SCHOOL WORK: Another day of our new normal at MPA. It started with a small breakfast for the kids and then right into a 10 a.m. art class from McHarper Manor via Facebook live. Today's project was space themed - pastel chalks on black paper. CJ and Annabelle both participated.
The artwork above is CJ's. The one below is Annabelle's. I like how the planets and moon are cut out and glued on the background 'canvas.' It gives the art more pop.
Upcoming projects for next week are:
Monday: Acrylic Painting on Canvas - underwater view!
Tuesday: Paper Marbling
Watercolor Wednesday! Fun resist process
Thursday: Hand Sewn Monsters with Missy!
Friday: Let's play with polymer clay! Miniatures / charms
And the week beyond:
Monday: Acrylic Painting on Canvas - Beach Theme
Tuesday: up-cycled robots
Watercolor Wednesday - Sky line with magic salt bursts sky.
Thursday: Still life drawings
Friday: Sweet Treats from Model Magic
This afternoon, it was Japanese time. I asked the kids to sit out on the deck, in the sunshine for their lesson. It was good to get fresh air, and that way, I could observe from a safe distance.
I was really impressed by their vocabulary. They were able to spit out 2-3 sentences altogether about a variety of things
Other news on the Japanese front: CJ wanted to take Japanese 3 at South Seattle College, where he attends school, but that class was canceled due to lack of enrollment.
South Seattle is part of a three-college cooperative that includes North Seattle College and Seattle Central College. Central *is* offering Japanese 3 this spring, and so we inquired about him being able to take that. It sounds like it's a go, which is great.
Needless to say, all of the classes will be online this quarter. And then he'll have summer break. It's hard to know what 'back to school' will look like this September.
IT COUNTS: One thing we'll be doing lots of for the foreseeable future is taking the poops for a loop. The 'poops' is what we often call our dogs, and the loop is a circle around our neighborhood. I want to make sure we're getting our 10,000 or so steps in during this detention (for lack of a better term), so today we counted how many steps the loop is. Turns out it's about 1,000 steps. So that means we'd have to do 10 loops a day if we're doing nothing else but sitting around. That's rather daunting! Hopefully once I start feeling better, we can work ourselves up to several loops. Today, we did two.
COVID DIARY: In case you haven't heard, I have been isolated in the basement since Monday night. A two-day mild headache turned into the worst headache of my life, a general feeling of unwell, a little fever, a stuffy nose, rumble gut ... Normally, I wouldn't think a whole lot about any of this BUT, well, it's not normal times. I was exposed to HUNDREDS of people face-to-face, handing things back and forth for a week working the elections counter. And some of those people were some kinds of sick. Despite my being as careful as I could reasonably be, I am now afflicted with something. I'll likely never know if it was COVID, since there are no COVID tests to be had.
Hoping for some help, and maybe a test 'hookup," I decided to try to get an appointment with UW Medicine online. I downloaded their app and got 'in line' at about 5:30 a.m. There were about 30 people ahead of me, and then, about an hour later, I was about 20th in line when it kicked me out altogether. Drat. I wanted to do UW, because they're the only ones I know of that consistently have any testing kits. Rather than hop back into their queue though, I decided to give CHI Franciscan a try. I downloaded their app and watched myself progress from 30 something through the 20s and teens to single digits.
While on hold waiting for a virtual doctor visit, I learned several things thanks to their screen saver. One was that the most common type of blood in the U.S. is O positive. That came as a shock to me. In high school, I was taught that A positive is the most common.
I also learned that Rx was the symbol used in Latin for recipe. Today, of course, we know that it's the symbol used for a prescription. History.com says, "Rx is derived from the Latin word “recipe,” meaning “take.”
History.com also reports that the world’s first recorded prescriptions were etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around 2100 B.C. and the first drugstores were established in the ancient city of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D.
But back to being on hold. ... "Fast" forward four hours, and I was finally number one. After several seconds of a spinning circle, a real live doctor appeared on my phone's screen. He immediately apologized, noting that I had been on hold for 293 minutes. I told him no apology was necessary, it certainly wasn't his fault.
We then spent a few minutes talking about COVID-19 and the likelihood of me having it. The typical 'checklist' for this COVID is dry cough, sore throat, fever. I do have a fever, but no sore through or cough yet. However, in doing my research, (both medical journal level stuff and personal stories), it's very clear that those are not the only or "mandatory" symptoms. The doctor noted that different people present differently, and the idea that you had to have those symptoms is not correct. In reality, symptoms for some is fever and nausea, nothing else. Others, it's just a headache. Some get GI symptoms and a fever. ... Basically, I think anyone who is sick right now should assume they have it and self isolate unless proven otherwise.
HELP AT HOME: Wondering how you can help fight COVID-19 from the comfort of your own home? Stanford University would like to use some of your computer's processing power.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/21161131/folding-home-volunteers-researchers-coronavirus
South Seattle is part of a three-college cooperative that includes North Seattle College and Seattle Central College. Central *is* offering Japanese 3 this spring, and so we inquired about him being able to take that. It sounds like it's a go, which is great.
Needless to say, all of the classes will be online this quarter. And then he'll have summer break. It's hard to know what 'back to school' will look like this September.
IT COUNTS: One thing we'll be doing lots of for the foreseeable future is taking the poops for a loop. The 'poops' is what we often call our dogs, and the loop is a circle around our neighborhood. I want to make sure we're getting our 10,000 or so steps in during this detention (for lack of a better term), so today we counted how many steps the loop is. Turns out it's about 1,000 steps. So that means we'd have to do 10 loops a day if we're doing nothing else but sitting around. That's rather daunting! Hopefully once I start feeling better, we can work ourselves up to several loops. Today, we did two.
COVID DIARY: In case you haven't heard, I have been isolated in the basement since Monday night. A two-day mild headache turned into the worst headache of my life, a general feeling of unwell, a little fever, a stuffy nose, rumble gut ... Normally, I wouldn't think a whole lot about any of this BUT, well, it's not normal times. I was exposed to HUNDREDS of people face-to-face, handing things back and forth for a week working the elections counter. And some of those people were some kinds of sick. Despite my being as careful as I could reasonably be, I am now afflicted with something. I'll likely never know if it was COVID, since there are no COVID tests to be had.
Hoping for some help, and maybe a test 'hookup," I decided to try to get an appointment with UW Medicine online. I downloaded their app and got 'in line' at about 5:30 a.m. There were about 30 people ahead of me, and then, about an hour later, I was about 20th in line when it kicked me out altogether. Drat. I wanted to do UW, because they're the only ones I know of that consistently have any testing kits. Rather than hop back into their queue though, I decided to give CHI Franciscan a try. I downloaded their app and watched myself progress from 30 something through the 20s and teens to single digits.
While on hold waiting for a virtual doctor visit, I learned several things thanks to their screen saver. One was that the most common type of blood in the U.S. is O positive. That came as a shock to me. In high school, I was taught that A positive is the most common.
I also learned that Rx was the symbol used in Latin for recipe. Today, of course, we know that it's the symbol used for a prescription. History.com says, "Rx is derived from the Latin word “recipe,” meaning “take.”
History.com also reports that the world’s first recorded prescriptions were etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around 2100 B.C. and the first drugstores were established in the ancient city of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D.
But back to being on hold. ... "Fast" forward four hours, and I was finally number one. After several seconds of a spinning circle, a real live doctor appeared on my phone's screen. He immediately apologized, noting that I had been on hold for 293 minutes. I told him no apology was necessary, it certainly wasn't his fault.
We then spent a few minutes talking about COVID-19 and the likelihood of me having it. The typical 'checklist' for this COVID is dry cough, sore throat, fever. I do have a fever, but no sore through or cough yet. However, in doing my research, (both medical journal level stuff and personal stories), it's very clear that those are not the only or "mandatory" symptoms. The doctor noted that different people present differently, and the idea that you had to have those symptoms is not correct. In reality, symptoms for some is fever and nausea, nothing else. Others, it's just a headache. Some get GI symptoms and a fever. ... Basically, I think anyone who is sick right now should assume they have it and self isolate unless proven otherwise.
The doctor was kind and tried to be consoling, but he really couldn't do anything for me. He didn't know of any places I could go get a test. He said to assume I have COVID, and that if it develops into trouble breathing, to get to a hospital, but call ahead. I thanked him for his time and wished him well.
A bit later, I remembered that King County had a Coronavirus page, and so I checked it out. On the page, among other things, it says, "If you are in King County and believe you were exposed to COVID-19—or if you're a healthcare provider with COVID-19 questions—contact our call center between 8 AM to 7 PM PST at 206-477-3977."
So I called. I was pleasantly surprised when a man who said his name was Bruce answered the phone on the second ring. Wow! What service! Bruce proceeded to ask me my name, date of birth and how he could help me. I told him I thought I might have COVID. Of course, he went right down the CDC checklist: Cough, trouble breathing, fever. When I told him I had a fever and other symptoms, Bruce declared me COVID-free. Lucky me! (Oh, and apparently Bruce hasn't spent hours doing medical research about the different way COVID-19 presents.)
Out of curiosity I asked him if the center refers people for testing or he knew were testing centers are at the moment. They do not. He said the line was for information only. Information as in, read out loud what I read on their website. Honestly, that's not very helpful.
I thanked him for his time, and realized I had wasted mine.
A few hours later, I got a call from a Teledoc physician. I actually forgot I requested it, it had been so long - like seven hours. His voice was a little muddled during our call. I pictured him hunkered down in a concrete, COVID-proof bunker in Eastern Washington.
He asked how he could help. My point-blank response was, "I don't think you can." I told him about my experience with the first doctor, and my frustration with the county's response. I told him that I would *love* to get tested so that I could know if I could rejoin my family, or if I had COVID-19, and that if/when I recover, I could help other people, potentially, as hopefully I'd be immune (at least to this strain of it).
His response? "Don't get me started on the testing." He then went on a bit of an unintelligible screed about how bungled the federal response has been, with especially choice words for the CDC.
I told him that it would make him feel better to know that this morning (again) Trump and Pence went on TV to declare that there were millions of free tests, ready and waiting, and that all healthcare providers had the protective equipment needed.
"They LIE!" the doctor declared.
"They're lying liars who lie," I agreed.
The doctor seemed to have all the time in the world. He was quite chatty. He could clearly tell that I'd researched extensively and ended up asking ME about what I'd learned.
One of the things I told him is that according to the CDC, if you are COVID-positive, it's only safe to rejoin your family after 7 days without symptoms and TWO negative COVID-19 tests. HAHAHAHA. Like in what world would THAT happen?
He also wanted to know what the King County COVID-19 folks had to offer. I told him apparently nothing more than a guy who isn't even a medical professional telling you you'll be fine, in a soothing voice.
I finally basically told the doctor I had to go. Poor guy, I think he just needed to vent.
Just another day in Coronavirusville.
While writing this, Pacific Science Center sent an email letting me know they'll be livestreaming a talk with local experts and leaders in epidemiology and community health plus public health officials on March 24 from 7-9 p.m. on their YouTube channel. Panelists will include Teresita Batayola, Chief Executive Officer at International Community Health Services; Dr. Marisa D’Angeli, Medical Epidemiologist, Communicable Disease Epidemiology, Washington State Department of Health; and
Dr. Hilary Godwin, Dean at University of Washington School of Public Health.
YouTube channel at 7 p.m. PT for expert opinion and responses to your questions by submitting them in the comments section.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/21161131/folding-home-volunteers-researchers-coronavirus
According to an article in The Verge, "Folding@home (FAH) uses the processing capacity of networked computers to simulate the complex process of protein folding, which helps determine how to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer, and SARS, another coronavirus."
The Folding@Home website explains, "For both coronaviruses [the current 2019 nCoV and SARS], the first step of infection occurs in the lungs, when a protein on the surface of the virus binds to a receptor protein on a lung cell. This viral protein is called the spike protein ... Proteins are not stagnant—they wiggle and fold and unfold to take on numerous shapes. We need to study not only one shape of the viral spike protein, but all the ways the protein wiggles and folds into alternative shapes."
A vaccine and herd immunity are both months-if-not-years away, so the best bet to beat down coronavirus is developing a treatment. According to The Verve, "Studying how the protein folds could eventually help researchers develop drugs that could treat infections of the virus."
Per Folding@Home, "With many computers working towards the same goal, we aim to help develop a therapeutic remedy as quickly as possible. By downloading Folding@home here [LINK] and selecting to contribute to “Any Disease”, you can help provide us with the computational power required to tackle this problem."
Not only could you help with COVID-19, your computer could also be helping find cures for diseases including cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Influenza and many others.
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