Thursday, April 30, 2020

End of April, Praying for a Better May

So yes, we have survived April 2020.  Our governor is working to open Ohio back up. We've not been hit too hard, nothing like New York.  I think Ohio has like 800 confirmed coronavirus deaths.


Tomorrow, I think manufacturing plants can reopen. Something like that. Doesn't affect us directly. Kevin is still working from home. He had to go in to work today to do something computer-y, and he was required to wear a mask. My wonderful Mom made us a bunch of masks and Lydia made a few as well, so that is a huge blessing. I am truly horrible at sewing.

May 12th, retail establishments can reopen which means Naomi should be going back to work.  They will have all kinds of guidelines to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

So things are not going back to normal, whatever normal is.  Kevin and I were supposed to go to St. Croix at the end of May but that's not happening. The governor of the U. S. Virgin Islands has signed orders preventing any visitors from entering the islands until at least June 1st.  So yeah. It is disappointing but not surprising.

My younger brother lives in Hawaii, Oahu to be exact, and the government has restricted incoming people very firmly.  Perhaps because of that, they have not been hit hard with COVID-19.

We had a sad thing happen this week; one of our cats died. He was a stray and an elderly one. He spent several weeks in our sun room this winter as he injuries on his ears, presumably from ear mites and his associates scratching. We got him the meds and he got all healed up, but last Friday we realized he wasn't eating or drinking (he was back outside at that point.).

We could have rushed him to the vet. Or could we? Vets are mostly closed.  We didn't, anyway, and he died on Sunday. It was sad and hard but he was an old animal with a hard life. He was also a really sweet cat so yes, it is sad.  He actually wandered over to our neighbors, who found him and put him in their garage and tried to give him food and water but he had no interest. He died in their garage, which is not very neighborly of him.  But no one blames him, poor kitty.  We buried him behind our barn.

I have found myself spending a fair amount of time keeping things quiet around here. Kevin is working from his workshop in the basement and Lydia has had more than one presentation she had to give online. I have to keep the kids quiet during that time.  Not a huge ordeal, but it isn't necessarily easy either because our kids are loud.


We have had some lovely days and we also have chalk. So...


Pretty tulips.



Mocha (not the now dead cat) standing looking regal.


My nose.  Kevin was out taking close up pictures so yeah...


A snake in the grass, literally.

I am feeling a bit weary with this quarantine and coronavirus thing, along with the entire population of the United States.  I know I'm blessed. I'm not lonely, I like being home, we have food and water.  Not just blessed, extremely blessed.  But...

  It doesn't help that there is so much uncertainty as to when we should open up fully again.  The data is still obscure and confusing.    Sweden didn't lock down and their elderly population is getting decimated by coronavirus.  Lots of people have died in long care facilities in our country. New York City, hit hard.  One alarming factoid is that in NYC, there was a huge spike in cardiac arrests some weeks ago and it seems likely those heart attacks were coronavirus related. 
There are those who claim we are inflating our death toll but I think it likely we are actually way undercounting, because lots of people who have died have not been tested.

Some claim young people don't get hit by this but reality is, SOME DO. And we don't know why some people basically have no symptoms, and some people die.  More time will help figure out what is going on. But we can't close down forever.  Lots of people have lost  jobs and businesses are going under.


I can't make policy.  I can do what I can to keep people safe, which is to still quarantine for now.  I can pray for wisdom for government leaders.


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