Tree Time!
This year our tree can have coloured lights or white lights or switch slowly between the two.
We are surprised how much we like both!
Ah, diversity.
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How are you folks doing in California, Alan? All ready now for a long stint at home? How are folks managing grocery runs? Is it possible to order online and pick up curbside? Or do the shops deliver?
ReplyDeleteWe can do a lot curbside here. Too rural for most food deliveries. But I have loved ones in Boston who get it all delivered to their door.
No significant changes for us--grocery and hardware stores are considered essential and are open, and have long since instituted face masks, sanitizer availability, etc. The local art supply store has closed as of yesterday, but I hope and expect they will go back to curbside at least. We have been having more stuff delivered, natch. That jacket I ordered from Land's End looked nice, but neither the medium nor the large came close to fitting me--I'm the wrong shape.
DeleteWe just returned from shopping. Grocery store about as normal, ditto fabric store, post office about right for this time of year. Lots of traffic. Take-out restaurants seemed to be doing a land office business.
DeleteCat, how’s Mom?
ReplyDeleteHave you folks been able to set out some decorations for Advent and Christmas, to add a little cheer? I thought of you on Sunday, as it was the 75th birthday of Wil’s eldest brother, He’s the one who had a bad stroke August before last. He was feeling blue, so his daughter (our niece) arranged a Zoom gathering to wish him a happy birthday. Seemed to add some serious cheer to his day. He’s a really witty guy, and the quips and puns started flying. 🙂
We have a small quilted Christmas tree, slightly battered, that we put on the TV cabinet over the weekend. One of Sis' friends sent a beautiful card that is also an Advent calendar. That's set up where Mom can see it. Cleverly, the friend sent it so it arrived on the first Monday of Advent.
DeleteHaven't yet gotten the wreath for the front door, but Dad's going to look next time he goes to the grocery store, where he saw them last time he was there. If they're out, I can probably still get one from Bean's...for an arm and a leg at this point, but who's counting? There are times when what you're buying is more important than what it costs.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/michigan-secretary-state-says-armed-protesters-gathered-outside-her-home-n1250178?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_lw
ReplyDeleteCaught that on MSNBC. They had footage. She said the bastards frightened and threatened her four-year-old. Some of these Trump supporters are well and truly madmen, just like their hero. But let's use the correct word. They are not "protesters." They are domestic terrorists. Trump incites violence. He has done it again and again, but this is surely the most blatent instence. Can't he be brought up on federal charges for that?
DeleteYou know, the irony of armed protestors screaming "Stop the Steal!" while they are ACTIVELY trying to steal an election is just too much.
ReplyDeleteInsanity run amok!
DeleteIt would be an improvement if Our Glorious Leader were capable of running a competent muck.
DeleteLMAO Alan.
DeleteYou always give me a good laugh just when I need it. Thank you my dear friend!
VTcases: 5080-5015=65
ReplyDelete2003active /81deaths(+2)
Recovered=2996(+45)
Hospital 26(+4) ICU 6(+2)
Tests 235,165 (+1825)
Positivity rate back up to 2.8%
(Vermont is no longer the lowest in the nation, but more like 4th lowest.)
Death rate holding at 1.6% (still lowest in the nation)
As of a few days ago, Illinois was scheduled to receive 109,000 doses of vaccine. More than half our counties will get none at all. I'd really thought production had been ramped up more than this.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's all Biden's fault, I suppose. . .
DeleteTrump Officials Declined to Buy More Pfizer Vaccine
December 7, 2020 at 5:17 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine,” the New York Times reports.
“Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries.”
Serum Institute started gearing up to make billions of doses months ago. [Click]
DeleteAn Indian Drug Mogul Says Americans Will Pay Too Much for the Covid Vaccine—and Wants to Change That [Click]
A People’s Vaccine? Drug Makers Set to Profit from COVID Vaccines Made with Publicly Funded Research [Click]
With all the anger trump and his thugs have aroused in me this has been on my mind. I would never deliberately wish harm on anyone because I sort of believe the wiccan idea that bad acts will rebound on you three times stronger. But, with that in mind let me say that every single person I have ever truly and deeply hated is dead. Every. Single. One. And some of them only in their 40's and 50's.
ReplyDeleteThat's some pretty powerful juju. Remind me not to get you pissed off at me.
DeletePretty Christmas tree, Listener.
ReplyDeleteWarning: You should probably have a bottle of your favorite pain reliever handy. this mess is headache inducing!
ReplyDeleteTo recap a couple points:
a)The medical practice Mom had been going to for years closed this summer. They were, shall we say, casual about notifying their former patients of the fact. Starting in early Fall Dad chased around the area, searching for someone to take her. After all, she needs someone to write the prescription for her blood pressure medicine... But noone was taking new patients. Finally he found a nurse practitioner and made an appointment for a telephone visit several weeks out.
b) A number of years ago, Mom filled out a health care proxy, naming Dad as her agent and me as the alternate. Fast forward to now. Come to find out, although the paper was duly signed and witnessed, it is not effective or legal or whatnot without the signature of a medico.
Now, once the stroke occurred and Spectrum (You remember good ol' Spectrum :P) came in, they needed a medico to sign off on their starting treatment. As I noted in point a above, Dad had an appointment set up with a new provider. However, that appointment was several weeks out, so someone else was called in* to give the go ahead. As you recall, Spectrum's treatment went nowhere. Meantime, Dad needed the health care proxy signed; so, he contacted the same P.A. (Peter something) who had okayed Spectrum's treatment.
That phone call Monday of last week that we pinned such hopes on was with this Peter. But it turned out to be nothing like we expected. He called to confirm that Dad needed the paperwork signed. That's it! The phone call lasted all of two minutes. And, it gets better. The SOB waited until after 4:00 Friday afternoon to call back and say that, although the paperwork looked to be in order, *he* was not the right person to sign it. That should be done by her primary care provider. You know, that primary care provider she doesn't have.
Or maybe she does.
Remember that phone consult with the new nurse practitioner that Dad worked so hard to set up but that couldn't be moved up to suit Spectrum? Come to find out, they took it upon themselves to cancel it. But here's the strange thing. Dad only found out that they cancelled it because he received a reminder about it, but it never happened. When he looked into why it never happened, he discovered the cancellation and who effected it. Man, was he mad! Fortunately, he was able to arrange another phone appointment. That is supposed to take place Wednesday at 8:30 A.M. We'll see.
Pretty sure I mentioned that a couple weeks ago some pencil pusher called Marco Hernandez from the Dept. of Elder affairs called one evening at suppertime. It had been a long, difficult day, and Dad unloaded on him. He promised that he or someone else from his office would call again the next day. Unsurprisingly, noone called the next day. At the beginning of last week, then, Dad put in a call to the dept. and was eventually put through to a Miss White who was, he's pretty sure, the woman who laid the charge of abuse together with the list of supposed infractions on him at the start of this nightmare. All the same, she seemed interested and concerned now, and told him she'd come out Friday morning at 11:00. For a wonder, she did. She took a look see and promised to send out a case worker. She said nothing like this had ever happened before, to which Dad replied tartly that it happened to us. She also did not like Dad's mention of having talked to a lawyer. She stalked off in a huff. I'll believe the case worker when I see one.
The insurance company was supposed to call today. They didn't. They say they're sending someone to perform an evaluation and recommend a course of treatment - one month out. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. At this point, I probably wouldn't believe the Archangel Michael if he covered his heart with his hand and promised on scouts' honor.
Meanwhile, Mom herself is muddling along, sometimes seeming a little better, sometimes seeming a little worse. Overall, she is worse than in the first few days after the stroke. She doesn't really converse now, and she can't follow what's on the television. The occasional word, mainly from a commercial, catches her attention and sparks an association or short train of thought, but that's all. In those first days, she was still very aware and with it, to the point of making comments relevant to what she heard on the news and offering a couple of coherent opinions, notably that Biden should not take anyone from the Senate for his admin. because we need all the Dem. senators there. She didn't express it quite as smoothly as that, but the meaning was obvious. By contrast, the day before yesterday I was thrilled that she was sufficiently together to show off her new nightgown and discuss (using the term loosely) the color and pattern.
DeleteWorryingly, she doesn't remember that fall she took on the night of Nov. 22. The EMTs checked her out, and it didn't seem like she hit her head, but the fall clearly had a deleterious effect. She has been so much worse since. It makes the occasional clear moments all the more precious.
Maybe things are moving forward. We can hope. It's too bad you Dad couldn't handle things more diplomatically, but understandable that stress makes that difficult.
DeleteHe's usually the most mild mannered of men. But, you know, sometimes righteous anger gets results too.
DeleteI am at a complete loss for words.
Delete
DeleteY’know, if this had not been a time with COVID, maybe your Mom would have been okay with going to the hospital, and it would have been a safe and helpful environment.
I’m so frustrated for you, knowing from my year as chaplain on the cardiac units that once you are admitted to a hospital and a doctor says you need rehab or whatever, doors open and you get what you need. It’s so much harder to get good medical help from outside the hospital, and without a doctor’s evaluation and plan. How much harder now with everything in the medical world under immense stress.
Is there any chance Mom had a second, smaller stroke the night she fell out of bed? I ask because you have noticed a cognitive change since then.
Aw, Cat. My heart is right there with you. Mom deserves a better system. And you all deserve better support!!
💛❤️🙏❤️💛