What I Heard This Week! 04-23-2020
This past weekend, I had a little fire in the firepit, staying outside for the afternoon just kicking dirt and doing stuff in the yard. It felt so good to be outside getting my fingernails dirty; it even rained for a few minutes while I was under a canopy of trees. Sounds good, doesn’t it? That evening I started itching and my first thoughts were poison ivy, but it wasn’t on exposed skin, it was under my clothing…so I searched chiggers because it’s been a while since I was this stupid and I couldn’t remember what their red whelps looked like…but I did remember what they felt like. Yep, it’s chigger season so beware. I hate them, but mostly I hate the three days after you get the bites. Yep, chiggers in locations that I had forgotten I had.
Spread the word. The Community Health Network is now partnering with Brazoria County to provide FREE COVID-19 testing at the Brazoria County Fairgrounds. You must be pre-screened by calling 281-824-1480. Once you have met the criteria for testing, you will be directed to the testing center.
A series of emoji for COVID-19 is in the development stages. The praying hands are getting bubbles for hand washing, the house now has a single person in isolation staring out the window, the toilet paper roll is empty, the Earth will have a pause symbol on top, a cute little virus, social distancing, a bottle of Purell, a closed sign, purple gloves, a NO Racism sign, a graph (heading down), and the curve (not flattened). Stay tuned.
Why does a chicken coop have two doors? If it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.
Although several states are trying to reopen asap, some officials have warned against it. Harvard researchers have stated that in order to do that, testing must go up to at least 500,000 people per day by May 1st, AND the number of positive tests must also be much lower. Current nationwide testing stands at 150,000 per day. In the US, 20% of those tested for coronavirus get positive results. The World Health Organization has said that to reopen, that number should be between 3% to 12%.
Ford is recalling more than 268,000 cars to fix doors that could open unexpectedly and may not close. The recall covers 2014-2016 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, and 2014-2015 Ford Fiesta.
When the virus first started, grocery stores and markets were putting limits on purchases of certain items because people were scared and therefore abusing their rights to purchase mass-quantities of items. Some stores put limits on items like milk and eggs. There is no longer a shortage of either milk or eggs. Dairy farmers were dumping perfectly good milk because of no demand, until they figured out a way to feed the hungry. The price of beef is going up even though cattlemen are getting less and less as they take their cattle to auction. It seems that some meat packers were jacking up their prices and therefore the grocery stores must raise their prices. Now, some meat-packing plants have been closed because of huge outbreaks of the virus. Chicken could start being packaged as a whole chicken instead of convenient boneless, skinless strips. One article I read said that there shouldn’t be a shortage of packaged meats unless people do the same thing that they did with the toilet paper. We can do this…
All this cooking…I made mixture from a pound of ground sausage, ground beef and ground turkey, diced poblano peppers, 2 eggs, and leftover very dry rice, then seasoned it with Uncle Monkey’s Season-All. It made 2 small meatloaves, a bag full of meatballs, then I took fist-sized portions and wrapped them with swiss chard leaves, topping them with a lemon mushroom sauce. Delicious. Reminded me of the cabbage rolls mom made when we were little. If nothing else, the virus has taught us how to waste nothing. One meatloaf heated up, made three big sandwiches for lunch one day. Oh, and Uncle Monkey’s Season-All is sold in several locations in our area and is made in Damon. Shop Local.
HAPPY BIRTHDAYS: Actress Liz Sheridan is 91. Best known as Helen Seinfeld, Jerry’s mother in Seinfeld. Ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham is 58. Singer Iggy Pop is 73. Godfather of Punk. Actor Tony Danza is 69. Taxi and Who’s the Boss. The Cure. Actress-comedian Carol Burnett is 87. What’s not to LOVE about her? Singer Bobby Rydell is 78. Bye Bye Birdie. Singer Gary Wright is 77. Dream Weaver (’76) and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and pop music. Drummer Roger Taylor is 60. Duran Duran. Actor Jason Earles is 43. Jackson Stewart in the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana. Queen Elizabeth is 93. Actor Charles Grodin is 85. Actress Patti LuPone is 71. Actor-director John Cameron Mitchell is 57. And special birthday wishes to our own Emma-Jean Tanner.
Bill Braum, founder of Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy, died at 92. Henry Geller, former counsel for the FCC in the ‘60s, died at 96. He convinced the commission to rule that TV stations must broadcast public service announcements warning of the health hazards of smoking to counter their cigarette advertisements. The warning stated that cigarette smoking contributes to heart disease and lung cancer. The tobacco companies did not want to broadcast the warning, so they stopped making commercials. By 1970, cigarette ads were banned on TV and radio. He was also instrumental in getting political debates to be televised starting in 1976, the first since 1960.
It’s been 25 years since Selena died. Selena Quintanilla-Perez was born on April 16, 1971 to Abraham, Jr. & Marcella Quintanilla in Lake Jackson, Texas, where her father worked as a shipping clerk for Dow Chemical. Her father led a band in the ‘50s and ‘60s called Los Dinos that played early rock ‘n’ roll favorites mixed with traditional Mexican music. Abraham eventually gave up his music career to settle down and start a family.
Selena attended O.M. Roberts Elementary School and soon showed a talent for entertaining. When she was six years-old, her father noticed this while teaching her older brother to play chords on a guitar and Selena broke out into song. Her father soon converted the family garage into a music studio where her brother A.B. played bass guitar and her sister Suzette, played drums while Selena sang.
The family band practiced every day after school and in ‘80, her father left his job at Dow Chemical Company and opened a restaurant, Papagayo’s, 121 Circle Way in LJ. The restaurant had a small stage and dance floor where the band would play on weekends. A few years later, when the economy suffered along with the family restaurant, the family moved to Corpus Christi and began touring. Her father pulled her from school in the 8th grade so that she could concentrate on music, so Selena took correspondence courses and earned her GED.
Touring paid off with an opening slot for Tejano band, Mazz, at the Brazoria County Fairgrounds in ‘83. Mazz was one of the most popular Tejano acts of the time and Selena, only eleven-years-old, impressed the crowd.
Success continued with Selena performing for 57,894 at the Astrodome in ’93. At the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo in ’94, a record crowd of 60,948 came to see her perform. In March of ‘94, her album Selena Live won a Grammy award for the best Mexican American album.
Selena was on fire with her career and marriage, until March 31, 1995, when she was shot and killed by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, in a hotel room in Corpus Christi, shortly after a confrontation about missing business funds. Saldivar will be eligible for parole in March 2025.
According to Forbes, the countries with the best coronavirus responses have this in common…women leaders. Yes, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Taiwan, Germany and New Zealand are getting very high marks for leadership in this crisis. To the reader that thinks I’m a man-hater, I trust Forbes.
If your marriage is feeling strained during this quarantine, have you tried closing your mouth when you chew?
Admit it, if you’re home right now, you could be missing your noisy office and noisy co-workers. Coughing, a/c units turning on, jabbering, bathroom doors closing, & pencil sharpeners. Well, guess what? Absence does make the heart grow fonder, so Kids Creative Agency has developed an office noise generator that can give you the squeak of a chair, gum chewing, copy machines, intermittent footsteps, and the click of a keyboard. Rolling eye-sounds not included. Go to: IMissTheOffice.eu
Gage and I went by The Fill Station in downtown LJ one evening to get a couple of pounds of delicious smoked brisket to enjoy with a pot of pinto beans and stuffed jalapenos. Like a lot of restaurants right now, you just call in your order, drive by and they deliver it to your car – so easy. While I waited in the car, I spotted a blue disposable glove laying in the esplanade, so I took a picture. This is a by-product of our coronavirus period…masks, gloves, gowns, disinfectant wipes, medical supplies, and other stuff that gets thrown into parking lots or in the grocery basket or wherever it may fall. It’s not just a lazy and trashy thing to do, it’s dangerous to all concerned. Some people are even thinking it’s all recyclable. That’s admirable but it’s not recyclable. Waste management says that when sorting happens, they have no idea where it came from or what kind of cooties are on it. It’s now necessary that garbage and trash collectors wear face masks, dust masks, gloves, protective safety goggles and as an added measure, they are fogging and disinfecting the inside and outside of their trucks. These guys are all thankful that they have jobs, but we could make their job easier by finding a way to dispose of these things in the correct way, especially since it is now recommended that we do so. Always take a trash sack or used bag with you. Before you remove your gloves, wipe them down with disinfectant, then use one gloved hand to grab the palm of the other glove and peel it off. Hold that glove while you slide your fingers on the un-gloved hand under the remaining glove at the wrist to peel it off, then dispose of them both in your trash bag along with your disinfectant wipe. Then don’t forget to wash with soap and water or at least use an alcohol-based sanitizer. When removing your mask, don’t touch the front, and wash hands after removing it. Since none of us have enough masks to throw them away, be careful to put it in a safe place until you wear it again. Wash your hands after you touch it. If you’re one of the smart and clever people that can sew and therefore have extra masks, put them straight into the washer. The most important part of this information is DO NOT TOUCH THE OUTSIDE OF THE MASK because if you have been exposed to the virus, and if the mask is doing its job, the virus will be on your mask. Hmmm. Whatever you do, don’t toss them in the street or yard. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
I’ve crunched the numbers in my retirement account and it’s time to figure out who will be wearing the mask and who will be driving the getaway car. US oil prices are in bigtime trouble after falling below $0 for the first time ever, meaning that some producers were paying customers to take it off their hands. Too much supply, too little demand. No, you will not get paid to fill up at Buc-ee’s. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, has estimated that a vaccine is at least 18 months away. Billionaire founder Richard Branson, of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia Airlines, has offered his island as collateral, “to raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible around the group,” and asks for government support in order to survive the economic crisis, as planes are grounded. The fashion industry has been hit hard and fast by the coronavirus. Spending on clothing and accessories dropped by 50% in March and experts believe it is likely to be hit even harder in April.
If you are financially able to get out and pick-up food from local restaurants, then don’t forget to tip, generously. Food service workers need us. Just because it is take-out doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tip. A friend told me that some of these workers are working tips-only right now; one of her friends making just $10 one night. That’s not enough. It may be take-out, but when you can let’s do our part.
Earth Day was yesterday. World events are now showing us that our actions DO have a negative effect on our Earth. You know, it’s the only Earth we have, and it must be totally exhausting for it to try and take care of us. Let’s wake up and start doing our part when this is all over. Earth Day EVERY Day.
Just asked Connie what day it is. She’s Googling it. I’ll get back to you all with the results. Lisa
