It has been a year filled with anxiety and unbearable loss, and I have tried to make myself so busy that I won't think about the grief that is consuming so many of us. I have gone even more over the top with my Christmas decorating this year, partly to keep my blinders on as I plow forward, partly to convince myself that I can make things right. Wishing you all joy and peace in the coming year.
My sister is not doing well, she has been moved to the ICU and I fear the worst and pray for a miracle. She was given remdisivir (I am sure all my spellings are not right), steroids and antibiotics, but no plasma antibodies, which I think are the saving drug. We have seen hydroxychloroquine work in my husband's clinic, but the doctors she saw would not use it. All I have left is faith, and the test is real.
Ah, Facebook, a sad tale involving humans wanting to interact, wanting to be noticed, wanting some friends, but it becomes a dark dismal place full of anger and black thoughts. I deactivated yesterday and I am sure not one of my 1800 "friends" will even notice. I had been staying on, thinking I needed to give an alternate point of view to the many extreme left wing views that were being posted. As I have said, I am especially upset by the defund the police movement. I think I held my ground, but recently I posted what I thought was a simple defense of Judge Barrett. I simply said that I thought she had been mischaracterized by the press, and that she has repeatedly said she did not believe the court should be a legislative body. I was trying to point out that they shouldn't worry that this one single person would completely change the law of the land. I was not mean, no namecalling, no recriminations, really nothing controversial, just that simple fact. My own sister practically disowned me for this comment, so I need to leave this place where I am truly unwelcome. I will never understand why having a difference of opinion about a public servant could cause so much animus. I forced myself to apologize, when I think I had nothing to apologize for, but thought family was more important. Truth be told, I don't think my own sister believes that, but I guess it is up to me to keep the peace. Sad times.
Well, about one minute after I wrote the above, I got a message that another of my many sisters has covid. She is diabetic, so very concerning. Her doctor is treating her with the right medicines and has told her to get to the hospital immediately if she has trouble breathing and she will be treated with the medicines my husband would use--at least I know she has a good physician. I have been brought abruptly to be reminded about what really matters, and what really does not. I am sure I haven't had the last of petty arguments, but am chastened for the time being.
This makes my heart heavy and it is difficult to think about my job, I just keep my head down and keep going. I think I've created some beautiful things here in the darkness.
The University of Iowa is sort of open now. My oldest daughter attends there, while my youngest is starting at the local community college. They are happy to have their childhood playmate from old Clarinda living here in the dormitories as they all start college together. Fortunately for us, their friend is a bit of a Gladys Kravitts. That girl knows more about the goings on of the university in her few short weeks here than we have living here for years.
Anyway, this story made the local news in the first week of move-in to the dormitories:
A freshman girl came from Illinois, moved in early with her roommates. They eat at a local restaurant their first night, next morning she has a headache. She has a packet from the U that included a thermometer, she uses it and has a temperature. She calls her mom, who sets up a telemedicine call for her. He sets up a coronavirus test for her and it turns out positive. She later posts on Instagram about how unprepared the U was--she was told to pack her belongings and take them to another dormitory, alone. The new room is dirty, she complains, told no more rooms. Somehow, she gets into another room and sleeps on the floor, wakes up with ants in her blankets. At some point, she is in hysterics and about faints and calls mom again, who calls ambulance. Kind of unclear about what happens there, but she ends up going to a hotel and getting a bus ticket home. Fine idea to go to a hotel and ride a bus when you have covid, but there you have it. Local news source ends story there, but my Gladys connection tells me the girl was back at the U in just a few days and moved back in to her original dorm room. Strange, but true, as they say.
So this all leads back to our local rise in corona cases, most are university students, and since it happened so fast, I am going to say they brought it with them. There has been no spike in cases at my husband's clinic. Also, from what I hear, most of the student cases are very mild. 2 friends of my daughters had it and gave it a "mild cold" rating. So, back to waiting and wondering.
This week, I have been creating primitives in black and white, rather fond of them.
I'm just going to ignore the world today and get a well deserved rest from all the crap. I spent the last few days painting and wrapping and thinking about how to best photograph everything I have been working on. The results are rather nice.
Here are the dark primitive pantry goods:
We had the weirdest storm a couple of weeks ago, a very rare derecho, something none of us have ever heard of before. I meant to make note of it, but have been too busy being angry about everything else.
Anyway, I am sitting at my dining room table working on framing samplers, it is very hot and humid outside, one of those suffocating summer days. All of the sudden, the sky turned black and the wind came up--no sirens, just this crazy storm out of nowhere. I screamed for the girls to run downstairs, they grabbed the bunny and the dog and into the basement we went. The power went out and there we were in the dark, listening to loud cracking sounds and howling wind, no idea of what was happening, as our storm room is without windows. This lasted about 30 minutes, and it got a bit quiet, so I went upstairs to see what was happening. Just then, a huge branch fell from my big pine tree and went flying past the window--I did some fast back tracking to the basement. It was all over in under an hour, we found out later that it was not a tornado as we thought, but a derecho, a bit like a hurricane with 120 mile an hour straight line winds. Our yard was full of broken branches, but our trees stayed standing. We walked out to see what the neighborhood looked like and had to go back home, huge trees had fallen across almost every street and power lines were taken down with them. This wasn't even close to how bad it was in Cedar Rapids, I understand that they lost half the trees in the city and almost every building and home has damage. We were without power only 24 hours, they had no power or water for over a week. The storm tore across central Iowa and into Illinois, but Cedar Rapids bore the brunt of it.
This is my yard after the storm passed, it doesn't really show how much we had to clean up--took 3 of us working non stop for over 12 hours, and then all the city workers that came to get the brush after we cut it and tied it up.
Let's start with the old corona update. Iowa is supposed to be a hot spot for the virus, but life seems to be going on somewhat normally. Husband still treating and curing all his patients, and word is out that he is the one to come to see. He has people driving over an hour to get to his clinic, not even sure how they find out, but he is busy. We are all fine so far. My eldest daughter just started a job in retail and both daughters are supposed to go to college this week. Lots of rumors that they are going to go online and we are all pretty frustrated. A good friend of theirs just moved into a dormitory, they have to wear masks, no parties, no dining hall, just order food and eat it in the room. I am certain there will be outbreaks at the college, but I don't think stopping education and social interaction is the answer at all, especially when there are treatments that truly work. Part of me wants to cancel facebook and avoid all the angst, but the stubborn part of me thinks I need to stay and present a different point of view. I have been livid about the defund the police movement and have been trying to make myself heard. Mostly feel like I have been ignored, especially after a few people argued with me and I think I took them down rather nicely. Probably been unfriended more that I know. I am really worried as I live in an ultra liberal town and I fear they will bend to the demands of the mob and destroy the town. The protesters have been blocking streets here, we have had several incidents of cars trying to drive through and getting jumped on. Not as bad as Portland, but the possibility is there.
Oh, I should also mention that I went to the What Cheer flea market a month ago and spent 6 hours on two separate days walking the market, where there were no masks and no social distancing. No cases reported from the market, so just another interesting fact that makes no sense.
I continue busy with the shop, here is what I am listing tonight:
