pandemic Archives - Page 5 of 6

Monday April 27th, 2020

I sat in the back yard and meditated for ten minutes, or at least tried to. When I meditate, I try to clear my mind, listen to and observe nature. A calico cat came walking down the fence. She saw me, stopped, watched as I retrieved a Kleenex from a pocket, then delicately turned around on the narrow rail joining the picket boards together, then headed back from whence she came.

A finch flitted between the giant dandelions and ate seeds. Actually I believe these large weeds are sow thistle. The finches love them.

My daughter came out on the patio and asked me to look over her English homework: identifying prepositions. She had to circle as many as she could find on a page. I told her I was taught that a preposition was, “Everywhere a rabbit could run: over, under, beside, on….” I found a few more with her. Rabbits don’t really run “of,” however.

Today I also plan to run on the treadmill and update this website.

At the moment, I have ten minutes to get ready for work.

Sunday April 26th, 2020

I’m writing very late. Today is almost over. I was so busy: cleaning, five loads of laundry, and cooking. One load is still in the dryer. I cooked a week’s worth of oatmeal and fruit compote for the kids’ breakfast and made two large veggie and cheese omelettes for dinner. Everyone, except for D, had the omelettes.

Our neighbor Jessica came to retrieve her gardening supplies, so I took that as an opportunity to pick fresh loquats for her and also gave her a container of prepared ones. She texted me when she came, and retrieved the fruit from where I left it in the driveway.

I also tidied up the front lawn: trimmed the grass and weeds with the weed eater, cut suckers from the rose bush, swept the sidewalk, chained two hoses together in the front yard to connect to the soaker hose across the median and used them to water the camphor tree. The long hose I normally keep in the front had burst the last time I used it.

Shannon called, but her phone cut out periodically. We decided to talk later.

Richard’s cousin, a doctor, called to talk about Karen. She was upset to hear Karen was diagnosed with COV-19. Karen’s diagnosis, however, was based on observation of symptoms, rather than a test for the presence of the virus. Richard’s cousin is very worried about Aunt Karen, even though we currently believe she has a mild case. Karen’s age, mid-eighties, puts her at a higher risk for complications.

Tonight I will skip the web entries. Perhaps tomorrow, when I am back on my schedule, I’ll catch up. Meditation week is always more difficult to keep on a schedule, though I plan to keep running on the treadmill.

My weight came back up a little: 109 pounds, so I need to pay more attention to what I eat. Maybe I need to add even more cardio to my schedule.

I forgot to mention we had a meeting with Sensei on Saturday morning: the Ichi Kyus, our Nidan, two Shodans, other high ranking students and Sensei. We talked about how to proceed with our black belt tests, given Kumite and Sanchin may not be options during the pandemic. Many cool ideas surfaced: a strenuous run up a mountain trail, or kata on the beach, while ocean waves roll in to add resistance, or Sanchin as Mas Oyama reputedly did it, while balancing jars of clay. I love the idea of doing a test in nature. Granted, most of us associate the ten man fight with the black belt. Could we, instead, battle ten elements of nature?

Friday April 24th, 2020

push-ups: 1:09 minutes, 30/tricep on the floor and 30/chest on a yoga matte
squats: 1:49 minutes, 70 squats, alternating with punches every other set
sit-ups: 2:12 minutes, 70 sit-ups, more upper abs in the morning

These are my times. Next week is my “meditation” week, though I will continue to run on the treadmill. The following week will be 80 sit-ups and squats, then I should move to 40/20 for floor and matte push-ups.

I emailed Sensei yesterday about this site. I hope he likes it, and is able to see it!

Oh, I reached Shannon on the phone last night. She’s fine! Such a relief! D suggested calling her at night, so I did. They don’t have kids, and, as D suspected, they were still up at 10pm. They were not upset that I called so late.

She was sick for several days last week with a fever, and received the COVID-19 test. Her results came yesterday: negative.

Shannon tried to check out this website but could not get it to load. It loaded as a broken domain. I may have left the site in a bad state one day last weekend. I should check it under a different user, just in case that makes a difference.

Miriam suggested taking loquats to Mikage and Jerry, two good friends of ours who recently moved back to Los Angeles, after living in Vancouver for several years. K loves loquats. She is originally from Japan, and told me once that loquats never stay in the grocery stores long there. They have a short season and sell out quickly. My tree is full of fruit. This will be my weekend: loquats. Picking, delivering, cleaning, preparing and and eating loquats.

I looked up the “shelter in place” order for LA County. Culver City, where Mikage and Jerry live, is fourteen miles away. Delivering food, however, is certainly allowed. Is there someone I can call? “Hello city official, I’d like to drop loquats off with a friend. Is that okay?” I may also simply ask Mikage if she is comfortable with me dropping off fruit, and make sure she wants them. I could also freeze a batch for her, and give her those when we’re allowed to see one another.

