A Word About Masks and Gloves

A mask protects other people from you. A respirator protects you from other people. Let’s save the respirators for the people who risk their lives to keep us alive. For more information see 3M. Photo source: 3M

This post originally appeared and on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-30.

Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give

Pray the day ain’t poison

Stand among the ones that live

In lonely indecision.

—Townes vanZandt

You’ve probably heard we face a shortage of masks and gloves, needed supplies to help fight the spread of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 (C-19). The best we can do as individuals is to make sure we are using these supplies correctly.

Masks

Let’s start with masks. Wearing a mask won’t keep you from getting sick, but it can keep you from spreading the disease if you are already sick.

The understanding as I write this post is that C-19 is transmitted through heavy droplets when you cough or sneeze. A mask can keep you from spreading these droplets. But because they tend to fall to the ground—they don’t stay suspended in the air—you don’t have to worry too much about inhaling them unless you are around someone who has the disease for more than 15 minutes.

You can get sick if you touch something that these droplets have fallen on and then touch your face. So that brings us to gloves.

Gloves

It doesn’t do you any good to wear gloves if you don’t take them off correctly. Here’s the right way in pictures. Photo by Room’s Studio

Gloves cut both ways. They can protect you from some forms of direct contact, but they can also encourage a false sense of security that reduces hand washing. Your gloves can also contact the infected droplets. If you touch your face while still wearing the gloves, you might as well not be wearing the gloves at all.

Then there’s the types of gloves. I saw someone walking their pet while wearing winter gloves. Cloth gloves can trap more of the infected droplets near your skin so you take them home with you. If you don’t immediately throw cloth gloves in the washer, you probably shouldn’t wear them at all.

Finally, there is an art to taking your gloves off. Be careful not to touch the outside of the glove to your skin. And wash your hands immediately, just in case.

These are scary times, but we can get through them if we think about what we’re doing, take care of each other, and work together.

Say “Yes” to the Move

Marilyn renovated an historic house to open the Central Avenue Bistro. Renovating the old hospital for the county government makes just as much sense. Photo by Steve Young

We all support the renovation and move. Photo by Steve Young

No medical provider is interested in using the old hospital. In fact, given its legal history, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to get the campus relicensed as a hospital. Redeveloping the buildings for the county government is the best use of this property.

This post originally appeared on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment blog on 2020-03-20.

You’re gonna ease my mind, put me there on time

And keep rollin’ on

— Hank Snow

The other day, a group of business leaders and government officials gathered at the Central Avenue Bistro to support Judge Steve Young’s project to move the county government out of several buildings in downtown Cameron and into the old hospital after it’s renovated.

This move will be good for Cameron and Milam County for a number of reasons.

It saves the old hospital, giving it new life. Since there are currently no other redevelopment plans for the old hospital in place, the banks that own the property were going to tear it down. There are no other plans on the table. The county can renovate and move into the facility, or the banks will tear it down. I tried to find investors to repurpose the building for other purposes. Nobody was interested.

Renovating the old hospital gives the county a fresh new set of offices at a fraction of the price of new construction. It also gives us the opportunity to redevelop the downtown buildings the county currently occupies. Finding investors and capital to redevelop individual buildings is much easier than finding investors who are willing to watch millions of dollars sit idly for at least a year or two—or more—while we redevelop and repurpose the old hospital for other use. The risk to each investor is lower because the individual projects are more manageable, both financially and logistically.

Finally, getting the county out of downtown gives the city the opportunity to plan how to redevelop the area. We’ve all seen the results of unplanned growth. It’s usually ugly and often unsustainable. The county’s dominance of downtown real estate has actually stifled Cameron’s development. By removing that impediment and enabling the city to decide how we want Cameron to grow, we can gently nudge investment in the way that provides the most benefit to the community.

I urge everyone to support Judge Young in moving Milam County and Cameron forward with this project. It will be good for everyone.

See, I was there with my Moving Milam Forward pin on my hat, even if I didn’t get the plaid memo. Photo by Steve Young

To that point, I want to address a misconception I have heard raised to this project. Some people in other parts of the county have asked why they should pay to improve Cameron. Although tax money will be used to renovate the old hospital for the county’s use and Cameron will benefit from that renovation, so will all parts of the county. From the numbers I’ve seen, the hospital renovation is much less expensive that the cost of bringing all the buildings the county currently occupies into compliance with state codes. Part of that saving arises from the fact that it is always less expensive to renovate an empty building than an occupied one.

