respublica

How do they get the disease

A question I've had for sometime now is this: How do so many older people in nursing homes get the Coronvirus if they haven't been outside of their facility? So many victims of this disease have been in these places it just puzzles me how they get it. It has to have been brought in by staff or visitors. Has anyone done any research on who working or visiting in nursing homes have also had covid19? It goes without saying the people in them have not been going out into public.

It's been so prevalent and deaths keep on occurring that you have to wonder how serious many of these places are in monitoring health safety controls when it comes to workers and visitors.

Clever people

One thing is obvious about the time we're spending at home during the virus lockdown is how funny some people are. And, thoughtful. We've come across some really clever and laugh out loud, posts by people reflecting on current affairs. Take this post for instance, which takes literally a spelling error by someone who wrote out an order for Harris County residents.

We may all have noticed that bandana was misspelled but we didn't take the opportunity to make it humorous.

And, there are those who are thoughtful and add some needed advice without being mean.

Good advice.

And then there are those who saw an opportunity to use the face mask orders fun and income.

And noticing something funny in the ordinary

Water water everywhere and....

...not a drop left in the bottles.

We've long had a water company deliver 5 gallon bottles of water to put on our water cooler in the kitchen. Some months we only need one replacement others more than that. This is the first time I can remember we have been totally out. 4 empty bottles sit on the driveway waiting for the delivery person to come and bring us more.

This hasn't happened though. Normally he is very reliable and comes on the same day of every month. We thought this was really out of the ordinary and made me look at the website to see if they are one of those businesses which had to close down during the virus time. But nothing was mentioned about this. So, I've been giving this some thought. I have to, Dale drinks water all day and always from the cooler. My thought is that since we've all been sheltering at home many people decided to go this water route and the company may be out of re-fillable bottles or have so many people to serve they are way behind.

So this morning I made another 6 a.m. trip to Schnucks to get some 6 packs of water. Nice thing was there was only me and two other older gentlemen in the store aside from employees. I thought that odd too, but when I left the store it was pouring rain. I guess more older people were more alert to the weather than I was.

Who shops better?

During this Coronavirus time all kinds of opinions and recommendations (orders) have come down from officials. Here is an unexpected piece of advice from the mayor of Osaka, Japan. He said, "men are better suited to grocery shopping during the coronavirus pandemic, because women take too long and contribute to overcrowding at supermarkets."

There has been quite a backlash over this as you might imagine. However, is he wrong? By wrong I point to the phrase, "better suited" because doing grocery shopping faster doesn't always mean doing it better. This news report had lots of comments, most agreeing that women take longer than men in these stores. Women agree and have reasons ranging from, "Men miss things and have to go back a second time", to "yes, I like to take my time and look at things."

My experience with Dale is, he does not like to go to the grocery store and wants to get in and out and if something we needed isn't right in front of him, he'll leave without it. Also women will often spot something they do need but forgot to put on the list. Men normally will not.

As to the mayor of Osaka, I believe he just wants people home and the faster they shop the better.

What are we all buying now?

The reaction to the virus rules for staying home has led to a huge bump in people going out and buying things and it's beginning to get on my nerves. The latest business to be swamped is the garden center. People have gone to buy flowers, vegetable plants, dirt, herbs etc in such numbers that some of these places are already sold out of any number of plants. It's still April! One nursery told us that all of a sudden, in the past two weeks, they've seen 3 times the normal amount of sales. They had been concerned that their business would be hurt this year with the stay at home orders. It turned out to be possibly the best year ever.

It's good that many want to grown pretty things and edible things. However it also points out that way too many of us are not staying home. We're out shopping everywhere. What business will be the next to see a huge bump in popular buying?

Vegetable garden has been planted

During this stay at home time, several of out students formed a committee to plant and manage the big vegetable garden. One of our students who works on grounds roto-tilled the plot. Then the committee of maybe 3 or 4 guys and wives if they have them, worked online to decide what to plant. They got seeds ordered and last weekend planted. The plot is so big, no one anywhere near each other. This I know because I watched from my car for awhile.

What tickles me is the row markers are white plastic spoons which someone spent a lot of time on writing the names of each row's vegetable. They rigged up a simple, but very workable irrigation system as well. When these plants mature into vegetables, they will be available to the students.

See the spoons? The edging needs to be trimmed but it will be done.

Here is what the individual spoons look like.

This is so cool.

And my weekly grocery trip is now over

It bugs me that I am so fearful of having to go to the grocery store. I guess it's because I come across so much information or gossip about how many germs could be in the air and on everything. Of course even with a list I forgot a couple of things.

Here is what I do when I come home. First I put newspapers on the island and one side is for things I take out of the bags and will wipe down. The other half is for the wiped down items. By the time I'm done, I'm feeling dizzy from the smell of the anti-bacterial wipes. It's maybe worse than doing nothing. Anyway, I let them wiped things sit for a bit before putting them away. In between I wash my hands about times. When everything is finally put away I go outside and wipe down the car door and the steering wheel and wiper handle and gear shift. Then I go back in and wipe down every cabinet knob I've touched and the fridge doors.

And here I am. I am grateful for the 6 a.m. over 60 time slot for shopping. It is a whole lot less populated than other times of the day.

There is conflicting opinion on whether we need to wipe down everything we buy, some experts say it's not necessary, others say we should and even go so far as to advise leaving everything outside for a while. Well that I won't do.

Local restaurant helping the community

One great thing about living in Collinsville is the easy access to items or food you need or want. You can drive a 360 around the town and find groceries, restaurants, hardware, clothing, bedding plants, booze. Where we are in Clayton it's not possible to do this without leaving town and most likely going to several other towns to get these things. Did you know Clayton has only one gas station? And, it isn't the Big Amoco station which is in Richmond Heights. The only grocery store is Straubs which is a great store, but small and fairly pricey. No Hardware stores. Lots of restaurants and office buildings however.

All this in aid of nothing really, but I find it fascinating how easy it is to get anything and eat anything in Collinsville. The local restaurants have been going out of their way to not only stay in business, but make it desirous to patronize them. And, one place has been going gang-busters helping feed kids who are now at home by serving up over 150 lunches a day. For free. This is the Red Top BBQ on Vandalia near the former Shop n Save. His BBQ is very good, his mac & Cheese is excellent. But his love for the community and care for kids is outstanding.

We've been to Red Top, it has always had a drive-thru, easy peasy. If you're a Collinsville person and want some food for dinner or lunch, give them a try. The friendliest people.

Now this is not to forget the other local restaurants. So many are going gangbusters trying to stay open through the use of call in and pick up orders. I've seen nothing but raves for the food at these places and also something of a long wait time. That shows something good is happening in spite of the quarantine.

The dabate over opening things up has begun

Yesterday a lot of news time was given over to how and when should we loosen up our stay home rules. When can we get out and where can we go. Some states have already begun doing this. Florida opened some of its beaches, others have allowed construction and garden supply stores to reopen.

The reality is that people have already been out in big numbers. We were amazed as we took a drive around this past weekend and saw parking lots of all kinds of stores full of cars. People were out in huge numbers in grocery stores, Walmart, Home Depot, Menards, Garden Centers. Its was unreal, or surreal.

We are not ready to get into big crowds of people, to handle or touch things they've all touched, but the notion that everyone is staying home is just not the case if parking lots are any indication.

Nature is taking over

These reports are interesting. Observers of our environment in different parts of the country have taken note of how our human quarantine has changed things. No crowds on beaches in all shoreline states has seen a big increase in marine life and new life to coral reefs in Hawaii, sea turtles are increasing in Thailand, and sea shells are piling up on the Outer Banks beaches of North Caroline with no humans there to collect them.

There are more stories like this, nature healing and going back to its normal state during a time when humans are absent. Environmentalists are thrilled by this and the most extreme among want people out of our environments forever. Well, maybe not that extreme but close.

My excitement over this change in nature without people is that it happened so fast. The doomsday warnings of the death of the earth because of humans seems to be wrong. In less than a month nature has returned to close to its original state. It's a lesson in the wonder of creation.