Monday Tuesday Postcards of the Pandemic

Exercise on stairs.

RantWoman has added stairs to her efforts at a daily exercise regimen. The stairways in RantWoman's building have these wonderful screens open to fresh air. Alas, open to fresh air also means open to rain. RantWoman discovered this after a different rainstorm. RantWoman decided to try a different stairway. A huge difference between a west exposure where the rain poured in and a north exposure where the stairway was almost completely dry.

The virus close. Postcard 1.

RantWoman and her neighbors received notice recently that someone in the building as tested positive for the virus. We are instructed to stay in our units as much as possible, to wear masks and maintain physical distance when out. RantWoman thinks this is exactly the appropriate level of information. Then RantWoman's walk down stairs allowed her to collect a piece of data that implies a privacy conflict if RantWoman goes further. In an effort to minimize running around different floors of RantWoman's building, RantWOman will go back to the stairway she had been using except if she can avoid it when wet.

The virus close. Postcard 2. Collapse?.

RantWoman and another neighbor on her floor noticed someone sleeping near that neighbor's apartment. RantWoman had hesitated about calling the police but listened when the neighbor was more concerned. The meaning of one set of questions sank in after RantWoman hung up from talking to the 911 operator: the dispatcher was asking questions that lined up with accounts RantWoman has read of people sick from #Covid19 just collapsing in the street. The person RantWoman was calling about smelled of alcohol. He was not getting up easily on his own so RantWoman guessed he was just drunk. RantWoman will pay more attention in the future to indications that the problem might be The Virus.

Why to wear a mask

First, RantWoman is exactly the sort of nerd who will go looking for hashtags full of preprints and assessment of various studies. Consider Preprint: Evidence Review related to wearing masks  . RantWoman still has not read the article, but the following #WeAreAllInThisTogether thoughts come to RantWoman.

Wear masks to protect bus drivers and other essential workers.

Wear masks to protect the rest of the household for people who must go out.

Wear masks so no one can assume that the only people wearing masks are probably also virus carriers so it is safer for the virus carriers to wear masks too.

It has taken RantWoman a long time and the mask thing is not exactly comfortable for RantWoman, but somehow RantWoman is just into it. Into it as in puts mask on to walk from apartment across breezeway to... and puts mask on ALL THE TIME.when going out.

Pandemic in Indian Country

RantWoman appreciates the custom of offering land acknowledgement and recognition of the various nations who lived on the lands of N America. As far as coping with the Pandemic, RantWoman encourages her readers to news through the Indian Country Today interview with a Covid19 survivor

Be Counted

Findally, advice from the Tacoma Refugee Choir about being counted for the census.