Nope. Not COVID, but...

    

#pandemic #COVID19 #COVID 

What's left of RantMom
in her new home

Possibly of interest:

RantWoman and the RSOF: Jessie Cornwell Memorial Invitation, updated

RantMom "departed for other realms exactly two months ago. Therefore, we interrupt the daily war coverage for...

--meditations on obituary writing process wrangling a whole life story into plausible obituary versions for different platforms

--effort both to collaborate with Little Sister and to tread among family religious and other emotional landmines.

--inchoate ranting about one popular obituary platform whose accessibility for RantWoman SUCKS.

Uhhh, how about just do the COVID piece?

Ding! Ding!

Adapted from the current draft of the obituary:

(RantMom) became good friends with the first Ida Culver Ravenna Resident to die of COVID. She tested positive herself cleared the virus and did not develop symptoms. The pandemic lockdown was very hard for everyone. The staff's meticulous observance of rules and safety practices as well as use of vaccines as soon as they became available ensured that COVID did not hit that community nearly as hard as other retirement facilities. 

(RantMom) and several other residents of Ida culver Ravenna moved to The Lakeshore, along with numerous other residents of Ida Culver Ravenna. At the Lakeshore, residents enjoyed an expansive view of Lake Washington and resident bald eagles nesting in a tree near the dining room. Art shows, special speakers,  music and dance performances and other activities kept life as lively as (RantMom)  wanted. 

The last year of RantMom's life at the Lakeshore was rough: Her younger brother died of prostate cancer. She had a lingering bout of actual COVID, not just testing positive and clearing the virus without symptoms as she had done previously. 

Other chronic issues were becoming more and more draining. Even so, she continued to volunteer weekly at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. To RantMom, this was a means to pay forward the excellent medical care she had received during her multiple battles with cancer.

RantMom's last few weeks were a blur of hospital, skilled nursing, and ultimately placement at the Agape Senior Care at Montlake -- with its extremely loving directors and staff -- where she passed away peacefully thirty years and six months to the day after (RantDad).

Reprise on the topic of RantMom and #COVID

Adventures of RantWoman: Dinner and Plague

Adventures of RantWoman: Tested Negative!

(Part of RantWoman's own experience with "the 'rona."

There are probably other posts that reference both COVID and RantMom but this has to be enough for now

Adventures of RantWoman: Virus plus car ride plus pastor plus pandemic and worship plus pentecost

Adventures of RantWoman: Today in Corona Virus News

Adventures of RantWoman: Data Dump plus Neil Degrasse Tyson suggesting people listen to Science

precautions at a different retirement community

Adventures of RantWoman: Pollen or Plague? With a side of #DigitalInclusion

Measles: Herd Immunity MATTERS

 

New Protests at UW about Gaza crises

And a comment from Protest Curmudgeon

I am old. I think a VERY urgent message about the humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing in Gaza is getting lost. I fear that all the visuals will be dumpster fires and complaints about protestors' clothing choices. I have no patience with voices that clamor "domestic terrorism" in the presence of nonviolent protest. I am also sick of the idea that ANY insistence that Palestinian people have rights terrifies others. Long ago in a university across the country, I organized speakers about a number of topics. The ONLY topic that consistently got bomb threats was Palestinian human rights. Where does anyone imagine THOSE bomb threats came from?

Dinner and Plague

RantMom at Christmastime
proudly in a new chair

RantWoman has been meaning to offer up a #Pandemic plus 5 years piece. RantWoman would prefer NOT to be offering up today's post.

Yesterday the RantSisters received a normal conscientious email from RantWoman's new abode: a small number of residents and one staffperson had tested positive for #COVID.

RantWoman did not immediately pick up the phone and demand "Mom, are YOU all right?" Instead RantWoman decided that either RantMom would share news herself or it could wait until the RantWomen's nightly phone chat. On the call, RantMom definitely sounded drippy and congested. She also mentioned knowing of the cases among her neighbors. AND she mentioned another common COVID onset symptom, as well as plans to stay home from a Tuesday volunteer gig. At this point, RantWoman had to say "MOM, GET TESTED."