And the funds to renovate the buildings downtown will come from individual investors, not from tax funds. That means county money is only going to county use, just as it would if the county offices stayed where they are. We are just spending less money for better, healthier facilities. Please say yes to helping Judge Young move Milam County forward.

Life Is Better with Clean Hands

This graphic provides a more detailed handwashing procedure. Infographic by Shutterstock

The CDC is rolling out a new program: “Life is Better with Clean Hands.” Photo source CDC

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-14.

We have all been washing our hands for a long time, but we may not have always washed them effectively. I’ve seen guys barely splash water on their hands, wipe their hands lightly on their shirt, and grab the door handle. That may actually be worse than not washing your hands at all because the damp hands may help germs grow and definitely helps them spread.

So, I wanted to see what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends. It turns out CDC has specific guidance for both how and when we should wash up.

Proper Hand Washing

The CDC recommends five simple steps to wash your hands:

1. Wet your hands under clean, running water. It can be warm or cold. For me, the hotter it is, the better. 
2. Apply soap and lather. Get all of your hands—between the fingers, under the nails, the backs of your hands, around your thumbs, and all around your wrists. 
3. Scrub thoroughly. The CDC suggests humming “Happy Birthday” twice to make sure you scrub for at least 20 seconds. 
4. Rinse your hands well, again with clean, running water. 
5. Dry your hands completely with a clean towel or air dryer.

What About Sanitizers?

If you don’t have access to clean, running water, soap, and towels, hand sanitizers are better than nothing, but they are not as effective as simply cleaning your hands. Sanitizers don’t kill all kinds of germs. They are much less effective when your hands are really dirty or greasy, and they don’t remove harmful chemicals that can get on your hands as part of daily life.

When to Wash

We all know you should wash up before you start preparing food. But the CDC also recommends washing up several times while you’re cooking, like after touching raw meat or when changing the types of food you’re working with.

You should also wash up:

• After using the bathroom (and before if you’re a mechanic) 
• Before meals 
• After caring for someone who is sick 
• Before and after treating a cut, wound, or burn 
• After blowing your nose, sneezing, or coughing 
• After touching an animal, its food, or its waste 
• After touching garbage

Changing Hands and Habits

Of course, none of this matters if you still hold the menu in both hands. Photo by Suna

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-10.

Dance, dance the shaking of the sheets

Dance, dance when you hear the piper

Playing, everyone must dance

The shaking of the sheets with me

— Traditional

As our President proved by touching his face almost immediately after claiming he hadn’t done so in months, not touching your face is almost impossible. But since that is one of the main ways we get several viruses, the CDC recommends we don’t do it.

I tried to not touch my face. I couldn’t do it. As one comedian put it, “How else do you know it’s still there?”

So, I’m working on a new habit to help protect myself from viruses like COVID-19. I try to open doors, shake hands, and similar tasks only with my right hand. I try to use only my left hand to wipe my eyes, scratch my nose, or clean my beard. Since our culture always shakes right hands, no matter which is your dominant hand, I suggest using this division of labor even if you are left-handed.

A habit is a set of behaviors we do so often we don’t have to think about them. It consists of a stimulus, a response, and a reward. In the case of an itchy nose, the itch is the stimulus, the response is to scratch, and the reward is relief. To change this habit, we just have to narrow the response to using our left hand to scratch and reinforce the reward by telling ourselves that we’ve done well when we make the switch.

It takes time to change habits. I’ll be working on this change for a while.

Let’s All Stay Healthy

Washing your hands in warm, soapy water is the single most effective thing you can do to stay healthier. Photo source: Shutterstock

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-03.

Don’t let us get sick

Don’t let us get old

Don’t let us get stupid, all right?

—Warren Zevon

On Monday, 24 February, the CDC made a startling if not unexpected announcement. The global efforts to contain the N. Corona Virus - now officially called COVID-19 (C-19) are doomed to failure. So are the CDC’s efforts to keep C-19 out of the U.S. It is not a question of if C-19 will spread, “it’s more a question of when this will happen and a question of how many people will have severe illness.”

In October 2019, Johns Hopkins gamed out a global pandemic. Ironically, they chose a corona virus, not C-19 since this was a simulation and C-19 had not even been identified yet. Unfortunately, it showed 77% of countries were not able to collect real-time data on the spread of the disease, which means the reported number of cases is probably much lower than the number of actual cases. The good news is that the US ranked the most prepared. Not well prepared but better than anyone else.

C-19 is in the same family of viruses as the common cold. So, we already have some pretty effective ways of dealing with it. 

