The snow is melting! The sun has come out for short intervals this morning. But looking out at the Robin, perched so saucily red breasted in the Crabapple Tree, the heavenly backdrop has dulled, seemingly for the sake of his distinction.
A quiet day here. I’ve begun listening to Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen. I think I’ve read all of Miss Austen’s novels. I’ve now listened to Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility, enjoying both very much.
Listening to audio books requires a different kind of focus than does reading the written word. I found the period of adjustment to be longer when listening, as opposed to reading. Somehow the visual, the words on the page, make the transition easier. But once I acclimatize myself to the literary devices and syntax of a novel, both the written word and the spoken word are easily followed. ,
When you doze off reading a book, you usually awake with the book open to the same page. I am here to tell you that this is not the case with an audio book! Goodness, I slept through two chapters! It isn’t all that hard to scroll back to a point I remember, and I usually have to listen to at least a few minutes of the story, that I’ve already heard, in order to find my place again. But all in all, the audio books are a real pleasure.
More bills in the mail. I will be spraying the mail and incoming items with aqueous oxygen, which is as free as tap water, and will continue with that until my cartridges are spent. The device has cartridges, which can no longer be replaced, as the appliance is no longer manufactured or sold, so eventually it will cease to function. But for now, we are in business.
Attila went out for supplies tonight, and he reports that the shelves in the all the stores he visited are empty of hand sanitizer, isopropyl alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide. Hopefully those items will be restocked at some point. There have been no masks in the stores since December, when I was first looking for them.
I learned something new on the internet today. Although it could be a hoax, I do not think it is. A woman with a web site called Lead Safe Mama has purchased the equipment to test surfaces for lead and other harmful metals. She has been testing the decorations on Corelle dishes, made before 2005, vintage Corelle. Wow, high in lead, cadmium, and a whole host of other bad things that shouldn’t be part of a healthy diet. Who knew. I sure didn’t. Luckily it is only the decorations that have this issue, so my plain white Corelle is just fine. Who would have thought that Corning could have made such manufacturing decisions, it wasn’t as if they didn’t know it was dangerous.
There was a little boy who I went through public school with, he was in my class every year. Robert. I remember his full name, but will not share it, respecting his privacy. Robert had chewed on lead paint while in his crib, in his early years, and was brain damaged. He was a beautiful child, and happy, but we all knew he was different, and why. That was in the 50s, long before any of the my dinnerware was manufactured, the crib manufactured built the crib before any concerns about lead paint were raised. Money makers don’t seem to feel accountable for the impact of their products on customers, as they are chasing profit first and foremost. I don’t believe the paint manufacturer who produced the paint on that crib understood the impact, but Corelle had to have known, and the statement that everyone else was doing it at the time doesn’t really wash with me.
Worldly
Weather
2°C
Date: 9:32 AM EST Tuesday 3 March 2020
Condition: Mist
Pressure: 100.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 1.9°C
Dew point: 1.8°C
Humidity: 100%
Wind: NNE 5 km/h
Visibility: 6 km
Quote
“…it is not very wonderful that with all their promising talents and early information, they should be entirely deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge, generosity, and humility. In everything but disposition, they were admirably taught.”
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
This is timeless, and so much more true in this information age!!
Hi Maggie,
Do you have disposable gloves? They can replace the device when it doesn’t have cartridges any more. xo
What a great idea Joannie! I have a few pairs, will be looking for more now. I don’t think we were quite prepared for the sanitation end of things, but we will make do with what we have.
I’m glad you have just white dishes. We have stainless steel everything, it is a weirdness of mine, which some friends find strange. Still, the steel plates, bowls and cups are lightweight, non breakable and no worries of poison. I recommend the movie “Dark Waters”. It’s incredible that they still sell those coated pans. It might be a slightly different coat, but I suspect it’s just as poisonous as what made that factory town people so sick. I like the idea of audible books, though I haven’t tried them yet. Speaking of Austin, “Emma” finally comes to Yuma theater this Friday. Julia and I will go to the 10:45am showing, where I suspect we will be the only ones in the front section, center…..
Joan, I have some vintage Corelle that has patterns, so those pieces will be reused somewhere other than the kitchen, I don’t know what I’ll do with them yet, but I will think of something. The all white dishes are safe. I like th idea of metal, but Attila can taste metal in food that has touched metal, stainless steel cutlery is as far as he will go. So the Corelle is the next best thing, the all white.
My pots and pans have always been stainless steel, since my very first set, which are still in use after more than 50 years. We don’t use coated cookwear, or bakewear, and do not use aluminum in direct contact with food.
The real weakness in our leftover storage, and some freezer storage, is plastic containers and bags. We try to minimize their impact by cooling all food before it touches the containers, and storing high acid foods in glass, but we still use and reuse plastic bags and containers. Again, stainless would be good, but Attila can taste the metal, and he breaks glass, so plastic is all that is left, unless silicone steps in at some point. But silicone is not tried and true, hopefully it will be OK, I have silicone muffin liners that we use and love.
