Masks and Hair Cuts…

Some may remember the old Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song….”Almost cut my hair”…..well…..I did cut my own hair recently ….used the clippers we had in the garage from the days when I groomed our dear poodle Phoenix, now gone…..….

Karen has been sewing up a storm helping a group in Ledyard make masks to be distributed to area hospitals.   (Mask Makers of Connecticut….they have a facebook page)    The group is extremely well run and for those who are interested could use some contributions to help offset the cost of material needed to make the masks, although I think most sewers are contributing their own material.

(I tried to attach a picture of my buzz cut and mask, but couldn’t make it happen….would have given you a laugh I think.)

We’ve remained open as an essential business up there with dog groomers and liquor stores….Meagan has been working from home but Karen and I come in….social distance wise we may as well be here as at home.

So much has happened since our last newsletter that it is hard to know where to start.   Some strange things are happening, most recently that the government is issuing stimulus checks to deceased persons…..and executors are trying to figure out what to do with these funds….upshot seems to be if you have a paper check for a decedent to hold onto that check until the government issues some guidance on what to do with it…..which hopefully will happen soon.     I won’t comment on some of the crazy things that are being offered as potential cures…..

There are very troubling things happening in our nursing homes.   Too many deaths.  Too little protective equipment.   Nurse’s aides and other staff being put at risk.    Residents living and dying without the comfort of family and friends, and family saying farewell to loved ones via facebook.   Almost too much to think about …..how terrible for those living these things.   When young I worked for a time as an orderly on a total care floor in a nursing home, and the work that staff in the facilities does is so important (and so hard), that it is one of our great injustices that they are paid so little.

After reading a story about seniors showing up in emergency rooms with very low blood oxygen levels long after they should have sought medical treatment (and being beyond cure), I made a panic buy last week of a finger gauge that will tell me if my oxygen level is too low.    (Yes, paid way too much for it.    Yes, my oxygen level is fine.)   We are going to the grocery store at senior hours, and sometimes using Instacart to do some shopping for us, and ordering some non perishable groceries from Walmart to be delivered, or through Amazon.    Pulled a soggy box off the front porch this morning.    Other than that, it is travel between home and work and back home again.    Buying gas is an exciting trip out.    Critical items like Ritz crackers nowhere to be found.

Lawyers are having to change time honored practices to provide services to clients, sometimes in ways that feel strange and uncomfortable.    Most meetings are being held remotely via zoom or some other platform.   Some Will signings are happening in parking lots or garages.    In person meetings resemble surgical suites as much as conferences since we are all wearing masks and usually gloves and sitting far apart.   (It is tiring to talk loudly enough to be heard through a mask at a distance in a lengthy conference.)    But what needs to be done is I think getting done.

I have been part of a group of attorneys that has been working to get a revision to Executive Order 7Q.   It was issued by the Governor to facilitate remote signing of documents but it seems to have been designed to facilitate real estate closings.   It does not give us a practically workable process for many clients who need to sign estate planning documents.   Hopefully the work invested in this project will bear fruit.  Without a workable remote signing process (as has been approved in other states most recently Massachusetts) clients, attorneys and their staff will be forced into close contact so that documents can be signed, with the possibility someone will pass the virus to someone else.