I'm using a nasal spray and a nasal rinse - you might want to also

I don't do my own research, but I like to do a good literature review now and then.¹ 

Back in the fall, an old friend who is now a retired physician, told us that she has started using nasal sprays and nasal rinses to prevent COVID-19 and other respiratory infections like flu and RSV.

The idea of spraying or rinsing my nose made me shudder but I thought I should check it out and now I am a convert.

Literature Review

There are more papers on this topic than you or I can keep track of. But all of the ones I've seen conclude that nasal sprays and nasal rinses can dramatically lower the chance of someone getting COVID-19 and other infections and that nasal rinses can also reduce the severity of an infection that has started. Furthermore, there are no apparent harms caused by the sprays or rinses they are testing.

Nasal spray with Iota-Carageenan (I-C):  A 2021 pilot study concluded "a nasal spray with I-C showed significant efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in health care workers managing patients with COVID-19 disease."

Nasal spray with azelastine: An 8-week trial in Germany concluded that "SARS-CoV-2 [or COVID-19] infections was significantly lower with application of azelastine nasal spray compared with placebo treatment."

Nasal spray with other ingredients: An article from OneDayMD titled 8 Best Anti-COVID Nasal Sprays (2024) lists Povidone Iodine Nasal Spray as their #1 choice.²

Nasal rinse (or irrigation): A 2024 paper from China recommends "that saline nasal irrigation is an effective, safe and convenient strategy to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 [or COVID-19] and alleviate the symptoms of URTI [upper respiratory tract infections] across various age groups."  

To spray or to rinse

I follow the lead of my doctor friend. Before I am encountering other people, I use my nasal spray. It's one quick spritz in each nostril and a quick wipe with my handkerchief. When the encounter is over, I spritz again.

The nasal spray is fast and easy and not at all uncomfortable. In fact, with the dry winter air, it kind of feels good.

If I have a big day with lots of in-person encounters, I also do a nasal rinse in the evening. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, and it does feel like it was a good thing to do, but I have to acknowledge that it is kind of unpleasant and requires more fussing around. 

To rinse, you squeeze the bottle of saline solution so that half of it goes up one nostril and drains through the other one. Then you switch nostrils for the second half of the bottle. Yes. It is kind of gross. But you do it all alone, over the sink in the bathroom with the door closed. And it's really not so bad. Not like that time you snorted cream soda up your nose because someone made you laugh.  

For more information on this topic, you might want to read Nasal Rinse vs. Nasal Spray: What’s the Difference? at allergyxrinse.com. 

My nasal spray choice: Salinex Protect

I've gone with Salinex Protect. It has Iota-Carageenan, it's not too expensive and it's carried at the ubiquitous Shoppers Drug Mart. (It's probably carried at other places like IDA and Rexall drugstores, but they have really bad search engines on their websites.) 

I would really like to use a nasal spray with azelastine. It's got strong research behind it and there have been articles saying that it's an approved over-the-counter thing in Canada, but I cannot find it anywhere. It's not just a really-bad-search-engine problem, I've gone to various pharmacies and checked the ingredients on all their nasal sprays.³

I have a hunch that just about any saline nasal spray would be a good idea, but I'm not ready to start using one of the allergy-relief ones that have cortico-steroids.

My nasal rinse choice: Life Brand Nasal Rinse & Squeeze Bottle System

A lot of people use a neti pot for nasal irrigation. The lovely Manon suggested to me that the fuss of cleaning a Neti Pot made it not worth its reusability and this made a lot of sense to me.

I have invested in the Life Brand Nasal Rinse & Squeeze Bottle System from Shoppers. As mentioned, it requires a bit of fussing around, but not much really. And it's a little unpleasant to do, but not very. I bet I'll get used to it.

Conclusion

It's December 2025, I haven't had COVID-19 and I will continue to make efforts to keep it that way.

Halloween is over

It's November 2, but before I can make my devilled eggs, the monsters had to come down.

I set the time lapse to go a little faster, so this one will only take you 12 seconds to watch.

Time lapsing the monster mounting

It's late October, so time to put the monsters up on the windows.

To encourage myself, I used my new lifehack of setting up the time lapse camera.

Here I go. You might notice that after I put up a set in a narrow window, I took the monsters down and put them in the other window. This is because I used a picture taken from outside as my reference and got my left and right mixed up. This won't happen again because I've given myself a graphic guide for next year.

And here's the well-drawn, professional reminder I've attached so that in future years I'll know which monsters go on which side of the big window.

 

My new time-lapse life-hack

I have issues with procrastination.

