And, dash it all, when Instatiming with Aitch the other day, the big C word was dropped.
What? No, that other big C... involving deer and tinsel and all that nonsense. Can any of us really get our heads around planning for that with all that's happened this year?
I mean really, there is hardly a day goes by now without some other hurdle being negotiated, be it at personal, local, national or international level. Yet society keeps grinding along. The threat of another wave of the virus coupled with regular virus infections is now starting to be faced up to... but not really planned for. Not really... When it comes down to it, Humankind is having to deal with the fact that Ma Nature is actually the comptroller. She's-a taking stock and auditing and we need to understand that we may be a bit surplus.
The WHO figures today still have world deaths at a little over 1% of the population (so still some way off the estimated 2.7% - 5.4% of Spanish Flu). The thing about this though is that even after a hundred years, there are no accurate figures on the SF and it is pretty certain we don't have perfectly accurate figures for COVID. However, ours are likely to be closer than those of yesteryear - thanks to technology. There is debate, here in the UK certainly, as to why, even with new spikes of infection already showing, the death rate appears to be falling. Is virus mutation already showing up with a degree of immunity now developing? Is there a lull before yet another storm? Is it a factor of improved hygiene and social distancing? Are doctors recognising and treating earlier and better?
Quite likely each of those is playing a part but it is also, one suspects, too early to draw conclusions. This is the danger of our technological age. Too easy to get ahead of ourselves.
In the end, it doesn't really matter. The rest of us just have to keep moving along. Life is still happening, albeit under new social rules and restrictions. Adaptation is Humankind's greatest survival asset. Extinction - at least from this disease - is apocryphal.
Wait, what did she say? "Instatiming"??? Oh yeah. That happened by accident one day, the discovery of being able to video chat via the photo app. So we made attempts at it last week. Then by another accident, I somehow captured us trying it out... so posted it to the Gram part as well. Why not, eh?
As my sister-in-law likes to say, the dinosaurs went extinct because they could not adapt.
ReplyDeleteWe'll leave aside, for the moment, the thought that in being the Earth's dominant animal for well over 100 million years, the dinosaurs fared rather better than us humans are likely to, irrespective of coronavirus!
Cheers, Gail.
Hi YAM...yep 4 months from Tuesday...will be Christmas. I haven't said much about this because there is nothing that can be done due to the C19 word. The last time we saw Marlu and Greg was December 26, 2019. We have never in all Marlu's almost 49 years (8/28) gone that long w/o seeing her sweet face and hugging her. Of course we talk every Sunday. Never in my wildest dreams on Dec 26, 2019 did I think that would be our last hug for a very long time. The months have crawled by and the virus running crazy up here and even in her city which has been full of crazy beach tourist since May, I know wonder will we see them this Christmas....but we must all stay healthy and not turn in to spreaders of this horrid virus. I end on with a bit of humor. The Doodz and their peeps left in their new wheelie house for vacation. Carol has been buying all kinds of supplies stocking up. Got an email from her this morning: 'we are in Idaho, I forgot the d$^* the hand sanitizer.' She had her eyes searching for a WalMart who currently seems to be well stocked.
ReplyDeleteCarol said I have a check list spread sheet for packing. It was before C19.
Anyway have a good sleep and TTYL
Hugs Cecilia
Adaptation is key ~ change is never easy when you don't choose it ~ who would choose this past year and as for the big C word ~ don't even want to think about it ~oh well ~ it will come whether I do or not ~
ReplyDeleteLive each moment with love,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Look at you. I have no idea what you said, but read and loved every word.
ReplyDeleteOnce August is gone, it feels like fall then.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's still 100 or so here, so summer continues . . .
ReplyDeletewe really have to see how to adapt and how to live on... there will be a "normal" once, no idea how it will look, but it will happen
ReplyDeleteLove that beautiful flower and I am really looking forward to Fall and leaving these hot humid temps behind. The kids start school here in roughly a week and the whole COVID business makes me so nervous for them and their families.
ReplyDeleteI read every word of your post and then for the first time ever in my 10 years a blogging I read every single comment that came before mine. Had to see what everybody else had to say. I enjoyed the comments and the post. Our Lives go on no matter what happens. I find myself focused on my daily life on a little plot of land that's 100 feet by 100 feet and a house that's 1250 square feet with two people and a dog. The only contact with the outside world comes from blogging and I am thankful for that
ReplyDeleteI don't have an Instagram account so did not know there was an insta chat I do know there's a Facebook chat and I think there's even a Gmail chat and of course there's people with iPhones that can chat by FaceTime. But for some reason my family is not into doing that. There are only three people in my family that have iPhones the rest of us are too poor to have them and can't figure out what to do
ReplyDeleteHari Om
DeleteI don't have a smartphone of any sort - just the good old flipfone which makes calls and receives them! (and texts) I use Instything via my tablet and that is where it is necessary to use the vid-call option... which is powered by FB anyway and I guess is from their 'facetime' app. I use the Google 'meet' via Gmail a lot with my family, it works well - though I just discovered today that there is now a thing called Google Duo, which I think they are doing as an answer to Zoom. The trouble I have is that folk quite often expect one to have all these things available (such as WhatsApp on the phone) and I am really NOT wanting all those things! Yxx
I loved seeing this in the Insta-thingy and love hearing about it now!
ReplyDeleteI look at my life outside my house as a risk benefit analysis. I am seeing my bff Monday because starting next week she will be living in a house with 4 guys going to 4 different schools (her husband is a teacher). I won't see her for at least a month. I have a day off next week to see my parents again before I am exposed to kids in schools (many of my clients do go to school). Even with masks and hand washing, I worry about my dad. I then won't see them for a month. I won't see my sister and kids for a month. I am trying to find the balance to living and safety and doing what I must (because honestly I would just like to be at home reading). I fear 162 days in and we have hardly gotten started with the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteHari OM
DeleteVery valid concerns, K... there is definitely a sense of breath-drawing happening over here as our schools have returned and English schools start back next week. There have already been 'flare-ups' because kids simply CAN NOT be kept apart. Starting next week in Scottish schools, all kids over 11 will be required to wear masks by law. Which is another load on teachers who have to monitor that... and in one school, half the staff have just been d'd with COVID - so the school remains open but track and trace being used... really, I hold no great hope of things getting anywhere near "normal"... Yxx
Hi Yam - I give up on discussing it - so much unhelpful things going on. The great giving holiday time is way off ... so far thankfully. But C for Crocosmia - just love those ... remind me a great deal of Cornwall. Stay safe - Hilary
ReplyDeleteHello Yamini,
ReplyDeleteI am going over your past 10 blog posts. Couldn't check them daily since I was caught up with some work.
You are so right about Nature. I also think, in many ways, this spell of pandemic is Nature's way of restoring order.
We have already seen how we can adapt to the changing circumstances. And life will go on, as you rightly said.
Hari OM
DeletePradeep - lovely to have you drop by! It is good that you have work... so many here are finding that their jobs are disappearing... Each century brings to the world a great change of some description (if not more than one). I think we face ours now...
Please be safe - I was reading of India being badly affected now. Yxx