Domino Effect

 Life is a domino effect.If one thing is out of place, others will follow. For the last 2 months, we have been nagging our doctors to write their medical notes. Once they are written, they need to be cross checked by date and then filed away. Since my staff of 5 is now a staff of 2, there is more work per person. After much prodding, most of them have sent their paperwork to me. Now instead of filing 45 papers daily, I have a stack of about 1000 papers. If the papers are not in the charts, we do not pay the doctors for the services. I will take as long to file them as I waited to get them.

Happy Birthday

Today is my granddaughter's fourth birthday. The years have flown by. Last year I missed her birthday party because I planned a vacation not knowing the weekend of her celebration. I swore that I would never miss another party. This year there is no party. Life has taken an odd course and all parties were cancelled. They are now virtual events. When I look at her, I see myself at four. I had the same light blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. I see myself and her father in her beautiful face. She is packed full of personality and lights up the room. She is smart and funny. I can't wait to visit her and her sister when this mess is over.

Cinco De Mayo

Today is Cinco De Mayo. It's also Taco Tuesday. The stars have aligned and both days have finally met. The celebrations will be smaller and less noisy but they will still go on. The only odd thing is that mt sister's sombreros are nowhere to be found. They are always put in the same place and taken out for celebrations. This year they have gone MIA. She searched and searched to no avail. So now there will be sombrero-less Cinco De Mayo. Maybe the hats felt sick and went to the Mayo clinic.

Kalimba

Yesterday my kalimba arrived. Two weeks ago I did not know what a kalimba was. It is a small hand held wooden instrument that is also called a thumb piano. Mine has 17 tines and sounds almost like a harp. It is relaxing to play and so far with the exception of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, I have played a mish mosh of sounds that sound like heavenly music. I sat for a long time yesterday just strumming the metal rods and creating soothing music. I couldn't put it down. My new goal is to learn how to play songs on it.

Scared Straight

Years ago there was an experimental program that the school system used for teenagers. It was called "Scared Straight". It took teenagers into a jail to see what the reality of incarceration was. They saw inmates caged like animals, yelling vile things to them. Each child was then put into a cell and the door was slammed shut. They felt the horror of what they could expect if they did not abide by society's rules. We now need a program called "Scared Smart". It should be directed at the ignorant people who do not listen to the government's guidelines for Covid 19. If you drive into the boroughs of New York City, many people in certain areas are not listening. They are congregating in the streets, unmasked, partying like nothing is going on in the world. Other groups are having funerals with hundreds of people, ignoring the police who are trying to break it up. The scared smart program needs to have people watch a mandatory documentary of one day in the ER and one in the ICU. They need to see the horror of death and suffering to understand that their actions can lead to this for themselves and other people. They need to see the reality of their unconscionable behavior. Most people are giving up their jobs and freedom to keep the numbers down, while these dimwits are undoing what we are trying so hard to achieve.

Let's Move On

I am tired of the way things are. I know it is necessary to keep us healthy, but I would like to adjust a few things. I want to change the words "Socially Distant" to "Socially Conscious Spacing". I think that we are moving away from the horror of the last few weeks and need to distant ourselves from negative language. The time we are spending apart is the right thing to do, but as human beings we need to have something positive in our future. The schools in this area are closed until the end of the term. With the numbers declining, I feel that adding another 60 days onto home schooling is a bit rash. That is more time than it took to treat the most devastating part of the pandemic. There is a lot we can safely do for our children from 6 feet apart. In my opinion, while home schooling is the law, there are ways to add humanity to it. With spring and summer on the way, why can't we have some creativity thrown into the mix? Here is my plan and some of you might totally disagree, but in America I have the right to voice my opinion. If a school class has 25 children, divide it up into 5 sub groups. Each day of the week, in good weather, that sub group goes to someone's backyard for one hour. The children can sit 6 feet apart in a semi circle and the "house mother”  can teach a lesson. For elementary school, the mothers are capable of that. Teach ten spelling words, read a book, teach a math problem, teach a social studies lesson. Do that for 30 minutes. For the next 10 minutes, do exercises.  Run in place, stretch and do a few jumping jacks. Another ten minutes for juice and cookies. The last ten is for a group discussion. Kids love to talk. Have a topic that would spark a discussion. This plan would be structured in a socially conscious spaced environment. Mental health is also important and by separating our children for an additional 60 days, you are continuing to instill fear and isolation. It is time to be creative in a safe way.

Hare to Snail

I used to be a hare. I would move at a fast pace to get everything done in a timely manner. Now I am a snail. I move slower to not get everything done so quickly. I have all day and in fact all week and all month. Today I will go food shopping. I used to go out early. I have all day to go and since there is not much else to do in a pandemic, why rush to the store? I will space the day to make it seem full. I will eat breakfast, then finish a craft and maybe sew a new mask from a pattern I saw online. When all of that is finished, I will venture out to the store. By the time I get home, I will putter around the house until dinner. If the sun was out I would have sat in my yard listening to the birds. Moving slower is not a bad thing. Like anything else, once you adjust it becomes second nature.