Granted, the idea of driving to another area is attractive: seeing different scenery, and just feeling how large the world is. I want to respect the order, however. I’ll ask D for his opinion.

Delivering home-grown fruit may be a grey area. Funny–if she paid for them, it would count as “essential” business since it involves food. I will just ask her. I can leave the loquats at her door step, then wave at her from the car or from the street, just like the delivery folks. She loves loquats.

I love my loquat tree, and love giving away its fruit. I like eating them, too, with lemon juice and honey, or simply as they are. They are a bit of work to prepare.

Well, that’s my timer. Time to pick!

Thursday, April 23rd, 2020

It’s that time of day when I get to sit outside and report on my accomplishments, karate-wise. Yesterday I ran on the treadmill for twenty minutes and walked for ten. I also got in my exercises last night and this morning. I’m pretty tired lately. There are spots in my arm muscles, just below my shoulders that hurt as if I’d recently gotten a flu shot.

Aunt Karen is still recovering at home.

I haven’t been able to get a hold of Shannon, so I’m concerned. Today I’ll call her home number and see if I can get or or Louis. I hope she is okay. Initially I wasn’t worried because her symptoms sounded similar to the illness that D and I had had two weeks ago. However, long silences aren’t like her. D checked her Facebook page, but there were no recent posts.

At work, we have a townhall scheduled over Zoom. I suspect they may cut back our hours further. I’m on the fence about this job. I have several good friends there, but one of the people in charge has no perspective on the people he is in charge of.

He told our head of Character Effects, (CFX does clothing and hair for digital characters), that he wanted a “hair expert” to check his hair setup file. Now, I looked up this “hair expert” on LinkedIn. She doesn’t sell herself as a “hair expert.” She has two years experience doing hair at a film company and she’s otherwise fresh out of school. Our CFX head has about seven years experience specifically in hair and roughly twenty in visual effects; he was a groomer at two large film studios: one feature animation place and one live action place. Yet he’s not an expert?

While writing, I hear a tell-tale low, lawn-mower sound; a fairly large hummingbird just flew over my head, hovered near the wind chimes, then dove down tin the very tall dandelions.

The universe is telling me to stop complaining about work. I have work.

The timer is telling me to go to work.

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020

I’m a little bit discombobulated because kids woke my husband and me up at 6:30am. They asked what to do about the neighbors’ broken sprinkler jetting water into the sky. F said it was like a fountain, shooting up and into the street.

There was an earthquake last night, too, a small one: 3.7 in Englewood.

My children and I set up the computer on the back patio; we participated in karate class outdoors via Zoom. That was cool: our yard is still wild, even with the bit of laundry hanging about in an attempt at domestication. We practiced karate with trees as our backdrop and the night insects as our audience. Senpai Peter led most of Kihon and did a good job. Sensei offered corrections on the direction of yoko keage: Janice’s was too straight to the side and mine was too much at an angle.

S and I kept F in the center again. Though we were tired after class, we were not overheated, as we had been while doing Kihon in the upstairs bedroom. During class last night, we also did kiaias as quiet, more gutteral “shi-ahs” so we would not disturb the neighbors. Sensei taught the class this new kiai style, saying it was a kiai for advanced karateka: practitioners who know how to avoid conflict with neighbors and family during a pandemic!

It was great to see so many kids and adults on-line, taking part in the class.

Afterwards, I did my exercises on the patio: chest push-ups on the concrete and tricep push-ups in the overgrown clover. During squats, I punched at a tall dandelion; it was practically at my chest. I used the plant for targeting. My goal was to deliver punches fast enough and close enough to move it with air, but not actually hit it. Move it I did! I rushed through sit-ups and yes, did fetch a yoga matte for those.

Six minutes left before I need to login to work!

Tuesday April 21st, 2020

I write this diary in pen in a notebook in the morning and type it it into this site at night.

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats, with ten push-ups on my knees as extras, so sixty on my toes and ten on my knees, and seventy for squats and push-ups.

Aunt Karen’s son brought her home from the emergency room, but she went to her apartment and not back to the nursing home. We were glad to hear it, but still worried about her. One of her sons will look in on her.

Even though she still needs care, going back to the nursing home was not an option. Her doctors have not yet confirmed COVID-19, but it’s still a possibility, so for her sake and for the other nursing home patients, she can’t return. Wow–what a conundrum.

Karen told Richard she’d gotten to know a woman down the hall recently. Suddenly that woman was gone. Karen’s son told Richard that both rooms on either side of hers Karen’s were empty and the nursing staff would not say what happened to Karen’s former neighbors. Hopefully they are also alive and in their own homes with family, like Karen.

