LydiaE

As a middle-lier (support mandates and health protocols but sanely wary of many pharmaceutical initiatives), I think it’s important for some of you in this thread to realize that you’re the opposite side of the sociological coin. Cutting off or rigidly controlling relationships with family and loved ones that don’t share a particular neurosis is as disturbing as those who care so little for the health or comfort of others by refusing masks and other protocols. I have to deal with both sides of the coin in my family and each side considers the other selfish, mentally imbalanced, and/or varying degrees of intellectually challenged. Both types of people are tedious to unbearable to be around, but you do what you have to do. I would hate to know that people are isolating themselves and throwing away relationships for the sake of fear or ideological stubbornness, just like those who cannot tolerate similarly toxic and opposing political views. You only get some of these relationships once in a lifetime and it would be shameful to lose them simply due to tunnel vision, ego, and self-righteousness. Things still suspect to me: * Why have big box businesses and grocery stores become so lax in sanitizing shopping carts and surfaces? I was kind of hoping this would be a “thing” forever. I’m as opposed to norovirus (maybe more) as I am respiratory diseases. * Its been over a year: why haven’t these businesses and corporations been pressured to upgrade air filtration systems in these stores and buildings in any significant way? * Why have there never been biohazard receptacles aplenty for mandated masks in public areas? This is my dentist’s biggest pet peeve. I’m so tired of seeing these masks all over floors and parking lots. Some employee or groundskeeper has to clean them up and I doubt they are using appropriate receptacles. **Please do your due diligence by contacting your insurance provider before you vaccinate. These vaccines are categorized as “emergency use” medical interventions due to not having yet met all typical FDA trial guidelines. If you were to die as a result of this therapy, many major insurance companies will not pay out policies due to use of experimental therapeutics. This is why the US military will not be requiring armed forces to get vaccines until FDA approval is met and granted. If you have loved ones that would depend on your life insurance benefit, seek counsel.

I wonder if any or all of these grifters took out PPP loans...

Now is not the time for naïveté.

Here is a different perspective. Maybe it will help, or not. *Demographic and locale seem to be the deciding factors re: how one copes with the current situation schema. Large cities include paranoid people packed together. Apathy and squalor are the negative traits of such an area. Read up on Calhoun’s experiments with mice and behavioral sink. *Worrying about getting sick is a short-term and counterproductive action. The productive things you can do: proper diet, stimulate immune system, supplement vit D, C, magnesium, zinc, selenium in sane amounts. Avoid unhealthy destructive life choices: alcohol, drugs(which includes most of your common prescriptions aside from insulin and thyroid replacement), obesity, smoking, artificial additives, sedentary habits, promiscuity. You will eventually get sick, and complete isolation is literally impossible. *If you don’t have a cohesive family or peer group, of course you will feel isolated and despairing and lack confidence. Don’t discuss or squabble about politics, religion, or social programming. You will isolate yourself. I live in a suburb of a mid-sized city and am married with a grown daughter and teenaged son. Aside from masking regulations at some retailers, health care facilities and schools, life is pretty much the same as always. Daycares never closed. School employees and students/store employees wear masks under noses and on chins. Families and friends still socialize and get together. The nurses I know only complain about being overworked because so many healthcare positions were cut or omitted from March to June of 2020. My husband is Active Duty military and nothing much has changed except that deployments seem to be shorter in duration. Heres what I worry about: 1) Selfishly, my teenage son because his future is uncertain. Many of society’s rules seemed to change in an instant. 2) The elderly that are isolated and vulnerable in nursing homes and facilities. This sickens me. 3) Long-term starvation, and this is very much a real thing. Soybean crops worldwide have been decimated. Those feed our livestock and stretch our food stores. The culling of domesticated animals and livestock (mink, pigs, fowl, etc). Most of us have never had to worry about obtaining food. Many of us are fat and/or eating disordered. Starving scares me more than acute respiratory failure or sepsis. 4) And most importantly- a freakin bioweapon was released upon the world and no one has been held accountable. I guarantee it’s not the first and it won’t be the last! The world is run by selfish and greedy people. The only real hope we have is each other.

Are any of you dreading the fallout related to the vaccine itself? A percentage will be injured (I know, as I was one of those injured by the 2009 vaccine and I’m terrified by this “fast-tracked” one; shudder) and others might be paranoid. I’m concerned that this will be the point that medical facilities and healthcare workers will truly become overwhelmed. What about the mental health of those who have isolated themselves for the better part of a year? It’s no joke the toll it can take on the psyche. How will they cope when they contract things like the common cold or the many other common viruses that plague us? With all of the masking, lack of sunshine, antibacterial use, and isolation, immune systems are most definitely impaired. Not to mention socially. My husband sneezed in the grocery store and people scattered like it was shrapnel. He was masked and turned his face into his arm like any polite person would do. He’s not sick and it was a single sneeze. Down here in the South, it’s almost habitual for people to say “Bless you” to a stranger sneezing, but he was given dirty looks instead. It is scary to me how dark and paranoid people have become in less than a year.

With Joan, they were trying to portray the discrimination that single mothers faced during that time. Remember in season 1, Betty’s worse fear was to become a Helen Bishop. However, I find it hard to believe a personality like Joan wouldn’t spin things in her favor. I can’t believe that she wouldn’t be surrounded by a good handful of long-time bachelors or widowers despite being a mother. She had her mother and a nanny. It wasn’t like she was slaving days bouncing from one factory job to another trying to put food on the table.

The problem is that this isn’t a normal way to live and many people don’t have the financial and emotional tools to cope. However, as a woman in her early-to-mid 40s with one grown child and one 17 year old son at home, I’ve done my best to put myself in the place of many different groups in order to empathize. Senior citizens are naturally going to want to protect their vulnerable health and remaining resources, but they may be too far removed from the life of a young mother who is both scared for the health of her young child but also fearful she may not be able to feed or clothe her child and also mourn for the future of said child. There isn’t much optimism to go around. My son, a goal-oriented individual, is graduating this year and has no idea if he’ll be able to work towards those goals in the conventional ways previous generations have been able to. Middle-aged men and women historically have had a difficult time securing promising employment opportunities once long-term job security vanishes. I can’t even imagine how terrifying it would be to be a pregnant woman in 2020. Depending in which phase of life you’re in, you’re naturally going to focus more on safety or more on productivity. Add to the mix all of the vapid and rabid political fanatics, and life sucks immeasurably for all.

Thanks for all of the tips! TurtlePower, you are an inspiration.

Do any of y’all have any tips regarding safety and walking alone as a female? My neighborhood has a multi-mile walking trail that includes a pretty heavily-wooded area. I really enjoy the walk/jog, but I always feel so antsy when I go alone, even with my dog and pepper spray.

Personally, by the end of the series, the only original, main character I still liked was Roger. The annoying thing about this show was everything after season 4. “The Summer Man” laid the foundation for Don to grow and change, but he became even more of a dirtbag as the seasons unfurled. I feel like by the final season, the show runners wanted us to hate everyone, even former nice-ish guy, Kenny Cosgrove. That, and we are revealed the sad fates of Paul, Midge, and Rachel Menkin but we never hear from poor Sal Romano ever again?

The prescription form of lithium is the carbonate form and is toxic to your major organs because it’s so poorly absorbed that prescribed therapeutic levels are enormous to compensate. Lithium orotate is a cell salt form. Dosage is low and any benefits or effects are more subdued than with lithium carbonate. It can be bought or obtained almost anywhere and is no more or less safe to take than most OTC meds and/or supplements, including caffeine.

Not to mention, Don was a hopeless drunk and pretty naive about who he let into his life, especially when inebriated.

The problem with the Harry character is that there was never a map for the character. Wasn’t he supposed to commit suicide in the first season? It seems when they nixed that storyline, the writing for him was in freefall. Season 1/2 Harry: Friendly with most of his coworkers. Dedicated to both self-preservation and becoming an asset to the company. Seemed to feel true remorse and able to be sentimental (think Don’s Carousel presentation). Seemed happy to become a father. Season 4 and beyond Harry: Completely morally bankrupt. Entitled. Disdain towards wife and children. Constant turmoil with coworkers. Semi-delusional and downright unaware of how he’s perceived by others. Are we to believe that Harry’s bicoastal experiences have caused him to become a monster? The one late-season storyline he has with Hari Krishna Paul is absurd. He expresses empathy for about five minutes and it’s for Paul off all people?

I would have enjoyed a McCann spin-off. Don, Peggy, Stan, and Ted’s creative stories. Roger’s debauchery in accounts. Since Joan had left, no more of her boring drama.

Have you ever tried Pau d'Arco tea, Gram? I brewed it for my (teenaged) son when he had mono earlier this spring. It helped to bring his low grade fever down and said he would feel markedly less weak within an hour after he drank it. Maybe a placebo effect, but his doctor did recommend it.