Category: Isolation Diary

Isolation Diary: I had a good day. Improv friends on Zoom. Visit from Maggie, Adam, and Fig. Did my exercise and my tai chi. Because I had been challenged to, I wrote a rap ‘song’. And recorded it and sent it to the ‘No Joke’ podcast. Worked on a sewing project. Then I entered FaceBook. And the world came crashing in. Along with the wind. I am hoping that Biden’s campaign is keeping a list of the subversive and undermining and criminal and stupid and fraudulent and useless and elitist things that Trump and his administration have done, and also they have obtained a list of lies. Simply reciting these lists in TV ads might be an effective campaign tool. I try not to spend a lot of time thinking about the degradation of the administration of our country. I have accepted it as a fact and further proof is unnecessary. I am sure my anxiety level will rise as the year goes on and daily pursuits be even more important in helping to maintain a useful level of functionality. And let’s all try to get enough sleep.

Isolation Diary: How many weeks has it been? I read the paper, I watch a little news, less as the weeks pass, I read the comments on FaceBook. But most of my day, my days, is spent on my own little island. It is quite a nice island. My family inhabits other areas on this island and we meet up from time to time. Sometimes in person, sometimes electronically. (if the weather continues so hot will we experience outages?!) What this Isolation Diary has done is make me notice what happens each day. And what I notice today is that my vision, my attention is contracting. I am noting it here, so that, in the coming days, if I seem to be becoming more and more isolated, you would poke me a bit.

Isolation Diary: Hot. Swimming at Jessie and Dean’s. Whole family there. Fun. Joe Jordan posted pics of flowers. Grateful. Billy and Adam seem to have liked my rap offering to their No Joke podcast. Delighted. Finished an audible book in a series I love and started it again from chapter 1. Filling the time. Worked on doll project. Conditional satisfaction.

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Leon R.
You swam?

Ruth Silveira
Yes. I swam. Grandson Fig, almost 1 year old, was introduced to the pool for the first time. So many firsts to come!

Leon R.
Wonderful.

Jake L.
You killed that rap!

Susan J.
Totally agreeing with Jake!!!

Isolation Diary: closing down for a bit. Retreating to my island.

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Holly B.
Me, too!

Linda M.
Be well, dear friend!

Isolation Diary: Well retreat didn’t help. I just got sad. And felt sort of vague and fuzzy. Not in a good way. Except for times with my family. We visit each other. Is this against the rules? We are very careful. I have had only one hug in all this time and that was with Jessie after we had been swimming (not at Huntington Beach!) and were thoroughly chlorinated. I grew up in a family of non-huggers. I only learned to hug when I became acquainted with entertainment industry people. And, you know, is ‘entertainment’ the best adjective to identify this industry? It’s these important questions that come up when….there’s no one to talk to! Or hug.

Huntington Beach had been in the news because of the many there who refuse to wear a mask.

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Guy P.
I like show business more than the entertainment industry or, heaven forbid, the arts. I’m from non-hugging stock too. I still struggle with it. We are all reflecting more than usual. Hopefully we learn something useful from what we see. Normal seems a long way away.

Carolyn K.
I identify Ruth. My son and his wife came down to visit me last week and we broke ALL the rules and shared massive, missed, loving bear hugs. I always thought of the theatre people as the family I picked.

Christie M.
You can visit with your family if you stay 10 feet apart! Wear masks. Just assume everyone has it and be safe. Xox
We weren’t that strict.

Susan J.
She sent an air-hug.

Isolation Diary: To swab or not to swab? A negative one day could be a positive the next. Yet…if everyone in my family was negative one day, we could, on that day, gather, have a meal, play a game, and hug when we said good-bye. Or, I could rush to visit a negative friend! If I’m positive, I hunker down even more, until I’m negative. Another test. And how fast does one receive the results? Minutes? Days? In other musings: today, or rather yesterday, Wednesday, was Fig’s (my grandson) 1st birthday. I have to say, all the young and very young people I know give me great hope for our future. And here’s a big Thank You to their parents!

Results from Covid tests generally came within 24 to 28 hours, sometimes sooner.

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Shaela C.
I don’t mean to be a downer but I know multiple people who have been diagnosed with COVID and received negative tests. One family member received multiple negative tests and has all the symptoms (including being on day 8 with a fever). Fortunately, it appears she has a mild case. The tests aren’t reliable. The best thing to do when receiving a negative result is quarantine as if you have it and then meet up. That’s my (non-medical-professional) advice.

Corey K.
Yes, and the free drive-through testing being provided in L.A. where a self-swab is placed into a vial of liquid before being sent off to be tested is the least accurate test available, with a high false-negative rate. Get the test but please, please — and I hope that whatever literature you get with your result makes this clear – do not take a negative as a confirmed clean bill of health. But I wish you (and all of us) medically sound hugs in the near future
So much differing advice. Information changing weekly, if not daily.

