80 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-4-20”

  5. Good morning! In one of my haiku posted on Facebook to a group thread designed for COVID-19 writings, I posted one and used the abbreviation ER. Someone who speaks French wanted to know what is ER. I explained it and they wrote there it is known as ‘les urgences.’ Another person from Australia said in their nation it is called A and E for Accident and Emergency. They went on to say that they have a whole department for it, not just a room. I am going to post a reply that here A and E means Arts and Entertainment. It is fun to engage with people around the globe.

    It must be Monday. The garbage trucks are rolling on the street.

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  6. The way it’s going we’ll all be wearing full Imperial regalia just to leave our houses. Masks, breathing apparatus, full skin coverage. We won’t need the 6′ social distancing.

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  7. After SARS, people in certains regions of Asia began to wear masks whenever they had respiratory symptoms. It never a fashion statement as much as anything. There were a large number of Asian international students that attended two international high schools in the city, so I often encountered them on the bus. There was always a few wearing masks, something I appreciated, as the bus was often very crowded at the stops where students got picked up. As a healthcare professional, before all this I would put on a mask everytime I do a sterile procedure, which is something I do on a regular basis. In the OR, surgical teams wear them for hours, every working day. My OR instructor also made me wear an eye shield all the time, because he said it was not worth the risk – he had known a healthcare worker who caught a Bloodborne disease from getting blood spray in the eyes from an emergency surgery. Well, the risks a healthcare worker faces every day are everyone’s risks now.

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  9. Amos has fallen victim to Covid. He has needed a haircut for a while. Yesterday Mr. P got out the beard clippers and an hour or so later Amos had a haircut. For a little dog he sure did have a lot of hair. The groom has told me before that he has two coats. On the surface he has long straight hair like a Shi Tzu underneath he has a coat like a Poodle. He didn’t like it. He certainly won’t like it tonight when he has to get in the shower with me.

    So we are having a Blog Zoom? I’m in.

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  12. For some reason, I can not get the Zoom to do audio and video at the same time on my phone. I can show up on video but get no sound so I end up calling in. So I hope that the Zoom is set up for both video and call-in only. I do have another writer’s group meeting at 7 this evening on Zoom. I need to see how long that lasts.

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  13. I just heard from Art. There was a mix-up about his procedure. It is no longer on the calendar for tomorrow and has not been rescheduled. Thank you all for your prayers and concerns.

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  15. Morning! Must run to the post office this morning, fill up the car (it has been three weeks since filling it last!) and if we are zooming tonight I would like to join in!

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  16. Mumsee:}
    Chas doesn’t even know what you ar talking about.
    I have a new iPhone. I wish I had the old one. But they say it isn’t supported anymore.
    Thing is: The thing does everything. even if I don’t want it to.
    i.e. If I go to “Find Friends” to locate one, It might automatically contact them.
    And I don’t care what the weather is in Cupertino. But it doesn’t hurt anything.

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  17. I notice on TV that they are advertising stylish masks now.
    I should have known that would happen.
    Some people may not give it up when this is over.

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  18. Cupertino is where Apple has been since the late 1970s. Congratulations on the new phone, chas. I still have the *8* but it’s true, after a while they simply need to be replaced to work and be updated effectively.

    I’d be more than glad to give up masks.

    I have a 5 p.m. assignment in Long Beach today so will miss the ‘zoom.’ Next time …

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  19. Chas, on your computer, get the free zoom download. Michelle will send you an email when it is about time, inviting you to the zoom. Go there and you will join us in a zoom call. You and Elvera would enjoy it.

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  20. Good morning, all. Life’s been busy and I’m not caught up here on the blog — haven’t read the April 30 or May threads yet — but I peeked in on this weekend’s threads last night and heard about the blog Zoom meeting. I would love to join when my piano lessons are done for the evening! (A little past 7:00 pm Central Daylight Time.)

    Michelle, could you clarify — are you starting at 5:00 Pacific Standard Time or 5:00 Pacific Daylight Time? I’m not sure what you mean by 5 tonight California time. Is that Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time?

    Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

  21. I just sent out the email.

    I included WV people whose email address I had even if they didn’t tell me they wanted to come, including Chas and Six Arrows.

    (I never seem to get AJ’s email address correct, so if you don’t get one, AJ, send me an email with the address that works).

    If you have questions, feel free to ask and I’ll attempt to answer–or someone else can.

    Yes, you can join us by telephone if that works best.

    To call in, you will need the lD number and the password. Both numbers are highlighted in BOLD and enlarged, 3/4 way down the invite. I won’t be posting those numbers here, because this is a private meeting.

    If some of you are totally flummoxed, let me know and we can try a trial meeting earlier.

    On to work for me (and to cook dinner . . . )

    Oh, and yes, Roscuro, my husband has many names–that’s part of what keeps him interesting after all these years. 🙂 Maybe he’ll even make a surprise showing?

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  22. good article, roscuro. I was talking to a church friend yesterday who, again, raised the argument that this is no worse than the ‘flu.’

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  24. Of course, they were followed by the usual breakfast of onion, garlic, ginger, rhubarb, celery, sweet pepper, etc….

