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1.
You may think the COVID19 is not such a big threat and not worth sacrificing your right of free-breath for several months. But it is indeed life-threatening for the elderly, with a death rate higher than 15% even with adequate medical care. According to this article, wearing masks is not only to protect the wearer, but more importantly, to protect the others, especially the old ones. They are grandpas and grandmoms of our children. They’ve been hard-working and contributed a lot to their families and their nations. They are not expendables. It’s worth everything to protect them — our mother and fathers and childhood teachers who protected us when we are young and fragile. For a kid, nothing can replenish the unconditional love from grandparents, their kisses and hugs and cakes and smiles.
Comment on the study, Facemasks against Covid
I haven’t written about this a lot, but I have seen Miss C. just about every day during this pandemic. She comes over, we go for a one mile walk with the dog (not wearing masks). Then we say all of her prayers, have a little bible lesson or catechism class, and then we do her reading, writing and math. She stays about three hours. Of course her parents have limited her contact with the outside world. She doesn’t go into stores and she only stays at ner mom’s or dad’s house. But it was my choice for her to be able to come over and my choice to continue teaching her.
Grandparents are important. They are also adults and they should be able to make decisions about contact for themselves along with their families. That’s something that should NOT be government-mandated.
2.
Since so much has been taken away from us this spring, I’ve been doing extra work to try to add some fun events.
On Monday, we are going to have a little family book party to celebrate Miss C’s completion of all of her First Grade Readers!
So Monday we will be making cupcakes together and then I will be gifting her with a book of Aesop’s Fables at our lunchtime that I purchased from my friend’s Facebook book party.
3.
This week I went to Labcorp to have my antibodies tested to see if I possibly had some immunity to Covid-19. This wasn’t on a whim. Back in February, my son got very sick. his eyes were red, he had a fever and a cough and he felt achy all over. I spent most of the morning with him. We drove to Urgent Care, sat in a waiting room for about 30 minutes, and then sat in the exam room for another 10. Then we went to the drug store for a prescription and finally somewhere to get him something to eat. The next day, I went to check in on him at his home. A short time later I had a cough and a slight sore throat. If he had an early case of Covid, maybe I had a mild case? And if I did, maybe i had antibodies now to prove it.
Labcorp sent me an email about their $10 program. You pay them $10 up front, schedule an appointment and then go in for the draw. When I got there, they asked for my insurance card. It turns out that they are billing insurance companies for the actual tset and since my insurance company basically sucks, I quickly called them to see if this would be covered.
It wouldn’t.
I then called Labcorp and they said that they are hoping to have a government program to pay for these tests because they want the data. But if that doesn’t come through, the most I would have to pay up later would be $50. So I had it done.
I got an email 24 hours later to let me know my results were in. Unfortunately, they were negative. I didn’t not have any detectable antibodies. I’d still like my son to get tested, or for that matter, Mr. Pete who also had a pretty bad illness earlier this year, but they’re not as eager to find out as I was.
4.
One of the things I have accomplished during this shut-down time is getting up to 60 miles a week on my elliptical. Long-time readers might remember that I had a very sudden flare of arthritis two years ago. My doctor told me that my dancin days were over and that I couldn’t do anything with significant impact if I wanted to avoid surgery for a while.
So I bought the elliptical. At first I couldn’t go very long on it. I wasn’t even sure I liked it. During Cross Country season I walked almost every day about 3 to 4 miles. I did distance and a lot of hills. When that ended I found that I could easy do about 19-20 miles per hour and get in about eight miles. By New years I was hitting 20 to 23 mph and hitting 10 miles an hour. Now I’m going about 40 minutes and doing 12 to 13 miles, five days a week. I hit 60 miles last week and this week. I’m planning to stay there a few more weeks before I increase the mileage again.
I find that it’s easier for me to stick with it if I can watch a movie or something while I’m on the elliptical. When I’m done I do arms and abs from my old Jazzercise tapes. The only thing I’m really lacking is more stretch time.
The result has been that I have greater endurance, my knee doesn’t hurt and I haven’t gained any weight during this pandemic – I’m extremely pleased about that!
5.
Rosie is finishing up English Literature. We did do a big jump from Jane Eyre to Animal Farm and 1984, but I thought considering all that is going on politically in this country, it was imperative that she read those now.
I have a book list of our English Literature available for Free here.
6.
Since Rosie is done with Biology and almost done with English LIterature, she is preparing for the CLEP exams in both using Instantcert. This is a test prep website that uses flashcards and detailed explanations to prepare for these tests. Two of my sons earned CLEP credit before. Noah had enough CLEP credit that he had room in his schedule for a double major. It’s only $15 a month – well worth it!
7.
Don’t forget to get your copy of Living through History. As this pandemic rolls on, you’ll want to remember this time. Suitable as a writing prompt for students, creating into a memory file, or putting into a time capsule.