Tonight, when the RantWomen chatted, RantMom sounded a little worse than yesterday. RantWoman's experience from her own long-avoided encounter with "the 'rona" is that the cough and effect on a person's voice are different than a regular cold. That was definitely true for RantMom who ruefully acknowledged what RantWoman suspected. RantMom tested positive and this time has symptoms!. RantMom also said she had eaten dinner with one of the other cases that tested positive a few days ago. 

Bah! It's not like RantMom would ever let anyone tell her not to eat dinner with her neighbors. RantWoman also considers it a blessing that the dining companion this time is alive and recovering, not falling over dead.

So now RantMom is isolating. Meals come to her. She puts on a mask to run out and get mail or toss out trash. RantWoman would SO like to run over and give RantMom a hug. RantWoman is scratching her head about whether she can and should deliver something supportive. The RantWomen also talked about masks. Neither of us is crazy about paper masks. Cloth masks are imperfect but some mask is always better than no mask.

Maybe another day RantWoman will go on some about:

--the assortment of different masks still lurking in coat pockets and bags

--how good it felt to move along some mail order shoes that never fit right to their destiny in the rest of the universe.

--assorted meditations about cooking and technology

--the colorful but not always perfectly fitting blouses RantWoman spent some of her #Pandemic stimulus payments on.

--the new bed from Amazon and why RantWoman is definitely peeved with Jeff Bezos on Constitutional and political grounds.

Tonight, though, it's all about RantMom. If you pray, prayers would be appreciated.

Bird Flu. Cats. Other species. Beware. Be reasonable

RantWoman recommends that people, especially cat people take a break from multiple strands of human insanity and focus on care of cats and other animals.

Uh, actually we are not necessarily taking a complete break from human insanity so a few tips before the video.

--RantWoman has a friend from high school who is now an infectious disease doctor. So far she is pretty blase about bird flu in humans. Her advice: stay up to date on flu and COVID shots. A tiny number of people have gotten bird flu due to work exposure for example to raw milk. There is still no evidence, though, of human to human transmission.

--Digressing to the price of eggs, NPR reported recently that there is a vaccine against bird flu for chickens. So far it is not widely used because external buyers are resistant to buying products affected by the vaccines. On the other hand, if the President is going to go bananas about a trade war and tariffs, vaccinating chicken flocks could end the need to cull flocks and get the level of egg production up to a point that MAYBE the price of domestically produced eggs would come down.

But now cat tips, with an inventory of all the other species that have gotten bird flu.

And, at the end, STRONG note for the interviewer who is into raw food that maybe he will need to rethink that.

Also, look in the notes for more resources.

PS. This is RantWoman's "light reading" for the night.

MEASLES???? Get Boosted?

For everyone needing some concise MEASLES commentary

RantWoman will have to look up any MMR boosters since moving to Seattle but DEFINITELY remembers getting an adult dose because of a small outbreak connected to campus while RantWoman was in grad school.

Measles outbreak worsens across U.S. | FOX 13 Seattle

Do adults need a measles booster shot?

What to know about the measles as cases spread across the U.S.

YouTube will also generously offer readers a menu of fresh new clips.

And a few days ago from TX

Tested Negative!

 Nose is still a little irritated but OUT on an errand.

Note to self: flu shot. Ask how long before I should get #COVID booster. Party!

Hold off for a week visiting RantMom. They sent emails about people testing positive but everyone is cleared and the few staff affected are clear to return to work.

Need to keep up the hydration and sleep. Fortunately past the couple days when I could sleep a REALLY long time for me.

Ordered my new free tests. Not charmed by prices on Amazon but I will cope

Day 11

RantWoman keeps meeting people getting #COVID for the first time.

Is that because at least in the crowd where RantWoman was today, NO ONE wears masks prophylactically.

Yes indeed, RantWoman put on a good mask, braved rain at start of trip, made an easy bus connection, walked 5 blocks from bus to event and WENT TO A LIVE EVENT with people she mostly has only met on Zoom.

One live event miracle is all the side conversations one can have.

Event was a celebration. RantWoman still owes the world some posts from the media kit but not tonight.

By the time RantWoman walked the 5 blocks back to the same bus, rode back to Seattle, and misguessed about the best stop to get the beloved 8 home, RantWoman was EXHAUSTED.

Nose and congestion still feel not normal. But at least the #COVID test shows negative. Go figure. 

RantWoman will be trying to add more mid day walks and runs on the exercise bike to stay better in condition. 

Day 9 with some Cyber security awareness month to distract me

Pay attention to the above advice because it was collected while brain is not quite all there.

Day 9. Yesterday's test was defective. Today's still has two stripes though the test one is lighter.

Not really spiking fevers but temp regulation is a little off, possibly just because of not enough exercise.

In person event tomorrow. Find one of the good two-layer masks with a wire over the nose.

Give self the option of staying home.

No I still have not contacted my health care provider.

Day 6: Masks and chopped celery

Covid test card

 The last few tests, the second bar appears almost as soon as the test solution hits the card. This one took awhile.

Weird because I still feel a little #COVID y

Lungs keep clearing.

A little achy but the same taste I always get with tylenol.

Finally decided to go ahead and order vegetables. I should have waited because friends offered. But chopping and freezing celery and green peppers feels like needed exercise.

Cognitively, somehow misjudged distance. Bumped a neighbor who told me to go take a nap. But definitely had brain cells for next in a series of COOL software trainings.

Topical Rant

RantWoman HATES paper masks.

RantWoman dislikes waste and feeling forced into disaster capitalism.

RantWoman finds paper masks irritating.

RantWoman hearts cloth masks

any mask is better than no mask.

Enough said.

Day 5 with a cat in Riga for company. Latvian mural features red cat named Peach

 

Cat vids! 

Probably RantWoman will actually dabble in "favorite" Youtube streams if she can get through some must do's first.

In the meantime, cat vids are what RantWoman has brains for. And since Latvia is on the list of places NOT wanting anything to do with a certain neighboring aggressor, this cat vid is in its own way effort to ward off evil.

Regarding #COVID brain fog, as with many muddled brains, RantWoman thinks she is just fine--until signing into Zoom or coping with the two-factor authentication she herself set up is too much. We also will not discuss failing to pay attention to a pot of formerly dried beans on the stove: beans are definitely done. Pot will need some scrubbing.  Hopefully, later the beans can turn the rest of the way into food.

Now focus enough to order a talking thermometer. RantWoman is definitely having fevers, but they are not super high fevers.

Between Tylenol and chest congestion seeming to clear up some, it no longer hurts to cough.

Taking the rest of the trash out will have to wait.Probably some exercycle time on the horizon though.

Finally, RantWoman is VERY glad to have evaded #COVID this long, annoyed to have it now, and counting herself VERY lucky about many recovery issues. RantWoman peculiarly is heartened to hear of others in her circle getting #COVID for the first time. Misery loves company?

PS For Future Reference,

Extended Expiration date info page

Happy Leap Day COVID anniversary

 #LeapDay #LeapDay2024 #COVID #Pandemic

Today in history; The USA’s first known lethal COVID-19 outbreak, at a Kirkland, Wash. nursing care center, is announced Feb. 29, 2020. https://t.co/VNrhkIgu3I

— Mike Lindblom (@MikeLindblom) February 29, 2024

Seattle Times article

NO! RantWoman is not exactly nostalgic for pandemic lockdown, but the item popped in RantWoman's Twitter.

Plus RantWoman still means to post about themes from last year about this time, minus the #LeapDay

Use the hash tags or the words COVID and Pandemic to find past RantWoman offerintgs.

From last year:

RantMom's retirement community is, cross fingers, coming out of 10 days of dining room closure because a cluster of RantMom's neighbors who all sat together in the dining room as well as 5 staff all recentlyy tested positive for COVID. This time it wasn't RantMom, but somehow there are anniversary vibes in the air.

(Four) years ago, many of RantWoman's Asian neighbors had already been masking for weeks. 

There was the dinner with RantMom and her debate-watching buddy two weeks before..., the last name in the newspaper, the "i'm not surprised" phone conversation with the retirement community medical director while RantWoman was on a bus to buy cat food ahead of pending lockdowns. Here though are some idiosyncratic reflections:

Special shout-out to all the transit and delivery drivers and other essential workers who kept life sort of manageable.

The masks

RantWoman still has in various pockets, an assortment of masks:

--the folded bandana and ponytail holder effort RantWoman tried for awhile.

