Take this virus seriously!

Yes, I know other people are saying this too but I am going to say it again - and again.
Middle Cat managed to get the Senior Cat into the car yesterday - something of a physical feat. She brought him home for a day visit to see how he might cope. 
It was not a great success but it did make him acutely aware of how difficult it is going to be. He made his own decision to "stay a bit longer". He is fortunate he can. We still have forty-eight respite days available - after that there could be real problems but we can at least try and sort things out. 
He would rather be home. We would rather he was home. 
And one of the many reasons for wanting him to come home, apart from the simple fact it is where he should be, is the Covid19 virus. In fact if cases start to appear in nursing homes in this state Middle Cat and I will bring him home and cope somehow - although I have no idea how. We do not want him to die alone in an ICU isolation unit in hospital. Nobody who loves a family member could want that for them.
This is what makes me so angry when I hear of people breaking the rules, refusing to wear a mask  in the neighbouring state, going to work when they know they have or even might have the virus. It is what alarms me when the person ahead of me walks into the supermarket without using the hand sanitiser and wipes which have been made available. (I am still taking my own wipes in case the supermarket has run out. I use another in other areas of the shopping centre.)  
A real lock down might be rather like being under house arrest but there are very good reasons for it. It won't be easy but there are measures in place to help people financially.  
We are all so used to having the freedom to come and go as we please and when we want to that, for most people, the idea that we might never be able to do this again is frightening. It will happen that way if we don't do the right thing - and much worse could happen.
I've been told, "You're just being selfish. All you can think about is your father and you. You don't care if the rest of us are going mad with boredom when it is perfectly safe to go out."
I don't think I am being selfish. I am worried about the long term effect. This is going to impact the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren and more.
And much could be done to bring this virus under control if people would just take it seriously. Please take it seriously.

There was a death notice

in the paper yesterday - for the mother of my cousin's partner. Yes, she was "old" I suppose and it was "expected" because she was ill but what the notice didn't say was that only one of her children can attend her funeral. 
My cousin's partner lives in London. He can't come back at present. He would have been on the first available plane here had it been possible. His brother lives in America. He would also have been on the first available plane. It leaves their sister to be the physically present comfort for their father. That must be very hard indeed. 
I am very conscious that we could face a similar situation because I have a brother living in another state and a sister living in another. I have a nephew living in the worst hit state - and yes, we are very worried for his safety.
But we are all within almost the same time zone. For R... his mother's funeral is at a time which will be in the very early hours of the morning. For his brother it will be late at night. The service is being "streamed" for them but I can imagine R... sitting there in their tiny London flat hoping that, at very least, the connection does not fail for some reason and he can at least view the service. Even with my cousin T... sitting next to him he is going to have that truly dreadful moment of homesickness I experienced when my paternal grandmother died and I was in London and my mother informed me by letter - a letter which arrived after it was all over.
Communications are much better now of course. There was no internet when I first went to London. Computers were still huge and kept in dust free rooms managed by specialists. (Remember those endless sheets of paper that tumbled out?)
But is that any real comfort for people like R..., for all the people who have lost someone to the wretched virus when they have been much closer but agonisingly far away?
The Senior Cat is due home this morning. I do not know how long we will be able to have him here. Middle Cat talked to the doctor yesterday and we all know it is going to be difficult but we need to do it if we can. We need to do it not just for him but for my siblings who cannot be here.
And, in a way, we need to do it for R... too. If we can organise "parent-sitting" for the Senior Cat then Middle Cat and I will go to the funeral on Monday - for R.... so that he feels his partner's family is supporting him as best we can.