Five years into the pandemic and two years into retirement, I still have many items on my multiple to-do lists. But I am slowly ticking things off. (For example, Getting rid of old cables and GIFs from my Pixel 5)

This week, I finally developed the capacity to take time lapse images. I've been wanting to do this for decades. It would have been fantastic when they demolished the house across the street, or when they built the new house there. 

The only construction-type thing visible from the Scrimchateau right now is the housing construction happening over on Booth Street. I missed a lot of it, but there are two giant cranes. Here's 11 minutes of their movement collapsed into 22 seconds.

I've tried a couple of other things. First, I did some of Manon's plants on a windowsill. I'll have to play with lighting and timing before I get anything worth looking at. Second, I did the Stick Library. It was kind of cool seeing how many people went by and getting quick glimpses of people stopping with their dogs. But I don't imagine any of these people would be happy about having their images appear on the internet when they didn't know they were being filmed even if they were on a public sidewalk.

My lifehack brain wave

Then I had my lifehack brain wave. I was sitting here at my desk thinking about how I've let it get really messy and I should tidy it when I realized that it would make for something to time lapse. Maybe not the most compelling time lapse video ever, but if it motivated me to do something I ought to do anyway, it would be a bonus.

So here it is, Dave Tidies up his Desk (a little bit):

How I did it

I took my old smart phone, a Galaxy S5 Neo, that no longer has a SIM card, but still has WiFi and:

1. 
   improved the phone's memory capacity by stripping out all the apps that I don't need any more, and deleting all the music files, ebooks, and videos; and
2. used the App Store to install FrameLapse 2.

I mounted the phone with a clip-on flexible holder thingy that I cannot remember acquiring that has been around for years. To be honest, it's probably not the best thing for doing this, but it works.

To take my time lapse videos, I turn on FrameLapse 2, aim the phone where I want it, and tap the big round button to start shooting and tap it again to stop. 

So far, I've only used the default settings for timing and everything else, but I did zoom in on a couple to get more of the frame that I wanted.

I edited the video with Microsoft Clipchamp to add a title, trim the video to only the part I wanted and remove sections of the video I didn't want.

What's next

I've got some more tidying to do (I promise though that I will not create any messes just so that I can manufacture content) and I hope to do something with plant growth and our first snowfall this winter. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Acknowledgement

Rest assured that I am aware that the effort involved in creating the time lapse videos, editing them, and creating this blog post took far more time than it would have taken me to just clear up the junk on my desk.

 

GIFs from my Pixel 5

I got a Pixel 5 smartphone a few years ago and even though it is past its support date from Google, I am still learning how to do things with it. For example, when looking at photos, some of them showed movement on the phone. When I uploaded them to my desktop, they were still photos with no movement. 

Then, a few weeks ago, I learned how to export them as GIFs and preserve the movement.

In honour of the current heatwave, here is my first GIF - Manon at Rideau Falls on February 14. That frozen mist in the air was cold, let me tell you:

From last week, a very large wasp or hornet that wanted to get into my house:.

From this morning, Manon picking service berries in an effort to thwart the squirrels and maybe get a enough for a pie:

Just in case there is someone out there who would like to do this and they have a Pixel 5, or maybe some other phone that works the same way, here is how I saved these photos as GIFs:

1 - In the Pixel 5 photo app, tapped the 3-dot menu icon on a moving-photo

2 - Swiped over to the word "Export" and tapped it

3 - Selected "GIF" and tapped "Export"

I have to say, making GIFs this way is an awful lot easier than how I did it before - importing a video into Gimp and doing all sorts of stuff. 

The only thing is, I haven't learned why the Pixel 5 sometimes takes a moving picture and other times takes a single still picture.

Sleeping with Comedy Podcasts

I have never been good at sleeping. I used to have a lot of trouble falling asleep at the beginning of the night and then falling back asleep when I woke up during the night.

But listening to stand-up comedy podcasts has made a big improvement for me.

Over the past two years, I've acquired a large collection of podcasts. I've got people talking about current issues, recommendations on tools, descriptions of cognitive bias, Vinyl Café stories, all sorts of stuff. But it's the stand-up comedy that works best for me.

I think the comedy works because it's entertaining enough that I don't have the stupid thoughts that keep me awake, thinking about what I have to do the next day or what I should have said to someone earlier, and I can fall asleep because each joke is only a minute or two long. If I wake up during the night and can't fall back asleep even after listening to 20 minutes or an hour, at least I'm feeling entertained and not anxious that I'm not sleeping.

Stories don't seem to help me fall asleep. I love the Vinyl Café stories, but I want to hear the whole story too much.

There are a number of comedy podcasts out there. The ones I like best are from the CBC's Laugh Out Loud. They run 28 minutes and feature one to three comics. I'm getting to know them well and like them all. There is a great selection of comics with strong material. They're all recordings of live performances in Canada, so most of the comics are Canadian.

I really can't say enough about how much I like Laugh Out Loud. The selection of comics reflect Canada's diversity. There's a tremendous amount of openness, affection and kindness in their humour. Technically, the editing is seamless and the sound recording is impeccable.

This means that when I hear someone I like, there's a good chance I can see that person perform here in Ottawa, and usually for a ridiculously small ticket price. And now if I find myself in another city looking for something to do, there's a good chance I'll be able to see someone terrific.

Here are the mechanics of how I listen to the podcasts:

1. I save the podcasts to the hard drive on my computer.
2. Every couple of weeks, I copy the podcast files to my smart phone. Before I had the smart phone, I copied them to a tablet.
3. At night, I put on a set of light-weight Bluetooth earbuds that have an eight-hour battery life. (I'm using Skullcandy Ink'd Wireless, they're comfortable while I sleep and the audio is good. I'm told the microphone makes me echo-ey when I use them for phoning, so I don't use them for phoning.)
4. I play the podcasts using the free version of MediaMonkey. I usually set the sleep timer for 20 minutes. Most nights I'm probably asleep before 10 minutes go by, but if I'm not, it's nice not to have to start it up again.
5. If I wake up, I start the player again for another 20 minutes. Maybe backing up to where it was around when I fell asleep.

Appetizer Tip: Use the right platter

Manon and I have become the royal couple of devilled eggs. Is it because we make the best devilled eggs? No it is not. First, it is not a competition. Second, all devilled eggs are delicious.

What make us the royal couple of devilled eggs is this amazing ceramic platter we found at the Kanata Value Village several weeks ago. It has a hen flanked by salt and pepper chicks and the hen has toothpick holes. We may try tiny pickled onions on the toothpicks next time.

We have brought the platter to two dinners now and are confident that it will dramatically increase the number of dinner invitations we receive.

Bonus tip: This youtube video that shows a supposedly great way for peeling boiled eggs did not work at all for me.

Double bonus tip: I cannot tell you where to find a devilled egg platter like ours, but it would be better if you didn't have one anyway. Instead you might want a platter that would be suitable for something else. Perhaps chicken wings and dipping sauce. This pair of bowls was at the Gatineau Village des Valeurs on Monday. It might still be there.

Lego Cable Holders

Lego people are probably not the most effective holders for your device cables, but until they come up with dinosaur cable holders, they are the most fun.

p.s. I copied this idea from others

Restaurant Ordering Tip: Use the # sign

Here's a fairly typical order for Manon and me at the Pho 99. A number 37, vermicelli with grilled chicken and spring roll, for me ("like always," as one of the waiters used to say); A number 41, vermicelli with grilled beef and spring roll, for Manon (because she feels like having beef today and doesn't feel like having soup); and a number 54, coffee with condensed milk for both of us.

But do you see what I did? I put a # sign in front of the 54. Because I don't want them to get mixed up and bring us 54 orders of number 2, that would be 108 rolls with shredded pork and salad because there are two per order.

I'm thoughtful that way.

A new time saver for me

This week, I found a way to shave time off the food preparation portion of my morning routine.

Almost every day, I heat my breakfast in the microwave. Whether it is a leftover pasta dish or fried rice, I give it one minute and thirty seconds. Since I left my parents home where the microwave timer is a knob and began using keypad timers, I have typed 1-3-0-start. But this week, it finally occurred to me that I could type 9-0-start.

If it takes me a tenth of a second to push that extra button, this innovation will save me 18 minutes over the next 30 years. It will save even more time if one day it makes the difference between catching a bus and missing a bus.

Grocery Sales Flyers and Egg Sizes

Do you read sales flyers for the grocery store, circle deals you like and then leave the flyer in the cart when you're done shopping? If so, I'm grateful, because someone like you tipped me off to excellent prices on sugar and berries at the Loblaws last week.

As a thank you, here's a tip for you.

For years, I've been buying extra large eggs on the theory that bigger must mean cheaper per amount of egg.

Guess what.

I was wrong.

Here in Canada, large eggs weigh 56 to 62 grams and extra-large eggs weigh 63 to 69 grams. So an extra-large egg is about 12% heavier than a large egg. This means extra-large eggs will be worth buying if they're less than 12% more expensive. So if a dozen large eggs are $2.17, extra-large eggs are worth buying if they are less than $2.43.

