Author: Adrienne

I've been blogging at WP since 2007 as Valentine Bonnaire, but that was a nom de plume. I'm a writer. June is Santa Barbara Writers Conference. You can find me here and in Facebook. That was an old gravatar from my WP blog Valentine Bonnaire - and this is my new one. Really loving the new version of WordPress as Premium. Learning this one first before I move to the Business version. Nice to meet you! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adrienne.d.wilson

Yarn, during the pandemic

Posted on by Adrienne in Coronavirus Diaries, Design, Uncategorized

Focus on color. This is going to work for me. So I should be getting the cartons of the yarns soon, to start Janie Crow’s gorgeous Fruit Garden CAL. I have been practicing the squares, and so here are some images. Yesterday I realized I will have to order yarn, and this is new, in order to get a higher quality than what the big box has.

Also, I think I want to design a little myself, and so yesterday I began to think about that.

So, focus.

Focus on joy.

Focus each day on a thing that can make you happy. This can be anything, and right now for me it is color.

It is getting harder and harder to absorb the news, to watch the news.

Insert beauty.

So here is the first little flower, the Forget me not. Done in blue, from some scrap yarns I have:

I love how Janie has made the designs from easy to hard in a kind of production mode. You can follow her hands:

This is what I came up with for the clementine square – I only had a bit of melon colored yarn and for the other bits I had to use Lily cotton to get semi near the shades she used. The thing is, I really wish I had gotten the kit. The reason being, the yarns are so much prettier. So I went back to the Stylecraft site and looked at what I ordered. Some of the colors jumped off the page at me, and it may be that I try and do parts of this with something different, when the yarn comes. I had to do that when I started her pattern for Frida’s Flowers, too. I didn’t have the colors. So it was trips and trips back to the yarn store.

This time I plan to FINISH.

So in my basket, yarn for a knitted really cush blanket I began a year ago.

It’s so soft and I made a tweed by using big box style.

But I have some Italian yarn! I fell in love with that, and yesterday I was able to get a bit more. They are closing it out, oh no.

I guess I could say I am designing a blanket, then.

Score one!

The yarn makes me really happy and so this is the time for doing things by hand.

Even looking at the colors for the soup I made that day…

So, small things.

Small, quiet things, to get through this time.

The news is incredibly frightening.

Have yarn.

Bright little strings, crochet

Posted on by Adrienne in Design, Uncategorized

They seem to be helping, a little. So I am waiting on some boxes of actual yarn that the designer Janie Crow used for her magnificent Fruit Garden CAL. Not having the actual yarn has been strange because I can’t do the colors? She uses yarns from Stylecraft for this in a mix.

I have been practicing. The Acanthus motif is the most fantastic, I mean, just to do that one.

So I have almost made all the flowers, with scraps of different kinds of yarn. I can see why Hollyhock was her favorite, it is gorgeous. She has such a signature style on the leaves and all the picots. Last summer I was in the big box and saw a magazine – Crochet and the scarf on the cover. I knew it was her! So there you have it.

The Maltese Cross in the center of Acanthus is such a stunner. The kits were sold out, so trying to find the yarn was maddening. I can’t get Parchment so I had to settle for Cream. So this is Hollyhock.

I had some Caron Cakes in blues. I think this will be the type of yarn I will be receiving. So I didn’t have any pink, drat. Winging it in blue. The main thing is to try for each.

The main thing is to say no matter how terrible everything seems, keep going. At the end, you will have this gorgeous thing.

So these color ranges from Stylecraft, just wow. You can find her free patterns for things here. https://www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/

Waiting on the yarn boxes is like kid in a candy store. In the UK they have DK weight, and these yarns are called DK Life, and Batik. Both are wool blends. The Caron Cake is also that mixture and so I was really happy to shade with the blue.

I couldn’t get Blue Haze and it is killing me, anyway, we shall see, soon.

Strings of yarn as solace, in this time.

I’m trying to remember the colors that I ordered, and just wow. I have way more than the ones in the kit coming, because I knew I would have to make substitutes.

