March 2021 chit chat

Hello everyone, welcome to March!  Meteorologically speaking, it's the first day of spring*.  The vernal equinox on 22nd March is the official start of spring*.  And Mothers' Day is on the 14th if you're in the UK.  

I'm all chirpy because we've had five sunny days in a row and barely a drop of rain so I'm able to believe that summer is coming.  Hurrah!

How's everyone doing?


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* or autumn if you're south of the equator, I guess

Five days of sunshine sounds glorious!  I went out to exercise this am and got rained on.  We’ve had rain, ice and snow in just 7 days.  The ground everywhere around here is like a wet sponge!  But you’re right Katie summer is coming!  
You’ve got your Mothers Day on the 14th and we get Daylight Savings Time.  Earliest I can remember it starting.  Crazy!

Well, the weather in New York is no where near spring like. At 6:30 A.m it was 22 degrees and felt like 10. Sunny but still freezing. No snow or rain though so that's good.

If George is filming outdoors today, he'd better have on his woolen long johns..... wind gusts up to 58 mph and veeeeeeeeeeery cold.

Brrrrr! Even here it's cooled down again. Ah well. Spring was lovely while it lasted. I was even inspired enough to order seeds for my garden!

Annemarie - I hope you got out for a while today. It was beautiful and WARM! I ran errands and walked for hours! Now they're saying it's going to get cold again tomorrow, so I'm glad I got out today.

Just wondering, has anyone gotten the vaccine yet? If yes, how did it go? Any side effects?

Yes, Lizzy I did get out it was nice even if just to go to  the grocery store .
My husband has had both shots and no problems. The needle does make your arm sore but that only
lasts a couple of days.

Lizzy, my husband and I have both gotten our first doses.   No side effects for either of us besides a sore arm for a day.

Despite the winter weather for the last few weeks the daffys are determined.  They have popped up and some are even blooming.  It was bitter cold today.  But seems the forecast for later next week will be around 70ish.  Hopefully some of that warm air will make it to NY and Boston.

Donnamarie - Fingers crossed for warmer weather. The up and down temperatures are confusing the hell out of the trees on my block. Some of them started to bud last week and then we froze again. Poor things don't know what to do.

I'm still trying to get an appointment for the vaccine. I don't know why they made it so complicated.

Lizzy, is this through the CDC or your individual provider? Everything here is via the National

Health Service. You get notification via a text message and a choice of days and dates and you

punch in what suits you and affirm on your mobile - and you turn up for your jab and get a cert-

ificate and date for the next jab........it's a doddle. All the operatives e g medical students, soccer medics etc are trained up volunteers,

and parking and the jab is free. It follows exactly along the lines of vaccinations throughout your life from birth - except you might find yourself at a

squash courts, a football club or a theatre - anything that has the space for social distancing at the same time

PAN here in Virginia the state health department is organizing the vaccinations.  Except for the county that I live in.  We pre-registered through our county health department and depending on the date of registration you are notified of when you can get your vaccine. Same method as you mentioned ... through text and a follow-up email.  There are designated locations to pick from to receive the vaccine and a choice of dates and times.  Once the first dose has been administered you are  given a card confirming the date of the first dose.  Then they contact you within 21 days by  text and email to schedule the second dose.  My husband just got his notification.  

Most people have commented that there was a lot of confusion as to registrations but once they got a date and time the rest of the procedure was super efficient. The federal government has also contracted with a number of pharmacies in the states to administer the vaccine.  But going through a pharmacy is a separate procedure than going through the state or county health departments.  And unfortunately here in the US each state decides how to administer the vaccinations.  Some states are doing a better job than others.

Donnamarie - You can say that again! Here in NY the city has sites, the state has sites and now some pharmacies have sites (thank heaven!). There are no  easily accessible city- or state-run sites near me. Most would take me over an hour to get to and require at least one bus transfer or a long walk. Everyone I know who used the government sites spent hours (if not days) trying to make an appointment.


However - I heard yesterday that a Walgreen's drugstore near me was giving the vaccine. I logged in and have an appointment. The whole thing took @ 10 minutes. Now I'm just waiting for confirmation.

I think things are improving. At least, I hope they are. There are too many people in this city who can't navigate the system so they aren't getting vaccinated.

PAN - I think the biggest difference is that you live in a civilized country and we live in a zoo!

I believe that might be because of the circumstances of the last year that we are all familiar

with, Lizzy! Most of the EU haven't had a particularly great roll out either but for different

reasons.

