Hump Daaaay!

Posted on May 20, 2020 by A Dreamer

At least for the M-F crowd. Plus we get booted out early Friday and have a much needed long weekend.

No big Memorial Day plans here other than cooking up some brats, and probably sitting on the porch. Pools won’t be opening yet, which is fine, water is too damn cold still, and most years the weather sucks this weekend anyway. Seriously, it’s 53° on May 20th.

It’s been a productive morning already of helping someone from my former department, and letting a product manager know the reason a supposedly released bug fix is still marked as in testing is because it’s not being released until the end of next week.

I’m trying to plot out the rest of my day, and we have Feature A to test, except it’s still not ready. Bug B? Not ready. Feature C? Ready, but ewh, this is dumb, I don’t want to work on this. (I am the best employee some days, LOL.)

But in the absence of other things to tend to, Feature C it is.

But first, some very serious kitty biscuit making from Lily from the other night. No live shot today as she got some new flavored treats yesterday and she’s been gorging on them and is sacked out in the hallway.

Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, kneading on a fleece blanket.
Gotta make the biscuits
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Terrific Tuesday!

Posted on May 19, 2020 by A Dreamer

Gonna take a moment to plug one of my favorite Twitter accounts: CROUTON!! He’s the starring cow on the account at the SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary. They do equine therapy with veterans, and are a sanctuary with horses, pigs, donkeys, geese, and two cows, Crouton & Pumpernickel. They’re not prolific posters, but always have a nice soothing photo or video. Give them a follow and if you have some $$ to spare, it’s nice to help an org that helps both animals & people.

In fucking Covid news, they’re finally doing something sort of resembling large-ish scale, no-docs-note required testing in the county later this week – I don’t have any real details on it except that the news just mentioned it – the county website doesn’t even have info on it. If it’s like the one going on today in a neighboring county, it’s 1K tests and will fill up immediately.

While this is good – there’s no rhyme or reason to it. As it stands now, beyond these drive thru spots (which have been rare) – all testing is through medical outlets, and most folks who aren’t symptomatic or don’t have a known contact aren’t walking into a medical facility to ask for a test, and because our contact tracing has been shit and I have no doubt there are TONS of folks who should be tested that don’t even know it – we aren’t testing enough folks. We need an actual specific testing PLAN that is proactive – what we have is still reactive and scattershot.

Our cases by zip code map might as well just be an income/housing density map. Make a plan to get into the hardest hit zip codes/neighborhoods, test EVERYONE and move out from there. Provide financial support for anyone who has to quarantine.

Is that a perfect approach? Probably not, but it would be an actual coordinated approach, which we do not appear to have right now.

It’s very frustrating, because the way things are now, we’re never going to be able to safely do shit until there is a vaccine, and because we’re *not* providing adequate financial support to people, we’re going to keep seeing community spread because folks can’t afford to stay home and be safe.

On a bit of a hilarious (and sad) note – rolling bumper tables so you can social distance at the bar. It’s so very Ocean City. (Not even worth it as far as I’m concerned, but it was good for a laugh.)

As I tell the LilyMonster around this time every morning, it’s time to go do the thing. You have a good day.

Lily, a black & orange tortoiseshell cat, sleeping on a fleece blanket.

Quite the supervisor

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OK, let’s try this again…

Posted on May 18, 2020 by A Dreamer

We are up to day 65 of everything normal fully going the fuck out the window, but we’re gonna muck through another day the best we can.

The news just said, “Hey, we made it to 8AM!” so seems they’re struggling a bit, too.

They’re covering businesses and such reopening. We’re gonna see a hella June surge, because we still don’t have capacity to properly trace/track/isolate. Hell, last weekend a woman in California went to church on Sunday, popped positive on Monday and there are 180 exposed folks out there.

I understand that businesses need to reopen because the federal assistance was shit, but it’s going to be a disaster.

Since the beginning of March, I’ve kept a little spreadsheet of where I’ve been and when. When the first two cases popped in Northern Virginia, I waited and waited for any kind of announcement of “Hey, if you’ve been in place X on day Y, please get in touch the health department” – like they do every time there is a measles case in the area. And it never happened, not for those cases or any since then. That is still utterly mind blowing to me.

*Now* the state is talking about hiring upwards of 1000 contact tracers. I’m not saying it’s worthless at this point, but the horses are out of the barn and three counties away.

Alrighty. I’ve got a bigassed cup o joe, and an income to go earn.

Let’s do this.

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Jesus, even the mundane shit is hard.

Posted on May 17, 2020 by A Dreamer

Fucking coffee syrup. I know two day shipping is out the window these days, I am at peace with that.

