COVID-19 and us — 3.19.20

Yesterday, got a call from the dermatologist’s office saying they’d have to re-schedule our Friday appointment to next month as they were closing the HB office for several weeks.

Today, got a call from Di’s psychologist saying no face-to-face meetings for the next few weeks and would Di like to Facetime or Skype – no, we’ll re-schedule after things clear up. Can’t say as I blame her, she and her husband are in our age group and he just turned 80.

Dentist also set back Di’s cleaning to late April.

Travel

Caregiver came to help Di today and I drove into Orange to drop off our taxes at our accountant’s office – she was home sick.

I drove back to HB to do some grocery shopping and a phone call from the accountant caught me in TJ’s parking lot – just wanted to confirm our personal and bank info hadn’t changed. TJ’s was still short but I got salads, milk and a few other things.

It began to rain and I drove to TK Burger to get a Big Bargain Special for lunch. Take-out only but open. Ate lunch in the car as it was raining at the Pier Plaza parking lot. And then put some gas in the car.

Refund

Got another call from the accountant, pulled to the side of the road, parked and answered the phone. Taxes were done and we’ll get back about four grand; she filed electronically and already received confirmation. Wrote her a check when I got home, but the mail had already been delivered and her check will go out tomorrow.

Continued to Smart and Final and picked up some ice cream, soup and a roast chicken — they also had milk but, like TJ’s limited quantities of milk and some other items.

Got home and Di and her caregiver were doing well. She had helped Di change some of her clothes and changed the bed after one of the cats threw up on it. She’d also started a laundry of the sheets and other items in the hamper.

All in all a pretty good day . . . all things considered.

 

COVID-19 and us — 3.17.20

COVID-19: Well, here we go again.

HOAG

This is my typical morning. The cats, Smoke and Mist, usually get me up before seven for breakfast. I feed them and then get the papers and fix some coffee. Either I make a fresh pot or zap what is left over from yesterday — at heart, I’m cheap and do not like to waste things.

I read the newspapers (gotta read the comics, at least) and drink my coffee, read my email and then wake Charlie. I help her to the bathroom and get her to her sunroom, fix her tea and get her morning pills.

Then it’s on the exercise bike for 110 minutes, reading and watching TV. Every twenty minutes, or so, I get up to check on Charlie and then back to work.

After the bike I see to Charlie’s needs, eat a banana and have another cup of coffee or two, breakfast/lunch and meds/vitamins. And did a wash.

Got a call from the accountant’s office confirming Thursday’s appointment and a couple of hours later another call which said that she was sick and could I just come in with my papers and she’d see me another time. OK. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow.

Charlie and I went to HOAG HB for my CT scan appointment at 1:45 pm and were greeted at the door by a young lady asking is we had an appointment or were ill: yes and no. I checked in and was out a half hour later. Some of the chairs in the waiting area were Xed with blue tape (social distancing).

Drive

We then drove to Seal Beach and stopped at the Starbucks/Vons for Charlie’s white hot chocolate. The store was quiet, unlike the panic of a few days ago. Some of the shelves were empty but things looked as though they were slowly returning to normal. The young man at Starbucks recognized me and asked if I wanted a white hot chocolate; we chatted a bit and Charlie was shortly and happily sipping her drink.

Returning to Huntington Beach we stopped at Vons pharmacy for a couple of her meds, and another white hot chocolate.

The “merry maids” were still cleaning when we returned and we stayed out of their way, shortly having a nice clean house.

Not bad for being in the middle of a pandemic. Tomorrow we’ll run our financials to Orange and do some grocery shopping on the way home — and, yes, probably get Charlie another white hot chocolate. Hopefully, TJs will be re-stocked.

Stay healthy my friends.

COVID-19 and us

Well, . . . because of the COVID-19 “pandemic” our governor wants all older people to stay at home. OK, but . . . we have to eat and don’t have several weeks of food stockpiled, as I didn’t go panic shopping last week(end). We have medical tests to take and appointments with several doctors over the next few weeks.

A dentist called and cancelled my wife’s appointment today saying they were closing, except for emergencies, for the next two weeks.

Between us we have more than a dozen prescriptions to pick up each month.

We’ve got TP and paper towels that I bought a week before the panic set in and plenty of cat litter and cat food.

So, I’m going to go grocery shopping, stop at the pharmacy (two that we use), put gas in the car, see the doctor and go for short drives when my wife gets her anxiety attacks. And, yes, I’ll stop at Starbucks for a white hot chocolate with whipped cream that she likes so much.

We had Chinese food delivered last night (Egg Roll King in HB) and finished most of it tonight.

Social distancing?

Being retired and with my wife being unable to walk, we don’t do much socializing but our TVs and my music run up a big electricity bill from Edison. So, “social distancing” won’t be much of a hardship for us.

But I do need to get gas for the car, go grocery shopping, stop at the pharmacy and see the doctors. I can’t just stay at home. That is, unless somebody wants to run all of the errands for me or bring stuph to our house.

Oh, yeah, the IRS hasn’t changed the date our income taxes are due. I have to go out Thursday and see the woman who does our taxes. Hopefully, the home care service has someone to stay with my wife during that time as I cannot leave her home alone for any extended period of time. I have a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and have to bring her with me — we’ll probably take a drive after that and stop in for a white hot chocolate, some drugs at the pharmacy and a few groceries at Vons, TJs and/or Smart & Final. Also, Merry Maids is scheduled to come tomorrow.

Our library is closing down for the next month, so I’m out of luck for checking out books and I do not like reading them electronically, but . . . oh well.

Government

We have good doctors, health insurance and Medicare. That, along with good pensions, should ensure that we’ll get through the COVID-19 panic and pandemic with a minimum of problems. I’ll not lay odds on catching the virus as I don’t trust the numbers I see coming from the government. They seem too sparse and not based on any form of reality — just like the figures coming from China. Or, do you trust the numbers coming from China? Why?

The self-serving people who run our government, especially at the national level, are clearly incompetent to deal with this crisis and almost as incompetent in explaining their inability to deal with it. “Not my responsibility,” HA!

Teachers, give your kids a couple of weeks to deal with things. Two weeks of enforced boredom and having parents yelling at them (those who have parents who can stay home with them) ought to see them amenable to, at least, some online instruction.

So, there we are: a few disjointed thoughts on COVID-19. Stay healthy, my friends.