Posts Tagged With: coronavirus

Day 2642: This Day

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Ann Koplow

This day will be unlike any day we’ve seen before.

This day will bring:

new routines,
old routines,
fear,
hope,
local news,
global news,
food,
animals,
communication,
loneliness,
connection,
games,
humor,
tea,
fortune telling,
all the feelings,
different thoughts,
online therapy groups, and
these shared photos.

This day will bring the coronavirus crisis and human behavior at its best and worst.

This day will bring this music:

This day, all your thoughts and feelings are welcome, as always.

This day, I have so much gratitude for all I have, including YOU.

Categories: group therapy, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "This Day", Cod dish, coronavirus, COVID-19, crisis behaviors, Exploding Kittens, online therapy groups, The New Yorker Today, Whitney Houston, Yogi Tea | 23 Comments

Day 2641: Who is the enemy?

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Ann Koplow

These days, sometimes what I’m hearing is people trying to figure out who the enemy is.

Is the enemy

a political party?
a political leader?
those telling us to practice social distancing?
old habits?
cognitive distortions?
the news media?
the virus itself?
ourselves?
those we see as different from us?
confusion?
mixed messages?
hoarding?
lies?
the truth?
greed?
business?
socialism?
capitalism?
fear?
death?

Trying to figure out who the enemy is can take up a lot of energy.

When I look around, here, and now, I see no enemies. I see people trying their best to (1) figure out an ever-changing, unknown landscape and (2) get through this with minimal losses.

Do you see any enemies in my photos from yesterday?

Here is “The Enemy Inside” by Dream Theater:

And just to balance things out, here’s “You’ve Got a Friend” covered by my musical hero Jacob Collier, whom I am almost definitely not going to be able to see perform in Boston this May.

I’m sure I’ll see Jacob Collier in better days to come.

Who is going to comment on enemies, friends, or anything else below?

As this tea bag tells us …

… kindness has no enemy and neither does gratitude.

Categories: health care, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "The Enemy Inside", "You've Got a Friend", compassion, coronavirus, Dream Theater, gratitude, Jacob Collier, kindness, March 2020, Yogi Tea | 22 Comments

Day 2639: Nuts! We’re all nuts!

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Ann Koplow

Hello, my fellow nuts! Today’s title is inspired by the very first photo I took yesterday:

We’re all nuts because people are still

ignoring requests from governments to maintain social distancing,
hoarding certain provisions,
acting in old ways in the face of major new realities, and
personalizing, labeling, minimizing, magnifying, blaming, fortune-telling, mind-reading, negative-filtering, and all those other nutty cognitive distortions.

I hope that we nuts can figure out how to save ourselves and the planet before it’s too late, so we can keep being nuts together in less nutty ways.

All my photos today are nuts!

If you’re nuts about any of those photos, you can click on them to enlarge them.

Here‘s one of my favorite songs about how we’re all nuts (from before the days of social distancing):

If you’re nuts like me, please leave a comment below.

I am grateful to share this nutty blog with you, every day!

Categories: health care, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "Still Crazy After All These Years", cognitive distortions, coronavirus, COVID-19, human beings, nutty behaviors, Paul Simon, self quarantining, social distancing, Yogi Tea | 31 Comments

Day 2638: What we can teach each other

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Ann Koplow

Yesterday, I decided that our shy cat Harley could probably teach people a thing or two about social distancing, so I started taping this tutorial:

However, Harley didn’t teach the way I expected him to. Based on my past knowledge of Harley, I assume that Harley’s behavior was different because his best friend Michael was in the room.

This morning, when Michael was not in the room, I tried again:

Somebody can teach me something about how to hold the camera and Harley can teach us all this about social distancing:

Maintain a distance of six feet from people.
If somebody gets too close, move away, if possible.
If not, ask the person to back off.

Harley also teaches us that fear can make us very catty.

What can these other recent images teach us?

That teabag can teach us that our strength is our own knowledge.

I hope our knowledge and our strength help us all get through this. I look forward to the teachings in the comments section, below.

Thanks to all who teach and learn, including YOU!