--The whcked out of new black T-shirt material items that RantWoman's blind nurse friend sent around to the local chapter of the WA council of the blind.

--Several different homemade and commercial cloth masks. A couple of the homemade styles were well-meant but not functional for instance because of ties made of slippery ribbon. Some of the commercial ones have sensible elastic at the ears though some of the elastic has long stretched beyond usefulness

--Several different paper disposable ones. RantWoman is not charmed by the mandate to buy paper masks in the first place. Cloth masks, while imperfect are better than nothing and in many cases more comfortable than paper ones. RantWoman also tends to save paper masks she has acquired, figuring they will be good in an emergency or at least interesting relics.

Mail order shoes

RantWoman is VERY glad both to have found a couple reliable mail order shoe options and to have a couple Nordstrom gift cards she needs to march down and spend for a real custom fit experience.

RantWoman has more to say about the inadequacy of online ad copy, the problem of fitting feet that are slightly different sized, and which footwear elements do or don't easily adjust. But not today.

Stimulus payment clothing

RantWoman feels VERY lucky to have been able to renew her entire wardrobe from the skin out with mail order options.

The Bed from Amazon

Previous bed installation adventures

Weird food notes:

RantWoman mostly did okay about food options or at least does not remember the worst frustrations.

RantWoman still has a whole unopened bag of spicy dried pea packets. RantWoman will either save them for the next disaster or one of these days reconstitute them and see what they can be turned into.

Other food note: a whole lot of Reese's peanut butter cups, curiously accompanied by weight loss, probably from drinking less soda and hopefully not from losing muscle mass.

The college admissions Interview questions:

RantWoman is an alumni interviewer and every year interviews a number of students applying to her alma mater. RantWoman finds the interviews really rewarding and the applicants have been gracious about answering RantWoman's standard question about how did they fare. Some found the period a time of intense personal growth, either from some kind of self-betterment or from figuring out what connections they really needed to preserve. Others just found online school a long slog. RantWoman wonders how the pandemic will look 20 years ago, the way others remember the 1968 democratic convention, the moon landing, the space shuttle catastrophes, 9/11....

And then there's the next disaster, whatever it is

Event agenda

Trae Crowder: Full Special "Damn Boy."

RantWoman needed to laugh.

RantWoman laughed very hard.

Content warning: language; also brief but frank commentary about a gruesome topic

Not done with....Holiday appreciations?

In appreciation of
the plants' service to holiday spirit

In connection with one of RantWoman's Twitter hobbies.

Praise God!

No firearms!#MerryChristmas

And joy and peaces for #Hanukkah #Kwanzaa #Solstice #Festivus .... https://t.co/npaiElwOfO

— Amb. Thwack Vaxxed & Masked (@AmbassadorThwa1) December 26, 2022

Eccentric song references in honor of the next impending deluges

Here Comes the Rain again: Eurhtyhmics, remastered 2018

Here comes the Rain: Darry Hall
 

And in the world of software and accessibility #a11y

Special holiday forced smiles for both a recent Zoom update and whatever Mac-based checkbook manager RantWoman's friend GrandMaFF uses. RantWoman will read the Zoom update notes. Really. Really. RantWoman WILL also venture further into the world of Microsoft Edge than she has ever done so far. Someday. 

GrandmaFF has been using the same software for over 10 years. She resents a different look and feel every time she opens the software. Some of the time she reports lovely customer support experiences. Some of the time, not so much. Occasional and unpredictable effects of strokes a few years ago probably do not help.

Next we come to meditations on two bumpy onramps to the new digital frontier. 

One involves laundry, hope that coin payment which attracts vandals can be replaced by either debit cards or phone payment, no actual audio cues about whether one's efforts work and heaven help anyone if the phone owner gets sick and needs someone else to to their laundry.

The other involves a medical device currently under recall and replacement. Customers get to help by learning how to pair the device with Bluetooth. The Android app has accessibility glitches. A downloadable set of directions has lots of moments that read through screen reader as "unlabelled image." Since RantWoman can't read the directions, RantWoman can't tell whether the instructions include something like "Please ensure that Bluetooth is turned on for both devices you are trying to pair." RantWoman figured that out on her own and then hit another glitch that caused RantWoman to interact with an associated secure email portal and hopefully soon with a human by phone. .