Crochet, color, yarn and art

Posted on by Adrienne in crochet, Design

I was drawn immediately to Janie Crow’s design for Frida’s Flowers on account of the complexity. I mean, at first I thought, oh my god, the beauty. It’s the same thing with the new one for Fruit Garden. The only trouble is the yarn I could get. It had been years since I had shopped for yarn and I wanted natural fibers, which we cannot get here in town anymore. The boutiques are long gone, and the only craft place is a big box that took over. So, I gave it a start but? Garish. As you can see. Still though, I gave it a start. My feeling is, if you are going to put that much work into something, have the yarn be great. On this new one, there is a Bamboo/Cotton blend, and if the colors? Well, that or, my fave Mercerized, but from where? It is not to be had. Not in stores. I found it! So, some of Frida’s Flowers and the various passes.

I have no idea how any of us will get through this time.

Maybe by making some art.

So, I am drawn to natural fibers, and the only trouble with this yarn is that it is for things like dishcloths or something. It does not have the “hand” or the tight twist, or the shades or? Dunno.

That image is from a fave Mexican Restaurant here, that I miss so much. If they closed it would be hell.

Life as we have known it is over.

Hope you are having an easier time of it where you are.

I’m keeping my old Teddy near me. Watching lots of film. It’s as if all the fun is gone, here in California.

So, yesterday, while I was waiting, am waiting, for the yarn to arrive from overseas, I began. I crocheted a little square for Fruit Garden. I was able to do it! The first square is called “Forget Me Not” and let me show you the vid she has done. The shades she has chosen are gorgeous. I just used some yarn I had hanging around, and it is pure cotton. I found it in a box. That children’s book I wrote has a theme in it about the plastic problem in the ocean. So, age 13 was all about crochet for me, and we used to have a thing called Speed Cro-Sheen that was brilliant spun cotton on a ball. This would be fantastic in that. Thirteen was also all about Mucha for me. Anyway, triumph. I did it! We need the small victories, in the middle of so much sad.

So, just practice, until the gorgeous yarn arrives. I made it blue, and what I love is the intricacy of how she changes the colors. One thing I did, was use some white and the red. I used three single crochets to stuff that area with color. The yarn is made by a company called Takhi – it comes from Greece and is so gorgeous. I actually crave the colors, as if they are paints.

So, both the red and the blue, are mercerized style cotton.

Look at these colors!!!!!!!!!!!! The red is from here, Tahki, ages ago. I love, love, love the color ranges. So maybe I can get that for the Frida’s Flowers pattern, down the road.

Looking back over the heaps of squares and things I made, I can see that with the Frida pattern, I was able to put even the most garish of colors together, on my own. So this one was a fave from that time. It’ s funny how much the design changes given how the colors work. In this one I had to unravel parts of yarn balls to get to the beige, or the red, or even some of the greens. This will be so much easier with higher quality yarns. It really will. Still though, I have a tendency to not like things, and these took so much effort, I can see that now.

Crochet, and how I found Janie Crow’s gorgeous designs…

Posted on by Adrienne in Design

Two years ago I decided to pick up crochet again and knitting, after years. Since childhood, actually. My husband wasn’t well that year and I was watching over him, so I was sitting around with tons of time on my hands, and I started to watch videos in Youtube of different women all over the world crocheting things, in their own languages. I had no idea there was something called a CAL, which is a crochet-along with others, but I started to see these. They are nothing like what we knew in my childhood – these new mandalas and so forth are total works of art. So these flowers date from that very autumn, in my life two years ago now.

The colors and the patterns, the intricacy and delicacy of the designers. But I met a kindred spirit in Janie’s designs. For one thing, the gorgeous homages to people like Monet, and now May Morris. Best was Frida though, one of my favorites, just because.

So, a woman in Youtube was doing the stitches in a video and I sat for hours with her hands, “teaching me” – those videos are here.

Then I searched for Janie and found that she does patterns for a yarn company called Stylecraft in the UK, so I saw the originals. I was just swept away by how exquisite her things are. The flowers and the leaves. The only yarn I could buy here is not the kinds of colorways they have over in the UK. So, I made each square, just to see if I could. I guess there had been kits for these things, once. It’s a bit like doing a paint by number, except, you want to pay homage to the designer herself? The work that goes into designing to begin with.

