No words required

 

It’s been a very long time….

Love,

Rebecca

Progress towards the finish line

 

Earlier today, both Simmie and Dina received their second doses of the Moderna vaccine up at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro just a couple of hours apart. In just two weeks, they will finally be able to hug each other for the first time in over 13 months.

Simmie’s husband received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week. Aaron and Joshua are still waiting their turns. It is even looking promising that the Pfizer vaccine will receive approval for those 12-16 years old in the foreseeable future. That will just leave us with the two youngest, and it is not clear just when that may be. But little by little progress is being made. We do hope to be able to go up there in the not-too-distant future, albeit with limited physical contact, when it is warm and nice enough to gather out of doors.

Light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel.

Best to you and yours.

Love,                                                          

Rebecca

Infectious in a good way

What would have been a major highlight of last week was unfortunately not quite what we would have liked it to be. Dina and Ella escorted Julia to New York for a day to visit the American Girl Store and buy her first American Girl doll, a gift from her parents for her recent birthday. Julia named her new doll Victoria, and although she is technically a good “match” for Julia, Victoria is totally lacking in Julia’s charm and infectious energy!

Unfortunately, after much agonizing, we just did not feel we could safely join them in this activity. We had given Julia a Kindle for her birthday and she has, much to our joy, become an avid reader. She also knows that we have ordered a bed for Victoria, which we plan to bring with us when we finally make our way to Sharon.

Meanwhile, the remainder of Passover was quiet. I had routine medical appointments on Thursday, the final two days of the holiday were over the weekend, and Sunday evening we packed up all the Passover utensils and moved our regular things back to their usual places. This exercise always takes a few days because even though it was only a week or so ago, I can never remember where I put some things. That first bagel is always delicious, and last evening we had pasta for dinner. We are looking forward to our first pizza dinner. Otherwise, this is a quiet week.

Meanwhile, most of our grandchildren are having “Zoom school” this week as all of the students await what will hopefully be negative results on their COVID tests.  

Stay safe and well.

Love,                                                          

Rebecca

 

A beloved author

 

Jewish holidays often mean we fall behind on current news. Although this is a rather minor item, I have just learned of the death of a beloved author of children’s books, Beverly Cleary. In her 104 years, she published upwards of 49 books. In recent years, I heard her name often because of our granddaughters’ fondness for the Ramona Quimby books. The first book in the series, Beezus and Ramona, appeared in 1955. The final book, Ramona's World, was published in 1999.  

But the Beverly Cleary book I remember fondly was Fifteen, published in 1956. Although I was all of four years old at that time, the book was still quite popular when I came of age to read it ten years or so later, probably more than once. The main character, Jane, is a fifteen-year-old girl who is just discovering young love. I do not recall any of our granddaughters reading this one, and I suppose that by today’s standards it probably seems a bit sappy and silly. But it is available on Kindle for just $3.99, and remains a classic in my mind.

Today is the second day of the trial of Derek Chauvin in the May 24, 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The witnesses testifying today are all young people, one only 9 years old. These minors are not being shown on camera, only their voices are heard. It is so much easier to think about Beverly Cleary.

Stay well.

Love,                                                          

Rebecca

 

Another Pesach alone

I thought this might be an interesting time to go back and see what I wrote here a year ago.

 

07 April 2020
Struggling to find words

 

You all know me, a person seldom at a loss for words. It has been a difficult past eight years, having survived two unrelated cancers on top of a long-term, albeit fortunately slowly progressing, pulmonary disease. I think I have maintained a pretty good spirit and sense of humor through it all.

 

But these are different times. At the risk of sounding a bit selfish, those previous challenges were just mine, and I was fortunately surrounded by many people who could support and care for me. But now we are all suffering, all navigating very difficult waters. Everywhere I look, everything I read (still with difficulty) or see on television is focused on people who have it far worse, not only the thousands of medical personnel who are on the front lines in hospitals, but the everyday folks who enable us to continue to put food on our tables and provide us with many of our everyday needs.