Where I've been shopping, a dozen extra-large eggs are priced much higher than $2.43.

So now I'm buying large eggs.

And I'm eating about 12% less on weekend mornings, which is an added bonus.

Deceptive Price Tags

Over in Estonia, Tanel Mehine at the University of Tartu has discovered that "consumers perceive yellow price tags as presenters of discounts" and suggests that "companies have the opportunity to increase the consumer’s reference price and thereby to raise revenues by changing the colour of the price tag without offering an actual discount."

In his study, he only compared the use of white and yellow labels.

I hope in his next study he looks at the impact of red labels that say "price checked weekly" like they use at Loblaws.

Here are two I found this past weekend next to cat food price tags of $0.79 and $0.85. The weekend before, those tins were priced at $0.75 and a few weeks ago they were on sale at $0.55 each.

From these examples and others, I've come to the conclusion that "price checked weekly" means that Loblaws has checked a price and decided they needed to increase it.

A Cat Pee Solution

A while ago, we were having a the sort of problem I am reluctant to share with you. This is because even though it's the sort of thing many Ottawa bloggers love to report, it could be embarrassing to one or two feline members of my household. However, I am going to blog about it because:

• The potentially embarrassing activity has stopped;
• I may be anthropomorphising, for all I know the cats were actually proud of their behaviour; and
• The solution I found may benefit you.

Before Christmas, at least one of the cats started peeing on the carpet in the hallway outside our bedroom door. Drexl was caught doing it twice, but that doesn't mean Magi was innocent.

In addition to aggressive cleaning of the wet carpet, we tried a series of measures to get the cats to restrict themselves to the litter box. The most fun of these methods was placing the Hallowe'en mat over the spot. The Hallowe'en mat is a little plastic mat that is wired to a box with batteries and a speaker. When a person or cat steps on the mat, horrifying screams come out of the box. For a couple of days we'd hear screams and then see a cat run for the staircase. But then the wet spot moved to a nearby location.

This is the same thing that happened when we covered the spot with a garbage bag or applied cat repellent spray. The spot just moved somewhere else.

Late in January, I brought some photocopy paper boxes home from work. Within minutes of putting them down on the floor, Drexl had hopped into one and reminded me that she loves being in boxes. This gave me an idea.

I took one of the boxes upstairs. I put the bottom of the box on the primary pee-spot and the lid on the secondary pee-spot.

There has not been an incident anywhere in the house since and it has been at least six weeks (even though the box and the lid have been replaced with what I am told are more aesthetically pleasing alternatives).

My theory is it's about feeling safe and not messing up the place where you sleep.

Two notes:

• A friend told her cat's veterinarian about our situation and the vet suggested that Drexl go on drugs. This has made me skeptical of veterinarians.
• If you need to borrow a small steam cleaner for carpets, we have one that we haven't used since January.

My Current Preoccupation: Face Tagging on Picasa

I haven't played Mumu all weekend. Why? I'm too busy identifying faces in my digital photos with Picasa.

It's addictive. First Picasa looked at all the photos on my hard drive. Then it spotted most of the faces. Then I told it who some of the faces were. Then it started guessing at matching faces. That's when it became obsessive.

What's especially fun is when it guesses wrong, but is weirdly close. Like when it thinks Manon is her mom or one of her sons.

There's a quick intro to Picasa 3.6 and its face recognition at MakeUseof.

Taking risks without flamethrowers

Last week, I took a little break from reading stories about space pirates to skim through a nonfiction book: Absinthe & flamethrowers: projects and ruminations on the art of living dangerously by William Gurstelle.

Gurstelle believes that most people would lead better lives if they took more risks. The book opens with chapters on why taking risks is a good thing and then moves to chapters on how to perform specific risky activities, like drinking absinthe, driving fast, using a bull whip and making flamethrowers. It was on the activity chapters that I started skimming. I bought into his idea that taking risks will enrich my life, but I suspect I can get that enrichment with activities that don't endanger to my health and the health of others.

For each of the risky activities there are detailed instructions about how to do the activity in the most safe way possible, for example, wear safety goggles if you're flicking a bull whip. Just the same, I'd be more comfortable if people I might come in contact with didn't find it necessary to drive fast or try out their homemade flamethrowers.

Since I don't like to point out a problem without proposing a solution, here are suggestions for anyone who would like to try something scary or risky that should actually make the world a better place.

