results of my blood work and wants to rule out a few things but she did bring up that covid toes is similar to chilblains and we talked about that. Mainly that chilblains is a vascular thing, and maybe stress, and as such, I guess not limited to cold triggers. OK, that's logical. But, she says, it's entirely possible that you could be infected. She suggested getting tested again.

I had already tried to register at the local CVS which does free testing or I could wait for the once a week free countywide testing that changes location from city to city and I had just missed it here last Tuesday. I didn't qualify at CVS because my symptom wasn't listed and I don't think I have been exposed. So the dermatologist called the CVS to see if they would accept a 'script from her for the test. No, I would have to register online. But her symptom isn't on the online list. Just have her select something. So, I lied and I'm getting tested Friday. I really don't think I have covid. Covid toes with zero other symptoms or likely exposure seems very unlikely (and a call back from my PCP's office this Friday morning confirmed that it is rare but go get tested). I think the most likely reason is chilblains. But we'll see.

So much for the latest installment of, as Mary Moon calls it, how it is for old people.

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This Friday morning the sun rose on a clear blue sky which didn't even last a half hour before it started clouding over and now it is completely overcast. The bird feeder was empty again, they empty it in a day, the birds and the squirrels. I'm seeing all the usual...sparrows, goldfinches which I expect will continue their migration soon, a house finch or two, cardinals, chickadees, titmice, white wing doves, inca doves, I think maybe the little warblers that winter over here are gone, hard to tell through the screen and dirty window.

And now the sun has won out burning away the overcast though still a little hazy, temperatures in the high 50˚s heading for the mid 60˚s. The red shouldered hawks are out calling for mates during a stroll around the yard in which spring is emerging pinkly.

The various roses,

these so vibrant that even in the shade the camera can't pick up the detail in the flowers,

another small chinese fringe flower tree in bloom,

the blooming maple tree,

the first open blooms of the woodland petal pink, invasive little things that they are,

it's not all pink out there as the anemones are also showing off. 

And the pansies and violas, the only thing blooming until a few days ago during the short winter.

fingers and toes, palms and soles

This weird rash is getting better even as it continues to spread though I think it has stopped spreading now. Maybe. I don't even know if 'rash' is the right word. A small sore spot that becomes a hard spot that becomes more painful and bigger and red on the surface with a whitish spot in the middle, sometimes a bump, that burns and itches but not the whole time, just once or twice a day that is near impossible to resist, sometimes I can, sometimes not and I scratch and rub until it no longer provides any relief, becomes a throbbing numbness, and then it subsides. Mostly just painful when any pressure is applied which, yesterday, made it hard to walk as it had spread to my left foot as well and hard to type or grasp things so I took Linda Sue's advice and stayed off my feet as much as possible yesterday reading, napping, much to the dog's dismay as no walk happened.

I've been using the ointment mostly on my feet and on my hands only before bed because it is a greasy ointment, then socks, then some slip on soft soled shoes which more or less immobilize my toes which is good because it helps keep them from getting stimulated and itching like mad. The first spots that appeared are mostly gone now, fingertips no longer sore but fingers and palm on my right hand are stiff, can't make a good fist. I think a couple more days and it will be over.

My daughter's no nonsense response to my less than optimal report one after another was “Yeah, I’m gonna need you to pull it together.”

Meanwhile spring is springing along. Today would be a good day to work out in the yard except...hands and feet. And wind, it's a bit windy out there but the woodland violets are blooming all over the yard,

the 10 petal anemones are getting in gear, new growth is showing on everything that froze down, easter lilies are growing well and the climbing rose in the crepe myrtle and oak is starting to bloom, the fringe flower tree outside my window is blooming,

the yellow trumpet flower surprised me by giving me one more bloom

and of course the bluebonnet giving flower #2.

I had the door open Monday and a little wren flew in with nest material in its beak, got alarmed, dropped the dry grass and flew out. Another one flew in later and perched on the edge of the cardboard box with the last of the cracked pecans in it, checked it out and then flew back out. I love the little wrens who often come in the house in the spring and fall when I have the doors open. Curious little birds.

I'm still hesitant to take all the plants back outside and out of the garage as it is still just January and we have at least one more month for a freeze to surprise us.

I nearly finished my book yesterday, have about a dozen or so pages left so gonna do that and then a trip to the library.

