We made it!!
In kinda cool news, Virginia has a contact tracing app! Definitely designed with privacy in mind, only uses low-energy bluetooth and if folks actually download it and use it, it could be a lot of help. Basically all it does it exchange a calling card with other phones. If you have a calling card of someone who has updated their app to positive and you spent more than 15 minutes w/that calling card, it alerts you. That’s it.
Got mine downloaded yesterday. Get it!!
Just woke the fuck up with anxiety this morning. Not sure if it was weird dreams, or you know, the whole fucking world being what it is.
And the explosion in Beirut? My god, I can’t even imagine that on top of everything else that Lebanon is going through.
We have our Q2 town hall at work tomorrow – that should be interesting. Hopefully they won’t say something that makes me want to chuck my laptop out a window, but I should probably duct tape it to my desk to be sure.
Go get ’em kiddos.
All day yesterday, the county was putting out message after message about being prepared for Isaias. And that’s when I realized the pandemic has really taken it out of me – any other year, I would have been all over it. This year, it was all I could do to just make sure the emergency radio/flashlight got charged up.
We do have water and non-perishable food should the power crap out, but I was just very – “no, I can’t, I’m very, very tired.”
Hopefully it will just be a bit on the very damp side.
Oh and yesterdays desire to go back to bed vs work was spot on – it wasn’t a *bad* day, just one of those days filled with moments where you’re going “WHY?!!?” Hopefully today will have a little less of that.
Stay safe & dry.
I felt so bad for the morning shift crew – to walk into a stack of online orders must have been a hell of a way to get the day going.
I do need to handwash the cold brew pitcher today and get back on the make it myself bandwagon – it’s cheaper, even with the special beach coffee and well, I get up at 7 and if they don’t open until 8…
It will go back to being a weekend/post-grocery treat.
In other news, I don’t feel like working today. No specific reason, just that the weekend wasn’t really long enough. (As though it ever is.)
Welp, time to go to the thing. Hang in there.
But it does track with being a Monday. Got up, put in Starbucks mobile order*, go to the shop and…
It’s dark, locked, and not opening until 8AM. This change happened sometime since Friday and I didn’t even notice the sign, because well, I never thought there would be a day I was awake before they were open. (Or that they would forget to adjust it on their computers and allow orders when they were closed.)
They have been slowly reducing their hours since they reopened, I guess they’re still not getting the morning business they need, but 8 seems a bit late to me.
So, I guess I’ll go back at 8 and pick up my order – that’s going to be a bit of a shitshow given that I was not the only one who put in an order at 7 this morning and found myself staring at a locked door.
It’s hardly the end of the world, but not exactly the most auspicious start to the day.
*The cold brew pitcher is in the not-yet-full dishwasher, and I’ve got one day left on a bonus star challenge.
And hit the farmers market today. OK, my overwhelming desire for locally grown tomatoes just won out over everything else. I convinced myself that it’s basically an outside grocery store, and distance + masks + outside is reasonably safe. They had directional controls (little kludgy in some spots, but overall good,) and distancing marks, and everyone was on their best pandemic behavior, SO WE ALL GET TOMATOES!!
Not pictured below – cheddar garlic bread, pumpkin bread, lettuce mix, spring onions, and black bean & corn salad. It was a good trip.
Tomatoes and pepper and nuts!
The stall where I usually get my pints of cherry-tomatoes-of-all-colors wasn’t there – they’re quite small, and may just be hunkering down and staying hyper local this year. I do hope they’re still in business and back next year.
My brother is very excited for bacon tomato sandwiches, and I have all the fixings for tomato cheese salads, and just plain ol’ excellent salads.
I should have gotten braver sooner on this one.
And GDP dropped 32.9% in Q2 – holy shit. Fuck, if we were going to take that much of a hit, we might as well have TAKEN CARE OF PEOPLE.
Makes my company’s Q2 numbers look even better, to be sure. In other work news, our CEO did a little video yesterday and hit every box in buzzword bingo and said *nothing* – it was actually impressive, LOL. (Seriously, I listened twice because I thought I must have gotten distracted and missed something the first time.) But what he didn’t say – welp, that was clear, pay cuts will not be rescinded early. Guessing they’re expecting Q3 to be a bloodbath.
But, it’s Friday, I’m still employed, and we have a half day to boot.
Yesterday, I got off work, grabbed a beer and parked myself on the porch and watched my brother getting the recycling together and out to the curb and mentioned that he was being all productive while I sat on my ass. He pointed out that I had worked – but honestly? It doesn’t feel like an actual productive use of my time, which is very weird. (I genuinely like my job, do not get me wrong, but my brain thinks it’s not “productive”.)
OK, time to go be…not productive, LOL. Have an excellent Friday.
Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter of 2020, the worst economic slump in modern American history. https://t.co/m9ciPdgA52
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) July 30, 2020
But I did – our parent companies Q2 financials were published today. We took a small hit on revenue, and net income was far in excess of the cuts in expenses, as I suspected – we could have had the same expenses as Q1 and still come out well ahead. I’ll be very interested to see what Q3 brings. (What I’d really like to see is a message from our CEO when I log on later saying they’re rescinding the pay cuts. I’m not holding my breath – but they have to know that WE CAN SEE THESE NUMBERS.)
Saw my first unmasked person out in the wild this morning – I had picked up my Starbucks and there was a woman walking up to the door w/no mask and just as she started to grab the door handle, you could literally see her go, “Shit, my mask!” and turn around to go back to her car. I will say, folks in my area have been really good about it.
The rest of the state? Well, as of yesterday, our 7 day rolling total of new cases is back to where it was at the end of May. We’re not back to our previous peak, but really damn close. My county is holding pretty well, but honestly, it looks like Phase 3 may have been a mistake, and there needs to be a serious look at *why* non-compliance is a problem in some places. Don’t just enforce, figure out *what* is going on.
Had to pop into the market this morning for cat treats (some things cannot wait for the curbside pickup) – ran into my favorite gal that works there. It was so nice to get to see her and chat for a few minutes. She said, “We notice when our regulars are gone!” She agreed that the curbside pickup is pretty great and that spending more than a few minutes in a store really isn’t fun these days. (And she is stuck there ALL DAY…)
OK, time to go do the thing and somehow stick it to the man at the same time…
So, our parent company declared a dividend for Q2. (They’re public, it was publicly announced, this is not inside/confidential information.) Same amount as the last two quarters to boot. The financials for Q2 will be released tomorrow morning. I’ll be very interested to see where else my damn pay cut went. Our share price isn’t even down YTD. It took a hit in March like the rest of the market and has come back and then some since then.
I am so, so salty that the employees had to take hits so the investor class feels no pain through this. (And no, participating in the ESPP would not have made up for the pay cut. I already invest 40 hours a week in this company.)
Ugh, probably should not have decided to look at this *before* work.
OK, off to go get ground by the gears of capitalism.
Baseball is back and I’m super conflicted about it. Padres are #1 in the NL West, and I’m happy games are back – but we sure as shit haven’t earned this and I don’t think it’s safe. A better person would be boycotting the season altogether. Sadly, it seems I am not that better person.
So many people have voluntarily been on their best pandemic behavior for the last 4+ months – and it’s not enough and we STILL have governors and the feds who flat our refuse to tell the rest of the country to get their damn shit together.
I’m not sure which is more disheartening – individuals who refuse to do something for the greater good, or governments that just go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We can’t do this with only 59% of folks taking precautions.
American fucking exceptionalism.
Source: NY Times – with interactive map
We could have shut everything down. Paid people to stay home safely. Mandated masks early on. Forced business that were essential to make their workplaces safer. Carpet bombed the country with testing, tracing and isolation plans.
But instead we’ve just wasted the last six months and 145,000 people are dead for it, and folks who *have* been trying to do the right thing are looking around and can’t help but feel like it was for nothing.
Businesses are finally going mask-mandatory because they’re realizing the government isn’t going to mandate it and give them any kind of cover.
And the CDC is completely worthless. I never thought that was something I would say, but here we are.
People who have been confirmed with mild to moderate COVID-19 can leave their isolation without receiving a negative test, according to recently revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://t.co/yUDClBIMlM
— NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) July 25, 2020
The closest thing I’ve had to a sit-down restaurant meal in over four months was eating tacos on the farthest corner of the boardwalk at the beach shops, 20+ feet away from another human – I could technically see where I’d usually sit at the taco shop. I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes in a non-grocery retail store, and the last time I spent more than 10 minutes in a grocery store was the end of April. My hair…is something else these days. I have an amazing collection of face coverings that I have been wearing diligently and quite willingly. I took a fucking pay cut that wiped out my disposable income. The last time I hugged another human being was March 13 – 134 days ago.
Tonight, we’ll probably be wild and crazy and do pickup from the local diner. (I am so sick of my own cooking these days, and I really want a patty melt.)
I don’t mind doing these things (well, except the pay cut, still pissed about that.) I very much do mind doing these things while the feds and more than a few governors just dick around and continue to do absofuckinglutely nothing.
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Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female. 