Order bottle 5/6, get “it’s shipped!” notification same day. But, printing the shipping label <> shipped.

Stays in “label printed” status for multiple days, I order a bottle from a different seller, email first seller on 5/12 and ask if UPS is actually going to be picking up the package.

“Oh, all the 5/6 orders have processed!” 10:30 PM on 5/12, it magically arrives at the carrier facility.

It’s currently in Laurel, MD and theoretically will be here in the next day or so.

The backup bottle? It was off to the races until it got put on the wrong truck in Baltimore and then was lost in Elizabeth, NJ.

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Well, I tried.

Posted on May 17, 2020 by A Dreamer

But 3 miles and near an hour later, I’m still as annoyed as when I kicked myself out of the house.

Parents, your kids aren’t free gardening labor. It’s *your* fucking yardwork.

And what the fuck is this shit?

A Bush in a screened in any

And now is the GREATEST time to do things like leafblowing ON YOUR ROOF.

Dinner had best sort itself out, cause I’m not in the mood to do jack shit.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

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Super Sunday!

Posted on May 17, 2020 by A Dreamer

Or something like that, I don’t even know anymore, LOL.

I’ve hit the point of stay at home where I’m starting to get pissy with people who appear to have all this free time and energy. Folks are remodeling their houses with kitchen utensils and I am perpetually in need of a nap.

The most adult and responsible thing I’ve done outside of work in the past 3 days is reorder the cleaning fish for my humidifier.

The federal response continues in its staggering incompetence:

“Oh, they’re totally sterile proper swabs for collection, we just put them in the wrong boxes.” Bitch, please. I continue to be completely done with these fuckwits.

I’m tired and frustrated and angry and I’d really like to not be, but I don’t see that changing anytime soon. :/

And as I write this, my friend with the PhD is Psychology just posted an article entitled, “You need to walk outside every day.”

*Takes stock of current mood*
*Think about last time I went for walk*
Oh.

Maybe it’s time for a jaunt around the block.

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IT’S FRIDAY!!!

Posted on May 15, 2020 by A Dreamer

And yes, the days are kinda meaningless and it’s not like I have any big weekend plans, but hey, FRIDAY! And we’ve gotten through 64 days of this shitshow!

I forgot to call the cable company yesterday, and I’m in morning chat show hell again, LOL. I will say, the local Fox affiliate of all things is better than the Today show. The weather guy is attempting to make cowboy coffee and the general consensus is that it sucks. Protip: Much like with a french press, you have to let it sit longer than any instructions say to.

Baseball. Gawd, folks, just call the season already and do it right next year. They’re talking about tons of testing, etc – but the minute one player tests positive, the whole team is going to have to go into quarantine for two weeks. That’s not going to work when *one* team is affected, and when it’s more than one team? Plus, it puts the stadium, transportation, and hospitality workers at unnecessary risk, and the fans. Next season will be far sweeter if we’re not mourning more dead.

Last weekend we had freeze warnings and today it’s going to be in the mid-to-high 80s. We had approximately two days of nice spring 70s weather in the past two months. DC “spring” is stupid.

My salon was planning on opening today, but they’ve now sent out a “Sorry, we’ll try again later” email – I’m not upset that Fairfax County has pushed back Phase I. Our numbers are still shit, so it’s the right thing to do. Frankly, I don’t think the state numbers as a whole look that great either – our testing still isn’t anywhere near where it needs to be – but what the hell do I know.

My company is starting the planning for when folks can come back in, and I will give them credit – they are making it opt-in. They sent out a survey about it, and I think they will find most folks will be opting out. If I wasn’t already permanent remote, I wouldn’t set foot in an office anytime soon. (And honestly, I think maintaining distance is hella easier at home than in an office, and we have done just fine with everyone remote.) In the last couple years, they’ve been trying to hire folks into local offices vs. remote (cause it seems we leased too much office space) – which is dumb, because it unnecessarily restricts the talent pool you’re drawing on, and working in an office sucks. Time to just write off those lease costs and plan on scaling back when the renewal comes around. Folks aren’t coming back to a petri dish.

Welp, time to go rent my brain out for a while. You give yourself a pat on the back for making it to yet another Friday!

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Confession Thursday…

Posted on May 14, 2020 by A Dreamer

I went to Starbucks this morning. I had to run up to the gas station and well, as long as I was out anyway… It was busier than the other day, but I hadn’t been thinking about the fact they don’t have that pre-commute rush anymore, so still kinda sparse for 7AM on a weekday. They have a setup that works – mobile ordering only, you poke your head in and let them know you’re there, if your order isn’t ready yet, you go stand on one of the taped off boxes outside. A touch kludgy, but safe. AND I HAVE A VERY LARGE STARBUCKS TREAT!