In both of the latter cases, RantWoman is wavering somewhere between "Please Fix it. Make it so" and "RantWoman will be very happy to help you fix this at the hourly rate of..."

Special holiday shoutout both to the new #ChiefTwit and to migration of people away from the #ChiefTwit's domains. RantWoman had a conversation with one sight-dependent friend RantWoman has previously tried to interact with about accessibility lacunae. Friend commented "I don't know anything about accessibility." RantWoman was seized by some kind of holiday spirit because she did not just blurt out "no, you still don't and that's the point. Just because you are retired from any WORK obligation possibly to interact does not mean the topic is not going to stalk you in other realms."

How is everyone else doing about holiday cheer?

To be fair, RantWoman has had MANY fine moments and more will happen when Little Sister GETS RID OF #Covid.

Mehdi Hassan on Montana and GOP-Led Covid Policies

RantWoman is deeply displeased when public officials in the natal state do something STUPID.

RantWoman knows of at least one convention like event which moved from MT to OR because of COVID concerns in the summer of 2021. #Pandemic #MTPOL

#COVIDIOTS

Orange Juice, COVID-Palooza, and NO EXPLOSIVES

After grabbing her second #COVID booster in mid-June RantWoman sets the stage

Trevor Noah Contact with Ebola

Okay, RantWoman is going to be nowhere near that funny

Dr. Fauci on BA 5 

Umm by the time everyone from WA was checking in from home after a certain national convention , 8 out of 18 travelers returning to WA reporting positive COVID tests is what percentage now? Overall at least 40 and probably far more out of about 500 total registrants were known by people reporting statistics from the President's table.

The following festive post is dedicated to ...Zero reports at least in RantWoman's Twitter feeds of blind people with guide dogs being denied Uber or Lyft rides home rom the airport after national conventions--sponsored by Uber or Lyft. Instead this year the communications streams where RantWoman swims are all full of how many people tested positive for COVID.

Both the American Council of the Blind #ACB22 in Omaha and the National Federation of the Blind #NFB22 in New Orleans held hybrid conventions last week. Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test was required at #ACB22. There was also an abundant supply of (inaccessible to the vision-impaired) self COVID tests and late in the event even some of the spiffy new version accessible for people who have a blue-tooth device and are willing to share a ton of data with government researchers.

Doing tech for a hybrid convention is destined to be a new art.   Setting up conference halls with social distancing between rows of tables is glorious for anyone who likes moving around easily. Keeping rooms extremely well air-conditioned may or may not make it harder for viruses to spread but does help beat the 100 degree heat outside. 

The ACB convention relies on a lot of volunteers to help guide people around. It's COVID and people just weren't leaping at the chance to come hang out, not even if getting paid at the hotel.. This meant that both hotel staff and the staff at the adjoining Convention Center worked very hard. They were rewarded with conference attendees at least a good percentage of whom, according to the RantWoman fog and blur rating,  started out masking. The masks mostly disappeared for a few days and then some reappeared as reports of positive infections spread.

RantWoman never tested. RantWoman decided some of her live with all the time issues were no worse than average. RantWoman figured any fatigue was due to a 2-hour time difference from Seattle. Plus, at a certain point hardly anyone would want any more time in a hotel anyway and one would rather be home if sick. So skip the test options, mask up and head for the airport.

The airport was on the special arrive at least two hours early so you can stand around for a long time until the gate staff arrive plan. Unlike a lot places in Seattle there were no markings on the floor to promote social distancing, not that the pre-convention Fourth of July weekend scene at SeaTac was exactly wide open spaces either. Plus coming home there was a hiccup somewhere in needed internet so the ticket agents were writing bag check tickets manually.

Finally RantWoman succeeded in checking her bags, fogged away from the rest of the group and headed off to the security checkpoint. On the way, RantWoman succeeded at a goal she had failed at all week: RantWoman owes her public postcards! The selection in the airport was not great, but at least they relieved RantWoman's fears that postcards may be a last-century medium.

Was RantWoman carrying a sealed bottle of orange juice that exceeded the maximum amount of liquid allowed past the security check point? Why yes. 

