You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha' Doing - 2020
Sandra wrote: "(maybe we should move this chat to the corona thread?)"Hah true. We have delved into that topic a bit more than generic health things.
Some of my places have reopened, but I'm waiting to start anything as our numbers are on the rise again. I don't know if we'll be shutting down again, but I will wait to see how things go before joining back into my groups. I have a couple of zoom groups now that I'm keeping up with. It's not the same, but still nice to see people and do something. I did just buy a new yoga series to try out at home. I was doing a program before (Betty Rocker - I think Sarah does this one too.) and I stopped for a while. Then, I tried it again and couldn't walk the next day. lol I think I need to ease into it a bit slower after being mostly inactive for months. I am hoping to come out of all this without 20 extra pounds and diminished lung capacity...
Regarding the flu shot - I may have to reconsider my stance. I don't typically get the shot and I can't even remember the last time I got the flu. *knocks on wood* I figured this year I needed the shot even less. If I'm taking precautions against Covid (social distancing, masks, washing hands, even staying home 90+% of the time) then I am also taking these same precautions against the flu and am therefor very unlikely to get it. However, the thought of getting them both together is horrifying.
Kristie wrote: "However, the thought of getting them both together is horrifying."I understand your logic. I think the low rates here though were a combo of the distancing but also the massive vaccination rates in the community.
But I agree, that's what made me run out and get mine on the second day i could. I've had the flu once in 35+ years, and I felt like I was dying, and that was when it wasn't killing me. That AND a virus that actively stops your blood oxygenating, thus resulting in cell/organ death and can kill you? Hard pass.
Grainne wrote: "I am coming from taking belly dancing classes. ..."**waves to belly sister!!**
I miss mine.
Things have been crazy here lately. Three weeks ago I was offered a part time job at our church/school and I took it. I'm working around 10 hour a week only, but I have to get those 10 hour from somewhere! It's not that I had 10 extra free hours for doing this! But so far so good. I just need some time to get better organized.My job consists essentially to keep track that every employee and volunteer in the church, school and preschool (460 people in my current list) have their clearances updated, and help them to do it (since the process is a little dense with 3 or 4 different clearances and 2 trainings). Right now there is a lot of work to do, since the previous coordinator left in August and things have been piling up. It seems that this is also the busiest time in the year for renewals, and many people couldn't complete theirs during the lockdown and is trying to catch up now, so fantastic timing to land in this position. :)
Tomorrow I'm taking my Social Studies GED test but after doing the last practice test this morning I have decided to spend the day doing something relaxing instead of studying. Reading was my first choice but the weather is so, so, so nice outside that I'll work in getting my vegetable garden ready for winter instead. And reading later, of course. ;)
Congrats on the job Sandra! And good luck with the test tomorrow, I'm sure you'll do great!It's a smart thing to do some relaxing stuff this afternoon instead of keeping on studying.
Congrats on the new job, Sandra and I hope that your test is going well. You can do it!
Good luck Sandra! Not that you need it, you know you got this 😉I did mine almost two years ago, best thing ever 🥰
Sandra wrote: "Things have been crazy here lately. Three weeks ago I was offered a part time job at our church/school and I took it. I'm working around 10 hour a week only, but I have to get those 10 hour from so..."Congrats on the job. And good luck on the test!
Thank you everyone! I'll let you know.Jenn, you took the GED? Amazing! It took me sometime to decide it had to be done, that my highschool diploma from Uruguay won't help me here. I'm glad I did it, even if the pandemic delayed my plans.
Oh Sandra, you have a big head start, you’ve already done it once, you just have to translate it 👍 I never finished (ok, fine, never started), and I just turned 43. I don’t know how it is where you are but here there are five tests (reading, writing, math, science, and socials), and I bought the locally recommended study guide (highly recommend). Ours are multiple choice except for a little bit of math and part of the writing. I would study until I was really good and comfortable . . . (ok, fine, really stressed out, and somebody in my house was unlikely to survive the night), then go and take one. Actually thinking about maybe doing some upgrading so that I could go for some more college courses?
Good luck Sandra, but I am sure that you don’t need it - you got this 😃
Yep. It's the same here. Reading and writing are done together so the exam is in 4 parts instead of 5.
Congrats on the job, and you'll do great on your test. Certainly makes for a busy time.
I passed the Social Studies test! Three more to go, but now off to enjoy the weekend.
