Oh noes

Posted on April 6, 2021 by A Dreamer

Went to bed early last night, woke up and looked at my phone and saw “Tatis, Jr. Injury Update”

Kid subluxated his shoulder last night. OUCH. OUCH. OUCH.

But, the Padres have built up a solid *team* and losing him for a while shouldn’t be the end of the world.

He’d been a little off the first few games – nothing major, just a couple errors – can’t help but wonder if he felt something loosening up that shouldn’t and was unconsciously protecting that shoulder.

At the risk of sounding super cynical – good job on signing that 14 year contract *before* getting hurt.

And one of our injured pitchers decided to be a douche about masks to fans and I hope the Padres release his sorry ass.

OK, time to go grind some gears for capitalism and hopefully not dislocate my shoulder in the process.

You have a great and safe Tuesday.

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Cue “confused puppy look”

Posted on April 5, 2021 by A Dreamer

Before I bitch about my vaccinations again, I will say that for the mass vax clinics my county is running, I have heard nothing but very good things about them for folks who have gone that route. So, they’re not 100% fucked up. And I promise you, I can’t wait to stop using the Covid tag and just post pictures of Lily and plants I can’t keep alive.

We opened the first half of 1C today (of course, it’s split in two, why we just didn’t have groups 1/2/3/4/5, I don’t know, but that is the state, not the county.)

This group is: Energy, Water/Wastewater/Water Removal, Housing/Construction, Food Service, Transportation/Logistics, and Higher Ed Faculty/Staff. All make sense.

The second half of 1C, not open yet:
Legal Services – yep, if they have to be in court in person or going to jails, do it.
Public Safety Engineers – sure, makes sense.
Other Public Health Workers (probably should have been 1B, but OK.)
Media – I guess I can see that, they’re out and about as far as news reporting and such.
Barbers/Stylists/Hairdressers – they come into contact with a lot of people and we didn’t pay them to stay home safely like we should have so, OK.

But then..

Finance. I mean, beyond retail bank tellers, anyone in corporate finance can work from home. I know this because it was my industry for 15 years.

And finally: Information Technology & Communications. Hell, this could very well be the rest of the damn county as broad as that is. I can see trying to prioritize communications, even as broad as that is, but just “Information Technology” is so broad it’s useless.

$1 says my county skips 1C-2 altogether and goes straight to everyone.

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I am so confused.

Posted on April 5, 2021 by A Dreamer

Ran up to grab coffee this morning and went into the pharmacy at the market to see about getting on a vaccine waitlist.

They’re not doing waitlists(!!!) and she said they’re not doing direct appointments – they get a list from the county every day and that’s it. Except their website says you can make an appointment if you’re eligible – along with all the other local pharmacies.

So…I can only guess that no one has programmed in zip code level exceptions into the pharmacy websites to say “you have to go through the county” (which is a huge miss, IMO) or the pharmacist is wrong. And honestly, it could be either one.

So, I’ll just stay ready to register both with the county and search the websites as well come 4/18.

Why my county decided they had to do their own damn thing completely separate from the rest of the state is beyond me. They just said last week, “Uh, we need 250 more vaccinators.” I mean, you knew you had 900K people that would need vaccinations for a while now.

Yes, we’re the biggest county in the state, but we’re not a fucking island here, and we should be working with the state as a whole, not as some fucked up independent entity.

Watch me end up getting an appointment in the county next door somehow.

Posted in COVID19 | Tagged | 2 Comments

Congrats, Southern Virginia!

Posted on April 4, 2021 by A Dreamer

You’re in vaccination group 2!! Go start refreshing web pages like crazy!

No word on if Fairfax will be there before 4/18, and honestly – I wouldn’t be super shocked if they tried to get a waiver to hold off since we haven’t even opened eligibility to 1c’s yet.

I also think I may see part of the problem we’re having up here – right now we’re at 370K people with at least one shot so far (182K full, 188K w/ one shot), plus another 30K registered with no shots – and those are all 1a/1b – and that is just shy of 44% of our population over the age of 16 in the county.

While I can’t find any data to show how many 1a/b’s we have statewide, I’m guessing in other places in the state it’s not that big a chunk of their population, and if they’ve been allocating vaccines based on county population as a % of state population and not 1a/b population as a % of state population…well, that’s why we’re still catching up.

I know what you’re thinking. “You have an unhealthy obsession with these statistics.”

Yes, yes I do. I really want to understand why it seems our county is behind everyone else. And I want my damn shots.

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I can’t even…

Posted on April 4, 2021 by A Dreamer

So, up until today, my understanding was that everyone in the county had to go through the county health department to get vaccinated. Trust me when I say I’ve been reading the county website and press releases closely.

Come to find out today that all the local pharmacies are allowing people to book appointments directly as long as you’re eligible.

I now have 6 pharmacy websites and the county website bookmarked for the 18th or whenever we go to full eligibility, and tomorrow at lunch, I will be seeing about getting on the waitlist at the local market – cause I literally discovered today that they are doing vaccinations there. (When I asked a while back, the pharmacist had no idea.)