 

now really, this is getting ridiculous

I did something I rarely do. I replied to all the comments I got on my last post. Thanks for all the support and suggestions. I already have acquired two pair of wrap around sunglasses (do I still need to wear them on overcast days?) and the AREDS-2 eye vitamins. I had to get the chewable, and thank the gods they have a chewable version, because even the “new smaller size” gel cap picture on the box looked borderline on my ability to swallow it. I can swallow food just fine. Pills beyond a certain size just don't want to go down.

The days have been trending warm but heavy fog and overcast skies and drizzle and drippy and wet everything have not inspired me to do any work outside. So Saturday I did a little weeding but it was too wet and got one errand accomplished and spent the rest of the day reading. Didn't do much else Sunday, still overcast but not drippy. Did my yoga, filled the bird feeder which is already half empty, did the dishes and the once a week baking soda/vinegar drain cleaning, swept the in house studio room which also functions as a big mud room since both back doors open into it, not mud so much as leaves and dirt that gets blown and tracked in. Took a shower, walked the dog, settled on the couch and read some more.

But bodily ailments, it seems, are still not done with me and I have just about had enough. Saturday morning I woke up with a sore spot on the pad of my right foot just below the pinkie toe, felt like it does when you pick up a little thorn without noticing and the next day it hurts. Another similar sore spot on my heel right at the callous line which I attributed then to needing to scrape down the callous. By midday, the tips of two fingers on my left hand were red and sore, by the end of the day it had spread to the tips of two fingers on my right hand and the spots on my foot became more painful. Saturday night my foot itched something terrible and yes, I rubbed the hell out of it. Sunday morning it had spread further on my foot including a couple of toes. By Sunday evening it appeared on the base of my left palm and under the middle finger of my right hand and the spots on my foot were increasing and more painful. And when I say appeared, that was the first time I could actually see something, a small red bump, besides redness and maybe a little swelling. During the night, hands and feet itched like crazy and today the spots have crept down my four fingers and now my left foot has a sore spot on the callous line at my heel. What! The! Fuck!

Fortunately, I had a follow up appointment with the dermatologist this morning. Unfortunately, she didn't know what was going on with my hands and feet but she did prescribe an ointment. Unfortunately the pharmacy where she sent it didn't have it, but fortunately another pharmacy in town did. Also fortunately, the original sore spot I noticed Saturday morning seems to be already getting better Monday late afternoon even without the ointment. 'Seems' being the operative word.

I admit, my optimism and good humor deserted me today. This crazy 'rash' would be easier to deal with if I could point to a cause but I haven't been working out in the yard or doing anything I haven't been doing the past year. The only thing I can think of is getting my eyes dilated on Friday but I haven't been able to find where an allergic reaction to that would cause a crazy affliction on my hands and feet.

I'd ask, at this point, what the fuck el... but I know better than to invoke the gods.

the body, imploding it is

Biden has been President for a day and a half and already Hannity of Fox has declared Biden's first week a disaster, the new Q-Anon Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed articles of impeachment against Biden, Texas AG Ken Paxton is gonna sue to stop Biden's administration's 'lawlessness', and the 'rules don't apply to me' new Representative Lauren Boebert has introduced legislation to reverse the federal mask mandate, Ted Cruz is babbling about Biden caring more for Parisians than the citizens of Pittsburg (the very people whose votes he tried to dismiss) by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and McConnell is already whining and demanding that the new Senate give precedence to the minority's concerns (you know like he did for the last 10 years...not). Well, the Wacky Right may not be happy but the majority of Americans are very happy. Not just happy, relieved, weightless.

And then I went to get my eyes examined today.

The last time I had an eye exam was five years ago and I got glasses in order to pass the eye test to get my driver's license renewed which glasses I lost two years later during the flood and never replaced simply going back to drugstore cheaters. I have felt that in the last year, my eyesight improved. I know longer needed the magnifiers to be able to read my book. Today, the eye doctor confirmed that, my eyesight has indeed improved. But not for any good reason. I have cataracts forming and that's what cataracts do, improve your eyesight until the day your eyesight crashes. Left eye worse than the right eye. I could go ahead and get the left eye done but since they prefer to do both eyes a month apart, I should wait til fall, make an appointment with an ophthalmologist and plan to have cataract surgery next December/January. I kind of expected the cataract news as my sister had hers done when she was about the age I am now and there have been a few times when I have detected a faint gray smudge when looking at a bright sky or a well lit white ceiling. If that was the only problem, not that big a deal.

But...

I also have macular degeneration. Fortunately not the kind that hits and deteriorates quickly so that you have to get shots in your eyes every month. Apparently, my last eye exam a faint spot or two had started to show up in my right eye (I don't remember being informed of this) and now 5 years later my left eye has caught up to where the right eye was then and my right eye has gotten a little worse. This form is a slow degeneration and he figures that it will be 15 years or so at this rate before my vision is seriously affected. Good news is that he thinks by then they will have treatment for it as it's something researchers are working on. And there are steps I can take; wearing a hat and wrap around sunglasses every time I'm outside, eat dark leafy greens every day preferably a cup's worth, and avoid smoke of all kinds. Folks, I like dark leafy greens...mustard, collard, spinach, even beet greens...and we eat them often but if I have to eat a cup's worth every single day for the next 10 or 15 years, that's gonna get old fast.

So three years ago, afib and flutter. This year my blood sugar is pre-diabetic, my teeth are crumbling, and now my eyes are crapping out on me.

Update on the teeth. The broken pieces from two of my front teeth weren't bits of my teeth but old fillings that failed though I don't remember the original restorations. The tooth in between had some decay and a veneer that no longer covered the tooth completely due to receding gums but didn't need a crown, however, if I did all three in a row now he could get rid of the gap that had developed between my two front teeth. So vanity won the day and three and a half hours later I left with three temporary crowns. When I get the permanent ones I will have a total of 14 crowns with at least one more in the future.

They weren't kidding when they said getting old ain't for sissies.

and the sweating has begun

...in January. It got up to the low 70˚s yesterday and since the birds and the spring weeds and the freeze damaged shrubs are convinced it's spring...in January...I decided to go ahead and move the hibiscus to its new location, something I wasn't going to do til next month. I moved it from the circular bed where it was crowded by the plumbago on one side and the confederate rose on the other where it wasn't doing well to the corner of the long daylily bed behind the barn next to the concrete apron in the back. 

It will get plenty of sun there and the most brutal kind, from noon to late afternoon summer sun. I had already pulled the cosmos out so first I had to improve the soil which precipitated a trip to the feed store for dirt and compost and fertilizer and work the compost in before I could replant it. The next thing along in that flower bed is the pink angel trumpet and it does not like that late summer sun but it's probably too big to move.

I also cut back both confederate rose bushes as they were already showing a bit of new growth and then cut up the branches to make a tidy pile. So Tuesday started out nice enough and then just as I was finishing lunch two small chunks broke off one of my front teeth. About two weeks ago, a bigger chunk of one of my other front teeth broke off but on the backside. My teeth are a mess from an accident at 16 that killed all 4 bottom front teeth and damaged the rest. Over the years I've acquired 11 crowns, other cosmetic repairs, and I forget how many root canals. I had an appointment with the new dentist for the second opinion next week but now with this second tooth breaking apart, I called my regular dentist and they can see me today. The second opinion on those other teeth can wait.

And then two  of the crystals broke that I bought at the Thieves Market in Portugal when I accidently knocked them off my desk.  I had them out contemplating whether to hang them from hooks in the window or  use them to make a mobile so that along with my teeth pretty much ruined what was left of the day.

I spent over an hour this morning on twitter reading the news and people's relief that Trump is gone, a man who ruined his life and lost everything because he couldn't take a joke when Seth Meyers and Barack Obama roasted him at a White House Correspondents Dinner, and a pitiful leaving it was if anyone could ever find it in themselves to pity him. Not me. The military refused to give him the traditional send-off and he and Melania left the White House at 8 AM for the send-off he planned for himself that apparently only his family and a handful of staffers could be bothered to attend.

In just an hour from now, Biden and Harris will be sworn in and the nightmare of the last four years will be over, the promised violent protest to Biden's inauguration folding like a cheap tent with the FBI actively arresting them and Trump started throwing them under the bus. Of course the 25,000 armed national guard troops minus the 12 with links to the far right white supremacy on site might have had something to do with that. Where's all those militias with their big talk of a new civil war? And Q-anon folks who have spent the last two weeks buying up CB radios and stocking up food are mystified and incredulous that they got played, that Trump didn't issue the call.

Biden and Harris have such a big job ahead of them and hopefully they will get some cooperation from Republicans. McConnell, soon to be minority leader of the Senate, came right out and blamed the attempted insurrection on Trump but of course they aren't all giving up as new Senator Hawley has already objected to a quick pass for Biden's DHS pick because Biden wants to allow our undocumented citizens a path to citizenship.

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It's done. We resisted and survived the last four years, our democracy has prevailed. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are in the house!

the promise of spring in more than one way

The grackles showed up Saturday as they do about twice a year, swarming, eating, squawking, pooping everywhere.

The woodpecker has been hammering away on something trying to attract a mate.

The crop duster was out this weekend. I could hear his plane swooping back and forth but I never saw him. I don't know what it is he sprays this time of year.

I did a little work out in the yard Saturday as it finally warmed up enough from the latest cold front and the wind died down enough. I pulled out the rest of the dead orange cosmos from the long flower bed at the end of the barn, pruned back the red and blue/black salvia, and wired an old metal trellis to one of the wrought iron fence sections my grandson and I put up between my neighbor's and my property at the back because he was infringing on my side when he sprayed poison to keep the weeds and grass down around the storage buildings. Same property that the bitch, his widow, is now in charge of with the container. Anyway, I took the pot bound bougainvillea and planted it at the bottom of the trellis. It will only get morning sun because...container but I think it will do all right and when it gets big will help to camouflage her rude spray painted sign, in the summer at least.

I pulled out all the rest of the cosmos Sunday in the other long flower bed on the other side of the yard as all the seeds had either been eaten or scattered and did some weeding. Then I got a knife and cut down the five banana trees that bloomed this year though only two of them made bananas. They die after they bloom and two of them had already fallen over. 

The knife worked well enough to cut through the trunks but once on the ground it wasn't working very efficiently for cutting them up so I fetched the machete and whack whack whack cut them up into pieces about 2' long, like cutting through butter. Then I loaded it all up in the truck along with the dead cosmos and dumped it on the burn pile along with the accumulated fallen branches. It will interesting to see how it burns, or if it burns, as those banana trees are full of water.

The yard is still winter brown, well, except for the spring weeds, and like everything else it's early for clearing out but the signs of the coming spring are unmistakable. The flower beds are still sleeping but the baby blue eyes, love-in-a-mist, poppies, rocket larkspur, and woodland petal pinks are all sprouted and growing getting ready. Even so, the only color in the yard is the violas and pansies and the shrimp plant.

Those grassy looking leaves that the stems of the shrimp plant are laying in belong to the woodland petal pink.

My plans for today are more work outside (maybe, it's become overcast and windy after nearly a week of glorious blue sky days) and preparing a contribution to tonight's dinner for Meatless Monday. We have other meatless meals during the week but always on Monday. I'm going to attempt to fix the butternut squash/apple saute that Boud at Field and Fen showed us last week. And of course yoga class tonight.

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Two more days and the FBI and the military are so concerned about threats from the inside to Biden and Harris that they are vetting every single one of the 25,000 national guard troops. And still a core of the Republicans are clamoring to not convict Trump in the Senate when the articles of impeachment are sent over because it will cause a large segment to leave the party. Well, if the Republicans want to save their party then that's exactly what needs to happen. Let the crazies splinter off and form their own party to die a slow death because whether they realize it or not, Trump is done. He owes more money than he has and the only bank that would lend him money has cut him off, he and his family have become pariahs (the swanky country club on the island where Ivanka and Jared plonked down $30M for some land declined to accept their application to join), NY has canceled all it's contracts with Trump businesses, he's been banned from just about every social media site except the far right wing and crazies, big money donors have stopped giving money to Republicans who support him and the Big Lie, and he will be facing a lot of lawsuits after Wednesday and hopefully actual arrest even as he has spent his last several weeks trying to get as many loyalists in the government he's leaving behind as he can. I wonder what it is he expects them to do and if they will still be in place and how loyal they will be a year from now.

And so, on his way out, Trump is planning 100 or more pardons in the next two days. Rich felons are paying thousands of dollars to Trump aides to lobby him for a pardon. He plans to leave early Wednesday morning for Mar A Lago, his last use of Air Force One. He's also planning his own sendoff at Andrews Air Force Base the morning of the inauguration, every invited guest allowed to bring up to five others with them, since the Pentagon declined to give him the military send off it has done for previous presidents. It should come as no surprise that he and Melania won't attend Biden's inauguration unlike every other outgoing president for the last hundred years. Just one more example of how classless they are regardless of how wealthy. They will not be welcoming Joe and Jill the way the Obamas welcomed them.

Just goes to show you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.