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December 2, 2020 www.DesertMessenger.com 19 Coronavirus update too much junk? CLEAN OUT THAT GARAGE List your items in Desert Messenger CLASSIFIEDS Email Editor@DesertMessenger.com or CALL RAIN @ 928-916-4235 December 1, 2020- There are a total of 337,139 confi rmed cases of coro- navirus in Arizona and 6,687 coro- navirus-related deaths according to AZDHS numbers Tuesday morning. 10,322 new cases were reported on Tuesday morning with 48 new deaths. That does not mean that all these cas- es were diagnosed or died yesterday. La Paz County Health Depart- ment reports a total of 883 con- fi rmed cases (an uptick of 197 new cases in the past 14 days) with 20 total deaths in the county. Case numbers are ONLY Ari- zona residents, NOT out-of-state visitors. No matter where a #CO- VID19 test is conducted, positive cases are announced AND counted where the person lives (county of residence.) Please do your part and stay home when you do not feel well! If you are experiencing a change in how you feel and get tested, please stay home until you receive the test results. • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue. Consider wearing cloth face coverings, if it can be safely managed, in public settings where other physi- cal distancing measures are diffi cult to maintain. Clean and disinfect fre- quently touched objects and surfaces. • If you are at higher risk for se- vere illness, you should avoid at- tending congregate settings. People at higher risk for severe illness in- clude adults 65 or older and people of any age who have serious under- lying medical conditions. For more information on La Paz County and the state, please visit the ADHS coronavirus website at www.azdhs.gov/coronavirus, the CDC website at www.cdc.gov/COV- ID19, the La Paz County Health De- partment website at https://www. lpchd.com/ and the Facebook page @LaPazCounty.HealthDepartment New way to chat with Town Hall Town of Quartzsite now offers text notifi cations on your phone through TextMyGov. iWorQ is excited to an- nounce a strategic partnership with @TextMyGov to expand citizen en- gagement with text messaging To opt in, text the word "QUARTZSITE" to 91896. What to expect: After the ini- tial keyword is sent, you'll receive a confi rmation message asking you to reply "YES" to verify opt-in. There will be 0-4 text messages per month with a notifi cation from the Town regarding the categories you are opted-in for. Message and data rates may apply. Check with your mo- bile phone carrieer for more details. How to Opt-Out: Text "STOP" at any time to remove yourself from the notifi caiton list. Also are you looking for answers? Need to report an issue? Now you can Text the Town of Quartzsite directly. Introducing the new way to skip a phone call and use your mobile phone's text messaging to fi nd answers to your questions. Text "hi" or one the words listed below, to 928-260-4442. "Trees, Sewer, Contact, Street, Water, Pothole, Weeds, Depart- ments, FAQ." TextMyGov will help you to quick- ly fi nd the answers your looking for or help you to report an issue to the Town. By Jackie Deal I just ate three baby dill pickles. I don't like dill pickles. I especially didn't like these 3 dill pickles. But they have zero calories and this is important. Important because I'm in self-quarantine and that means I'm home alone with food all day. A friend said, "Yah, you keep eating and no exercise and you could be the Thanksgiving pumpkin." (I thought pumpkins were for Halloween?) But while I was not enjoying my pickle I was doodling on the inter- net and what to my wondering eyes should appear: "Today is National Pickle Day." I kid you not. So hang in there for more about pickles than you probably want to know. Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, supposedly credited her health and good looks to her love of pickles, and Roman General Julius Caesar was said to have fed pickles to his troops in the belief that they would make them stronger. I'll go with Cleopatra, "Please pass the pickles." Archaeologists believe that ancient Mesopotamians were the fi rst to start pickling in 2400 B.C. Let's see what else I learned: pickles can help beat a hangover. You might remem- ber that if we ever get out of these shut downs! Now if you're from Connecticut, stay tuned. In Connecticut, legend has it that state laws require that a pickle must bounce to legally be called a pickle. While the Connecti- cut State Library found that there are no laws that specifi cally state this, there are regulations in place that were started after a pair of pickle packers, Sidney Sparer and Moses Dexler, were arrested in 1948 for selling pickles that were "unfi t for human consumption." After their arrest, Food and Drug Commissioner Frederick Holcomb told reporters that the best way to check for good pickles is too see if they bounce when dropped. After- ward, the state's pickle-bouncing regulation went into effect. Fortu- nately, I've eaten all my pickles so I couldn't try the bouncing test. But the next time you buy pickles you'll know how to be sure they're good. After all this higher education I de- cided I needed a cup of tea. I don't like tea. Black or green? It looks the same in the cup and to me tastes the same. I like English novels and the Eng- lish characters seem to think a cup of tea will solve all problems."Your house burned down?" "Come in and have a cup of tea, you'll feel better." "Your husband left you?" "Oh, you poor dear, you need a cup of tea." "The vicar's teenage daugh- ter is pregnant?" "Have a cup of tea that will solve it." I might explain: the self-quaran- tine was because I was a "secondary exposure." That means I was ex- posed to someone who was exposed to someone with Covid. Accord- ing to everything I fi nd, secondary exposures do not need to be Covid tested. Since I didn't want to miss out on anything exciting I went to be tested. My doctor's offi ce wouldn't test asymptomatic but they sug- gested Rite Aide drug store. There I basically did a self-test while in my car. I was told to put the cotton applicator "mid-way- up my nose, twirl it twice and hold it there for 15 seconds." Five days after expo- sure is the recommended time to be tested. My test was negative, which means "I ain't got it." All the tests can tell you is that at the moment of the test you don't have the disease. One last item I gleaned from NBC news, "Covid could kill as many Americans THIS WINTER as the Germans and the Japanese did during WWII." Now that's food for thought! And that's a mighty sour pickle and pretty hard to swallow! Pickles, tea and confinement 800-656-HOPE

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