As I left the office today, to take the very puny bank deposit and to pick up some lunch, something great happened…besides Cane’s Chicken. (It is a luxury that I allow myself every month or so, then I consume all the fries before I even get back to the office.) As I walked to my car, which was parked under the only shade tree on Parking Way, a mature gentleman said something to me from his white Chevrolet PU. I had my mask on (which as crazy as it sounds, impairs my hearing) so I had to get a little closer to the truck and asked him to repeat himself. He said, “You sure look nice today.” WooHoo!!!! Party. Dance in the street. I did have on one of my favorite dresses, my new red bandana mask, and my hair was clean, but still. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. White Truck. I know I walked away feeling a little bit taller, with new spring in my step the rest of the day. Even after I ate four pieces of fried chicken and every single one of my fries. 😊

Disgraced 66-year-old Jeffrey Epstein died in jail by apparent suicide after more than a dozen lawsuits against his estate stating women and teen girls suffered sexual abuse from him and his enablers, at his homes in Manhattan, the Virgin Islands, Paris, New Mexico and Florida. Last week, Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, a British socialite, confidante, companion, and ex-girlfriend of Epstein, was arrested by the FBI and accused of overseeing his alleged sex trafficking ring. If convicted on the charges, Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison. It was reported that she is ready to give the FBI some big names associated with crimes she is accused of, in order to save herself. Yikes. Prince Andrew. Bill Clinton. Shades of Heidi Fleiss and her “little black book.”

Did you watch the filmed version of Broadway’s Hamilton on July 3^rd? For those of you that have lived in a cave for the past five years, Hamilton is a song-filled story of one of America’s foremost founding fathers that won 11 Tony’s, as well as the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. They filmed it in only three days with the original Broadway cast, which consists mostly of Black, Latino and Asian American performers, including Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, who wrote and starred in the title role of Alexander Hamilton. Watching it filmed this way, means everyone gets the best seat in the house. Fantastic. It is on Disney+ and only on Disney+. Bribe a friend if you don’t have it. Definitely, worth it.

Now might be a good time to stock up on European chocolates, olives and beer made with malt, which could be hit with tariffs of as much as 100%. Do not hoard like toilet paper.  Kristen Stewart (Twilight) is playing Princess Diana in a new movie, about her divorce from Prince Charles… The female Fort Hood soldier missing since April, was bludgeoned with a hammer by another soldier on the base, dismembered and dumped near the Leon River about 20 miles away. The soldier killed himself, and a 22-year-old female civilian has been arrested and now faces one count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence… Are COVID Parties a real thing? Put your money in the kitty and the first one sick, rakes it all-in to help pay for medical or funeral expenses, I guess. I worked hard but could not find any hard evidence to back this up, so for now I would say it’s just a rumor. A very sick rumor.

When baseball returns, there will no longer be any spitting. What, no spitting? Why the heck do they spit so much, anyway. They spit in their gloves, they spit on the ball (spitballs), they spit sunflower seeds, they spit for no reason at all. Perhaps baseball pacifiers are needed to plug this problem.

RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Beatles legend Ringo Starr is 80. It Don’t Come Easy. Did you see his birthday special? Extremely hard to ‘imagine’ that he is 80.

Charlie Daniels, member of Country Music Hall of Fame who sang “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” recorded with Bob Dylan, died after suffering a stroke. He was 83. He was also an outspoken supporter of U.S. veterans. Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher who married her former 6^th grade student after she was convicted of raping him, died of cancer at 58. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental condition they say caused her reckless behavior, which did not gain her any sympathy.

On July 4^th, Kayne West announced that he will be running for President in 2020. Hmmm. He has also (previously) claimed to be a billionaire. It was also announced on another day, that his clothing company, Yeezy, was granted between $2 million and $5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program meant to help small businesses keep workers employed during the COVID-19 induced shutdown.

Studies have found that people touch their faces 23 times or more in an hour. It is believed that wearing gloves can help break the habit of frequently touching your face. When I’m out, I wear gardening gloves because they can be thrown in the wash.  I am wearing my hair pulled back (makes it way easier to get a mask off/on, and less flyaway hairs to tend to), and no mascara. Even if this virus gets better, viruses like this are here to stay, so we need to create better habits for ourselves now. Washing your hands for 20 seconds will not help if you do not keep your hands off your face. End of sermon.

Corona-coaster (noun): The ups and downs of the pandemic. One day you are loving your bubble, doing workouts and baking sourdough, the next you’re crying, drinking wine for breakfast and missing people you don’t even like.

“If these projections are even halfway right, there’s no health system in the country that can accommodate this.” Dr. Peter Hotez, Immunologist at Baylor College of Medicine, commenting on a new Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania model predicting daily cases of coronavirus will more than triple in the largest counties within the next four weeks, if there is no change in social distancing practices. These are the same folks that several weeks back, predicted a spike in cases based on cellphone data, showing that without stay-at-home restrictions, most Texans were not social distancing.

