Saturday, February 5, 2022

Waiting


When I was walking back from the Covid testing center on Thursday I passed these dogs, parked in front of Tesco, patiently awaiting their owner. I would be way too nervous to leave Olga standing outside a shop, especially without tying her up -- but these two seemed to know what they were doing. I watched them for a few minutes and they didn't budge.

This is a good metaphor for my life at the moment. I'm waiting too. Biding my time until this bug runs its course and I can rejoin the world.

I felt better yesterday than the day before, so maybe that's a good sign. I'm surprised how much this is in my nose and my throat. My main symptoms have been sore throat, sneezing and a sort of stuffy nose with mild head and face pain. One of my co-workers who had Omicron over winter break told me the same thing -- it's not really in the chest as much as you'd expect, based on what we've all read about Covid. Maybe that's why Omicron isn't as severe.

The NHS prodded me yesterday to complete their exhaustive test-and-trace questionnaire, which asked me where I'd been in the week or so leading up to my positive test. Fortunately, aside from work, I hadn't been much of anywhere -- with the exception of last Saturday, when I walked the Green Chain and went to a movie. This was well before I showed any symptoms and in fact Dave wasn't even sick at that point, so I don't think I was infectious -- and I was masked. But I still dutifully listed all the places I'd been that day -- the tube, the train, the cinema, a sandwich shop.

I'm not sure how they'll use that information -- surely they can't tell who was sitting in the cinema with me, or in the same train car? Maybe it's more a matter of tracking people's behavior to get a big-picture sense of how and when Covid might spread. Anyway, I answered all their questions and more power to 'em.

Then they prodded me to enter my test results into the test-and-trace app, which among other things keeps track of my isolation period. So I did that too.


Otherwise, I spent the day reading and finishing "Shuggie Bain." It was a very good book, and the writing was beautiful. My only quibble is that it is so unrelentingly bleak in its descriptions -- unrealistically so, it seems to me. It's about a boy growing up with an alcoholic mother on a housing estate in Glasgow in the 1980s, and I understand that it was a very deprived area with a lot of people (particularly coal miners) out of work. But every front garden is asphalt, every wall is moldy, every person is slovenly (aside from the alcoholic mother, who hides her disabling addiction behind a facade of poise and rhinestones). I mean, surely someone grew flowers on this housing estate? Surely someone kept a decent home and not all the kids were violent monsters?

Granted, I never went to a Glaswegian housing estate in the 1980s, so perhaps the author's insight is greater than mine.

Dave and I are at a crossroads with our evening TV viewing. We started the fourth season of "Ozark," but talk about bleak! All the characters in that show are so awful I'd just as soon they all die. I'm not sure we'll get through it. Last night we started a Korean zombie romp called "All of Us Are Dead," which is entertaining but bloody (of course). We watched "The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window," a Netflix thriller parody that was good right up until the last episode, when it suddenly got incredibly stupid.

I abandoned "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" after the second season, so the show I'm most enjoying at the moment is "Seinfeld." We watch it every night.

44 comments:

  1. As it is against the law for dogs to be off lead near " designated" roads, I guess those two are technically OK. It doesn't say that someone has to be holding the lead!! Hope you are feeling better today.

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    1. Our high street is a B-road. Does that make it "designated"?

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  2. I would be very nervous about leaving my dog outside a shop untethered. Obviously incredibly well-trained and devoted dogs, but still. We watched all of Ozark and loved it but, yes, not a redeemable lead character in the bunch. It simply demonstrated to me how low seemingly decent people can go... and still take the moral high road when it comes to others in their orbit.

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    1. That's a good point about "Ozark" -- I guess that's the message of the show? I sort of would like to see how it all turns out. Maybe we'll just watch it slowly rather than every night.

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  3. Glaswegian housing estates were and are bleak.
    There is a programme about the redevelopment there..BBC Scotland I think..includes a piece by Billy Connolly whose family was moved out to Drumchapel. Just houses..no pubs, shops or other meeting places....

