Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

So, what was I doing a year ago today… Oh, whatever I wanted. What was that like again?

In some good news, it seems our pay cuts start with the first full pay period in May vs. the first paycheck in May. That, or I seriously hosed my withholding form, cause I’m no accountant, but I’m pretty sure when your gross pay goes down, your net pay should not go up. Oh wait, I am an accountant, it definitely shouldn’t do that.

My salon is really confident that the Governor will announce that Phase 1 that will start on 5/15 and they’re opening. They’ve got all kinds of precautions in place, everyone masked & gloved, no more than 10 in the salon, extra cleaning, etc, etc. Despite the fact that my roots are ridiculous, I’ll hold off, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T DISTANCE WHILE GETTING YOUR HAIR DONE. And I’m not going to put my stylist & wonderful shampoo gal at risk for highlights no one is going to see anyway.

In other Covid related news, the compiler that VDH has been using to tally all the numbers shit the bed night before last, so while I am sure they’ve tallied it up by hand for the Governor, the rest of us still are looking at numbers from 5/5. I am sure there are folks looking at this and seeing some conspiracy to hide numbers. I work for a software company – trust me, there is just some dev out there going, FUUUUUUUUUUCK. As a data junkie, I am very annoyed at no information, but my god I feel for whoever is trying to fix this.

Speaking of opening and such – NPR has a good article w/recommended benchmarks for states, and Virginia is just not there yet. We should be hitting 16K+ tests a day and a positive case rate of 10% or less. We’re not even averaging 5K tests a day yet and our positives are nowhere near 10%. I just can’t help but wonder what things would look like if the feds had actually HELPED with mass testing from the get-go, but instead the Cheeto in Chief is still blaming China instead of actually doing anything.

But hey, we’re still here and let’s all survive this out of sheer spite if nothing else.

For a few minutes this morning, I thought it was Thursday. Alas, it is not. (For anyone that needs to know – it is Wednesday.)

Had my first “whoa, why isn’t anyone social distancing” moment in a dream last night. I suspect that won’t be the last one, and I’m kind of surprised it took this long to have one.

Ocean City’s beach & boardwalk is opening this weekend. Well, that’s stupid.

Adventures in grocery shopping… Yesterday got the message “your order will be ready for pickup at 2, here’s what you got” – clicked and milk was not there. Well, shit – milk hasn’t been an issue since plague panic Friday. But, determined to NOT let this derail my day (and trust me, that was an option,) I go to 7-11 first, grab a gallon, go do the pickup, they bring out the cart – and the milk is right there on top. Lesson learned: The “what you got” link only has what they’ve put in your cart so far and milk is the very last thing they put in. BUT BOY HOWDY DO WE HAVE MILK.

With everyone staying home, guess what else is getting a little harder to find quickly? Coffee syrups. Realizing today that I need to schedule those reorders a little sooner than before. So many weird little adjustments. (Yes, I realize that as a society we have been utterly spoiled by availability and shipping speeds. I’m OK with that being redirected for health care purposes.)

Last night, Rachel Maddow went off on the meat processing industry (quite rightly) and it was satisfying. Seriously, how do you look around at what is going on and just…do nothing? You can’t process anything if all your workers are sick, dumbfucks.

In a good but weird turn – it seems my hands are starting to finally get used to the seemingly constant handwashing. Could be the slightly warmer weather, or my body has just gone, “send all the oils to the hands!” – but I am not feeling like I constantly need to dunk my hands in a vat of hand lotion. This may also be in part due to switching at least one bathroom to some of the inventory of fancy assed bar soaps I have on hand. (I used to think Softsoap was great, now I kinda hate it. My fancy soap habit may be paying off.)

Welp, go be your best socially distanced self today!

There will be no 2020 season of Love Island. While I can’t say I ever watched this particular program, it does make me wonder how many other shows won’t be able to safely restart production this year. To the Love Island fans out there – I am sure this sucks for you.

Somehow it is Monday, AGAIN. I mean, it’s good that we made it here, but ugh, Monday, yet again. We really need a 4 day workweek. And not just because I’m a bit of a lazy ass who spent half her Sunday day drinking on the porch and then went straight to bed.

This week we get our first salary cut paychecks, combined with the new W4 forms being taken into account, and I still have no idea if I filled it out right, so that will be exciting. I’m a damn accountant, and I struggled with that new POS form. All I could tell for sure is the default W4 will result in massive over-withholding – we’ll see if the numbers I jammed in will be anything close to what they should be.

Our farmers markets are opening up here a couple weeks and they’re putting precautions in place for social distancing and such, including order ahead from vendors (YAY!) but I am still cringing a little over it. As much as I very much want to go – I’ll probably hold out for a while. I really am going to be the last person to re-enter society, aren’t I?

Well, time to go and pretend like I’m functioning and test some software. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That should be good for a laugh if nothing else.

I have to run errands today. It’ll do me good to get out of the house, but it’s a hassle I’m not totally in the mood for just yet. I probably need more coffee.

Just went out to start my car since it seems like it’s been forever, but looking at my list of where I’ve been, I guess it was only Monday? The good news is that the car did start!

With the meat case at the grocery store being so hit or miss (and possibly taking another panic hit with all the reports of meat processing plants being closed) I know I can’t count on the pickup service for it, especially since they don’t appear to be any substitutions going on.

So, in person marketing today to see what the meat case has to offer, and grab a couple things that didn’t make the last pickup. (I still don’t believe they ran out of orange marmalade of all things, but OK.) Annnnd I just looked at the site and they’re limiting meat purchases, so I’m guessing it will be totally wiped out when I go in – or maybe it will be OK because folks won’t be able to buy 20 pounds of porkchops in a single go. We’ll see.

I’ll still keep Tuesday’s pickup order, as we’ll be right at the point of needing milk & coke, and even if I drop the meat items off the order, it will be easy enough to get back to the $30 minimum via BEER!

And if the meat case is decimated, it’s off to the proper butcher shop. It’s more expensive, but it’s insanely good quality, it’s a great local business, and they have things in stock. I usually reserved a trip to their shop for special occasions, but if a pandemic doesn’t count as a special occasion, I don’t know what does.

I went to their Facebook page to see if there were any operating changes, and they are requiring all folks to be masked up in the store and have them if you don’t have one. Fine by me. One of the first comments was “Well, you’ve lost my business!” – it was reassuring to see the near universal response of “Welp, bye Coronavirus Karen!”

No one I know enjoys wearing masks out and about. It’s weird and can be claustrophobic. It can feel like plague theatre because of all the mixed messages we’ve gotten on them over the past 3 months. But it’s also a very easy thing to do and it’s not going to hurt, that’s for sure. Just do it.

It’s so weird to have to put so much thought and planning into something as seemingly simple and ordinary as grocery shopping. (I can hear my grandmother’s voice going, WELL DURING THE WAR… Yes, gran, I know.)

But, there will be a treat at the end of all this today. POTBELLY! (It’s right next to the butcher shop, and even if I don’t have to go to the butcher shop today, it’s still happening.) So, since everything went to shit on 3/13, we’ve gotten takeaway 3 other times. I got Potbelly on 3/14 after a day very much like today of “will there be anything in the meat case?” and I was sad and hungry and exhausted. My brother got donuts the next morning (and that was the last time he went anywhere.) And pizza about two weeks ago. I know we should probably be taking more advantage of all the takeout options available, but at the same time, I’m weirdly proud of all our eating in?

And then the other big exciting plan for the day is some trial hair dying. BWAHAHAHA, my hairstylist is gonna hate me when this is all over.