I’m Still Healthy, I Think

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

I haven’t written anything of substance for a while, and maybe some of that has to do with feeling that my only forum has been the rapidly-becoming-antiquated Facebook, where my ideas please a small following. My ego gets deflated when someone can post, “I’ve gotten a well paying gig,”  and get about 100 times the likes I would get with something I would labour on for a few hours in hopes of creating a well-thought-out screed. Of course if I got a well-paying gig, I’d shout it to the rooftops, too! Twitter has been an even harder nut for me to crack. OK that’s off my chest.

So how we doing over here? I think I’m doing all right on the health front. So far, the Coronavirus (do you capitalise it or not?) has not affected me or anyone I know, nor have I heard anything about anyone in North London testing positive for it. It’s only a matter of time I’m sure, and I guess the first barometer would be if the attendance at my Tuesday quiz, which has been doing mostly quite well this year, suddenly drops. More than likely if that happens, it would be more due to the ensuing paranoia than actual numbers, but I can’t solidly stand by what I just said at the start of this sentence because I really don’t f-ing know. Ultimately, there’s so much we don’t know at this point, it’s rather foolish to speculate.

Maggie and I are going away from London next weekend for the first time since clear back in November when we went to Brighton for my birthday. Once again, we’re going to the South coast, to the town of Rye, where we have been many times, but not for the last year or so. Rye has so far been off Covid-19’s radar, but a lot can change in a week, especially since there were people in Brighton who tested positive, only about 50 miles away. I just hope nothing changes there.

In the meantime, I’ve avoided panic buying, but by the same token, I’ve been picking up a few extra things I wouldn’t normally buy. Currently, our house has plenty of toilet paper, which we get from a new supplier with the silly name of Give a Crap, which has this clever means of recycling the stuff, though they do have limits as to how much customers can order. It’s rather scary seeing video of people in supermarkets having physical battles with others who fill their carts with paper products as though Armageddon is just around the corner.

I love the video of the US health official reading an advisory statement of what we can do as individuals, and after emphasising multiple times “Don’t touch your face,” she then licks her finger to turn to the next page of her statement. I have a terrible habit of touching my face anyway, usually my bulbous nose, which Maggie has made me more aware of. I have been washing my hands (shit, I just scratched my nose!) on the average 5 or 6 times a day, and using antiseptic hand gel a couple times a day as well. There’s a near Black Market for that stuff now.

I’d like to think since we’ve survived Ebola virus, SARS virus, Swine flu, and Mad Cow disease over the last 20 years, we’ll figure out a way to get around this one too. It’s certainly gonna get worse before it gets better, and that’s the only prediction I will venture. I still remember the one near epidemic from my young adulthood, the late 1968 spread of what was called Hong Kong Flu. I had it about a month before everyone else seemed to get it, and thankfully the worst of it for me was being totally unable to even get out of bed for only a couple days. I do remember that schools in Redlands, California, where I was living, dismissed early for Christmas holiday, as there were so many students and teachers ill that classes became near impossible. By the time the new year rolled around, the worst of it was gone. Let’s hope this one can resolve itself as quickly.

I’m not planning on going to any large gatherings in the near future, don’t usually do that anyway. I’ve lived in UK for 16 1/2 years and have still never gone to a football (soccer) match, and don’t think I’ll be breaking that string for the remaining couple of months in this season. As of today the powers that be were talking about playing the remaining matches to small crowds or as in Italy, playing to possibly no audience at all. Until I hear otherwise, I’ll still go to pubs and restaurants. So far things haven’t gotten as urgent in UK as they have in China, Italy, or Iran, but we’ve only been three weeks into it with no signs of abating.

That’s enough doom and gloom. Just follow the basic health suggestions, be nice to your fellow man or woman, the stuff we should have been doing all along. Trump is still an asshole, but there’s other bigger things to worry about than him spouting off as if he actually knows something. Meanwhile, you all take care of yourselves!

March 7th, 2020



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