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    1. It's not that I doubt their bleakness, but the book was SO bleak. Like, verging on parody, it seemed to me.

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  4. Seeing those dogs kind of makes my heart skip a beat. I would never do that either. Would they stand there so obediently if a cat or a fox came walking by?

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    1. Well, THEY might, because their days of moving quickly appear to be over. LOL!

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  5. Glad to read you are both doing ok-ish. Hope improvements will come fast. Take it easy and stay cool.

    I think in an ideal world the covid tracking apps are actually quite brilliant and provided they are kept privacy preserving and simple, could save time and money and most of all, lives. It will become a feature of our new (post-) pandemic world.

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    1. They are brilliant in concept. I'm not sure the execution is the greatest, but I went along with it. I'm not concerned about the privacy at all.

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  6. I could, and have, and will, watch Seinfeld over and over and over.
    Glad you're not feeling terrible; I've heard that Omicron is less sicky [a medical term] than Covid or Delta.

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    1. I wasn't paying much attention to TV when "Seinfeld" launched, but I was addicted by the mid-'90s and I've seen it all in reruns. That doesn't keep me from watching it more!

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  7. I'm surprised that the dogs are alone and seemingly willing to wait. I wonder if the leashes are also to indicate they're not strays so no do gooder will try to rescue them.

    I may give Shuggie Bain a miss, since I don't do bleak these days, thanks for the thumbnail.

    I hope you both continue well, and don't have any aftermath of the virus. I trust the trace information is being studied usefully, though the UK's track record is not so good on this issue.

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    1. That's a good point about the leashes. Also, maybe the dog knows to stay put when its collar is on.

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  8. I think I am going to try the new Netflix show "Murderville." I listen to a podcast with Will Arnett on it and he is funny.
    I'm not sure that we're doing ANY tracing at all in Florida. I mean, the hospitals are keeping track of the people who have covid in them but otherwise...
    I sure hope you get over this bout soon. Does anyone know that if having the virus will give you even more protection? I hope so.
    Those sure are good doggies.

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    1. Let us know how "Murderville" is! As for the virus, I think we get temporary protection but it wears off after a month or two. (As I understand it.)

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  9. Glad to hear you are feeling better already and hope you and Dave continue to improve. I enjoyed the series "Sweet Tooth" and "Lupin" on Netflix. On my public television station, I like to watch "All Creatures great and small" and "Around the world in 80 days".
    Rest and relax and don't rush back into the world just yet!

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    1. I've never heard of those Netflix shows. I'll have to check them out. I wish we had PBS here!

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  10. Yes, Omicron stays mostly in the nose and throat. I've read several pieces about it not being efficient in colonizing the lungs which seems to be a mutation to help it survive. That and the level of contagiousness. The virus itself won't survive if it keeps killing off all its hosts. And of course being vaccinated helps us survive. Anyway, glad you are already feeling better. We're watching Station Eleven right now, seen 3 of 10 (I think) episodes.

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    1. That all makes sense about the virus evolving to become less severe.

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  11. I'm glad you are feeling better. I've read that being vaccinated and boosted really does help keep the symptoms fairly light.
    I'm wondering if the NHS will use the data you provided when/if someone also tests positive a few days from now and provides them with tracing info and notes that they were in the cinema or train car. Mmm?
    We're always looking for something new to watch on Netflix. Maybe we'll try The Woman In the House Across the Street..."

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    1. It's a silly show, but if you know the movie/book "The Woman in the Window" and/or "The Girl on the Train" then the spoof will make sense.

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  12. I'm glad that whatever you have seems to be mild. What's on television? Gads. We tried to get interested in a netflix movie the other day. The Power of the Dog. The tension between the bride and her brother in law, his head games and torment...I just couldn't bear to watch it. I found something else to do. Tim eventually shut it off because "nothing was happening". I couldn't watch it because too much was happening.