Sandra wrote: "I passed the Social Studies test! Three more to go, but now off to enjoy the weekend."WOOOHOOOOO! (not that there was any doubts)
Thank you! I will celebrate with a good red wine today. Not right now. Too early. But later, because why not?? In this 2020 we should celebrate at every change we get...
Sandra, that's great news! Definitely worth celebrating, and should be celebrated! And grats on the new job too :D
Congrats, Sandra! That is excellent and worthy of celebration!
I’m so happy for you Sandra 😃 Doesn’t that feel amazing 🎉🎉🎉
@Esther waves to you too 🥳@Sandra congratulations on your new job. I hope that it all goes well for you.
Hey everybody. Still alive over here. Other than checking Twitter because I follow a lot of agriculture things and I can learn stuff I really haven't been doing social media. Between the election and covid the toxicity level just got to be too much. I kind of checked out. But I did read a pile of books with all the time not being bogged down with the drama and negativity. Funny thing is it's highly due to the people I follow and am friends with. It's weird. Not sure if it's because people I know or follow are heavily right while my wife has more of the left or what but her social media stuff doesn't carry anywhere near the toxicity that mine does. Whatever. Really not much to share been working and that's about it
Nice to hear from you Travis!Lots of negativity on my social media too. Not even from people I'm friends with, but just things popping up. I'm staying away from it (and the news as well) more than usual too, especially reading comments on social media makes me feel anxious and stressed.
I'm going to make a serious effort to ban more plastic from my life. I downloaded an app (my little plastic footprint) that gives you lots of useful suggestions, several of which I was already doing. I also ordered How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time, and some silicone lids to use instead of cling film or aluminium foil. And I ordered a bundle from The Happy Soaps, including plastic-free shampoo bars, conditioning bars, body wash bars, shaving bars and deodorant. There's no plastic in the products, or in the packaging. When I'm through my current stock of cleaning products, I'm also going to substitute the ones that are not ecological yet by a Dutch ecological brand.
We have a friend who's a bit of an environmental warrior and she does a lot against plastic. I can't remember everything. Doesn't buy individual packaging when possible. I've seen her go to gatherings with silverware and markers and tries to get people to sign a thing saying they will try to use more reusable and less plastic. Then give you a piece of silverwear and a marker to decorate it if you want rather than plastic cutlery. I think people think she's crazy but she just wants to make a difference in the world. Doesn't care what people say either. Takes tough skin to take a stand even against plastic
Peggy wrote: "I'm going to make a serious effort to ban more plastic from my life. I downloaded an app (my little plastic footprint) that gives you lots of useful suggestions, several of which I was already doin..."Check zero waste store as well. there are a few around here that have great products. You just pop in with your containers and refill them.
That's a great concept. It would be so awesome if I could just bring my own container and fill it with pasta or rice or other dried goods. I've been wanting to do that for ages. Unfortunately there are no such things here.
That app is fantastic, Peggy. I downloaded and plan to use it.We are doing our best to avoid plastic, one habit at a time. Some habits are easier than others. The US in general is a little behind than Europe or Canada for this. It is hard, but I guess that is a matter of generating awareness, and people will demand options.
Peggy wrote: "That's a great concept. It would be so awesome if I could just bring my own container and fill it with pasta or rice or other dried goods. I've been wanting to do that for ages. Unfortunately there..."It will come. These shops have started popping up a few years ago here. I still have to go a bit out of my way but I do not need to buy non perishable every day. So it works out as I do have to drive by one often enough.
Some things are easier than others. When I go to our local bakery, they have bread already sliced and in plastic bags, ready to go. They also always have some unsliced breads behind the counter. I want to reuse the plastic bags from previous breads, but it feels a bit weird to ask for a behind the counter bread and to slice it and give them my own plastic bag, when they have them there ready to pick up. Where we lived before the bakery only sliced and bagged the bread after asking for a specific one, so it would make it easier to offer your own bag. We eat about 1-2 breads a week normally, so that would be 75 plastic bags saved in a year!
@Esther: they might be around in Amsterdam or other big cities, but the rest of the country is always a bit behind ;-)
Sandra wrote: "That app is fantastic, Peggy. I downloaded and plan to use it.We are doing our best to avoid plastic, one habit at a time. Some habits are easier than others. The US in general is a little behind..."
Canada is not so advanced unfortunately.
