Pure bliss being rare, I'll settle for partial. Winter crud all around. A baffling amount of Covid "information"

20211229

Marianna came over and asked to sit on my lap as I was eating my bacon and eggs. I picked her up on one knee. Zoriana came up and demanded the free knee.

It is not terribly easy to sit with girls on both halves of one's lap, especially when big brother is hovering around and pestering them in a competing bid for attention. It's especially hard to eat. I gave up on the bacon and eggs, but managed to free up one hand to move Marianna aside so I could at least grab my coffee and have a sip. The kids were having a good time, and that of course is my reason for being.

Grandmother Nadia and grandfather Sasha were sitting across the table. Everybody is coughing. I warned them when they showed up three days ago that I had the winter crud, my diagnosis being walking pneumonia, and that they should take it easy. Web MD says the incubation period is a couple of weeks, so it is more likely that they brought it with them than that they got it here. Whatever the case, everybody in the household is feeling subpar.

To please Oksana I went to the doctor. As usual, a mixture of good advice and stuff that doesn't make sense. I told her that the azithromycin had not worked. Just like they teach her to say in med school, she lectured me about the dangers of taking medications without a doctor's prescription. She gave me a chest x-ray, which I expected and wanted, which showed a very minor spot. She told me that it is not a good idea to take two courses of antibiotics within a three month period. I knew that; it was one of the reasons that I agreed to go in the first place.

This was $60 worth of advice, and worth it. Now come the add-ons. She wants me to worry about my arrhythmia and my varicose veins, conditions that have been obvious and haven't changed much for a couple of decades. She says that my heart is enlarged. I cite from the Internet "The term "athlete's heart" refers to a natural, subtle enlargement that can happen as the heart adapts to intense athletic training. By itself, it's not a disease or a medical condition and doesn't cause harm." I tell her that there are not too many men of 79 who will push their heart rate up to 140 and leave a puddle of sweat after a 40 minute workout.  My blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing and everything else are totally normal. I don't want doctors to invent a problem where none exists, but they insist on doing so.

She wants me to get another ultrasound and MRI of my heart to make sure that it isn't growing any larger. We can compare it to the measures that I got last summer in preparation for my cataract surgery. I told her I definitely wouldn't do it until I was over this cough. That would be a PIA getting the analysis, cost about $300, and lead to my having another piece of advice to feel guilty about ignoring. There is not a very high chance I will do it.

She did offer one piece of advice I will accept. She said my cold hands (don't seem cold to me) and varicose veins in my right leg (attributable to three decades-old bicycle accidents) are a sign of poor circulation to the extremities. Low dosage aspirin may help. I'm not convinced, but I know it won't hurt. I am taking it.

I seem to be in better shape than everybody else. Though I have a cough, I don't feel bad. I'm the one that takes Zoriana to and from the bus stop for her kindergarten, as Oksana spends her time in her room.

This is a cultural difference. If it were my parents visiting, I would not be able to ignore the felt obligation to keep them company, to cater to them. Ukrainians are more relaxed about family. Oksana is so comfortable around them that she drifts in and out just as if she were still a kid at home. Her parents likewise come and go. I still don't know exactly why they are here, and I don't think anybody knows how long they will stay. Sasha is seeing doctors about his various ailments during the visit, but I think it is just a matter of convenience. He's doing pretty well for a guy whom they said was at death's door a couple of months ago.

I slept through the night without coughing for the first time in a long while. However, the cough came back as I woke up. I came out and saw Eddie and Sasha playing chess yet again. Eddie has actually won a couple of games by now.

This cough sounds like my father's smokers cough I remember from high school 60 years ago. I can pursue this recollection two directions. Why didn't he have sense enough to quit back then? On the other hand, how did he survive another 40 years? The human body can be unpredictable. Quite resilient at times.

The Covid news is an ever-changing kaleidoscope. Here are just a few sentences on what I'm paying attention to this week. First of all, new infections and deaths here in Ukraine have fallen almost to the level of last summer, a couple of thousand cases per day. At some time they'll have to end this stupid lockdown.

That is not nearly as good as Japan. Following the examples of India, Egypt, and most of sub-Saharan Africa, Japan started widespread use of ivermectin in September when they were experiencing 25,000 cases a day. By November it had fallen to 250, where it has remained. I know some of you will call this anecdotal. After all, we are only talking about a population of a billion people or so, and only a hundredfold reduction in incidences. No news here. Say I, smugly clutching my ivermectin.

More and more people are convinced that the craziness surrounding Covid and the jabs is insane by design. I mentioned Mattias Desmet in my last post.  Here's a French lady who makes reasonable connections with the Holocaust.  Here's a video on mind control / mass indoctrination.  Because logic and common sense obviously don't apply in this time of Covid, more and more people are looking to psychology for explanations. This isn't my battle. It would be if I lived in Austria, where they were chasing me with a needle. However, I'm content that I can safely watch from the sidelines for a few more months as things unfold.

More and more news is appearing about the dangers of the shots.  As above, I'm content just to ride it out. I do try to encourage my Ukrainian friends to look at alternative sources, because hear the entirety of the Covid news seems to be nothing more than an echo of the mainstream from the United States.

That's the news from Lake we be gone, where the men are strong (grandmother Nadia admonished me severely yesterday after I picked up 45 pound Zoriana and threw her on my shoulders to carry her downstairs), the women are good looking (Nadia has gorgeous hair for a woman in her 70s), and the children are having an above average good time with all the attention.