When I first announced last Halloween that I had stage 4 kidney cancer I said I hoped to continue blogging — keeping up my four posts per week schedule November though February was manageable.
On Wednesday I went outside, the temperature was nice and I’d been in our apartment for three full weeks — 21 days! I was going stir-crazy.
I decided that rather than just walk a few feet outdoors I’d take my power wheelchair to the closest public park. On the way there a man was sitting on his front porch. I said “Hello” and he replied the same. He was at least 10 feet away, no social distancing violation. He was the first person besides my husband I’d spoken with in person in three weeks.
Here’s the short text from the city’s page on this park:
In 1979, the Rev. Edward Filipiak, for whom the park is named, was a one-man pastorate on a mission to save his church, built in 1844, from demolition. Archdiocese leaders planned a new building nearby but backed off after some former parishioners organized the Friends of St. Joseph, and the National Register of Historic Places designated the twin-spire structure a landmark.
What you’ll see at this park is a grassy knoll of rolling berms and a few shade trees complete with benches and plaques in honor of Fr. Filipiak and those who’ve lost their lives in the line of work. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/parks/parks/browse-parks/view-park.cfm?parkID=41&parkName=Father%20Filipiak%20Park
What’s not mentioned is Father Filipiak was brutally murdered in September 1979. His findagrave entry has his photo and a few more details. His murder saved the church, but the 19th century houses that faced 10th Street and backed up to the side of the church weren’t so lucky.
I think about him and his fight to save the church. If he hadn’t been murdered would the church still be here today? Or the houses that occupied the land where this park exists — would they still exist. Anyway, it was just very nice going outside and speaking to other human beings.
Today I’ll be out again but I have to worry about touching stuff and then not touching my face.
— Steve Patterson
Missouri, like most backwards states, didn’t issue a statewide stay at home order. That meant Kansas City, St. Louis City, and St. Louis County had to act on their own.
In a matter of days, millions of Americans have been asked to do what might have been unthinkable only a week or two ago: Don’t go to work, don’t go to school, don’t leave the house at all, unless you have to.
The directives to keep people at home to stunt the spread of the coronavirus began in California, and have quickly been adopted across the country. By Tuesday, more than a dozen states had called on their residents to stay at home as much as possible, with many cities and counties joining in.
This means at least 167 million people in 17 states, 18 counties and 10 cities are being urged to stay home. (New York Times)
It should’ve been nationwide, but President Trump is already discussing easing guidelines and reopening the country by Easter — over the objections of health professionals. If this is going to end we’ve to stop it from spreading. That means reducing human interactions.
In the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll an overwhelming majority agrees, this is what governments should do to keep us safe.
Q: Agree or disagree: St. Louis City & County issuing stay at home orders is government overreach.
I’m too tired to write anymore.
— Steve Patterson
My most recent immunotherapy treatment was three weeks ago. Since then I’ve been especially tired and have had almost no appetite. Normally I’d be baking bread, making dinners from scratch, etc. I’d been eating so well I gained 5lbs my last visit. I’ll lose wait again my next treatment day, a week from today.
The last three weeks have been anything but normal, for anyone. Very surreal. Seeing photos of stores being out of toilet paper made me regret not buying more on our trip to Costco last month.
My last time outside of our apartment was Saturday March 7th, we went to ALDI for our regular monthly trip. They had toilet paper, but we didn’t buy any — though I later wished we had.
My husband is a home health aide, so he’s out most days helping his clients in their residences. This includes doing their grocery shopping for them. After he finished one day last week he stopped at a nearby Costco to pick up items on the list I’d given him. Normally we’d go together, but I was too tired and I didn’t want to be exposed to other people.
As we’re putting away what he’d purchased I hit the jackpot. On the very top of our tall pantry shelves…six rolls of toilet paper!
Yeah, there go my fears of running out. Of course, we don’t know how long all this will last.
— Steve Patterson
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Yesterday the leaders of St. Louis City & County issued a joint stay at home order effective Monday:
St. Louis city and county goverments will enact stay-at-home orders beginning Monday, officials said Saturday.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page tweeted Saturday that they plan to implement mandatory stay-at-home orders starting Monday.
The restrictions “will ensure that residents can meet their basic needs and that essential services will still be provided,” Krewson and Page said in a joint press release.
Residents will be allowed to go to grocery stores, pharmacies and “take a walk in a public park” in the city and county, they said.
The order is the result of collaboration with leaders from St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties that are also considering “additional restrictions,” the press release said. (Post-Dispatch)
This is the topic of today’s poll.
This poll will close at 8pm tonight.
— Steve Patterson