COVID19 in Prison

Each day we hear statistics regarding the number of COVID 19 cases and deaths occurring. We hear local, state, national and global figures. Our reactions vary depending on our own experiences with the pandemic. Unfortunately, we can become indifferent to the barrage of numbers unless it has affected us personally.

Numbers we don’t often hear are relative to how many cases and deaths take place in prisons. The incidence of COVID among prisoners is one in five. There have been over two thousand deaths which is 51% more than the general population. Each person who dies in prison leaves behind family who care about them. These loved ones need the same support and care that any grieving person needs, but it is difficult to receive due to the stigma of imprisonment.

A group of family members and other survivors have gone together to prepare a crowd sourced memorial for those who die in prison. Please review these obituaries, read about those who have died while locked away and look at their faces. They are our fellow human beings. Let’s spend some time honoring these lives lost. https://www.mourningourlosses.org

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Click List

In March, I began shopping for groceries via Kroger’s Click List. That seemed pretty simple in the beginning. You go Online, list the groceries you want and then they designate a time for you to pick them up. Employees bring it to your car, load it up, hand you your receipt and you go home to put away those groceries you’ve “clicked.” Seems the perfect solution during the times of COVID.

Well, that’s true, but there are snags. I don’t want my spinach two days past the “use by” date. I don’t want P.F. Changs meat substituted for spring rolls. I don’t want six bananas when I order one. I don’t want my Tostitos chips packed beneath my canned goods! One must be patient, forgiving and willing to learn before the Click List manner of grocery shopping becomes an acceptable replacement for in-person shopping.

One day I needed a 9-volt battery for a chirping smoke detector. I couldn’t order just that, could I? Of course not. So I allowed the Click List program to make suggestions. A few minutes and $88 later, I had ordered my battery to be picked up in a few hours. The chocolates and ice cream were enjoyed! I’m still learning.

Save the Land and its People!

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit Indigenous communities in the United States the hardest. Just weeks ago, the Navajo Nation had the highest per capita rate of cases in the entire country. Yet in the midst of this unprecedented global crisis, the current administration is seizing the opportunity to open more fracking and drilling in the Greater Chaco region in New Mexico. The Chaco area contains the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico. The park preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States per Wikipedia.

This plan could add up to around 3,000 new oil and gas wells to the area, threatening the safety of the local air and water — and pumping out exactly the kind of catastrophic pollution that makes people even more susceptible to dying from coronavirus. During this pandemic, corporate polluters have been handed free rein to move forward with dangerous fossil fuel extraction on public lands — including those around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Please let your Congressional representatives know that this would harm communities and destroy lands forever. Tell them you want them to stop this destruction!

SOURCE: Natural Resources Defense Council Environmental Advocacy Group

Chaco Ruins

Photos by Pixabay

Appointments

2020 Appointments

As we age we have more medical appointments and so my calendar is full of them. Appointments today are nothing like in the past. Thanks to the Novel Corona Virus everything is complicated. And each provider’s office has a different way of approaching safe environments for patients. Some work and some confuse.

I’ve had two virtual appointments where I can see and converse with my provider on screen. Providers use various platforms with names like “Blue Jeans” and “Ring Central.” Some require the use of nine digit numbers and symbols, some have you to sign in to a virtual waiting room, which means you wait for them to be ready for you and one had me to read and sign a HIPPA document. Life would sure be simpler if they all used one system.

I thought in-person visits would be simpler, but I’ve now had two of those and they were complicated as well. One office had me to wait in the car until they texted me to enter the building. The immunologist came into the exam room wearing a full hazmat suit and we talked. It could have easily and safely been done virtually.

The most important in-person visit was with my oncologist. Entering the professional building my temperature was taken along with my name. Then a detailed interview was performed to determine if I was at risk for COVID. At this point, wearing my favorite personal mask I was allowed to enter the elevator and proceed to my physician’s office suite. Exiting the elevator I followed directional stickers on the floor placed at six foot intervals. Eventually I reached the admission office where they took one look at my pretty mask with the Mercedes logo and told me to remove it and wear one of theirs. Of course I did as I was told. The visit continued with lab work and consultation and I was discharged one hour and forty minutes later.

I’ve sure you have had similar experiences regardless of what country you call home. I don’t care for this new normal, but I do appreciate all the attention to safe procedures.

“I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away.” George Carlin

 

Graphics by Pixabay

Crooked Creek is Running Dry

It didn’t happen overnight, but slowly the ideas for blog posts have been reduced to a trickle. There are a few technical problems with the WordPress platform, but if I had more enthusiasm I could, no doubt, work through those. Although I have some serious health problems I’m dealing fine with those. COVID lockdown? It probably would not be fair to blame that either. So, bottom line, I can’t explain the drought of ideas.

I’m going to take a hiatus until the last of August, try to do some serious writing and contemplating and I hope to come back with more depth. Thanks for your patience, thanks for all the hours you’ve spent on Crooked Creek and have a safe summer.

P.S.  I can always be reached in the interim at: suebmattingly@gmail.com

 

 

Photo by Pixabay