May you live in interesting times...
Mar. 22nd, 2020 10:52 am I suppose we had a couple of weeks reprieve between 'aaargh, the whole country is on fire' and 'omg, we're all going to get coronavirus'.
So far the instructions from work are 'only stay home if you're sick or in an at risk group', but the office was half empty on Friday anyway. We're pretty well set up for working from home (and I have been doing that three days a week for a couple of years now), but I think they are still concerned about load if everyone tries to do it at once. That means, for me at least, things are continuing more or less as normal for now, except for the things that aren't. All the gardening and craft fairs![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dirtygreatknife and I were planning to attend have been cancelled. There's a good chance the yoga classes I have been attending on Mondays since 2006 will be cancelled. My parents were planning on visiting in the Easter school holidays, and it seems like that will probably not happen. Ashwyn's parent teacher interview this week will be done over the phone.
Erin managed exactly two weeks of university before they put all her lectures and tutes online. Despite the horrible commute (her uni is on the other side of the city) I think she has been enjoying getting out of the house, and now she is stuck inside.
I have, after doing some reading and investigation, decided I am not in an at risk group. There is no evidence that auto-immune diseases put you at more risk from COVID-19 apparently, unless you are taking immune suppressants to manage them (which I am not). In fact it seems like an overclocked immune system means more likelihood of having a mild version of the disease. All the evidence suggests that unimpaired immune response is helpful, and the symptoms (unlike those of colds) are not driven by the immune system itself. This does leave one danger from the illness - the chance of triggering another auto-immune disease. Viral response is a very common trigger for auto-immune diseases (that's how I ended up with the one I have - thanks to the Hawaiian flu). But the evidence is not very clear on the likelihood of this. There is some research that suggests repeated exposure to viruses mutes the overreaction (ie over time your immune system gets a little smarter at distinguishing between stuff that is you and stuff that isn't - even if it does still go a bit nuts if have the audacity to inhale a pollen grain or rub a bit of grass on your skin). So in other words, being old and having gotten sick a lot may actually be helpful for once!
To cut a long story short, I am not too concerned about this whole business for my sake, more for my old and/or unwell friends and relatives.
I am more concerned with the fact that on Monday I reinjured my dodgy ankle by the simple means of stepping on a large pebble at the bus stop. I had hoped that it would settle down after a day or two, but no such luck. Now I am back on the 'has it healed enough to start strengthening work? Nope not yet' wagon, which from experience I will probably be on for months. Funnily enough just last week I was thinking 'you know, the ankle's been stable for ages, maybe I could occasionally wear heels again'. But nope. Which is frustrating because all this talk of stay home and make do is making me want to go outside and dig up the vegie garden,.
In other news I have gotten back into garb making lately (just in time for the SCA to cancel all events for the next two months. For the moment I am trying to finish off a couple of projects I started ages ago, but I went rummaging in my fabric stash the other day and I have some rather lovely wool and silk I had completely forgotten about. Of course, what I really need is a couple of new chemises, but who wants to do boring stuff like that...
I also got a new toy - a Scandinavian style band weaving heddle. It's currently in the process of being sanded and oiled, so I can't use it just yet, but I will have to start planning some weaving patterns. Hmmm, maybe some of that wool could be a nice bliaut with hand woven trim. *wanders off doing yardage calculations in her head*
So far the instructions from work are 'only stay home if you're sick or in an at risk group', but the office was half empty on Friday anyway. We're pretty well set up for working from home (and I have been doing that three days a week for a couple of years now), but I think they are still concerned about load if everyone tries to do it at once. That means, for me at least, things are continuing more or less as normal for now, except for the things that aren't. All the gardening and craft fairs
dirtygreatknife and I were planning to attend have been cancelled. There's a good chance the yoga classes I have been attending on Mondays since 2006 will be cancelled. My parents were planning on visiting in the Easter school holidays, and it seems like that will probably not happen. Ashwyn's parent teacher interview this week will be done over the phone.Erin managed exactly two weeks of university before they put all her lectures and tutes online. Despite the horrible commute (her uni is on the other side of the city) I think she has been enjoying getting out of the house, and now she is stuck inside.
I have, after doing some reading and investigation, decided I am not in an at risk group. There is no evidence that auto-immune diseases put you at more risk from COVID-19 apparently, unless you are taking immune suppressants to manage them (which I am not). In fact it seems like an overclocked immune system means more likelihood of having a mild version of the disease. All the evidence suggests that unimpaired immune response is helpful, and the symptoms (unlike those of colds) are not driven by the immune system itself. This does leave one danger from the illness - the chance of triggering another auto-immune disease. Viral response is a very common trigger for auto-immune diseases (that's how I ended up with the one I have - thanks to the Hawaiian flu). But the evidence is not very clear on the likelihood of this. There is some research that suggests repeated exposure to viruses mutes the overreaction (ie over time your immune system gets a little smarter at distinguishing between stuff that is you and stuff that isn't - even if it does still go a bit nuts if have the audacity to inhale a pollen grain or rub a bit of grass on your skin). So in other words, being old and having gotten sick a lot may actually be helpful for once!
To cut a long story short, I am not too concerned about this whole business for my sake, more for my old and/or unwell friends and relatives.
I am more concerned with the fact that on Monday I reinjured my dodgy ankle by the simple means of stepping on a large pebble at the bus stop. I had hoped that it would settle down after a day or two, but no such luck. Now I am back on the 'has it healed enough to start strengthening work? Nope not yet' wagon, which from experience I will probably be on for months. Funnily enough just last week I was thinking 'you know, the ankle's been stable for ages, maybe I could occasionally wear heels again'. But nope. Which is frustrating because all this talk of stay home and make do is making me want to go outside and dig up the vegie garden,.
In other news I have gotten back into garb making lately (just in time for the SCA to cancel all events for the next two months. For the moment I am trying to finish off a couple of projects I started ages ago, but I went rummaging in my fabric stash the other day and I have some rather lovely wool and silk I had completely forgotten about. Of course, what I really need is a couple of new chemises, but who wants to do boring stuff like that...
I also got a new toy - a Scandinavian style band weaving heddle. It's currently in the process of being sanded and oiled, so I can't use it just yet, but I will have to start planning some weaving patterns. Hmmm, maybe some of that wool could be a nice bliaut with hand woven trim. *wanders off doing yardage calculations in her head*
