Tag: covid-19

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MASKS MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR WOMEN

Most everyone complained about wearing masks for a year. Masks are hot and sweaty once you’ve been walking around for awhile—even during cold weather outside.  But they’re worse in hot weather.  All of us breathed a sigh of relief when the mask mandate ended and we could go back to being our old selves. Wearing makeup and styling our hair again was a treat.  And yet, when the delta strain of covid-19 cases surged this week, it was deja vu.  Back to the dark days of mask wearing,  before the vaccine was available.   But a funny thing happened as I prepared to go shopping.   I realized I didn’t need to fool around with eyebrow pencil, blush, foundation or lipstick.  Didn’t even have to worry about my hair.   I could drive  to the store and walk around incognito.  I hate to admit it, but  masks make life easier for women.

Masks make life easier for women. No one knows whether you're wearing makeup.
Masks make life easier for women. You don’t have to bother with makeup every time you go shopping.

Have you ever observed  the cosmetics section of a pharmacy, and marveled at all the products available?  Entire walls of lipsticks, eye liner, blush, foundation, mascara—it’ staggering. Then on to the next aisle with rows of fancy shampoos, conditioners, hair treatments and hair sprays.  No wonder Revlon and Loreal are so profitable.  With a lot of time, effort, and expensive products,  plain Jenny can become Jennifer Lawrence or Lopez.

Cosmetic manufacturing  profit margins must have dived during the pandemic, although they didn’t make any public statements to that effect. All I know is that I didn’t buy a single new tube of lipstick.  Or any other cosmetics, for that matter. And I learned to cut my own hair.

The pursuit of beauty has become a bigger business than I can ever remember back in the fifties and sixties.    Yes, there were ” beauty parlors”  where affluent women could get their hair done and nails manicured. But there were no nail salons, eyebrow threading kiosks, false eyelashes, botox bars, skin treatment parlors.. Those were the stuff of Hollywood stars, not real women.  And yet, with the help of a little lipstick, we still attracted boyfriends.  And it was a lot less work getting ready for a date.

Let’s face it.  Masks makes life easier for women. And save money, too.

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IS BIDEN A MODERN CHARLEMAGNE?

We usually think of early European  kings as men who started wars,  collected taxes and had people beheaded.  Rarely do we think of them as venturing into healthcare.  But Charlemagne was different. In the eighth century,  he enacted  a law  requiring that all of his subjects must  consume flaxseed. Considering he founded the Holy Roman Empire, that meant a whole lot of people were under his command.   In the USA, the president of the United States is about as close you can get to a king. Trouble is, we’re a democracy.  Presidents can’t make laws on their own.  But sometimes, they come pretty close.  Is Biden a modern Charlemagne?

Is Biden a modern Charlemagne? He issuing edicts on healthcare.
Is Biden a modern Charlemagne? He’s  mandating healthcare practices.

Charlemagne may have been onto something.  Many nutritionists  call flaxseed  one  of the most powerful plant foods on the planet. There’s some evidence it may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.

But I suspect Charlemagne might have had the same problem as Biden.  People don’t always do what’s best for them.   They might have kept flaxseed in their homes, just to comply with the law, but that doesn’t mean that they always consumed it.  It would have pretty easy to throw the seeds out the window on a windy day.  And I’ll bet you that  about 50% of his subjects did just that.

Biden is going pretty far with executive orders during this covid-19 crisis. He  mandated  last week  that all federal employees and on-site contractors will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be required to wear masks and undergo repeated testing. This order that will affect millions of workers and is designed to be a model for other employers.

Next,  he  asked the Pentagon  to look at adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the military’s mandatory shots.  That idea isn’t going over too well.  A lot of the military don’t want to get vaccinated.  They think the vaccine is unsafe and untested.   But in the end,  Biden will probably get what he wants.

Is Biden a modern Charlemagne?

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PLEASE DON’T BRUSH TEETH IN LIBRARY

Everyone is getting upset about the new cases of covid-19 surging in our once-safe city.  The governor is not going to enforce mask wearing, but it looks like we’ll have to be extra careful about handwashing and other sanitary habits.  Yesterday,  I saw a woman brushing her teeth at the restroom sink in  the public library. She didn’t appear to be homeless. Nicely dressed, fairly well groomed.  Maybe she was going to a meeting and didn’t want to have bad breath.  All I know is that she was spitting in the sink, and saliva can spread the coronavirus.   Perhaps they should post a sign: Please  don’t brush teeth in library.

Please don't brush teeth in the library. It's not sanitara.
Please don’t brush teeth in library. Spitting in the sink can spread the virus.

