14th Blogaversary!

Oh gosh! I almost missed my 14th Blogaversary!

I began this blog on February 29, 2008 which was a leap year.

I wrote:

"It's another snowy day in Illinois. Once again my husband was out there shoveling his way out the door to get the morning newspaper. It does make us think about what it will be like next winter when we have made our move back to Hawaii after 33 years. It's a move we do with some melancholy because we hate leaving behind our daughter, son in law and precious granddaughter who is the light of our eyes."

And that was all.

There were no comments since I hadn't met any other bloggers except my Israeli friend, Dina who started me on this journey for which I'll always be grateful.  

So much has happened in those 14 years and it's all documented on this blog. It's rather amazing that when I forget when something happened, I just have to do a search and it's there.

The most wonderful thing about having this blog is that I have met so many wonderful, brilliant, innovative, talented, fun, friendly, loving people who have become part of my cyber family. Thank you for always being there for me and thank you especially for keeping me company during this pandemic. 

I've been writing occasional posts this past month which I scheduled to start posting on March 2nd while I continue working on my magnum opus family project. I'm on 2019. And then comes the editing. Sigh...

Madness!

One of my teacher friends sent our chat group an incredulous message that she saw a Harris poll indicating 62% of Americans think Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president. 85% of Republicans and 38% Democrats think this! They think Putin sensed a weakness in Biden. 41% felt it wasn't what contributed to Putin's aggression. New York Post is just one of the websites that reported it.

Did they forget that Trump is the one who wanted Putin to be part of the G7?

Did they forget that Trump wanted to leave NATO?

Have they seen how Trump called Putin a genius about invading Ukraine and is very cozy with him and other dictators?

I'm seeing the horrific photos coming out of Ukraine and my heart weeps for them. Just imagine if this was happening in the U.S. Imagine if you were Ukrainian hiding in the subway station with few bathrooms, water or other supplies. Imagine the terror of knowing a megalomaniac was wanting to come in and destroy your country and put you under his dictatorship.

I'm remembering the poem by John  Donne, No Man Is An Island.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, 
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, 
as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; 
any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls;
it tolls for thee. 

Just Dropping in Again: A Potpourri of Free Masks

One morning, I got an excited message from a good friend. She said she'd been to Longs Drug Store (CVS) and discovered they were giving away free N95 masks.

I really didn't need more N95s. A friend had told me about some very comfortable Honeywell (DF300 H910 Plus) N95s she'd gotten so I'd ordered them a while ago. When I texted my kids about how our infection, hospitalization and COVID deaths had suddenly gone up in Hawaii, my son (not knowing about the Honeywells I'd bought earlier) sent us a box of 3M N95 masks.

So yes, I suddenly had enough. When I tried the 3M N95s, I found they were very tight. I should have read the instructions first. You're supposed to stretch them before putting them on.

Did you see how easily Nathan Chen put them on before and after going on the Olympic ice?

However, I was curious to see what kind of N95s stores were giving out so we stopped by on the way home from grocery shopping.

Longs CVS was passing out the same N95s I already had.

Walmart had these fish shaped ones which were rather tight also, but yes, I should stretch them and see what it's like.

And then... a couple of days later a friend sent me a photo of another kind of mask that was given her.

Wow! This was a new one. I haven't seen anyone wearing a mask like this one.

Would you believe the following day Art's classmate sent him a photo of a mask that was given him at Sam's Club.

Wait a minute. I thought you weren't supposed to use a mask with a exhalation valve! I looked it up on the CDC website. Nope. They changed the rules on it. This is what I found:

Yes, an N95 filtering facepiece respirator will protect you and provide source control to protect others. A NIOSH-approved N95 filtering facepiece respirator with an exhalation valve offers the same protection to the wearer as one that does not have a valve. As source control, findings from NIOSH research suggest that, even without covering the valve, N95 respirators with exhalation valves provide the same or better source control than surgical masks, procedure masks, cloth masks, or fabric coverings. In general, people wearing NIOSH-approved N95s with an exhalation valve should not be asked to use one without an exhalation valve or to cover it with a face covering or mask. However, an N95 filtering facepiece respirator with a valve may not provide the same level of source control as an N95 without a valve. To make an N95 have similar source control to one without a valve, follow the manufacturer’s instructions to cover the valve.

Oh my gosh!

From not having enough masks they are all over the place just as states are easing their masking rules.

But do you think for one minute, I'm going to stop wearing masks when I go out? 

Nope... because here's another statistic that just came out.

Good grief! Why? I've heard one source saying it's because there are more older Japanese and Asians in Hawaii.

Sigh...

I'm wearing my mask.