Michael

With Phlebotomists

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Reading a book, a good book.
Taken in for a blood draw. Not a finger poke, like they do in Eastside. She says she doesn’t like finger pokes. But she’s good. She looks atmy right arm. Puts the needle in, wiggles it. Apologies. Withdraws. Looks for another place to try. Another phlebotomist comes by. We’re talking about the book while she looks for a place.

The alternate, as full of confidence as the first, hits the vein. But it doesn’t draw. There is a bump on my arm. We talk, I’m used to being missed. I have the book to the first and tell her to read aloud while the second tried again. She starts in on “She says STFU.” They are both laughing. I am too. She switches arms and gets it.

We laugh me out. With a bandage on each arm. Normally, they just do a finger poke. Next time I will.

Getting Local Again

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When I first heard of Amazon when Terri Gross interviewed Jeff Bezos on Fresh Air, 1994?, 1995? Books delivered and discounted. I left Powell’s Books, my local bookstore that never discounted. Those were days of $100 visits for Books! Books!

Amazon would save me a lot of money. Take that greedy Powell’s!

Now Bezos is the richest guy I hear of. The kind of guy that looks for things to spend his money on. I’ve left Amazon. I’ve quit paying the Amazon tax. Not all purchases are local. But they are closer to the person that makes it.

One Typed Page

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“It all begins with one typed page.” So starts One Typed Page. You can see a link to it at the top of this page. It will take you to a page of images of One Typed Pages. People have submitted their pages and the editor puts them up early in the day. For example

A post from Kent Peterson.
You can find him there on nearly any day.

In explaining the purpose of the page the editor refers to Cold Hard Type series. That’s a series of books from people who write on typewriters. But it’s not for everyone. And for those that it’s not there is One Typed Page. As he puts it:

We need people who can structure thoughts and ideas, then write a compelling story so others can make sense of the world. It’s easy to stop writing when the seams are coming apart and the world’s supply of toilet paper seems to have dried up. Don’t! Get a clean hanky, wipe away your tears and write. Write like the world depends on your words. Write like a warrior who is fighting for their survival. Write, because if you don’t, you’ll end up in a dark corner, balled up and sobbing.

But that won’t happen, because you’re the typewriter type who punches keys and makes the hammer strike. The force of your fingers is the force of will that conquers the page. Close your web browser, turn off the news, mute your feeds and get on the typewriter.

~ Daniel Marleau, Editor of One Typed Page

You can and are encouraged to contribute. Or you can, like me, drop by the page and read up on what people with typewriters are up to.

US State Covid Stats

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A friend of mine from Ohio asked “What are infection rates like in Oregon these days?” And immediately I thought of “What’s it like in Ohio?” I could say it was OK here. But is it? And how much better or worse is it? I DuckDuckGo‘d it to see what I could find out. Their response at the top of the list was CDC. And they had it.

What was found in early August 2020
(Images were joined together for this post.)

Looking at the last two lines, Cases and Deaths / 100k, we see that it is almost twice as high in people with Covid. And their death rate is almost four times higher. Ouch. No wonder he went on to write “‘m fairly disappointed that there’s so many people who, for whatever reasons, are not acting in the best interests of public health and safety.” Boy oh boy, I can only hope for him.

If you’d like to compare the states in US, visit this CDC site. You’ll have a map like this one.

Covid cases per 100k people

You can compare Total Cases, Cases in Last 7 Days, Cases per 100,000, Total Deaths, or Death per 100,000. Move your mouse over the map to check on different states. You’ll get something like what I used in the beginning.

As a last word: Wear A Mask. It really isn’t that hard. Make more states like Maine or Vermont and less like Arizona or Mississippi.