2024 Life Logs, Day 59: Covid Day 7, Slipping Downhill
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Weather: Stormy with High Winds; High Temp 52, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

I must begin by saying this case of Covid I have is miserable. Today I feel like I am slipping downhill, worse today than yesterday. Either that or the Claritin the doctor asked me take is making things worse. The point of the Claritin is to dry out my sinuses. That hasn’t happened yet, but now I have a tightness in my chest that scares me. I have learned to dread going to bed. I know that at some point in the night I will have a very long coughing fit and not be able to go back to sleep easily. That, plus the fact that sleeping while sitting up straight is just not restful. All I can do is hope that things are better tomorrow.

I did go to my 6-week post-op appointment today. Everything looks good and I should be starting PT now. But the earliest appointment I could get was March 22. Until then I was instructed to walk, walk, walk. I should work towards one 30-40 walk every day, plus 2 to 3 shorter walks. I can loosen up on the BLT ban. BLT stands for no bending, lifting, or twisting. I should keep up with the processes I have in place to eliminate bending as much as possible, but if I am walking the dog, it is okay to bend down to pick up his poop. I should still limit lifting to 10 pounds, and twisting should just be avoided. And I can start riding on my exercise bike again. That made me extremely happy as I think riding the bike every night will help strengthen my right knee. The next appointment is in 8 weeks near the end of my PT and just before my knee surgery.

2024 Life Logs, Day 58: Covid Day 6, No Better, No Worse
Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny Day, Rain Tonight, Warm; High Temp 55, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

There has not been much change in how I have been feeling over the past 24 hours. So, no progress, but no slide backwards. I have started taking Claritin, as the doctor suggested, but it is too soon to tell if that is helping to dry things out. I almost dread going to bed, as nighttime is the roughest. I sleep basically sitting upright, but I still have a coughing fit period. I can’t wait until I can lie down flat and really enjoy a good night’s sleep.

If I made a graph of my Covid symptoms, it would show that the symptoms gradually got worse and worse over a three-day period. They then improved for the next two days and now, on day six, the symptoms have plateaued. I am really hoping for a sharp improvement in that graph tomorrow. But tomorrow, no matter how I am feeling, the focus switches from Covid to my back as I have my post-op appointment. I will test in the morning, but I am sure I am still positive. I have been quarantined for over the required five days, and following CDC guidelines, I just need to wear an N95 mask to go out in public. It makes me nervous, guidelines or not, to be around other people if I am still testing positive. But I desperately want to have this appointment and hopefully get the go ahead to resume some level of exercise other than walking. My right knee would be very happy if I can get permission to ride my recumbent exercise bike every night. We shall see.

2024 Life Logs, Day 57: Covid Day 5
Date: Monday, February 26, 2024
Weather: Cloudy AM, Sunny PM, Warmer; High Temp 44, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Another Covid day and another day of progress toward wellness. I had a telemed appointment with a young resident named Pedro this afternoon. He just got over a bout of Covid and had identical symptoms to mine. He recommended Flonase nasal spray and Claritin to dry up my sinuses. He also suggested using a neti pot, but I have never been able to make myself do that. I have a kit, so I might give it a go. And Heather brough over a ‘do it yourself’ ramen noodle soup with chicken. The chicken and veggies were in one container and the chicken broth made last night after their roasted chicken dinner was in a separate container. I have enough to make soup again tomorrow. Yay! It was delicious.
This morning Jane Woodin posted the poem copied below. It is a little depressing, but it makes you think.