One of Frida’s Flowers, that I crocheted, using American cotton yarn, as you can see, the colors are not the same…

The colors! They reminded me of a time years ago when I was up in the Sur and getting books by Kaffe who does things with Rowan Yarns. Well, it has been ages since I was so inspired, that it is almost like using oils.

Some of her patterns are over in Stylecraft, you can see that here, and I just was able to find some of that special yarn and it will be here in seven to ten days! Yay!

Because, the new blanket is total Arts & Crafts, both versions. So gorgeous, omg. You can watch her talking about the design here.

❤

xxoo!

from Adrienne

(who is going to make these, while we are going through so much of a nightmare with the coronavirus situation)

The yarn will arrive and I can start on Fruit Garden, even though I was not able to match all the colors exactly.

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES CALIFORNIA – ANIMAL PHARM. MAY 1st, 2020 SOCAL.

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

To begin to even talk about what it is like in the United States right now or in my small beachtown? Well let me get you some links.

It’s going to take me quite some time and I have a great deal to say. I spent 20 years working for the local newspaper before my degree in Depth Psychology, or before I became a published writer under various noms de plume for the web. I really appreciate WordPress in this moment. That’s all I can say. I was a child in Junior High here in Santa Barbara when I read Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.”

I have done some research, using Wikipedia about a couple of the meat packing plants. So, I also read Animal Farm by Aldous Huxley at that time. The film Lord of the Flies as well.

The Guardian had a piece up today mentioning Sinclair, and I shall go further.

But first I want to talk about my dog, because I want to talk about how much our lives have changed in two months. He had to go to the vet. The vet who has been treating all the animals over a thirty year period. I want to talk about the experience, of the day, and all the thoughts, because, LIFE AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT? HAS CHANGED FOREVER. HOW DO I KNOW WHAT IS IN HIS DOG FOOD NOW THAT I HAVE READ ABOUT SMITHFIELD AND TYSON?

As you read the Wikipedia articles on these corporate giants, you are going to get the same sick feeling that I have, so do it. When you see the depth of the food chain they penetrate? My god you will throw up. I had to get something to eat for May first at the market, and for the dog. Imagine my horror walking through the supermarket. I’m not kidding. Most Californians have had a brush with vegetarianism, or veganism, but, we do love a barbecue now and then.

NOW WHAT?

This is my rescue, Odin, and we wanted to walk the beach. After the vet. He’s going to be fine, just an ear infection and skin stuff. It’s what was about to happen though around getting his prescriptions and the things I saw out and about on the streets.

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

Someone did this. That’s the first thought, in the black dawn, after the drops of rain. All the countries are following the same pattern of shutdown. My dog is beside me, and all I can think about is how I am going to get him a giant bag of kibbles, and his cans, and where I am going to do that, today.

The thought occurs, they hoarded this too.

We are all in some kind of lost landscape now. It’s the same. It’s just after six, and I think of my grandmother saying, “It is always darkest before the dawn.” She’s right. The light will make it easier, writing makes it easier. I spent the morning looking at headlines. I could look at the maps. Looking at the maps only makes it worse. Why some places and not others?

I think about sewing a mask, maybe two or three. I’m not sure what to wear when I go out now. I have gloves from Thailand I was able to find. Latex gloves from an Import store, the one I found the toilet paper in. It is hard to adjust to being unfree, to having to wear certain things. At the market, people in the blue paper masks. I wonder where they got them.

To the south of me a city sprawls for miles.

To the north it is the same.

They have stripped the stores.

There are hundreds of videos on how to sew masks, from all over the world. In a box there is fabric, I could try. The last two times I went out I wore a muffler, that I could wrap around my face. I don’t understand the idea of all the people who order online. I like to go out and about, say hello to the people I know in places. It’s this terrible feeling of missing them, just people who own restaurants, people working. The stores are closed. There is the worry of how any of this will ever be able to come back after a few months. How things will look after that.

