Saturday March 28
Diana has become a much calmer lap cat since Killick passed. Well, maybe not much calmer but seems to be less kneading, twitching, ass-in-the-air, nipping.
Spent all morning on the phone. Pan Kline, a fellow Democrat and all around good guy, has found a willing volunteer who will deliver good to seniors and people vulnerable to the virus. Wants me to help, so I developed a list of local grocery stories and how they are accommodating their employees and customers during the corona crisis.
Got my Cuomo press-briefing fix in. He has nothing but bad news but watching him every day seem to offer some control.
Went to Jill Wishon’s BBQ place to pick up dinner. They are set up exactly for this situation, pick-up orders, easy transactional payment system, and lots of space. They had a really busy day. Terrible time for dine-in restaurants.
We watched the Competition (awkward Richard Dreyfus, cute Amy Irving). I liked it better than Willie or Michael did, who now hates Richard Dreyfus more than he does Tom Hanks or Michael Fox).
Sunday March 29
Woke up in the middle of the night with what I thought was a brilliant idea for getting healthy young kids work by picking up and delivering food to people who are quarantining. The idea was a two-tiered program.
The first tier were people without cars or money who are housebound. The Volunteer shoppers would drive to the Customers house, get a credit card and list from them, go to the supermarket and talk to them on the phone while their picking out the food, in case items are missing, there are alternatives, or even better deals.
In tier 2, the customers have money and cars but are still vulnerable and quarantined (like me). These people would meet the shoppers at the store, and put their credit card, the list, plus a fee for the shopper in an envelope, leaving it on the hood of the car for the shopper to pick up. No touching! As in tier 1, the shopper and the customer would be on the phone together. Then the shopper would bring the bags out to the car and put them in the trunk, with the credit card in one of the bags.
So I thought this was brilliant three-in-the morning idea, but I found out later there actually is a service: Instacart, where you can order your food on-line at contributing markets and set up a time for somebody to deliver it. This would take care of tier 2 people. It looks fast and easy, although I understand that the Instacart workers are on strike because of the failure of the company to provide them with safe equipment.
As for tier 1 no volunteers actually want to go into a store and shop for anybody. Anyway the only person I know who would qualify for tier 1 is Faye, so I called her and it turns out she has a few good respirator masks from the last time she worked in a factory and a friend who drives her to the grocery store. Faye takes very good care of herself. We talked about sewing masks, and I went online to see if I can find a pattern. I’d have to hand sew them and given my limited dexterity, they would probably be more likely to suck the virus in.
Willie's friend Havisof may have the coronavirus. He called Willy from his car going home from the grocery store He has a fairly significant symptoms and he’s so out of it that he drove through a red light. I’m sure he was a jerk about exposing himself as he's doing now.
Willie is Face Timing about Dante's Inferno right now using with the Romanian French professor. He has dreaded this conversation but we’ll see how it goes. At least he's talking to a girl.
Got an email from Zoe. Until till a few months ago her son Luke was the most perfect angelic creature in the universe, and then he turned 13. Now Zoe, Luke, and the luckless fiancé are entombed together in a Brooklyn apartment, where Mom and son are engaged in a death struggle over whether Luke can use ear buds. Zoe believes they might cause brain cancer and so emailed me for my thoughts. I told her there wasn’t any good evidence that they were harmful, and in fact it’s almost impossible to study the physical effects of electromagnetic frequencies because of all the variables. It's like studying blueberries or red wine. I advised her to let him wear them during this period. I didn't say, but should have, that the very questionable risk is probably non existent during what we hope will be a short period, and if she holds on to her principles, her son's testosterone dogs will let loose and only bones will be left in the apartment at the end of quarantine.
I supervised Willie in the creation of our dinner: steak, farro, and green beans. Great success.
In keeping with our Sunday streaming category, we watched 2 Fast and 2 Furious. At the end we argued at bit over whether it was worth keeping on with the franchise. Michael believes it’s just too stupid. But Willie and I think we have made a commitment to it
Monday March 30
Stupid day watching virus news. Took a brief walk with Michael to pick up mail. Many chittering and chirping birds making cheerful noises against this dank day
Harris called. He and Neville are going to rescue Zoe (who is having a “breakdown”), Luke, and the fiancé and drive them up to Kingston from their apartment in Kingston. Harris is 80 years old, Neville is 70, and a third of the cases up here are brought by people in the city coming to their second home. This is so irresponsible of Zoe it makes me crazy.
Nice time cooking with Willie again. Chicken sausage, red peppers, onions, and Jill's smoked cabbage on top of polenta.
Watched On the Waterfront, which may be the best movie ever. Flawless.
Tuesday March 31
Trying to get help the Salvation Army even though I can't cook. Talked to Faye to see if she’s ok. She is of course. She’s also home for the duration. Talked to Darcy. who is fine with me trying to raise money. So I'm writing a press release, which I’ll post on Imby and FB and try to get the Register Star to publish. Here it is:
Up until about a month ago I was one of the happy cooks for the Hudson Salvation Army Service Center, the only soup kitchen in Columbia County that serves lunches five days a week. It also provides a food pantry three days a week. Once Covid-19 slammed New York, being in a high-risk group I had to self-quarantine, a loss only to myself.
The good news: lunches continue nicely without me cooked by excellent unemployed chefs from Hudson's high-end restaurant. The meals are boxed up and distributed individually outside. On pantry days, three long tables are set up with bags on each containing meat, produce, or dry goods. Anyone can take one bag from each table.
The bad news: until a month ago, generous local supermarkets and farms donated enough food, with a stockpile supplemented by the Regional Food Bank, to provide for the Center's lunches, the pantry, and often extra for other local pantries.
Now, everything has changed. Within a week of the virus striking New York, the number of lunches increased from an average of 30 to 60 a day and its pantry visitors from about 45 to 55. Furthermore, as viral cases and unemployment increase, so will these numbers.
The Center is already in trouble, with insufficient meat and dry goods on some days. Mothers are coming in asking for diapers and formula, which the Center doesn't ordinarily carry. Social Service employees are working at home and have called the Center for help, particularly to deliver food to the motels that house the homeless. Unfortunately the Center doesn't have the capacity to do this.
So what can people do? First, the Center could always use donations of dry goods (pasta, soups, sauces, non perishables). One can drop off bags in front of the Salvation Army Service Center at 40 South 3rd Street, Hudson Monday-Friday between 8:00 and 1:00.
Second, and more important, the Center needs emergency money for food when it runs out, for gas for the van, and for the diapers, formulas, and other non-food items that people now need. The Center Director would also like to give out gift cards at the pantry for milk, which is too heavy to carry.
Watched Speed Levitch's documentary from 1997, when he was a tour bus guide in Manhattan. The twin towers were alive and he was young, eccentric and brilliant about the city’s history and architecture. We then watched a documentary about him in 2012. Fame had not been kind. He had gotten chubby and scruffy, and his mystical communion with buildings and bridges and plants had degenerated into shtick.
Wednesday April 1
Off to St Peters for blood work and a visit with the nurse practitioner before my infusion on Friday. I'm paranoid in the hospital. Sanitizers are scattered everywhere, I used them on my hands and the handle of my faithful cane four times. One of the nurses is pregnant and nervous, and the others are just nervous but they all come in.
Spent the afternoon doing the write up for the Salvation, a long piece for Imby, but the Salvation Army managers wanted to turn it into a public service ad for the Register Star, not an article, so I tried to make a short and punch version for them, which I sent to Darcy.
Cooked leftovers and watched Fifth Element. Major silly.
Thursday April 2
Feeling ok except for the underlying stream of anxiety and the push back from my hips when I stand up. Worked again on the Salvation Army post for Imby. Darcy is waiting for approval of the version I wrote as an ad. She said they served 65 lunches yesterday and ran out of food, the Diva Chef from Swoon wont clean up.
Carol Smith had emailed and asked if I could research and find any information on the uncle of a friend of hers, with the odd name of Sina Baum. But he never married and he committed suicide when he was 40. Carol's friend wanted to know about his military record in World War to but couldn't find it on line. I became mildly obsessed with Sina I found his draft card, high school, college and medical school yearbooks. He was very handsome, and a joiner. He was in every club in school, theater, music, athletics, academic. In college at Hopkins he was a major jock, and in Medical School at NYU he was in some musical parody. He went into service as a surgeon in the medical Corp, but I couldn't find anything about his military record. And he seemed to disappear after the War. No record of him in practice. Only a residential listing in New Jersey, suggesting he was living with a parent. Carol told me later he became an alcoholic. He may have been gay.
I had a long Democrat Executive Committee via Zoom. I managed to convince the Executive Committee not to send the Healthcare Issues report to the full committee. Got support from a couple of other members. I volunteered to work with Sarah Sterling to update the committee on county efforts on the coronavirus. Am also working with Pam on food issues.
I made pasta and tomato sauce at ten.
Friday April 3
Off to infusion. The nurses seem pretty calm although anxious about Gena, the one who is pregnant. No one is wearing a mask unless they are administering the infusions. Visitors are no longer allowed, however, so Michael had to wait in the car. Other than that it was just a normal immunotherapy.
Didn't get back home till four.
I posted the Salvation Army pitch on Imby.
I wrote this the next day and couldn't remember what we watched for a long time. It was mystery night and I finally remembered that it was The Fugitive. These days have no emotion content to them. They just pass by even though we try to structure them with punctuation, like the streaming categories and meals. But by and large the days foundation rests watching Cuomo's press briefings on the coronavirus and obsessing on food that I need to buy and meals I want to cook.
I used Instacart today, an online app used to order groceries and have them delivered. Shoprite uses is it. You set up a timeslot for delivery and then select your groceries. They were scheduled for 6:30 PM, but emails kept coming in changing the delivery time and getting later and later until they gave me a peremptory email telling me I had to reschedule instead of just slotting me in on Saturday morning. So I checked the time slots and there were no more available in the foreseeable future. Goodbye Instacart. We’re going to have to do our own grocery shopping which makes me a little nervous.
Willie and I made a savory bread pudding, which he didn’t like and I did.
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