What About Next Time?

 

"The vast majority of Americans the risk is very, very low."

 ~Donald Trump

 

Oval office to the nation,

 restricting travel to most of Europe,

 while creating confusion about trade.

March 20th 2020

 

If elected, Donald Trump wants to again close the office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. We know what happened the last time this occurred. Covid-19 devastated us, in very short order, and it seems he learned nothing, even after contracting it. At the time, October of 2020, when didn't have the vaccine yet, but we did at least have some general guidelines for keeping ourselves safer. Social distancing, having a single household member doing the shopping for the family, the use of masks, and working from home, and washing your hands more often.You know, common sense stuff! Everyone was at risk when he made that speech, and he knew it! So what will he do with the Avian Flu?

 

While its rare for that particular flu to spread to humans, it has the ability to do just that, and in fact it has. What will happen next? We don't know! Covid statistics show that we have gotten it under control but do we really? Does it have the potential to spin into another rampage version of itself... one we aren't prepared for because of negligence? Will the next pandemic come at us from out of the blue? How will we know? It's not like he tells the truth! And it's not like the world is seeing any great urgency, because why offend folks who are scared of wearing masks.

"Bottom line, it's going to get worse."

~Dr. Anthony Fauci

 March 20th 2020

 

 

(Via New York Times)

Countries Fail To Agree On Treaty

 To Prepare The World For The Next Pandemic

(Yahoo Finance)

It's not a matter of "if" but "when" a pandemic will begin.

Please do your reading. Do you know what birds are affected by the Avian flu? Most folks are forgetting about what happened with Trump's handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. I haven't. I have Long-Covid. I can't forget, even if I wanted to. Please read the links in this post, and think a little deeper about your vote in November! Please read these quotes in their entirety. They are from just the first few months of the pandemic. Long before he suggested drinking bleach and inserting light as cures for the disease.

Update:

This link is an important read also. Just like a with the Coronavirus, misinformation is dangerous, and Trump did nothing to stop it. Watch, and asses who Trump surround himself with. Pay attention.

My Rainy Day

 

“If you want to get lost without getting lost, a rainy day is exactly the day you are looking for! Everyone you see here and there is immersed in their own world under their umbrella, almost teleported to another place, lost in an abstract world!” 

~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

We never made it to Bodega Bay, we changed our mind and decided to go Monterey on Monday. The birds are slightly more intriguing there right now. Auklets and puffins have been spotted! I am really looking forward to getting a photograph of them. And the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary is right there in Pacific Grove. But I need to rest up for that long of a drive, and I actually like being home today. It rained, and I had a chance to catch my breath. I had a busy week, searching for birds for this year's album. God they are so beautiful! It was a fun week, but since I had Covid-19 my energy level sometimes falls to nearly zero. Sigh. I don't mind saying, I am paranoid about getting it again. I sometimes feel 20 years older than I am right now, but birding helps, and playing board game with dear hubby, and watching movies, and yes, watching it raining outside! It is a real gift! Not only is it beautiful, but it inspires me hold the good memories, and plan for new ones. Hopefully Monterey will be a blast, and put me one with all the beauty it has to offer. If you have been there you know exactly what I am taking about. Monterey has healed my broken heart so many time I can't count. Here's to Monday, and all the gorgeous nature waiting for me!

 

 Stockton, Ca

Monterey, Ca

Please wear a mask.

19 Years And A 19th Nervous Breakdown (An Anniversary Post)

 

"Homesickness is not always a vague feeling, nostalgic almost beautiful emotion, although that is somehow the way we always seem to picture it in our mind. It can be a terrible keen blade, not just a sickness in a metaphor but in fact as well. It can change the way one looks at the world, the faces one sees in street look not just indifferent but ugly... perhaps even malignant. Homesickness is real sickness... the ache of the uprooted plant"

 

~Stephen King

 

First off, I should acknowledge that today is my 19th year of blogging, and oh my, the places I have went! From the Bush administration, to the big AOL Journals migration to Blogger, to the many wonderful photo challenges I have shared with friends, to my own migration from the big Bay Area out pricing of affordable housing, and the eventual purchase of our house, and of course, the eventual sale of our first house last year. Big stress stuff. And all that without mentioning surviving the Trump administration. A thing I didn't think possible. But keep in mind, that was an attitude I feel quite vindicated about, in light of his taking Top Secret nuclear program documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after the asshole was voted out of office!

 

This year has been difficult. In some ways it has felt like the last 19 years has somehow rolled into past last year. The move from the house was a shitshow. I am still picking up the emotional pieces. I am tired. Heartsick. A little lost. And, well, scattered. The move was a huge part of it, but catching Covid-19 and a husband retiring didn't help. Neither did the murder of our Chevy Equinox, in a hit and run, in the wee hours of a chilly October morning. But I guess Covid-19 has had the most profound effect on my life. Little by little the Long-Covid seems to be healing itself, but it is a scary thing to think about a virus having such a deep effect on me almost 9 months later. It's an invisible monster, living inside your body, reminding you every day of your mortality.

I wish this post was more filled with joy for having blogged all this time. I want to feel more positive, but I am finding it so hard to find joy, which is known as depression. I am working with a new therapist to try and breakthrough my sadness. I have hope, and hubby is carrying the weight. Because of him I do have a lot of moments of joy. We still have our movies, and the fur-babies. We have music and jaunts bird watching. I have a good life, I just need to find it again. One positive thing did happen recently to mix things up. Our landlord is letting us stay put for at least one more year. I can stop worrying about having to move again. I'm home.

Things feel like they are trying to transition from all the painful negativity to a safe and quiet existence. I have a lot to work on while I am in this condo... this home... like learning to let go of the life I left behind in our home. I try to not think of the house. I haven't grieved it yet, so, oh goody, THAT'S coming! Right now the thing I need to let go of is my life in the Bay Area. All the places I grew up around, all the memories and ghosts I was used to dealing with. I guess I grieved it wrong or something. Or if I am being honest, not at all.

 

 I'm still bargaining with the universe over it. I search the rentals for ANYTHING we can afford, ANYWHERE in the Bay Area, and of course it's always for nothing. Affordable housing in California is practically nonexistent, but the Bay Area recently surpassed NYC in lack of affordable housing. My old life is always there for visiting, but sometimes visiting, and then leaving, hurts so much I think all it does is set me back. Trump didn't successfully get San Francisco off the map, at least not yet, so I must learn how to balance love and sorrow. Who knows what the 2024 election will look like? He could get back into office, and then who knows what button he will push. 

Sorry... it was all the uprooting talking just then.

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are too.

 They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."

~Stephen King

 

~Me

August 23rd 2022