Goals today: it’s Tuesday, so we have Kihon as soon as work is done. I plan to change into my gi during lunch. Our class start time has moved thirty minutes up to 7pm. This makes sense for the kids in attendance, including mine.

I still need to email Sensei about this site and join his Facebook group. Ah Facebook.

Every morning, I wipe down the counters, table and other frequently used surfaces, including light switches, door knobs, fan controllers, etc., with a super-diluted bleach solution, then leave these surfaces to air dry.

In the kitchen, I pick one area to clean thoroughly. This morning, I tackled the expresso machine area and, because I wanted coffee, was rather impatient for it to dry. I grabbed a magazine fanned it.

Suddenly I remembered fanning aloe on the bright red skin of a sunburnt child after a trip to the beach. F always loved the ocean and a few times we stayed too long. That first time I brought her home after staying out too long, she was so red. I felt such guilt. Will she end up with skin cancer at my age? It has afflicted more than one person in my family.

My son is more fair, and has gotten sunburned a time or two, but with the second child, you figure out better methods. I bought him rash guards and slathered him opaque with sunscreen. F doesn’t like rash guards or sunscreen but will “humor” me, at least until she thinks I’m not paying attention. Then she pulls off the rash guard and runs back into the ocean, thinking I won’t notice. Sometimes I pretend not to. We miss the sand and surf.

Monday April 20th, 2020

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats this morning. After 60 push-ups, I huffed and puffed, but pushed myself to do ten more on my knees. Seventy squats often tire me out as well. During squats, I alternate sets with punches with regular sets. Ab exercises do not make me quite as tired, but they are starting to.

My father-in-law’s sister Karen is staying in a nursing home in New Jersey after she fell and broke her knee-cap. Recently, she’s had a fever of 100 and some shortness of breath. Karen’s son called last night to say they were taking her to the emergency room. They worry she has COVID-19. She is older than Richard, my father-in-law, and he’s 81. We hope she will be okay.

That reminds me to call Shannon tonight and see how she’s doing. Shannon is my age and in good health. Her husband is sharp, so if he is not sick, he’ll take her to a hospital if she takes a turn for the worse. Calling or texting to check in with her will put my mind more at ease.

Today I plan to run on the treadmill for twenty minutes and do my second set of exercises. Those are my goals, besides working and updating this website with this entry, and one further back in time. Sometime this week, I want to figure out how to get the posts to show up in the order I want them–by the date in the title and not the timestamp in which they get entered as posts.

How much of this journal will actually be interesting to people?

While writing outside, I hear birds, an occasional wind chime and the trash truck: picking up cans, brightening the lives of many a toddler. I remember taking first Rebecca then Joey out to watch the trash truck. I remember running down the sidewalk with both kids so they could watch it pick up one more can.

In ten minutes, I will clock into work on-line, but first I want to get dressed.

Sunday April 19th, 2020

Current Log

I’m sitting outside and it’s almost six pm. The birds are singing. I did not do any exercises or run on the treadmill, but did polish off five loads of laundry, changed the sheets on two kids’ beds, cleaned the kitchen floor and did yard work. I did recruit my son to help with the floor and laundry, while my daughter is cooking the main course for the six of us for dinner tonight.

Normally on Sundays, I call my sister or a friend, but I didn’t feel up to calling anyone today. I had odd dreams about work, and woke up at least twice during the night feeling either too hot or too cold. My friend Shannon is sick late last week and worried she has COVID-19. Her symptoms are so similar to an illness D and I had nearly three weeks ago: body temperature fluctuations, low-grade fever, sore throat and fatigue.

Jessica, the neighbor who once lived across the street, came over to check on her plants. When she moved a couple months back, I offered to keep many of the plants that she could not take with her to her apartment, and we also set aside part of our front yard as a garden area she could use. One of her succulents has a spectacular large pink bloom, and she took photos of it. She texted before arriving so we could stay indoors.

Both my mother and father-in-law, who live with us, wanted to say “hi” to Jessica, and did. Miriam, my mother-in-law, remembering the conflict we had had with our next door neighbors Beth and Lawrence over one of Jessica’s visits, insisted that it was “unreasonable” for them to expect to control who we see and talk to.

I won’t go into the conflict too deeply, but it was at the very beginning of the pandemic. The mayor had just issued the order to close restaurants, bars and schools. Some businesses were still open.

Jessica came to our front yard that day to check on her plants and get in a bit of gardening. I went outside with her. I was trying to keep my distance, but it’s possible I forgot or wasn’t paying close enough attention. We were gardening and chatting away. Beth, the neighbor, yelled from the window to Jessica that she was endangering our family and should leave. She also yelled at me for “enabling” Jessica.

Jessica, upset, left. I texted with Beth’s husband Lawrence several times over the incident. Honestly, in retrospect, I believe they were concerned about all of our well-being. At the time, it felt like an over-reaction, but given all the fear that people had and still have regarding this virus, I can’t say I still view that behavior as out of line now. Yes, I did not like it, since I and another good friend were targets. Lawrence and Beth are also old friends; they were afraid for our well-being and theirs.

Miriam is tired of hearing from all of us how she needs to limit her contact with others. Her sudden anger, directed at our neighbor, reveals her frustration at how limited we all are during this pandemic. She and her husband, due to their age and health concerns, are more limited than the rest of us. They and the kids have really felt the loss of their social circles and activities outside the home.

Under normal circumstances, D doesn’t get out a lot except for errands, appointments and chores. For me, it’s similar: I have to work, run errands or volunteer for some function. D and I are actually enjoying being at home more. We and the kids are less sleep-deprived. The kids and grandparents feel more limited, while D and I feel freed from our usual obligations.

Wednesday April 15th, 2020

The Back Log

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. We also had a Kihon class via Zoom with Sensei yesterday evening. That was nice. So 15 of my push-ups, sit-ups and squats for the evening happened during class, then I did 45 afterwards (that’s 30 on the floor plus 15 on the thick exercise matte.)

Sensei had us do Kihon exercises in sets of 3 moves with a more quiet “shi-shi-shi” as our kiai. Those were challenging. Daughter F, my son B and I were pooped when Kihon was done. We kept F in the middle because she has such perfect form, or at least beautiful form. I may not be the judge of perfect, but I definitely know beautiful.

Sensei ended the class with a couple simple Tai Chi exercises. He practices these in the morning to center himself. I like the symbolism: pulling down energy from the sky, stars and universe, then lifting up good energy from the Earth to your heart, so you will be grounded. Finally, bringing that Earth-heart energy to your own Chi, where you combine it with that sky energy you previously brought into your Chi. Through you, by way of your heart, Earth and sky mix.

He had us feel the heat between our hands, which is particularly strong after exercising. Sensei demonstrated stretching that heat–our Chis–first left and right, on the diagonals, up and down, expanding oneself. He also instructed us to reach behind to gather up all our intentions and things things left undone, and bring those forward to combine with our Chis. “Resolve that what needs to be done will be done,” he said.

That’s my timer. Richard, my father-in-law, came down and we had a nice talk about radio waves.

I skipped my usual leg stretch on the bookcase. What’s one stretch?

Tuesday April 14th, 2020

The Back Log

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. Last night, I managed to stay up on my toes for sixty (“tricep” thirty, “chest” thirty) and did a few extras. This morning, I did ten more “tricep” push-ups on my knees. I botched the Japanese count, however, because I listened too intently to the kids’ chatter.

They joked about a picture in F’s Spanish textbook: a cartoon of an older man named Jorge, riding a bicycle.

“He’s happy about everything!” chuckled F.

“Well, you need to be, when you’re seventy. You don’t have much time left!” I said, after they showed me the illustration. It was a silly picture.

Granted, what I said wasn’t exactly true: we may have a lot to worry about at seventy. Ideally we’ve learned what’s worth worrying about and what’s not. Wisdom has got to creep in sometime. Seventy seems like a good time for it.

(So weird: while I typed this entry into the site, we had a small earth quake. I kept typing. It didn’t feel like a large one but the sound was eerie.)

I spent thirty minutes on the treadmill: five minute walk to warm-up, twenty minutes jogging and five minutes walking to cool down. I listened to “Two Dope Queens.” They interviewed Michelle Obama. She’s down to earth. She talked about empowering girls around the globe and hair care. It gives you a glimpse into the lives of others: what’s different and what’s similar. Hair talk is fun.

A power plant had an explosion in Burbank over the weekend. Our IT folks had to go into our building and reboot all the workstations. They work hard.

While working from home, we finish shots, but it takes longer and the supervisors’ expectations are a moving target. At times it’s frustrating. I have been trying to let go of whatever expectations I have had regarding what my job should be, including the expectations laid out when I started, and just do the best that I can with what it actually is.

This company pays me by the hour. I do –or will–decide –whether or not I want to keep doing this job long term. For now, I remind myself that I have control over my own fate. My coworkers and I are lucky: we have jobs and we are able to work from home. Many of our friends, family members and neighbors are not working, or their jobs put them in danger of contracting the virus. This is not the case for my coworkers and me.

Somehow my timer didn’t start. I am outside and the birds are singing. And I have eight minutes to get dressed and clock in.