comorbidity + stupidity = futility

A few days ago I was compelled to leave my home and go to the grocery store.

We were out of ice cream.

Lest you think me frivolous, playing fast and loose with my own life and that of my fellow citizens, please know that I have no symptoms of any kind of illness and have not been anywhere except the store since mid-March.

Also I ended up with ground sirloin, russet potatoes, pork and beans, breakfast bread, hamburger buns, brown rice, Spanish peanuts, Reddi-wip, and chocolate syrup, to name but a few of the items that filled out my order along with two half-gallon containers of ice cream (vanilla and chocolate chip).

Publix or bust

My store of choice was Publix. Although on the way there I saw perhaps twenty-five cars, when I arrived the parking lot was more or less full. I don't look for close-up parking spots and would never fight you for one, but even if I'd wanted that this time, I wouldn't have gotten it.

When I entered the "lobby" of the store -- where you pick up your cart -- I noticed a lady wearing a green Publix uniform standing in the far back corner of that area, behind rows of conjoined carts.

She was stationed next to a single cart that seemed to be in use for the purpose of holding the materials she needed for cleaning all of the other carts.

The supply of pre-moistened cart-handle wipes having been exhausted in this time of mass hysteria pandemic, the store has resorted to assigning an employee to spray the carts with a cleaning solution and wipe them down with white cloths.

Several of said cloths, soggy from use, were draped along the sides of the cart beside which the aforementioned employee was standing. A large spray bottle sat in the child-seat section of the cart.

Neither cloths nor spray were in use as I entered, however. That was because the employee was busy -- nay, exceedingly busy -- blowing her nose.

As in, loudly, elaborately, and thoroughly, in a honking fashion that I think anyone would agree was prolonged and dramatic.

Never in all of my life have I seen an employee stationed in the cart corral area of a food store, taking a break from cleaning the carts to blow her nose.

Never.

But now, during a time of pandemic so dire that we can't even go to church or school, and millions are not allowed to work? I have seen it.

There is a restroom not twenty yards from where the lady was standing, to which she could have easily repaired so as to take care of cleaning her nose in private. 

After which she could have washed her hands and then come back to finish doing her job.

But no. Not this time.

Dauntless is my middle name

I selected a cart (yes; I was thinking ewwww), and entered the store.

I hadn't taken twenty steps before I saw the first of several strategically placed signs (professionally made in the style, color, and font used for all Publix signage) admonishing shoppers to observe social distancing protocols by keeping six feet apart.

I hadn't taken fifty more steps before a gentle male voice came over the public address system, intoning a message further reminding shoppers of their duty to maintain a distance of six feet from one another, because we're all in this together.

Oh shut up, I said. Out loud.

Because even as the message was being disseminated for all of us to heed and obey, I was pushing my cart down an aisle that was perhaps six feet in width. Maybe seven but I doubt it.

So how were we customers to maintain a distance of six feet from one another, when our paths crossed as we pushed our carts up and down said aisles, looking for groceries to buy?

If you said (or thought) That would be impossible, you would be correct.

Meanwhile, approximately fifty percent of the patrons of the supermarket were wearing masks.

The same masks that I read again only yesterday, will not necessarily keep you from contracting a virus -- not this current hyper-partisan election-year China Virus or any virus.

One of my daughters, who is a keen observer of human behavior, opined that many people are enjoying all of this. They like the drama; they get a kick out of going around wearing a mask as though anyone to whom they may come within closer proximity than six feet, may kill them with a single glance.

Only, many of those same people have at least one preventable underlying health condition that will likely spell their demise long before corona virus will have a chance to nail them.

Masking for a friend

Take for (only one) example the young -- I'm talking maybe twenty years old -- man who passed me in the aisle and caused me to stop and (not politely, I am afraid) stare.

I would have taken a picture but even I am not that impolite.

He was wearing a mask. 

He also weighed at least four hundred pounds.

Child, I thought, you will kill yourself with your knife and fork long before a virus gets you. Wearing a mask in the grocery store isn't the answer; losing half your body weight is. You'll be healthier -- and your overall wellbeing more protected -- for having done that than you will ever be from wearing an N95 mask, even if you wear it every day for the rest of your life.

People. Think for just a moment.

I'm not going to insult you by pointing out that we're all going to die someday, and that even on the day after that day, whether the departed be you or me or whomever, the sun will still rise.

Even though all of that is true, I won't be so flippant as to point it out. I fully realize that I could catch corona virus, and die from it.

We all know that none of us are getting out of this (life) alive. At least in the earthly sense.

However.

To quote another of my daughters, I don't want to get any virus. That's why I take -- and have always taken, for my entire adult life -- the precautions that everyone should take all of the time, to avoid that.

But if I fail and if I get sick, I stay home. I don't go out, all business as usual, where I could spread illness to others.

If I do get sick enough to stay home (and it doesn't happen often), depending on how ill I am or how contagious I think I may be, I'm also considerate of others in my household.

In January of 2018 I came down with the flu. It was severe; I had a high fever and was in a lot of pain. I stayed in bed for the better part of eight days. I wouldn't even sit next to TG to watch TV.

And I'm sure I wash my hands a dozen times on an average day.

But sometimes illness is simply unavoidable: we encounter a germ and we get sick.

It's a wash

Years ago I was in a grocery store. I was standing at least six feet behind a woman who sneezed in a big way, without covering her mouth.

I'm going to catch something, I thought, even as I quickly moved out of the area.

And I did. I had. Even though I was careful not to touch my face and although I scrubbed my hands and forearms when I got home, within two days I had come down with a heavy cold which developed into bronchitis.

It was a lousy break and miserable. But I survived.

Such is life.

Had I been a person whose health is so compromised that I could not survive being sneezed upon, I would have had no business whatsoever going out in public to shop for groceries.

The same is true today. If you have underlying health issues and other risk factors severe enough that catching a virus -- any virus -- could kill you, then you should be the one staying at home.

Counting for seasonal flu and allergic reactions and anything else that may have it mortally in for you, you probably shouldn't venture any farther than your yard between Christmas and Mother's Day.

In other words, if you're a sitting duck for a marauding virus, the onus is on YOU to stay under wraps -- not for healthy people to be locked down at home, disrupting vital routines and decimating a robust economy that may take decades to recover.

And that would be true in any calendar year, no matter whether a president despised beyond all reason by the opposing party, is up for reelection.

But right now? For the foreseeable future, if your health is compromised anyway, you should definitely stay home and let others bring you whatever you need. While they're in the house, don't get within six feet of them.

Wash your hands a lot.

Beyond that, there's not much you can do. Something may still get you. We are mortal, after all.

And healthy, strong, responsible people -- including children -- should be allowed to work and go to school without being ordered into lockdown at home for weeks on end, by the state or federal government.

It's called freedom. And it's guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

When pigs fly 

In 2011, Audrey contracted the H1N1 Swine Flu. She lived alone at the time, in Knoxville. She managed to get to the doctor, where she was tested and the diagnosis confirmed. She was extremely ill for several days. Although she went back to work as soon as it was feasible, many weeks elapsed before she felt truly well again.

She was (and is) a young, healthy woman who takes all of the precautions we all should always take.

That same year, she and I were walking a cemetery in Knoxville when we happened upon the grave of a young woman (in her twenties) on whose tombstone it stated that she'd died of H1N1 during the pandemic.

Do you remember that pandemic? The one where sixty million Americans contracted the disease and thirteen thousand died from it in a single year?

Nor do I, except within the context of the events I just described. Schools did not close; restaurants weren't ordered out of business by politically correct governors. We all kept going to church. Basketball and Baseball seasons weren't canceled. Prisoners were not released. There were no bailouts.

No one was commanded to go home and stay home for the foreseeable future.

It was during the Obama administration.

Dads weren't arrested and handcuffed for walking in parks -- as happened in Colorado a few days ago, to a man taking a stroll outdoors with his wife and six-year-old daughter.

There weren't daily news conferences with lefty globalist Deep State career-bureaucrat doctors being given more TV coverage than the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the Masters, the Final Four, the World Series, and the Olympics put together.

There weren't millions of Americans who, having suddenly lost their jobs, were relegated to standing in unemployment lines, thereby coming into contact with random people at least as much (if not more) as they would if they simply went to work.

There wasn't David Paterson (the then-Governor of New York) on Fox News every morning, blathering on about what he needs and what the President of the United States hasn't done for him, as Andrew Cuomo does now.

There wasn't his brother, Chris Cuomo, on CNN for hours every day of the world, broadcasting from his basement, about every drop of sweat and degree of fever and twinge of pain he has experienced with corona virus, even up to showing his own (normal)  chest X-ray and having Dr. Sanjay Gupta on air to evaluate it.

Not that I'm watching. I'm not. I'd rather die. 

Slouching towards checkout

Back to Publix. Eventually -- I'd been in the store for maybe twenty minutes -- it was time for me to get in line and pay for my purchases.

I noticed that people -- most of them -- waiting in lines had positioned themselves so that the front edge of their carts were a perceived six feet from the backs of the people in front of them.

(Never mind that that put them nine feet from the person in front of them; everyone seemed to think that at least six feet from human back to metal cart was the way to go.)

I chose a line and got in it. Because of where the person in front of me was situated, I had to wait in an aisle where people were trying to shop. If I hadn't I would have blocked the long cross aisle where customers walk to access all of the aisles, and to get into position to pay, just like me.

I hadn't been standing there long when a man wearing a mask and carrying two crossword puzzle books walked by the front of my cart, using the ample space between the cart and the back of the person in front of me in the checkout line.

As the man -- fiftyish, short, wearing baggy sweat pants and two big tee shirts, layered -- passed me, he turned and faced me, and stared.

I stared back. He then began grunting loudly while pointing in jabbing motions with both hands at his own face mask. He glared at me.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked back at him, not at all sure what his deal was.

Then he began coming towards me in a threatening manner. His eyes never left mine and he looked angry.

I put both my hands up in front of me and took as many steps back as I could without coming any closer than six feet to any fellow shopper.

The man stopped coming towards me. He turned and walked away.

The cashier whose line I was in, though a lovely and completely nice person, was also extremely slow-moving.

I watched as she carefully placed each piece of a customer's produce order individually into a mesh bag the environmentally-conscious customer had brought along.

One avocado. One cantaloupe. A bunch of celery. A crown of broccoli. A bag of carrots. Two oranges.

Slowly. Ever so slowly the bag got loaded up with fruits and vegetables. 

Then she finished scanning the remainder of his order, stopping every few seconds to push buttons on her screen, at one point finding it necessary to leave and bring someone else back to punch some buttons for her.

Meanwhile the vertically-challenged masked man who had rebuked me, charades-fashion, for (I assume) not wearing a mask, had trolled around and behind me several more times. 

I had plenty of opportunities to keep my eye on him; I'd been in line for at least ten minutes.

Scanning the horizon

In due course it was my turn to have my purchases scanned, and to pay for them and go home -- if all went well, before the ice cream melted.

While I was in the processing area -- where, due to space restrictions, I was unable to get more than three feet from the slow-moving cashier -- I asked said cashier as well as the lady helping to bag my groceries, why it was that neither of them (in fact, none of the cashiers or baggers) were wearing either gloves or masks.

The cashier answered that if they wore gloves, they'd have to change them between each order. I am still trying to figure that out. If you figure it out before me, please let me know.

I mean, they were using their bare hands, which for obvious reasons cannot be changed between orders.

And let me be clear: I am referring to them wearing gloves to protect not me, or any other customer, but to protect themselves.

The women pointed to a pump-bottle of hand sanitizer and said that they use that between orders.

But I'd been in line for three customers and I can promise you that no one had touched that hand sanitizer. They'd touched dozens of other things, though.

As to masks, the girls said that "maybe next week" their employer would provide them with such equipment.

But -- they both assured me -- they did not anticipate actually wearing the masks.

Too hot, one said.

Just a hassle, the other one said.

Okay. So, you say you can't wear gloves because you'd have to change them between orders, and you could wear a mask that will be provided to you at some point, but you have no intention of doing so because it would be inconvenient and/or uncomfortable.

I thought we were all supposed to be terrified for our lives. Because of a virus from which the overwhelming number of sufferers recover while resting at home.

But they're putting up the plastic shields, maybe tomorrow, the bagger offered.

I haven't yet seen these but TG and the girls tell me it's like a transparent curtain between you and the cashier, in case someone sprays a droplet onto someone else.

Something which, at all points up until now, all mask-less individuals have ostensibly been doing anyway.

Here's the deal

Look. God created us with incredible things called immunities. Immunities keep us from catching diseases from the germs that are all around us in the millions every day of our lives.

The immunities -- some of which we have to build up in unpleasant but not life-threatening ways -- are there to protect us.

Without them, none of us would live for very long. Most of us would have died in infancy.

Is it sad that people of all ages catch germs and get sick, and sometimes die?

Well. Let's ask one of the eighty thousand people who have died from the seasonal flu in America so far this year. 

Oh wait; we can't. They're gone. Unless you personally knew one of those eighty thousand unfortunate individuals, was your consciousness raised by a crazed media to the death of even a single one of them?

Did you watch or listen to even one White House press briefing, laced with disrespectful, gotcha media questions aimed at President Trump, addressing the calamity and the impending doom resulting from seasonal flu?

No; no, you didn't. You weren't. Because those press briefings never happened and those deaths were never publicized politicized.

And now as an additional (and we hope, final, but I doubt it) insult, the powers that be are openly admitting that the death toll numbers from corona virus are being actively padded.

As in, anything remotely suspected of being China Virus resulting in a death, regardless of comorbidities present in the victim, is counted as a China Virus death.

The lefties eaten up with terminal late-stage Trump Derangement Syndrome (like hydroxychloroquine for WuFlu, there's a cure but they don't want to take it and they don't want anyone else to take it either) are devastated at the death toll -- as in, it's not high enough.

They foamed at their collective mouths at the early grisly prospect of well over two million Americans dying from the virus that originated in the Chinese wet markets. It was an election-year dream come true.

They drooled and salivated over the CDC and IHME model numbers like the Chinese drool over bats and rats and dogs and cats.

But the numbers aren't cooperating. Now, the ones determined not to let this crisis go to waste may have to be content with a disappointing sixty thousand American deaths. 

Even the padded numbers aren't anywhere close to the hundreds of thousands of corpses they predicted we would see stacked like cordwood in makeshift morgues throughout America.

The good news? Fewer people are dying from cancer and heart attacks and any number of other deadly diseases! Like, if you've smoked yourself nearly to death and have end-stage kidney failure and COPD, but you happen to spike a temperature?

Or -- what? You don't even feel sick?

You're going to die of China Virus whether you like it or not.

Folks. This is an election year. Yes; Wuhan Flu/China Virus is a real thing. No one is disputing that.

But decimating our economy -- and countless human lives, in ways that can be worse than death, for generations to come -- because of it, is immoral.

What we are seeing is the very definition of spiritual wickedness in high places. At its core it is the work of evil people. 

And it's also stupid.

And that is all for now.

=0=0=0=

Happy Weekend :: Happy Easter

Comments

[Mari]

Well - this is too much for me to respond to! You are usually so quiet. :) But - I agree.
Whichever daughter said some people were enjoying this obviously takes after you. She's right. Some people love drama!
I was at our store today. We also have someone wiping down carts, there is another person counting people going in. Once inside there are tape marks to keep people 6 feet apart at the check out and now - the aisles are one way! So, if you need something from one particular aisle, you may need to go down the next one to get to the one you want...
About the gloves - they are not recommended in the grocery store because they are so much more slippery than the hand. So the customers are much more likely to have the virus passes on to them via the packaging.. It it's on your hand it is more likely to stay there, unless you rub your face... and that's why handwashing is important. Does that make sense?
As I already griped to you about the state of our state and our wretched governor - who could be Cuoma's sister, I won't go into that again.
In sad news - my Dad's neighbor who had Covid passed away today. He was 71 and appeared to be in good health. His wife also had it and is doing well, but was in the hospital too. They were my parents neighbors for over 40 years. Very sad. But he was a Christian and his family has voiced joy over the fact that he is celebrating Easter in heaven this year.

[Jennifer]

@Mari ... That does make sense about the gloves and I guess the next time I go to the store, I'll see those new distancing measures in place. I still say we should be allowed to "herd immunize" and the weak should stay home. There is more to this than meets the eye ... dark forces at work. Not with the virus itself, which is a force of nature, but with the left's seizing upon people's misery to grab for power and money. It's reprehensible. Your governor is one of the worst examples of this. I am so sorry to hear about your dad's neighbor. I feel for his widow and for the families of all of those who have died from this illness. Thanks for reading and staying awhile to "visit" Haaaha xoxo

[Jane]

I don't know what to say. My husband's theory is that this is a labotory produced virus designed to induce population control and then it went rouge. I've heard that it was biological warfare tested on China's own population before being released into the wild so to speak. All I have to say is that our times were predicated in Revelation.
We had a wave of Corona like symtoms come through in November. My son's roomate had what appeared to be Corona, he tested negative for the flu but of course no one knew about Corona in November. Our local Facebook page easily had ten to fifteen people if not more compalining about testing negative for flu yet still having flu like symptoms and pneumonia in late October & early November.

[Barb]

Hi Jenny, Tell me how you really feel! I cannot in good conscious let Bob read this (you know he's already a little sweet on you). Or, our sons... Both our sons are still working (they're thankful). One is an architect who works for a big construction company that does things like hospitals and colleges. He has to work some days at home because of social distancing, but he at least has work. Our other son owns his own business, supplying garage doors and dock levelers for clients that have big warehouses, etc. He talked to his people and said if anyone is afraid to work, they can stay home and he would continue paying some portion of their salary. Everyone wanted to work. Bob and I continue our usual lifestyle here at the edge of wilderness. I guess you might say that social distancing is somewhat a way of life with us. Except, now we don't go for groceries more than every 2-3 weeks. Also, we haven't seen family face to face in over a month. But, they call and text, so we know what's going on with them. It's a strange world. The dynamics of social correctness and political fervor drive us nuts on most days. We've pretty much stopped watching the news - I found my blood pressure was rising... Meanwhile, after a couple weeks of spring when snow was melting nicely, we're now under a winter storm warning, and it is supposed to be snowy off and on for a couple weeks. We're not surprised, of course, just a little bummed to have to bundle up again and use the touring skis or snowshoes to exercise. I must admit that the thing that would scare me most about getting the virus and having to be hospitalized is that I want Bob with me when I die. Possibly, I would choose to just stay home so he could hold my hand as he has done for nearly 54 years. Stay well, Jenny.

[Mari]

Yes - there are always those who take things that are already bad and try to profit from others misfortunes and there are far too many doing that, and making things worse. Dark forces indeed.
I always love a visit with you! Greetings to TG and the rest of the family!