Alisa T.
I hear you. I try to figure out ways to visit my parents and help out and the data and warnings keep me away. I’d happily swab. But my friends and family in the ER healthcare industry would say that testing is scarce, and not reliable, even when they know a patient is infected. So I keep my safe at home and hope for the best. I’m not good like you in terms of gaming and that sort of thing and I’m following you in terms of how you deal with the isolation. I have a partner and canine roommate for the challenge, but you’re doing some things I would never venture into.

Isolation Diary: Sometimes the answer isn’t obvious. Or often. And one just has to offer what one has to offer. At the moment. Hoping that others will join in the dialogue. Understanding that living is a team effort. Yes, many glorify individualism, going it alone, the rebel, the gunslinger. This is an American icon. But, also, we are the United states. Ack! These contradictions, how can one find a path? In my experience, and in my opinion……consider the concept of the Holon (thank you, Joe Jordan) Something that is wholly itself and also wholly part of a larger whole. Of course, the question is….what is one’s understanding, concept, of the larger whole? People like me? People like me and also people mostly like me? People? No, no, wait, those people who are so different than me aren’t actually part of the whole, are they? I have to stop here on this train of thought. Other than this, it’s been a good day. A visit from Maggie, Adam, and Fig, during which Fig insisted I hold him and dance with him. So, of course, I did. Until I didn’t. Because he is heavy after awhile. And eventually that was ok, too. And, for me, seeing a new life, a new person, develop is simply fascinating.

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Henry H.
Well done, Ruth!

Paul B.
I stay 6 ft away from my 3 month old grandson. fortunately my violin is close at hand. I haven’t practiced this much or this well ever.

Ruth Silveira
3 months is still so new. Good to be careful. Lucky child to be treated to your music!

Holly B.
Bravo Paul!!!!!

Isolation Diary: Today I interacted with several non-family members! What a day of expansion! A family, friends of Maggie, came over to enjoy my backyard for awhile. I hid 19 hats for them to find. Big hit. Why do I have 19 hats? Tush. I have 3 times that many. Why do I have so many hats? Some are costumes, yes, but others… you know, they accumulate . So you all don’t have bins of hats? Huh. Second encounter: when last I drove my car (out to Pasadena on the 29th to celebrate Fig’s birthday) my car gave me a ‘low tire pressure’ signal. So today, finding myself with no excuse not to handle this, I drove to my neighborhood gas station/repair place and asked for help. Given. A very nice, competent, young man found I had a huge screw stuck in one of my tires. Fixed. I just LOVE when people have the tools for the job! He was wearing a mask, I was wearing a mask. And sunglasses. (which I didn’t remove because they are prescription and I just think of them as glasses) I realized my face was really obscured from him. Yet I think he understood my appreciation and gratitude for fixing this problem so quickly. Gotta love these communicative cars.

Isolation Diary: It was a good day.

Isolation Diary: A quiet day. Until…bang, bang, bang. I was…I admit, at my computer playing a game….hey, a transition period between two…uhm…activities… Knock, Knock, Knock. Sounded like it was coming from my back door. That would be odd. My backdoor is not accessible to the random passerby. Disturbed people have harassed me in the not so distant past so I am on alert and I am here alone. I cautiously approach the kitchen. The knocking is not the back door but the roof! The skylight! Someone is trying to break the skylight?! My house has one room upstairs, like a cockpit, I ascend the stairs. At the top there is a window that looks out on the portion of roof that contains the skylight. Not a villain. A raven. Or crow. Whichever. Hammering on the skylight, trying to break a nut. Why there? I shout at it, the bird ignores me but flies off anyway. I have lived in this house for a long time (I just added up the years), a long time, and this is a first. With the bird. In other news: I continued with my half hour of ballroom dancing and my long form tai chi. Having established this daily routine for a month or more, it is very hard to find a good excuse to not do it. Being home and all. I simply add this as a possible caution when you are thinking of establishing possibly ‘good’ routines in your life.

Several times in a week a clearly disturbed man had walked past my house talking to himself and whomever he was imagining. Then one day he stayed on the corner, going back and forth into the intersection. He was across the street from my house. He would set off deliberately, as though he had somewhere to go, then would turn around and come back. He would sit for awhile, then get up and do it all again. He began to throw rocks at cars. I was alone in the house with Fig taking a nap. I called 911. Then the man came over to my house, up to the front door, banged on the window of the front door, stumbled around the porch, deliberately knocked over the potted tree. I called the police again. Eventually they came but the man was gone. By then. Another time, I think previous to this event, this same person, not quite so disturbed had come to my door asking for someone. And this same person at another time threw a rock at my side French windows. It was after all this that Maggie insisted I call her every night to check in. And I have been doing that ever since.

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Holly B.
You seem so happy….Must have had a good husband!!!

Henrietta C.
You are on the right and righteous path. I admire your routine, Meanwhile, the ravens (crows?) reclaim their land… “Quoth the raven, Nevermore.”