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty. ~Lawrence Ferlinghetti
(Book: Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems https://amzn.to/49qBP5s)

2024 Life Logs, Day 56: Covid Day 4
Date: Sunday, February 25, 2024
Weather: Beautiful Sunny but Cold Day; High Temp 32, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Have I only had Covid for four days? It feels more like four months. I have completely lost track of time. But I am feeling better today. When Heather and gang got home at 10:30 last night, she brought over their humidifier, and it really helped me to get a good night’s sleep. And the highlight of today was another Goldstone delivery. The whole family came over after dinner so I could see them through the frosted storm door. I heard the doorbell ring and expected it to be them as Heather said they were coming over. But no one was at the door. Then Shadow discovered the boys making crazy faces at me through the dining room window. Between back surgery recovery and now Covid, I haven’t seen a lot of them in 2024, but hopefully by next week we can be back to normal.

2024 Life Logs, Day 55:  Covid Day 3
Date:  Saturday, February 24, 2024
Weather: Overcast, Rain Overnight; High Temp 47, Low 17 degrees F
Location:  At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

The sky is crystal clear tonight, giving the perfect backdrop for the full moon.  I was just out with Shadow and got to see the full moon in all of its splendor, but I didn’t stay out long.  It is 28 degrees F outside, but Weather Underground says it feels like 18 degrees.  There’s not that much wind, but it is coming from the north, and it really feels chilly out there.

Day 3 of Covid was the worst yet.  I barely slept last night.  Every hour, a cough would wake me up, and then I would spend what seemed like the better part of the next hour trying to get back to sleep.  Then I’d cough again, and the cycle would start all over.  When I got up this morning, I felt really awful.  My temp was 101, so after taking Shadow out for his morning constitutional, I got in the shower in the hopes that would bring my temp down a bit.  It did, but I still felt awful.  I washed my hair, so I laid down on the living room sofa (with Shadow on top of me) to let it dry and didn’t wake up until almost 2 o’clock.  I still felt awful, but I knew I would feel better if I took Shadow out for a walk.  I needed to braid my hair first, and I could barely do that.  It is the first time in my adult life that I have thought about cutting off my hair.  But I was finally able to get it braided, and then went out with Shadow to make our quarter of a mile walk.  When I came in, I ate lunch, and laid back down again.  This time I didn’t wake up until 7 pm.  It’s almost 10 pm now, and I am ready for another long winter’s nap.  I am feeling better than I did this morning, so I’m hoping tomorrow morning will be even better.  This strain of Covid is miserable, but I know it could be worse. At least I can breathe, and I do not have incessant coughing.  So, I’m counting my blessings and hoping today was the worst day and that it will be uphill or at a plateau from here.

2024 Life Logs, Day 54: Covid Day 2
Date: Friday, February 23, 2024
Weather: Overcast with Rain in PM; High Temp 45, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Day before yesterday, I was so happy that my recovery from the back surgery was going so well and that soon I could begin an exercise regime. Then yesterday, Covid hit and my body has been sent for a loop. I can only walk to the end of the block and back and that is only two tenths of a mile. My right knee was giving me fits before, but today I could hardly walk on it. I did make it to the end of the block, but it was not easy. Even my back is hurting when I walk, which must be Covid related as it happened yesterday for the first time since the surgery. And I feel just terrible, but thankfully not so bad that I can’t carry on with daily chores. So, I was elated when I got some videos and photos from Heather of their fun the past two days. If I can’t get out there and do fun things, at least I can live vicariously.

Yesterday the Goldstones tried something new. They went into the backcountry of Bolton Valley on splitboards.

They went out and up and then rode back down. I had no idea what a splitboard was, but Heather’s description was that it is literally a snowboard cut in half like skis. Then today they all did downhill skiing at Bolton Valley. Heather explained that they spent a fair bit of time together, but that she would go down the side of the park from time to time to get photos. She got a great photo of Jonah coming over a ski jump.

Then when they got back to their rental and the other boys were in the shower, Ollie was out back cross-county skiing.

They are all exhausted, so no skiing tomorrow. They might go to Montpelier to check out the UVM campus and then head home.

