It is raining cats and dogs out there this morning! The snow that was slowly receding has been hurried along by all this wind and rain. The weekend brings February to a close.
Today is an anniversary of sorts. I have been in complete isolation for ONE WHOLE YEAR! I am glad to be here to celebrate this achievement! As Attila said to me over breakfast, “you’ve done it, and you are still smiling!”
Early in the week I made a loaf of Pumpkin Pie Bread in the bread machine. I have been enjoying a slice now and then ever since. It is a very moist bread, perhaps a little too moist. It would be better with a longer rising period and a bit longer to bake. The next loaf will be made into a dough in the bread machine, then divided into two loaves and baked in the oven, where I have more control over the baking time. That should improve it!
Yesterday I decided to a health check on myself. I checked my blood pressure, and am happy to report that it is completely normal for my age. Great! I checked my blood oxygen saturation, 99%. Great! I checked my weight, well not bad, a bit overweight but not anywhere near obese. Good! I took note that despite all my age related aches and pains, I take no pain killers. Great, and pretty lucky! I took note that I can still walk a mile, get down on my knees to do things like clean the tub, reach for items in the high kitchen cupboards, and bend down to put on my socks and shoes. Great! The finger issue is worrisome, still no diagnosis, but I could have surgery if I chose. I won’t risk death by Covid to have the surgery, so hopefully the issue is benign enough to wait until next summer or autumn. All in all I think I am doing very well indeed.
Covid-19 Related – What it is like to be a Senior In Ontario, Canada February 2021
Like many other older people, I haven’t seen anyone, family or friends, in over a year, not since a year ago Christmas. I haven’t had face to face contact with any humans other than Attila for a whole year. There were four brief and necessary exceptions, when masked and face-shielded I purchased grain for our bread, had a Shingrix shot, had an ultrasound on my finger, and had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon at the hospital to assess my finger. That is it. Three of those interactions were very unpleasant, the people I had contact with were rude and unpleasant. One interaction was friendly and pleasant. So in one year I’ve had ONE pleasant face-to-face interaction with a human being other than Attila. Isolation has been an experience! The upside of all those negative interactions is that I don’t really want to be around people face-to-face, it is very ugly and to be avoided. This works in my favour for the moment, as there is little choice but to remain in isolation for the indefinite future. I think though, that I may have some serious adjusting to do, God willing, when all this disease and death dies down.
I won’t be eligible for a Covid vaccine shot until May at the earliest, and most seniors who live independently are in the same boat as I am. Attila will not be eligible until July at the earliest. It is going to be a LOOOONG stretch of months, waiting to see if I or Attila lose the Covid lottery and join the growing statistic of seniors who didn’t make it to the vaccine goal post. Just one shot can protect us from serious harm, but where we live two shots are given, so half the number of lives are protected.
Attila’s workplace is the only pathway the virus has to us. He cannot leave work, too young to retire, but old enough for his life to be in grave danger. If he were offered early retirement by our federal government he would take it in a shot. But alas, that avenue of protecting older people is not under consideration by the powers that be.
It is puzzling why our government says it wants to save lives, knows that almost all of the lives lost are people over 60, and yet offers no opportunity for those over 60, but too young to qualify for a government pension, to retire and isolate. That would save hundreds and hundreds of lives, but for some reason this strategy isn’t even on the table. If all seniors could isolate, it would keep most people out of hospital, out of ICU, and away from ventilators. So, what is the agenda really, when such obvious strategies to save lives are completely ignored?
I find it very challenging to listen to politicians congratulating themselves on how well they are doing protecting vulnerable people. It isn’t lost on me that most of the vaccines we do have have gone to the people who are in long-term-care, and the people who care for them, where private corporations are making a very big profit by “caring” for our seniors inadequately. If the privately run LTC homes had been doing a good job, the seniors in long-term-care would be the MOST PROTECTED people in our country. That would have let us vaccinate the vulnerable seniors living in our communities. That would have kept the curve flat. But alas, no such investment in contagion control has been made in most privately run long-term-care homes. They are a fantastic investment opportunity, lots of money to be made for shareholders! Line up for profits!
Now, although I don’t read about it much, most of the seniors dying are those living in our communities. These seniors won’t be eligible for a vaccination for weeks, most for months.
Our public social structures were created by politicians, and in my opinion they haven’t much to congratulate themselves for, they are the ones who made the decisions about public safety, long before the predictable pandemic began, and during this pandemic. Some parties are more toxic than others, but they are all culpable in my opinion. When running public health like a business, business failures put people’s lives at risk. Well that is my take on this whole mess in Canada.
As I said to my daughter, the Pandemic doesn’t look the same to people over 60. Though we all face some degree of isolation, it is has more of an edge to it if you are in a group where the end result can easily be death, or you have lost someone you care about to the disease.
Worldly
Weather
Sat, Feb 27, 11:15 AM
3°C
FEELS LIKE -1
Rain
Wind 22 S km/h
Humidity 95 %
Visibility 9 km
Sunrise 6:48 AM
Wind gust 33 km/h
Pressure 101.1 kPa
Ceiling 400 m
Sunset 5:53 PM
Quote
“depression doesn’t desire you, deprivation detests you and unhappiness finds you abhorrent.”
What an astrologer says about my transit of Venus and Mars. Luckily I don’t care for these states, and give them a wide berth.