Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – The Numbers are Going Down.

Tags

Coronavirus, family, Friends, Guidelines, health, Safety, Thankful, vulnerable

After watching today’s White House briefing, I was encouraged by Dr. Birx’s analysis of the models we have now, based on the numbers they are receiving from healthcare providers across the area. New York’s numbers are still high, but their cases are going down. Only time will tell.

That being said, I am thankful for the American people for sticking with the guidelines that have been provided. According to Dr. Birx, these lowered numbers (about 60,000, instead of the earlier numbers between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths). 60,000 deaths is still high, but it’s a much better number than the scary numbers that were put out a week ago.

I’m also thankful that all of my family in Michigan and Arizona is safe and healthy. I talked to a colleague of mine who is an ESL teacher in Vietnam. His grandmother died from the coronavirus, and his aunt is on a ventilator. Due to travel restrictions he can’t get home. Bad news indeed.

Finally, I am thankful for all the healthcare professionals, military, first responders, scientists, and other members of our critical supply chains continuing to go to work at great risk to themselves. I’m also grateful for the folks who work in our grocery stores, convenience stores, and restaurants (the ones that are still open for pickup or drive-thru). What a great collection of heros.

Please continue to stick with the guidelines that have been put in place. They are working. I realize being stuck at home is a pain, but if it saves the lives of those in our society that are most vulnerable, it’s worth it. I hope all of you continue to stay safe, stay informed, and follow guidance provided by our government.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – The Coronavirus Explained.

Tags

Coronavirus, Educational, Follow Guidance, Learn, Stay Informed, Stay Safe, Ted Talk, TedEd, Video

If you’re still confused about the coronavirus, here’s an educational video to help you out. Stay safe, stay informed, and follow the guidance your local authorities provide.

Have a great Tuesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Living Through a Life-Changing Global Event.

Tags

Avoid touching your face, Coronavirus, Do your part, Follow Guidance, social distancing, Stay in touch, washing hands

If our hearts are ready for anything, we can open to our inevitable losses, and to the depths of our sorrow. We can grieve our lost loves, our lost youth, our lost health, our lost capacities. This is part of our humanness, part of the expression of our love for life.

Tara Brach

We are all living through a life-changing global event. This coronavirus is crippling governments, devastating communities, and killing without reason. The number of cases grows every day as scientists race for a solution, governments try to do their best to protect their citizenry, and each of us, huddled in our homes, hopes for the best.

If this disease has touched you personally, I am truly sorry and send good thoughts your way. Losing a loved one, a friend, or a colleague, to something like this has got to be heartbreaking. As the numbers grow across the globe, it is highly likely that some of you, including me, may suffer some loss from this virus.

How do we deal with this?

I follow my daily rituals. I get my work done. I stay in touch with family here and abroad. I monitor the official sites that are working on this and provide information about it. The area I live in is up to 65 cases, with no fatalities. My sister lives in a part of Michigan that is being ravaged by this thing. She’s got close to 3000 cases in her county, with 100+ deaths. My brother, wife, stepdaughters, niece and nephew, live in Arizona. They all live in the hardest hit county in Arizona, but the numbers aren’t staggering like they are here in Michigan. Thank God for that.

I will try to not focus on this thing anymore, but will leave you with this. Stay safe by following the guidance of your local authorities. Practice social distancing, only go out when you absolutely have to, wash your hands, and avoid touching your face, when you’re out, particularly when you’re shopping for groceries. Stay connected with your local authorities, state authorities, and federal authorities. Guidance is changing almost daily as we learn more about this virus. If you live in a foreign country, follow the guidance provided within the structures you are used to following during disasters. These authorities love their countries, just like our authorities here in the states do, and will get you the information you need that is specific to your particular area.

I wish all of you a great Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Using Soap.

Tags

Coronavirus, Good Habits, Hand washing, Happy Tuesday, How it works, Lockdown, Soap, TedEd

Here’s a short video that explains how soap kills the coronavirus. This is probably a good video for your kids, if they are asking why? I hope this doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence. I wanted to share a video that relates to what is on everyone’s mind.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – You Only Control You.

Tags

Calm, Conspiracy Theories, Control, Coronavirus, Death, Doing what you can, pain, Paranoia, Sadness, Stay Informed, Stay Safe, Tragedy, Trust only credible resources

I think today is a good day to offer one of my favorite quotes. I like it so much; I have it in my Gmail signature for anyone to read when they get an email from me. Here’s the quote:

“Every time you think the problem is ‘out there,’ that very thought is the problem.” – Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The reason I like this quote is that it addresses one problem many people suffer from—worrying about things they have ZERO control over. The coronavirus is a good example.

None of us controls who will get it and who will not. We can do what we are told to mitigate the chances, but we’re still not 100% safe from this thing. You can’t control your friends or your neighbors. You can’t control anything other than you. You can follow instructions. You can stay informed. You can help others. You can control how you react to this thing. You can control what you watch, what you read, and what you listen to. You can control how you react to these input streams. You can’t control the emails you receive, the negativity or fake news stories on your social media news feeds. You can only control you.

It it a time of uncertainty? Sure. Is it scary, uncomfortable, nerve-wracking? It can be, if you let it. A wise man once told me that when bad times hit, you can serve others. You can serve your loved ones. You can serve your immediate family. You can serve your pets. When you serve others, you stop thinking about yourself. Be selfless.

If you are one of the unfortunate people stuck in an area where the coronavirus is hitting really hard, like New York, Washington, or any number of places in the U.S. or abroad, I can only hope that you and your family are safe and sound. If not, I am sending good thoughts your way. I hope the effects are minimal at most.

It is times like these that remind me of some situations I found myself in the Army. When you’re in a tough situation, you do the best you can. You take care of one another. That’s all you can do.

I remember a friendly fire incident during a training exercise I took part in. One of the soldiers in my unit dropped a training round inside his personnel carrier and the round went off, sending a 40-mm projectile through his face. It was horrific, sudden, and unexpected. We jumped into action to get the soldier to a nearby hospital. He was dead on arrival. Just like that, a young man was with us, laughing and joking around. In a second, his life ended. Just because he dropped a training round.

This coronavirus acts the same way. It strikes people who did nothing wrong. They were just living their lives. Then, just like that, they get sick; they get rushed to the hospital, and they’re gone in a few hours or days. Could their loved ones do anything? No.

My heart goes out to anyone that has lost a loved one to this nasty bug. It goes out to the first-responders who have to deal with the families who have lost a loved one, through no fault of their own. It goes out to the hospital staff and the doctors at risk and putting their lives on the line every day. It goes out to the people who lost their jobs and don’t know how they will pay their rent, buy food, or take care of their families. It goes out to the many teachers getting creative to continue teaching their students. It goes out to literally anyone affected by this tragedy.

Take care of yourself. Only trust sources of information that are credible. Check everything you receive, including information sent by paranoid and conspiracy-theory driven family members and friends. I don’t blame anyone for what they do during times like these. People deal with things differently. Some believe they are doing good by passing along information, they believe is true.

You are the only one who can control you. You are the only one who can control how you react to these trying times. You can’t control the disease. You can’t control what will happen to your neighbors, friends, and colleagues. You only control you. I’ll end here.

Please be safe. Please stay informed using credible resources and news outlets. Please follow your local guidance. Please take care of yourself.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Go to the Source

Tags

CDC.gov, Coronavirus, Federal government, Local government, Local Radio, State government, Trusted Sources, wisdom

Well, it’s hard to post something to this blog with all the flooding of corona virus this and corona virus that. So today will be about something I consider being important during emergencies like this.

When I was in the Army, unit alerts, lockdowns, and high-stress situations were common. For the average civilian, not so much. So here are some pieces of advice that you can take or ignore.

Use trusted sources of information. For us in the states, the Center for Disease Control is the place to go. If you are in a country other than the U.S., you’ll have to look this up. I assume you know who this is. You’ll also want to tune into a local radio station that you trust. I would avoid CNN, MSNBC, and Fox news. These news channels are entertaining but very slanted one way or another politically and mostly conjecture and opinion.

These trusted news sources will provide you with information specific to your area. I can tell you, particularly in the U.S. that responses to this emergency are dramatically different in each state. My wife, brother, niece, and nephew are in Arizona. Me, my sister, and Mom and Dad are in Michigan. The responses and situations in our two states are different. For example, Michigan shut down all of its K-12 schools a good week ahead of Arizona.

Local news will keep you apprised of any cases in your area and what changes/updates there are in your area. Right now there are no restaurants or gyms open. Drive-thru services are available and so are takeout services, but no restaurants are open for sit in, business.

You’ll also notice changes to business hours for most of your grocery stores, club stores like Costco and Sam’s club, and other businesses. Plan on some shelves being empty. Our local Sam’s club was devoid of toilet paper, but was full for all other items, including meat, fresh vegetables, and other items they typically shelve. Your area may be different.

If you do a lot of shopping online, you’re going to notice that Amazon is very limited on food items and that the typical two-day shipping capability is gone. I did some random searches for food items and it looks like some are out-of-stock and the earliest food items can be delivered is in the first week of April.

Ignore social media items concerning the corona virus. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are all fun, but ignore the information shared there, even from family members that do not live with you. Social media is a rumor mill or grapevine on crack. You don’t know who the sources are, you don’t know if these sources are fact-checked, and they spread like wildfire across social media networks because that’s what these companies want. They want their information to go viral so they can get clicks, followers, and so on, for advertisement purposes. They ARE NOT TRUSTED resources. Go to government websites, like your local government, state government, or the federal government.

Remain calm. Is it comfortable working from home if you’ve never done it before? Is it fun to have to get takeout instead of sitting down in your local hangout or coffee shop? Is it stressful to be bombarded by all the news on the coronavirus 24-hours a day without a break? Of course not.

Visit your news sources a few times a day and do whatever else you do with the rest of your day. I exercise in the home, read books, take my online courses, blog, work on my fiction book, and journal. The rest of my day is either watching a show on a streaming service, playing some games on my Xbox, or hanging out with my family. You’ll find that cutting off some of your news will reduce your stress levels dramatically. You’ll also be more relaxed by focusing your efforts on home chores, hobbies, chatting with friends and family, and getting on with your life.

Obviously, this is a unique situation for all of us across the globe. Some situations are really tough, while others are pretty much the same. Be safe, follow the instructions you receive from trusted resources and news outlets, and help others when you can. Our neighbor asked my Mom if she could get anything for us today. We didn’t need anything, but it was a neighborly thing to do. You can do the same for people in your area. Doing nice things for others will also reduce stress.

Well, that’s all I got for today. I hope all of you are safe, and things are going well for you and your families.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of March 16, 2020 – Updated

Tags

Blogging, Coronavirus, Exercise, Learning, motivation, Reading, social media, spirituality, Writing

***Both of my gyms have closed. I’ll be moving all of my workouts into the home with my exercise bands.*** 

Well, it’s another week, folks!

What are you working on? As always, I packed my week with reading, writing, educating myself, spiritual work, and exercise. It’s going to be great fun!

My schedule:

• Scene construction for my fiction book – daily.
• Blogging – daily.
• Spiritual reading – daily.
• Spiritual exercises (meditation) – daily.
• Exercise – daily (see my workout routine) – daily.
• Algebra, Spanish, Python, NLP classes – daily.
• Post articles and quotes to social media – daily.
• Read writing book, fiction book, and Bible – daily.
• Journal – daily.

With all the news about the coronavirus (COVID-19), I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss it briefly. My advice: take all measures specified by your government. If you get sick, stay home, watch your symptoms, and get yourself to a hospital if your symptoms get worse.

Take care of yourself. Eat right, drink plenty of fluids, keep social distance, and help out your friends and family if they need it. My folks are in their late 70s and early 80s, so I’ll be on hand to step in and help if they get sick. We’re in a pretty small town and have not had any cases arise yet. We’re monitoring it.

What to do? Read, catch up on your movie watching, pay attention to your new outlets, exercise at home if your gym is closed or too far away, and follow any protocols your employer has put in place. My brother, sister, wife, niece, and nephew have all been moved to remote work/school, so life will be different for a few weeks.

Most important: Do Not Panic. I know it’s hard with the 24-hour news cycle, but use your common sense and don’t go overboard. Everything will be alright.

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – How Pandemics Spread

Tags

China, Coronavirus, How Disease Spreads, Pandemics, TikTok, Viruses

With all the focus in the media discussing China’s Coronavirus, I figured it might be appropriate to discuss how these things spread, since we already have some cases popping up in the U.S., Europe, and potentially other places.

It’s a real drag that the Chinese people are being hit with this thing. I’ve seen some videos from people that are broadcasting via Tik Tok and it is horrifying what these people are going through. I cannot tell you if it is true or accurate, since there’s really no way to verify anything coming out of China due to the way they lock their society down, but wish all those effected a speedy recovery.

Until next time…

Dave