2024 Life Logs, Day 53: Covid Strikes Again
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 36, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

During the night, I woke up with chills and body aches. This was obviously not the allergy reactions I have been having this week. I guess it is possible that those symptoms were the beginning of Covid, but I don’t think so. When I got up, the first thing I did was do a Covid test. The top line was so light I cold barely see it, but the bottom line was purple. I’ve never seen a purple line before, but I know it is possible. But I did a second test just to make sure. It came out just the same. So far, it is a light case. I feel good enough to walk a quarter of a mile with Shadow, but no further as back pain starts. I have a sniffly nose, a very low grade temperature, aches and pains all over, and chills from time to time. Coughing has not started and I can only hope it stays away. I called my doctor to see if I could get Paxlovid, but they are using a new service called Bright.md SmartExam where you have to go through an online question and answer grilling about your medical history. I spent about 45 minutes answering the long list of questions. I messed up the first time and had to start over. When when I did complete it, I got a message saying the physician who read my exam said there was not enough information and the screen directs you to call your doctor to schedule an appointment. I called and got an answering machine and did not hear back. I will try again in the morning.

I did watch Oppenheimer tonight and I liked it even more the second time. Reading the background of the various cast of characters really helped me have a deeper understanding. And now it is time to take Shadow for his final walk and then go to bed. Hopefully there will be no coughing.

2024 Life Logs, Day 52: Dissecting Oppenheimer
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 37, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

So, I went to see Oppenheimer last summer and was a bit overwhelmed. I really knew nothing of his story other than the fact that he developed the atomic bomb. I knew that there was something called the Manhattan Project, but I knew none of the names of the scientists in the project or others who contributed. Still, I was in awe of Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of Oppenheimer. And when an actor is that spectacular in a role, you know the director gets equal credit. Christopher Nolan gathered an extensive and talented group of actors. In fact, when I looked it up today, there were at least 19 main characters and 16 supporting cast members. No wonder I was overwhelmed when I first saw it. As I left the theater, I promised I would acquaint myself with Oppenheimer and the whole cast of characters and then watch the movie again. I intended to read ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’, but that didn’t happen. So today I Googled my way through J. Robert Oppenheimer and the characters that Christopher Nolan decided to include in the movie. Why am I doing this now? Because Oppenheimer, the movie, is streaming on Peacock and I want to watch it. Maybe I’ll be ready tomorrow night.

Another project also took a very long time. After two days of preparation, I was finally ready to assemble the 12 main characters and the 8 supporting cast member ingredients to make a Wild Rice and Mushroom casserole. This was a recipe with a long list of ingredients, reminding me of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer long list of characters. To get ready to assemble the ingredients for this recipe, ahead of time, I soaked and cooked the white beans, trimmed and sliced 3 leeks and 2 fennel bulbs, and cooked a pot of wild rice. These ingredients were in the refrigerator waiting to be called on. But that still left a long list of other ingredients that needed to be chopped or diced and then cooked on the stove top before putting them all together in a casserole dish. Often, vegetarian recipes require a huge amount of chopping of fresh veggies and this was certainly one of those. It tastes good, but there are things I would change if I made it again. I am trying hard to eat a plant-based diet, but recipes like this one are enough to steer me in another direction.

2024 Life Logs, Day 51: An Allergy Mystery
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 33, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