But I think this spells out your situation - but you will catch up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOYYUkZG6b8


Don't know how it works there, but here tonight the NHS has announced that those in their

fifties are about to be called up........

Lizzy, great news that you have an appointment!  Hope all goes well.  I’m surprised that NYC doesn’t have closer in government facilities to facilitate vaccinations for all the city dwellers.

I think much of the chaos we’ve experienced here in the states is a direct result of Trump not taking charge of this pandemic nor of coordinating with the states in regards to logistics and vaccine distribution.  Now that there are three vaccines available and mass production and distribution is underway (thanks to Biden) I do think things will vastly improve in the next couple of months.

PAN, the CDC has also set up guidelines for phases of who is eligible to receive the vaccine.  But the states can override the CDC’s recommendations.  It can depend on the population in each county.  In my county they are in a phase  2 - vaccinating 65+ people.  Phase 1 was for the oldest citizens and those in nursing homes and first responders,  In a neighboring county which has a smaller population than the county I live in they have moved to phase 3 which is anyone 16-64 and those wiith underlying conditions.  Hard to keep up all with all of this.  Especially if you are an older person and not tech savvy.  Or don’t have a computer or even a smartphone.

Donnamarie - The city and state set up vaccine hubs in large facilities first  - like the Javits Center -and they can be hard to get to without a car - and if you do have a car, parking at the site might not be possible. Now that pharmacies and churches are beginning to offer the vaccine it's getting easier.

I have a neighbor who doesn't have a computer or a smartphone, has underlying conditions and is old enough to qualify but he isn't even trying to get the vaccine. He doesn't want any help signing up and says he'll get the shot in his own time. I hope he really does. I don't know what he's waiting for.

People finding a location for the shot has been hard like Lizzy said if you don't have a smart phone or computer you won't know. I have a girlfriend who took the shot she had to hunt it down. She took it at a hospital it was chaos they were mandate
to give the shot the week before and no one had a clue what to do to make this work.

In New York some pharmacies will give the shot some won't none in my area are giving it . I'm thinking
it will have to do with the size of the pharmacy but I could be wrong.

In New York certain people were going to other neighborhoods where they didn't live to get the shot. Which they
shouldn't have been allowed to do. There was simply no system in place it has been like a free for all. they opened 
more sites when they were running out of the vaccine, people who had to wait and get a date for the shot
had to set another date because they ran out of the vaccine.

This whole mess is Trumps fault , he didn't order enough vaccine and refused to order more when asked.
There should have been a nationwide plan put in place and all states should have had to follow it.

You are right, Annemarie - spot on. Their strategy was wrong from the get-go, I'm afraid, which

is why I posted the video - it looks as tho Trump also shut down many of the departments that

would have been needed for a national strategy.

Here we have the NHS so everybody hears either from their doctor by letter or by phone or text.

Of course anybody who can afford it and wishes to do so has private cover as well but it's not

an either or or situation.

We also have an ongoing vaccination programme for 'flu, small babies etc and the NHS contacts

everybody for that, so there's always been that structure to build on.

My sister moved house two weeks ago - but they've managed to find her in her new location

and she's had the jab.

It also occurred to me

that if George was here and registered he would be getting his jab in the next week!

Annemarie - I think the chain pharmacies are the ones that are going to be giving the shots. Walgreens, Duane Reade and Rite Aid have already started. CVS is vaccinating in NJ, and the manager of the one near me said she thinks they'll start in April. They haven't started yet because they haven't been able to get the vaccine.


PAN is right. This whole mess happened because we had no national leadership for 4 years and all the states were left to fend for themselves. Biden is doing his best to get things organized, but there are still too many people putting politics above common sense.

To rudely interrupt this convo (sorry!), is anyone watching the Harry/Meghan interview in the UK tonight? Or saw it yesterday in the US?

I'll be glued to the TV, for sure.

I watched it and it was really horrible what Meghan went through and of course Harry. I am so proud of Harry
for getting his family out of there. How the heck do ask about the color of your unborn relative. Harry said it was a relative who broached the subject, he also said it wasn't his grandmother or grandfather that leaves two. Make no mistake it was clear racism. The common wealth is made up of many black countries the way Meghan was treated tells you exactly what they think of
other black people.


This all happened because Meghan and Harry took the attention from the other three. I don't count Camilla she is neither here nor there. Charles was jealous of Diana and is jealous of his son's. Let's be real Harry was the draw even when Kate and William were there, they rode his popularity.

