April 17, 2020
Dear Everyone:
Things are certainly different now, what with the governor’s admonition
to stay at least six feet away from everyone else, to wear a physical
covering over the nose and mouth whenever out in public, and to
generally Stay Home! unless you have an essential reason
to go out.
I had an appointment with my respiratory specialist made over six months
ago. Instead of postponing
the meeting, since no physical presence was actually required, we met by
video-conferencing on Zoom.
The doctor’s office staff emailed me the link to get into the
“Zoom Room” and all I had to do was use my personal computer, click and
there I was “in” the doctor’s office without having to get in my car and
drive for half-an-hour, plus sitting in the Waiting Room, possibly
within six feet of someone else.
The meeting took less than 15 minutes.
He looked at the report from the CPAP machine (which I had
nicknamed “Caliban”) and approved of my using it nearly every night,
except when out of town or something.
Basically, he gave me a virtual pat on the head and said he would
approve my using the equipment for another year.
And that was that. All I had
to do was “leave” the meeting by clicking the appropriate spot and I was
home, without the half-hour drive back.
Seriously, I think this could catch on.
It was very easy.
In fact, “Jeannie” is already looking into it for “virtual” depositions.
Which is to say, I was looking into it.
I already had Zoom downloaded to the PC.
I went to their website and registered as a “free” user.
Then I set up a meeting with “Jeannie”, “Alice” and “Frankie” for
yesterday morning. I emailed
them all the link, meeting ID and password.
It worked like a charm!
First, I logged into the meeting.
In just a few minutes, “Frankie” appeared in my screen.
A little bit later, “Alice” joined us.
“Jeannie”, not surprisingly, was the last.
She also pointed out that she couldn’t see anyone else except the
person who was actually speaking at the time.
I talked her through, “Look at the upper right corner of your screen.
Try your other right.
Do you see ‘Speaker’ and ‘Gallery’?
Click ‘Gallery’.”
And there we all were, looking like half of The Brady Bunch.
We spent nearly an hour video chatting, just as if we were all
together in one room.
“Alice” showed us the china pattern she had chosen for her wedding, over
thirty years ago. And
“Frankie” picked up her laptop and showed us where the neighbor’s tree
had collapsed onto her patio during a storm earlier in the week.
We all had a good time and plan to meet again soon.
Only this time, “Jeannie” will be the Host, since she’s the one who
needs the experience. It
will make her that much more valuable to the agency that books a lot of
her work.
Meanwhile…
I have completed making face masks, at least for the time being.
Various relatives, friends and neighbors seem to be “covered” for
now. Plus, I have about a
half-dozen masks on hand, in case of emergency.
Therefore, I have “disassembled” the “factory” that had taken over my
living room. No more sewing
machine planted on a wooden tray table in front of the TV.
(I determined many years ago that placing the sewing machine on
one of the many plastic tables was not a good idea.
As soon as the machine got going, the table would start vibrating
in time with it and disaster was clearly moments away.)
No more ironing board to work around every time I wanted something from
the antique desk behind it.
No more wandering around various “helpful” setups to find whatever tool
I needed at any given time.
No more need for a “scraps bag” and an additional waste basket next to
the sewing machine.
I have my living room back again.
Big sigh of relief.
Hopefully, when the next “sewing compulsion” takes over, I will remember
that it might be better to station the sewing machine back in the second
bedroom instead of the middle of the living room.
One thing I noticed was that I couldn’t watch TV while actually
running the machine. The
noise drowned out anything else, plus I needed to focus my attention
completely on sewing, especially when working along the edge of things.
One thing I learned about this machine is that it has the capability to
facilitate edge-stitching by allowing me to reposition the needle to
either the far left or far right.
What a great idea!
Sewing along the edge was always fraught with danger as the mechanism to
pull the fabric forward would always pull harder on the other side, thus
tending to pull things awry.
Now the sewing feet are more evenly distributed, and you really don’t
care about that, do you?
Anyway, it’s all done, for now.
And I can go back to my more pleasant occupation of crocheting
hats and critters while binge-watching Outlander and anything
else that strikes my fancy.
In other news…
It was my own fault, of course.
Like so many people during these Shelter-In-Place days,
I was cleaning out one of the kitchen cupboards.
And in the course of such, I found a very nice plastic container
filled with brown rice. The
brown rice was from when my Primary Care Physician (PCP, also known as
The Gatekeeper) advised me to cut back on eating rice as it can lead to
triglycerides. (Everything
good ultimately leads to something bad.)
I had already decided that brown rice really wasn’t for me.
So I decided to get rid of the rice but keep the container.
What to do with nearly a quart of uncooked rice?
I didn’t want to just dump it in the garbage, which would go to a
landfill somewhere. So I
decided to pour it down the disposal.
Naturally, I started out slowly, letting the despised brown rice clear
the disposal and continue down the kitchen drain.
And, naturally, I soon forgot to be careful and before you knew
it, the drain and the disposal were jammed full of uncooked, but
rapidly-increasing-in-size-due-to-the-moisture-in-the-water, brown rice.
In a word: Oops.
Now I needed a plumber. You
may recall that last summer I needed a plumber and found a very nice
business just down the hill from where I live.
Now if I could only remember its name.
It took a bit of digging in the virtual and hard-copy Yellow Pages
before I rediscovered the plumbing business name and address.
Only later did I discover that their phone number was already
programmed into my phone.
I made the call and the business owner answered immediately.
He had me in their computer system and said that he could have
one of his technicians at my place in about a half-hour.
Compliments of the Coronavirus Pandemic:
On the Down Side: A
lot of businesses are necessarily closed, like my favorite restaurant.
On the Up Side:
Plumbers are considered an “essential” business.
Also on the Up Side:
They don’t have a lot of business going on right now.
The plumber showed up right on time.
And he had another disposal on hand exactly like the one that I
had just destroyed. It took
him only about an hour to clear the jammed pipes and replace the
disposal.
Oh Happy Day!
I gave the plumber one of the “leftover” face masks as a “tip”.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |