respublica

Masks, are we there again?

Yesterday afternoon while in the Collinsville Schnucks I suddenly realized many other shoppers were wearing masks. It got me to wondering if the St. Louis County mandate for grocery stores had the Schnucks company applying it to all their stores. Or, maybe I missed a Madison County edict.

I still don't know the answer, but there is a part of me is rather glad to see this mask wearing again especially with the growing numbers of people with the new variance. Our country is in a crazy time once again with anger, frustration and just plain exhaustion with the Covid which will just not go away.

I still believe the problems came when those who would not be vaccinated took off their masks at the same time those who were vaccinated were allowed to do this. This action should not have been implemented until there was doable way to check this easily at any venue.

St. Louis area counties with the most Covid cases

This is depressing for us in Illinois. The most St. Louis area counties covid cases recently are found in 5 Metro East counties.

1. Clinton
2. Monroe
3. Bond
4. Jersey
5. Madison

What is the deal here Illinois? St. Clair is in 8th place which is somewhat better than the others. Washington County was not listed for some reason and that county is certainly in the St. Louis tv viewing area.

A short vent

Here is my conclusion as to why the Coronavirus and it's cousin the Delta Variant have begun spreading again. When people began getting vaccinated in fairly large numbers, the mask mandates relaxed. Signs were put up and news stories shared the new rule that "if you are vaccinated you don't need to wear a mask." Stores all have this notice.

But. Here is what bugged me. There was no way to have to prove this. Which lead to everyone taking off their masks, vaccinated or not. You just had to know that many people shopping in grocery stores, going out to eat or to bars, or to ballgames etc etc, were not vaccinated and did not wear a mask. And so it spread.

It would have been difficult to make any public place check this. But I am not going to be convinced that everyone taking off masks isn't part of the reason we are back in this position again. We took pictures of our vaccination card and keep them on our phones thinking we might have to show proof. No one has ever asked.

So many things to ponder

We are living in a very bewildering time. Every day something new comes along or things abruptly change. Cable news hosts spend as much time criticizing or making fun of, the hosts on other cable networks. Who's right? Who knows?

The Covid seems to be back with a vengeance or is it? Will we soon be back in our masks? If things are getting bad again I would have no real problem with the mask but I don't want to be the only one in the store wearing one. Other people would probably think I was unvacinated. This Covid nightmare will just not go away.

Then there is this. The city of Ozark, Missouri, now wants to reduce light pollution by enacting an ordinance to end the existence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial lighting. This applies generally to street lighting which that city believes is light pollution which they believe can have several consequences such as washing out starlight in the night sky, interferes with astronomical research, disrupts ecosystems, and can have adverse health effects.

This has to be a first and seems more than a little over the top. They want all of that type of lighting to be pointing down, not up. It is just one more thing to ponder and wonder about.

Frankly I'm thankful to have various vegetables I've planted to concern myself with and not worry about what's happening beyond our yard.

Masks are really confusing

We took a ride over to the Steelville Missouri area on Saturday to have a look around at something different. It was a nice day and good for a ride to a river area. But, what was really shocking to us happened when we stopped at a gas station on the edge of Steelville. There were lots of people standing around outside and inside the "on the run" shop inside. People by cars, people by the pumps in groups with absolutely no one wearing a mask. Inside where we'd expected this, again, no one was wearing a mask not even the workers.

I found this creepy and rather frightening. It is often reported that that part of Missouri is very low on people getting vaccinated. I'm so used to being in a place where everyone wears a mask that all I wanted to do was get out of there. I hate to say it but it seemed like walking into a horror movie with that kind of sinister laughing.

Like masks or not, it's still one of those things which is mandated or expected. This was just so weird and the hypochondriac  that I am, I kept checking myself all evening to see if I felt ok.

Hunger appeaser

For the past several months I've taken to eating popcorn around 10:30 in the morning. We get up really early and get a lot of work around the house and yard done. And I'm starving. Popcorn satisfies me in a big way. But, not popcorn covered with oil or butter, just a bag of air popped corn with some salt.

This has driven Dale a bit nuts and recently he can't help but comment on this habit every day. But, haha, more and more he asks for the bag when I've had enough.

So this health story from this morning was right up my alley. Eating popcorn may reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease!

I ran right in to Dale with this story.

Hours and hours in a car for one shot

The local St. Louis news yesterday carried story after story on how crazy the Vaccination day in St. Charles County was going. I say crazy because it was a traffic and vaccination total botch up. 4000 people were registered to get their shots at the Family Arena/Convention Center and health workers and the National Guard had hoped to administer 400 an hour.

Well, wouldn't you just know the traffic came to a stand still and backed up for several miles. People were quoted saying they were still sitting in their cars hours after their scheduled appointment time. Most needed a bathroom.

Frankly, as I was reading about this throughout the day, and it didn't end until 10 at night, hours later than planned, my belief was that way too many people headed over there long before their appointment time. Get there early they thought. And when a couple thousand do this, it's never good.

This is why I was so impressed with where we got our shots, Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Our instructions were very clear. Please do not arrive earlier than 15 minutes before your appointment time and if you do get there early, stay in your car until it's time. If you have an appointment and a time slot, they will have shot for you. Just like St. Charles. Those people could have had a much better day if they all had used common sense. Or maybe the convention center should have sent out this advice ahead of time.

Why oh why did so many in St. Charles believe it was necessary to go hours early? If everyone would have gone when scheduled the people ahead of them would have been gone and parking lots would be fine all day as would the highways. This is what Covid has done to us. We panic.

But this getting out early for things is nothing new in St. Louis. It just has to stop during the vaccine times.

Shot number two

Dale and I headed over to Memorial Hospital yesterday afternoon to get our final Covid vaccine shot. At least we hope this is the final one. I talked with the woman taking our information and mentioned the second round and she said that she hoped two will be all. But, she said, there's talk it's possible, maybe, that there will need to be a third at some point. Like us, she hopes that won't happen.

In any event, the area for the shots was not filled like it was for the first shot. It looked to us as though everyone there was getting number two. At Memorial there are many tables with nurses administering the vaccine while the rest of the area was filled with men and women who volunteer to get everyone where they are to go and do the paperwork. We saw several Holy Cross members there as well.

We were in at 2:20 and headed out at 2:43. Pretty cool.

Neither of us had any after effects accept a sore upper arm. My arm was quite a bit more sore than with the first. I did not need anything for this last night but this morning I did take a Tylenol. So we're done and thankful.

The Vaccine hunt finally ends Monday

I've lost a lot of sleep recently worrying about the difficulty in getting the Covid Vaccine. I've tried so many places with no result and have had to listen to news reports of counties adding more and more people to the eligibility lists. I read posts from people who got their shots at one place or another, but by the time I'd heard it was too late.

This morning, or last night, I got up at 3 a.m. and began searching. I stumbled upon a site which listed places by state (Illinois) and found Memorial Hospital in Belleville with quite a few open slots for next week. At least on Monday and Tuesday. I grabbed Dale as soon as he got up a little before 4 and we both signed up and by golly, we were successful. We have our ticket!

It still bothers me that Madison County is not doing as much as other areas. But I'll surrender that irritation for the time being.

Meanwhile we wait

We've been watching the vaccine issuance for some time now and we can't make heads or tails out of how this is being done in Madison County. It just seems like surrounding counties and areas are way ahead of us. We heard to today from someone who is sort of involved that Madison was just overwhelmed and is trying to keep up.

What I read is St. Clair County has vaccine times at several places. Part of St. Louis will be adding vaccines at Walmarts and Sam's Club. Around here? no.   Walgreen's and possibly CVS is doing the shots, but when I check I get the notice that nothing remotely near us is doing this.

So, my question is, was Madison slow on the uptake with this? I have friends in the Chicago area, a major population place, and they have had both shots. Same for others in places other than here. It's very frustrating to read news reports that Illinois and even Madison will be extending the list of those who can now get the shots including kids. I mean, come on, those of us who qualified in group 1B have heard nothing except they were overwhelmed and now they will add even more numbers to this list.

We are doing our best to stay safe, staying home except for grocery runs and wearing two masks. But it's getting exhausting not letting our guard down especially when reading the cheers from so many others posting they got their shots.

I do recommend double masks, though. The paper type under a cloth mask feels much more secure. And, oddly, easier to breath.

And one more update I just read from the Post Dispatch. Missouri said it will double the doses to the St. Louis region after local officials complained. Now there's an idea for Madison County.