Tag: ppp loan

I am thrilled that the nice weather is finally here and the sand is warm enough to walk on it barefoot.   I am glad I am following my April 21st Take Away with a twist, we now take “barefoot breaks”… Beach Break Get ready for the fig reports, I am not sure if we will have a “crazy” crop like last year but…. It’s Spring & it looks like we will have…  Read more

Just a few more weeks until summer, I have been counting the days/weeks as the weather warms up and we have “real” beach days.   I was away this past weekend so I missed the first “real” beach day of the season, although I prefer to walk the beach rather than sit and bake.   I’m happy to share this morning’s sunrise, I wore long pants and a thick fleece … Post…  Read more

Before the pandemic, commuting was widely considered the worst part of one’s day and only worsened one’s sense of well-being. However, now that most office workers have skipped the commute for more than a year, the hidden benefits are emerging. Commuting serves as a distinct boundary between the home and office. Interesting that my contribution to a recent article “How to Draw the Line Between Work and Home”  also focused on the…  Read more

As we create our new normal, we look to the summer with warm weather allowing us to meet outside and even begin doing those things we love, like  attending graduations, hosting and attending Bar-B-Ques, hiking, biking, going to the park to play sports or just get out & toss a frisbee around. I’ve shared the story of my daughter who is foster failure, when she “broke down” and adopted her…  Read more

Starting this week I am renaming this weekly blog and newsletter.  For now you will still be able to find it in the “Latest Updates” in our Covid-19 Resources and our Blog. For many people, large, life-shattering events can provide break point for making dramatic life changes that improve life going forward. Arthur Brooks, writing for The Atlantic, suggests that the pandemic provides all of us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…  Read more

Are you feeling exhausted these days (even those non-accountants out there)? Are you struggling with “brain fog”? According to mental health experts interviewed by NPR, fatigue and brain fog may be a response to the stress and trauma of the last year. Many of us have lost loved ones, our lives have been uprooted, and even if we haven’t been sick, there’s a fear that we might catch this strange new…  Read more

In fall we gaze out car windows, walk along paths or along the street to see the colored leaves, while spring’s comparable pleasure comes from waterfalls, as this guide to waterfalls describes. Nov that so many of us are vaccinated, it would it be great to plan some day trips. In New Hampshire, Crawford Notch State Park is home to 10 waterfalls, ranging from 200’ Arethusa Falls to smaller Silver…  Read more

A year into the pandemic, and we’d all like to see it behind us. But there are disquieting signs that the virus may part of our lives for longer than we want. The longer the virus can spread through a non-immunized population, the more chances it has to mutate into strains that are more contagious or more dangerous. Although vaccination rates are still far below what is needed to slow…  Read more

As the pandemic wears on, many people have been reporting a sense of “brain fog.” Memory problems and an inability to think clearly or to concentrate in meetings may be the brain’s response to the stress of the pandemic, our isolation, and the sameness of our days, according to neuroscientists interviewed by The Guardian. Our brains are wired to respond to novel situations, but the repetitive nature of working from…  Read more

We’ve been spending more of our time staring at electronic screens all day, and rumors abound about the possible negative consequences of that, as this piece in Lifehacker explains. Eyestrain is real, but the blue light from our screens won’t damage eyes. Simply holding your device a bit further from your eyes may reduce just as much blue light as expensive blue-light-blocking glasses. Practicing the 20-20-20 rule may help alleviate…  Read more

Rapid vaccine rollout across the U.S. is helping the economy here recover months ahead of European economies, as a Reuters study of data across many platforms shows. Bookings on OpenTable show that the U.S. is gradually returning to nearly normal, while those in Europe are still flatlining. Air travel is increasing, and commercial activity is also improving, especially as stimulus payments hit bank accounts. I am so grateful to have…  Read more

The state of Florida pursued an open, non-restrictive approach to the pandemic, which appears to have been vindicated by recent stories in the media. However, as Derek Thompson of The Atlantic found when he began investigating the veracity of claims, results are neither as cataclysmic nor as positive as either side claims. While it is true that COVID-19 cases are falling in the state, they are likewise falling across the country.…  Read more

Eventually, epidemiologists hope that the coronavirus will become a seasonal pathogen, not much worse than the flu. But the path to that state is not a straight line, as this article in Stat describes, breaking the continued pandemic into short-, middle- and long-term phases. With vaccines steadily reaching more people, most agree that we are at least approaching the end of the “crisis” phase. Over the short-term, we may see…  Read more

Today could be the day! Congress is expected to vote on the 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill today, Wednesday March 10th, just before the expanded unemployment insurance benefits end.  As per the Associated Press morning wire : A dominant feature of the bill is initiatives making it one of the biggest federal thrusts in years to assist lower- and middle-income families. Included are expanded tax credits over the next year for children,…  Read more

Congratulations! You got the COVID vaccine! I have an appointment for my first shot for this afternoon due to an underlying condition.  Now what should you/we do?  As an article in The Atlantic describes, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but “When deciding what you can and can’t do, you should think less about your own vaccination status, and more about whether your neighbors, family, grocery clerks, delivery drivers, and friends are…  Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t the first to sweep the globe, nor is it likely to be the last one. Throughout history, pandemics have shaped our world, as this historic lookback in the Washington Post explains. One such plague likely contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, when disease –likely measles and smallpox – swept through the ancient world and killed 5 million people over 15 years. The Black Death…  Read more

Keeping people safe in the pandemic requires a comprehensive approach, as explained by Aaron E. Carroll, a pediatrics professor at Indiana University. By taking the pandemic seriously, “far from posing a risk to its host city or town, a university could become—by supplementing behavioral measures such as masking and social distancing with widespread surveillance testing—a model for detecting and suppressing the virus.” By the time IU’s 87,000 students return to…  Read more

Keeping people safe in the pandemic requires a comprehensive approach, as explained by Aaron E. Carroll, a pediatrics professor at Indiana University. By taking the pandemic seriously, “far from posing a risk to its host city or town, a university could become—by supplementing behavioral measures such as masking and social distancing with widespread surveillance testing—a model for detecting and suppressing the virus.” By the time IU’s 87,000 students return to…  Read more

For many of us, it was our networks that helped us get through the last year. That was one of the lessons that Ivan Meisner, founder of BNI, an international business networking group learned from 2020. He also learned the value of limiting exposure to bad news by picking up what he needed to know from news apps. One business owner struggled with the stress of working from home while overseeing remote…  Read more

Vaccines for the coronavirus are now being administered around the country, but that may not mean an end to wearing a mask. This article from Kaiser Health News lists five reasons to keep wearing a mask, even after receiving the vaccine. The top two reasons are that no vaccine is 100% effective and that vaccines don’t provide immediate protection. According to one of the experts cited the best way to end the…  Read more