Booming Banter

This afternoon we had more updates on the coronavirus from Ohio. There are now thirteen confirmed cases in a population of eleven and a half million.

The fact that the Governor is holding these daily briefings is so reassuring. It is particularly good that he does this with the state medical officer Dr Amy Acton.

Dr Acton is so clear in her communication helping us all understand the situation. Today she was outstanding explaining how epidemiologists can predict how the disease will evolve. Based on today’s numbers they think the peak will come mid April to early May for us. It really reinforces the need to treat this as something unlike anything we have seen before and to act now.

She used an analogy of the Swiss Cheese to explain how placing multiple hurdles in place can help mitigate the spread and impact of the disease. Each step is significant. So each of us must listen and do what is asked. If we put enough hurdles in place we will minimize the risk of the virus making its way through the holes.

A little later in the afternoon President Trump and Vice President Pence held a briefing to declare a National Emergency. With a large contingent of leaders from government and industry this broad spectrum of collaboration with groups like Roche, CVS, Labcore and Quest all standing and working together is again very reassuring.

This is not the time to point fingers. Rather it’s a time for even the strongest competitors to pull together and focus on the common good.

This image my friend Lorraine posted today speak volumes. Each of us has a role to play!

Blessing # 635 – Transparency

All of us are worried by the spread of the coronavirus. It’s like a really bad dream we’re hoping will be over soon.

In the space of just two hours this morning we got emails from a spectrum of contacts sharing details of postions, policies and actions. We appreciate them all.

Today I had to go to CVS pharmacy to pick up Krishna’s prescription and I can tell you I was hoping there wouldn’t be a line of people waiting with me. There wasn’t. The store was almost empty.

What a coward, how trivial compared to all on the front line who are facing this head on every day all day.

Those working in hospitals and nursing homes, those who go into the homes of the elderly each day as carers and of course the emergency response teams are all so brave and selfless.

Most of us will have family or friends in these professions. The list is long when you reflect on who is caring for us. There are nurses, doctors, radiographers, dentists, pharmacists, home helps, nursing aids, ambulance drivers, cleaners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, police and clergy. No doubt I’ve forgotten many others.

If you are like us you can put at least one face that you love to each of these professions.

What on earth must it be like for them each day and for their very nears and dears.

What can we do for them? LISTEN! Respect and do what they recommend!

Blessing # 634 – Health Heroes

With the stock market tanking and the virus spreading to the point that it’s now officially a pandemic it’s hard not to be concerned.

There are lots of jokes out there but as the disease spreads it’s increasingly hard to get a good giggle. Still it does happen now and again. Thanks John! If you couldn’t laugh you’d cry by now!

We hadn’t done any special shopping until today when a trip to the Nestle company store was planned. As retirees we have the privilege to shop there and go once ever six weeks or so to stock up on dog food for my baby boy. Usually the big boys get some treats too like, cookie dough, coffee, coffee creamer, chocolate drinks and Maggi sauce and seasoning. Today I pushed the boat out a bit further getting two giant bags of dog food and two big bags of Scooby snacks.

Since the NESQUIK chocolate milk is aseptically packed it can be kept for weeks without refrigeration. The lad will love it too because it’s the new extra high protein variety. Great for post work out!!

Just in case we might have to stay home for a while some good coffee, industrial scale chili and half a dozen cans each of good old fashioned evaporated and sweetened condensed milk made their way home too.

All hail to the security of a panty popping with processed products!

You, make that I, can only imagine the delights that canned milk will be transformed into if they aren’t needed for emergency ration!

They’ll be a few flans and chocolate caramel squares and fudge and toffees a cooking. Of course that can’t happen till we pass the panic. Oh and of course till I’m back on the sweeties and treaties!

Blessing # 633 – Shelf Stable Foods

Scooby got lucky. We had pretty much rain all day long but each time we needed to make a pit stop it stopped! Frizz free furry!

Yesterday in the sunshine the kids round the corner had written a lovely sign in chalk across the entrance to their driveway.

It was perfect. Wonder how many times they tried before they got it just right! In any case hats off to them for the fine work and to their parents for giving them good old fashioned material to mess around with. Alas it’s now washed away!

We all know the old saying about making the most of every opportunity and the current corona virus spread does underline just how precious our health really is.

It’s hard to imagine what the people of China, Korea and Italy  are going through. Here in Ohio we had our first confirmed cases just yesterday. Quickly out governor took steps to protect us all.

Really we must appreciate and admire him for the precautions he is putting in place like remote classes for colleges.

This will touch us all in different ways, it’s perhaps an inconvenience but it’s for the common good. Yes, it can impact our carefully laid plans. There may be things we’d like to do, go to that sports event or concert or a big party but there will be other days for that. The sun will shine and we will make hay again. In the meantime we take care and share the soap!

Blessing # 632 – Spreading Care

Back in the early 1980s I fell deeply in love with a coat. It was a faux fox fur from a shop called Wallis. For weeks on end after college I’d go at least one day a week and try it on. It was so expensive for the time £80.

Now who knows how but my Mom got wind of this, I suspect a certain Miss Carol Braithwaite may have been involved but the result was the coat was mine for Christmas.

Well as they say in Ireland when I was wearing that I thought I was no goats toe. It lasted for years too and had many adventures but that’s a whole different story.

The reason it came to mind today was that when out for our walk this afternoon Scooby spotted his big buddy Enzo in the distance and Enzo also spotted Scooby.

We caught up with the gentle giant and the boys had some fun while their humans discussed grooming challenges.

That’s when it struck me our Scooby is an exact replica of my coat. Just look at the colors! Absolute perfection!

Is that why I loved it so? Did I know that at one point a little love bug would come into my life and snuggle me better than any fur!

