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Mar. 28th, 2020 03:57 pmCompleted Day 8 of the 100-a-day challenge. Totals:
Push ups: 85
Sit ups: 50
Squats: 125
Decided on a walk for today, despite the fact that it was pouring rain. Like cleaning, walking is a good way of burning off anxious energy, so it makes actually pressing the "call" button easier. Tried calling my Grandad, but just got voicemail. Called a member of the myPITA exec who is older and has recently had some health concerns to check in, and then called a friend who has been suffering from anxiety and feeling shut in with her toddler. I felt positive about that... I have a list of people to check in on right now, and it looks like calling people while out on a walk may be a way I do that.
I got soaked, of course, and was still on the phone when I got back into the apartment. Frazer actually came into the living room and removed my jacket for me while I was still talking and hung it in the bathroom to dry. :-D
BC has had an amazing face for this entire situation. Dr. Bonnie Henry, our chief health officer, has been calm, collected, clear, and an excellent communicator. She has been careful, thoughtful, and, I think, extremely responsive to a changing situation. There are always people who will think we should have done more, faster... but I feel like she has marshaled the province's resources well. Her daily briefings make people feel informed, and BC has been doing a good job at providing statistics and information to people, as well as explaining the statistics provided.
Another face that's becoming really well known is the Sign Language Interpreter who has been there at the daily briefings. Nigel Howard has been a fantastic example of a native speaker of ASL translating a hearing interpreter's ASL into a culturally appropriate communication. He is fascinating to watch, and it is interesting to see how much information from sign language is communicated through facial expression.
Another hugely positive step that has happened, from a harm-reduction perspective, is that the gov't has approved providing clean drugs to the people on the Downtown East Side. With the border closed, the drug pipelines from the US have dried up and street drugs are is very short supply and getting very expensive, leading to desperation on the DTES. It has been a problem for years, and the safe-injection sites were a start for harm reduction, but was was really needed was a safe, clean supply. I'm imagining we're going to see a hell of a reduction in Fentanyl deaths with this in place... as well as lower property crime.
What I'm REALLY hoping for is that this crisis forces us to actually put some effective housing and drug-harm-reduction policies in place that will deal with the awful conditions in the DTES and the neglect those who live there have suffered under for far too long. How much better off would people down there be if their drugs were provided for them and they could stop needing to spend all their time hustling for the next fix, and could instead focus on recovering from the traumas that put them there to start with. It would be SO much more cost effective in terms of human dignity, disease prevention and healthcare costs, and property crime, not to mention giving a swift kick in the nuts to the people who profit off providing the, often tainted and dangerous, street drugs.
I've been spending a fair amount of time working on my piano playing. For the longest time, I had only one song that I could remember and play, from back in Grade 6. I still don't know what it is actually called or where it is from, but a piano-teacher friend said it sounded like something written for piano students around the 1850s or 1860s. It's the first of the links below. The other two are songs that I now have memorized and can play at any point in time. I'm pretty proud of myself... especially for the Ragtime March which I had to really work at to deal with my fingers having to move in opposite directions at high speed and I just really like the sound of the Malaguena.
Links may not work in Firefox... they worked in Safari, though.
Minuet:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r4KXojJQxXS1P9JXNVycmDqyioo5Vxee/view?usp=sharing
Ragtime March:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XiaG_JYif2ttw83TocHZr9gAb9bOu0Ad/view?usp=sharing
Malaguena:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCjUXl2BTxaSa2K_ancLOZgRpanbDabf/view?usp=sharing
Push ups: 85
Sit ups: 50
Squats: 125
Decided on a walk for today, despite the fact that it was pouring rain. Like cleaning, walking is a good way of burning off anxious energy, so it makes actually pressing the "call" button easier. Tried calling my Grandad, but just got voicemail. Called a member of the myPITA exec who is older and has recently had some health concerns to check in, and then called a friend who has been suffering from anxiety and feeling shut in with her toddler. I felt positive about that... I have a list of people to check in on right now, and it looks like calling people while out on a walk may be a way I do that.
I got soaked, of course, and was still on the phone when I got back into the apartment. Frazer actually came into the living room and removed my jacket for me while I was still talking and hung it in the bathroom to dry. :-D
BC has had an amazing face for this entire situation. Dr. Bonnie Henry, our chief health officer, has been calm, collected, clear, and an excellent communicator. She has been careful, thoughtful, and, I think, extremely responsive to a changing situation. There are always people who will think we should have done more, faster... but I feel like she has marshaled the province's resources well. Her daily briefings make people feel informed, and BC has been doing a good job at providing statistics and information to people, as well as explaining the statistics provided.
Another face that's becoming really well known is the Sign Language Interpreter who has been there at the daily briefings. Nigel Howard has been a fantastic example of a native speaker of ASL translating a hearing interpreter's ASL into a culturally appropriate communication. He is fascinating to watch, and it is interesting to see how much information from sign language is communicated through facial expression.
Another hugely positive step that has happened, from a harm-reduction perspective, is that the gov't has approved providing clean drugs to the people on the Downtown East Side. With the border closed, the drug pipelines from the US have dried up and street drugs are is very short supply and getting very expensive, leading to desperation on the DTES. It has been a problem for years, and the safe-injection sites were a start for harm reduction, but was was really needed was a safe, clean supply. I'm imagining we're going to see a hell of a reduction in Fentanyl deaths with this in place... as well as lower property crime.
What I'm REALLY hoping for is that this crisis forces us to actually put some effective housing and drug-harm-reduction policies in place that will deal with the awful conditions in the DTES and the neglect those who live there have suffered under for far too long. How much better off would people down there be if their drugs were provided for them and they could stop needing to spend all their time hustling for the next fix, and could instead focus on recovering from the traumas that put them there to start with. It would be SO much more cost effective in terms of human dignity, disease prevention and healthcare costs, and property crime, not to mention giving a swift kick in the nuts to the people who profit off providing the, often tainted and dangerous, street drugs.
I've been spending a fair amount of time working on my piano playing. For the longest time, I had only one song that I could remember and play, from back in Grade 6. I still don't know what it is actually called or where it is from, but a piano-teacher friend said it sounded like something written for piano students around the 1850s or 1860s. It's the first of the links below. The other two are songs that I now have memorized and can play at any point in time. I'm pretty proud of myself... especially for the Ragtime March which I had to really work at to deal with my fingers having to move in opposite directions at high speed and I just really like the sound of the Malaguena.
Links may not work in Firefox... they worked in Safari, though.
Minuet:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r4KXojJQxXS1P9JXNVycmDqyioo5Vxee/view?usp=sharing
Ragtime March:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XiaG_JYif2ttw83TocHZr9gAb9bOu0Ad/view?usp=sharing
Malaguena:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCjUXl2BTxaSa2K_ancLOZgRpanbDabf/view?usp=sharing