Did RantWoman even register an announcement about said liquid limits? Why No. Would RantWoman had wanted to guzzle the juice before getting on a plane and sat in a middle seat. Why No. And did RantWoman have the slightest desire to backtrack several steps and long line away from the checkpoint to drink the OJ anyway? Noooo! Into the trash went the OJ.

Further, does RantWoman have plates in both wrists that do not set off metal detectors in other airports but did set things off in Omaha? Why yes.

Has RantWoman in the distant past on more than one occasional generated credible capacity to organize sit-ins? Also yes.

And has RantWoman on this very blog posted irreverent phrasing that could easily be misunderstood about valued software tools . Yesss

Ding! Ding! Ding! Somewhere in here RantWoman's bingo card was full and RantWoman earned a take shoes off and dump everything in a bin pat down search with special explosive detection wand and gloves which also had to be tested post pat down for traces of explosives by a TSA agent without a mask.

Did RantWoman say ANYTHING about just coming from COVID-palooza? Of course not!

Welcome to ...

Post Script

Flight to Seattle was uneventful. 

Trip home from the airport was a trip. RantWoman had pinged several people to see whether she could charm anyone into driving to the airport on a Friday afternoon. Naw. RantWoman is never super excited about getting in and out of many cars.  RantWoman's phone battery also decided to sputter into almost oblivion just as trying to call a taxi would have made sense. 

RantWoman was able to ask around about a place to charge phone. None in sight. RantWoman found the route to the Light Rail. Getting to the derparture levels of the airport from the light rail is easy peasy. RantWoman thinks getting to the Light Rail from baggage claim should be more intuitive than it is. Take the elevator to the skybridge, level 4?  But wait! To the right of the elevator bank closest to the skybridge there is...a nice black outlet visible against the white wall!

When the charge level hit about 30% RantWoman turned left from the elevator she rode up on. Then it was just stay near the wall of the parking garage until  it's clear you are walking in a passage. The entrance to the Light Rail is some weird gate system that did not make sense to RantWoman. 

Never mind. 

Rolling luggage onto the train is so elegant. It was a sunny day. Masks were way more of a thing than in Omaha. Most of all, rantWoman was in minimal walking minimal schlepping minimal street crossing mode. RantWoman realized that she could ride all the way to Capitol Hill station and catch a route 8 that would take her all the way to a stop with NO STREET CROSSINGS. 

RantWoman managed to do all of this without plowing into anyone! It's hard to work a white cane while wheeling two suitcases 

RantWoman is glad to be back in the land of more voluntary masking. 

Cat Food Two years on, masks, and another variant on the horizon “More Infectious” and “No Less Deadly:” Fmr. CDC Director on New Variant...

  

The Queen of Spades
in one of her
 "I'm NOT cooperating with this photo op" poses

 This post dedicated to the Queen of Spades, without whom RantWoman would, after all the #pandemic ups and downs be even less sane than she is today.

Now watch some sensible science and realism.

Now today's glorious sunny day errand to Go Buy Cat Food.

A little more than two years ago, RantWoman answered a phone call from an unknown number while on the bus. When RantWoman learned what the call was about, RantWoman got off the bus to finish the call in the semi-private open air of a nearly empty sidewalk.

Someone from the medical staff at RantMom's retirement was calling to say that RantMom had tested positive for #COVID. RantWoman was not exactly surprised. RantWoman had just read a Seattle Times article about RantMom's debate watching buddy. RantMom never developed any symptoms and endured a month of monitoring and isolation before testing positive.

But back to the bus tidings. By that time, RantWoman THINKS she was using a couple different kinds of makeshift masks, either a folded bandana secured at the ears with pony tail holders or a single layer cut from a black T-shirt. In any case, RantWoman did not immediately go home upon receiving the news. RantWoman needed a couple grocery items and the Queen of Spades preferred flavor of cat food. RantWoman finished her errands and then went home. RantWoman called her clinic and learned she does not have enough underlying conditions to hurry out for testing unless she develops symptoms. RantWoman ws not distressed. 

RantWoman survived 10 days of imperfect efforts to quarantine. The past two years have had several ups and downs, meetings indoors and out with RantMom and variable ridership on Metro.

Today RantWoman was thinking about all that will out on a spectacular sunny day, again catering to the Queen of Spades dining habits.

Uneventful? Not quite?