 

I do not have any good answers for this. As we approach the first night of Passover, my usual enthusiasm for this holiday is nowhere to be found. Over forty years ago we had our own “Passover miracle” when our daughter born after only 28 weeks of the normal 40 survived those early tenuous weeks. I can only hope that the first bites of matzah will awaken some reserve of hope.

 

Meanwhile, we cannot let out guards down. We need to continue to do everything we can to curb the spread of this dreadful disease, and hope that we will get through this without too much pain.

 

Sadly, the only difference between this year and last is that, now, over half a million Americans and 2.75 million people worldwide have succumbed to this horrific disease. I guess we are among the lucky ones: we have known a number of people who have been infected (none of whom have died) but fortunately none of our family members have tested positive.

Although Barry and I have both been vaccinated, our daughters will not receive their second doses until mid-April, and it is not clear just when our sons-in-law will be able to begin the process. Only our oldest grandchild is old enough to receive the vaccine, but again, it is not clear when that may become available to him. I am sure that many of you might feel that we are being excessively cautious, but this caution is necessitated by my underlying pulmonary condition. We are hoping that, as the weather improves, we will be able to travel to Sharon and spend time outdoors with the two families, who of course are still having to keep distant from each other. So, the road ahead is still long.

I have also been reminded of this during the various classes given by our synagogue that I attend on Zoom each week. The students are virtually all senior citizens, all of whom have been vaccinated at this point. As we “gather” for each class, there has been a great deal of chitchat about plans for Passover. It is just another reminder of the challenges so many are facing.

Still, at the end of the day, I am grateful to have made it to this point, a year into the pandemic, with my health still more or less intact, my marriage and connection to my family still strong, and my hope for the future still undiminished.

Stay safe and well!

Love,                                                          

Rebecca

Sleep With Me

 

Time to get your minds out of the gutter…..

This is a link to podcasts that are so unbearably boring that they put the listener to sleep. We heard about this when a segment about the podcast was aired on “CBS Sunday Morning” with Jane Pauley.

Since the COVID pandemic began, one in three Americans has had reduced quality sleep. Correspondent Susan Spencer pulls back the covers on how pandemic stress is among the factors affecting people's already-tortured relationship with shuteye. Spencer talks with Drew Ackerman, a lifelong chronic insomniac whose storytelling podcast, "Sleep With Me," lulls listeners to slumberland; and with professors Sharon Bowman, Jennifer Martin and Tiffany Yip about the importance of sleep hygiene, and the effects of reduced sleep on chronic health impacts and productivity.

I figured I could do a great public service and share this information with my blog readers. You can let me know which is more sleep-inducing: this podcast or my ramblings.

Meanwhile, have a healthy week and try to get enough sleep.

Love,                                                                

Rebecca

So hard to know what to believe these days

I came across this graph entitled “The Problem with Congress Explained in One Graph.”

This would seem to make a convincing argument that Congress does not fully and accurately represent the American population.

It turns out that the numbers are off, but not the way that this posting represents. A brief summary of this is shown here:

How the graphic is incorrect

Was it always true that there was so much incorrect or misleading information out there? Or is it just that we have access to so much more information that, even if the same proportion of it is incorrect, the amount of it is simply mind-boggling?

The Washington Post said in January 2020 that Donald Trump had made more than 16,241 false or misleading claims as president, an average of about 14.8 such statements per day. The numbers for presidents prior to 2017 would appear to be much lower, but certainly not zero. Perhaps it was easier to track the last president’s statements because so many of them were on social media; there is no definitive way to compare his record to any presidents before him.

Speaking of cleaning up our acts, earlier this month I wrote about cleaning the car before Pesach (Passover). I was thrilled to just receive this video from Dina, which is so much more fun than we could possibly have doing this ourselves!

Have a healthy and peaceful week.

Love,                                                          

Rebecca