Quarantine Diaries – Week 19

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Thistle

My mental health is poorly right now. Even though some quite nice things happened this week, I’ve been overwhelmed with anxiety, agoraphobia, depression, and general malaise. I finally hit my personal limit: It’s time to go home. I really appreciate that my in-laws have let us live up here with them for the last month, for our safety. I really do. But at some point, the need to be home – with Jason and Morrigan and my kitties and in my own home – starts to outweigh the need to be away from the pandemic spike in SA. I need to go home.

For those who feel a bit like me right now: If your mental health is at a point where you cannot bear to hear more about quarantine stuff, skip to the bottom of this post for a list of positives and highlights and Nice Things. We all need some of that right now!

-Friday, July 17th:
Local count: 27,525 (+478), 240 deaths. Texas had a jump of 15K cases, by far their highest daily increase. Official local health order put out today saying all schools need to be online-only at least through September 7th, with the possibility of being extended longer. Here in Wisconsin, my brother-in-law and his wife arrived for a weekend that involved a full extended-family gathering. Not exactly the thing you’re supposed to do during a pandemic, so I admit to being really worried about this, but it’s not my house, so there’s also nothing really I can do about it. At least it’s nice to see people again, and I know everyone is being super safe!

-Saturday, July 18th:
Local count: 28,633 (+1,108), 251 deaths. There actually isn’t much news to report today other than the gigantic total of new cases for the day. I have no idea when if ever this is going to get under control. We’re now two weeks out from the 4th of July, so we’ll see soon if people were careful or not. Up here, the whole family was together, kayaking and hanging out and generally having fun. And I have some good news: Natalie was feeling well enough to video-chat with me today, which is big improvement! Everyone seems to be getting better at her house, thank goodness!

(photo credit: Emmy)

-Sunday, July 19th:
Local count: 30,835 (+2,202), 257 deaths. That is not a backlogged number. That’s over 2k positive tests in the last 24 hours. It took us until May 17th, over two months, to reach that as our TOTAL cases, and now this. Our mayor’s facebook page tonight said, “With a sharp spike in identified cases over the last few days, it’s clear that our community didn’t take the Fourth of July weekend as seriously as we’d hoped.” This is what I’ve been dreading. Especially as this is only the beginning.

-Monday, July 20th:
Local count: 31,316 (+481), 262 deaths. New weekly indicator numbers are out: 22.9% positivity rate (slightly down), 16 days doubling rate (no change), and ~35% hospital admissions are covid-related (about the same). Children and teenagers now make up 1 in 7 cases (up from about 1 in 10).

-Tuesday, July 21st:
Local count: 31,867 (+551), 274 deaths. The numbers came out regarding children’s cases, showing that we’ve had 211 cases among infants under one year old. Oy. Additionally, the SA Symphony announced that it will cancel all its fall concerts and furlough all musicians and staff. It’s a decision that makes sense – they already did this for the spring concerts – but my stepmom is one of those furloughed musicians, so this hits home. // It was a tough day for me personally. I was jolted awake from dreams by a song (playing in my head, not aloud) from my teen years. With it came a severe presentiment that something was wrong with someone – not sure who – in my family. I’ve had a few presentiments like this in my life and they’re never good. The last time I was woken by a song interrupting my dreams was in 2014, the night my aunt passed away. Needless to say, I was quite scattered, anxious, and unproductive today. Too much coffee was consumed. (As far as I could find out, everyone was okay, though it took until evening to get that information.)

-Wednesday, July 22nd:
Local count: 33,555 (+1,688), 283 deaths. Bexar County Medical Society has come out and said they’re against in-person reopening of schools until the positivity rate is under 5% and there has been a persistent decline in cases for at least two weeks. Not sure they have any authority or say-so, but it’s nice to have another sane group advocating. As for us, we made the decision to leave this weekend or Monday to go back to Texas. Wish things had gotten safer instead of worse, but we need our family back together again.

-Thursday, July 23rd:
Local count: 34,633 (+1,078), 298 deaths. The county jail is current becoming overcrowded as the state STILL isn’t taking prisoners into the state system like they’re supposed to. This is creating an extra 300+ necessary beds at present and covid cases are picking up again due to the overcrowding there. Another new statistic came out as well today – 1 in 4 cases of people admitted to ICU for covid later pass away from it, as well as more than 40% of those on ventilators. Aaaand to make things even more fun, there’s a hurricane on the way to San Antonio!

We ended last week’s horrific numbers at 27,047 cases and 229 deaths. It was another big week, with a total of 7,586 new cases (daily average 1,084) and 69 more deaths. As you can see from the graph, this is fewer cases than reported last week. However, last week included about 5,000 backlogged cases. If those are removed, this is still trending upwards, with daily average higher than the last two weeks, and our weekly death number is our highest yet. Not nearly out of the woods.

Positives and Highlights and Nice Things
As I said in the beginning of this post, I’m struggling to keep my head in a good space right now. Here are the highlights that I tried to focus on this week.

  • meeting my sis-in-law Emmy for the first time in person (she of the red hair in the photo near the top of this post)
  • an afternoon kayaking adventure
  • getting my second-best 5K time
  • Natalie feeling well enough to video-chat with me!
  • an actual cold front up here, beautiful temps like the 50s and 60s that I never experience in San Antonio July
  • the most amazing homemade sour cherry pie (which I did not make, only enjoyed)
  • an awesome new haircut
  • Culver’s picnic with the boys and their grandparents
  • watching my sister’s foster kitties untie her shoes !!!
  • The read-along chapters for Rhythm of War (Nov release) have arrived! Every week will be another 1-2 chapters to read up until the book is released. This is my most-anticipated book of the year and I loved the read-along experience with the previous book – super excited that this has started!

I really hope y’all are faring better than me right now. By the time I see y’all in next week’s quarantine diaries, my family will be together again, hopefully without picking up covid along the way home.

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Wellness Wednesday – Personal Ah-ha! Moments

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Thistle

Last week, on my third day of severe insomnia and a bit delirious from having been awake since 4:15am, I had four major ah-ha! moments throughout the day. Probably due to the delirium, I could only remember three of these moments the next day (sigh). I’m not sure what made this particular day so productive in terms of mental clicking, but hey! I’ll take it!

Revelation the First: Strength Training

As a competitive swimmer through adolescence, cross-training was a big deal. We did all kinds of exercises ranging from simple cardio workouts to basic weight-lifting. There was a weight room by the pool where we used stations consisting of hydraulic machines, weighted cable machines, and bodyweight equipment (like pull-up bars). We did not do free weights – there was probably an insurance reason for this – and perhaps because of this reason, I have never been enamored of barbells and such. I follow a great many women who lift weights, and I see them getting super excited by squatting heavier barbells and deadlifting more weight etc. And I have no desire whatsoever to do these things, the same way I can be happy running 5Ks without ever being tempted to train for a marathon. So for years, I’ve kinda just thought of ST as supplemental to my workouts. A thing I have to do, the same way I have to eat those veggies I don’t particularly like in order to get in the right nutrition.