Actually my grocery store just stopped having plastic bag last week. That is the one habit people finally got. It is funny Peggy because I always think of Europe being ahead of us in these things. I started bringing my own grocery bag in the 90`s here, (after I spend a summer working in Finland). I remember people looking at me like I was a Martian. :)
Now if they could ban these Keurig...
Haha, you were way ahead of the times Esther!Giving plastic bags to customers for free was banned here in 2010, since then you have to pay for them. That helped a lot!
There are lots of efforts everywhere, but still, there's so much I can also do on my own in addition to that.
I think here in the US we are light years of win the battle against plastic bags at the supermarkets. They use 1 bag for 2 or 3 items, and if the items are heavy they put them double. It is incredibly disappointing. We've been using ours for a few years now but I don't think more than 1% of the customers do the same. The other day I stopped by in Target with my son because he needed pants for P.E. class and I didn't have any of my bags with me so I just left the store with the pants in my hand. The cashier couldn't believe her eyes, like if I were completely out of my mind for doing something so embarrassing. But who needs a plastic bag for a puting a pair of pants in the back seat of the car for 10 minutes?At Kohl's the cashier also tried to put my husband's new shoes box inside a plastic bag, until I jumped on him saying that wasn't necessary. Complete nonsense. Wasn't the box enough? I really think we are way behind here, if you consider plastic bags in the supermarket is one of the easiest things to change actually.
Peggy wrote: "Haha, you were way ahead of the times Esther!Giving plastic bags to customers for free was banned here in 2010, since then you have to pay for them. That helped a lot!
There are lots of efforts..."
I am a biologist, gotta lead the way (even if I am not working as one anymore). This being said, I am nowhere near perfect. But I am aware of the good and the bad choices I make.
I believe that these changes have to come at the bottom level (us) for them to work. One of the spokesperson of an ecological movement here said many years ago: Acheter, c'est voter (to buy is to vote) and this is true. Shops and corporations will follow the trend.
New York banned single use plastic bags at stores. You can pay for paper bags or most people take bags to stores now. Although I don't think my wife has ever not taken her own cloth bags for groceries as long as we've been married. If she did it was years ago. I always remember us using our own bags
Sandra, I agree. We are way behind. I've had all those same experiences. Some places are considering getting rid of plastic bags and making people bring their own or buy them at the register, but people really push back. We have a lot of people in the US that can't stand to be inconvenienced at all.
Actually NY banned them then covid hit and unbanned them and I don't know what the plastic bag status is now. Eventually to be banned again
@Travis, I didn't know about NY. That is great. Here in PA we used them in excess, and almost nobody use cloth bags.@Kristie, that is true about "not being inconvenienced at all". Completely true.
It has come to my attention the guy who trucks my cattle who was just at my place days ago is in ICU with almost no lung function possibly looking at a respirator. Now obviously I hope he pulls through but it would be nice if someone could tell me what put him there. Being around him a few days ago and hearing may need a respirator one instantly thinks of covid but maybe it's a completely different health issue. It's a bit troubling trying to find what happened to him. I hope not just for myself but for him as well it's not covid. I don't think many live through covid of the respirator comes out . Poor guy whatever it is but he was in some of the best spirits I've ever seen him the other day. Blows my mind he's fighting for his life now whatever the reason . We even took a few minutes to joke around after I got my animal loaded the other day and we don't always even do that
It can't be considered good news but someone told me my truck driver was supposed to go in for back surgery. The reason that would be extra bad if it's true is because my neighbor got back surgery last year. Was a great success. While sitting in a wheelchair in the lobby waiting for his parents to bring the car to the door he had a brain aneurysm and died. So what's the odds of the small circle of people I know I have 1 person die from back surgery and 1 near death. That would be weird I've been eating 2 apples a day for past couple weeks so it should work double keeping the Dr away from me lol
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lost Man (other topics)The Glass Woman (other topics)
The Survivors (other topics)
The Survivors (other topics)
The Glass Woman (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Roberto Bolaño (other topics)Dervla McTiernan (other topics)
Kevin Hearne (other topics)
Rachel Caine (other topics)
Tan France (other topics)
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Just want to let you all know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
My running club has also resumed and we went for Indian curry afterwards when we ran on Sunday.
I stopped at the coffee store for a pumpkin spice latte but unfortunately I saw a car accident as I was walking to get the bus. Both were okay just one probably has some fractures on his leg, he couldn’t move it.