    Hmmm… garlic, perhaps I should wear a mask for the zoom.

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  27. Just got word we’re letting our LB office rental space go. Kind of sad, but not entirely — gorgeous building, a fancy high-rise, short commute for me, but horrible office spaces to work out of; the windowless “cubbies.” It was really quite depressing to actually work there, but walking through the gorgeous lobby was cool.

    Rent was also kind of expensive as it included free parking privileges for us (which alone cost the company about $100 per person every month). We had some kind of an ‘escape’ clause so with all of us working from home at this point, the company decided to bail and find something else to rent (which they haven’t done just yet).

    I need to head over there sometime this week and get all my stuff out of there, I still have the moving box (that came with me from our previous office) under the desk, so it should be a quick grab-and-go process for me. There was never enough room to really keep much there, we basically toted all of our things with us, back and forth, during our yearlong tenure at the building.

    We moved in a year ago in March, I believe; had a 2-year lease.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Guess we’ll be moving into the building where one of our weeklies is now, on the other side of town in the beach district.

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  29. Dj will that be a longer commute for you just in case they no longer want you to work from home?
    I mailed a large envelope to my son last Wed and it was to be delivered Saturday. They changed the status from “in transit” to “no delivery date/Pending”! I cannot get an answer from anyone other than their “virtual customer support” and that tells me nothing. I know it arrived in KY but that is the last tracking point. I am done with Fed Ex…done done done. I should have taken my chances with USPS which was way cheaper in the first place! Rant over… 😳

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  30. Yes (longer commute), it’s on the other (east) side of LB (which is a good-sized city) rather than on the far west side (the downtown area that’s directly over the two bridges from where I live). I suspect working from home will still be acceptable (and maybe even still the norm) after the lockdown is over, but the idea generally is to try to go in maybe a couple times a week, depending on schedule, assignments, etc. But like me, many of the reporters among all 11 papers in our immediate ‘chain’ already were working from home before all of this hit. In my case, it really makes sense as I live in the community I cover.

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  35. I’m a little nervous about our Zoom meeting tonight. I was playing with it earlier, and realized that because of my bifocals, I will be tilting my head up to see the screen well enough. Just please know that I am not looking down my nose at you all. 🙂

    Also, I am uncomfortable about my looks. Please remember that my face is partially paralyzed, and one effect of that is that my lips don’t close. In the past, I used to wear a little bit of eye make-up, but it irritates my eyes now, which I’ve learned is a common thing among us Moebius ladies.

    There was an option on the Zoom thing that was something like “Improve my appearance”. Didn’t work – I still look like me. 😀

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  36. Is there a mute button on Zoom? I didn’t see one, but that could come in handy, especially if my dog starts barking.

    *******
    For those who have seen my profile photo on Facebook – That day, Nightingale had put some make-up on me specifically for taking the photo. I had to wash it off as soon as we were finished, and my eyes still felt irritated the rest of the day.

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  38. Kizzie- Mute is on the lower left corner. You might have to move your mouse down that way to see it. Or ALT+a on a non-Mac keyboard.

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  44. Kizzie,

    Don’t sweat it. 🙂

    And you want strange?

    Wait until you see me. I look very different from the last time we met in Conn.

    I’ve been called Santa, Papa Smurf, and Moses. And this is from the people at church. 🙂

    And I’m not shaving until the quarantine is lifted, so it will only get fuzzier. 🙂

    ———-

    DJ,

    Mouse video bombs my every Zoom appearance, unless I hide in the bedroom. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  45. So the blog email was “out of date”. I fixed it and received some pics from Janice and Cheryl.

    Cheryl, your email said 3 birds, but it was 1 cardinal and a flower collage. You owe me 2 birds, and one stone worth of interest. 🙂

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  46. So the mower would not start. We dumped out the fuel. It was green, almost the color of the edge on here. Fresh fuel, starting fluid, several pulls. Started right up. Who does that? My life is normal.

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  47. AJ, I resent the three-birds collage. It’s birds in three primary colors (goldfinch, cardinal, and blue jay), all of them also with black on them, photos I took in two days last week . . .

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  49. AJ did you get the invite?

    I will log on in about an hour, at 4:50 my time, for those of you who are concerned you may have trouble getting in. Send me an email if you are having trouble, to the Gmail account. I’ll keep it open.

    In addition to muting, you can also turn off your camera. We’ll see your name, but you can still see whomever is brave enough to appear on camera besides me!

    I won’t even pick up my office if that will make you feel better. 🙂

    No clue on the cat. Last seen she was stalking a few brave birds in the backyard.

    Liked by 1 person

  51. Do I have a camera?
    Not that I know of. I hope not. I am sitting here in my bedclothes, needing both a shave and haircut.
    Have you ever seen Burt Lancaster in pajamas?

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  52. Chas – If you are on a laptop or desktop, there is a little dot-like thing at the top that is the camera. I usually have mine covered with a small piece of duct tape. (That’s for just in case it gets hacked. I don’t know if that’s really an issue to worry about, but supposedly Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or some other techy guy keeps his camera covered up, too.)