(2013)

The ah-ha moment: Actually, I DO have particular strength-related desires and goals. No, I don’t care about deadlifts or squats or that bizarre Turkish get-up thing. You know what I care about? Pull-ups. I remember being an 11-year-old kid in sixth grade, looking up at the record board in the gym. Pull-up records were recorded as such: Boys – 18 (6th grade), 21 (7th), 18 (8th). Girls – 1 (6th), 0 (7th), 1 (8th). F— that! I decided right then and there that I would not only break the girls’ records, but I’d get up to that 21 pull-ups that was the highest record. And I did. In 8th grade, I did 21 pull-ups nonstop. (Notably, the coach didn’t care or count it, despite watching me do it. That record board, last I saw, remains 1-0-1 for the girls, grr.) In 10th grade, I again did 21 pull-ups nonstop, after two sets of 10 pull-ups during a cross-training session. Y’all: I LOVE pull-ups. When I began losing weight a decade ago, my goal was to be able to do at least five of them again, and I was up to four before my major abdominal surgery in Jan 2014. This goal – plus others like being able to do skater/pistol squats, and crow pose, and headstands – is my focus in strength. Maybe I don’t like free-weights, but I DO love being strong and achieving big things in ST!

Revelation the Second: Modification

After five years of yoga practice, I know what my body can/can’t do. My shoulders, for example, are not very flexible. There’s this practice that involves a forward fold with your hands clasped behind your back. They’re supposed to raise toward the ceiling when you lean forward. I can barely raise mine an inch above my back, and it’s awkward and painful. It’s just one of those things my body can’t handle, or so I’ve thought for years. Then on this particular insomnia-fueled day, I was talking to my friend Stephanie, and as part of our conversation, I happened to look up photos of this pose. In one of them, there was a modification included. Y’all – I thought I knew all the various modifications in yoga by now, but clearly not. Immediately, I tried it out. Lo and behold, my arms went way up toward the ceiling the way they’re supposed to! I’ve been skipping this exercise for years, and now I don’t have to anymore!

Revelation the Third: Coffee

I’ve been talking about trying to quit drinking coffee for months now, and I’ve been thinking about it for years. For a long time, I’ve suspected that the coffee is deep at the root of why I suddenly started gaining weight rapidly in 2014, and why I haven’t been able to lose weight in all the years since. Particularly as the times when I’ve cut back to a single cup per day, I have been able to lose. And yet, for all my talk, I haven’t quit. I’ve barely cut back. I keep putting it off, trying other things, blaming circumstances and addiction and who knows what else. I thought admitting this was an addition problem was honest and brave. It wasn’t. Because the true reason finally came through to me on the evening of this insomnia-driven day.

(2016)

I have not – cannot – give up coffee because I’m terrified of what will happen when I do. This is my last and best hope for my body. If I give up coffee and that proves to be unrelated to my inability to lose weight, I have nothing left. No hope, no answers, nothing to try. This is my last grasp at some control. I’ve experienced total lack of control when it comes to my weight. During my 11-year illness from 1998 to 2009, my body paid no heed to the things I ate or the exercise I sweated through. That is a completely demoralizing and terrifying mental place to be in. After ten years of it, I gave up, and spent the last year of my illness not trying at all. It wasn’t good for my mind or my body, and I cannot bear to get back to that place of hopelessness again. So I cling to my coffee, because while I do, I still have hope that there may be an answer out there, and I’m not just out of luck.

This is a major mental breakthrough, y’all. Just knowing the root of my mental blocks is a huge step toward overcoming them. I still have to work through that fear, but now at least I know what I’m working with.

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Final Girls, by Riley Sager

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Thistle

A decade ago, Quincy barely survived a massacre. The media lumps her in with two other massacre-survivors, dubbed “final girls” in a nod to horror movies, as the things these women have survived are that horrific. Quincy remembers next to nothing about the night five of her friends were slaughtered in front of her, and she wants nothing to do with the other two “final girls.” But then one of them dies under suspicious circumstances, and the other ends up on her doorstep.

As far as I can tell, this is Sager’s debut novel under this particular pseudonym, though he’s apparently published under his real name before. It’s also the third book of his that I’ve read, only missing one of the four published since this one in 2017. In Lock Every Door (2019), I had mixed feelings – a fascinating book that went a direction I disliked. Home Before Dark (2020) was flat-out awesome, a mystery with psuedo-paranormal elements and a dual narrative. Final Girls (2017) came highly recommended by Steph the Bookworm, and since I liked Home Before Dark so much, I decided to give it a chance. My end-feelings are mixed much the way they were for Lock Every Door, but not for the same reasons.

This feels like a debut novel, even if it technically isn’t. It’s also not a mystery, but a thriller, and my longtime readers will know that I find many, many tropes in thrillers to be excruciating. Luckily, the book didn’t rely on too many of those tropes! Unfortunately, I fell into the trap I always fall into with thrillers: reading way too fast, until I feel sick and oversaturated with the story. This is the number one way a book will be ruined purely by the reading experience, regardless of what’s inside. If I don’t slow down a little, I’ll regret it. And I do regret it with this book, because as thrillers go, it’s an interesting one. Sure, the culprit(s) were pretty obvious from the beginning – there aren’t a whole lot of choices, after all – but most of the action, characterization, and psychology felt spot-on, with only a few tiny off-moments. As far as thrillers go, I’ll take this one over The Girl on the Train any day.

I’m just not really a fan of thrillers, as I’ve learned over the years. I probably won’t read the one Sager book I haven’t yet tried, because it sounds like it trends more thriller than mystery. Perhaps his genre** is evolving over time. Maybe the next one will be as wonderful to me as Home Before Dark. I guess we’ll see. However, if you enjoy thrillers, I do highly recommend this one. It didn’t work for me so much, but it may be awesome for you!

**I have since discovered that Sager’s previous books, published under his real name, were what looks to be mystery/crime fiction, so perhaps it’s less like “evolving” and more like “bringing in elements of previously published genres.” In any case, I might go take a look at that particular series (Kat Campbell series by Todd Ritter, which starts with Death Notice), and see if it works for me during RIP season. I’d love to have another good crime/mystery series to devour!

Posted in 2020, Adult, Prose | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Race Report: Gabriella’s Cupcake 5K (Virtual) + Personal Milestone

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Thistle

This was the last 5K that I signed up for in 2020 before the plague took over. It was meant to be a non-virtual race in May that I was walking with Jason and several hiking friends. Then the event was moved to July with a virtual option, and later switched to full-on virtual after San Antonio’s caseload began to spike in June. Like I said before, I wasn’t planning on running this 5K, but walking it with friends. However, there was no reason not to run it now, seeing as I’m all solo up here in northern Wisconsin!