What is so sad is they have no idea what family is or means that is obvious. I get it the Queen was raised with the courtiers running her life and she raised her children that way.
To not even be willing to step in when a newborn baby is called a chimpanzee is just horrible. But denied Kate had hair extensions this was important. They signed a deal with the devil press and are reaping what they sowed.
Karma is a bitch and they will meet theirs. Kate's has already knocked on her door with William cheating with a friends wife.

I am so happy they are having a little girl , Harry will be a great girl dad. He is a better father than his own could ever be.

I must say I don't follow the royals that closely and I missed the interview last night. If what little I've seen is true Meghan and Harry have been treated horribly. I hope that the worst treatment has come from the press/media  and not from family. It would be tragic if Harry lost his connection to his brother and father - not over his marriage, but over the media circus and the damage it could cause "the Firm".


It seems to me the media have found their new meal ticket.They need a drama to fill the gap now that drumpf is pretty much out of the picture for now, and this fills the bill. I'm sure all the talking heads and politicians will jump on the bandwagon, making the situation even worse - and making it even harder for the family to work through this and reconcile (which, to me, is the most important aspect of all this. They are, after all, a family.)

I watched the interview last night.  It was pretty bad.  Along with what annemarie said the relationship between Harry and his father is really strained at this point.  Charles has just started talking to Harry again.  And Harry said there is some distance between him and William.  The royal family will try to protect themselves as much as possible.  But the family and the ‘institution’ has clearly been damaged by these revelations.  Harry and Meghan are doing the right thing.  They will be much happier going forward.  Don’t know if the royal family will be able to say the same about themselves as time goes by.

Lizzy I hope Harry never has anything to do with any of them .
Why should he when he needed them to help him to just speak up and stop the nonsense they wouldn't . For me
Harry's family is his wife children and mother in-law and Eugenie and Bea. Bottom line is Harry saw how Charles treated his mother
and did nothing to help him or his family. Harry has nothing to mend he did what he had to do to protect his wife and child. 

The palace has a deal of sorts with the press if they play nice with them they won't receive any negative press. With Meghan they
had a perfect scape goat when ever something nasty could get out about another member. That is why the british press don't write
about Andrew as long as they can throw Harry and Meghan under the bus all was good. And they were making a lot of money from
their little cash cow.

It was a family member who brought up the color of Archie's skin before he was even born , it was not his grand parents he
made that clear. 
As I said and will keep saying when you allow a baby to be called a chimpanzee and  not Charles or William came
out and said a thing. But when the rumor that Kate got hair extensions came out the palace was all over it .

Changing the subject for a moment: I said earlier I had a vaccine appointment and was just waiting for confirmation. I was wrong! I called several times to confirm my appointment and finally found out that it had NOT gone through! When I finally reached the location directly they told me to call back next week. PHOOEY! Now I'm going back on the hunt again! I might even find something closer to home. Fingers crossed.

Lizzy I read about people who get online in the middle of the night or super early in the morning to find slots open at the local pharmacies.  They come and go so quickly.   It’s truly a crap shoot.

The woman I spoke to said they're only giving appointments a day or two in advance. so I should apply again Thursday or Friday. I'll try again then and in the meanwhile I'll look for another site. "Crapshoot" is a polite way to describe it.

I'm hoping with a lot more vaccine being available everyone will get a shot and it won't be as crazy as it has been.

It should never have been so disorganized in the first place. A lot of it is drumpf's fault, but people found ways to work around him on other issues. I don't see why this couldn't have been one of them. I think a lot of people suck at their jobs.

Your right Lizzy people want to get paid and not do their jobs . There was no planning again Trump's fault they should have had a plan for all state's to follow. You can't leave it to the state's we have never had this kind of thing before so how would they know how to handle such a big event.

 Hospitals and Pharmacies and senior centers, should have been given the vaccine to start . Then other sites set up,
but they also needed to have strict guidelines on who can get the shot.
They ran out because you had people coming from other boroughs getting the shot that should not have been allowed

They had more than enough time to have a good plan , why not use zip codes your photo I.d has it if you aren't from the zip
code then you don't get the shot. Your zip code has to match what is on the list. I'm sorry but age is not a factor you have
to wait for your shot in your neighborhood no exceptions. That may be brutal but a lot of people who should have gotten it
and waited on line didn't because others came in and got it.

One of the things that bothers me most is that the city/state assumed that if they opened a place like Javits Center as a central site everyone would come there to be vaccinated. A lot of people, especially the elderly, found those sites very inconvenient and difficult to access. Using pharmacies, doctors' offices and churches - any local facilities - makes more sense. Don't make the people come to the vaccine - bring the vaccine to the people.