The right bus came first so RantWoman missed a routing that could have taken RantWoman near the scene of a shooting. 

Care Rationing Forum Tuesday November 16

Posted verbatim including a great image description without the accompanying image. Don't let that keep you from signing up.

Please join us for a Care Rationing Forum on Tuesday, November 16, 10-11:30 am PST/11-12:30 MST/12-1:30 CST/1-2:30 pm EST. We'll discuss the impact of COVID care rationing on older people, disabled people, and people of color, and brainstorm how disability advocates around the country can take action.

 

Sign up at https://bit.ly/CareRationingForum.

 

Speakers:

- Reyma McCoy McDeid, National Council on Independent Living

- Mel Leviton, Idaho State Independent Living Council;

- Silvia Yee, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF).

Will include live captioning, ASL and Spanish interpretation. Please make a note of other needed languages or accommodations on the registration form.

This event is part of the Disability Organizers Forum, a project of the National Disability Leadership Alliance. Co-sponsored by Senior & Disability Action.

#DontRationOurCare #NoBodyIsDisposable #EndAbleism #EndAgeism

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Image description: With blue and brown colors, a graphic shows a line of coughing people entering a hospital, with a masked health care provider holding a clipboard with a question mark on it. Text reads: Care Rationing Forum, Tuesday, November 16, 10-11:30 am PST/11-12:30 MST/12-1:30 CST/1-2:30 pm EST. Learn how disabled people, older people, and people of color can be denied treatment and how to take action. Sign up at bit.ly/CareRationingForum. Speakers:

Reyma McCoy McDeid, National Council on Independent Living;

Mel Leviton, Idaho State Independent Living Council;

Silvia Yee, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). Will include live captioning, ASL and Spanish interpretation

This event is part of the Disability Organizers Forum, a project of the National Disability Leadership Alliance. Co-sponsored by Senior & Disability Action

 

Party planning time

It's Party Planning Time, party planning in time of #pandemic to boot..

(Readers are invited to imagine their favorite festive visual motif.)

Wait, first it's annual #Shakeout with a dollop of #BombCyclone. These cheery allusions to the wonders of nature SHOULD  nudge RantWoman to do SOMETHING in the way of Disaster Preparedness. RantWoman realized that if she is going to go online and look for instructions she can read about her new crank radios, PROBABLY she should do that before the power goes out especially if she needs to rely on her crank radios to help charge her connections to the internet. . 

RantWoman SHOULD do that.

But imagining a holiday  party or letting the blind kid in the office plan the holiday party sounds like the perfect #NDEAM activity. Understand, "Plan the party" encompasses quite a variety of occasions, and quite a number of realms where RantWoman has found it tolerable to wander even after midlife vision meltdown. Planning a party in a pandemic though: should vaccines be required? What about masks except when eating? What about SINGING, known to lead to superspreader events in the past? 

RantWoman's personal perspective: RantWoman has no idea whether people she is around have been vaccinated. RantWoman has no idea where people have been the last 3 days. RantWoman prefers to be around people who are vaccinated, but RantWoman rides the bus and has to be safe in that environment or she doesn't go anywhere. RantWoman wears a mask whenever she is out except when in a well-ventilated space and eating a meal. RantWoman enjoys other people's singing--from a safe distance.

But RantWoman, the Delta Variant? The current directive about outdoor venues with more than 500 people or places where alcohol is served. 

Repeat as above. If the party occurs at a place that does not allow alcohol...and there is no way there would be 500 guests...and other ventilation and social distancing concerns....

RantWoman recently went to a lovely wedding in a large space with many doors to open. The meal happened around tables about 6' in diameter. People from the many strands of the couple's lives mostly sat in their own clumps or pods. There was singing--outdoors and not indefinitely because of rain. There was also dancing, though the number of guests willing to dance was never large enough to make social distancing impossible.

The party at hand is much more modest: an annual event that runs somewhere between 25 and 40 people. There is food. There is a white elephant gift exchange. There is singing if desired. In the past this party has taken place in a restaurant with a limited choice of menu and a set price per guest with the rest covered by the organization having the party.. RantWoman has not even checked whether the restaurant is open. It's way too closed in to satisfy RantWoman's requirements for #pandemic era ventilation. Even if RantWoman were willing to go for it, an intrepid blind nurse would not go for it. So the initial thought was a reprise of last year's virtual event.  