There are theories. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21156607/how-did-the-coronavirus-get-started-china-wuhan-lab

There are a million questions. Someone knows the answer.

Dawn has broken over the city. I can still hear the owls and the birds. There is the matter of facing the day, facing the speeches, trying to eat. Trying to think of anything that can make this seem normal. At the store there were flowers. They were all on sale, and they are joy. The wildflowers are up. Maybe it is the smallest things, that can feed the soul in so much silence. The very smallest things.

I planted Sweet Peas.

I can work in the garden. I can try and breathe, through the fear. There are youtubes of others and how they are coping. I can make bread. For now I can make some bread.

I feel sad about Facebook, not being able to see my friends. I think right now I am socially isolating even from that, as there is not a way to speak about what we are all going through.

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES

Posted on by Adrienne in California, Coronavirus Diaries

I am writing from Southern California, in the midst of the biggest crisis the world has ever seen. The only way I can get the news is via Google, then Twitter, then Youtube as it breaks. Local news here in America has not reported on other countries for some time. My husband watches the television for his news. He gets it much slower than I do. Maybe because our minds work differently.

I am watching what the president has to say along his Twitter feed. One of the worst aspects of this crisis is to watch all the lesser politicians scramble to get in line for their potential shot at the JOB, because this is what they are doing. Trying to make themselves look good. In this I refer to Cuomo and Newsom along their footage. What the President said yesterday or so is that he is LEAVING IT UP TO THE STATES. The message from both Cuomo and Newsom is that millions will die, so it isn’t very comforting at all.

I think what I will write you now in this diary, is a part of the experience of being “here,” in this region, as the days roll by like waves. From what they released about “flattening the curve” we are all told to stay in. People for the most part have obeyed this. Everyone is very frightened and this panic is not going to subside anytime soon. Before I look at any more news ledes today, or read any more editorials, I just want to take a breath.

We cannot go out for anything except essentials. This means stores that we love and frequented will go out of business. It’s been three weeks of the hoarding. First it was toilet paper and now it is food, so I can tell you about yesterday and going to a small sized chain supermarket. THE SHELVES WERE EMPTY. I wish I had taken my camera out, to document it. Perhaps next time I will. The only way that I can describe it? What we saw in Russia, in the late 80’s on the news. As everything FELL.

We don’t have reportage like that anymore, on TELEVISION. We no longer have a PRESS in America that can do the reporting city to city. It’s all broken. This post will be long, today. I want to talk about yesterday.

I have to go backward in my mind to think about the first time I went to a store, after hearing about this. I was still using my FACEBOOK account, at that time and so I had begun to process news stories that were breaking around the world. I went to what we call a drugstore, or a pharmacy here in California, maybe four weeks ago? It is hard to remember. I was looking for the hand sanitizer as the stories began to break about “WASHING YOUR HANDS” and we were seeing news on China suddenly. There was NO SANITIZER and I asked a store clerk maybe a week later if they had masks, because suddenly on the news everyone seemed to be wearing a mask. This is maybe a month ago. The next time I went to the market, maybe two weeks ago, there was no paper to be had. NONE. I thought I would venture out again, to try and find some and so these are my last FB posts. I did find some in a little import store in a poorer part of the town I live in. For $7.99 I was able to get some toilet paper from Vietnam, and at a Mexican market here I was able to get some chamomile scented Charmin, not the sort you would expect. It was $2.99 for four rolls.

It was when I went back to the store for food, though, perhaps two weeks ago? I was scared. I had begun to see the shelves be emptied. First it was staple things, like rice and beans, potatoes and so forth. They simply were not there, along with the non-existent paper. Yesterday, and the last time I was in that store I spoke with clerks who are working valiantly, and not wearing masks or gloves. What was said to me yesterday? “This will pass by the end of April” the meat and fish counter which has fresh fish was CLOSED. He told me it was a matter of “social distancing” – on the part of the corporation. I said, “In our lifetimes we have never seen anything like this,” and he said, “No, we haven’t.” To see an American store EMPTY? I have.

Yesterday, there were NO EGGS.

THERE IS NO FLOUR.

THERE WAS NO MILK.

Something larger is going on. You can sense it. Here is the headline of the day from NEWSWEEK https://www.newsweek.com/u-s-now-has-third-highest-number-covid-19-cases-after-china-italy-1493618

I’m going to see what the President has tweeted. There was a positive story about the company Hanes on manufacturing the masks here. It would be good to see all the American companies rise to the fore and come home, not just for Economic Nationalism, but because THEY WERE AMERICAN COMPANIES. Most Americans are aware of what has been sold down the river over the last 30 years by very crooked politicians running the country.

Here is that story on Hanes: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/hanes-start-making-masks-health-care-professionals-treating/story?id=69729931 from ABC. Hanes was like this fantastic company that made cotton clothing, T-Shirts and underwear and so forth al my life. Hanes was the sort of thing you could fall back on? I am so glad to see this news. See this COMPANY come to the fore. There will be others I am sure. I think, Americans would like to be known as the ones who produced the things the world needed, at this time. This is a great story, and when the President talks about “it is a beautiful thing to see” this is what he means. He is talking about “the American Spirit” – which is to come to the fore, versus the ‘you didn’t build that spirit” of the previous President.

This is DISGUSTING. The virus is not the President’s fault. https://nypost.com/2020/03/22/de-blasio-blames-trump-for-nyc-hospital-equipment-shortage-people-will-die/ so, the actions of the politicians are something ALL AMERICANS CAN SEE RIGHT NOW.

Frankly there are many questions about this VIRUS and those can be had over in Twitter in terms of who was working on it as far back as 2015, and who is working on the antidote just now. Twitter is pretty admirable that way, and there are some very curious things if you search things like Gates on that right now. The President may be part of the billionaires club in America but he isn’t evil.

This is how I am following the Governor of California: https://twitter.com/search?q=newsom&src=typed_query in Twitter.

LISTENING TO THE REPORTERS and our President at this link: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump it is important to listen to what is said, by the reporters and the President himself. He has just acted as an AMERICAN, in this latest press release. In that, the AMERICAN SPIRIT. So he is talking about himself, he is also talking through the lens that is the AMERICAN spirit in terms of helping other countries as well, because all of them are facing the same thing.

HOT SPOTS: State of Washington, NY, California – President DT

Something I want to say as an American around what the news is calling “racist” – the term CHINESE VIRUS – this is being used because as the President said – “it came from there”meaning it started (as much as any of us know, in a place called Wuhan) – this is what we saw in the news. Now, Americans also say this – “Let’s go get some Chinese Food” – this is true. I’m not sure if in other countries American Food is called this same thing? Here in CA we would say, “Let’s go get Thai Food and so forth. This is a reality, not racist. Where I live in Southern California, we have many cultures all coexisting together. All of my life. So, it’s the same thing for Japanese Food. We would say, let’s go get some Japanese Food. Here in CA, in our markets, there is food from all over the world. Except now the shelves are EMPTY. We would say the same thing about Mexican Food, French Food, and so forth. Here we also have Greek Food and Greek Festivals. Many people live in America from all over the world and from all the different cultures IN THE WORLD. The only thing I haven’t seen is CANADIAN restaurants in Southern California. They might exist but I have never seen them. This is the way Americans SPEAK about things. It would not be different in other countries I am sure, so a matter of Semantics.

BREAKING LEDE – The National Guard. Yesterday in Twitter you could see Army style trucks in a vid somebody posted from Seal Beach on trains. Here is the story from NPR News which is a trustable NEWS SOURCE https://www.npr.org/2020/03/22/817978107/white-house-coronavirus-team-to-hold-briefing-as-death-toll-continues-rising FROM THE STORY:

“President Trump said Sunday he has activated the National Guard to New York, California and Washington, states that so far have been hit hardest by the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will fund the deployment of the Guard, Trump said.

“This action will give them maximum flexibility to use the Guard against the virus without having to worry about costs and liability,” Trump said. “And [it frees] up state resources to protect the health and safety of the people in their state.”

