Oof

Posted on December 13, 2020 by A Dreamer

Yesterday was oddly hard. Or frustrating, not sure the best way to describe it.

I should preface this with the disclaimer that on the whole, the pandemic has been pretty easy for me. I don’t have kids or elderly relatives to worry about, I already worked remotely, giving up non-essential services and most in-person shopping has been a no brainer, and the only real sacrifice I’ve had to make is putting my social life on hold, which wasn’t that exciting to start with. I can still get to the grocery store, and takeout is available all over the place. Lazy weekends are my JAM.

I know I am insanely lucky. I am acutely aware of the toll this has taken on others. None of this is to minimize the hurt and loss that folks have gone through in this country.

But hoo boy, yesterday, I was climbing the walls.

I can only think it’s the time of year – normally now I’d be making a trip to the mall just to see if there was some surprise gift still out there, definitely wave to Santa, maybe go to the little riverfront shops, have lunch at the wine shop. Things I am absolutely not doing this year.

Then there are the kitchen towels. I know you’re going, “WTF does that have to do with anything?” I ordered three packs of kitchen towels from Target, since I’m anticipating more panic buying of paper goods, and they have a weird tendency to disappear in this house. (I assume they’re with the socks.)

One set, turns out they’re a flat weave and not terribly absorbant. (Hoping a wash will help.) Another set, microfiber, and two of the four in the pack have the WORST MOST AWFUL TEXTURE EVER. Third pack, thankfully, nice, normal kitchen towels. Things you just can’t really tell very well when you’re looking at them online.

If I could have just gone to Target, I could have easily weeded out the not great ones. But I have never in my life been able to get in and out of that place in under 15 minutes, so it’s off limits for the time being.

Just a day of “THIS IS ALL STUPID AND IT SUCKS AND I HATE IT.”

Then of course I felt guilty cause I’ve got it easy. But, it IS all stupid and it sucks and I DO hate it. And if you’re having those days, too – it’s OK.

Posted in COVID19, Rants | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hey, we’ve got a vaccine!

Posted on December 12, 2020 by A Dreamer

Of course, we didn’t order enough and the administration tainted the approval process cause they couldn’t just shut the fuck up for a day, but folks will start getting vaccinated here very soon.

The Moderna vaccine should get through the approval process soon as well, which is great – the more we have, the better. I can’t think of any others doing as well as these two, though, but hopefully we’ll have a few others with equally high effectiveness.

For the folks getting it in the first round – I can’t even fathom how much of a relief it will be when the day hits after they’ve gotten the two rounds and gone past the “let the immune response happen” period (2 weeks is what I keep hearing) – to just know that they’ll be so much safer doing their jobs, or just living in this whole mess.

Granted, a 50 state + territories distribution system is going to be a clusterfuck, but it will hopefully all work out somehow. Our state health department will be doing a townhall next week with info – I have it on my calendar, as while I know I’m very low on the list to get the vaccination, I have ZERO idea where or how we’re supposed to get it when the time comes.

My plea to other folks in the “last” group – everyone who gets the vaccine before us, helps us. BUT DON’T START DOING STUPID SHIT JUST YET. Do stupid shit AFTER your two shots & waiting period. Mask up, wash your hands, get carryout, talk to your friends & family online. It sucks, but it will be worth it.

On the work front, they upped the amount of leave we can carry over (and of course, waited til the last minute to tell us) – and I had been in the “oh shit, gotta burn leave” group – so I’ve got this coming Friday and then the week of Christmas scheduled off, but I’ve decided I’ll at least pop on for a few hours every morning – combo of getting some things done and conserving some PTO for next year.

I want the “extra” leave available for a day off after either shot, in case I have the “feel like ass” reaction, and then two days when I hit the “you can do things again” point – one day to get a damn haircut, even if it is in the middle of the week, and the day after, cause I’m going out drinking AT MY BAR and I’m going to be hungover as fuck.

Is it a healthy plan? Probably not. Do I care? Not really.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | Leave a comment

So, do you need any dinneware?

Posted on December 10, 2020 by A Dreamer

OK, weird question, I know, but stay with me here.