About the 5K: Gabriella’s 5K Cupcake Run started a few years back by a family whose daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer. This 5K raises money for brain cancer research. One of my best friends’ mother has had brain cancer four times, so this is a cause dear to my heart. You can read more about Gabriella and her 5K here.

Pic shows the race swag that is waiting for me at home: Shirt, bib, medal, bracelet, glasses, phone-holder, and a homemade sugar cookie that is replacing the traditional cupcake given out at the end of the run. Sadly, I will have to let Jason eat mine in addition to his because I don’t know if I’ll be home before it goes bad. Boo! I bought myself one of those cups of mini-Oreos as a substitute!

About my route: Not long after I first arrived in WI, I mapped out a course to walk/run (not for this event, just generally). I didn’t map the distance, only the course, and it turned out to be 3.2 miles – just over a 5K. It also had a few good-sized hills in it. I did this course both on 7/7 and 7/11. During the first training run, I did 5:00/3:00 run/walk intervals, and finished the 5K in 51:00. In the second, I ran all but 7 mins (split into three breaks), for a total of about 2.8 miles running (but not nonstop). My time was 50:23, my second fastest 5K ever. After these two training runs, I used a google-maps builder to map out an exact 5K, this time on mostly level ground, for the official race. I did a trial run of this route on 7/15.

Personal Milestone: When I went out on 7/15 for the trial run, I didn’t plan to run the full 5K. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was up to that yet. Even on 7/11, when I ran 44 of the 51 mins, the longest nonstop section was 21 mins. I haven’t been able to run longer nonstop times/distances since I finished C25K in May (where I ran 2 miles in 33 mins, a 16:43/mi pace). But I felt really good, and I went out slow and careful, and by the time I was a mile into the run, I decided to try to run the whole thing. AND I DID IT!!! I ran the entire 5K. It may have been super slow – 51:45, a 16:42/mi pace – but I ran the entire thing, and kept my heart rate steady around 162 bpm, and it felt AWESOME! It felt even more awesome when I discovered that I finished the run in the exact same time as my Elf Run 5K. The Elf Run was on Dec 15, exactly seven months prior, and it was the walked/run 5K that made me want to become a runner again. That day led to this one, seven months later, and I was just absolutely thrilled to have accomplished this milestone!

The Cupcake 5K: Technically, I was supposed to sign up with a specific app and run live with everyone else. The app looked sketchy and required an account, so I decided to just do this one on my own. Doesn’t matter where my time slots in with everyone else! The morning dawned mild and super-humid (literally, the weather channel said 100% humidity!). Not my favorite weather to run in, but I got out there. I decided to walk/run this one, pushing the running sections a bit more to try to get a good time. My goal was to beat 50 mins, and in the back of my mind, I was hoping to beat my current 5K PR of 47:54. That second one didn’t happen – humidity is BAD FOR ME – but I did come close, finishing in 48:46, a 15:44/mi pace. It’s my second-fastest 5K now – only my second 5K under 50 mins – and I’m super happy with that time, especially in a virtual setting without all the hoopla of the race environment to get you pumped up! (I love and miss real races!)

Afterwards – and after stretching, showering, more stretching, and more stretching – I ate this amazing breakfast of stuffed French toast with all kinds of fruit, plus a cinnamon bun for good measure. Who needs mini-Oreos, eh? I’ll save those for another time!

This race crosses off the fourth square in my Running Bingo. I had a lot of different options for which square to cross off, and I’ve decided on the “virtual” option. This wasn’t meant to be a run, and it wasn’t meant to be virtual, but that’s what it ended up being, so this seems a good fit. Plus, I’ve realized that I’m not a super huge fan of virtual races, so unless I have a specific Bingo category in mind, I doubt I’ll sign up for another one. This can go ahead and cross it off the list. I’ll update this post with my new Running Bingo sheet after I’m home and can color it in. Here is my updated Bingo sheet:

PS – Jason also signed up for this race, and he decided to walk it this morning due to scheduling complications yesterday. I think originally he was planning to run parts, but he wasn’t feeling the best this morning with itchy legs, feet, and hips (a weird condition he gets if he’s not exercising as regularly as he should be). Not to mention it’s ridiculously HOT in San Antonio! He ended up doing most of the 5K without shoes because of the itchiness, despite the heat. Oy! But that’s my Jason – not a fan of shoes no matter the weather. Heh. He sent me this picture afterwards. I think he’s only pretending to be happy. 😀

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Quarantine Diaries – Week 18

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Thistle

This week (July 13th) makes four months since our first covid-positive case in SA. Back then, my family took precautions, canceling/rescheduling appointments, setting ourselves up to be at home for some time. Imagine: my well-woman’s exam was scheduled for April, and I pushed it back to July for safety’s sake. Ha. Ha. Ha. (It’s now pushed back again until September, will likely get delayed again.) I remember Stephanie telling me that she thought we would have rolling lockdowns for the next two years until we had a vaccine available. It all seemed so surreal. How could we NOT get things under control by summer? But I forgot. Americans are led by a narcissistic dumpster fire who couldn’t make a good decision if his life depended on it, and there’s a whole parade of politicians licking the guy’s feet. Additionally, our culture is obsessed with individualism, instant gratification, and one-upping each other. Disease management has become a political minefield. Ugh ugh ugh.

It would have been so easy to respond to the initial threat with quick pandemic guidelines and solid medical advice, to alter said advice and guidelines as we learned more, and keep people safe while also not crashing the economy. Anyone who says otherwise needs to open their eyes and look at what most of the rest of the world has done. I have a friend in Australia who told me last week that they’re going back into lockdown for six weeks. He hadn’t looked at the numbers for awhile, and when he did, he bugged out about Texas. Texas has 29 million people, Australia has 25 million. The day he looked, AU had just over 9k cases; Texas had 241k cases. I pointed out that San Antonio – population 2 million – had almost 18k cases that same day, twice the number of Australia even though AU has 12.5x the population. The mind boggles. Or really, it doesn’t, because what else can you expect of a country that has divided itself the way we have over the last 12 years?

Ugh, this, yes, because mental health is kinda poorly right now for many of us: If your mental health is at a point where you cannot bear to hear more about quarantine stuff, skip to the bottom of this post for a list of positives and highlights and Nice Things. We all need some of that right now!

-Friday, July 10th:
Local count: 18,602 (+923), 166 deaths. Today’s single new death is another child in their late teens. Another – not from today, but recently – was a 30 year old man who attended another of those horrid “covid parties,” thinking it was all a hoax. Not long before he died, he said, “I think I made a mistake.” Close by in Corpus Christi, a six-WEEK-old baby died of covid. I cannot fathom why folks aren’t taking this seriously!! It feels like we’re back at the beginning again, and in so many ways, we are. I remember when this all started in mid-March, and San Antonio’s big annual festival, Fiesta, was postponed from April to November. Today, it was canceled for 2020 altogether. It’s a good decision, but symbolically, it’s a blow. Nat’s brother FINALLY got his results today – positive – and they told Nat there was no reason for her to retest since she’s got all the symptoms and all four of the other people in her household are confirmed positive. (Pic: Isolating for safety’s sake.)

-Saturday, July 11th:
Local count: 19,137 (+535), 175 deaths. Another nine deaths today, including three in my age range. My heart hurts. At least the hospital admission numbers are starting to flatten out pretty visibly in the data now, and DOD medical personnel are headed to different counties in TX, including Bexar. (I just had a thought – for those of you not in Texas, “Bexar” is pronounced “Bear.”) I have to roll my eyes at the governor, who is waggling his finger at us and saying that he’ll have to send the state into lockdown if the spread doesn’t slow soon. If he ever gets to that point, it’ll be far too late. We already have parts of the state that have more patients than hospital availability, and we had another record high number of cases throughout the state again today. It’s so frustrating, because I really want to go HOME. I want it to be SAFE to go home! (Pic: more Wally cuddles as I miss my kitties)

-Sunday, July 12th:
Local count: 19,648 (+511), 184 deaths. The numbers continue to climb. Several reports in from around the country about people getting re-infected with covid months after recovering. Near the beginning of this whole thing, I went on a bit of a rant about the so-called covid parties attempting to get “herd immunity,” and now not only have covid parties proved to be deadly, herd immunity has proved to be a fantasy with this disease. I don’t know what this does to our prospects for vaccine, but this just sucks. I’m feeling grumpy today after waking up at 4:15 am for the third night of major insomnia in a row grr.

-Monday, July 13th:
Local count: 20,213 (+565), 195 deaths. New weekly numbers tonight: positivity rate up again, now at 24%, but our doubling rate has bumped up from 11 to 16 days, which is a good sign. Very little else to report, though I did see today some interesting news from the homeless community in SA. Apparently despite the city’s high positivity rate, the rate is only 1% among the homeless shelters and encampments, with only 10-12 people infected over the last four months. Makes me wonder if this is the trend nationwide. Meanwhile, I’m up in the land of no-one-cares-about-the-pandemic, and I was frickin’ annoyed that while I managed to get in to see a chiropractor for my sciatica today, not a single person including the chiropractor was wearing a mask besides me. Grr.

(screenshot from my facetime call home tonight)

-Tuesday, July 14th:
Local count: 21,067 (+854), 201 deaths. Another record high case day for TX with almost 11K. Some new stats from SA: 36% all hospital admissions are now covid-related, and 30% of all cases are folks with no underlying conditions. Also, homicides this year are nearly double what they were at this time last year in SA, many of them domestic-related. Gah!!! And to give an idea of how serious the hospital situation is getting here, there are now refrigerated trucks on standby for the dead when morgues overflow. In other news, there is now bubonic plague squirrels in Colorado, because 2020…

-Wednesday, July 15th:
Local count: 21,546 (+479), 208 deaths. After a bunch of threats from the TEA that schools won’t receive state funding if they don’t open this fall, there’s finally an exception in place. If local health officials order schools to be closed for in-person classes, funding will still be available for students in online classes. Local health officials in SA want to discuss this with the heads of school districts first before making any orders, but I’m hopeful about this. Also, Ambrose’s college put out guidelines, and most classes – hopefully all of his specific classes, but we don’t know yet – will be online. (Pic: I ran a full 5K today. Completely unrelated to covid but I had to celebrate!)

-Thursday, July 16th:
Local count: 27,047 (+5,501), 229 deaths. Note: Only 691 cases reported today are from the last day. The rest is a backlog of reporting from state labs. So…apparently we were doing even worse than we knew. A couple pieces of local news today. 1) The city has announced that city pools will not open at all this summer. 2) SA researchers are looking for participants in a vaccine trial, with the hope that a vaccine will be ready late this year to early next year (far earlier than I’d personally anticipate!). 3) Pregnant women in SA are testing 10-20% covid positive right now, despite being mostly asymptomatic, and with this comes the possibility of known-placenta-microclots leading to future problems with the newborns. This disease!! 4) Our school district has announced that for at least the first three weeks, all classes will be online, whew!

This week, we started with 17,679 cases and 165 deaths, and ended at 27,047 cases with 229 deaths. Apparently those case numbers were inaccurate, though, as we found out at the end of this 18th week of quarantine. There’s no way to know how many cases came when, so I just have to say okay, we had 9368 cases and 64 deaths this week. (We were looking at a slight improvement before that backlog, too!) Since we know those cases came from the last two weeks, I’m going to lump the two weeks of numbers together for average. This puts us at 14,169 cases in two weeks – notably, that’s more than 50% of our total cases – and 115 deaths (half!), for an average of 1012 cases per day. This is NUTS. It’s so bad, y’all. So bad. Top graph is the weekly numbers (non-cumulative), bottom is the cumulative weekly numbers.

An update on Natalie’s family
I’ve gotten periodic text updates from Natalie, whose entire family is desperately sick with covid. All five of them are in the vulnerable category, which makes this particularly scary. Her dad (sick two weeks now) has almost no fever left, has a bit of appetite back, and actually felt good enough to shower on his own on Wednesday. Her mom (who was largely asymptomatic in the beginning) had a couple bad days of symptoms but is mostly feeling better now, thank goodness (she has brain shunts!). Her brother is mostly doing better by now. Her husband is to the point where most of the chest pressure is gone and he’s mostly with joint pain, but overall feeling on the mend. And Nat herself, who was one of the last to get symptoms, is unfortunately still in the thick of it. She had the “felt better one day only to have it get much worse” in mid-week, with high fevers, terrible headaches, and on-and-off delirium. She’s also on an inhaler with specialized meds because of her asthma. I really hope she’ll also be on the mend soon! (Pic: Nat and me in May 2016)

Positives and Highlights and Nice Things
It was a very discouraging week in terms of covid news. These are the few highlights that helped me to get through it.

  • my mom Polo-ed us video of a particular Hallmark Christmas movie scene that we always enjoy getting (long story, involves a mute button and Jason improving rom-com dialogue…in other words, a good laugh for us!)
  • one of my two most anticipated books of 2020 (The Lantern Men) finally released after several delays! (Yes, I finished it. Yes, it was delightful!)
  • That friend in Australia I mentioned above? His name is Oisin, and this week we talked via Zoom. It was the first time we’ve talked live in the 14 years we’ve been email penpals!
  • I RAN A FULL 5K!!! –>

What is your good news for the week? I need some positives!!