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  54. I’m envisioning Gloria Swanson’s character Norma Desmond, from Sunset Boulevard: “Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

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  55. Kizzie, I have been told that in photos or on camera I have “resting (w)itch face”. The guy who is a professional and does videos of all our special events at work either doesn’t get me on camera or edits me out.
    I showed a particular photo to my best friend of 25 years, she looked at it and then looked at me with full dismay in her voice and said, “but you don’t really look like that”.

    Liked by 3 people

  57. I couldn’t find anything at the top that looked like, nor responded as a camera.
    You are on for five minutes now, and I don’t see anything.
    Next time Linda”S comes over, I’ll ask her to look at it.
    She has a Son-in-law who makes his living with computers.

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  58. Hey, that was fun! Next time (if there is one) it would be helpful if you’re not actually talking mute yourself. Any noise near your mic cause that to be heard over someone not talking loudly.

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  59. Sounds like you had fun. But you are using some jargon I don’t understand. e.g. “Mute yourself”.
    I just got a good call from a granddaughter (Mary) who lives in Jacksonville ,Fl.
    Her husband has been accepted for a Master’s study at Ga. Tech. He will be taking it on-line. He is a computer guru (makes his living that way).
    I am happy for him.

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  60. I did mute myself when Heidi started to bark. (Boy had knocked on the front door to be let in. The door wasn’t even locked. 😀 )

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  62. It was fun. Wish I could have seen everyone. Maybe soon I will have a better set up.

    I am still being so thankful that Art does not have that procedure tomorrow. It was a really goofy mix-up. They thought he’d had the kidney stone blasting in the hospital a week ago and that he was to get a stent removed at the doctor’s office tomorrow. So glad he found out before we showed up there.

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  64. Thanks for the meet up everyone. It was lovely to see you all. Thanks Michelle for setting it up. And thanks to 6 arrows for the mini concert on that very special piano.

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  65. Peter, I’ve now done several Zoom meetings (some with my husband and some just me), and I still need his help each time to get on. Muting and unmuting myself may be beyond my capabilities. It was good to see everyone, though names are so tiny that I had to look closely to read some of them. (On a mini i-pad I can get nine pictures on the screen at a time, but each is small and the names really tiny.) Next time we need to get Chas and DJ, get Janice’s face, get Mumsee on earlier, and I’m sure there are several other people as well.

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  67. It was good to see everyone. I found myself so very thankful to see AJ and Ann looking so well knowing what this virus ravaged upon them! To see His physical answers to prayer is beyond amazing. Thanks for pulling this together and hopefully there will be a next time to see Chas and Dj 😊

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  70. Cheryl – I am not a techy person at all, but Peter had mentioned earlier that the mute button is on the bottom left, but you don’t see it until you move the cursor down there. That’s how I was able to save you all from Heidi’s loud barking.

    Liked by 1 person

  72. Oh, sorry I missed the fun. I was covering the front-porch concert in the historic neighborhood across the bay which will be fun to write (and it’s not running ’til the weekend, so I’ll have time). And afterward I had a chance to catch up with my cousin who lives across the street and told me about it. Just got home a little while ago.

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  73. I’m very familiar with ‘mute’ on my phone for staff calls which now happen every morning. Sometimes, though, we will forget to “un-mute” ourselves and be talking away about our story plans when someone says “They must have left the call.”

    Liked by 1 person

  74. I didn’t figure out gallery view until close to the end, so different people’s pictures kept popping up randomly, sometimes when they were speaking, sometimes not. The gallery was a button in the top right hand corner that looks like a grid of squares.

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  75. Michelle texted me a screen shot of you all, you look great. I saw Santa (or was that Moses?) and Holly’s beautiful curls 🙂

    Chas, I saw Burt Lancaster the other night in “Field of Dreams.” Yes, I thought of you. Did you ever play baseball as a kid?

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  79. Thanks for the nice Zoom chat, all on the call. 🙂 I’m glad you suggested it, Jo, and thank you, Michelle, for setting it up!

    Next time — if we Zoom again, and I hope we do — I might just have 6th Arrow play the piano, if it’s requested. She doesn’t get nervous and klutz around and make as many mistakes as her teacher. 😀

    Good night from the Central Time Zone, dear friends, and may your rest tonight be sweet and blessed.

    Liked by 4 people

  80. Roscuro, the first time I did a Zoom meeting, I didn’t have it on gallery, either. If a noise comes from someone’s screen, it switches to that person. It was a Bible study, and one lady started it out sitting outside. She decided to move inside, and as she moved her chair, or opened the door, or anything else during her movement, the camera view kept going to her, and then as she settled on her bed and set up her device . . . Another woman’s dog kept barking, and she’d mute Zoom, but it would go to her before she did.

    I think it depends what kind of device you’re using where the various commands and such come up. I know when we were in our church’s Zoom prayer meeting, they were telling someone to “unmute” herself, and they gave her directions that were different than where they appear on my husband’s i-pad. On my mini i-pad, stuff is even more condensed.

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