So, I came home from the birthday luncheon yesterday and walked with Shadow. When I came back inside, I found I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. This has been happening to me many afternoons since my back surgery, but I don’t always succumb and lie down and take a nap. But I did yesterday. I was on the living sofa surrounded by my jasmine plant on the windowsill and a vase of roses on the end table. When I woke up, I had a drippy nose and runny eyes. This happened to me last week one day and I was fine the next, so I started looking around to see if there was something I could be allergic to. My new jasmine plant is in the living room, but it has been there for at least three weeks. Heather sent the dozen roses I gave her for Valentine’s Day home with me when they left for Vermont because since the roses arrived at their house, the cats have been eating the leaves causing them to throw up. At least that is the theory for the cat tummy upsets. But I’ve never had an allergic reaction to roses before. I dug deeper and realized I had on the same sweater I had on last week when I had the allergic reaction. I have had that sweater for over 30 years, maybe 40. It is one of my favorite pieces of clothing, but. it is very heavy, and I only wear it when it is really cold. I can remember a number of times in my life when wearing that sweater, I have gotten instant cold symptoms, but nothing like yesterday. I took off the sweater, put it in the panty, and shut the door. And I put the roses in the half bath off the living room and closed the door. Almost immediately I was better. I still had some symptoms this morning, but I am feeling fine now. I always assumed that sweater was cotton and I could never figure out why that would give me an allergic reaction. But I just looked at the label. The sweater was made in China, and it is 55 per cent ramie and 45 per cent cotton. I had to Google ramie. The first thing that came up was the ramie plant that produces a fiber that it is an alternative natural fiber to replace cotton. It comes from the plant Ramie Boehmeria nivea, a flowering plant in the nettle family native to eastern Asia. Could I really be allergic to this? Strange. I am going to take the roses out of the bathroom and if I don’t have a reaction to them by tomorrow, then I am going to get rid of that sweater. As Mark’s mother would say, “Sadness doeth prevail.” But enough, is enough.

My big accomplishment today was finishing my current book, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. It is an epic tale following the members of a family for over three generations, some 77 years. It incorporates the history of southern India, the geography, the food, the culture, all while telling the story of family members who suffer from an affliction they call “the condition.” Family members with “the condition” have often been known to be eccentric, lose their hearing early I life, and die by drowning, often in shallow puddles. Why? It is a bit of a mystery, is definitely a story of deep and lasting love, and the characters seem so very, very real. It is set in the state of Kerala on the southwestern Malabar coast of India where 44 rivers weave their way from the mountains to the sea. Mark and I spent six weeks anchored off the city of Cochin (the British name), Kochi (the Malayalam name), but often called Ernakulum, so I loved the geography woven into this book. I watched part of an interview of Verghese by Oprah this afternoon. She admitted that it is hard to give a one sentence summary of what this book is about. But I will try. It is about human nature and all of the wonderful, and sometimes terribly tragic things that happen to ordinary people. It is 715 pages in length, so epic in more ways than one. Definitely worth the read.

2024 Life Logs, Day 50: Birthday Lunch with Friends on Presidents Day
Date: Monday, February 19, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 37, Low 22 degrees F
Correction: Yesterday I recorded the low temperature as 39. I wish. It was 24 degrees F. F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Today, on the third Monday in February, the US celebrates the birthdays of all US Presidents, past and present. But it wasn’t always this way. When this holiday first started in 1879, it was meant to celebrate just one man, the first US President, George Washington. It evolved to include Lincoln, and now all. Coincidentally, I met with friends today to celebrate their birthdays. This is a birthday group consisting of the women in my Dining-In group. Karen Baranowski’s birthday was in late January, but she was in Florida then. Midge Frieswyk’s birthday is later this week, and today was the only day that all of us that are in town right now were available. Happy birthday to Karen a little late and Midge a little early.
Our conversation today kept veering into the political realm. We all agreed that Biden and the Democratic Party, as well as individuals like us, need to spread the good news of what the Biden administration has accomplished to date. Historian and author, Heather Cox Richardson writes a daily letter and I remembered one that pointed out some of the good things. I am copying that letter here to help spread the good news.

Heather Cox Richardson: What Biden Has Accomplished
By dianeravitch
January 10, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson touches on some of the high points of Biden’s three years in office. If he had enjoyed a solid majority in both Houses of Congress, he would have surpassed Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson in constructing a fair society where everyone has a chance to lead a decent life. Trump celebrated Infrastructure Week yearly but did nothing. Trump said he had a healthcare plan that was better than Obamacare, but we never saw it. Despite stubborn opposition from Republicans, Biden was able to deliver.

