COVID 19 # 27 - A WEEK WHEN EVERY DAY THERE IS SOMETHING TO DO - OUTSIDE THE HOUSE OR SOMEONE COMING IN

 We are having a busy week of it - for the first time since early March.  We have been staying home better than 90% of the time. But a variety of circumstances has hit us all at once.

Since husband has felt comfortable enough, we have been going out late on Sunday nights to post the outgoing mail for the week if we have same.  We are still not going to the post office for this or to check mail at our PO Box, but he drove around until he found a USPS mail collection box in a quiet enough area that he felt comfortable to go to - and even so we go only go after 11 pm at night.  So Sunday night we went and mailed out our mail for the week.  We received a call from the commander of our reenactment that he had a check from an event that some members of the unit actually attended.  He has had the check for about a month - his wife gave birth to their first child about the same time, so his mind is elsewhere - and the group which put on the event contacted him that we need to deposit the check - NOW - or the funding will be lost.  So he left the check in our mail box on Tuesday and we drove again to the USPS collection box and mailed out a deposit which included the check (and some other checks for the unit the past several weeks).

We are entitled to a discount on our real estate taxes due to our age.  We need to file the paperwork by the end of the year with our county.  We don’t like to file it at the last minute.  Two years ago there was a problem with the county and we were not sure if they had the paperwork - we had mailed it by Certified Mail, but there was a telephone mixup and they had called every property owner in the county to say they had not received their paperwork, instead of just those who had previously filed the paperwork and had not filed, so last year we dropped the paperwork in person to get a receipt directly from them that they had our paperwork.  Since we each have an extremely small business (both of which lose money generally) we have to file extra papers - this year’s paperwork was 157 pages - it takes some time to assemble it all - this year I started early as I was looking for something to do during the year - and I had the paperwork finished.  We have debating over the past several months - it is Covid-19 safer to go into the post office and mail it by Certified Mail to the County and hope it gets to right office or drive to the County office building and drop it off in person this year.  As we debated this we received a notice that due to the pandemic and the need to distance from others they would open late on a handful of Tuesday nights and open on many Sunday and Saturday mornings for the paperwork to be dropped off to help those concerned about going out in public, as well as there would parking spaces in their normally (during the day) overcrowded parking lot (last year husband dropped me off at the building and drove to a department store and sat in their parking lot as we could not park at the County building).  So, our decision was made - we would drop it off on Tuesday night.  Deciding it would be a lot more crowded in December - we figured to drop it off in November.  Last week was the first of the two Tuesdays for this month - but then we had to go to the doctor the next day, so decided that going out 2 days in a row was too big a risk (ha, ha in retrospect over this week). Of course one has to go through a metal scanner, so I prepared ahead - cell phone in a small plastic zip bag, wallet in another - and I brought a pen -just in case I needed to sign in as I would not want to touch a pen others have touched.  My keys I left with husband in the car.We drove there last night - there was one person ahead of me and one other came in after me - good choice.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we have an appointment to replace the tires on our car - we were told by our mechanic earlier this year that they woulld not survive the cold of this winter.  Costco has them on sale so we called and made an appointment for tomorrow.  Boy, this was getting exhausting for how our life has been this year!  

And - on Friday, we have an appointment for the phone company to change our phones from copper wire to cable - something we don’t want - both because the copper wire is more reliable and keeps working on the many times our electricity goes out for days in storms and - really - change it right now? I wouldn’t let family in the house and I have to let in someone from the phone company who has been in other houses and may have the corona virus (let alone my fear of his having bedbugs on him since we had same)?!!!  But if we don’t do this NOW they will cut off our service except to call 911 and them.

Husband realized yesterday that we need to food shop in general - our once monthly food shopping these months - and also saw people panic shopping again on TV.  (Back in early March he insisted on panic buying a large package of toilet paper, one of paper towels and every bottle of liquid hand soap he could find.  Did we need them - no, but I figured they will go not bad and if makes him feel better...  Last week I put out the last 2 rolls of the toilet paper in the package that was already in the house when we did this as spares - means about another month before they will be used, I still have not started and will not for awhile the paper towels or the liquid hand soap - a later purchases of bars of hand soap has had 2 bars started, so I pointed all of this out to him to prevent his running out to buy more of all this.) Plus Thanksgiving is next week.  We used to make Thanksgiving dinner for our two families, but since we had bed bugs, we just make it for ourselves.  I had printed out the recipes for what we usually make and added the items needed for same to the shopping list.  

So today we ventured out to buy food.  It was 25F here - a surprise drop in temperature.  Food shopping these days has a procedure that my husband came up with to keep us safe.  Of course we wear masks and gloves - but we also spray the cart before using it - he pushes the cart, I “touch the food”...  I have a listing of where which food is in the store - but of course that is my laptop which had to go for repair ( which is actually back - but still “sitting” before we touch it) and I had to wing it on this older laptop so foods were out of order.  People were out panic shopping so there were a lot more people there than has been, but by the end of our shopping (a few hours worth) there was no wait at checkout.  In the middle of bringing the food to our porch and wiping it down with alcohol before bringing it into the house - the cold of the weather hit me and I apparently had hypothermia according to husband.  He dealt with most of what was left to bring in other than some canned/bottled items that he left in the car overnight.  (And tomorrow before we take the car for tires - we have to deal with what was left.)  

