A Tale of Two Aprils

Having just yesterday put up a photo of the flooded tree, I thought to compare it to last April.

This is the same photo as yesterday but converted to mono, just because I like doing this sometimes.

Here is the pond last April. Although they are not identical viewpoints, I think you can see how much greater the flooding was last year. I even saw people canoeing in this pond, or at least getting into their canoes here before launching onto the river.

You can see the difference in our nearby park too. The water was right up to the footbridge last April.

It is almost passable this year . . . but, of course, I do walk around it to get to the river beyond. I do that by skirting around to the right past the bridge.

Onto the almost daily selfie: the weather is beginning to warm and some days are getting brighter, so thumbs up and cool shades. Dude. And duchess too. 😊

Heroes and Reflections

Some things get me emotional, and I confess that this photo of Shauna and others preparing to deliver breakfast to the residents got to me.

As of Sunday, Shauna has worked for 7 straight days and doing overtime too while helping out in areas that are, like this, well beyond her job description. She expects this to be her new normal for the time being.

I imagine the outfits are to connect with Hawaii and palm trees on Palm Sunday. They do what they can to spread cheer even if it isn't in keeping with the religious connotations.

This morning, I checked her location on the Find Friends app; apparently, she stayed there overnight. I don't know if this was a one-off or if it will be the new norm.

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Speaking of Shauna and her residence (and residents). They were grateful to receive this from a local distiller that has reconfigured its production to meet COVID needs.

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Another example of Good People Going Above and Beyond: a friend of Sha's  who also is Sue's manicurist picked up a few items that WMart missed in our recent order.. We made arrangements for her to leave this single bag out on the porch for us to, in turn, pick up from her.

We now have eggs and cat food, and she will do a main shopping for us and others once per week. That along with online+pickup should keep us in good stead. We'll be fine.

While I do feel that I could move about safely to shop, Sha and her friend have gone to lengths to help us, so Sue says the least we can do is stay safe, so it is one less worry for our overburdened daughter.

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After picking up the groceries we drove to the river for just a few minutes, Since we don't stop for a coffee when we do this anymore, we don't stay long. It is not the same, and it also seems somewhat frivolous at this time when people are asked to stay home. In our case, we were out already for the pickup, so it didn't seem so wrong.

It was overcast but calm so there was a nice reflection in the pond between the parking lot and the river. The pond was considerably larger last spring. It will stay flooded for perhaps a few weeks before the area dries out until we do it all again next spring.

This was to be another reflection photo, but I ended up cropping away the reflection part on the lwoer half because I like the composition better this way.

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Finally, we don't have a funny selfie to share today, but I'm sure we will be back on the ball tomorrow. So here's a Lacey as a lagniappe.

Pizza Ears and Panos

Last we heard, things hadn't changed at the seniors residence. There is still only one verified case, and we hope that it will remain that way. There is a problem with workers quitting or not showing up, but we haven't heard the details. One understands their fear, but the place still has to function, and others must put in more hours. Our daughter informs us that she will have to go into work every single day for the time being.

But the weather was really nice here and felt like the first day of spring with temperatures rising to 14C/57F without the blasts of wind that are so typical of this time of year.

After dealing with out daily selfie, which featured pizza ears and cat whiskers the nice weather drew us out for our daily amble.

Somehow, the app decided that I only needed whiskers on one side.

A walkie selfie.

I decided to take some panos with my phone. I do like how easy it is using the phone.

This was almost directly across from our bench.

Looking back to the pond that was teeming with ducks and geese just a short while ago but they have moved on except for one pair that is not visible in this photo. The big pond looks small beyond the footbridge while the water in the smaller and nearer pond is mostly a result of recent rain. There is usually just a trickle there.

While I was taking panos, Sue was taking selfies.

As we left, Sue took a picture of the bench from the back. You can glimpse a bit of the river just beyond the bench, but the little pond in the foreground looks bigger than the river in this photo.

The Answer Key

The answer key to yesterdays challenge will be found at the bottom of the page.

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Oh dear! There is a confirmed COVID case in Shauna's retirement home. It is a worker who shares an apartment with a worker from the other infected home in Perth. She is/was extremely conscientious about washing and disinfecting, so they hope for the best.

Two of those who work closest to her, the worker, are being tested. The residents have been confined to their rooms. Shauna reported that the first meal delivery to three floors worked efficiently.

Understandably but unfortunately, this has caused several other employees to give notice, so daughter is working harder that ever. She put in 12 hours yesterday and will go in to work again today, Saturday.

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As of yesterday, at least 80 seniors residences in the province reported COVID cases. The residents at Sha's place tend to be in decent health and not as old as in many homes, so she has high hopes for minimal impact.

My goodness, I just saw that up to 900 seniors residences across the country are infected.

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Isolation Tidbits from a poll

• 76% of Canadians are isolating voluntarily
• 5% are in mandatory quarantine at home
• 14% are working
• 6% don't think it will work (and it won't if they don't)

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A response to the 6% in the above poll



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Speaking of Isolating, I had to give in just a little bit yesterday when I entered my third store in three weeks because it was necessary to get cat food. We called the order in; they had it ready by the counter with all but the entrance being barricaded to customers. I waved my card at the machine and was off quickly.

The other two previous store visits were similarly brief and as safe as possible.

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We are now into week 4 of isolation with many more to go, I am sure.

If isolation is working in general across the province and country, we may begin to see indications by the end of next week.

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Since we were out anyway, we took selfies at this sign by a friend's house. She is the wacky and wonderful town councillor and wild hat lady of whom I have posted before.

Town people posing here is becoming a town meme of sorts. Anything to keep the spirits up. But I do shock myself when I see the old man in the photos. I know I'm of an age, but I forget how obvious it is.

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Another recent selfie of the bizarre kind. Perhaps do not share with impressionable children. 😈

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I looked out the window and saw two neighbours conversing while maintaining the ultimate in social distancing (red circles).

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Last evening I picked up our first order from WMart. It went smoothly and quickly, and we scored on 17 of the 22 items that we requested. That's not bad.

For things we missed, Shauna's former neighbour, who is also Sue's manicurist,  has volunteered to pick up items for us because she is off work, and Shauna is extremely busy at work.

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As promised, here are the answers if you tried to play the Figures of Speech game in yesterdays post. I would probably not have bothered playing it on my own, but it was kind of an event playing it online in a family chat group. If you haven't yet played the game and want to, please stop scrolling now, and click here to find the game (puzzle). (I am putting it down a little way to assist you with this aversion if that is what you choose to do.)

Figures of Speech

Let's keep it light today, shall we? No more kvetching about bad charts. lol

(Please read to the bottom if you want try a challenging activity that our extended family played together online.)

Things aren't so light in this first section, but an armoured truck somehow combusted in our downtown on Wednesday evening. It was just across from a gas station. It could have been worse. I think it had been moved by the time when the photo was taken but had been farther away from the gas station, across the street, during the conflagration.

No waterfowl at the pond the last few days, but there was this rock nearby. It was part of a project for kids, to paint rocks and leave them along path by the park.

There was also a redwing blackbird. It was way up in a tree, so please forgive the poor photo.

And . . . we also had a third, non-fowl sighting. Houses back onto the park (lucky devils) and look what I saw. Crocuses, I do believe. Yay!

Sha picked up a few groceries and supplies for us. She leaves them on the floor in their bags. Sue cleans them and puts them on the wiped table. They stay there for several days before we bring them in. The coffee cream will be fine as it is still like a fridge in the garage. It is a light shopping as I am due to pick up an online order from WMart this evening. We shall see how successful it is as they are experiencing low stock in many items.

The Daily Selfie: I don't know why my face got foggy.

This was our in-the-park selfie.

Our devices started going mad from action in our family message group. There were up to 7 of us trying to guess the answers. It was quite a wild time with guesses coming from all over the province, and even the country.

There are 27 figures of speech referenced in the drawing. How many can you guess? If you want to play, I will post answers tomorrow.

Before I knew what was going on, I was miffed at all of the beeps on my phone. We were watching tv, and the streaming device for my hearing aids, cut out for a few seconds after every beep. I shut my phone off completely, but somehow, the beeps on Sue's phone continued to cause interference, even though my bluetooth device is not hooked up to hers. It was a British program with very strong accents, so I was struggling anyway.

Oversimplification Irks AC

Masks during COVID are controversial, but in my very humble opinion, some of the information. such as the graph below. is not very helpful.

This graphic is making the rounds. While the roughly drawn circles do highlight a definite difference, the labels may be misleading, or at the very least, incomplete.

One could just as easily label the circles Europe and Asia, but that wouldn't be helpful either. How about Oriental and Caucasian? Or near the Pacific and near the Atlantic? For sure, there are are more factors to be considered than masks.

In fact this kind of oversimplification peeves me because trends such as these simply cannot be explained so simply with one single answer. There are other factors that must be put into the equation such as when lockdown occurred and how quickly people complied. It must be the case that lockdown and compliance have to be the most crucial factors.

As far as I understand it, those identified as Mask countries in the chart also, and I think more importantly, responded to isolation and distancing more thoroughly and quickly. The type of society may have something to do with that as these Asian countries may be more compliant to authority and more attuned to the collective good rather than Western nations with their more individualistic ethos.

Let's face it, whether you are pro-mask or anti-mask, social isolation and distancing are still of primary importance. It is not like you can don a mask and then think you are safe to go to a crowded beach party. Distancing is undeniably the best practice: stay in your house and avoid people as much as possible. (I am not meaning to forget sanitizing both yourself and surfaces, but distancing is considered to be the first line of defence from what I can gather.)

The question then becomes this: "If you must go out in public, is it safer to wear a mask?" There seems to be a consensus emerging that perhaps that is the case, but I am not sure that we have quite got all of the way to that conclusion yet. And while I am beginning to lean that way, I would like more input from experts.

Time will tell. Personally, and to repeat, I am beginning to favour masking if you need to be out and about, but in my case, I am not out and about. I am assuredly safer remaining isolated but unmasked than risking personal contact with a mask.

If you have to be out and in contact with others and you do wear a mask, PLEASE don't be lulled into a false sense of security and think that is the end of it. Do wash and disinfect thoroughly.

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Having written my puny thoughts on the subject, Sue has uncovered in a cupboard N95 masks, still packaged, that she purchased way back during the SARS outbreak. I am willing to consider wearing one as the topic gains more traction and more information becomes available. I will, however, first and foremost, try to follow the most important advice about distancing and not be totally persuaded by handwritten labels on a graph. I will certainly consider the mask factor, but I will also use my brain as I realize that putting a trend down to a single cause and effect is overly simplistic.

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By the way, mentioning SARS as I did above, reminds one that this outbreak is best medically and officially known as SARS-CoV-2. I am sure that everybody has been searching for one more name for the virus, and so I oblige. 😎

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Now, if I may move onto the important stuff, I present our daily selfie. I am really getting in touch with my feminine side these days.

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After writing my thoughts, above, about the Mask issue, I came across this article that I think is pretty even-handed about the pros and cons. It may help you decide, and if you choose to mask, I think it is worth reading to help you be aware of the pitfalls.

School Cancellation Extended

Well, we have the grocery pickup mixup sorted, not ideally but still sorted.

We were able to post an order with WMart which we can pick up on Friday evening, so that is not too bad. Just this morning, I was able reserve a slot for our regular grocery store in two weeks time. Between the two places and Shauna picking up some odds and ends, I should be able to remain isolated. We are still in critical weeks (and may be for some time), so I want to avoid exposure if possible. While I do think it would be pretty safe to shop, I might as well keep my distance as much as possible.

One bit of advice that I came across was to isolate yourself as if you had the virus. That might be stretching it a little bit, but it seems like a good thought to keep in mind. Of course, I wouldn't even go for a walk if I was really infected, and I do plan to go for walks, weather permitting.

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Speaking of weather, our days of rain are coming to an end. Although it is still overcast this (Tuesday) morning. It is forecast to be sunny and reach near 10C/50F this afternoon.

But there is still that icy patch on the front lawn: the one that I posted about yesterday.

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Shauna's workplace doesn't seem to be infected yet. Perhaps the virus will bypass them. As the general manager, though, she had to stay to help serve dinner last night because they were short-staffed. If things do get bad, she is prepared to stay there day and night. It is a residence, so she should be able to set up a spot. There are rooms available, but I don't know about beds as residents supply their own furnishings.

. . . I have just asked Sha, and she says that they have some beds and furnishings for guests and temporary residents. A temprary resident, for example, might stay there for a few weeks after an operation.

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Yesterdays Selfie: I have hair, but I think I prefer baldness.

Grammar check wants me to apostrophize "Yesterdays" above the photo, but I don't think the selfie belongs to yesterday. Does it?

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Finally: schools are now cancelled until May, and who knows after that.