So, you’re not too worried about bringing the virus home to your family, and you are sure not concerned about getting the virus yourself, because you are healthy and will be good-as-new in a couple of weeks, as you slip smoothly back into your old life…did you hear about healthy Broadway star Nick Cordero, 41, who died after battling COVID-19 for 95 long days. For the math-challenged, that’s three months. He endured a medically induced coma, ventilator, dialysis, a specialized heart-lung bypass machine, his heart stopped, he had minor heart attacks and sepsis, the amputation of his right leg, and a tracheotomy. Had he lived he would have needed a double lung transplant. Doctors are just now beginning to learn what the long-term damage will be to the survivors of COVID-19. Kidney damage may require dialysis, strokes and blood clots can lead to disability, and scarred lungs to permanently decreased lung function. You may go home with a walker and need to re-learn to walk, swallow, eat and talk. Practically every organ system can be affected, if not by the virus, then by the immune response.

Washing your face mask is as important as wearing it. One report says that a detectable level of the infectious virus could still be present on the outer layer of a mask for up to seven days, at room temperature. Homemade masks are more susceptible to viruses because they can actually carry the virus. (In a perfect, perfect, world we would all have N95 masks, but we do not.)  How many times a day do you touch your mask? I know I touch mine about once a minute. We are NOT supposed to touch the mask except to take it off and then you touch just the ear loops. Then wash your hands. Hmmm. I know you do not want to hear this, but up to 97% of the air’s virus particles can easily penetrate cloth masks. That is why they say that wearing a mask is to protect the other people, not yourself. What can we do?  Wash your mask every day! Put it directly into the washing machine or sink. In a perfect world, front line workers or people that spend their time in public places where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, like grocery store checkers, waiters and food service, all store clerks, etc., should not be wearing their masks for more than 2 hours because the dampness from our breath makes it less effective as a barrier against coronavirus transmission. How do we wash them? Heat. Washing machines are the best, with the type of fabric determining the temperature of the water. It needs to be the warmest possible water that the material will tolerate, preferably hot water. Detergents with heavy-duty-stain-removing or bleach-like compounds and active cleaning ingredients should be used. You can wash them with your other clothes. You can also disinfect your mask by ironing or putting in a dry-heat oven for 20 minutes at about 160 degrees. This would be good for an otherwise disposable mask that cannot be washed. My daughter believes that I should not tell you about the oven because someone might forget their mask and it would end up crispy…sounds like something that her mother would do. Better use that method as a last resort and be sure to set a timer. If hand washing is the only alternative, then lather with soap and scrub for at least 20 seconds with warm to hot water. Hot air drying or ironing should follow, provided it is safe for the fabric. Sometimes I leave my mask and gloves in my hot car. When temperatures outside range from 80 degrees to 100 degrees, the temperature inside a car can quickly climb to between 130 to 172 degrees.

In 1907, a Boston attorney created a cup made from paper, so it could be thrown away. At the time, there were no disposable paper tissues, paper towels, paper plates…nothing like it. He called it the “Health Kup” and in 1912, Smithsonian Magazine even called the cup a “life-saving technology,” that will help stop the spread of disease. For ten years the brand did NOT fly off the shelves. Then in 1918 the Spanish flu tore through the U.S., the Health Kup was rebranded to the Dixie Cup, an advertising campaign was launched, stressing that uncounted germs cluster and breed on glass…influenza, pneumonia, diphtheria and worse, and the rest is history.

Fourth of July – Flags were flying all over our small towns for the Fourth. The flags in the esplanade downtown LJ and in front of Walmart are sponsored by businesses associated with Brazosport Breakfast Lion’s Club. (See our Thank-You Sponsors ad on page 9. You can be a sponsor!) Castleberry Insurance, American Realty and State Farm had flags around the perimeters of their buildings. In my neighborhood, several of us lined our front yards and the entrance of the subdivision with flags, the same way we do our lights at Christmas. All over town, people were flying flags in their front yards. There was a small but mighty boat parade down Oyster Creek, blasting air horns and showing off creatively decorated boats. It was great. Had I known about it I would have joined them in my kayak. It was an inspiration, leaving me wondering if we really needed fireworks.  We celebrated the red, white, and blue in a different way this year, with sincere appreciation for the things we have.

Wash or wipe your groceries before you put them up. Just pretend that every item has been touched by someone with the virus. We set up a station on the kitchen table. Every sack is put on the floor, then groceries are placed on the table to dry before we put them up. Don’t forget your reusable sacks, too. It may not be a perfect solution, but it’s what we have. Remember that the virus remains in charge, we are just along for the ride. Hang in there, my friends. Thanks for reading us. If you want The Source Weekly sent directly to your inbox each week, just let us know. It’s FREE. 979-285-9200

Lisa