I have used YOUTUBE to double check that news lede: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svmAqo1Daiw here is the President speaking on that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rVD4p4CY0A

I am watching a video on how New York is coping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4iZLfiK3rk I have never seen New York, but I know that many many people live there. They are very strong having gone through 9/11. These are New Yorkers speaking.

Like many other Americans we are watching news from Italy. Here from Sky News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdx4Jo0GCRU It is so tragic. In the rains today, tears cring over the whole world. We had studied things in history, like the Black Plague, but to see this, in terms of the way we are all on the Internet in this era? There is not a way to process what the whole world is going through.

I am watching this news from Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWP1_Q065PQ it was from two days ago.

On the local news they are reporting today that the cases are up to 18 in this county. I am grateful that today we had food to eat. I was able to get it the other day. Life as we know it in California has SHUT DOWN. I have no idea what will happen tomorrow. I know that we have enough food, for tomorrow. I have a dog and a cat. I need to feed them too. Tonight the dog had to eat dry cat kibble as he had nothing in the store. I will have to go out to get his food. if I cannot find anything for him, I will feed him meat, if I can find some. This is the TERROR of life shutting down, after the governor has said what he has said. I want to show a picture of my dog and cat and the news has made me feel so nervous I cannot remember the tools I have to use here in WordPress to do that.

You could see them in Facebook if you knew me. My dog is named Odin, and my Cat is called Hemingway. They were both rescues from the local shelter.

Today, I heard planes still overhead, and I listen for the sound of the cars. I can hear some cars racing, in the distance. We are self-isolating, because we have been told to. But tomorrow I have to find food for my dog.

Just watched this video on what the California National Guard is doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onuUGWejKOg&feature=youtu.be in terms of Foodbanks.

Listening to NEWS from NEW YORK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trar6seIhDw this is about the doctors and the masks they need. FROM ABC NEWS, a trusted source.

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

The hardest part of this is the waiting, for any little scrap of information. The only thing I can use to check is Google, on the news for the State. It’s as if we are getting an overview in lots of little broken pieces. From this morning – on Los Angeles. This place reports on the movie business, and today: https://deadline.com/2020/03/coronavirus-los-angeles-county-biggest-single-day-jump-in-new-cases-1202889005/

I am trying to set up tags and categories, as this should not fall under uncategorized, and I can’t see how to do that, anymore, easily, WP has changed so much.

One of the things from yesterday, the hospitals are totally unequipped with gowns and masks and the proper equipment for the nurses, down in Los Angeles they talked about that. Our healthcare system has been so broken in America for so many years, how could this happen now? The tragedy for the doctors and the nurses. In Youtube we can see images of Italy and the other countries. That is what I have had to use for breaking news.

Here is Los Angeles: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/488660-la-mayor-warns-the-city-is-about-to-be

Here is news on the nurses and the masks they need https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhkUolbaAaU the N95 mask. They are having to sew their own masks. This is one of the saddest stories I have ever seen. My god. It is said that there are 35 million of these masks already made, but to make them work without the proper medical supplies and outfits? Here in our country? It shows how broken things are.

This shows some information on the masks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmdxDsVO7Gc no one has these on the shelves here, or the gloves, r even the hand sanitizers – you cannot find them. The N95 is the one that the nurses need and people probably wish they had them. I do.

From yesterday as the cities decide what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDObf2AeAP4

This is the site to watch, coming from the President himself about what is being done to address the crisis. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/president-trump-actions-to-confront-pandemic/ I feel like there is so much news at this time. Too many talking heads. It is best to listen to the Leader first, and then look to how the news sources are presenting things. This has been the latest tweet on that medicine that was for Malaria, and now to take it with another. I liked that this Medicine had been around for a long time, myself. So here you are: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501?s=20

