Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

May 9, 2020: Hail, Haircuts, Dream Casting, and Pickled Mushrooms!

·

Well, today’s weather was windy, snowy and, uh, haily.  It’s surprisingly chilly for May.  Or is it?

I’ve already started casting my TimEscape series in my head.  Granted, it’s only in development at this point, but it strikes me as the perfect and perfectly obvious fun, feel-good sci-fi series for a post-pandemic world.  Revised second draft delivered Friday.  Bible and both scripts delivered to my agent and management team.  Let’s do this!

To those of you asking – no, Akemi hasn’t cut my hair.  Yet!  We’re awaiting delivery on a hair trimmer set to deliver in 2-3 weeks.  When the time comes, I promise to take Before and After pictures.

Mom makes pickled mushrooms:

Directed and Produced by my sister.

Discover more from Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Podcast also available on PocketCasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and RSS.

16 responses

  1. Tam Dixon Avatar
    Tam Dixon

    I’ve never had pickled mushrooms but they sound delicious! Plus, I could listen to your Mom all day.

    I still think you’d look great in a ponytail and now even your Mom couldn’t fault you the long hair.

    Reply
  2. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    It’s been raining here most of the day, but we’re supposed to be getting your snow tonight. You can keep it! It’s been a relatively chilly spring so far here. There haven’t been many days when it’s been nice to get outside. Really windy, as well.

    I can’t wait until TimEscape gets going! This series has so much potential.

    Your Mom’s pickled mushrooms sound great. I still say she needs to get a YouTube channel!

    Reply
  3. PBMom Avatar
    PBMom

    It’s been really sad days this past week after finding out some people I know up in New York died of the virus. I wanted to share the detailed story of one of them because his viral course was not the usual one that you hear. But first the others I knew and am grieving….

    My classmate (who I knew, but didn’t travel in his circle friends, but was someone I had classes with and talked to at our reunion in 2012) died of COVID-19.

    Then I found out my friend Tom’s mother died of COVID-19 and his extended family on Long Island all are infected with it. He lives in another state. He wrote something on his FB page that described what it is like to have your mother die of this and not to be able to be there or have a funeral, a lesson he wanted shared.

    Then my friend Karen’s husband died of COVID-19. That is the one that hit me the hardest. Michael was in great health. His mother wound up getting it (and she is still in the hospital and doesn’t even know her son is dead–Karen and her family cannot visit her). Karen and her son Shane both got it, but they are doing okay.

    It started with Mike’s mother. She started feeling unwell the week before Michael. She went to the hospital and they said she tested negative. Then on the Monday night before he died Michael came home and said he wasn’t feeling well. Tuesday evening, he went into the building where he worked where it was rumored that someone in the building had COVID-19. He came home Tuesday and said he REALLY didn’t feel well. That night he went to bed and started coughing. She said to him that he sounded like his mom, and since she had tested negative, they just assumed he had whatever virus she had. They put him in the spare room so he could rest comfortably without them bothering him. As the week went by, he sounded worse. She kept telling him he had to go to the doctor. By Saturday he said he would and Karen said the doctor wasn’t in because its Saturday. He wanted to go to a walk-in clinic but she said they wouldn’t do anything for him. She insisted that he go to the ER (this was on Saturday–on Friday night his mom was back in the hospital with all the same symptoms). They wouldn’t let her into the ER with him; she had to wait in the car. The ER released him and sent him home with information on COVID-19 and told her to give him a Z-Pak and Tylenol and if he had trouble breathing to bring him back. He never HAD trouble breathing.

    He was so weak and coughing a LOT. He was achy all over but never had a breathing problem. On Tuesday afternoon he asked for chicken soup and an ice pop. Karen is thinking hey, this is good because he hadn’t been eating. She had been giving him Pediasure and Gatorade to keep him hydrated. He asked her how long he had been sick and she told him about a week. He said, “Is it still March?” She said yes. He said, “Okay, because the paper they gave him in ER said he could back to work on April 11.” Karen said, yes you are going to start feeling better a little each day. He was communicating just fine. No gasping. Not loopy. That night she gave him his Tylenol at 11:20. He was cranky about it which she thought was a good sign too. About 15 minutes later she was across the hall watching TV on her bed. He was groaning (but he always did that when he was sick). She kept muting the TV and asked him if he needed her and he would say no.

