SARS-CoV-2 aka Covid-19 and me, an intimate relationship

 SARS-CoV-2 aka Covid-19 and me, an intimate relationship

A friend rented a spare room in my house a few months prior to Covid-19 appearing.  It is a one bathroom, one kitchen, three-bedroom house with him occupying one bedroom.  He was declared essential and worked throughout the pandemic.

In September 2020, on a Tuesday, he announced he had a cold and called in ill to his employer.  We took a few precautions with regards to not infecting each other should it be more than a cold.  While I was away on Thursday he barfed and visited a nearby hospital for the PCR test.  Sunday, they called to confirm he was positive for Covid-19.  He was to isolate for two weeks or clear of all symptoms which ever occurred last.  I was to isolate starting the day he cleared for two weeks.  At the end of two weeks with no symptoms, I tested negative.  This despite sharing the one kitchen and one bathroom with limited ability to really sterilize or isolate.  I felt invincible.

From day one I wore an N95 mask when around other people and avoided restaurants and other places where I would need to remove my mask despite being invincible.

Mid January 2022 I acquired Covid-19.  Rapid tests were not then readily available, but all symptoms indicated it was not a cold nor the flu.  Free PCR tests were also not available, but that is a topic for another essay on the horrible response to the pandemic by the Ontario Conservative Party government and their efforts to kill public health and enrich their donors.

In the May-June time frame, I realised that my increasingly being winded climbing stairs or much any physical exertion was most likely Long Covid.  Symptoms: shortness of breath, no energy for much physical activity, occasional brain fog.  Infrequent cough and throat phlegm.

Then mid-December 2022, Covid made another visit on top of Long Covid.

Symptoms: extreme shortness of breath, I use an oxygen monitor to check my blood oxygen level as from time to time it is below safety level.  Despite a normal pulse of 55 strong, it often soars to 90+ for periods of time.  Extreme lack of energy.  Constant cough and phlegm in the throat.  Brain fog to the point of disorientation.  Constant smell of something burning and everything tastes burnt.  Dizzy spells and fainting.  Diarrhea.

This bout of covid has moved on but I still test positive.  Public Health tell me that some people flush the antigens as they clear and test negative immediately.  Others, take much longer, even many months to flush the “dead” antigens and will test positive for months.  I am one of those.

So Long Covid continues unabated, and I test positive while being Covid symptom free.  I guess no travel if I need to test negative prior to boarding.

A Blasted Tree

 Some friends describe me as difficult.  You be the judge.

The May 2022 storm brought down a neighbour's tree.  Actually, the tree was a backyard and a half away.  The wind took the top 50 fifty feet of the large maple tree up and over the neighbour's yard and dumped nearly all of it in my driveway and backyard with some in theirs.

The tree wiped out my garage, my pergola, the fence on the far side, and all the plants in my yard including several bushes and small trees, along with many decorative wrought iron items.

The bill for the tree removal was $2,600.  The tree owning neighbour said that as most of the tree was in my yard, my portion was $1,600 and that was generous considering how little was in their yard.  i paid without comment.

Their damage was a BBQ and a cushion storage bin and some damage to their side of the garage roof easily repaired with sheeting and shingles.

The garage was unusual but typical in this neighbourhood.  A single building two car garage, i own half on my side, they own half on their side, separate doors, dividing wall between.  My side was destroyed and needed to be removed and replaced.  Their side had some roof damage easily repaired.

i decided to remove my half completely as my side needed to be rebuilt or replaced.  I decided to replace it with a small shed.  The joining wall needed some work to make the other side weatherproof and safe.  The bill for this is $1,900.  None of which has any benefit to me.  But the bulk of the work has to be done from my side to repair the ridge beam, reshingle the peak, and close the top to protect their side.  The contractor said their side would cost about $700 for labour, roofing panels, and shingles.  While the work from my side was the balance.  The neighbours decided that we should split this bill equally to protect their half.

Meanwhile, i paid to have my pergola removed and replaced from the damage from their tree.  And now rebuild my garden with new plants, decorations, walkways and other things to make a backyard livable.

Their cost, maybe $2,000 while i am over $10,000 and climbing from their tree.  And i am difficult?

Genealogy

 Many years ago i began researching my genealogy, the family history.  i found good resources for my father's side, the Moffat side, going back eight generations and then forward and sideways.  My direct line begins in 1705 with no further backwards information,

My mother's side is somewhat blank.  This post is a record of what i know or guess.

Mom was born "out of wedlock" as they say or a bastard child as her adopted Aunts and Uncles described her.  She was given up at birth to a childless couple wanting a child.  As Mom later learned, she was never registered or given a birth certificate.  She was never told of her bio parents except for lots of untruths and exaggerations.

Sometime in the late 1980s, a woman came knocking at the door claiming to be Mom's sister.  The family resemblance was amazing and undeniable.  The sister had been looking for her sister for years.

The sister, the first born of the same two parents, was legally registered and adopted by a loving family.  The family included the bio-mom in their circle introducing her as an unmarried, family friend called Aunt Florence.  When the sister was of sufficient age, she was informed that this Aunt was actually her mother.  Details were then provided.

Florence McKerrall was a single woman, never married.  She had a long term affair with a married man, Thomas Palmer.  They had two daughters.  The first was processed properly.  Out of embarrassment or shame, the second was shuffled off without any paperwork.

i have no further knowledge of Palmer except that he was an organist, choir leader in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  He died sometime around 1950.

The sister had some details of what had happened to her younger sister.  I should ask my Aunt more details about the search.

My Mom met her bio-mother shortly there after as did i.  She was nothing to me except some little old lady my new Aunt knew.  Mom had mixed feelings.

Florence died a short while later.  Over the years, my Aunt had learned a bit about Florence's family, specifically that she had two nieces.  These nieces would be my Mom's and Aunt's cousins.

The news was broken to the cousins that the daughter of the family friend of their aunt Florence was actually a daughter to Florence.  And that there was a second daughter.

So, the genealogy tree.  Florence McKerrall was never married so her father's name is McKerrall.  The cousins, two sisters, had the birth last name of Morden.  This means their mother was a McKerrall.  A sister to Florence and a second daughter to father McKerrall.

i met the two cousins and spouses sometime in the 1990s.  As of this writing, one sister has died and both their husbands.  I have identified one grandchild of the cousins through 23andMe.

23andMe shows lots of genetic relatives that must be on my mother's side as there are no matches on the Moffat side.  Unless they know the sordid family history of Palmer or McKerrall, no further details can be obtained.

Voting Right Wing

I just do not understand middle class people voting Republican / Tea Party, Conservative / Reform.

What do these parties promise? Lower taxes, family values, less regulation and government.

The Reform party bribed us with a lower GST rate with it dropping from seven per cent to five per cent. By a rough calculation, based on adding all expenses on which i think GST was collected, i saved about $500 per year. Wow.

At the same time they dropped the corporate tax rate and introduced a whole bunch of tax credits and deductions for businesses. Most of which are foreign owned and controlled. These tax reductions cost the Canadian government billions. No one in the middle class saw a penny of this. Meanwhile, services are being cut to afford the tax cuts.

A lot of these services are used by the poorer folk but some are used by the middle class.

So to recap, the dumb middle class conservative voter is pocketing $500 so that major corporations can save billions. The middle class conservative voter is also doing without many services previously supplied for free. Services like environmental protection, food inspection, health care funding, ... the list goes on and on.

Greece and the Bailout

As we will be vacationing in Greece later this year, i have been following the situation in Greece closer than i might otherwise have done.

I think the Euro Banks, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank have it all wrong.

What are the facts as they are known?

Greece is basically bankrupt.
Corruption is rampant.
The guy on the street, from the lowliest street sweeper to the highest of the high, are paid outrageous wages with exorbitant benefits and ridiculous vacation entitlements.
Tax evasions and avoidance are national pastimes.

So what are the financial gurus requiring as part of the bailout?

Rollback of all these high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements of the working class stiff.
Raising the pensionable retirement age by a few years.
Increasing taxes.
Cutting government services.
And privatisation of many government assets and profitable services.

Let's look a little bit closer at these areas.

The Greek government is owed about 41.1 billion Euros in taxes. Of this amount, 37 billion Euros are owed by just 6,500 individuals and 8,200 companies. A simple average means about 2,500,000 Euros each.

The lowly street sweeper is not likely to be the beneficiary of the corruption but rather the brunt of it in terms of having to pay to obtain even the most basic of government services. And even if he does benefit, it will not add up to the missing 2,500,000 Euros in income taxes owed on average by the rich few.

Furthermore, having to bribe a civil servant to obtain even a simple permit means that tax evasion is on everyone's mind as in, why pay taxes when we have to pay again for the services the taxes are supposed to provide.

The bulk of the tax evaders are probably those best in a position to be the beneficiaries of the corruption.

As for the high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements, the best way to keep the citizenry quiet and complacent is to bribe them with their own money in the form of these high wages, benefits, and vacation entitlements.

So, what is the real solution?

Deal with the top level corruption and tax evaders. Collect the 37 billion Euros which incidentally, is the same amount the Euro Banks are insisting that private enterprises raise as part of their commitment in bailing out Greece. Seize the assets of those unwilling to pay their outstanding taxes.

Make corruption on the scale seen in Greece a treasonable offence. Seize the assets and jail the offenders.

The total value of rolling back the wages and benefits of the working stiff and collecting their tiny portion of the outstanding taxes is minuscule in comparison to the corruption and greed at the top levels of government and businesses.

But this will not happen because the members of the Euro Banks, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank are the same ones benefiting large from the corruption in Greece and elsewhere in the world. They do not penalise their friends.

My new manifesto

My new manifesto

I do not have any descendents and have probably only 30 years to live, if that, so, my new philosophy.

I have a nice house in a nice neighbourhood. To keep it so, i want more police on the streets to keep the riff-raff out.

I want more jails to hold the riff-raff that come into my neighbourhood and threaten my peace.

I do not care about farmers owning guns and all the guns used by the gangs are not registered anyway. So, i do not care for the gun registry because it does nothing to protect me. The extra police in my neighbourhood will protect me with the extra jails to hold those with guns threatening my peace.

I do not belong to a special interest group whose existence would be supported by the long form census so i do not care whether they census us or not, at all.

I want to maintain my comfortable style of living so i need the gasoline, petroleum by-products, and plastics, and pharmaceuticals derived from the tar-sands. Who cares about a duck or two when my standard of living is at risk?

I have seen elephants, lions, tigers, and bears in the zoo so why should i care about saving the wild ones who would only attack me should i visit their native country and wander off the beaten track.

My education is complete so why do i need to support public schools and universities with my taxes. If someone wants an education, pay for it.

I use very little of government services so why should i pay taxes for services i do not use or need. This is called negative billing. Privatise it all and let me pick the services i need and pay for them as i use them.

As i figure it, i will only be around for another 20 or 30 years, climate change will not affect me much, maybe some bad weather here and there. So why should i care about the impending changes for the worse. Assuming climate change exists anyway.

I am Canadian. I am in it for me alone. If you can't afford to live here, move or get a job. Vote for the Harper Government.

Finally, common sense on Police Budget

We finally have some common sense on the police budget being expressed by someone with knowledge and experience.

Read the letter from John Sewell and see how we can end the police gravy train.

Years ago, someone calculated that nearly one-third of all police arrests were personal use marijuana related. By extension, this means that one-third of all police officers are chasing personal use marijuana users. Make it legal and we can fire this one-third of all police officers for a huge saving in salaries, court costs, incareration costs, ...

Others have commented on how we are the speed trap city of North America. Imagine how many police officers are sitting in their speed trap cars eating doughnoughts. And how much money could be saved if we used a bit of intelligence in attacking speeders?