Older people, the very young, and those with immune systems compromised by other factors are the most at risk. But as with cold and flu, you might get C-19 and your symptoms could be so mild you don’t even know you’re sick.

Photo source: Amazon

Don’t Panic

While C-19 spreads around the world and could play havoc with the global economy, it is not a monster virus like the one in Stephen King’s epic The Stand. Its more lethal than a typical flu outbreak, but it does not seem to spread as easily. In fact, given recent cases of “community spread,” many otherwise healthy people may not even know they have contracted C-19. Many others may think they have the flu and either wait it out or ignore it.

• The leaders in our community already have plans. Robert Kirkpatrick, the Milam County Director of Public Health Preparedness is already working with state health officials and the CDC to monitor and coordinate efforts.
• Suna covered what our Health Department is doing in the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog post of 20 February. School officials in Milam County and around the country are developing plans to deal with students testing positive for C-19.
• I have a long-standing policy of sending sick people home. Both Hearts, Homes, and Hands and Hermits’ Rest Enterprises follow this policy. We don’t want people having to make the choice of going to work sick or putting food on the table. We all know where that decision will fall. 

You don’t have to go to this extreme to protect yourself from getting sick. Besides, the guy’s beard total breaks the respirator seal. Photo by Monkey Business Images
Shutterstock

What Should We Do?

While we shouldn’t panic, we need to approach this disease with open eyes. It might be comforting to hear that C-19 will be controlled by warmer weather in the Spring, as is the case with the flu and other corona viruses, but we don’t know that for sure. People still get colds and the flu in the summer, just not so frequently.

Here are a few things you can do to stay healthier:

• Avoid contact with sick people. Most of us can’t isolate ourselves and avoid any potential contact with potentially infected individuals, much as we might wish to. But we can try to avoid people who are obviously sick
• Wash your hands with soap and warm water for 25 seconds at least twice a day and always before eating. The CDC says this is the most effective thing you can do to avoid getting sick from just about any cause. 
• Avoid touching your mouth, nose, and eyes. These viruses spread thrive in the fluids produced in your mouth, nose, and eyes. They have evolved to irritate these parts of your body, making them water and facilitating virus transmission. 
• If you run a business, have a plan to limit the spread C-19 (or the flu) through your workforce. Can your employees work from home? Will you pay them? Where will you get replacement workers?

Rain Update

We finally have had enough rain to display above the bottom of the chart.

The amount of rain and its timing are fairly random, but....

Here comes the rain again

Falling on my head like a memory

Falling on my head like a new emotion

I want to walk in the open wind

—Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart

This probably isn’t interesting to anyone except Suna and me. After an inch of rain over the last two nights, our ponds are finally full again.

The top chart shows we have had enough actual rain this year to climb onto the chart. Based on a completely unreliable model, we should have a fairly wet year this year. Last year, we finished with an slightly better than average year. But we had enough rain to meet that milestone by the end of June when the taps turned off for a couple of months.

The bottom chart shows when we get rain each year since I’ve been living on the Hermit’s Rest Ranch. While monthly distributions are fairly chaotic, it’s starting to feel more like a tropical pattern. That is, we get heavier rains early in the year, almost nothing through the summer, and light rains in the fall. Unless a tropical storm or hurricane brings a flood.

The pattern of rains, their scarcity, and the melting of the permafrost have been causing me nightmares of late. The climate is always changing, but is this the beginning of the apocalypse climate scientists are warning of? As my dad used to say, “We’ll see.”

Avoiding the Shit Storms

Like an enema, ego can really start some shit. Photo source: Shutterstock

Ego is the enema. I wish this were my pun. I first heard it on an episode of the TV series M.A.S.H. Even though I can’t find the quote on the Internets, that’s where I remember it from. I believe Hawkeye Pierce said,

What brought it back to mind was listening to Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic podcast this morning. He mentioned his book Ego Is the Enemy in passing. As I was showering, getting ready for work, the pun hit me.

But it’s more than a pun. When ego gets involved, that’s when the shit starts to flow. Ego can lubricate everything into a slippery slope to discord and conflict. Well, the conflict has usually already started. That’s what causes ego to flare in the first place.

I’m working on avoiding egotistic shit storms, and Holiday’s podcast and books are helping me be more aware of when ego gets involved. Then, at least, I can try to step back from it.

Memento morti.

Do You Want To Be Rich?

This post originally appeared on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment website on 2020-02-04.

I think it is better to be wealthy than rich. Scales from Shutterstock

This T-shirt captures two popular memes. I can’t make up my mind if it’s brilliant or indecisive. Photo source: Teepublic

Oddly enough, people in the Self-employed and Business quadrants can have a harder time achieving financial independence than those in the Employee quadrant because of higher lifestlye expectations. Society doesn’t expect janitors to shell out for a new luxury car every couple of years. Electricians aren’t expected to have a collection of Lucchese boots. Doctors and small business owners often face those expectations.

I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set

I think I need a Lear jet

—Roger Waters

Only you can define your own success, and only once you have defined it can you establish the long-term and interim goals to get you there. So in that spirit, let me ask you a question.

Do you want to be rich?

Not me. I’d rather be wealthy.

When I make that argument, it’s not just semantics. I firmly believe being rich and being wealthy are synonymous only in the broadest sense of the terms. In fact, trying to become rich can be an obstacle to becoming wealthy. Here’s why, being rich is having the appearance of being wealthy. The price you pay for that appearance can prevent you from ever having actual wealth. In appearing to be rich, you spend money on things that make you appear rich. Since you can only spend that money once, it does not go to building your wealth.

In other words, appearing to be rich takes money out of your pocket. Being wealthy generates income, whether you work for it or not.

Spending money is a drug. It releases endorphins in the brain. Endorphins work like morphine or codeine, and they can be just as addictive. When you buy new clothes, the endorphins create a rush of good feelings. People can come to depend on that rush. But as with other drugs, that relief is fleeting and illusory. Soon, instead of making them feel better, people are shopping to get that rush just so they don’t feel bad.

Buying new clothes or accoutrements is not a problem. Buying them when you can’t afford them, or even when you don’t need them is. I know people who spend several hundred dollars a month on clothes. If their wealth generates that kind of income, more power to them. If their jobby job creates the income for this spending or worse, if they can’t afford it, it’s a real problem that can prevent them from ever accumulating the wealth that could make such spending sustainable. Looked at another way, a $500 a month clothes habit, amounts to $6,000 a year. Depending on your market, that’s a downpayment on a rental house every one to three years. The rental house could net you as much as $500 a month in ongoing income.

Cars have always been my weakness in this area. For most of my adult life, a Jaguar XJ has always been my dream car. I bought a used one in the 1980s, but I had to sell it when the cost of maintenance became unsustainable. When I finally bought a new one, I thought I’d finally made it. I felt great driving it around. But as Stephen West observes, “…what actually happens is you get the dream car…then it just becomes…your car at a certain point. Then inevitably…there’s something else that you’re desiring every day.” We are “constantly restlessly striving for things in a perpetual state of discontent.”

That is the real trap of things. They don’t make us happier. They just keep us from being independent. We get caught in the webs of excess consumerism and conspicuous consumption. That Jaguar is a perfect example. At the time, I could have bought a rent house for what I paid for it. In Austin, that rent house would be worth about 140% of its purchase price. If I were to sell the Jag, it would bring about 15% of its purchase price. And clothes are worse. Sometimes we can’t even give away old clothes.

Consumerism is the bonfire into which we throw our hard earned money…and our financial independence. Spending money on mere things may make us feel good at the time—it really does—but it makes someone else wealthy at our expense.

So when you go to the store and find yourself about to spend money, take a second to ask yourself, “What does this purchase help me accomplish?”

Do you need that Lear Jet, or just want one?

All My Rowdy Friends Have Fallen Down

Falls are the leading cause of injury, especially hip injuries, in American elders. Managing our environment can go a long way to reducing the likelihood we will fall and hurt ourselves. Photo source: Shutterstock

This post originally appeared in the Cameron Herald and Thorndale Tribune on 2020-01-30 and on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-01-31.

And the hangovers hurt more then they used to

And corn bread and ice tea took the place

Of pills and ninety-proof,

And it seems like none of us do things quite like we used to do

— Hank Williams Jr.

My balance is not what it used to be. In fact, I’m a little envious of my friends in their seventies who still ride their motorcycles. I had to give mine up a few years ago after an ear infection left my balance just enough off that I had to think about every reaction. When you’re flying around at seventy miles an hour with nothing between you and eternity but your leathers, having to think about your actions means you are too damned slow. Well, I am anyway. I don’t want to lay down a bike. I don’t even want to fall out of bed!

As we get older, we tend to fall more. And as Hank Williams Jr. Says about hangovers, falls hurt more than they used to. The more falls hurt, the more wary I become of falling. I’m not just being overly cautious or paranoid. According to American Family Physician, “Falls are the leading cause of injury-related visits to emergency departments in the United States and the primary etiology of accidental deaths in persons over the age of 65 years.”