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Wellness Wednesday – Warm-ups

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Thistle

When I was a preteen, on a day when I felt sluggish and tired, my dad gave me a piece of advice that I promptly filed away under the “whatever, dad” label. He told me that if he didn’t warm up properly before he practiced (playing trumpet) each day, he felt terrible. Not only would his practice be heavy, clunky, and clumsy, but the rest of his day would be as well. As I had been a competitive swimmer for nearly a year at that point in my life, he was trying to make a parallel to my swim practice. I didn’t see the value or relevance of what he said, and promptly ignored it.

As an adult who does a LOT of exercise, I still rarely make use of any kind of warmup. Sure, the yoga videos I follow have warmups built in, and before a 5K, I’ll stretch and jog in place a little and try to make sure my muscles aren’t cold before the start, but I don’t want to do too much and tire myself out beforehand. Otherwise, though, I’ve never seen much of a use for it, especially when it comes to strength-training. This probably sounds a bit stupid, especially coming from someone who does so much exercise (and has done so for nearly 30 years), but there’s a reason for it. It starts with The New Rules of Lifting for Women, which I read in late summer of 2012.

TNRoLfW laid out a seven-stage plan that lasted about six months, and in early September that year, I began to follow it with the intention of finishing around my 34th birthday in March. I didn’t make it through stage 1. Partly, that was the lack of proper equipment. It’s hard to squat heavier and heavier weights when you don’t have a squat rack and you have to start by getting the heavy bar from ground to over your shoulders. (At one point, I strained a muscle in my forearm and had to take time off!) Another big factor was the time. Even though the workout itself wasn’t too long, the workout + warmup + workout-warmup was over an hour! All of that left me feeling sore, exhausted, tired, and dreading the exercises. And the warmup was the absolute worst. Frankly, I didn’t see the point of doing bodyweight squats as a pre-warmup for low-weight squats as a workout-warmup for heavy-weight squats. That’s too many gd squats!!

(2013, before another ST program attempt)

Since giving up/failing the NRoLfW plan, I’ve attempted about half a dozen other strength training plans of varying levels and complexities. In the beginning, I always followed instructions and did the accompanying warmup. Inevitably, said warmup would tack on an extra 20-30 mins to the session and I’d be physical exhausted even before the real workout began. Needless to say, I never made it very far. So I started skipping the warmups instead. Now, the workouts didn’t take as long, but the inevitable fatigue, soreness, and days-long regret continued to linger. The last time I attempted this was back in May, with a very VERY beginner level workout. I think I made it through one of six weeks before I decided that I’m just not meant to do heavy ST and quit.

(except I actually do love feeling strong, especially doing pullups! Pic: 2014)

So that’s where I was in late June when I joined this GGS personal coaching plan. My biggest reservations about the program was the strength training portion. I know that muscle-building resistance workouts are crucial to build metabolism and keep your body healthy – I just prefer to do that as part of my yoga practice! So I chose the easiest program I could, for the easiest beginner level, with only two workouts per week. Unfortunately, those workouts came with a “warmup.” You know, a warmup that consists of mountain climbers, side planks, and walking lunges in addition to another seven exercises and/or stretches. The warmup looked harder than the actual workout! I knew I would never make it, and I dreaded having to try.

There is a lot of reading material that comes with this program, and part of it discussed the purpose of warming up before strength training. Supposedly, if you warm up, it prevents delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Obviously, this had never been the case for me! I got the same amount of DOMS with or without a warmup. In my mind, avoiding that excruciating soreness was out of the question. But I thought, perhaps I could warm up using light yoga instead of the battery of bodyweight ST. After all, I enjoy yoga, prefer it to regular ST, didn’t want to remove it from my regular exercise routine to accommodate the new ST, and have experienced firsthand how much easier walks are if I’m already warmed up via yoga. (You’d think the expression “warmed up” would have clued me in earlier, but no matter.) I asked my coaches if I could sub the yoga in for the dynamic warmup, and they agreed.

Oh. Wow. I had no idea the magical effect a proper warmup can have. All those bodyweight ST warmups? They were too much for me, even back in 2014 at the height of fitness and strength. (T-pushups? No prob! Swiss ball inverted crunches? Can’t even feel them. Stupid frickin’ inchworm warmup? Oh god I’m gonna die…) It was like doing two to three ST workouts in a row back in the days of NRoLfW. I needed a warmup for the warmup for the program-warmup for the program… But using yoga to stretch and get my muscles loosened and ready to go? That has been incredible. I’ve been doing these ST workouts for several weeks now, and I’ve had absolutely no DOMS whatsoever. You know how you sometimes squat or lunge down – even in real life, not exercising – and you feel a muscle pull a bit and you know you’re going to be in pain and unable to sit easily for days? That moment of, “Oh crap, I pushed myself too far.” Even when I’ve felt that, which is most workouts because I have a tendency to push hard, I still haven’t gotten any residual soreness. I’ve spent the last eight years avoiding warmups because they didn’t help, and turned out all along that I was just doing the wrong kind!!

I’ve been doing light yoga before my runs these last few weeks, too, and it has made a substantial difference in how much I can run, and how much burning I do/don’t feel in my legs/hips/back while running. It’s nuts. What a discovery! Makes me wish I’d studied this all more carefully, or headed the advice of my dad all those nearly-30-years ago…

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Thistle

This is a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, taking place ten years after the end of the initial war, in the year of the 10th hunger games. Coriolanus Snow – President Snow from the original series – is the main character, a teenager in school who is fighting for his personal and family dignity in a time of chaos and poverty. He’s chosen as one of the first 24 hunger games mentors, paired with the female tribute from District 12, who turns out to be a spunky singer named Lucy Gray with an affinity for snakes. Snow is determined to do well as a mentor in the games, to help his family, and increasingly to help Lucy Gray survive her time in the arena.

It’s been ages since I read the original Hunger Games trilogy, but I remember it quite well. The moment I heard this was coming out, I knew I had to read it. Snow’s character development – from naive adolescence to the road toward the ruthless dictator he becomes in Katniss’ time – is an interesting study in circumstances, adult influences, and psychology warped by war and trauma. In the Hunger Games, Snow is seen as a puppet-master, with the tributes as his playthings, but in this book, he himself is the puppet. Collins always does a masterful job with psyche, and I liked how she played with some particular philosophies on human nature. What happens to humans when stripped of order, law, and control? Does hardship and fear bring out the best in us, or the beast? When we are forced to kill, even for survival, how does that change us, and can we ever come back from it?

