Zoom first: don't worry about me - probably I would stay away anyhow, I still work a lot of hours on the computer and really don't enjoy socializing there.
Amy, congratulations on the retirement! What a concept - can't imagine when I'll be able to pull that off.
Update second. Jenny, I'm sorry to hear things are getting so difficult for/with your parents - not to mention being separated from DH so much! What a rough time.
I feel as though I *am* pretty much making lemonade from the lemons. Not that there aren't plenty of difficulties and disappointments - this week, I should have been on the North Yorkshire moors, walking the Cleveland Way with my sister. I'm being tortured by Instagram posts of the heather in bloom. Oh well, maybe next year. We haven't seen daughter Eve and her two girls since Thanksgiving, hard to see when that will be possible (they're in Colorado). But happily Emma and Hank are nearby and we're seeing them regularly. As many of you see on IG or FB regularly, Hank is just always a joy. Beginning tomorrow he's coming here one day a week for his morning remote school session (pretty amusing) followed by lunch and an afternoon of play with us here.
Jenny's parents' situation resonates with me. Mine are here on the property, in their own house - they are both 85 now, my dad in declining health with metastesized prostate cancer, my mother just, well- old and getting older. Although they seem to be coping pretty well with the pandemic-related isolation, it really isn't the best place for them for the long haul. Where we live, if/when they can't drive, life will get very complicated. And if my dad dies soonish and my mother's on her own, that will be difficult as well. There's a lot to take care of here, most of it now being neglected, by us as well as them. Eric's health, and ability to physically maintain the property, is ever declining.There *will* be more floods and more fires. After last year's flood we had some conversation about the idea of moving elsewhere and parents were adamant about staying - "dying here," as they put it. It's going to be rough on me. It's not the best place for me and Eric for the long haul either, for the same reasons, so I'm hoping I can initiate some real conversation about doing something different before too many years go by. I don't want to be trapped here ten years from now, and I don't want Emma to find herself in the same position I seem to be in, down the road, being the only or main support for ailing parents.
Aside from that - think I said this before to you all, but a silver lining for me these last months has been the extra time that has magically materialized from somewhere. I have never had more time for serious reading, writing, reflecting. I've done a lot of satisfying sewing and knitting. And I'm on a dedicated fitness kick, finding new gym-free ways to keep my body in good shape, inspired by watching my parents' and Eric's physical declines. Determined to be as strong and flexible as I can be for as long as possible. Daily yoga or pilates (there's lots of good teaching online), that kind of thing. Walking whenever I can. Staying out of chairs and off sofas as much as possible :-)? Yesterday I drove out to our beautiful coast, solo, walked a little, then sat on the bluff and read, wrote, and knitted for 3 hours, listening to the waves (111 degrees here at home, 72 there).
Now if we can just wake up from the nightmare this country is in in November, and somehow get into 2021 without a civil war of some kind. Through all of this, another fairly recent enthusiasm is a great help to me: an embrace of a kind of modern Stoic philosophy (if interested, Google around - there's lots of good writing about it). My dad's impending death? The natural order of things; when it arrives, I won't be surprised; every day, I'm grateful for the man he is and the father he's been. Donald Trump's possible reelection? Well, if that happens, I won't be surprised either, and I'll know that I did everything I could to prevent it.
Good to hear from those of you who are usually quiet - Beryl, Laura - and hope we'll hear from a few more!
Onward, Therese
Thérèse Shere
Freelance indexing & digital information design
On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 10:20 AM Amy Brotslaw Schweiger < brotslaw@...> wrote: What a wonderful idea. I’m in.?
Amy On Sep 7, 2020, at 7:16 AM, Jaya Srikrishnan <ermabom@...> wrote:
? I just did a quick search for today and found that it is quite possible, US EDT first column, Australia east coast second column and US PDT third column. We could go a bit later to accommodate people?who are working or pick a weekend day | Mon 7:00 pm * | Tue 9:00 am | Mon 4:00 pm * | | Mon 8:00 pm * | Tue 10:00 am | Mon 5:00 pm * |
On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 10:12 AM Jaya < ermabom@...> wrote: Laura, I thought I saw a new dog in your IG feed. I'm sorry it didn't work out. All the best to you in getting a new one and coping with work and the isolation through the winter.
To all the Mongers: one of the groups I admin on Ravelry has been very active with Zoom calls since COVID-19 started. We meet for two 40-min sessions every Sat am US time which is Sat pm Indian time. That has been a very pleasant interlude for most of us who are either isolating by choice or by necessity - India has been on total lockdown without public transport and requiring only essential trips till very recently. It is essentially like a knit night - we knit (sometimes I spin) and we chat and we look at each other's work, discuss patterns, food, COVID-19, politics (occasionally and very superficially), books, TV, movies, etc.?
If any of you are interested we could do the same for Mongers. It might be tough to work in Beryl and US PDT but early am US EDT might work. I can look into times if people are interested.?
On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 9:28 AM Laura Need < lrneed@...> wrote: Hi, I’ve been reading through with interest - like Beryl, I’m a lurker these days.
Jenny, it sounds like you’ve had a rough go of it, what with your parents, and everybody being scattered about and quarantined from each other.? I am so sorry and I hope your small menagerie is helping when you’re not on the phone.?
I’m pretty isolated myself.? As you may know, my beautiful Golden died just before I had a knee replacement last November.? All of my attempts to adopt a new dog came to naught, as one after another candidate disappeared as I awaited yet another Rescue group’s approval process.? I even had a re-homed dog for a week, but she had undisclosed aggression, got worse every day as she missed *her person* (and couldn’t understand why he wasn’t there), and had teeth on my face by the end of the week she was with me.? I suspect she had acted equally aggressively towards her person’s wife, which is why the wife was re-homing her.? It was an incredibly challenging week, made worse by my “helpful” greyhound rescue neighbor who basically accused me of being irresponsible to return this dog to the people she loved. After I picked myself up And dusted myself off from that, and even had been approved for a rescue puppy, The pandemic started in full swing, and I realized I couldn’t give a new puppy the time she deserved as my hours might get very crazy indeed, and the Doggy Day Care I had used for Max was closed due to COVID (and even now is only open limited hours).? So I remain dog-less for now, but am hoping maybe next spring I can get one. ?
Work is, well, work.? I still work several times a month in the hospital, in the nursery, and labor and delivery. Labor and delivery is an oddly high-risk location, as the risk of transmission from an asymptomatic laboring mother, panting, blowing, and pushing in close proximity to health care workers - sometimes for hours! - became quickly apparent.? At this time, all moms are either tested prior to a scheduled induction or cesarean, or are tested as soon as they arrive on L&D, which I think is standard now here for all the hospitals in Boston. ?
At the beginning, as the hospital made lists of who could be pulled from their usual job to help elsewhere if needed, I had volunteered, as my pediatric cardiology background means I know more about ICU management, ventilators and lines than most average adult primary care doctors.? However, I fall into a rather high risk group If I were to get COVID, so the head of the ICU (who happens to be my pulmonologist) and my cardiologist both said, “No!? Thank you, but, please, no!”?
Outpatient primary pediatric care Is an odd thing during a pandemic.? At the height of our shutdown, I was still seeing a handful of patients every day in the office - kids 2 yr and under who needed vaccines (because *my* patients are not going to get measles or diphtheria because of COVID, thank you very much!).? Everything else was converted to telemedicine from my kitchen and dining room, and my *job* was to manage everything remotely and keep the ERs as empty as possible.? Fortunately, with kids isolated from each other, the average constant background of infectious respiratory illnesses dried up essentially overnight. As the numbers in Massachusetts have gotten better, and we have slowly reopened, I now see all kids for physicals, and kids with non-COVID-like symptoms for urgent appointments.? However, kids with fever, cough, sore throats, diarrhea?? I can’t see those in my office without potentially exposing other patients, and the number of phone calls for those issues are ticking upwards as day cares and schools reopen.? All pediatric COVID testing is taking place at Urgent Care centers (commercially separate free-standing clinics), and, as I tell my patients’ parents, if your kid has a fever, the most important thing to do is make sure it’s not COVID. ?
So we muddle along.? We also moved office locations In July - new, bigger space, More exam rooms, more ancillary staff to help get patients in rooms and help clean them afterwards.? It’s a good move, but a new space adds to the general dysphoric sense of being disconnected that I’ve heard from other outpatient primary care doctors. ?
Parker is muddling through his early 20s, trying to figure out what he wants to do. Someday I hope he will actually have a job that pays him enough to cover his own rent and expenses.? He had flirted with the idea of using his Econ/Psych degree to go into business (investing), but over the past year, realized his lack of direction about finding a job was fueled by his feeling that much of business lacked a soul, and he didn’t think he could do that and live with himself.? So he’s been writing (don’t know about what...), and is about to move to NYC (staying w a friend) where he has a short term writing contract for something in the music Industry, with plans to move to LA w the new year. ?
So I knit - some - and I read - some - and I walk - as much as I can - and I work. ? Not very exciting....
Laura?
-- Jaya
--
Jaya
|