Etiquette wise, it’s considered acceptable for a person to brush their teeth in a public restroom. But do you want to wash your hands in a sink where someone has spit their food, saliva and germs?   In fact, someone  with the virus may have contaminated the entire area where you’re turning on water,  and reaching for the soap dispenser.

Let’s go back and assume this person actually was homeless.  Maybe she had nice clothes, and was well groomed, because she wasn’t always homeless. Perhaps she began living in her car just a couple of days ago.  Anything is possible.  I just know she was creating a health hazard not only for herself, but for anyone who used the sink after she did. .

It’s hard to know how to handle a situation like this.  I’m not into confrontations with strangers, so I didn’t say a word.  However,  I didn’t care to wash my hands in that sink.  So I left the restroom without doing so.   Found some sanitizer at one of the desks.  Wiped my hands with a Kleenex (they don’t have paper towels) as best I could and tried to avoid touching anything except the books I was checking out.  Luckily, I’ve been vaccinated, so I’m not as vulnerable as some. But still.  Please don’t brush your teeth in the library–or any public restroom..

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ARE THEY RUNNING OUT OF NEWS?

Watching network news every evening has been a habit for as many years as we can remember.    The idea of turning off the TV at the news hour would have seemed unthinkable until now.  However, I find myself walking away after a few minutes of viewing.  Because now, the lead story is always about the resurging covid-19 outbreak.  Even if you didn’t like Trump or Biden, at least the presidential campaign and the fuss over who won the election provided a little excitement.  Are they  running out of news this week, or just not very interested in  what else is going on?

Are They Running Out of News? Or are they focusing too much on covid-19?
Are they running out of news? Or, is there too much about the ongoing Covid-19,epidemic.?

I find the endless reports of new covid-19 outbreaks  annoying.  If half the people in the United States won’t get vaccinated, I consider them  risk takers.  They’re really no different than smokers, or people who ride motorcycles without helmets.  Yes, we’re sorry that they get lung cancer or are permanently disabled, but they’ve mostly brought it on themselves.  It’s unfortunate, but t can’t feel too much sympathy for irresponsible people.

I don’t know why they consider the Covid-19 outbreaks more important than the riots, high crime rate, and number of homicides taking place in cities like Chicago. The people in those areas did not bring their problems on themselves.  They’re the victims of a very sick society where children grow up watching violent video games and then proceed to act out, with life-ruining results for small businesses and ordinary people in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Or they could take us to the Southwestern Border, where millions of illegal immigrants are overwhelming our resources, and wreaking havoc in the unfortunate cities and towns along the way.

There isn’t a dearth of news in our country.  There’s just an unwanted emphasis on the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic which could have been prevented if the people who got sick had been vaccinated. They don’t deserve that much attention.

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HOORAY! BACK TO PRE-PANDEMIC WEIGHT

It doesn’t take a whole lot to make me happy.  I don’t want to be rich and famous.  But I do want to be in control of my weight.  That’s what comes from being a hospital dietitian for so long.  But stepping on the scales after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns was a downer.  I don’t have unrealistic goals.  What I weighed at 25 and even 55 is not going to happen again.  In fact,  elderly women who are slightly overweight have longer life expectancies.  So who wants to look like Jane Fonda? I’m okay with being at the far end of a normal BMI (body mass index), and have kept my weight about the same for many years—until the end of March , 2021.  But today,  I had to celebrate, just in time for the 4th of July.  Hooray! Back to pre-pandemic weight.

hooray! back to pre-pandemic weight
HOORAY! BACK TO PRE-PANDEMIC WEIGHT. Don’t let 4th of July foods ruin your diet.

How did I gain weight last year?  We fixed the same types of food—lots of salads and weight watcher type frozen  dinners.  And we didn’t eat in a restaurant  for over a year.  However,  we did more carry out, which often had a side order of French fries.  Who can resist hot, steamy, fragrant French fries when they’re sitting right in front of you?  But more importantly, I didn’t get nearly as much exercise.  My frequent shopping trips were condensed to once a week.  Daily walks had to be outside, and were often canceled by rain, sleet, snow, and extreme heat.  The lesson to be learned here isn’t new.  If you want to lose  weight, eat less, exercise more.

But the pandemic didn’t affect everyone the same way.  In fact, at groups and gatherings, I’ve noticed that some people  actually lost weight.  I don’t know how they did that, but I’m thinking they didn’t eat out as often, and don’t really like to cook. Or maybe they invested in some type of home exercise machine.  Good for them!  I’m hoping they weren’t depressed, which could have affected their appetite and resulted in weight loss.  But it’s possible.

 I’m happy to be back to pre pandemic weight. However, new challenges are ahead this coming weekend.  Who can resist 4th of July food?  Potato salad, deviled eggs, baked beans…yum!

Happy 4th of July to all!

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FREE MONEY IS NOT FREE

Back in the Hippie Days of the late sixties and early seventies,  there was a saying: Free Love is not Free.  This was in response to a society that had embraced the concept of free love.  Living together without marriage, which had once been scandalous, was now accepted as the norm.  But the older generation wagged their finger and warned against so much sexual freedom.  They had a point, because unmarried women still kept getting pregnant, and there was an explosion of STDs.  Today, we have a new type of freedom to worry about.  A government that’s borrowing wildly to print money, writing stimulus checks every few months, and rewarding those who choose not to work with generous unemployment benefits.  But it seems we’re about to learn our lesson:  Free Money Is Not Free.

Have you been to the grocery store lately?  Supposedly, prices have increased a mere 5%.  I don’t know who’s pumping out those figures, but here’s an example: A month ago, I could buy a low calorie frozen dinner for $2.29 cents.  Today, that same product was on the shelves with a price tag of $3.59.  At the home improvement store, floor covering  I bought last year has increased from 54 cents a square foot to 89 cents.  To me, these and numerous other price  increases are closer to 40%..  All this free money has pumped up demand, creating a scarcity for goods and services..

Free Money is not Free. The feds don't know what will happen with inflation
Free Money is not free. The feds are blowing smoke when they say high inflation will not last.

I don’t know where the fed is coming from.  First,  Secretary of the Treasury,   Janet Yellen. says inflation is “good” for the country.  Then, she’s comforts us by predicting that it’s only temporary and prices will soon go back down.  I say this lady is blowing smoke , along with Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.     They  are basing their predictions on events that occurred in previous administrations.  None of them have ever been though a pandemic like COVID-19, and they have no more idea of what is going to happen to prices than you and me. .

 As a matter of fact, I think the average, middle class consumer has a better handle on the future of our economy that they do, because we’re driving to appointments,  going to grocery stores, and  buying home improvement items on a day to day basis.  We, the ordinary tax payers are paying more for everything because all this free money has created such a high demand.  Eventually, taxes will go up to pay for the free money , and so will interest rates.  Ordinary people will find they are struggling to pay their bills every month. Many businesses will fail and unemployment will increase.

According to Fortune Magazine,  “The economic lockdown, and the gigantic new spending enacted to combat it, brings the day of reckoning far closer. By borrowing multiple trillions at a pace never before seen, the U.S. is endangering the sterling credit that makes Treasuries and the dollar the safest of havens for global investors. It is likely that within the next decade, the U.S. will need to impose monumental tax increases. What America’s leaders aren’t saying is that it’s the middle-class Americans working today, the autoworkers, nurses, and deli owners, and not just their future generations, who’’ll foot most of the bill.”

Free Money Isn’t Free.

 

 

 

 

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A BABY IS STARING AT YOU

Last week, I came face to face with a baby who was born during the pandemic.  Couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 months.  Sitting in a grocery cart, wearing nothing but a diaper.  Was he/she scared or timid?  Neither one.  The baby was staring at me with wide open eyes.  I stopped and smiled, afraid that would trigger some tears.  But the child didn’t bat an eye or move a muscle.  Just kept staring.  I had never seen a baby look at me so intently before, and I’ve been around many grandkids.  Then, it occurred to me.  I was maskless, for the first time in 15 months.  The baby wasn’t used to seeing naked faces at the grocery store.  And since most of the other customers were wearing masks, he was fascinated.  Now that masks are no longer mandatory in public, you may find that a baby is staring at you.

Baby is staring at you. He hasn't seen anyone without a mask since he was born.
Baby is staring at you because he hasn’t seen anyone without a mask out in public until now.

Most public places now have signs saying, “you need not wear a mask if you’ve been vaccinated.”  About half the grownups in this town have received the vaccine, but a lot of them are still wearing masks.  Which means that little kids won’t find them very interesting.  I, for one, was happy to discard the mask the minute our governor said it was okay.

A couple of days later, I went to a meeting with a group that hadn’t met since March of 2020.  Outside the private club, a little girl stood at the back door. Probably a child of one of the employees.  She looked about  eight or nine. .  Once again, I was surprised at her friendliness.  Kids that age don’t usually notices seniors.  But when I got out of my car and  smiled at her, she  wanted to talk.  She said she was with her aunt, who was working inside.  That may seem strange, unless you’ve been to a country   where it’s common for people to bring children to work.  But the point is, she seemed hungry for some type of social interaction. Especially with a person whose  face was visible.

You have to wonder how it’s been for kids during this pandemic.  So isolated that the only  faces they see are at home with family.  But if they can see you smile, they may smile back.  And there’s nothing so heartwarming as that.     Be happy if a baby is staring at you.