    He started doing that again. She went into the room and said he was going to need to stop doing that because she thinks he is calling to her and then asked him if he was having any trouble breathing and he said no. She asked him if he was lying to her and he said no. She told him if he was having trouble breathing, they would need to go back to the hospital. He said he wasn’t going. She said then she would call an ambulance for him and he would have no choice in the matter. (And you know when she is telling me all this I’m thinking yeah, this sounds like them).

    Fifteen minutes later she was starting to doze off so she turned off her TV and went into the bedroom to tell him she was going to sleep and would be back in at 5:20 a.m. for his next dose of Tylenol. She thought he was sleeping and thought maybe I shouldn’t wake him, but then she thought to herself she didn’t think he WAS breathing. She said of course he’s breathing, don’t be silly. She called his name and NOTHING. She shook his arm–NOTHING. At this point she told me she was hysterical and was screaming his name and slapping him in the face. She called her son Shane. Shane is EMT trained so he ran to get gloves and was trying to find a pulse. She called the ambulance. The dispatcher told them to get Mike on the floor and Shane started chest compressions.

    The ambulance arrived and took over. Then worked on him in the bedroom and then brought him to the kitchen to do an IO drill right into his bone to administer the medication to hopefully start his heart. But it didn’t work. They took him away in the ambulance. They got to the hospital and brought them to the family room which she knew what that meant — he was dead. Afterwards on that Friday, her son Corey insisted that she and Shane get tested for COVID-19 and they were positive, but they never had the symptoms. The local funeral home said they were overwhelmed by people dying that they could not have a burial; he needed to be cremated.

    So, after hearing all this stuff that between the people I know I kind of just retreated into myself and cried a lot. Part of it, too, is I miss Patrick so much. He hasn’t been allowed to come home now for 7 weeks. There is no timeline for when he WILL be able to come home again so that made me cry even more.

    Sorry this is so long. I thought I’d share the story Karen told me in case it helps anyone else — in his case he didn’t have a breathing problem before all this went horribly bad for him. And how quick it was between the time she saw him until the time he died — just 15 minutes. Talking and communicating and then just dead.

    Reply
    1. Joseph Mallozzi Avatar
      Joseph Mallozzi

      Scary and sad. Many try to dismiss it as a concern for only people over 65, but this is clearly not true.

      Reply
    2. Drea Avatar
      Drea

      @PBMom I am so sorry to hear this. I too have been suffering through far too many who have become seriously ill or lost to Covid 19. Some were folks in my neighborhood here in Orlando. People I much enjoyed spending Sunday afternoons sitting around on the local coffee cafe patio gabbing with. Some were previous or current members of the NS101 arts & sciences learning and sharing community from all across U.S and Europe. They ranged in age from 19 to 68 years old. Most had no pre-existing conditions. At least, not the ones CDC, or Wuhan health authorities, listed.

      Albeit, as the virus has progressed and split and multiple spike mutations have been discovered,
      lab researchers, forensic analysts, and doctors on the front lines, have learned the virus can attack pretty much any part of the body. With heart attacks and blood clots becoming a more and more commonly known virus complication, I’m unfortunately not surprised to learn of what happened to your friend Karen’s husband. He’s not the first I’ve heard about to have seemed to be improving but then suddenly just have a heart attack or aneurysm. Some other symptoms not previously recognized with this virus are: Sudden, inexplicable, rashes and blisters on fingers and/or toes. Headaches. Blurred vision. Loss of Taste and smell.

      https://twitter.com/NewScience101/status/1253430405467758593

      While older people with weaker immune systems, and folks with diabetes, are certainly at higher risk,
      plenty of young, reasonably healthy, people have become seriously ill from this virus over the last 2 months and some have died. A 17 year old in California had a heart attack after contracting the virus.
      As did one in Washington. A 12 year old in Atlanta was on a ventilator for weeks. A 9 month old baby in Chicago died. Another young person in Michigan was lost to it. And waay, way, too many high school to college age young adults have fallen seriously ill or have died in NOLA. For most, the only pre-existing health conditions that put them at greater risk were being heavily overweight, or seriously underweight, party drinking, smoking or vaping, and /or not maintaining the healthiest diet to keep their immune systems strong. In NY a previously reasonably healthy, physically in shape, 41 year old, Covid 19 patient, who was a celebrated lead dancer on the Broadway stage, had to have his leg amputated after suffering a blood clot complication.

      As some of you know, because of my weakened immune system of late, I too am at higher risk of
      serious-critical illness if I contract this virus and unfortunately the zip code where I’ve been residing in Fl has been the hardest hit in Orlando. Thus, I stay home, safely isolated from others, as much as i possibly can. do all my grocery, restaurant take out, and other shopping, a couple miles away from this hot zone
      And just count my lucky stars each day i awaken without any virus symptoms.

      And while it may seem cheesy or corny,
      may I just, once again, remind
      how much I cherish you all my wonderful blog family.
      While i cannot claim you keep me ‘sane’ per se, LOL,
      you certainly help to inspire me to keep breathing one breath at a time. 😀

      I love you guys. -Always. XO

      Reply
    3. Kat Karena Avatar
      Kat Karena

      Can I share this PBMom people in NZ and OZ in the most part haven’t experienced what it is to know so many people dying. And I’ve noticed over the weekend, people are getting blase and feel put out and aren’t being careful. It’s not real to them.

      I was just in the local grocers and suggested the staffer put on a mask (as her boss and ordered all his staff to do). She said “I believe in God, when it’s my time to go I’ll go”. I said you’re standing on a cliff, if you step off and die was it your time to go because of God’s will or yours?”

      After this weekend when Australian’s went stupid and packed the shopping centres for Mother’s day – I expect we’ll see a huge spike. It’s not real for us, and we’re not hearing human stories. Just reports and stats. They’re meaningless. Sharing stories like this is more important PBMom.
      I am so sorry.

      Reply
  4. PBMom Avatar
    PBMom

    Snow? That’s crazy. Do you often get snow in May?

    TimEscape sounds wonderful. I’m hoping Utopia Falls gets picked up. I love it. I need to see more of that story.

    Reply
  5. nantokanaru77 Avatar
    nantokanaru77

    Seeing the white stuff in May is depressing. Further up north is worse, and freezing minus double digits.

    Your hair? Bald is always an option. 🙂

    I’ve never had pickled mushrooms … What’s best to eat them with?

    Reply
    1. Joseph Mallozzi Avatar
      Joseph Mallozzi

      I’d eat them with bread. Toast preferably.

      Reply
  6. Dr Z Avatar
    Dr Z

    love your mum’s pickled mushroom recipe. Keep them coming mum !
    Re: casting for TimEscape, I hope we will see some of our favourites i.e. Anthony Lemke, Natalie Brown, Zoie Palmer, Mike Dopud and co.

    Reply
  7. Line Noise Avatar
    Line Noise

    Urgh! Mushrooms. Slimy slugs.

    I could do with some feel-good sci-fi! I’m grinding my way through the second season of “Altered Carbon” at the moment. I watch an episode, think “that was terrible”, then wait a week or two before I get desperate and put the next episode on. Rinse and repeat. I haven’t even bothered with season 2 of “Lost In Space” or season 3 of “Westworld”. But I blasted through “Upload” in three days! Give me more of that, please!

    Reply
  8. Drea Avatar
    Drea

    Always enjoy a good mushroom.

    It’s fun that your mom includes a bit of italian language lessons
    with her recipe demonstrations.

    Reply
  9. maggiemayday Avatar
    maggiemayday

    PBmom, thank you for sharing. That is heart wrenching. I hate that this is happening, and well, yeah, “and”.

    My isolating has not been going as well as I would like, but that’s what happens when you have to have restoration crews in the house. They have my family room and my bedroom taped off with plastic, running fans and dehumidifiers to dry my plaster walls and ceilings. Fortunately there are zippers in the plastic, or my elderly diabetic cat and his litter box would have been shut in the family room. Old guy just laid there and watched them do their thing. I am sleeping down in the guest room, and we all know that’s a euphemism for a storage room with an accessible bed.

    Tomorrow I have an appointment to see why my hip is so painful. Maybe from all the climbing and toting I have had to do, or maybe I cracked something when I fell back in April. Wish me luck.

    Reply
    1. Joseph Mallozzi Avatar
      Joseph Mallozzi

      Good luck, Maggie!

      Reply
  10. Frank Smith Avatar
    Frank Smith

    I only drop in on your blog every nine months or so. It’s been a while. I just wanted to say how sorry I am, and I hope you keep writing.

    Reply
  11. Tim Bullock Avatar
    Tim Bullock

    I can’t wait for you to get the best of the best like you have always done.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest episodes

Discover more from Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading