charon share alike

count them up.

i keep saying that the choices we make now will decide whether we all know someone who knows someone who dies, or whether we will all know someone who dies.

here's my covid timeline:

a friend had it. she is mostly better but still feels tired and achy.
a friend of a friend died.
a friend of a friend died.
a friend of a friend had it and had to be put in a coma, but is recovering.
a friend did not get married this week.
a relative of a friend has it and may recover.
a relative of a friend died.
a friend has it and will probably die this week.

the choices you make now will determine the death count.

and not just death; survivors may have lifelong health consequences.

make good choices please. help your friends make good choices.

the president

people notice sometimes how i doggedly refer to donald trump as "the president" and never "the cheeto" or "the orange dumpster fire" or any of the other derisive names you hear out there.

it was initially because i wanted to maintain respect for the office, as i might expect from other people if there was a president they didn't like but i did.

and then i began to think there was value in using politically neutral language to describe what is happening, because a certain number of people will automatically agree with or dismiss what you say based on whether you like the president or not.

but above all, i have realized, there is power in that phrasing.

please compare:

the cheeto said we should look into injecting bleach.

orange dumpster fire is bragging about his television ratings while people die.

the president and his advisers are confiscating critical medical supplies that hospitals have already paid for and they are giving it to for-profit resellers at the cost of american lives.

which of these three sentences sound like the horrific, criminal betrayal it is?

the president is telling stupid lies.

the president is causing people to die and only cares about his television ratings.

the president is stealing medical supplies from hospitals for profit and revenge.

milestones

today i am a full-fledged citizen of the confinement.

i have a sourdough starter. i have been to zoom meetings.

and today I CUT MY OWN HAIR.

scissors only, because there are no clippers for sale anywhere i can get to them.

for whom the bell tolls

in the state of vermont today we had four new known cases of covid-19. our calculated rate of transmission is .55.

we're doing very well here. our governor made hard choices early and closed stuff down.

there will be no opening of things back up until may 15 at least, and it was a very smart thing to place the extension of the stay at home order so far out in the future because many lives will be saved.

we have choices, all of us. we can decide now and every day whether we will all know someone who knows someone who dies of covid-19 or whether we all know someone who dies of covid-19.

just now, as i was writing this, i heard from a friend that a father of one of her friends has died. he was one of three cases IN THAT FAMILY.

i have a friend who works on the unit where they treat the covid patients here. i have a friend who works at a nursing home where there are cases. i have a friend who is a respiratory therapist at this hospital.

i can't protect them from this. i can't protect the delivery drivers or the grocery clerks. but i can stay home and lower the transmission rate. i can decide not to order delivery stuff i don't need right now. i can reduce the general rate of exposure.

you can too.

costs

i want to talk to you about the costs of opening everything up for business.

there are people right now who act like it's no big deal if 1 to 2 percent of us die, because that doesn't seem like a lot.

if a plane crashed and a few hundred people died, the news cycle would be all about that and we would feel like it was a national tragedy.

if there was a salmonella outbreak and a few dozen people were hospitalized, we would panic.


but somehow our government is trying to cast covid-19 as not that big a deal, and the resulting deaths as a price we ought to be considering to save the economy.

let's put this amount of death into perspective. the worst aviation disaster in history killed 538 people.

more people are dying than that every day in new york.

the fukushima tsunami in 2017 killed 2,129 people.

the number of KNOWN covid-19 deaths in the US yesterday alone was 2,174.

every time you heard about some disaster and heard the stories of the survivors or we read out the names of the dead, do you remember how shaken you felt?

do you remember how much we mourned after 9/11? how we dropped everything and went to war about it? a war that is still not over?

more new yorkers have died from covid than were killed in 9/11.

over 34,000 people are dead in the US alone, and we're not done dying. we're a month into what is likely going to be two years' struggle.

i'm not staying home because i'm afraid to die.

i'm staying home because i am afraid of being the disease vector that kills people.

taking care of yourself and your neighbors is maybe the bravest thing you're ever going to have to do.

do NOT allow anyone to tell you it's no big deal. do NOT allow anyone to suggest in your presence that the lives of your neighbors are worth less than the profits of walmart.

do you remember, after 9/11, the solemn reading of the names of the dead? we should start doing that. it should be compulsory listening for people who are angry because they can't get their hair done.

flask's guidelines for living in the pandemic

things got real, didn't they?

maybe you're working from home. maybe your kids are suddenly at home. maybe you're out of work.

look. this is hard on all of us. we are all of us facing increased challenges in our physical and emotional lives. some of those stresses will be obvious, like when you don't know where your next meal is coming from, and some will be subtle, like when you just can't get it together to do things and it takes you two hours to brush your teeth because you can't muster up the energy. some days you're going to be a competent human and some days you're not.

in order to help you organize your thoughts, i'm providing you with a handy list of things to try to do each day.

1) grooming- try every day to brush your teeth. if you are able, also get dressed and maybe have a shower. give yourself extra points if you trim your nails or make yourself look especially nice.

2) nourishment- try to eat enough food on some kind of schedule so that you're taking in an appropriate amount of fuel to keep you going. if you are able, prepare or order in nutritious meals, at least one every day. if you make bad choices because you are sad or sick or can't afford better, be gentle and remind yourself you're doing the best you can. if you go off the rails and stress-eat an entire box of girl scout cookies, congratulate yourself on having supported the girl scouts.

3) exercise- try to do some of this every day, either inside or out. if the weather is nice and you can go for a walk outside without violating your local distancing guidelines, do it. even if it feels like a hassle to put on your outside clothes and a mask. if you can only exercise indoors, try to make some time to do some kind of indoor workout. you will fell better if you can pull this off, i promise.

4) maintenance- try to clean, repair, or put away ONE thing every day. if you have the energy to do a whole bathroom or mop the floors, awesome. but if you can just do one thing, you will have DONE A THING. this is important.

5) learning- try to learn something every day. learn something new, practice a skill you already have. if you have the energy for it, set yourself a goal, like ten minutes of guitar practice, or one educational video on epidemiology or one page of a nonfiction book.

6) creating- have something that is not your job that you can be working on. create, make, do. try to fit in some time every day for it, but if you don't get to it today remember to call it a day off and relax. it's to give you something to do, not to drive you crazy, ok?

7) amusement- read something, watch something, listen to something that makes you happy. play a game if you have the luxury of having someone to play with. have the best fun that you can. do not make yourself earn this. consider it fundamental.

8) help- do something, no matter how small, that will make someone else's life easier today. if you are able to do this, it is a moral imperative. if you are not able to help someone today, maybe you can offer someone the opportunity to help you. maybe this is on THEIR list, and they haven't checked it off yet.

9) sleep- you're probably not sleeping as well as you used to, plus your body is trying to recover from some heavy stuff. living through a pandemic takes energy out of you whether you realize it or not, and your body catches up and heals best when you're asleep. so yeah, sleep extra and if you don't have to be anywhere at any specific time, try sleeping until you wake up.

so those are my guidelines.

and remember, just like in your pre-pandemic life you will always plan more things than you can reasonably get to. leave yourself emotional space for that. you might come out of this thing with a sparkly clean house, a lean physique and a mastery of four new languages, but just count yourself successful if you get through a day without falling all the heck apart.

one day.

one day.

one day.

tone deaf

maybe i didn't really understand the concept of lent, but in my churchgoing days i thought it was meant to be forty days of solemn introspection and fasting with sorrow for our sins, the sins of the world, and the suffering of jesus on our behalf.

i don't know whose brilliant idea it was to print up stickers for the sushi counter at the grocery store, but either i lack a full understanding of the observance of lent or somebody in marketing doesn't really get the whole idea of the thing.

granted, it's been a while since i left the church, but i sort of think that if there'd been THIS much of a tonal shift, i would have at least seen an article about it or something.

CELEBRATE LENT

done her dirty

my neighbor's dog done her dirty today.

i watched this dram unfold from my desk:

it was 35 degrees and sleeting, good weather for staying inside, even if you're sick of staying inside but have to. my neighbor walked her dog down past my house, but her dog did not go.

she walked the dog around in the parking area, but the dog did not go.

she walked the dog all the way hoe, where the dog decided to go, which meant they all had to walk back down here where the dumpster is.

THAT DOG KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING.

today's mood

as the body count grows higher
and you start to lose your nerve
don't listen to the Liar
and just flatten out the curve

you're looking at your larder
as you're counting up the dead
your life is getting harder
but you've got to stop the spread.

retreat, tattoo, and taps

today the governor closed all vermont schools for the remainder of the year.

today the new known cases in the US rose over 13,000.

today, as i have come to do every day since we were asked to stay home, i played retreat at five, tattoo at 8:45, and taps at nine.

i don't know how all my neighbors feel about it, but last summer when you could stop and talk to people, my neighbors said they liked my bugling, which was just for practice then, because summer camps.

now, i feel it's all i can do to say i know it's different now, you trying to work at home, but the workday is over. put your things down and breathe.

i can say the evening is winding down. breathe.

i can say night is begun. rest if you can. breathe.

it's a small thing, a routine, a thing that can tie us all together in a moment, al of us apart and in our houses.

"all is well" may be a stretch of truth, but i can still wish it.

safely rest.

morals and compassion in a time of COVID

i hear a lot of things these days that bother me.

"it's only the old and the vulnerable who are going to die"

what? it's almost as if you think we can't hear you. can you say that to your grandma and not feel like an asshat?

but also it's factually wrong. young and healthy people are also dying. every person has a life with as much dignity and value as yours. let me amend that: if you are actively putting other people at risk because you think their lives have less value, then i'm afraid it is you who are of lesser value. go ahead. try to change my mind.

"don't wear surgical masks. they won't protect you against the virus."

ok, i get the reason behind this one: we don't want joe schmoe on the street to buy up all the surgical masks and keep them out of the hands of healthcare workers, who get infected and die at a higher rate than the rest of us. that's all fine and dandy UNTIL HEALTHCARE WORKERS WHO FACE SHORTAGES ARE BEING TOLD TO WEAR A COUPLE OF BANDANAS AND THEY OUGHT TO BE JUST FINE.

also, we're getting some information that suggests that the virus may actually survive aerosolized for a couple of hours. we have partial information on how long it lives on surfaces. the bottom line is we haven't lived with it long enough to know what it really does. we are learning all the time, but while we are learning, the clock is ticking.

the choices we make now will determine the death count.

stay the hell home. wash your hands. don't hoard supplies. if you're handy, get hooked up with people who can get you set up to DIY some masks or gowns.

https://findthemasks.com/

the thing that made me angriest yesterday was the thing the president said a few days ago about how awesome antimalarials are going to be as a cure for COVID.

yes, there is some anecdotal evidence that they may help in treatment of it, but the moment he announced it to his followers as a cure, we all knew there were going to be instant shortages. people with lupus need that stuff. and here's a thing the president didn't mention: those drugs aren't super-safe. you need a full set of lab panels before you can start taking it, because it can kill you. also it can make you go blind.

but the president's followers don't question anything he says and in fact a whole bunch of asshats have gone out and stockpiled a medication i need because it MAY help them against a virus they don't yet have so now there's a very real shortage and yes, in yesterday's news there was already a case where some idiots decided to start self-medicating.

Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine

a friend of mine lives in a country where they've decided that the only people who need to stay home are the elderly and people with symptoms. my friend's husband works at a place where his boss's daughter has COVID, but the boss did not have symptoms, and everybody was still required to go into work. my friend's husband is coughing now, and my friend is sick too. the husband's company still wants him to come in to work.

the choices we make now will determine the death count.

closures

girl scout councils that timed their cookie sales late are in financial trouble now because they can't pay the baker.

my pharmacist is living in her basement now so she doesn't risk carrying the virus to her husband and children.

at the town office they ask you to transact your business by email, phone, or if absolutely necessary to come in person, to call first and take precaustions.

the property on which i do my sugaring has closed. today i had to pull all my taps and haul out my buckets even though the buckets were full and frozen and sugar season isn't half over.

i feel bad about that last one because when i drilled holes in living things to take sap, i sort of promised to take care and use it well. pulling the taps halfway through the season feels like wastage, but maybe it's the same as just tapping now, which wouldn't feel like a waste.

i don't know. i just feel tired and sad and it's only just started.

math in the time of pandemics

as you catalogue the places
where unfortunates are dying
count the countries with no cases
and know that they are lying.

super sled

yesterday afternoon after being wicked cold all morning, it got nice and sunny, so i called up barb to ask her if she wanted to go for a walk.

i recommended either something flat, or something suitable for sledding down.

we walked three quarters of a mile up honey hollow road and sledded down.

wooooo-eeee!

sugar season

yesterday i set my taps.

last year i had four buckets and it was a cold day when i set them and i had no idea what a good tap looked or felt like so i didn't know until they started producing if i'd done it right.

this year the sap was running when i drilled and some of the taps flowed so enthusiastically i got sap splattered on my face.

i've put out ten buckets, reserving one for in case i need to do a demonstration.

some of last year's trees are getting a break this year, but a couple are in service again.

i really do get a sense of being part of the land, a happy feeling when i do this. and i feel love for "my" trees. "good trees" i tell them, "and thank you for your gifts."

sugarbush

last year's tap hole, healed

i love you

drip on the spile

flask's tips for surviving COVID-19

ok, let's start here: are you worried about flu? because if you're no worried about flu, go school yourself and come back. if you're not worried about flu, you shouldn't be worried about COVID-19.

COVID-19 is only in the news more than flu because it's new and we don't need TWO possible pandemics running around but yeah, that flu a lot of you aren't worried about? we're overdue for a pandemic of that. actual flu (and not that bad cold you keep calling flu) will kill you just as dead.

for people who have low risk of exposure to COVID-19:

wash your hands
don't touch your face
don't travel to areas with known outbreaks
avoid people who have traveled to outbreak areas until their quarantine period is over
wash your hands
stock up on household supplies in case you have to stay indoors for a few days, or even a couple of weeks.
wash your hands.

for people who have traveled, or are exposed to people who travel:

wash your hands
don't touch your face
avoid unnecessary contact with people who have high risk of exposure.
wash your hands
stock up on household supplies in case you have to stay indoors for a few of days, or even a couple of weeks.
wash your hands

for people with high exposure risk:

wash your hands
don't touch your face
wear protection (mask, gloves, bunnysuit) as appropriate
avoid unnecessary exposure to other people
avoid unnecessary travel
wash your hands
act as if you're already sick and don't want to spread the disease to others
wash your hands
stock up on household supplies in case you have to stay indoors for a few of days, or even a couple of weeks.
stay indoors and out of public places. if you are healthy, reduce your exposure and if you are sick reduce others' exposure.
wash your hands

for people who don't feel so well:

wash your hands
don't touch your face
stay the hell indoors until you are all better. you have supplies, right?
seek appropriate medical treatment if necessary. call ahead to see what your local healthcare system prefers.
if you MUST go out, wear appropriate protective gear to reduce other people's exposure to you.
wash your damn hands.


just for good measure, let's talk about emergency supplies.

if you have the room for it, it totally makes sense to have a three week pantry. not just in case of a pandemic, but the occasional ice storm, hurricane, blah, blah.

preppers kind of get discredited for their belief that civilization is going to end but it is completely reasonable to assume that at some point in your life there will be an emergency that shuts down your town or even just your household for a little while.

so. here's my list of stuff to have on hand:

nonperishable food to last a couple of weeks. some of this should be of the just add hot water variety, just in case.
toilet paper, especially if the emergency is that you're sick
hygiene supplies
first aid supplies, and spares of any medicines you need
a heat source for cooking that does not rely on electricity
flashlights, headlamps and lanterns. if you're ever been without electricity for a few days, you know how this is
spare batteries. charge your rechargeables
a full tank of gas in your car
an emergency radio that works on crank or solar power, just in case you're isolated
appropriate protective gear (i always have n95 masks and gloves handy. ALWAYS.)
a way to purify water, and containers to hold water.

don't think it's overkill. in my adult life i've seen one ice storm, one tropical storm, and one flu outbreak that made this stuff useful.

seriously. during the ice storm of '99 i couldn't leave home for a week. after tropical storm irene, MY home was fine, but people in my community weren't. some people lost everything and they sure were glad that their neighbors had this stuff to help them with. during a recent H1N1 outbreak, i wasn't sick, but friends and people in my community were. when people you know are getting flu bad enough to be hospitalized, it's a good idea to stay home.

no need to panic.

but also be smart about it.

and wash your hands.

wardrobe challenge

i saw a thing on the interwebz encouraging you to post your outfits every day for a week.

you don't need pictures. i have a uniform.

blue jeans, turtleneck, down puffy, beanie hat.

every. damn. day.

unless it is over 65 degrees out, in which case it is

bluejeans, short sleeve shirt, sunshirt, and hat with a brim. this summer hat may be my blue naturalist hat, a black running hat, or a tan sun hat.

oooh, so many choices.

apple cake

some weeks ago i was looking for a new recipe that was either emblematic of an international cuisine or a time period or makes a statement, because our Girl Scout troop is working on a badge about new cuisines.

as an adult i wasn't required to make something, but i was getting in the spirit.

so i have this latvian friend who grew up in latvia during the soviet occupation and i asked her for a recipe that would have been typical food from her childhood, because i think latvia under soviet occupation qualifies as being both international and of a time.

so she said that what came to her mind was ābolu kūka, basically apple cake. it was, she said, the thing you made when you had unexpected company and not much in the way of groceries.

it's always a fun time translating recipes from other languages, so that had some amusement value.

and while i didn't make it right away, our friend rapunsell did and she made it into a lovely recipe we could all follow without two much trouble and i have made it twice since.

here it is, with her permission:

DRY: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon (I use a little sifter for everything but the flour and then I whisk all the dry ingredients) 

WET: 2 eggs, 1 cup unsweetened kefir, 2/3 cup sugar (increase to 1 cup if making dessert), nice splash of vanilla

TOPPING 1: 2 apples, thinly sliced

TOPPING 2: 1 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar, plus more cinnamon for sprinklingMETHOD: Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking pan. Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls then mix to combine (small lumps are fine). Pour into baking pan. Arrange apple slices on top. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from oven, spoon sweetened sour cream on top, then sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.

things that were and were not

on saturday, my plan was to go to a walk and talk in the hinesburg town forest and then come home and make an apple cake for potluck after the walk and talk about the natural and cultural history of jonesville (i have decided that walk and talk is what i'm calling ant instructional/ lecture thingy that takes place in the field) and then i got the email about the cancellation of the sunday event just AFTER i popped the cake in the oven and now i have to eat a whole ass cake.

on sunday i HAD intended to go to the walk and talk and potluck, but in stead i stayed home and learned to tie a knot. ONE KNOT. i have been working on it for a couple of days out of the Ashley Book Of Knots and kept getting it horribly wrong, but then i thought: there HAS to be a youtube video on how to tie this thing so i googled "ABOK 792" and it turns out there are several videos on how to tie this thing, so yay. the rest of my day was taken up learning to tie it competently with two strands of different colors (it helps) and then learning to tie it competently in single color, and then i the small stock i want to tie it in.

so that's a day well-spent.

here's the video.

deer herd management

hi again.

i know half of you prefer if i post more often, so i feel a little bad about this last absence.

i was doing a lot of writing, but not any writing i could publish to my blog and then at the end of the day i was too tired to write more for a blog, so that's my excuse.

i still can't post it, because, yanno, too much actual information on a page, both personal and institutional but if you're crazy to read it, drop your email in the comments (i won't publish it) and i'll send you a link to the googledoc.

basically, there was some illegal hunting on some property i do work on. the organizational policy is to forbid hunting of any kind, and the knee jerk reaction was to try to solve the problem of bad actors by properly posting the land, thereby closing it to appropriately behaved hunters.

plus overbrowse by deer is a thing.

anyway, if you want to read the paper, i will send you a link.

i won't be sad if you're ok without it.