Richardson writes:

One day short of his first 100 days in the White House, on April 28, 2021, President Joe Biden spoke to a joint session of Congress, where he outlined an ambitious vision for the nation. In a time of rising autocrats who believed democracy was failing, he asked, could the United States demonstrate that democracy is still vital?

“Can our democracy deliver on its promise that all of us, created equal in the image of God, have a chance to lead lives of dignity, respect, and possibility? Can our democracy deliver…to the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate, and fears that have pulled us apart?”

America’s adversaries were betting that the U.S. was so full of anger and division that it could not. “But they are wrong,” Biden said. “You know it; I know it. But we have to prove them wrong.”

“We have to prove democracy still works—that our government still works and we can deliver for our people.”

In that speech, Biden outlined a plan to begin investing in the nation again as well as to rebuild the country’s neglected infrastructure. “Throughout our history,” he noted, “public investment and infrastructure has literally transformed America—our attitudes, as well as our opportunities.”

In the first two years of his administration, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, lawmakers set out to do what Biden asked. They passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to help restart the nation’s economy after the pandemic-induced crash; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) to repair roads, bridges, and waterlines, extend broadband, and build infrastructure for electric vehicles; the roughly $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to promote scientific research and manufacturing of semiconductors; and the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to curb inflation by lowering prescription drug prices, promoting domestic renewable energy production, and investing in measures to combat climate change.

This was a dramatic shift from the previous 40 years of U.S. policy, when lawmakers maintained that slashing the government would stimulate economic growth, and pundits widely predicted that the Democrats’ policies would create a recession.

But in 2023, with the results of the investment in the United States falling into place, it is clear that those policies justified Biden’s faith in them. The U.S. economy is stronger than that of any other country in the Group of Seven (G7)—a political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union—with higher growth and faster drops in inflation than any other G7 country over the past three years.

Heather Long of the Washington Post said yesterday there was only one word for the U.S. economy in 2023, and that word is “miracle.”

Rather than cooling over the course of the year, growth accelerated to an astonishing 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter of the year while inflation cooled from 6.4% to 3.1% and the economy added more than 2.5 million jobs. The S&P 500, which is a stock market index of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, ended this year up 24%. The Nasdaq composite index, which focuses on technology stocks, gained more than 40%. Noah Berlatsky, writing for Public Noticeyesterday, pointed out that new businesses are starting up at a near-record pace, and that holiday sales this year were up 3.1%.

Unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months in a row for the first time since the late 1960s. That low unemployment has enabled labor to make significant gains, with unionized workers in the automobile industry, UPS, Hollywood, railroads, and service industries winning higher wages and other benefits. Real wages have risen faster than inflation, especially for those at the bottom of the economy, whose wages have risen by 4.5% after inflation between 2020 and 2023.

Meanwhile, perhaps as a reflection of better economic conditions in the wake of the pandemic, the nation has had a record drop in homicides and other categories of violent crime. The only crime that has risen in 2023 is vehicle theft.

While Biden has focused on making the economy deliver for ordinary Americans, Vice President Kamala Harris has emphasized protecting the right of all Americans to be treated equally before the law.

In April 2023, when the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature expelled two young Black legislators, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, for participating in a call for gun safety legislation after a mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Harris traveled to Nashville’s historically Black Fisk University to support them and their cause.

In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, Harris became the administration’s most vocal advocate for abortion rights. “How dare they?” she demanded. “How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?… How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future? How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms?” She brought together civil rights leaders and reproductive rights advocates to work together to defend Americans’ civil and human rights.

In fall 2023, Harris traveled around the nation’s colleges to urge students to unite behind issues that disproportionately affect younger Americans: “reproductive freedom, common sense gun safety laws, climate action, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and teaching America’s full history.”

“Opening doors of opportunity, guaranteeing some more fairness and justice—that’s the essence of America,” Biden said when he spoke to Congress in April 2021. “That’s democracy in action.”