Coronavirus in PA

A few days ago I posted about my distress concerning contact with my disabled daughter and her housemates in view of the fact that coronavirus had caused closing of schools in my PA county. This had been reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Today's Inquirer tells a fuller story.

Apparently, what happened was this: a 70-year old husband and wife, along with a 50-year old woman, returned from a cruise on the Nile River. They all had some kind of contact with one of the larger school districts and attended a large party which apparently was given for district employees. They later had concerns that someone on the cruise with them had coronavirus and all three asked to be tested. Their doctor(s) agreed that testing was warranted, but the CDC refused to test them because there had been no reports of coronavirus in cruises on the Nile. These three had had close contact with many teachers and administrators at the party, so the school district decided to close the schools in the district whose personnel had attended the party until testing cleared the three people.

Apparently (again), there either was testing or some other judgment was made that the three were not infected, so the schools involved will reopen.

So. "Everyone who wants a test can get a test" was indeed horseshit, and I spent several days and nights fretting about what I was going to do, worrying about my daughter's distress, all for nothing. Because fucking Trump couldn't get enough tests ready and available.

Not to mention the financial and emotional costs to the school district involved, the disruption of lives of students and their families and teachers and staff. All for (apparently) nothing.

The only good thing to have come from this is the confirmation of what we all know: we support each other here at DU with virtual hugs and practical advice. I can't thank you all enough for your help getting me through this. Now I want to punch Orange Fatass in his fat fucking nose.

My daughter lives in a group home

and comes here every Tuesday to snuggle and watch TV with me. She functions emotionally like a toddler, and she knows when Tuesday comes around because she rushes to the front door of her day program to look for me. She loves me and slobbers like a puppy.

She spends her day with a couple of hundred other disabled adults. They are not crowded, and there is a nurse on site. The clients are sent home if they have a fever. They do go out into the community, to movies and restaurants and malls, but I don't know if these outings will continue.

Her home for the past seven years has been a nice house not too far from us which she shares with two other disabled women and 24-hour staff.

Every other Sunday, all three ladies plus staff come to our house for dinner and visiting. These ladies are intellectually disabled and cannot be expected to follow safety precautions like covering coughs and sneezes. The Sundays at our house are the only time they visit friends--for we are their friends--and they all look forward to it enormously, as do we.

I am 73 years old with serious lung disease (one lung was removed years ago), and I am in a position to stay home virtually all the time.

Coronavirus has shown up in our county in PA, and schools are being closed.

My heart is breaking.

I suspect John Oliver's ridicule had something to do with Tweety's abrupt exit

I am going to vote via absentee ballot

because I do not want to be in a crowded room at the polls. I'm in PA, and there's time to apply for the primaries. I'm going to be out of town (if you say you're ill you have to get a doctor to sign a form). I also plan to be out of town for the general election in November..

Words and usages I am sick and tired of

1. Sick and tired

2. Each and every, when "each" will do, which is imo all the time

3. "Simplistic," "enormity," and "toothsome" when what is meant is simple, enormousness, and delicious. These words do not mean what many people believe they mean. We've already lose "eke;" let's not let the barbarians take over any more useful words.

4. "I just couldn't bring myself to vote for Hillary." Self-explanatory.

5. There's another word like simplistic that I can't recall right now due to senility. ETA "Noisome" when what is meant is really loud.

Are you sick and tired of any words or usages? Can we compile a dictionary or grammar guide (like that hasn't been done already, and look how much that has helped)?

Somebody has pointed out to Roseanne Barr

that Donald Trump views direct scolding as a challenge which he will go out of his way to defy. Better to communicate through rumor and talk among close colleagues; Trump pays attention to that shit--it's close a conspiracy theory, which he wholeheartedly and without fail embraces--and does not feel threatened, ironically, by an indirect threat.

Roseanne isn't going anyplace. He does want Trump to stop tweeting about DOJ matters, and indirectly threatening to resign is the best way to get this empty threat into the moldy sponge that is Trump's brain.

Something weird happened the other day

I was sitting at my computer, probably reading DU, when I began to hear a telephone conversation coming from the laptop. I checked all the windows I had open (sometimes a video with sound will start running if I've left something open), but there was nothing. It was the end of a call, an older woman telling someone how much they'd enjoyed the visit and urging the other party to drive home safely. It was a pretty long goodbye, and I didn't hear the other party say anything--but tbh the older lady didn't leave much space for anyone else to speak. Finally she hung up, and that was the end of that. Never before, never since.

Cream of Wheat and "crispy"

Cream of Wheat: why did it take them so long to change the preparation instructions to something that made sense? The original instructions called for 1 cup of water or milk (milk makes delicious CofW) and 2 and a half tablespoons of Cream of Wheat. Do you know what a pain in the ass it is to measure out 2 and a half tablespoons? Especially early in the morning? Half a tablespoon is one and a half teaspoons. So you need three measuring spoons to make a cup of hot cereal. You could cut that back to two if you used 6 teaspoons for the 2 tablespoons (1 T=3 t) plus 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon.
No wonder my Cream of Wheat was lumpy.

The new instructions call for 1 and 1/4 cup of water or milk (really--try it with milk) and 3 tablespoons of Cream of Wheat. I am overjoyed.

"Crispy": whatever happened to the word "crisp?"

That is all.

Rep. Garcia is speaking now

and oh my god is she hard to listen to--or was I spoiled by Adam Schiff. I'm yelling at my tv "Get her out of there!" She is boring and is not good at telling a rather complicated story.