In a way, you end up feeling sorry for Snow, despite no doubt detesting him in the first three books. But you can also stop and look at his individual choices along the way, and wonder how much of his chosen path was due to forces outside his control, and how much was free will. How much responsibility can he claim, and how much is he willing to? Could and would he have been a different person if he hadn’t been puppet-led into specific situations? This is particularly noteworthy when contrasted with another character, Sejanus, who is in many ways Snow’s opposite while thrust along the same path. Same path, different choices, vastly different outcomes. The way I see it, Snow floats his way through life, seizing chances when available, while Sejanus makes strong decisions, whether right or wrong. In the end, maybe being a puppet didn’t matter, and this is what Snow was going to become no matter what, given the opportunity. Was he born to become a cruel and twisted dictator, or can that blame lay at another’s feet?

Collins doesn’t provide the answers. She simply lays out the story, piece by piece, while you watch what Snow becomes, already knowing the outcome (if you’ve read the original trilogy, at least). Honestly, the ending bothered me at first. There’s so much ambiguity, and some choices/changes that Snow makes that seem very sudden and out of the blue. After a lot of thought, though, I can see why she wrote them this way. I’d been waiting for something to happen to Snow. For betrayal, or loss, or severe grief – something that breaks him. By foregoing this, Collins presents the idea that he wasn’t broken by a single event. You can argue that he was still broken, or that he wasn’t. That’s left open to discussion. But you can’t romanticize his “going bad” with a broken heart, or a lost loved one, or a heartrending choice, or any number of things that other books have bestowed on evil folks to justify their descent into evil. It’s probably not a decision that many readers will like, the same way many disliked the third book of the original series. I think it’s a fascinating look into the realities of cruelty, though, without simplifying or romanticizing trauma, just like Collins was unwilling to simplify or romanticize war in Mockingjay.

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Homesick

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Thistle

Two weeks ago, I arrived in northern Wisconsin with my two younger boys. I was homesick in a way before I even arrived, especially after learning that my oldest son was sick about two hours before our trip northwards was complete. Nothing like a scare at home to make you want to be back again, eh? And honestly, while it’s nice to be in a place that’s safer and to see my extended family again, I miss home so, so much. This is why I’ll never move away from San Antonio again, despite disliking the weather and politics in TX. I didn’t realize how attached I’d become when we decided to relocate for a better job opportunity back in 2014, and the lesson has been reinforced over and over since then.

I miss hiking and my local parks. I went hiking here once. The area was overgrown, damp, and excruciatingly humid, and I got chased by a persistent insect for a mile. It was not fun, not a workout, not a place I’d go again in the current season. (I’ve been there in autumn before, and it was nice then, though still not a “hike.”) My hiking group leadership is planning a few small hikes and get-togethers, 2-3 people each, and I ache to be out there with them. Here, there are hardly any hills to walk much less hike. There really aren’t places to go out walking or running except in neighborhoods, watching out for cars and dogs the whole time.

I miss being near my library. Yeah, it’s not open except for curbside, but right now Jason is getting my hold books and mailing them to me, and I have to mail them back to turn in again before they’re due. It’s silly and annoying, especially when I’m finally getting the urge to read again. Plus, even if I can’t go inside, my library is a place of comfort for me. Just seeing it when I’m out at my favorite park (attached to the library) provides that comfort. Also, I miss my personal library at home, where I can go back and reread books from my shelves (something I’ve wanted to do with multiple books over the last few weeks).

I miss my chiropractor. Long drives make my sciatica flare up badly, and I’m in a lot of pain right now, trying to see if I can get in to see my old chiropractor here. It’s still not as good as my chiropractor at home, though. I always miss him when I’m away!

I miss Dunkin Donuts. DD isn’t even open for carry out right now. If I want their iced coffee, I have to do an order through the app and wait for them to bring it outside. But they extended their free iced coffee Wednesdays all through July, and I’m missing it because the closest DD to us here is 40 miles away. Every time I see the app icon on my phone, I get a little pang of homesickness. Before quarantine, I’d meet up with friends at that little store and just drink an iced coffee and chat for hours.

I miss HEB. I’ve been to Aldi and Marketplace and even Walmart here (because in a small town, you have limited resources, and you make do with Walmart if you don’t have any other choice!) None if it compares to HEB. This is another irony homesickness, because I literally haven’t stepped foot in an HEB since March 16th. But still.

I miss my scale. I didn’t bring it with me, and for someone who has been a daily weigh-in person for her entire adult life, this is weird and anxiety-inducing. Probably good for me, but it’s just another thing I miss from normal life.

I miss HPWU. To be honest, over the last two months I’ve gotten really bored with Harry Potter Wizards Unite. They haven’t released anything new to the storyline since the initial game release. No new mysteries, no new SOS assignments, no higher-level lesson plans, etc. But when I just want to give my brain a break, I can open up the app, grab a few foundables, and feel a bit of a mental reset. Here, there’s nothing around. No foundables, almost no inns, greenhouses, or fortresses. I can pretty much do nothing but go out on the Knight Bus to the Hogwarts fortress, and that’s even duller than having a few options!

I miss routine. Routine was already sorely lacking since quarantine began, but it’s even worse now. We are guests, or semi-guests, and my in-laws live in a way that is more fluid than I’m used to. Jason and I came from opposite spectrums when it comes to day to day life – his was unstructured and a bit chaotic, mine was rigidly structured. We’ve managed to put together a happy in-between that allows routine for me, but fluidity for him. Now, I never know when things will happen, when we’ll eat dinner, when the laundry will be free for me to use, when guests will arrive at the house, when I’ll suddenly need to run an errand mid-week…it’s hard for me to cope with, honestly. Like some people feel like they need a vacation from their vacation when they get home? That’s now for me.

I miss my wardrobe. When I packed, I brought about four day’s worth of exercise clothes and a week’s worth of regular outfits. My dresses and a couple shirts are hanging in the closet, while the rest of my clothes remain folded in my suitcase because I have no dresser to put them in. Both the lack of options and the suitcase situation makes me feel like I’m living out of a hotel sometimes, and I miss having a wider variety of things to choose from. Particularly because I expected the weather to be a bit cooler here like it usually is, so some of the options I brought are inappropriate for the current weather. Sigh.

I miss my neighborhood, my house, my room, my bathroom. The other night, I dreamed that I was living in some unknown-to-me house with lots of problems and that I was so sick of dealing with it and wanted to move. I woke up feeling really depressed, because somehow my brain had forgotten that we’d moved house in December, and I thought I was still living in my old house. It took me a bit to remember what my new house looked like, and as soon as I did, I was hit with a wave of homesickness. I love that house so much. I love my room so much. I miss having my own bathroom, and a bathtub, and known walking routes around my neighborhood, and checking the mail down the street, and having enough space in my room to exercise properly, etc etc etc.

I miss my friends and family and kitties. It doesn’t matter that I could hardly ever see anyone. There were lawn meetups, and Stephanie and I were doing careful physically-distanced hang-outs, and I was hanging out with my dad, stepmom, and sister in their backyard, etc. And of course, there are my five cats, my babies, who I’ve been seeing through facetime every night (and who respond to my voice, looking around to find me), and it’s not enough. I have Wally here, been petting him a lot to get in my kitty-fix, but I miss Jason and Morrigan and the cats so much it hurts.

I miss physical contact. Last week, when I found out about the 17-year-old kid who passed from covid, I couldn’t stop crying. I wanted Jason nearby so I could hug him and hold him and generally be comforted. I miss the pre-bedtime ritual of talking with Jason and having his hand in my hair or on my back. I crave physical contact. I feel so alone.

There are more things than this, and I’m aware that this is a very self-indulgent post. I’m privileged to have a place to go to feel safe from the virus, and to have family up here, and to have many of the things I have right now. But homesickness is real, and I have to acknowledge that. I want to go home. It’s only been two weeks, but I desperately want to go home.

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Sunday Coffee – A Frustrating Book Discovery

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Thistle

Last week, I started reading a book that I’d gotten digitally from my library. I’d wanted to read it for quite some time, but it took ages to get a copy. The book was called I’d Give Anything, by Marisa de los Santos, and was labeled on GoodReads and Amazon as the fourth book in the Love Walked In series. Note: the term “series” is used very loosely here, as the first three books are only related due to having some of the same characters, but each is fully standalone. I’ve enjoyed many of de los Santos’ books in the past, including those in the Love Walked In series, so this release made me happy. I finally got my hold notice, downloaded the book, and began to read.

I’ll admit straight out that the premise of the book wasn’t really my cup of tea: a married couple struggling after the man is fired in the midst of a scandal, and the wife trying to shield their teen daughter from the fallout. However, I’ve said above that I like both the author and the series, so I read on for several chapters, even as I wasn’t really getting into the book. Finally, about five or six chapters in, I stopped. I didn’t recognize any of the characters, neither in the past chapters or the current chapters. None of them seemed familiar from any of the first three books. So I went to look out on Amazon and GoodReads both, trying to find the connections. I read back through my old reviews of the other books in the series. I couldn’t figure it out.

Then I came across this reader question on GoodReads: “Why does this say it’s #4 in the Love Walked In series? I see no apparent connection.” Clearly, I’m not the only one! And the answer: “Me neither. It’s so frustrating. The author has said on Facebook that it is not related to the Love Walked In series, and she and her publisher have asked Goodreads to fix this error on Goodreads, but Goodreads has not yet done so.” Other similar questions and answers follow. The author has said this is a standalone, unrelated book, and yet…sigh.

That’s frustrating. If I’d known this was unrelated to the original series, I would have approached it differently. I’ve read five de los Santos books in the past, and the two unrelated to Love Walked In have been heavier and a bit more literary, a bit less lighthearted. De los Santos does an excellent job of characterization, but I’ve found that in order to enjoy her books, I have to enjoy the characters she creates. When that’s not the case, it’s best for me not to read the book at all. That would be the case with I’d Give Anything. It was excellently written – for the few chapters I read, anyway – but I just had no interest in the story or characters or the mystery of the past. I’m not scratching the book off my list entirely because it’s possible that in another mood, I’ll love it. It’s just so frustrating to anticipate another book related to characters I already love, to books I consider comfort reads, and then have that all be false advertisement on Amazon/GoodReads’ part.

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Quarantine Diaries – Week 17

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Thistle

I want to tell a quick story this week about covid and privilege. In the last week, both my son and my best friend’s family came down with covid symptoms. As explained in Week 16’s post, my son went down to our local urgent care facility (located in a heavily populated but also solidly middle-class-and-upwards area). He was told the wait would be five hours, outside in the heat, but was brought in after only two. His test was a rapid-response test, and he had his results in 15 minutes.

Now let’s flip over to my friend Natalie’s household, which is primarily hispanic, living in a similar area population-wise, but much poorer. Her family struggles with money and receives certain government assistances as it includes two elderly disabled folks with cancer, one adult with severe autism that requires full-time care, one adult who is a full-time caregiver, and one adult working outside the home to try to provide enough income for all five of them. The latter two have health benefits through employers, the first three have a combination of VA benefits, Medicare, and Medicaid. The ones with employer benefits got covid-tested. One got results within two days; one had to get a second test over a week later in order to get results. The three on government assistance – the three that are most vulnerable – struggled to get tests. One ended up in the hospital, finally tested there (positive), and was then sent home despite being unable to eat, get his fever down, or receive his cancer treatment. One finally had a much-delayed drive-in test with the city, and results have still not come in over a week later. One was refused any service completely, even after a teledoc visit – even though she’s had brain cancer four times, is extremely vulnerable due to brain shunts, and there was a confirmed positive in the house! Nat couldn’t even get her in at the same urgent care Morrigan went to. She finally got an appointment more than a full week after covid was confirmed in the household.

So maybe it’s the lack of health care that is holding them back. Maybe it’s the number of cases in their part of town, where covid is spreading like wildfire. Maybe it’s a lot of things, but this is the real story: in poorer parts of town, health service is scarce, tests are slow if available at all, and this leads to more cases and more deaths. There’s a reason why cases and deaths are happening in disproportionate amounts across the city (and indeed, across the nation). Money, class, and race are major factors in how this disease is spreading. There are a million examples of privilege dividing how patients are treated in health care in general. This is one that I feel on a very personal level. Anyone who says that disease doesn’t discriminate is someone who has never studied any kind of sociology, history, political science, urban development, food science, or disease management. You don’t have to have studied it in school to see these things plainly. None of this is okay. It makes me so, so angry.

Okay. Rant over. Now: If your mental health is at a point where you cannot bear to hear more about quarantine stuff, skip to the bottom of this post for a list of positives and highlights and Nice Things. We all need some of that right now!

-Friday, July 3rd:
Local count: 14,212 (+1334), 117 deaths. Another emergency alert today, this time about mandatory masks. Another 8K new cases in Texas. More concern about the upcoming holiday weekend and people congregating when they shouldn’t be. I really hope they won’t, but I wouldn’t bet on that. For instance, I know my sister-in-law in Minnesota is throwing a giant party with potluck and fireworks for dozens of people, sigh. I’m just thankful that Morrigan is fully recovered, our SA household has plenty of grocery supplies and can stay safe at home for a long time, and three of us are well out of the way of the danger. I really hope that within a few weeks, we can flatten out this curve again!! This continued increase in record daily cases in San Antonio is terrifying. (Pic: Ambrose with the mini-dachshunds here in WI.)

-Saturday, July 4th:
Local count: 14,550 (+341), 122 deaths. Texas had another surge of over 8K cases. Other than that, no real news today, possibly because it’s a holiday. I’m happy to have nothing major to report!