Clearing out a room

is rather like doing an archaeological "dig". At least this is the case when the room has been used as a "dumping" ground for the past twenty years.
We only have two bedrooms in this house. One is obviously for the Senior Cat and the other is mine. There are two other rooms which would have been bedrooms in the normal way but one was the Senior Cat's "study/office" and the other was "the sewing room" where my late mother did sew and the ironing has been done.
I do not sew. Not long after  her death we gave my mother's sewing machine and over locker to a professional dress maker. After that it became "dump it in the sewing room" for anything we thought we did not want to give away but did not know what to do with or where else to store. 
This was a mistake. We have kept things that nobody should keep - like bits of wrapping paper too small to be really useful. Old Christmas cards "because the address might be useful". Plastic bags and other shopping bags "because it might come in handy". Old clothes "that will do for cleaning rags". My increasing collection of knitting yarn which was "given to me by ..... so I really can't just get rid of it". Then there is the big bag of polystyrene balls and "yes I will use those when I get time and have to run that class". There are piles of papers - "I need to go through those when I get time" and more craft materials of which the Senior Cat has said, "Don't throw those out. They are useful for the kids." (He means the great-grand kittens and the four kittens across the road.)
And how does yarn get tangled when I put it away untangled and nobody has touched it since?
I have been at it for two days. I have not finished. I must finish today because we are going to need  to be able to put a bed in there so that other people can sleep overnight and help with the Senior Cat.
He is supposed to come home today or, at latest, tomorrow. The doctor phoned me yesterday and we discussed this. I know she is worried about him coming home. I am worried about him being here but she also agreed that he needs to be out of where he currently is. Middle Cat is working on options.  I will go on cleaning and hoping. 
I do wish we hadn't just "dumped" things - but it is a terrible temptation!

If you want to protest

then there are ways to do it - and do it responsibly as well as effectively.
Yesterday the organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest march lost their appeal for the march to go ahead. They now plan to do it illegally. 
The reason they lost their appeal is of course the Covid-19 restrictions in that state. Planning to go ahead illegally is, to say the least, irresponsible. It will do their cause no good. It could even do harm. If one person attending the march has the virus then they are capable of affecting hundreds of others very rapidly. The situation could soon be out of control.  
I was discussing this with someone yesterday. He is a member of the judiciary. He was very concerned because his grandson wants to attend the march. We discussed this by comparing my attempts to see the Senior Cat without an "appointment".
    "That really was different Cat," he told me, "You had gone through the necessary steps, indeed already been signed in when they stopped you. You were abiding by the rules the government had laid down. If you had appeared in front of me I would have granted you permission because the restriction placed on you was unreasonable in the circumstances. This is different."
Yes, it is different. Those organising the protest are behaving in a manner which is contrary to the well being of others. It is garnering them media coverage but it is almost certainly not garnering them support in the wider community. If there is a spike in cases because of their actions then the consequences could be extremely serious. People are tired of the current restrictions. They long for the pandemic to simply "go away". It is having not just severe health costs but financial, social and emotional costs that will take generations from which to recover.  What is more these issues also affect the issues the BLM protestors are talking about. 
It is time to be reasonable about these things. Change does not come about through that sort of action. It doesn't come about through "tweets of support" or badges on clothing or any number of other popular but effortless ways of "protesting". Real change can come about with things like individually written letters and properly conducted research along with well developed proposals for the future. Getting real change is hard work, very hard work.  
I know because I have done it.  I know other people who have done it. We knew when we started that we probably would never be "thanked" -  to the contrary. Popularity and media attention is not the name of the game. It is not why you do such things.  
Sadly the organisers of this march see themselves as warriors and heroes. If they get punished in any way they will be made out to be martyrs of some sort. They are not. When something goes wrong they will harm the very cause they say they support.