This is fantastic news – I got this from the President’s tweets on that Malaria drug <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NEW DATA: A French study has demonstrated evidence that the combination of Hydroxychloroquine &amp; Azithromycin are highly effective in treating Covid-19.<br><br>The patients enrolled in the study showed complete viral eradication around the 5th day of treatment. <a href="https://t.co/WnGs5PKOpn">https://t.co/WnGs5PKOpn</a> <a href="https://t.co/JZzZ66w4rL">pic.twitter.com/JZzZ66w4rL</a></p>&mdash; Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1241354642417577986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2020</a></blockquote> https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Watching these maps is the hardest and seeing what is happening. It is the strangest feeling to be so isolated. We can’t go out and so we wait to hear. Only for food and the most basic things, so it feels not like this country. It feels very scary. Three weeks ago, as the news was breaking on this and Wuhan, I asked if the drugstore had the masks? They had been sold out. Then a week later, after seeing the news and seeing people in masks and gloves I asked for the gloves? Sold out. Then we saw the panic. The store shelves emptied of even things like toilet paper. All the paper was gone, and many of the foods that you see were also gone. This has added to the FEAR that people feel.

The news organizations are not reporting the same things, so I am trying to bypass and just find out myself. I do this using Google and Twitter and Youtube and I do a word search on any of these things.

It’s so quiet, only the birds sing.

No one is on the streets, people are inside. We are following the orders. WATCHING THIS now – to see what the President has to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czayodBQ3o from NBC news. Pence “We are now six days into our 15 days” – but this is NOT what NEWSOM is saying.

It’s not clear how we are 6 days into the 15 days makes any sense. If you were to go out and be exposed to it? It takes two weeks on the symptoms, so you would have to start that count all over again, if you went out for groceries. Pence talking all about prayers and so forth.

FEMA on the testing, he is calm and very clear on this. He is giving a rundown on who should be tested first. No he is talking about STATE MANAGED testing sites. They are saying that the supplies can be gotten THROUGH FEMA for the doctors and nurses and tha these can be ordered from overseas. They have allocated a hundred million to help the states?

Dr. Carson speaking now on HOMES.

We are so broken as a country after 2008. We really were. So many lost everything they had and now are homeless all over the streets in California. There are fears that this virus will travel very fast “on the streets” in this population.

One of the hard things to watch right now is the people losing their jobs. They will lose everything. So we worry that there will be more homeless people. The news on unemployment claims has gone up overnight.

Now the Press Pool is asking questions.

DT “Doing a package, the likes we have never done before.” “I want $$$$ to be used for workers”

DT on masks. PENCE 1/2 billion dollar order on masks, coordinating through FEMA. N95 masks greatly increased in the country. N95 masks will work but did not have liability protection. Industrial N95 can be purchased. Bi-Partisan accomplishment.

DT on sanitizing masks, Fauci on reusing them.

PPE is what they call all the masks and gowns and things that are needed by the doctors. Pence asking people to donate masks, and dentists give the masks to hospitals…

DT the malaria drug, NY is getting it. I have much more faith in DT at this time. Give people something. “We have very sick people” – malaria drug will go to NY and other places. DT wishes China had told us earlier, given advance warning. He is talking about how we saw the problem via the news. That is the truth. How I saw about the problem was on the news via Google and I think that was only about ONE MONTH AGO.

What is so hard is to see the news from all over the world, and the only way to see what is going on? Is to use WORD SEARCHES by country in GOOGLE NEWS. For this story I used Google news on California. https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article241383646.html – that is off the Sacramento Bee a well respected newspaper. Seeing a headline like this? Pure fear.

I think we would need to see Newsom speak about THAT? People would rather know, but at the same time see ACTION. I have much respect for President Trump right now.

PENCE “heed your own local government” – why does this make me scared? it is as if all of American is not on one page. That? Is the most frightening thing. This conference is almost over but, what Pence is saying is NO COMFORT. None.

Sharing the LOCAL NEWS from SB Independent https://www.independent.com/2020/03/20/santa-barbara-health-officer-we-now-have-widespread-community-infection/

CORONAVIRUS DIARIES CALIFORNIA

Posted on by Adrienne in Uncategorized

I am watching the Press Release from the President on Twitter, this morning. At this link: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump Before the rest of the news breaks today, the SHOCK to the State of California about what NEWSOM has said last night? That 56% of California will contract the virus?

The stark terror of what might happen next?

It’s impossible to even contemplate.

How many will be unemployed as a result of all stores shutting.

I am listening to the President talk about the millions of masks that have been ordered that will be shipped to the states.

As a Californian, and an American I have never been more terrified in my life as this moment.

I took some screenshots and have looked at local news.

I am listening to the President talk about people who will be paid to stay home from work. Except what does this mean for the businesses that will shutter? Half this town has vacancies as it is. Small business in Santa Barbara? Will they be ruined?

This is unprecedented and while we are all worried and staying in now, what will the FUTURE HOLD?

Really glad to hear Pompeo, and truthfully, Pompeo and Trump are the two I feel I can get the straightest info from. Pompeo “listen to what we say and report it actually” – this is SO important and I say this because I spent 20 years working for a Newspaper here in town. One of the problems right now is that people are NOT GETTING the same information. This is because we no longer really have a Press in the USA.

It’s also good to see Spicer in that Press Pool. I always really liked him during the 2016 years and I didn’t like how he was made fun of on SNL. I am sick of the comics frankly, I mean this is not even funny right now. This Fauci guy? It’s not the same as trust I have in the President and Pompeo.

Reporters asking “checks to Americans” – DT wants to protect workers and also the businesses.

Reporters asking now about $1000 check, DT responds “we are doing phases.” You can see that he really cares for the country and the workers.

DT speaking about the supply chains that have broken down. Around the world. 141 countries. Azar speaking about supplies, talking about what he has provided to governors. Pence now speaking 90% of Americans do not test positive for the coronavirus…

Pence – “Every governor needs to reach out to FEMA for the supplies – Regional administrators for FEMA have information. Have Pence and NEWSOM spoken? Maybe need to coordinate CALIFORNIA on the numbers because telling people that 56% of California will get the virus in next 8 weeks?

DT – “VENTILATORS” – now speaking about Carnival Cruises – “if we need ships for helping people, they would be willing. The big hospital ships in CA…. and NY harbor.

REPORTER ASKS “Could everyone be tested, and then those who don’t have it go back to work?” Concept is “Universal Testing” – DT “Not important that everybody be tested, if you feel great.”

END of Press Conference.

Okay so, now we have to wait on Newsom, and read the ledes? Because last night was the most frightening night as a Californian I have ever known, with what he said on 56% – Not kidding. Trump needs to assure California FIRST and NY in tandem that things will be okay. One look at the maps on this thing in Twitter? People are looking at those numbers go up and so scary not possible to even think? REALLY.

Following NOOZHAWK for LOCAL NEWS. This is Bill’s opinion piece: https://www.noozhawk.com/article/bill_macfadyen_coronavirus_crisis_running_roughshod_over_us_20200320

It’s hard not being on Facebook at this time. I think seeing Bill’s face would help in there. So the way I am getting the local headlines is by using Google news, and then Local News. Pretty much we have the Daily Nexus (UCSB) Student Paper, EdHat and the Santa Barbara Independent. But I think all the California papers are important at this time. From Bill’s editorial – “

But as government at all levels — municipal, state and federal — increasingly embraces mandatory lockdowns instead of voluntary isolation, or precise restrictions on those most at risk, we the people will soon be faced with a choice none of us truly wants to make.

As a nation, we Americans are resilient and optimistic, and I put entrepreneurs and small business owners at the tip of that spear. We’ll power through a week, or even two weeks, of hardship because we don’t back down from a challenge.

But our country is nearing the point of no return with the coronavirus’ intersection with the economy and, so far, the government response — at all levels — seems to be one of acceptance.

Wrong answer.

With businesses slashing their operations or shuttering altogether, the unemployment rate skyrocketing and all-too-typical stimulus proposals missing the point, America simply cannot abide or afford a self-inflicted recession, let alone a depression.

The human cost of job losses is about to flip the concern over the health risks of the coronavirus, and reconciling those seemingly incompatible choices must be a prime factor in how we recover as a nation. I don’t know where we go from there, but it’s going to be a perilous trek and there’s no roadmap.”