My local Walgreen's has a sign-up list that takes you to a page that says "... vaccines currently unavailable, check back in three days..." on continuous loop.

North Carolina's public health system has always left a lot to be desired, and right now they are overwhelmed. They still haven't figured out that setting up shop at the meatpackers and farms with migrant workers was the first thing to do after the first responders, healthcare workers, and nursing homes. So they have a registration list, too, but they can't ever tell you when or where a certain place will have vaccines. You're supposed to wait for an e-mail... that never comes, mostly because there's no staff to do all the additional contacts, etc until the money from the federal relief package arrives.

Way2Old - It might also be because they haven't gotten enough vaccine yet. Although CVS is giving vaccines in NJ, my local CVS is still waiting for the vaccine to arrive. It's been postponed a couple of times and now they're expecting an April start date.

It's beyond frustrating. The whole thing is an embarrassment for a country as "advanced" as ours.

Try being in the EU  



In my Country the roll out has been shocking...

Example: my local medical centre has had NO vaccine as of this evening people in that practice of the over 85’s have had nothing including friends of mine 94 and 96, whose son has taken 3 days off work to drive them for vax only to have it cancelled. Truly awful, neighbouring medical centre announced this evening that they have completed over 85’d and starting on over 80’s .... so unfair. 

520,000 vax have been delivered from EU ... but many spoiled owing to the special syringe and needles NOT being delivered. 

The EU has made a total hash of ordering Vax ... haggling over price ... and not signing contracts to hedge their bets....to get a better price... 

We have been left down by incompetent Ursula and Angela...

We share a border with N. Ireland where vax roll out is breathtaking.... BUT we are letting the Island of Ireland down ...

.... and this evening we detected “a worrying trend” .... whatever that IS....

I feel so terribly sorry for the older and vulnerable who deserve better than this ...

U.K (I know US is doing better than Europe too) I take my hat off to you.... you played a blinder, partly due to the enormous community of volunteers... we saw it in the LONDON Olympic’s, where most people said the best part of the games were the volunteers...

Here we don’t let Dentists or pharmacists give vax ... even if we had them to give

I must admit, the vaccine rollout in the UK has been great.  It HAD to be, given how our miserable failure of a government have managed to completely fuck up everything else they've touched.  Had vaccination not gone well, I seriously think there may have been riots.  

I suspect the reason it went well was because it wasn't fully handled by the government, but by the NHS who have the experience in vaccinating for the flu every year.

Katie - I think you're right. Anything government touches is guaranteed to be a mess. I believe the US army invented the word  - SNAFU (situation normal - all fucked up). It fits almost everything our government does - especially the last 4 years.

If the vaccines hadn't been so perishable they could have let the clinics, doctors offices and pharmacies give the shots like they do for the flu. It would have been much more organized and effective. Maybe now, with the J&J vaccine things will go more smoothly. Fingers crossed.

Mm, think I have to give Boris some credit for chucking billions at the pharma companies early

on so that they could do huge amounts of testing instead of what they normally do, and then

hiring a genius (woman) strategist from the city who took a mere five months to set it all up.

And for signing those contracts for all the vaccines we would need pdq - rather than leaving that

until February/March as some have done! I sense he's pretty good at the big stuff - but incred-

ibly bored with any minutae.*

Have to say the volunteers at all the sites here have been brilliant - many young people who



freely admit that they've done it for all the right reasons and have used their holiday allocation

to do it - since they can't go anywhere.

And yes, the NHS is of course amazing!


*And of course he's a huge fan of Churchill - and has written a massive tome about him..........

Whoohoo!  I've had all my internal doors installed this week (last one happening today!) and the back garden dug up.  Inside it really feels like a proper house now, not a building site.

Have just received 6 more fruit trees, to go with the apple, plum, pear, peach and cherry that I've already got.  Still awaiting a fig tree.  Now just working up the willpower to sort out my seeds (peas, fennel, artichoke, cucumber) and get them germinating.

Are you a farmer now?!!!!!!!!! My goodness that's a lot of trees! Just how big is your garden? And who's going to pick all that fruit and veg? I think you're going to have a very busy summer!

Seriously, glad the house is finally coming together. I hope it's just the way you wanted it to be.

They're all dwarf trees, so supposedly will be ok in large pots. Looks like I'm going to spend my summer evenings doing a LOT of watering though!  I've just received a second mulberry tree, which is interesting as I only ordered the one.  Still have three blueberry plants to come.  

My garden's not that big (about 10m by 10m) but south facing and not too much shade, so the plan is to espalier the fruit trees around the outside edges, leaving the centre for a couple of flower beds and the vegetable bed.  

