Tag: Blog

Blog, Health, Resources

Surviving isolation in the era of Covid-19

Library Consultant Services LLC

There are many good communication apps out there, the most used are Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and for Apple users, Facetime, that comes with the iPhone and iPad. We are able to see and hear our friends, constituents and family wherever we are. I think it is a great way to meet new people on some of the Singles sites and this is a wonderful way to watch and check on our beloved seniors. I find Zoom to be my preference of virtual communication, while Skype is a close second. If you do not have these apps, the links provided below will lead you to where you can download them to your devices. There are many good communication apps out there, the most used are Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and for Apple users, Facetime, that comes with the iPhone and iPad. We are able to see and hear our friends, constituents and family wherever we are. I think it is a great way to meet new people on some of the Singles sites and this is a wonderful way to watch and check on our beloved seniors. I find Zoom to be my preference of virtual communication, while Skype is a close second. If you do not have these apps, the links provided below will lead you to where you can download them to your devices.

These are only three of the most popular platforms used today. All of them allow for chatting as well as real time face to face communication. You can even take snapshots of your participant while conversing with them. This is a great way to get photos of your grandchildren. Some apps even allow streaming and sharing files and content between users. These are really wonderful tools to use in this time. You do not have to wait to see anyone; if you have a smartphone or iPad, you can pretty much touch base anywhere and anytime. These are only three of the most popular platforms used today. All of them allow for chatting as well as real time face to face communication. You can even take snapshots of your participant while conversing with them. This is a great way to get photos of your grandchildren. Some apps even allow streaming and sharing files and content between users. These are really wonderful tools to use in this time. You do not have to wait to see anyone; if you have a smartphone or iPad, you can pretty much touch base anywhere and anytime.

Many businesses utilize these tools for long distance meetings and conferences. This saves a lot of travel money and it is an excellent way of following the rules of distancing during the pandemic. They use more sophisticated apps such as:

Even doctors are using this to schedule and conduct doctor visits with their patients. I have conducted doctor visits with my doctors via their communication apps and find it very convenient, especially when it is just follow-ups. The doctor is able to refill and prescribe medicine to your pharmacy quickly and forward you any information that they think you need. How great is this!

Blog, Resources

Life is a Journey

Library Consultant Services LLC

Life is a Journey:

Walking down the long and winding road

Walking in this day of mourning and sorrow seems too daunting a task for our troubled souls. As we continue to live in the shadow of 2020, a year of many strife and loss, we long for relief. I know how this feels, because I and my family have experienced loss and mourning of loved ones. Recently, my family buried my beloved niece, of 40 years old. My niece was a vibrant young woman, daughter, mother, and wife. Unfortunately, she was not the only loss to our family in 2020. We suffered the loss of my father, step-father, two cousins, and two of my pets all in one year.

Covid-19 took the life of my step-father while a fatal car crash took the life of my niece. I know my family is not the only one having a hard time this year, but when it hits home, it is a reality hard to fathom, but yet, we must go on. Listening to the news day by day, it seems like the world is upside down. Conflicts involving race, government dishevel, virus deaths and infections all over the world, exhaust us and sap us the energy to recover. This year is an election year and already we see war clouds; a time in which this country has never seen before. What will this election bring? Will it bring relief and change or more of the same? Are we, the people of these United States going to step up and demand this change or will we decide to go backwards to a time of inequality, financial depression, racial hatred and violence, and hopelessness due to mindless choices made by those in high places?

This is a time of serious reflection and self-evaluation. Covid-19 has left the country with choices that we never expected to make. Our children are not able to attend schools, teachers have to learn how to educate virtually to young children whose attention span is no longer than a 10 minute cartoon and parents have to decide whether to work or stay at home with their children. Despair is heard over the air-waves and people call in blaming one candidate over another for the problems we all are having. They feel that their problems will be solved if we just vote the right person into office. One person cannot change the damage that has been done during this pandemic. But we are hopeful that whomever is elected will have answers to an impossible situation.

As life leads us into unchartered waters, we pray for a ray of sunshine to a time that seems, now, so long ago when things were normal and predictable. Life is hard and many times unfair. Grief has been a constant companion of late, to many. Young people are not confident of their future and wonder if there is one. What can we do to change the path we are on to a path of a new beginning? For a start, we can hold each other’s hand and travel this journey together. Face these obstacles with courage and determination. And when we fall down, pick each other up and continue on until victory is won. I believe that this too will pass and the sun will shine again.

For those who seek refuge through the storm, I suggest that you click on these

links below, there is help for the needy and unemployed.

Also, you will find links to voting information and officials.

Resources during Covid-19

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Blog

Summer Gone So Soon

Library Consultant Services LLC

So soon is the summer leaving us. This is the first summer that I did not go swimming, a past-time that I truly love. I think that the Covid virus has taken a toll on me. No, not my health, but my mental and well-being. This has been the saddest and unfortunate summer for everyone. I lost two beloved pets, my dog, Foxy and my cat, Lady, to devastating diseases of cancer and congestive heart failure. Although they were both very old, nevertheless, their deaths left me empty and grieving. I still have one cat, but she knows that things are not the same. Autumn lived with two other pets and now it is just her and myself. I have been more attentive to her and she to me since the others are gone.

The Swimming pools I usually swim in at home in the summer

My father and step-father also passed from diseases. My step-father died from the coronavirus and my dad, from bone cancer. My sweet nephew, buried his pet guinea pig who also died of old age. Yes. this has been the worst summer and year that I have ever experienced. The swimming pools were not crowded this year, far from the photo that was taken last summer, because everyone is effected by this god-forsaken virus. I miss seeing my neighbor tenants walking their pets in the evening. Everyone is in after dark. We live in a beautiful apartment complex in the rural-suburbs of Macomb county in Michigan. It is so strange to see my neighbors not walking or sitting on their patios and balcony after dark.

The summer was very hot this year and we have had more blue skies than we have had for the past 3 years in Michigan. It truly has been a lovely summer. But we can feel the havoc that this virus has taken on all of us. I plan to get another dog soon, but I will always remember the pain of Summer 2020. I spent more time sitting on my patio looking out on the pond than going to the pool. As I said, I have not swam at all this year. My spirit was just not up to it. Ever since I moved here, since November 2014, I looked forward to summer to swim in the 3 pools. This is a large apartment complex with over 2000 tenants. I looked forward to evening walks with my dog and sitting outside of the apartment guest house watching others swim. It is so nice watching the swans, geese and ducks swim around the ponds. And there are large bass in these ponds too. My neighbors are seen fishing. You see we have large ponds outside of our patio doors, so we can fish anytime we want without even leaving our homes. How great is that? But I only saw one or two of my neighbors sitting along the banks fishing this year. Yes. This was a beautiful summer as far as the weather, but a gloomy one otherwise.

I miss my dad and I really need to go see my mom, wearing a mask of course, since my mom is 82 years young. She does not look or act her age, but precaution is needed in this age of Covid-19. I miss my cousins, some who have passed away this year from illnesses other than Covid. I hope and pray that we will see better days. But I will concentrate on adopting another dog to give both me and my cat company and love. Be well, family!