Gloves is all it takes

Well, social isolation has taken its toll. I am so bored, I’m back to blogging. I pride myself in being able to explain complex scientific stuff in normal words, but that is not the case today. This is easy shit. I’m a bit of a science nerd, so instead of following the headlines in the media, I’ve gone directly to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Sharing this information with friends and family prompted me to recognize it might be useful for other people. Let me dive right in! Social distancing is for one reason only, a very important reason, we need to decrease the rate of people getting sick so that we have better health outcomes for those who do. So, get on board.

This corona virus is less like the flu virus than was initially feared. In short, the contagion through the air is less of a concern. If someone coughs, they are not as likely to spread the virus as someone spreading the flu virus. This is the basis for the 6 foot distancing that was recommended. Today, the WHO announced one metre was probably sufficient. I’m not telling you this so that you can safely get up into someone’s face. I just wanted to let you know that five feet, eleven inches is not the danger zone. It is still important to maintain the full six feet. At the very least because it is good manners. There are some pretty frightened people out there who want you as far away as possible.

This virus dries up too quickly to travel very far, except when experimentally shot out of a scientific gadget that produces a “worse case scenario” for the spreading of airborne diseases. Basically, infection requires the virus to get right up and personal with your mucous membranes. All of those wet surfaces on your body that support the transition from skin on the outside to wet organs on the inside. Think lips. Hence, the suggestion to stop touching your face.

The virus also likes to hang out on smooth surfaces like handles, door knobs and railings. It can linger on smooth surfaces for an unknown amount of time (at least unknown to me!). When your skin touches these surfaces, the virus has just boarded public transportation. The skin is a great place to hang out and the virus doesn’t seem to dry out significantly. So, the easiest thing to do is simply wear gloves. That way if you catch yourself picking your nose, you at least had to take your glove off first (I hope :-).

Also, it is possible for a healthy person to spread the virus and never show symptoms. So even if you never get sick yourself, you may be spreading the virus to other people. The act of wearing gloves means that your skin never infects a surface. I am wearing my light fall gloves. I suspect the virus would live longer on the gloves intended for food service or medical use-they are smoother.

One final note. Social distancing has illuminated two extremes. On one side, the household with many people, who now cannot go out. On the far opposite side of the spectrum are those who live alone and rely on their social outings for human contact. If you know any of them, I suggest you give them a call (do not send something in writing, I’m sure they already have lots to read). They might be feeling cabin fever so badly they could resort to blogging. We wouldn’t want that!

 

 

Intention

Not clearly related to this blog, but I did want to honour this visitor to my backyard who clearly saw the diving board as a great place to stand.

Setting an intention can be done proactively, or subconsciously. In this case, I must admit I did it proactively. I have mentioned that I was ‘moving into’ my new place which included finding shopping and services. I wrote a blog on find a new hairdresser, which I am happy to proclaim, I have done.

However, none of this is the point of this blog. I set out to find a doctor, dentist, eye doctor, masseuse and well all of the services I regularly use and I had no way of knowing it would include a service station for Max, my car. Knowing full well that I set this intention, I am humbled to admit that I sought out a new service station for my car.

This came to fruition this weekend when my car broke down for the first time — ever. I had to be towed to a dealership that could fix my car and it brought me here. I now, or rather I will by tomorrow, be in a relationship with a new place to take my car for routine maintenance and unexpected repairs.

In addition to that, I have been feeling money strain. This is not a common problem for me. I have experienced the phenomenon of “money comes”. Not giving free rein to those who quell their insecurities by buying more and more, my experience has been that over my lifetime, money comes.

By this I mean that if I let the universe work things out, without my interference, “I get what I need”. Long story short, I have started to be concerned with the flow of money and the universe always fights back by creating a situation where I am forced to spend money I wouldn’t have otherwise.

In combination, this resulted in my car breaking down. I will meet the new service personnel and I will spend money I hadn’t planned on. I get it. This is how things work. Sometimes I feel like I am still learning the rules. At the very least, I recognize them when they are applied to me.

 

 

 

Karma not Revenge

This is a photo of a man made countertop. It is trying to give the impression that it is a naturally occurring pattern, but it is just pretending to be. Benign, yes. Real, no.

I joke that I want to make up T-shirts that say, “I believe in Karma, not Revenge”. A simple concept, but at the age of 56, I believe in it because I have seen it so often. What I have seen is that those who do anything, good or bad, malicious or benign, with the wrong intention, see consequences. This is not something that I have any control over, but I have witnessed those who do good, with good intentions, have things go their way. On the other hand, those who take action, whether judged good or bad, are reciprocated not based on their actions, but on their intent.

This is one of the “levers” I have written about that I believe help us manoeuvre through this life, I increasingly see as a type of game we are playing. We chose to be here. This is our opportunity to live a lifetime as a human on this planet. Similar to sitting down to play Monopoly, we decide to play before we know if the dice will fall in our favour. That said, if we chose to be here, there’s likely a set of rules. Being altruistic in our motives may very well be something that can shift the tides in our favour.

I blog. Yes, I’ve been accused in the past of stating the obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out. “Common Sense”, is only common once it has occurred to you. It is naive to believe everyone has the same knowledge and experience you do, so what has occurred to you has not necessarily occurred to someone else.

One of my favourite examples came from a co-worker. He was trying, unsuccessfully, to schedule a meeting in a boardroom. After scanning through the availability of all of the possible meeting rooms, he found a time when there was a large enough meeting room available. He scheduled it, sent out the invitations to dozens of individuals who would be joining the meeting either in person or remotely and after accomplishing this task, logged off of his computer for the weekend.

When his co-workers received their invites, all of them ‘declined’ and he couldn’t imagine why so many people would immediately say no to his proposed meeting time. A friend of his pointed out that he had planned the meeting for a national holiday — hence the free meeting room. It was ‘common sense’ that no one would want to plan to work on a holiday but it simply had not occurred to him that this particular day was a day off of work.

So, with as much humility as I can muster, I have to respond to all of the marketers and salespeople who have liked my blog, please check with your inner compass. Are you liking what I have written because it rings true to you or has touched you in some way, or are you “liking” my blog because you believe I will “like” you back for whatever that does? I know that the number of ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ has become a yardstick to measure success, but if you are not legitimately intrigued, or at least amused by my musings are you setting yourself up for negative Karma?

This is a question worth asking. In our polite society companies have sprung up from the knowledge that if you follow someone they are likely to follow you back. There are people who will, for a fee, follow dozens of sites (on many social sites), on your behalf, for a fee, because they know people will ‘follow’ back. These companies can guarantee a certain number of followers by following this socially recognized practice.

A dark blog for sure, but I do take the time to see who has liked my pages and those who may or may not be liking me because they are trying to sell their … whatever … are kinda driving me nuts. It is not important to me if you do or don’t like my ranting, but I do ask, only like me if your motives are pure. Karma will know, even if I don’t.

Sorry for stating the obvious, but I can’t assume everyone has the same knowledge and experience as I do. Common sense is only common once it has occurred to you. Thanks for reading to the end. 🙂

 

 

Updates, so soon?

Just so that I can remember what the Settings icon looks like without the notification on it.

With no exaggeration, I just updated my phone. I haven’t even gotten around to opening the newest version of many of my apps. I like to do it in advance, because I know from experience that if I wait until I actually want to use the app, it pisses me off if I have to go through a rigamarole to do what I want to do. So it is better if I go through the hassle before I need to.

I turn the automatic updates off, because I can’t control this otherwise. Nothing is worse, OK, I hear you, there are a lot of things that are worse. Stubbing your baby toe on a piece of furniture, as you walk across a room comes to mind pretty quickly, but I digress. If you need to get something done quickly, like while at a traffic light, in a busy intersection in the core of a large city, that is the last time you want to open a map app and have a cheerful screen come and say, “Let me explain all of the new features!”

Seriously, I am risking life and limb to try to figure out where I can pull over and park, just to give me time to figure out where I actually need to be and instead of a map coming up, “helpful suggestions” appear, how ironic. No . . . way. I did not just sensor myself, that was the best way to try to illustrate how I would say that out loud.

Yes, it was fun updating my phone. I mentioned it felt like I had bought a brand new one, but seriously, how much time do developers think is reasonable when it comes to updating your electronic devices? If I put it on automatic, it might not be available when I need it. So, it is a waste of time either way.

Quality products will be recognized for being organized enough to group significant updates together and release them all at once instead of constantly bombarding people with changes to how their devices work. It is just a waste of time and energy. Yes, I am mad about this. I literally got one day without the little red 1 in a circle at the top right corner of my Settings icon.

 

He wasn’t there for me.

A very sad expression. I hope he’s OK.

I spent Saturday getting to know two new men. Wayne, originally from Montreal where he worked in welding and construction now lives in Ontario and drives a truck. He restored a 1931 car into an immaculate piece of art. A Trump supporter who doesn’t see that Trump adopting the realization that there is “Fake News” out there and accusing others of it is a classic narcissistic move, well known to anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with one personally.

But, he was pleasant, if right leaning, and told me lovely stories about his family and their lives.

Fabio is new to Canada and still struggling to love winters. His wife, who is also from Brazil, would rather go home, but despite the weather Fabio prefers to raise his sons in a Country that offers them a good life and opportunity.

Both men were kind and generous. They helped me reach home, which is firmly Blue. See, I was passing this transport on my way back to my condo, almost perfectly half way between my departure and arrival cities, and Max died. This is the first time that he hasn’t been there for me.

The engine light came on and the motor just cut out. I had enough momentum to pull over to the side of the road and assess the situation. Wayne, drove the pickup to the dealership and Fabio the Uber to Blue.

Re-Cut

Ok, so this is a chicken. A fancy breed, I can’t remember the name. But I feel like this is how my hair looks.

The universe has told me to get a new hairdresser. OK, worded like that I feel like a flake for sure. But, I’ve been trying to figure out how best to handle my last haircut. I tend to stand up for myself and come right out and tell someone I need something else. I didn’t because my hair looked fine when I left the salon.

First, I envisioned, just stopping in and explaining my concerns, but then, do I get it cut right away? Do I allow her to re-cut it for free? Do I pay her a second time because she failed to give me what I wanted the first time?

Finally, I settled on going to a new place. I would walk in, proclaim how much I hated my haircut and explain what I wanted differently. I would also explain that the hair would be shorter than I would like, but it was just the price to pay for a proper cut.

See, I don’t style my hair. I explained this to the woman who cut my hair, and quite frankly, while they are cutting, I have no way of telling if it is what I asked for or not. Then she styled it in a specific way and it looked nice. Now, I say that because it did look nice, but honestly, it looked exactly how it usually looks when I leave the hairdresser, more or less.

I have come away with a cut I liked before. But this time, it is bad. My hair is cut in two sections. When she styled it, she pulled the front hair at the top back and it fell nicely, but when it dries naturally, the shorter part on top dries into two globs. Then, the remainder of my hair is basically flat until it is bunched at the bottom.

Do these two areas need to be cut separately like that or is there a way to blend the length of my hair gradually down so that the ends can curl equally up the sides of my head instead of two large lumps on each side?

So I will have to try to explain this to the next person who cuts my hair. Wish me luck. I’m only batting about .300.

Little Badges

I am hopeful the pool will get fixed so that I can earn this February challenge. Close all three rings for 7 days in a row, ending on Valentine’s Day. Isn’t it pretty? It spins when you scroll through it.

The little badges you receive when you accomplish an exercise goal, while using the iWatch or Apple Watch or whatever its current name is are quite addictive. I noticed that even though I accomplished the January Challenge, I did not receive my badge. I knew what the problem was and it was enough incentive to correct it.

Updating my phone, and my watch has become associated with a decline in the functioning of the device. The worse, most horrifying experience with this was when I updated my iPhone 4. It went from a fully integrated single interface to having YouTube, and Google disassociated from the other apps. Previously, everything was communicating, addresses, maps, texts, webpages…and then it wasn’t.

After getting fed up, updating my iPhone 6 and finding it was now wonky and giving Apple several updates to fix the problems, I got to a point where I was no longer willing to keep updating only to find the problems changed, not eliminated.

Anyhooooo, I knew I would not get my badge until I updated my watch and that required me updating my phone. It is about a year or so since I updated the phone or any apps that did not require updating.

So I set about updating my phone and then my watch. Also, I restored the automatic app update. I’ll likely let that run for a month or so, or until the next “Update your iPhone” suggestion comes up on my phone.

It is like getting a new phone! Several things were improved this time. I haven’t even noticed any new bugs yet. (It is still very early!)

More importantly, I want to say thanks to the team at Apple for addressing my concern about the iWatch. I tend to be a bit of a geek when it comes to numbers. For me, it is very important to know, on average, how long each route home takes, for instance. The stopwatch on my watch was perfect for this.

I could start it at the decision point, take the off-ramp, or continue, for instance, and then see how long until I got home. Of course, this is but one thing I like to time. Needless to say, after the first update, which changed how this worked, I could no longer enjoy this function. The way the watch worked gave preference to the stopwatch, over any other watch face. So, if I was timing hours between longer events, not just the drive home, I would lose my watch for that entire time.

Until now, I currently have it running. 54:51:18, BTW. Just saying…

The other item I expressed concern about did not get fixed. It almost caused me to sell my watch. I decided to just avoid the thing and now I’m fine.

So, I feel that ebullience you get when you have a new toy in your life. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go out and buy anything, just update my phone, my iWatch and 105 apps.