Skip to main content

Communique #7



Every year for as long as I can remember beginning in late March through April I have my worst allergies.

In the time of the pandemic this is not good timing,  No one wants a runny nose or chest congestion now.

This week with a series of sunny dry warm days, the streets are colored with yellow pollen. 

My daily exercise is a walk, it is unavoidable, the gym and my swimming pool is closed.  However this year almost everyone is wearing a face mask as recommended.  I look like everyone else!  I have several masks.  The mask protects me from the pollen floating in the air.  I have allergies this year, but to date they have not been severe or debilitating.  Now everyone can have a mask.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Communique #15 The Taster

This election is too important to leave food to chance.  Biden needs a Taster.  I don’t think Trump will stop at anything to win. In  ancient Rome , the duty was often given to a slave (termed the  praegustator ). Roman Emperor  Claudius  was killed by poison in AD 54 even though he hired a food taster named  Halotus . [1]  Tasters were sometimes coerced. [2]  Over history, presidents and royal families have hired food tasters or sacrifices, over fear of being poisoned.  Queen Durdhara , the  Mauryan  empress, ate food that was prepared for her husband and died. [3] Adolf Hitler 's food taster  Margot Wölk  tried the food at 8:00 am every day, and if she did not fall ill the food would be sent to Hitler's military headquarters. [2]  President  Vladimir Putin  has hired a food taster who is part of his security staff to protect himself as well. [3]  In recent times, animals such as mice have been us...

Communique #12

I wake up in the night, feeling warm with a dry throat and wonder if I have the virus.  I dismiss it and go back to sleep. But, there are more cases now than ever.  The normal that one might want to achieve seems farther and farther away.  We are at an extended existential moment.  The future is unknown. I suppose this is more realistic-- thinking one knows the future is an illusion, and yet culture, our culture plants the seeds and creates the markers for this illusion that the future is secure, corollary, one is safe and immortal, this against all evidence.  I suppose my surprise at how strong ideology is, some who are able to deny the science of the virus, is not that different then this culturally propagated belief, the future is known and secure. The pandemic brings this belief into question and we can call it existentialism.  No, the future is not known, so get over it.  Life is a fragile gift, we don’t know what happens tomorrow....