Blessing #631 – Destiny Dog

This International Day of Women introduced me to many new women from the world of art, philosophy and literature.

At Church our beautiful Pastor Katya organized a very special event. A Lenten Meditation with Art, Word and Music.

Art collector John Kohan who was previously was TIME magazines Moscow Bureau Chief brought some of his Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection to display. (www.sacredartpilgrim.com)

He arranged ten texts by various woman throughout the ages to be read in conjunction with the Art exhibition.

After each reading a piece of music was performed by two brilliant young professionals Joshua Brodbeck a well known organist and Rachel Parfenchuk a gifted soprano.

 

Women clergy and lay people gave the readings and the entire event was very powerful and touching.

Some of the texts were by people whose work you may know including Christina Rossetti and Toni Morrison. Others, by women most of us have never heard of.

Mine was a piece written by a French woman Simone Weil. She was born in Paris in 1909 into a Jewish family. From her earliest days she was a sensitive soul passionate about social issues.

During the First World War when she was just six she stopped eating sugar because she wanted to feel how the soldiers were feeling.

Simone was a great linguist. She read the Hindu Bhagavad Gita in its original form when in her teens.

Simone saw God grace in all beliefs and believers and committed her life to Christ at a service in Assisi where Saint Francis also underwent his conversion.

She said that the love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say what are you going through? That sums up Simone pretty well!

All of us participating agreed we want to learn more about all these wonderful women.

On leaving, a lady introduced herself to me. She said she lives locally and goes to our Church but guess what she was born in Belfast and of course realized when she heard my voice that I was too! So thanks to International Women Day two Belfast girls born just a few miles apart met for the very first time thousand of miles away!

Blessing # 630 – Seeking Sisters

The sky and air are so clear this afternoon that the moon in all its glory looks like a great big balloon.

The contrasting beauty of our dear satellite in this sea of blue draws the eye upward and unwraps a whole array of sights that otherwise might not be seen.

Take for example the height of the huge cottonwood trees that grow on the road close to our home. Nothing on the scale of a redwood but man they must be well over a seventy feet high. Even if you strain your neck right up to the moon you just cannot see their top.

Trees of all sort surround us in our local woods. The houses in our neighborhood have been built into them. They are the home to many birds. The cute colored ones that make us feel warm and fuzzy but also those grizzly buzzards that gazing upwards we saw today.

With no leaves around nests are visible too. Many are high at the tip of the trees, others in safe little branch junctions much closer to the ground. How does a bird choose its tree? What makes one better than another? It’s hard to believe it’s all down to chance.

Who knows? Could it be they too looked up at that moon and simply just choose the best view.

Blessing # 629 – Seeing the Light

Yesterday my friend Jackie had posted this cute little message on Facebook and I thought I’d use it today to talk about things my Mom often said.

A few hours ago another friend sent an email to say that something we had been working on was nearing approval. Before you knew it I’d replied to her using one of my Moms favorite sayings.

To include it in the Banter a closer look at it’s origins was called for and that’s when things took a different turn.

Who was this William Cowper who had given us one of the most commonly used phrases in the English language?

Turns out he was quite a poet who inspired both Keats and Wordsworth.

He was super smart but was horrendously bullied at school so much so that he suffered from deep depression and attempted suicide several times. He was even institutionalized for what was termed at the time insanity.

Mercifully he was taken under the wing of a kind clergy man and his wife. Through them he made a friend for life, a young curate and a man whose name many of us know, John Newton the author of Amazing Grace.

The two went on to work closely for the abolition of slavery and together composed hymns that they built into a collection known as The Olney Hymns of which number 41 was Amazing Grace.

Who knows what path a thought will take. Mysterious indeed!

Blessing # 628 – Discoveries

When we take our afternoon walk Scooby often meets the kids getting off the school bus. He loves to say hi and so do they. Today was beautiful so we also got to see them having fun in the sun.

On our two mile circuit we saw all sorts of activities going on. Soccer balls were out and so were basketballs.

Some boys were practicing for next years ice hockey season improvising by using roller blades on their tarmac drive.

Other lads had a tennis racket out using it as an alternative to a baseball bat. Hard to imagine why they needed to do that but who cares if it works!

Some older kids had their dirt bikes out while a little girl about five looked on longingly.

The whole neighborhood was busy and full of life. That sunshine really does what ever Mum and Dad hopes for, it gets the kids outside and doing what they do best PLAY!

Blessing # 627 – Fresh Air Fix

While Scooby and I were doing a bit of work on the computer yesterday we were listening to our favorite Ulster radio station U105.

The program was Jerry’s Jukebox and one of the songs played was a hit from the seventies by a group called the Buzzcocks.

The tune Ever Fallen in Love With Someone has been in my head all day. Can’t say it was one of my favorites or if I’d even have been able to remember who sang it but it sure is catchy.

Got me thinking of all the great pop songs back then and also of the absolutely fantastic gear there wore and we copied.

We started the decade with hot pantsuits. My mother loved them not on her of course but on me and bought me many pairs. In particular I remember a lemon one that had a wrap around skirt too. You could do an ABBA trick and whip it off if you were fast enough!

After the exposure with hot pants legs were covered up as we moved to long bell bottoms.

They looked best worn with platform shoes that were beyond imagination in their height and awesomeness and made you walk like a young elephant. They were quite comfortable though and looked particularly ravishing when paired with the cropped tartans that the Bay City Rollers ushered in.

Kids today like our Aaron really have missed out on so much when it comes to fashion. It does your heart good to wear crazy clothes. So colorful and since sugar is on the mind at the minute so SWEET.

Can’t imagine Aaron with long hair mind you! Now Scooby that’s a different story! Those waves!!!!

Blessing # 626 – Shang a Lang!