Categories: health care, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: Boston, coronavirus, COVID-19, flattening the curve, March 2020, self-care, social distancing, Yogi Tea | 34 Comments

Day 2636: Face it!

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Ann Koplow

Face it!

Oscar does not understand the whole social distancing thing…

… but I do.

Face it! I’ve been trying to reassure my worried friends with how well my face looks in that recent photo.

Face it! I’ve been trying to put more smiles on my own face by watching favorite funny movies from simpler times, like Big and What About Bob?

I’ve also been stuffing my face with good food, like this:

Face it! Humans have survived pandemics before and our best hope of survival is if we face this together (at a distance, of course!).

Face it! This scene, starring somebody else recovering from the coronavirus, always puts a smile on my face.

What’s been helping you face these strange times?

I look forward to facing your comments, below.

Face it! I haven’t been able to go out into the world to collect new expressions of gratitude, so here are some old ones, which include a few nice faces:

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: Big, chicken dish, coronavirus, COVID-19, gratitude, March 2020, pandemics, social distancing, Tom Hanks | 27 Comments

Day 2635: Good news

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Ann Koplow

There’s always good news to be found, if you look for it.

In Venice, dolphins are swimming in the clean waters of the canals for the first time in decades.

Maybe people’s reactions to the coronavirus are demonstrating that human beings can actually change their behaviors and come together for the common good. That’s good news for our species and for the planet.

Do you see good news in any of today’s photos?

Please share whatever good news you can in the comments section, below. That would be good for all of us.

Gratitude is always good news, so thanks to all who help me share the news in this daily blog, including YOU.

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: chicken dish, coronavirus, COVID-19, dolphins in Venice canals, gratitude, March 2020, the South Shore of Boston, Yogi Tea | 35 Comments

Day 2631: Until it doesn’t

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Ann Koplow

Everything can seem to be a certain way until it doesn’t.

Everything looked fine about my attending a week-long conference in NYC the first week in March, until it wasn’t.

As of this morning, several people from the conference have tested positive for the coronavirus, including somebody I spent most of my time with there.

As soon as I noticed a low grade fever two days after I returned from the conference, I alerted my workplace and my doctors. Even though everything seemed fine at that point, I suspected it wasn’t.

And my fevers were low until they weren’t.

And I was in the emergency room until I wasn’t, admitted Monday night to a private room with maximum precautions.

And we believed there would be enough coronavirus tests available to test me, but there wasn’t.

There will be egregiously low access to testing in this country until there isn’t.

Because of all the scary reports of how the coronavirus might affect somebody like me (over 60 with a chronic heart issue), my immediate future is going to worry me until it doesn’t.

As I am home in self-quarantine with Michael and the cats, I am taking photos of what cheers me up until it doesn’t.

That was a tale of two kitties until it wasn’t.

I’m constantly monitoring my low grade fevers until they aren’t.

Pasta is still my favorite food until it isn’t.

This recent email exchange with my cardiologist strikes me as funny until it doesn’t:

Ann

There is nothing you can do now. If you spike a fever or get short of breath you should come to the hospital. As you know even if tested positive the plan would be to stay home.

Contact me if anything comes up.

Deeb

Could you promise to save me a ventilator if I need one?

For old time’s sake,

Ann

I’ll have them give you mine!

Here‘s “It Hurts Until It Doesn’t”, a song by Mothers about a lost cat.

This post keeps going on until it doesn’t.

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: “High School Quiz Show”, “It Hurts Until It Doesn’t”, cats, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr. Deeb Salem, March 2020, Mothers, pasta, self quarantining, Washington Post | 53 Comments

Day 2630: Be careful what you wish for

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Ann Koplow

My careful husband Michael, who is all that I could wish for, likes to say, “Be careful what you wish for.”

If you wish for a careful definition of that statement, here‘s one:

(be) careful what you wish for — idiom
Definition of (be) careful what you wish for
—used to tell people to think before they say that they want something and to suggest that they may not actually want it
You think having twins would be fun? Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.

Over the past few months, I’ve often wished for

more time at home,
the chance to relax, and
major changes in the current political situation.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m getting what I wished for. I guess I should have been careful.

I want to be careful in explaining what I’m currently wishing for, because it might sound bad. I’m wishing that if I had been tested for COVID-19 (which my doctors unsuccessfully wished for and asked for) when I was briefly hospitalized with fevers earlier this week, I would have tested positive.

Why am I wishing for THAT? Because

I’ve been self-quarantining, so I know I’ve done my best to reduce the spread,
I’d be immensely relieved to know that I survived the pandemic unscathed despite being in the major risk categories (age and underlying health issues), and
I would now be immune to the disease, according to my careful cardiologist, Dr. Deeb Salem.

Whether or not Dr. Salem wishes to be quoted in this blog, he often is. Here is an excerpt of his email to me this week after my release from the hospital:

It is criminal that we have not been able to test. It is really good to hear that you are better since anyone that has the illness and recovers should now be immune.

It looks like Dr. Salem also wishes that I would have tested positive for the illness, if testing had been available.

Be careful what photos you wish for, because you might get these:

Be careful what you wish for if you wish to eat pasta every day, because that’s what we’ve got!

For those of us who wished to see more of Mayor Pete Buttigieg this year, we got this …

… this …

… and this:

It looks like Pete, a huge Star Trek fan, got what he wished for his first time guest hosting an American late night TV show.

Here‘s part of the classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for Twilight Zone episode, “Time Enough at Last”:

What I wish for now includes (1) comments and (2) the opportunity to express my gratitude for all who help me create these daily blog posts, including YOU!

Categories: definition, personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "Time Enough at Last", coronavirus, COVID-19, Jimmy Kimmel Live, March 2020, pasta dish, Pete Buttigieg, self quarantine, Twilight Zone | 33 Comments

Day 2629: How bad could it be?

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Ann Koplow

How bad could it be?

How can we even answer that question when

there are so many things we don’t know and
experts are saying it’s going to get worse before it gets better?

How bad could it be that I’m self quarantining, knowing I’m doing the best for myself and for all those I care about?

How bad could it be for me to share these photos with my good readers?

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How bad could it be if

Michael cooks delicious pasta and
Oscar and Harley look up and share our happiness?

How bad could it be if Stephen Sondheim is turning 90 years old this month? Here he is playing “Move On” at the memorial service for Michael Bennett, who died during the AIDS pandemic:

How bad could it be where you are, here and now?

How good could it be to express gratitude to all those I appreciate, including YOU?

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: "Move On", AIDS, coronavirus, March 2020, Michael Bennett, pandemics, pasta dish, self quarantine, Stephen Sondheim, Yogi Tea | 25 Comments

Day 2626: No one asked for this

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Ann Koplow

Yesterday, after I published my breaking news post, I discovered I had cold symptoms and a slight fever.

Worried that I might have caught the coronavirus (which no one asked for) during the week-long group therapy conference in NYC, I informed my manager and my doctors. Because of my risk factors (over 60 years old, chronic heart issues), the doctors decided they would test me for the virus if my temperature went above 100.4. Also, because I’ve gotten endocarditis (a dangerous inflammation of the heart which I also never asked for) three times in my life, I usually ask to get tested for that whenever I run a fever.

No one asked for this, but I stayed home from work, watched TV, monitored my temperature, and took photos of more breaking news which nobody asked for.

I also caught up on the Stephen Colbert shows I had missed last week. I took a photo of this …

… thinking “my next blog post will probably be titled ‘No one asked for this.'”

No one asked for the coronavirus outbreak. Also, no one asked for me to run a fever of 100.6 in the evening, which I did.

When I reported my fever to my medical team, they asked me to go to the Emergency Room, another thing I’ve never asked for. I asked if I could finish the delicious salmon dish Michael had cooked for me first.

They asked me to wear a mask to the Emergency Room. Since I didn’t have a mask, they asked me to wear a scarf around my face. I asked Michael to accompany me to the Emergency Room.

They tested me for many things, including the flu and endocarditis. I certainly didn’t ask to be admitted to the hospital overnight, but the Emergency Room doctor didn’t like my oxygen levels.

No one asked for this, but here are more photos from yesterday.