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    1. Now see, I loved "The Power of the Dog." But it IS very talky and not particularly uplifting.

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  13. You are correct. Omicron doesn't infect the lungs like Delta did. It mainly stays in the upper respiratory system which is exactly why it is more contagious than Delta. They aren't seeing near the amount of pneumonia/ventilator cases this time around as they did with Delta.

    I finished the half season released thus far of Ozark season 4. Hang in there. Your wish will be granted.

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    1. Ooooh, well with that little teaser I may need to finish the series now! I didn't realize they've only released a half season.

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  14. Glad your symptoms are not too bad. Is your sense of taste affected?
    I just don't watch TV any more; we haven't even had a television since 2012. I have a hard time sitting still for longer than 15 minutes. And frankly, I like being in my own head or in a book much more that I ever liked TV shows.I know, I'm weird that way.

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    1. No, my taste and smell are OK. I didn't even own a TV from 2002 to 2010, during most of the years I lived in New York. Too much to do in the city to watch television!

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  15. I'm glad to hear you're improving! I could NOT watch Ozark as I hated all the characters and it was so violent. I also love Seinfeld for its quirky comedy. I hesitate to read Shuggie Bain although I had/have relatives in or around Glasgow. Tough place.

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    1. If you had relatives there you might like it even more. I don't mean to talk it down -- I really did enjoy it and as I said the writing is excellent.

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  16. I can't imagine leaving a dog untethered like that! They must be incredibly well-trained.

    I watched a movie last night for the first time in maybe a year or more. Jungle Cruise with The Rock and Emily Blunt. I'll admit I found it funny (especially the stupid puns), but for the most part it was just another fairly predictable Indiana Jones type movie. Stick with Seinfeld. You can't go wrong there.

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    1. I haven't even heard of that movie! Maybe it's not out here?

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  17. I watched Seinfeld when it was on and it was good for laughs which we need in these times but a lot of TV and film today seems stupid yo me. I watched Wanted for the twists and turns, good plot development, interesting characters and growth of the two main characters and good backstories and soundtrack.

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    1. I will have to look for "Wanted." It's hard to beat "Seinfeld" for laugh-out-loud moments.

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  18. Frustrating that your symptoms are quite vague.

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  19. We had a friend in the eighties who grew up in Glasgow in the sixties and seventies and by her descriptions, if anything the grimness of Glasgow in the book is underplayed. It was rather a different place by the nineties when my nephew lived there for a year.
    Glad you are not feeling too bad and seemingly getting better.

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    1. And the '80s got even worse because Thatcher's policies threw all the miners out of work.

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  20. We watched the first episode of "Murderville" on Netflix and both thought it was so stupid we vowed never to watch it again. Is TV mindless these days or have I just become a grouchy old man? Whichever it is, I'm watching less and less of it.

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    1. Doesn't have to be either/or -- TV could be mindless AND you could be a grouchy old man!

      (Believe me, I feel the same way when I watch television.)

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  21. "every front garden is asphalt, every wall is moldy, every person is slovenly", that does sound rather bleak and I can't help wondering why at least one person didn't try at least a few bright potplants, since it would be hard to grow flowers through asphalt. The slovenly might be because of a lack of fresh water and plumbing? This is the sort of book that would have me polishing the furniture and baking cakes in case others thought I was slovenly. Although I have to admit there are many days when I just can't be bothered, when rolling out of bed seems to have been my one achievement for the day.

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    1. I think the author was trying to convey that the poverty was so grinding people didn't even have a couple of nickels to spend on plants or seeds for the garden. Or they'd rather spend it on beer and cigarettes.

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  22. I grew up on a council estate in Glasgow not that long before this book was written and there were many well tended gardens and lovingly cared for houses. Just as in any other place there were people with problems that made unwise choices or didn't care. There was also a great community that could be counted on when bad times came.

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  23. I'm so glad you're feeling a little bit better. Love seeing the dogs. Take care and keep up the progress!

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