Some reasons we fall include balance issues (don’t I know it!), environmental hazards (like pets, kids, or clutter), illness, medications or alcohol, vertigo, and vision problems.

If falls are so painful and dangerous, what can we do to avoid them? Of the listed causes, about the only categories we have any real control over are medications, alcohol, and environmental hazards.

We often think we don’t have control over the medications we take, but we really do. Medications are supposed to make us healthier. If your medications make you more likely to fall, dizzy, drowsy, or just less alert, discuss that fact with your doctor. Doctors usually have options—various medication or combinations of medications—that get to the same result. Each person’s body is different and reacts to medications differently. It may take several attempts to figure out what works best for your body.

A glass of wine among friends is a good thing, but I’ve had to become more aware of how it affects my balance as I get older. Please enjoy safely.

Alcohol bridges the gap between medications and environmental factors. To paraphrase Hank again, “All my rowdy friends have fallen down.” I’m leaving alcohol in the environment and out of my body more often than I used to. I’ll still have a drink with dinner now and then, but that’s about the extent of it these days.

That leaves the environment. To help some elder tenants be safer, Hermits’ Rest Enterprises recently installed grab rails in a bathtub and around toilets. My nephew applied non-skid tape to a slick bathtub. I’m thinking about building sidewalks between my house and garage to avoid uneven spots in the yard. And though it hurts my pride, I’m even considering a stair chair. Those stairs are getting longer and steeper every day—especially when I first wake up and haven’t had my coffee yet.

Hearts Homes and Hands may not be able to do the handiwork needed to make your environment safer, but we can help you assess the risk of falling and recommend solutions. We can help with decluttering and keeping your environment cleaner, healthier, and safer.

Taking Care of Parents and Retiring at the Same Time

This post originally appeared in the Cameron Herald on 2020-01-16.

Many people my age are trying to figure out how to care for aging parents with retirement staring them in the face. Some of us have already dealt with those issues. Some have it all sorted. Some don’t know where to start.

As this column goes along, I’ll talk more about helping elder parents—or ourselves—stay at home longer and remain more independent while doing so. Today, I just want to introduce myself and say a word or two about my new company, Hearts, Homes, and Hands.

As you can tell from the byline, my name is Ernest Lee Bruns. I’m a junior. I chose to retire from the corporate world several years ago when I was caring for my father, who was in the last stages of cancer.

Dad taught me a lot about perseverance and tenacity. He always said, “Don’t let that old rockin’ chair get you.” He didn’t. He planted and cared for forty acres of corn the year he died. He was 92 years old, and this was his second bought with cancer. When he was in the hospital for the last time, he was more worried about his corn than anything else. The first thing he asked when he came out from his final round of chemo was about the yield.

When the doctors allowed him to go home to die, my nephew Chris and I knew we had more on our hands than we could handle and still do this wonderful man justice—even with the help of hospice and home health. Chris hired a personal assistance service to help with bathing and other needs.

I’m proud to say Dad died at home, surrounded by people who loved him and cared for him. He could look out his bedroom window and see the house where he was born 92 years before.

When Sue Ann and I started planning how we would wind down our final years without putting an undue burden on the kids, we were surprised to find out there wasn’t a state licensed and insured personal assistance service (PAS) around. From where we live, the closest ones were in Bryan/College Station or Temple. Standard has the home health and hospice support covered, but if we needed help staying at home—help with housekeeping, running errands, cooking, bathing, and so on—we’d either have to ask the kids to give up part of their lives or hire someone privately.

When you hire individuals, you’re responsible for their unemployment insurance, for their medical bills if they get hurt in your service, and for finding a replacement if they fail to show up. None of this is something we wanted to do while we were struggling to take care of ourselves or each other. You have enough on your mind at that point without worrying about finding someone to help your loved one get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We called my niece Kathleen to see if she wanted to help us start a PAS. She had been the administrator of the PAS Chris hired to help take care of Dad and had more than a decade of experience running a successful PAS in Victoria. She and Chris fell in love and got married the year after Dad died, but that’s another story. She came up to Cameron; we came to agreement; and Hearts, Homes, and Hands was born.

Hearts, Homes, and Hands is licensed and regulated by the state of Texas. We are responsible for providing the care you need. We’ll be there for you, even if the person originally scheduled has a “family emergency” or something and can’t show up. We cover their workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance if they get hurt and do everything necessary to ensure your peace of mind—at least with regard to caring for yourself or a loved one.

And the bottom line is this: I’m not just an owner of the company, I’m a client. We take care of you like we take care of our own—in this case, Sue Ann and me.