Speaking of gas stations – if you’re looking for hand sanitizer, check your local gas station. Our has had hand sanitizer for a couple weeks now, and they’ve added masks & bandanas to their inventory. The sanitizer is an industrial/generic brand, but one whiff of what was in the bottle, and it is *definitely* hand sanitizer. They’re really proud of the fact that they have it, and it’s really sweet – very much “hey community, we have an important thing to help!!”

Northern Virginia is not moving to Phase I this Friday, with the Governor’s blessing, which is definitely for the best. Unlike Wisconsin, where folks are just fucked (and stupid):

And dammit, the BBC News channel is out *again* for me. It’s not just that one, it appears to be a series of non-HD channels that don’t have an HD equivalent, but the BBC News is the one I actually watch every morning. When I called the other day, the tech said that if the resets he did on his end didn’t work, they usually sent out new cable cards for TiVo’s – I’ll be calling later today to see if they can send me a couple. I should probably order some new coax cable, cause who knows the last time that was replaced. As SwiftOnSecurity says, it’s usually the cables.

I’m watching the Today show instead and my god, it’s painful. So. Much. Blather.

OK, I’m gonna go do some capitalism, you stay safe and healthy.

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Fairly certain it’s Wednesday…

Posted on May 13, 2020 by A Dreamer

If nothing else, it’s definitely a weekday.

Tuesdays are now grocery pickup day. Giant/Peapod has been great, if a little wonky. If you put something in your basket and it goes out of stock before you your final checkout, you used to get a popup saying they’d taken it out of the basket. That popup doesn’t seem to be happening anymore, so there is the added challenge now of trying to figure out what isn’t on the list anymore when I open the app, LOL.

After pickup yesterday, I hit Starbucks since they’ve reopened for grab & go. OH MY GOD IT TASTED SO GOOD. And it was so nice to see the folks there and they were all “CINDY!!” and they’re all doing OK and it was just very nice. Given it was midday there wasn’t anyone else there, so it was easy, but I’m not really sure how they’re handling this in the mornings when it’s usually busy, but they do have areas marked off outside and boxes taped off on the ground, so there is some kind of plan. May make a treat run Saturday when I have time to just kinda stand by my car and watch and figure out how it’s working.

We had another department meeting yesterday, and I’ll give them credit, they’re saying the right words. Don’t know if I believe them because I have become a cynical bastard in my old age. And today they announced they’re bringing in a motivational speaker for a couple webinars which kinda blew it all. In the midst of cost cutting, I don’t even want to know what we spent on that, cause I don’t think this dude is doing these for free. It will be interesting to see how eyeroll inducing these are.

But, hey, I’m here, you’re here, so hey, it’s not all bad.

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Watching the UK this morning

Posted on May 11, 2020 by A Dreamer

Boris Johnson is trying to open things up and the rest of UK leadership is responding with “Fuck that noise.” (Seriously, “stay alert” – what the hell?)

Northern Virginia appears to be taking the same route with regards to Virginia’s reopening, as are the Maryland suburbs on the other side of the river. That being said, the pronouncements so far have been a bit mealy mouthed and I’d really like to see something more forceful from my county.

In healthy coping mechanism news, I did a virtual 5K yesterday for the Friends of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter! I walked it, but damn I am slow even taking that into account! :) Maybe next year we can have a real one.

In “of course” news, Politico is reporting that the US supply chain is basically shit for vaccines. Made worse by our ridiculous refusal to work with the world community on a vaccine. Of. Fucking. Course. So, given our track record so far, sounds like vaccines will be available the way testing has been – the NBA will be fully vaccinated while the rest of us will be sitting for god knows how long around trying to figure out how not to get infected before we can get vaccinated – as government and employers force people out and about saying, “there’s a vaccine”.

It’s interesting to watch the BBC in the mornings. The folks in the UK are tired and frustrated and scared, just like everyone else. But, they’re not running about protesting staying home. Parents are ready to get the kids out of the house and back to school, but not ready to do it at the risk of folks health. Well, it’s pretty much like every other country outside the US – folks actually giving a shit about their fellow humans. And here, we have assholes running around having their white supremacist gun rallies ranting about “freedom”.

America has always been seriously problematic to put it mildly, and I guess I shouldn’t have expected better when we really needed to look out for our citizens, especially with this administration.

OK, time to go keep the economy going.

You have a good day, OK?

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