Tomorrow (Thursday) after moving the food to our van as temporary measure, we will go and have the new tires installed.  We then go to the store where we have been buying our turkeys for Thanksgiving  - one of their 2 locations here is near where we are going for tires - they start selling their fresh turkeys tomorrow and then we will deal with wiping down and bringing the turkey and the rest of today’s food.  

Then the telephone person will be here on Friday.

Saturday, we will again go out and pick up Chinese food

So after not even going out once a week or seeing another person once a week (sometimes we see and wave to a neighbor though) we have 8 days in a row of being out or having someone in our house.  These days this much too scary!  


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Well, what has to be done has to be done somehow.  Hopefully we will survive the week and neither of us will have contracted Covid- 19.  I hope all of you do also. 

COVID 19 #26 - PLAN NOW FOR THANKSGIVING APART FOR THIS YEAR

 Well, Thanksgiving is coming (in the U.S.A.) in 2 weeks.   Yes, family is important, but family staying well and alive is more important.  Please don't have (or go to) a big family gathering this year.  Have a dinner with those in your household.  

How about a long distance (or short distance if family lives nearby) extended family celebration on Zoom– perhaps even set up a monitor (yes, this would be exception to the “no TV, no computers,no phones at Thanksgiving dinner rule)  where everyone having dinner at your house can see the screen and have your extended family members do the same.  Make an agreement for what time to have dinner which works for everyone – then all can share dinner across the Internet and still be safe.  

Have Aunt Mary send a copy of her secret recipe for her pumpkin pie (will you find out that she uses the one on the can of canned pumpkin?).  Have Cousin Susie her recipe for the stuffing and so on.  Everyone can make the dishes for their family (or not as they choose – perhaps Uncle Dave adds a bit too much “fun” in his rum cake?).  If everyone has the same foods it will seem like everyone is eating together.  Or, just let everyone make the dinner they want – perhaps next year your sister-in-law's vegetable soup (a dish I always make for Thanksgiving) will be the new family favorite that no one has had before, but when she made it for the dinner she and your brother had with their children – it looked soooo good and her children asked for more – yes, more vegetables  - and then you will all asking her for the recipe.  

The holiday is something which can be celebrated across the miles -  or across the street – so that all stay safe and well.  I am sure that you all would prefer for grandpa Jack to be with you at future Thanksgiving dinners than this be his last one due to his catching Covid-19 from someone at the dinner.  

My husband and I used to have both families at our home for Thanksgiving dinner – it was “our” holiday.  10 years ago we had bed bugs – we have not have family join us for the holiday since.  I still cook the same foods for the two of us – just a bit less than I made for the families.  I set up the dining room with the “good” china and silverware.  I use smaller serving bowls than before, but we have a nice holiday.  We do this annually now – and I only suggesting your family and friends have this one Thanksgiving apart – so that hopefully you will all be alive and well for next Thanksgiving to be together again.  

I am writing this column now – 2 weeks before the holiday so that you have time to plan with your extended family to have your holiday apart, while still joining together in some way over the distance so all will survive the corona virus and are here to be there for next year.  

Me, I have to figure out what to do with the all the extra canned goods, bottle, jars, and packages which are currently residing on my dining room table – taking up the entire table plus there are 3 huge plastic boxes of foods,which might attract vermin if it was just out, stacked next to the table.   I figure I have to clear up my studio worktable and move the food from the dining room table onto it.  (This will also allow me to decorate the dining room for Christmas afterward which I never had a chance to do last year.)  Husband has said to have the dinner in the kitchen,but I know from the past we need the kitchen table for related things – such as carving the turkey.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

For the Jewish holiday of Passover one of the prayers is “Next year, may we all be in Jerusalem” - for Thanksgiving let us all stay apart and safe and say “Next next Thanksgiving may we all be at Aunt Anne's” (or wherever you normally celebrate Thanksgiving) and survive this pandemic to do so.  

A little planning is all that is needed.

Let us also remember on this Veteran's Day all of those brave people who have fought to protect their country in the various wars which threatened our country as well as, including those in other countries who share the memory of Armistice Day when World War I (the Great War) had it truce.  If not for them we would not be living in the world we have now (meaning of course the good things of our world.)  Tell a veteran (or two) that you appreciate their service.

DEAD COMPUTER PROBLEMS LIVE ON

 We had telephoned about my dead computer Tuesday afternoon, eastern US time.  The box to send the computer to them was to come 2 day UPS.  The company is located in California, so it was even earlier in the day there when I was told it would be sent so I expected it to be here on Thursday - 2 days later.  The weather here was a rather nasty on Thursday - raining and windy due to Hurricane Zeta down south.   I have mentioned (ad nauseam) that we have problems with delivery of items by every carrier ever used.  We kept looking out of the front door and windows for the box - hopefully it would left on our steps, but often packages are left at the foot of our (short) driveway next to the sidewalk -nothing there.  As the day grew later we became more concerned that perhaps it had been left and had blown away so I telephoned the warranty company and got the tracking number (which I had expected them to email to us when the package went out).  The box was enroute through the worst of the area Delta was coming through and would be here on Friday - it was still rather close to where it had started its trip.  Taking a chance that the box would be left on our front steps rather at then at the foot of the driveway and knowing the remnants of Delta would be coming through our area all day Friday we left a large note on the inside of the glass storm door asking that it be left inside our side door (on a small porch) with arrows showing where we meant.  I checked when we woke and dressed on Friday -nothing in front of door, in porch or on driveway (as far as we could see) - if the box was left outside it would drenched and unusable.  When we went to cook dinner we found the box in the side porch (I had the curtain on the window next to my desk open the entire we were in the office and had not seen it delivered).  At least it was finally here and dry. 

We had hoped to turn it around and send it back by Friday - first as we wanted it back as soon as possible and also because the return shipping label had time limit - but that was not to be.   When I had set up the claim I was told I could not call for pickup and had to bring it into UPS - I had asked as we REALLY did not want to go out for this (or basically anything) and I explained that to the employee.  Since these days we don’t normally open “mail” until 4 days later we did not rush to open the box as it would not be going out until Monday anyway, the first time it could be sent.  When we opened it Sunday night to pack the laptop it said we could call for pickup - oh, well, that would delay it another day.  We packed it up - we made 2 plastic tape labels for the computer and two for the cord - one label on each had our names and the other had the case number we were given - if the computer and/or cord was separated from the paperwork we wanted to make sure it would be obvious whose they were.  We were extremely concerned about going to UPS - last time we had to deal with something there the place was wall to wall to people waiting and took hours - not a situation we want to be in right now.  Luckily it was empty when we went there.  We checked today (Wednesday) and the computer is still enroute.  Hopefully they will actually have it tomorrow.

I still cannot sign into the newspaper to read it on my laptop.  I can sign in my desktop and husband can sign in on his cell phone (latter done as a test as he does not read the newspaper and gets annoyed when I read him “tidbits” from it - he is a TV news person.  We figured perhaps the problem is that this laptop is Windows XP, so husband brought down and tried to sign into his Win 10 laptop and could not sign into the newspaper either.  Makes no sense to us.  I am reading the newspaper on my desktop when I have a chance during the day. 

My embroidery club has been holding its meetings online - show what one has made (yes, show and tell) discuss business - such as needing a larger room to meet in next time we meet in person so we can space out, etc.  I had forgotten that the meeting was today until I heard from the group president.  After I heard from her I was going to use husband’s desktop computer (mine has no microphone, speakers or camera - it was custom built for me by husband and other than Zoom meetings, which were unheard of by us until Covid-19 stay at home started, have no use for them.  But as I was using my little, old laptop I noticed it had a camera and a symbol for microphone, so making sure that they both turned on I planned to use my laptop for the meeting this morning.  Husband showed me where to plug in his microphone and camera on his desktop - just in case.

I woke up this morning, dressed and turned on my little laptop.  It worked!  I signed into the Zoom site and got into the meeting and saw everyone - m o v i n g  v e r y   s l o w l y - okay, I can deal with that.  I said hello.  I then realized that I could not hear them - something was wrong with the speakers.  (Husband later reminded me when I told him of my adventure that I keep my speakers in my laptops on mute - oops, my fault.)  So I plugged in his camera and his microphone and turned on his desktop computer.  I then had to sign into my email address to get the invitation to the meeting - an email address which is not in his computer (I checked in case it was).  I put in my email address on the appropriate page and entered my password as I remembered it.  Nope.  Tried again.  Nope.  I then turned on my desktop (so at this point I now have 3 computers turned on trying to sign into Zoom and join the meeting) to get the password as it shows there - I had the correct password.  Time kept passing. We get a 40 minute free session from Zoom, sometimes extra minutes are given - I looked at the clock and the 40 minutes had run out.  So I shut everything down and went back to bed.  I later sent an email to the group explaining what had happened.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK-

Make sure you have good lists of current usernames and passwords.  If you are going to use a device or a feature of your computer (or any other electronic device) when time will be of the essence to use it - and you don’t want to look like an idiot that doesn’t know what you are doing (especially since they consider me the computer “expert”) make sure you do a trial run before you actually need to use that feature or device to make sure it is working , turned on and that you know what you are doing.   As we go along with the Covid-19 situation we are using computers and other devices differently than normal and may need a bit of practice doing so.  Yeah, I had thought of doing a quick Zoom session with husband to make sure the laptop would work and run fast enough - but never did get around to it.

I hope that all who have been in the path of Hurricane Zeta and their families and friends are safe and well and the same to those in the paths of the various fires and other weather problems.