RantWoman and others thinking about planning know of various rentable venues. RantWoman regularly gets email ads from a place that RantWoman knows does lovely box lunches. Sooo, what if the group planning the party were to rent a venue and let everyone order their choice of menu item, no host? The cost would actually be less and a better deal than past experience at the restaurant.

Bear in mind, RantWoman has ordered food from the site, but the first time she forwarded the link to other planners, many more blind than RantWoman, someone couldn't read the menu with their available tools. RantWoman will try again but there is still the matter of venue.

Venue A is a place RantWoman knows well and therefore can give good blind-friendly directions about. Excellent transit connections. A plausible paratransit dropoff location. Space RantWoman thinks has enough windows and options for extra ventilation. Venue A has a website. It has pictures. Some of the pictures have rather uninspiring capttions but at least there are captions. RantWoman thinks this would be a great venue, well, except for one architectural feature RantWoman would want to deal with VERY carefully for this particular audience. Quiet space for people to take a break and a sound system would be on RantWoman's list to ask about. 

Another planner suggested a different venue. Bus connections exist but are so sparse that RantWoman doesn't even want to go look for more about the venue.

RantWoman realized a couple other venues might be appropriate including one already well known to many of the guests.

Truthfully, RantWoman is not sure there is enough coherent energy to have a party, but doing her part to keep the ball rolling, RantWoman emailed Venue A last week, 6 days ago, just to ask whether Venue A has resumed rentals. RantWoman has to date received NO email in response.  RantWoman could just stop caring whether Venue A is in general interested in renting its space let alone whether it is ready to reopen. 

Or maybe one of these days RantWoman will overcome numerous challenges in the interpersonal charm department. Maybe. Holiday parties are needed regardless.

Or RantWoman could repeat a LONGstanding concern about more appealing photo captions / alt text and customer  service.

Puyallup in Pandemic times and grumpiness about vaccine hesitancy amony public servants

Ambassadors at the Puyallup Fair during the #pandemic

 First RantWoman offers a slightly edited version of an email she just sent upon learning that a certain statewide advocacy organization RantWoman is a proud member of will withdraw from its usual annual practice of staffing an informational booth at the Puyallup fair.

RantWoman writes:

Honestly, I know some of us are a lot more eager and willing to be out in large crowds than others. I haven't even checked to see whether King County Metro is running special buses to the fair this year

RantWoman interjects: DO NOT even think of venturing out to the fair unless you are fully vaccinated. RantWoman would like to say that but suffice it to say the rest of this screed is also needed.

Perhaps people who want to go and enjoy the fair might want to think about how to be .. ambassadors even if not at a booth.

--Be prepared for all the questions we deal with all the time about guide dogs and canes. Have strategies for dealing with the things that most drive you crazy, as well as how to have fun.

[NEVER pet a working service animal!]

[Grab the Blind Person and bless them is NEVER a thing]

[search this blog for etiquette to find more hot tips]

--Be ready to refer people to the website or the 800 number or the Facebook page

--Wear organizational or topical swag: T-shirts, hoodies, masks, jackets. See what conversations that opens up. 

--Download the WA Notify app to your phone I have no idea what it will do for the fair, but I think it's worth experimenting.

--Have fun, eat some fair food, and then report back  about your experiences. 

If you go BE SAFE. Wear masks except when eating. Repeat: WEAR MASKS. Be glad we live in a state where our governor takes a different view than ID or SD. the WA healthcare system is groaning as it is and we DO NOT want to wind up like ID.

Sincerely,

RantWoman

Sure, you are free to run around risking personal COVID calamity if you want BUT

.. if you won't get vaxxed to help protect the pest of the public don't expect the public to pay your salary while you do.

As RantWoman was preparing to post the comments above, what should appear in RantWoman's inbox?

Seattle Times: dozens of public enloyees sue over vaccine mandates

See rant above. Enough said?

If not RantWoman will be happy to go off on the Twitter report she never fully followed up on about the Seattle police officer who was asked by 3 different nurses to put his mask on in the Harborview ER. Really, dude? Really?

Idaho? Did anyone mention Idaho?

Idaho's COVID Crisis becomes WA hospitals problem