Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Weight 124.2, WW Bluepoints 8. I think I am probably eating too many zero point foods and going too high some days to drop the last 3+ pounds I want to lose. Good for maintenance, but since I don't want to be there yet, I need to cut back a bit.

So... I am having a new AC unit installed today. I called a company which friends had used many times to do some maintenance on my 11 year old unit. I knew it was older and not top of the line, but didn't expect to be buying a new one. First the furnace on the Cape, now this! That crisis was caused because I had delayed replacement. I don't want to end up in a similar one here potentially when we are sick, can't get someone to do it, or are at home and it is the middle of summer. But I was thinking that I was saving money staying at home! Arghhh...

On a more fun side, I had been eyeing some Lilly Pulitzer shorts but didn't want to pay full price. I got them for about 40% of the original price via Poshmark (new with tags). Score! Not that I have anywhere to wear them...

Today is AC installment day so I'll be sitting around. We may watch Little Women as DS watched it at home and we can watch it on the same fee anytime up to 8 pm tonight.

Stay at home, stay safe, stay healthy.

Good morning ! 2:30 AM start to the day here, as I didn't secure cats down stairs before going to bed and one cat was serenading us and bumping his body against our bedroom door. After coffee I finished TT packages, and the last two are going out today. I almost want to buy a postal scale and start metering my own packages here ! I dislike going to the post office. It is cool here and we had lots of rain over night, so not much raking today. Wet wintered over leaves are so musty ! I do plan on a good walk. NYC DD is doing better... it seems our plateau is in sight, so that is great. WA and CA did such a great job of jumping on this. I hope everyone can sit tight.

I am so glad to hear that DD is feeling better. I know what you mean about going to the post office. I thought about that recently too. I'm sorry!

Weight: 133.8
Veggies/Fruits: 5
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,700, Carbs - 221, Fats - 52, Proteins - 105, Fiber - 34
WW Green Points: ?
Fitbit Recorded Sleep: 9'10"
Exercise: 8,336 steps

Sleep's up, weight's down, eating back under control.

Interesting experience about going to town yesterday. I think it was more stress-inducing than stress-alleviating. First, it was 81 degrees, and it turns out that (for me) wearing a bandana on my face is claustrophobic, so I hated that. Second, in all my walking about town I saw only one other person (a young male runner) wearing a face-covering. Everyone I saw in groups (young and old) were NOT staying 6 feet apart. So that was irritating. Third, the whole getting-ready-to-leave and returning-home desanitation scenes stress me out. Going forward I think I'll find places to go walking where I'm likely to see different sorts folks and/or NOT have to wear a bandana. I'll save my nice masks from DianeO for forays that require me to be indoors amidst other people.

Today's outing involves: (1) curbside grocery pickup, (2) curbside Rx renewal pickup, and (3) retrieving mail at the UPS Store, which I just remembered I can do through a drive-up window (so yea for me for finally recalling that option!).

On the COVID-19 front, I'm tracking and studying more data than you could imagine (it soothes me--go figure), and here are a couple of yesterday's findings:

Guess which state has the highest % of adult smokers? Kentucky.
Guess which state currently has the highest COVID-19 fatality rate? Kentucky.

Guess which state has the lowest % of adult smokers? Utah.
Guess which state currently has the lowest COVID-19 fatality rate? Utah.

You're welcome.

Interesting stats! Florida people have been getting more and more careful since the stay at home order. About 50% or more have masks on in the stores but everyone stays way far away. I can't exercise with a mask because of the claustrophobia and heat, but I stay apart from everyone by way more than 6 feet. Some others have tried using them while exercising but have mostly given that up and just use more distance. But all my friends and I definitely have them on if we have to do an errand.

Ann, have you looked at the numbers for how many black people are dying from the disease? It's incredibly disproportionate to the populations. Not that more are getting sick, but that they are so much more likely to die from it. I found that so incredibly sad.

Ceci, I don't have access to any racial info about COVID-19 cases and deaths, other than those I've read about in news stories. There isn't enough data widely available right now to study. But I imagine what we're seeing (high rates of disease and death among minority residents of blue-collar cities) is more about socio-economic-status differences than racial differences.

In a highly infectious pandemic (where social distancing is the ONLY way to improve one's chances of not getting sick in the first place) society's class differences all come home to roost. Your survival odds are reduced if you can't self-quarantine (by which I mean REALLY quarantine), work from home, avoid public transportation, access savings to support yourself and loved ones during lockdown, aren't already in poor health, etc. etc. etc.

Put another way ... I have the enormous privilege of collecting my groceries at curbside once a week instead of going inside the store and exposing myself to the virus which surely is already on multiple surfaces inside the store. The people gathering my groceries and depositing them in the back of my Lexus SUV six feet away from me (who have far fewer privileges than I do) don't have that privilege because they have to work to support their families.

Yesterday, my county's health department reported 4 positive CV cases here. That's up from 1 case just a week ago and means scores more citizens of this county who aren't sick yet and haven't been tested are already infected and shedding the virus among their families, in stores (including Walmart, the largest store in the county), at their essential jobs, etc.

Without any social distancing measures whatsoever, in the two weeks it would take one infected person to feel ill and seek medical care (and everyone they infect during those two weeks and those infected by everyone they will infect) they could spread the disease to 8,000-25,000 people. No, that number is neither a theoretical exaggeration nor fake news. It's kindergarten epidemiology for a disease with an R0/"R naught" (the metric that describes an infected person's daily infection rate) of 2.4.

Here's some not-so-light reading about who dies during pandemics: The Great Plague of London of 1665-66.

While it is clear that the poor always suffer disproportionately during crises: hurricanes, tornados, epidemics... it is also clear that African American citizens confront systemic barriers even more than other groups of poor folks. We need to do so much better. I'd better go outside and break up some more kindling. The inequities this pandemic is highlighting breaks my heart.

Want to clarify that I don't think all African Americans are "poor folks". But in that vein, there are some studies that show that quality of life outcomes like access to medical care are still lower for affluent black people than other groups in the same socio economic group.