I am not really one to buy campaign merchandise, but a couple weeks back I got text from Elizabeth Warren’s campaign – they were having a sale. (Black Friday, probably.) Well, I finally got the Billionaire Tears mug – I’ve wanted it for a while and it just tickles me for various reasons, and – on sale.

Well, it arrived, and it is a GREAT mug – made in the US (of course) and has a nice weight to it, AND THE HANDLE STAYS COOL WHEN YOU PUT IT IN THE MICROWAVE. (I make a lot of instant coffee. This is important.) Basically, really good stuff here.

So, on the bottom, the manufacturer is stamped into the ceramic – HF Coors out of Arizona. I looked up their website, they do both commercial and retail/home products.

Lots of pretty patterns – mostly with a Southwest theme, and regular white as well.

So in short, good products, made here, and MICROWAVE SAFE. So, if you’ve been thinking, “I need new plates/mugs/whatnot.” – give them a look!

White coffee mug that says Billionaire Tears on it
Posted in Miscellany | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jabs for all the UK Grannies and Grandpas!

Posted on December 9, 2020 by A Dreamer

I don’t know about you, but seeing Margaret Keenan get her Covid vaccine yesterday did me a world of good. So grateful to all around the world who volunteered for the trials.

This thread from Shep – they volunteered and this is why – we need more Shep’s in the world. (Really, click through and read the whole thing, it will make you feel better.)

Of course, then I found out that the administration passed on buying additional doses… Took a bit of the wind out of my sails. And 45 is all “Oh, we’ll make it happen” but from what I understand that EO he signed yesterday is worthless, like most of them.

I’m assuming at the time when they turned down the extra doses, they assumed they would still be in office and would just be able to somehow extort them out of Pfizer.

Given that it sounds like the current administration hasn’t done shit on distribution and isn’t really helping the transition team, I really, REALLY hope Biden’s people are talking directly with Pfizer, Moderna, state Governors, et al to be able to truly hit the ground running at 12:01PM on 1/20. (Seriously, we need to fix this ridiculous lame duck period. It’s never really been a huge problem before now, but of course, 45 fucks up everything.)

Just gotta get through a few more months. Just wish it wasn’t basically everyone on their own like the last nine months.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Oh, 2020…

Posted on December 8, 2020 by A Dreamer

You didn’t have to go after my neighbor’s car like that.

Yesterday, I was working and heard what sounded like a trash can getting dragged down the street. I looked out the window and saw, yes, a trash can knocked over and trash strewn about – thought that the wind must have caught it just right.

Then I realized there hadn’t been enough wind to actually pick up one of the bins. Went out to check. Well, a couple doors up someone is having some work done. There was a work truck and one of those flat trailers. Except the trailer was no longer hooked to the truck and had rolled down the street. It took out the trash can, a mailbox, relocated a basketball hoop, and came to rest on the front of my neighbors car.

One of the workers was at the trailer with this “Oh fuck me” look on his face – I asked if anyone was hurt and he kinda looked like he didn’t understand, so I figured maybe if he did speak English, that skill had understandably fucked off when the trailer went rogue – of course, I couldn’t quite remember how to ask “are you hurt” in Spanish and ended up asking, “Do you have the pain?” We established though he may have had an abundance of emotional pain, no one was hurt.

Props to my neighbor who walked out, completely calm, phone in hand and I assume just called the insurance company as the car was picked up this morning. The way this year has gone, I suspect I would have just burst into uncontrollable sobbing. That gal has nerves of steel. (She also has two kids, which has to somehow help you just deal better when small disasters strike.)

Really 2020, just knock it off. Take the rest of the year off.

Posted in Miscellany | Tagged | Leave a comment

It’s not all terrible.

Posted on December 5, 2020 by A Dreamer

So, there’s a lawyer I follow on Twitter – Greg Doucette down in Durham, NC. Good dude, generous with his legal knowledge, funny, kind, and what we’d call a good egg.

In 2015, he teamed up with a local teacher in Durham, Turquoise Parker, to do a food drive so the kids in her classroom would have food to eat over the holiday break. They got a carful of food for the kids.

2016 – enough to fill his RAV-4.

2017 – enough to feed three classrooms of kids.

2018 – they fed the entire school.

2019 – enough for THREE SCHOOLS – $13K goes a long way at Costco!

2020 – Yesterday was the big day. They were shooting for $14K in donations – with concerns that though his Twitter following is bigger now, folks just don’t necessarily have a ton of cash right now cause of the pandemic.

Well, as of last night at 10:30 EST, before adding in matching amounts that folks put up (22 people did matches!) – they had 487 people donate $22,431.35. In one day.

The fundraiser went on until midnight PST and it seems there were a couple of retweets from big accounts and this morning, he thinks once all the dust has settled – they may hit $40,000.

Despite everything, people are good. They want to help other people, and when given the opportunity, they do. I know I gave a little more this year, figuring I could offset someone else who had to give less, or maybe couldn’t give at all this year – guess I wasn’t the only one. (Next year I think I will sign on to do a match – the number of people that said things along the lines of, “I felt better knowing that even though I could only give $5, it became $30” because of the matching.)

The whole thread of days happy insanity with the backstory and pictures is here.

I know we should live in a country where this isn’t needed. Today, I am choosing to focus on the fact that people really, really stepped up to help. It did my heart quite a lot of good.

Posted in Good Things | Tagged | 2 Comments

You made it to another Friday

Posted on December 4, 2020 by A Dreamer

Well done, you!!

I’ve gotten the little Christmas tree up (easy when you just chuck a garbage bag over the whole thing to move to the basement, LOL) and my brother has gotten the outside lights up. He says they’re not great, but I think they look fine – but I’m now on the lookout for more strings of twinkle lights, LOL. (Not easy this time of year, especially this year.)

We do have one extra string in the house that he didn’t know about, so that will help. I’ve also put a first of the month repeating reminder to look for them starting in March so we’re not in this spot last year. Look at me planning ahead!!!

In “trying to do good things for my brain” activities – well, that’s been hard, since I find trying to concentrate on reading or sewing is not really happening. So, I’ve taken up the daily NY Times crossword. It’s good because you’re bouncing from clue to clue, and takes your mind of the rest of everything. However, being the NY Times crossword, I find myself going, “THIS IS NOT A PROPER CROSSWORD!” a lot. YESTERDAY HAD NUMBERS IN IT THAT ONLY WORKED ACROSS BUT NOT DOWN.

But even with that nonsense, it’s a fun escape – and I now know that there are 17 Avenues in the Monopoly game.

We have one of our half days today, and my big afternoon plans are to go “downtown” to Total Wine and restock the beer (yay for Virginia beer being at the front of the shop), dash into the Aldi and see if they have twinkle lights in their seasonal aisle, do Lily’s Christmas shopping at Felix & Oscar, and then spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch yelling at crossword puzzles. Oh, and probably grab lunch to go from somewhere up there that we don’t have right here.

All while not being indoors in any space for more than 10 minutes – I’ll get my cardio racing through the aisles.

Weird fucking times man, weird fucking times.

Little Christmas tree all lit up
O Christmas Tree…
Posted in Miscellany | Tagged | Leave a comment

Can we stop being #1?

Posted on December 3, 2020 by A Dreamer

The US is breaking coronavirus records all over the place, and I just can’t wrap my head around these the numbers, or the fact that we KNOW what we need to do, and we’re just not doing it.

I feel like people in the US loosely fall into three groups:

– Folks who have severely limited their activities and contacts continuously since March.
– Folks who genuinely do not care and/or do not think it’s a big deal.
– Folks who think “well, if the government is letting all these things stay open, it must be safe, because if it was truly unsafe, things would be closed.”

Group 1, we shouldn’t mess with them. Group 2, I don’t think we *can* do anything about them. Group 3, though? YO, GOVERNMENT, CLOSE SHIT DOWN AND PAY PEOPLE.

I’m hearing rumblings about a Senate stimulus bill – no direct payments. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be getting money to businesses that are hurting, because we should. But I think we all know from experience that those funds rarely get into the hands of the employees. That big corporate tax cut? I was told “OK, nobody likes 45, but we’ll be able to hire more folks and/or do better raises.” Neither one happened.