As for harvesting, I think I'll be lucky to get any fruit before the bloody birds get at it!

It sounds wonderful! The only gardening I can do is on my windowsills. Somehow I thought that the English climate provided enough rain so you wouldn't have to water your garden that much. Is it that much drier in summer? When the veg start coming in are you going to be canning and preserving? Do you expect the trees to fruit this summer? I only ask because I've been told there are some trees that have to mature before they can fruit. (Sorry for all the questions. I'm jealous! )

If the birds get there first you can take solace in the fact that you're helping the ecosystem!

Given that I'm not necessarily the most motivated gardener, I'm kind of counting on the birds doing their job!!

We do get a lot of rain, but last year for example, I was out watering my tomatoes pretty much every evening for much of the summer because it was that sunny and dry.  That was last year, though.  This year isn't looking quite so great so far [last year I was already sitting out in the garden in March, whereas this year . . . not so much)

And there are plenty of times when our water supply drops so low that there are hosepipe bans to stop people wasting water on gardens and washing cars etc when there's not enough water.  I can't exactly explain how a country that's famous for its rainfall manages not to be able to collect enough of it.

Not sure about the fruiting.   I got four of the trees last year and they're looking like they're going to blossom any day now, so it's possible they might fruit a bit this year, assuming there are other trees around to pollinate them if they're not self-fertile (I don't have the paperwork).  The peach tree, likewise, arrived with tiny blossoms on, so maybe it'll try.  Even if they do fruit, it won't be more than a few fruits.  But in a couple of years, however . . .

That sounds great, Katie!

Have you ever thought about having a  raised bed for growing vegetables in your garden?
I built one for vegetables two years ago and another one for strawberries last year. And we'll buy a smaller one for herbs as well. We built them for my mom first since she can't work in her large garden anymore but in the meantime that they are really effective.

I wish you both luck with your gardens. I don't get the rainfall thing either, but maybe some of it is because of climate change. There are places in the US dealing with unusual weather and rainfall, too. So far NY hasn't had a water problem.

I think you've inspired me to try a window garden again. I used to plant all kinds of things with my students - seeds, parts of potatoes, carrot tops, onions...whatever anyone wanted to try. We actually did pretty well. It may be too early for the shops around here to be selling potting soil, but I'm going to start looking. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually get something to grow.

carolhathaway wrote:Have you ever thought about having a  raised bed for growing vegetables in your garden?.

I sort of do: it's literally a raised bed, where the soil has been heaped up higher than the surroundings.  The next step, when I've got more money, is to do what I think you've done and that's have a wooden surround to the raised bed.  

LizzyNY wrote: I don't get the rainfall thing either, but maybe some of it is because of climate change. There are places in the US dealing with unusual weather and rainfall, too. So far NY hasn't had a water problem.

 Not a climate change thing - it's always been like this in my lifetime.  We can go some time without rain in the summer and we just aren't very good at storing it nor are we good at maintaining water pipes and fixing leaks, so sometimes we do get to the stage of having to limit water use outside.  

LizzyNY wrote:I think you've inspired me to try a window garden again. I used to plant all kinds of things with my students - seeds, parts of potatoes, carrot tops, onions...whatever anyone wanted to try. We actually did pretty well. It may be too early for the shops around here to be selling potting soil, but I'm going to start looking. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually get something to grow.

Oh, that would be wonderful!  I haven't got round to the herbs on the kitchen windowsill yet, but it's in my mind.  Last year I got so tired of the drama queen that was my basil plant on the windowsill that I planted it out in the garden to teach it a lesson about being needy.  It thrived!  Well, until the first frosts.  Pretty sure I saw it giving me the v-sign every time I walked past it outside.

You're luckier than I am. My basil "plant" sprouted for a couple of weeks and then gave up the ghost. I started it from seed, so maybe this time I'll buy an already started plant instead and see if that works better.

When I first started "gardening" with my students someone gave me a book called "Gardening for the Purple Thumb". I think it's time to dig it out and have another read.

Just a reminder: The AARP program where he's being awarded will air here on PBS on  Sunday, March 28th at 8PM.

Also - the latest issue of the AARP magazine has a great photo of George on the cover. There's a six page article, too. Haven't read it yet, but I will.

Is that the same as the one we've already got on this forum?

I'm not sure what you mean. Somewhere here we were talking about the AARP award, but I can't find it. If you mean the photo, it looks new. I'd upload it but my printer is dead. Sorry.

No worries, I thought we already had his interview with AARP here.  Will double check now