[Jennifer]

@Jane ... I agree with you that that probably did happen, not because I experienced it personally but because I've heard so many people muse along those same lines -- that this particularly bad flu began sweeping through the USA in late 2019 and many are already immunized either from having had it or from having resisted it. At any rate I also agree that it could very well have been lab produced ... but we will never know. Happy Easter to you! xoxo

@Barb ... I started watching the news again on 2/4/20, beginning with the State of the Union Address, which incidentally is the night I became active again on my Twitter account. I can't resist micro-blogging about politics during an election year. I've continued with that because it serves as a pressure valve, and when the China Virus nonsense began, I started watching the news again. But like you, with few exceptions, I've had to stop. Likewise I watched the daily press briefings but had to stop that too; I can't stand the disrespect of the media, and I'm fed up with Fauci and Birx and frankly don't give a rat's patootie what they think about anything. As to work, in our family everyone has continued working almost as normal, except that Chad and Erica now work from home. Their employers need them more than ever. Audrey has gained new clients and TG, who is also self-employed, has had no one tell him not to come into their homes. So as I'm thankful for God's provision for our family, I'm thankful for His provision for yours. Like you and Bob, I stay home most of the time anyway so this doesn't really move the needle for me. I dislike being told I can't go to church, but our online services will do for the nonce. Meanwhile, I wish you a very Happy Easter! I really think you should let Bob read this post. xoxo

@Mari ... OK so the girls and I went to a Neighborhood Walmart store today over by where Erica lives. I don't normally shop at those so I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing different from "normal" was that barriers were set up in front of the doors so that customers had to walk around to one side and form a line, with tape strips on the walkway denoting six foot distances. But there was no line; we walked in alone and once inside the store, it was business as usual. There were a few folks wearing masks but we noticed no one giving any particular care to staying six feet from anyone else. The aisles were not "one way." The employees were courteous and helpful. The shelves were fully stocked. The checkout lines were all manned and we didn't have to wait to pay. It was a pleasant, stress-free experience and I thank God for it because I needed provisions for tomorrow's Easter feast and I didn't want any hassle!

Meanwhile the left are tightening the vise and it won't be long before certain groups are going to have to bring lawsuits against government intrusion into our lives -- especially in the area of gathering to worship, a right which is guaranteed in the Constitution. Besides ... whatever happened to separation of church and state? The libs love to invoke that when it suits them. Why doesn't it work now -- as in, why don't they butt out and let us assume the risk if that is our informed decision? This isn't sustainable ... a free people will not lay down their rights that easily. Happy Easter my friend! xoxo

[sally]

Hey Jenny
#1 I love you
#2 I'm now singing 'the sun will come out tomorrow', thanks for that. NO!
#3 I agree with everything you've written although I'm not intelligent enough to 'word' things the way you do.
#4 Okay, well maybe I WAS intelligent enough at some point but now that I've been diagnosed with a small hole in my brain (ok well that's the short term) I hesitate to even talk.
#5 The worst flu I've ever had was Christmas 1997; all the family in the living room, me in bed wishing I could be with them. My brother who passed away came into the room I was in telling me everything he'd opened, and bringing me mine. He was always as excited for everyone maybe even more so than himself. You know he was developmentally challenged. He passed the next year so that makes it even more difficult to think about since it was the last Christmas with him.
#6 I don't watch the news anymore. I read some on the 'net but don't believe half.
#7 If Biden was to win the election, we can know the world is done for. What an idiot. There I said it.
#8 I'm missing my family. :(

xoxo

[Jennifer]

@Sally ... I love you too and think of you often. What a poignant memory of Christmas of 1997. I had a horrible flu-like illness during the holidays once around that same time ... I thought I'd die. But then, no flu illness is any fun. I am sorry about your diagnosis but hey ... if you don't call attention to it, no one will notice! The news is a real bummer. I'm fortunate that I have the two girls here to visit with, and we have't hesitated to do that. I do miss the others I can't see right now. Take care my friend xoxo