The audible books are wonderful! I have spent my credits on long offerings, as many hours as I can get for my dollar, so the Jane Austen set came in at 81 hours of listening pleasure. I am very happy with audible, although it is quite an expense, but it was my Christmas present this year, so this year I don’t worry about it.
How wonderful to go to the theatre! I haven’t been for years and years. I used to get season’s tickets for the Theatre in cottage country, where great productions were put on in the summer, with some very talented visiting actors and actresses. But since then there have been few opportunties. Enjoy!!!
In addition to the many stainless steel food storage boxes, we have some glass ones I got at a local grocery store. They have plastic lids, but at least the plastic doesn’t touch the food. “Tasting the metal”, maybe this is what grosses our friend out. We do have some plastic containers, free ones that came with rice or ice cream in them, they store our many kinds of loose leaf tea. (It is a movie theater that I speak of, “Emma” should be available in DVD or streaming in a few months.)
Joan, a movie theatre, why that means I might see this production in time! Excellent! I do hope you like it.
Our glass storage consists of gallong jars, a few dozen of those, mason jars of all sizes, and recyled jars. I always have my eye open for often used items in desirable glass jars, I will even pay more for a product, just to get the jar! 🙂
Disposable gloves ~ what a great idea! I just put them on my list. I know a young man in upstate NY. He had an upper respiratory infection with a lot of coughing, fever, and sore throat. His wife was out of town or she would have driven him to urgent care. 4 days later he drove himself to urgent care. They only asked him if he had traveled to the original city in China that spawned the coronavirus. He had not but was surprised they didn’t ask about other areas like Northern Italy. They examined him, diagnosed bronchitis, and gave him a prescription. So it doesn’t look like there’s a common screening protocol for new patients yet.
Wow Sandy, that hardly sounds like diligent screening for the coronavirus! I watched a video from Hubei in China, filmed by a young man with his cell phone, back in late January I think. He went for a walk, there were no people on the street, the stores were closed, and when he returned home his temperature was taken at the entrance to the apartment building. I can only think that had he a temperature he would not have been able to go home that day! In Canada the powers that be still think the threat is low, but the bus riding case who had been to Iran, well, I have to wonder why she wasn’t staying at home until she knew for sure she was OK. It doesn’t sound like the precautions being taken are going to be very effective.
When we went shopping early Saturday afternoon, everything seemed completely normal. No long lines, some people picking up only a few days worth of food. Makes me wonder what the store shelves look like now.
Just so happened I bought a package of mini hand sanitizers a few months ago as I decided not to get the flu shot this year, so I was ahead of the game. (I decided not to get a 2nd flu shot, as when I got it last year it made me feel like I had a low grade flu literally for months.)
Oh, ugh, with the Corelle dishes. That’s what we use, and ours are pre-2005. Well, I was looking at replacing them as the paint was starting to chip, so now I have a good excuse. 😉
I’ve been reading how the US has lower numbers listed for coronavirus because they’ve been refusing to screen people for coronavirus unless they had traveled to one of the hot spots, so they are under reporting. Seattle proves that, with 9 deaths now and no Patient Zero. No one was screening for community spread.
Oh. I see where Apple’s Gaetz now says he might be Patient Zero in Seattle. He was in Hong Kong in January and met someone from Wuhan. Then when he returned to Seattle he and his wife got sick.
Teri, glad to hear things are normal in the retail outlets so far. I got the flu shot this year, I am lucky that I don’t react to it at all.
The situation with the Corelle dishes is disappointing! They are great dishes, except for the decorations being toxic. They seldom break and last for decades and decades, I have some from the early 70s. We have white ones, so we will just use those going forward.
The situation in Seatle sounds tragic, you have to wonder about people not self-quarantining after visting hot spots, it seems like a no-brainer to me. I sure wouldn’t want to live with thinking I might have behaved differently, and that people would still be alive if it wasn’t for my decisions.
I feel the same way.
We now have a corona case in my city. She came back from Italy and started getting ill on the plane. Once she got here she immediately took a taxi to the hospital. A good action but I wonder what will happen to the taxi driver. The original patient in NYC, the neighbor that drove him to the hospital tested positive for corona.
If they haven’t quarantined the taxi driver, we may end up with corona circulating here.
Teri, yes, who knows about the taxi driver, or the other people on the plane, or the people who touched things that she touched on her way to the taxi. Contagious viruses aren’t fussy, they are chancers, waiting for the prize. Our Prime Minister says no “kneejerk reactions” are called for… well, if he is right then hats off to him. If he is wrong, then the many deaths that will follow such sentiment will be a poor way of showing him the error of his ways.
I now see that the most recent three Ontario cases of coronavirus were all travelling in the US: Las Vegas, Colorado, and Michigan/Illinois.
We’ve cancelled our cruise. The cruiseline changed policy and was allowing cancellation while allowing us to keep the money we paid as future cruise credits. Normally, you would just lose all your money if you cancelled once you’d paid.
Teri, wow, I hadn’t realized the travel referred to was in the USA.
I am so glad your cancellation worked out so well!! I have thought of your trip from time to time, and wondered as things have evolved, how the situation might affect you. Your decisions makes perfect sense!