JUST SEND PEOPLE CHECKS ON A REGULAR BASIS. HELL, MAKE IT RETROACTIVE TO LAST MARCH. You want to see a hella positive impact to the economy? That will fucking do it. Tax the fucking billionaires who have profited insanely over the last 8 months and just do it. Be the fucking commie-pinko-lib-socialists I’ve been told you are and GET MONEY TO PEOPLE.

This morning I heard a clip of Pres-elect Biden on the radio – I think it was a round table type thing, but he said, “I don’t want you to give up. Please don’t give up. We’re going to get through this.” I choked up a bit – both from the level of empathy that has been so absent this past 4 years, and knowing that we’re not all going to get through this – and so many haven’t gotten through this.

It didn’t have to be this way, and I will never, ever forgive or forget how the government utterly abandoned its people – not just 45 and his administration, but every R Rep & Senator, and every Governor that followed along in lockstep because they didn’t want to get yelled at on Twitter. There is blood on every one of their hands, and I hope they are haunted by it to their last days.

To everyone reading – stay home, mask up when you do go out, wash your hands, get takeout, don’t do “little bubble gatherings”, don’t go hang out in places just because they’re open. PLEASE. Do all this for the folks who can’t work at home, do it for yourself, do it for your family and friends.

I know we’re all seriously fucking tired of this – but we’re all we’ve got at this point.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day

Posted on December 2, 2020 by A Dreamer

And thank the goddesses, we have some sun today. Those winter blues are hitting a bit harder this year and yesterday was very dark & grey and pretty much pitch black by 5PM. No bueno.

I also had a depressing thought this morning – all those anti-maskers out there are probably gonna be anti-vaxxers, too. I’d say that Biden & Harris and their spouses should get the vax on camera, but I doubt that would change minds. (Still think they should make a big to-do of it.)

I realize I’m preaching to the choir here, but hey, you! Please get your vaccine when it’s available! It will help everyone around you! I’m last on the list and the more of y’all that get it before me – that helps me, and I APPRECIATE IT!

And to every commentator out there going, “Well, it’s going to take a while to get it distributed” – I know, I know, but let me be excited and make plans anyway. Since Pfizer & Moderna announced their results, it’s been a very large scale version of reading the menu before going to the restaurant for me. Hell, I’m excited that I’ll be able to clear my throat in public without scaring people.

I thought of another thing I may do once I can – get a massage! I haven’t gotten one in years, I LOVE them, and it would seem that I’ve got a few pandemic related knots all over my body that could use a bit of professional mashing.

I’M GONNA CONTRIBUTE SO MUCH TO THE LOCAL ECONOMY NEXT YEAR.

I’m not making dinner reservations just yet, but I am really looking forward to doing normal day to day shit again and it feels good to know yes, it will happen.

We just gotta get through the winter. We can do this.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tuuuuuuuuesday

Posted on December 1, 2020 by A Dreamer

According to some, the worst day of the week. All I know is that I’m not fully awake yet or really ready for the day in any way, shape or form.

Near a month after the election, I am still having weird assed dreams about it. This one was that 45 was claiming that because they couldn’t find a single democrat who hadn’t criticized Biden at some point in his career, no one could have voted for him. TOTALLY NORMAL.

My political fatigue is setting in – the right is saying Neera Tanden is pretty much far left Satan (she was mean to R’s!) and red rose Twitter is acting like she’s Attila the Hun, and I’m just sitting here going, “IDK, she seems vaguely competent, which is better than anything we’ve had for 4 years…” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having to pay intense attention to every damn last tiny thing an administration does for four years is NOT NORMAL and it’s tiring. (I know, marginalized folks in this country are throwing me some side eye on this. I know.)

I just want to be able to trust that Biden will put decent enough folks in place and they’ll do a decent job. Yes, we’ll have to do some shouting to get some more progressive policies out of them, but everyone losing their shit when we’re still what, 50 days from inauguration day is a bit wearing. (Though I will say the reactions to a comms team that is all women has been…satisfying. WHAT, YOU COULDN’T FIND A SINGLE GUY? Can’t imagine how that must feel.)

OK, time to go grind those gears. Have a good day, and hey, it’s Giving Tuesday – if you’ve already blown you annual charity budget and can’t give, you’re not a bad person. If you are giving – think about the groups that don’t have a big team of people to promote their organizations today.

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments