A little photo montage I made to sum up Seattle right about now
DOUSED IN BLEACH: Not sure what your kitchen counter looks like right about now, but here at COVID-19 U.S. Ground Zero in Seattle, this is what we're up to. ...
To help combat the dryness from all that hand washing, a phlebotomist friend who works at a hospital clued me in on a hand lotion they use that's really great. It's made by Medline, and the folks who work at her hospital (Harborview, here in Seattle) use it all the time. We ordered some from Amazon, and it's in heavy rotation right now.
We're doing what we can to try to limit exposure to the nasty COVID-19. Measures we're taking include ...
- Severely limiting trips outside the house
- Ditching shoes upon entering the house, and shedding outer clothes after we've been in public
- Using Q-tips like a 'finger' to scratch our faces
- Putting PLENTY of personal space between ourselves and others and doing lots of laundry
- Quarantining products purchased before bringing them into the house (Amazon delivery boxes stay outside, bags and contents from stores live in the garage for a day or two before being brought in and put away)
- Purses and computer bags hang by the front door, they don't enter our living space/sit our our chairs or counters, etc.
- Catching coughs and sneezes whenever possible on the insides of our shirts (you pull the shirt up over your face)
- Washing hands oh-so-often
- Not eating in front of a computer
- Disinfecting cell phones and computer keyboards daily
We even gave the dogs really short haircuts. Canines don't carry the COVID in their bodies, from what I've read, but they could pick it up on their fur as the wander around. So, it's better if their tails aren't dragging everywhere, certainly!
We're doing what we can, hoping for the best, but trying to prepare for the worst. It's going to be a long and bumpy ride, I predict.
FERMENTING: What do you do when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade! What do we do when forced to self isolate and you have cabbage? You make sauerkraut!
Annabelle and I took a basic fermenting class a few weeks back. We threw out the stuff we started there, because I was not wild about the lack of hand washing, etc. on site for the class.
Today, we watched a couple of videos to refresh our memories about how to get going. First up was this one from Bon Appetite. ...
And we watched a second, shorter one the affirm the lesson.
Afterward, we got right to the cabbage. We halved it, cut out the core, and then sliced it thinly. The cabbage then went into a big bowl, and we sprinkled salt over it (.02 grams per pound of cabbage).
IT COUNTS: Meanwhile, some small measures of normalcy continue, like trying to get counted for the 2020 Census.
I'm guessing Census 2020 workers won't be going door to door to the extent that was planned, given the pandemic. But getting counted, well, counts, because these stats are, in part, what drive important decisions like
April 1 is the official Census Day. Did you know you're legally obligated to participate in it?
Fortunately, you don't have to participate via phone, mail or in-person visit any more. Now, the Internet is an option for checking in. If you don't already, you should soon have something in the mail with a 12-digit census ID. If you go to www.my2020census.gov, click “start questionnaire,” and enter your census ID, you're led to a series of questions about your name, address, who lives in your household, etc. (You will not be asked about your citizenship status, in case you were wondering.)
If you don’t receive a census ID, you can still fill out the online form. Just go to the website and navigate to the “if you do not have a Census ID, click here” button on the login page. You’ll have to answer a few additional questions about your address, but you should be able to complete the census after that.
The government has come up with a reeeeally detailed video about how to fill the census out online.
Save some sauerkraut for me
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