Reading the instructions

is not necessarily easy.
I fill out an awful lot of forms in my job - even now that I am trying to cut back on the amount of work I do. There have been times when I felt as if I did nothing else. 
Reading the instructions on forms is not a straightforward thing. I am not including here the forms which are not written in English. I do not expect those to be straightforward but that is because of my own linguistic skills - or lack thereof. 
No, I mean the English language forms I seem to need to tackle daily. Even the forms written in "Plain English", "Basic English" or "Simple English" are not as clear as they could be.
Due to the resignation of our local ward councillor we need to vote for a new one. Material has come out, along with the voting paper. I tried to make sense of these yesterday, the first chance I actually had to read it carefully. By the end of it I was confused. The candidate statements were all of the "how many words can I use to say nothing?" variety.  The instructions for how to mark the ballot paper and return it were equally confusing.
As a law student I had to study legislation - and how it is written.  I can remember being given an exercise which asked us to write a small part of a piece of legislation.  Legislation of course is there to tell us how the law is to be applied.
    "Try and cover all the possibilities," we were told. 
I worked with a fellow mature age student. We came up with six different ways of saying the same thing - enough for the exercise in question. Then we went a step further and pulled them apart as might be done by barristers in front of a judge. We passed our assignments in.  At the next lecture we  waited rather nervously for the results.
I was almost relieved when the lecturer said, "Well now Cat and Chris have done exactly what I hoped for. How long did it take you two to dream up those versions?" 
The other students had handed in just one idea each of course. In doing the assignment they had often written something they simply thought said the what was intended. Being older Chris and I could see what the lecturer wanted. He wanted us to understand how difficult it is to write something that cannot be torn down by a misplaced word or comma or phrase.  
I have been writing instructions for another project lately. It is the sort of writing I do not enjoy. This time I have someone else reading the instructions and following them. She has an analytical sort of mind and, had things been different after the war, she might have gone to university and done maths. She would have been very good at it. It really helps me.
I wish the people who had written the statements and the voting form had consulted her before sending that material out.

The lives of nuns

have changed dramatically since I was a mere kitten. It would have been unthinkable once for me to do what I did yesterday. 
Instead of going to see the Senior Cat I went to see two nuns. This was Middle Cat's suggestion.  
    "You said you wanted to catch up with P... and B... Why don't you go and do it this afternoon when you get the boxes. I have to take the puffer over." (She was referring to his asthma medication.) 
It was sunny. The convent is about twenty minutes away in pedalling time. Middle Cat would tell the Senior Cat what I was doing. He knows B... finds it as  difficult as he does to get out these days. 
I phoned P.... just as I would phone anyone else and said, "Are you in?  I need to get something from (the big place on the corner) and I could come on and see B...."
    "Lovely," P told me. 
So, I went. I dislike shopping even more at that venue but it was over quickly and I went on to the convent. 
It is a quiet place on Saturdays. During the week there is the noise from the school - although even that does not seem excessive. The most noise comes from the main road on which it is situated. Turning into the gravel driveway the high wall cuts out most of that noise too.
P... came out as I was parking the trike  under the back verandah.
    "Good to see you Cat. B....is looking forward to it. She's in the kitchen. Go on in."
And there we sat in their tiny kitchen. P....made tea. Biscuits were produced. We talked of the events of the previous day but briefly. They agreed that we need to get the Senior Cat home as soon as possible. 
The nuns care for one another as long as possible. There were more in the house when we first got to know P... Now there are just the two of them rattling around in a big house. There are other residences on the property. Most of the nuns have their own small units now, quite unlike the cells of their past.
I have discussed this with P... and B... Their lives are so very different now. Both of them have embraced the changes although I have known one or two other nuns who have found it difficult. 
That is hardly surprising. B... went into the convent when I was a small kitten. Her life then was completely regimented. She wore a habit and a wimple. Now the closest she comes to that is a plain cream dress she wears to funerals. She owns nothing black now. She gave P.... a very pretty over shirt-blouse to celebrate P...'s diamond anniversary of entering the convent. That would once have been unthinkable. 
The two of them watch television and "indulge" in craft. They have travelled and, until recently, occasionally went to a film or concert. Their lives are not so very different from any of people their age. It is as it should be.
The difference is that, at least between P....and B... there is an air of quiet. They know each other well. They give each other space.
I try to do the same for the Senior Cat. P...and B... have taught me a lot over the years. 

I was assaulted yesterday

and I am still feeling very shaken. There was no "battery" involved - "battery" is actual physical touching - but the assault was real and very frightening.
Two days before we had been informed that they were "changing the visiting rules"  as to when and how we could visit the Senior Cat. Fair enough if that is necessary right now although a little strange when we were already complying with what we believed were all the necessary requirements. We took the number we were given to "make an appointment". 
At that point though another alarm bell began to ring because one staff member in the residence had told me, "He will never settle in if you keep visiting." Pointing out that he was there for just two weeks - and now he will be no longer whatever - made no difference. I was already concerned by that attitude.
As the Senior Cat is only booked in for two weeks though we decided to try and cooperate - just as we have tried to cooperate with all the requirements.
I continued to try and  cooperate. As it was my turn to go yesterday. I tried phoning the number the day before. It is a "1800-xxxxx" sort of number and then there are the "press one" and so on numbers for whatever it is you want. That alone is of some concern but again we accepted it. Throughout the day I kept trying the number. I could not get through to "book an appointment". After hours I tried again. Yes, answering machine this time. I left a message and said I would be there to see him sometime the next day, most likely in the afternoon. 
I was rung at 8am and told I could not go unless I gave them a specific time. That really rang alarm bells. I know that when something like this is said it is almost always because, knowing there will be a visitor, the resident will be "ready". In some cases there are issues with staff hovering and, in the worst, there can be chemical restraint so that the resident appears happy and compliant.
There was no reason at all to believe that the Senior Cat had been in anyway "difficult". He is probably one of the least, if not the least, difficult people they have ever come across. It is one of the things that makes people outside the family want to visit him.
The current government regulations, at both state and federal level, do not require "appointments" at all, least of all appointments at a very specific time.
The residence is a very small one. There are only thirty-eight beds in it. Some of them are dementia patients. Middle Cat and I have only seen two visitors in all that time - the man I mentioned  the other day and a woman who arrived yesterday.  The Senior Cat has probably had more visits in a week than some residents get in a year.
My work also makes it very difficult to say that I will be somewhere at a specific time. Yesterday I was waiting on a call from a surgeon and a medical engineer. It was going to be a three way conversation. I needed to be at the computer so I could see what they were talking about. No, I was not going to make a specific time because I could not.
I was told I could not visit.
In the meantime Middle Cat, who deals with the medical issues, was phoned and asked to get a prescription for him. She phoned me and said she would, all being well, pick me up. Mid-afternoon she did just that. We went to the residence. They said we could go no further than the front desk - this after we had filled out the daily form, signed the book and had our temperatures taken. 
If we went any further we were told they would call the police. A very tall male member of staff had appeared by then, one of the two people I would not trust at all. His clothing and personal hygiene leave a considerable amount to be desired.  Middle Cat, much braver than me, said,
    "Call the police then. You asked me to come in with his medication. I am going to see him."
She can move a great deal more quickly than I can of course and she stalked off. The male member of staff was clearly furious. He closed in on me to within no more than ten centimetres.
    "You are going out of here now!" 
He manouvered himself in such a way that I had no choice but to move. As I was less than a metre from the door he managed by simply moving in on me to get me out of the door. I waited outside for Middle Cat- by which time I was in tears. It takes a lot to make me cry but I was feeling frightened - not just for me but for the Senior Cat.
Middle Cat did not come back immediately. A member of staff came out to talk to me. She is young, pleasant and was obviously worried by what had happened. "Can you get him home soon?"
she asked me, "Being here isn't good for him. He's too nice for that."
Then Middle Cat appeared. One of the other staff was equally concerned. She said much the same thing. She is also nice, young and pregnant and "not coming back". 
    "Come on in Cat. They had no right to do that."
I went in but I didn't feel comfortable. I wondered where that male member of staff was and why they had made it so difficult.  The answer was soon obvious. The Senior Cat was sitting in his room - in semi-darkness. I listened to his speech. He seemed vague and uncertain, quite unlike his usual self. But he was alert enough to tell us,
    "They gave me something. They said it was for the bruise."
He does have a bruise on his hip from where he fell but we could not check for any more. It was more than a week ago he had the fall anyway and he had not had anything then.What is more bruises do not need medication that might make you vague or uncertain.
As soon as we can organise some extra help he will be coming home - where he belongs. We will cope somehow. I do not want to go in there again.