1. Sing out loud in public
   • Women who are free on Tuesday nights: Did you know that Jody Benjamin is starting a new choir that is open to any woman who wants to join? No auditions, sight-reading ability not required, and those who think they cannot sing are especially encouraged to join.
   • Men and women who are free on Wednesday nights: I'm hearing good things about Folka Voca, the Ottawa Folklore Centre Choir)
   • Men: Except maybe for the Ottawa Gay Men's Chorus, every mixed choir in Ottawa is desperate for more male singers.
   • Everybody: There are a lot of choirs in this town.
2. Ride your bike on the street and not the sidewalk (Riding on the street is actually less risky, but it feels more risky. Read up on how to ride safely and then do it. It will make you feel tough.)
3. Try out a new art form
4. Talk to a stranger
5. Ask a dictator to stop torturing someone. (A starting point)
6. Learn something new Even if it's not that risky, it'll do you good.
7. Write a comment on a blog you've been lurking on (for example, you could comment here with other suggestions for things that people can do that feel risky but will actually make the world a better place.)

Of course, these things don't always work out the first time. Or the second time. I wrote a lot of letters to Botha in South Africa before Apartheid ended.

Here's a video that might inspire you to try a risky thing more than once:

If my ideas don't work for you, and you need to try something that is just plain dangerous, you might want to check out anvil launching. Just please don't do it around my house.

On Hallowe'en, it is okay to be a hobo

Having hosted many Hallowe'en parties, I have noticed that some of my friends have a serious problem at this time of year - costume anxiety. Costume anxiety seems to especially affect those with a reputation for creativity or artistic talent. They feel pressure to come up with a costume that will impress everyone.

How serious is this problem? Let's just say that far more than one person has confessed to me that they did not come to a Hallowe'en party because they couldn't come up with a "good" costume.

If you have costume anxiety: It's true, you can't go to a Hallowe'en party dressed like you normally dress, but all you have to do is put on a flannel shirt and a tuque. Your presence will be valued far more than your absence. People with elaborate or especially clever costumes will bask in your appreciation. And the other hobos and hosers will relax in your company.

Uses for Binder Clips: Fashion and Belts

Megan Butcher demonstrates how a well-placed binder clip keeps the extra portion of her belt from flapping around.

I would do the same but my belt only extends a couple of inches past the buckle and doesn't need to be clipped down. Perhaps the fact that I would have a legitimate reason to wear a binder clip will act as incentive for me to lose some weight.

My Window Mirror

Someday, at my place of employment, I hope to have a workspace with a window.

In the meantime, rather than curse the darkness, I have strategically hung a mirror that I removed from a broken microfiche reader.

I can glance up and see if the sun is shining. I can also see whether traffic is moving on Baseline Avenue.

Not that it matters to me, but it's soothing. Like watching tropical fish in an aquarium.

Uses for Speaker Magnets: Screwdriver Storage

Another common problem we all have these days is knowing what to do with all those blown woofers lying around the house. (The ones from the speaker cabinets we've used for cat castles.)

I haven't quite figured out what to do with the metal rings. But there are lots of fun things to do with the magnets after you pry them off.

For example, they make a convenient device for storing a screwdriver with multiple bits on your fridge.

Added bonus: Sculpt the bits into different shapes while you wait for your spaghetti water to boil.

Valentine's Day Round-Up

I'm glad that Bob LeDrew sent me a link that tells you how to turn boring old "trombone" paper clips into heart-shaped clips today. That is because I almost spent the evening messing around with melted glass instead of sharing pre-Valentines advice with you.

First, while that heart-shaped clip idea is bound to bring a smile to the face of your sweety, don't forget the power of the binder clip.

Our friend La Canadienne was out this week and met a young man who had cleverly made a teabag for loose tea with a hemp sack and a binder clip. Directly from her blog:

Me: Liam, is that a binder clip?!

Liam: Uh, yeah.

Me: Can I make out with you now, please?

I love a man who can use a binder clip.

Ladies, you should know that there are also men who appreciate a woman who can use a binder clip.

Of course, binder clips are already Valentine's Day friendly:

1. You can buy binder clips with heart shaped handles; and
2. You can decorate them with messages of love instead of messages of efficiency.

If you're trying to think of things to do with your sweety this weekend, you might look at the suggestions given to K in A Reader Seeking Advice, or consult my famous romantic things to do in Ottawa post or Marcie's 101 Things to Do in Ottawa (12 anyway). [Followup: K reports that he met his date at a downtown Irish Pub. Unfortunately, although K is exactly as he described himself, she expected he'd be different and she's too busy for a relationship anyway.]