Oh Yeah, You Blend

They’re now offering testing at all the WellNow Urgent Care facilities here (there’s one literally around the corner), as I wrote on Facebook today: the current antibody tests being done are research, not truly diagnostic. There is so much we don’t know about this virus, and there are different kinds of antibodies they are measuring, one type shows exposure, the other type has to do with actual potential immunity, and they still don’t know how much immunity and for how long is actually possible. Baby steps. I’m just glad testing is now more available. We all need to remember though that there will likely be an explosion of positive case numbers now that more people are being tested. We already know that people who are symptomatic, presymptomatic (no symptoms yet), paucisymptomatic (very mild symptoms) and truly asymptomatic all test positive so higher positive test numbers don’t necessarily mean the virus is any more terrible, and in fact higher numbers of people who have the virus and aren’t very sick is good for the fatality rate, but bad for containment efforts.

My car battery was dead on Wednesday so we had to get AAA to come. Jim said the guy was coughing up a storm but said it was cigarettes. Fortunately masks were worn and distance was maintained and wipes were employed.

We were out walking last weekend and a guy power walked past us and coughed a few times and right away we were shrinking away from him (we were already like 15′ away anyway). Covid Bob.

People are being friendly and nice out in the world, waving at each other on walks while crossing the street to avoid each other. Other people are getting short and crabby with each other and tempers are frayed. It’s what we need to be doing right now.

We’re at the end of five weeks since the PAUSE order went into effect. Some people are really suffering from having to stay home. Not only financially, but mentally. My life is more or less the same as it would be anyway, since I’m a hermit. But holy shit do I miss agility. I miss it so much. I miss my peeps.

The PAUSE order is in effect until May 15, dumbfucks have been demonstrating because they want the lockdown ended. I’m terrified of the lockdown ending to be honest. I think masks and social distancing will be in effect for a long time, at least I hope it will. I can’t even imagine going into a crowd of people until there’s a better treatment or a vaccine.

I literally sobbed walking home after seeing the above.

And I had to cancel Nina’s cardiologist appointment for yesterday. On the other hand, the dogs are fit and happy. Here are the older ladies getting their bitey face on:

I miss agility. I miss agility SO MUCH. But even if I could, I don’t think I’d want to be in public yet.

Today Cuomo said we might, just might, be plateauing. But we also had the largest single-day death toll so far. The peak hasn’t hit us here yet according to Mark Poloncarz.

My dentist had it. Hospitalized for 5 days after two weeks of feeling like hell but being told to stay home and take steroids by her MD, the ER doc told her if she’d waited much longer she’d have died. She still doesn’t feel great, but she isn’t dead, and she’s home. Has to stay away from her dog for at least a week she says. She has asthma so she’s very lucky it wasn’t any worse.

A colleague of Jim’s likely has it, but his is at the “bad dose of flu” level.

Iceland says as many as 50% of infected people have no symptoms. That means we will probably find the death rate is actually lower than we think, but it also means that someone can be out there infecting other people without even knowing they have it. That’s one of the many reasons we have to keep up the social distancing. Especially because it seems to be working.

I don’t mind the staying home so much. But I sure mind how traumatic this all is. It’s OK not to be particularly productive. It extra sucks being a woman of a certain age right now, because the hot flashes make me think I’m feverish (even though you feel cold when you have a fever usually). Also I’m so much more emotional than usual. Hence the crying on the walkies.

I’m so conflicted about whether or not to breed a litter this year (talk about first world problems). If I don’t breed Zhora this summer, she’s done, she’ll be 8 in August after all. But scared about repro vet care and socializing. Oh well…

Keep calm and carry on.

It’s a bizarre combination of boring and stressful. The CDC said yesterday that we should all be wearing masks in public to prevent asymptomatic infected from spreading the virus. Using terms like “asymptomatic infected” without irony and without writing about a zombie apocalypse seems…so so weird, just like everything else these days.

This is a typical workday for me just now:

• wake up and realize that yes, this is really happening
• get up, do what one usually does when one first gets up in the morning
• wash hands for the first time that day
• get dressed, go downstairs, let dogs out
• wash hands (because I’ve touched the dogs and the doorknob)
• usual morning ablutions, put makeup on (not sure why I’m still doing this but it makes me feel more “normal”)
• make dogs’ breakfast, wash dog bowls
• wash hands
• make tea to take to work, grab whatever breakfast I will have, spray kitchen surfaces, tap, sink etc. with bleach
• leave for work
• arrive at work, put mask on, Lysol wipe anything and everything
• wash hands
• do usual but abbreviated workday but with no clients in the building, wearing a mask, staying 6′ apart from co-workers and washing hands every five minutes it seems like
• I’ve taken a big cut in hours to help us make ends meet
• come home, take off shoes at the door, go upstairs, take off scrubs and put right into hamper in closet, wash hands, change into “in the house” clothes, wash hands
• eat lunch
• go back upstairs, change into “out of the house” clothes, walk dogs
• come home, shoes off at door, straight upstairs, take off “out of the house” clothes (which are kept in a separate room so I don’t have to wash them every single day), wash hands, change BACK into “in the house” clothes
• do whatever for the rest of the afternoon (clean, video games, cook, eat dinner, watch “Time Team” or something equally absorbing but comforting)
• go to bed, try to sleep, lather rinse repeat

I wash my hands somewhere between 15-50 times a day.

One of the Time Team episodes we watched this week was them digging a part of London that had been bombed badly in the Blitz. They were bombed EVERY NIGHT for 57 night. FIFTY SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROW. More civilians died in the Blitz than soldiers died in the war. That put this into perspective a bit. All we have to do is stay home and deal with whatever the fallout of this is. We’re not getting bombed EVERY NIGHT FOR FIFTY SEVEN NIGHTS. Holy shit. Keep calm and carry on indeed.

People are nicer in general, although tempers and nerves are frayed. We wave and say hi out in the world from 6′ away. I had to go to Tops this past week, I wore a mask, and it was still really scary and stressful. Every allergy cough from post nasal drip gives me anxiety. It’s just such a bizarre time. The environment will thank us though.