-Sunday, July 5th:
Local count: 14,751 (+198), 130 deaths. We had really upsetting news today. Not only did we report our highest ever daily death count in San Antonio (8), but one of those deaths was of a 17-year-old boy with down syndrome. It’s our first death under the age of 30. Additionally, we had our third death of someone in their 30s. While our case numbers grow bigger and bigger for younger people (more than a third are under 30, and a full quarter of all cases are aged 20-29), deaths have been primarily affecting those over the age of 50. It makes sense, and if all of this surge wasn’t sobering enough on its own, we now have a CHILD who has died of covid. It’s devastating, and raging out of control. I’m terrified for Jason and Morrigan stuck in SA, as well as all my friends and extended family. We’re down to 10% bed availability in hospitals. Testing is swamped, so badly that starting tomorrow, the city has cut off all asymptomatic testing again. (Hopefully that means Natalie and her family will be able to acquire tests after days and days of trying to find somewhere who can take them when they’re all sick and they have a family member with confirmed covid at home and disabled…) (Pic: Lexie says, “Wear a mask and stay home!!”)

-Monday, July 6th:
Local count: 15,102 (+351), 132 deaths. Some of the news coming from around the country/world is appalling. A teen in Florida died after her conspiracy-theorist mother took her to a “covid party” to get her sick. The Prumpster said our large number of US cases is a “badge of honor.” OMG that a$$hole. And now, a case of bubonic plague in China?? Seriously, stop it, 2020! In local news: Testing is up to 7k daily capacity, but still not enough for all the tests we need right now. Our positivity rate is up to 22%, though thankfully our doubling rate didn’t go further down this week (still at 11 days). The epi-curve is starting to level off slightly, which we hope means that the rate of infection is slowing after the last few weeks of Judge Wolff’s mandate regarding businesses requiring masks for customers. But you never know. It’ll be two weeks before we can assess any damage done over the holiday weekend, and most businesses are still open, and I saw that baseball games have opened here and are allowing fans in (with masks and space between seats, but STILL!). Sigh. It was a rough day for me, personally. The death of that boy yesterday hit me really hard and I spent a lot of the night crying, then didn’t sleep well. I miss home, I miss my house, I miss my family, I miss my cats, I miss being able to hug Jason and get physical comfort when I feel this sad. I really hate being so far apart, even if I know it’s for the best. My in-laws’ kitty, Wally, spent a lot of time snuggling me today (pics), and I have to believe that he knew I needed comfort.

-Tuesday, July 7th:
Local count: 15,880 (+778), 137 deaths. Texas reported over 10,000 cases today state-wide. To give some perspective, the state has well over 200k cases total, which is more than most countries in the world. Most of our news continues in the same direction – lots of emergency and medical personnel struggling with the virus, beds almost full at the hospitals, several churches closed down due to outbreaks among congregations, etc. San Antonio has dropped off the top five hot spots in the US, now down to #9. I don’t think this is because things are better, but rather because other places are going through even worse spikes. I’m also frustrated to learn that voting is one exemption to the mask rule per the governor, so at certain polling places, some people are refusing to wear them. Thankfully, the location Jason voted at today had everyone in a mask! I’m sad that I don’t get to vote this time around, but at least it’s only a runoff primary election; I did my main voting back in February. Meanwhile, people around here aren’t wearing masks at all, figuring the county is immune. They all stare at me and the boys when we go out in our masks, but whatever. We’ll just keep wearing them and staying safe!! (pic: running a MASKED 5K today)

-Wednesday, July 8th:
Local count: 16,725 (+845), 146 deaths. The deaths from this spike are starting to stack up. These numbers include a person in their 20s and another in their 30s. It’s hitting younger and younger folks. We also got the newest update from HEB, which showed that 120+ employees tested positive for covid in June, and in the first week of July, 41 more have gotten sick. Thanks, anti-maskers! Ugh. Also, I learned today that Nat’s mom finally got a test and tested positive for covid, so that’s two of five, and the only person in the family who has been mostly asymptomatic. We were really hoping she dodged the bullet because she’s extremely vulnerable, but no luck. Pic: Today’s stormy weather, which matches my current mood.

-Thursday, July 9th:
Local count: 17,679 (+954), 165 deaths. Note: 13 of the 19 deaths reported today are actually from the last three weeks, with the covid tests only done post-mortem. Six of them are in their 40s, more than doubling our previous number in that age group, and we’ve also doubled deaths in the 30s age group. In San Antonio, we’ve only had four people over the age of 100 test positive and until today, no deaths in that age group (and one confirmed recovery!), but today our first 100+ death was also reported. Sad day. While hospital numbers are starting to taper off slightly, 35% of all hospital admissions are now covid-related. Texas hit their third day in a row with around 10k new cases. Remember back in April when it was news that we hit 1000 for three days in a row? Aww, that’s cute. // Natalie’s husband finally got his covid results (after TWO tests!), and he’s confirmed positive now, as expected. Sadly, her mother went from mild symptoms to major symptoms today, too. Still no word on her brother’s results, and he was tested over a week ago. And to top off what turned out to be a pretty miserable day, I felt sick all day, though likely NOT with covid thank goodness.

So we began the week with 12,878 cases and 115 deaths. We added 4801 cases this week – about 686 per day on average – which is actually a tiny ray of hope. It’s more than last week’s total of 4426 (avg 632), but the climb upwards is MUCH smaller this week. Things are starting to level off a bit. Wish we could have kept them leveled off when we were averaging less than 50 cases per day, but this the first positive sign in the numbers that we’ve seen in about six weeks!! Deaths, of course, are another story. Over 4x the previous highest weekly total of those. Some are from the previous two weeks, given Thursday’s backlog announcement, but even if all of those 13 were not from this week, we’d be far higher than our previous weekly high of 15. Honestly, it’s to be expected. Usually there’s a lag between onset of illness and death, so the deaths are going to skyrocket a bit now just like the cases did. We need to be focused on making sure to slow the outbreak, so we won’t have more deaths in the future!

Positives and Highlights and Nice Things
I am extremely homesick and had a very tough week. Even my positives were less positive. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I’ll be able to stay in isolation up here. I love my extended family, but I miss home.

  • all things rhubarb
  • binge-watching Unsolved Mysteries (the new episodes)
  • been doing good cutting my iced coffee to twice a day (down from three, sometimes four)
  • Wally the kitty, with the lowest, croakiest meow there is
  • one of my friends is moving back to San Antonio after many years later this summer!
  • Jason was able to help Natalie’s family acquire some supplies that were sold out everywhere near them
  • had the initial zoom meeting with the virtual book club I’m forming
  • kickstarter for The Way of Kings swag, including an unpublished novella in my favorite series of all time!
  • finished my second book in a week, which is more quickly than I’ve read since early February!

What’s up in your world right now?

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