And I’ll probably be asking VaccineFairy for help, too.

I wasn’t in love with the county’s “you can only register with us and only when you’re eligible” – but it was straightforward. Having to find out from a damn Patch article that it’s not actually the only option kinda pisses me off.

Fairfax County, get your shit together.

Posted in Miscellany | 2 Comments

Suck it, Georgia legislature

Posted on April 4, 2021 by A Dreamer

I don’t know about you, but I am enjoying watching the Republicans lose their shit over MLB moving the All Star Game out of Georgia. These asshats have screamed about letting the market decide my entire life and now that it has, well, y’all fucked around and now you’ve found out. I love how Kemp suddenly claims to care about how this will affect people on the ground – I assure you, he does not give a fuck about them. The only thing R’s care about is money, so that’s how you get to them. And then we overcome every damn suppression tactic and vote them the fuck out of office. (Sure, they could put forward actual good policy to get votes, but they can’t be bothered with that kind of pedestrian thinking.)

The other bit of this shitshow that is just kind of amazing to me is the fact that Georgia’s legislature really thought no one would notice or care. They seem to actually be surprised by the pushback.

And my lord, mediocre white men sure do get pissy when you challenge them.

But, they’ve fucked shit up in the country and continually hurt people for what, 400 years now – long past time to step aside and let some other people actually get things done that are good for people living here.

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Happy Easter!

Posted on April 4, 2021 by A Dreamer

Or Happy Sunday, whichever works for you!

If you’re staying at home, THANK YOU. We’re not out of the woods yet, and I know it must suck to miss in person services, but thank you.

I know nobody wanted yet another distanced holiday, and this last stretch is probably going to be the hardest – everyone is hitting a wall – I know I am, and it has been somewhat comforting to know I’m not the only one. We’re all sad and tired and missing just doing stuff. Plus, nothing like watching what seems to be everyone else getting vaccinated while still waiting for your state/county to catch up. (Seeing that there were vax sites in California just taking walkups…just…happy for them, but maddening.)

We’re doing our traditional “sit around the house and have brunch and mimosas and candy” Easter here. Yes, I am 49 years old and we have Easter baskets. Well, Easter gift bags, but I am a sucker for candy wrapped in pastel wrappers. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re too old for an Easter basket.

A gift bag with flowers on it with candy inside
Sugar buzz incoming!

If you’re waiting on vaccinations – hang in there. Eat some candy. Get out and get some sun. Pick out that tattoo you’ve been promising yourself. I know the waiting SUCKS.

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Oh, and here’s some Lily!

Posted on April 3, 2021 by A Dreamer
Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, under a fleece blanket with her head poking out
It was a burrowing kind of morning
Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, sitting on a grey throw pillow
She approves of the satiny pillow covers
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Can we be done please?

Posted on April 3, 2021 by A Dreamer

I’m kinda tired of living in plague times. I would like for my grocery trips to not be me muttering “FUCK” every 2 minutes as I try to get through the store at breakneck speed. I mean, there’s all the other stuff I want, too, but buying milk should not be this stressful.

But, looking at the national vaccination stats – it’s crazy in the best way possible. 27% of the over 18 population is fully vaccinated, and 157 million total doses administered. My county is plugging along, every day a little better – we’ve averaged over 3300 second doses a day over the last week, and the date to full vaccination for everyone over 16 is now in November. Love watching that date move closer.

The state is telling localities they can go all out before 4/18 if they want – no idea what my county is going to do, but I’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for any announcements.

Our cases aren’t coming down nearly fast enough for my taste, though. 153/day for the county & 1415/day for the state over the past 7 days – we’re at November levels, and while it’s well off the peak we had at mid-January, I’d like to see it a fuckton lower. (I know, everyone wants that, too.) Folks are acting like it’s over – sure, we’re definitely getting there, but it’s not over yet.

But that isn’t stopping me from making plans for when it is done, cause it has to end eventually. I found myself pinning haircuts the other night, even though it’s going to still be quite a while before I can actually go in. Also debating going silver-grey on color with a purple or blue streak somewhere in there. Why the hell not?

And down at the beach, Dare County is starting “OBX Safer Spot” with decals for businesses that have a 70% vaccination rate – I love this idea, and I so hope that I see all my favorite businesses with this sticker in the window. I’d love to see it here – it would be great to walk into a business knowing folks have been vaccinated.

I’m trying very hard to temper my excitement, because it’s all still so very far away, but it’s hard – I’m so tired and I want to do regular things again.

Posted in COVID19, Miscellany | Tagged | Leave a comment

YAY, FRIDAY!!!

Posted on April 2, 2021 by A Dreamer

It’s been a whip quick week – first half not quite as bad as I’d prepared for, but still a grind, and we’re almost done! Just have one bug to focus on today and a meeting with IT and our security software vendor to try and figure out why it’s blocking me despite the target website being whitelisted. A very doable day.

And I realized that April 18th is a Sunday, so my brother & I can both work in tandem trying to get registered for vaccinations. I feel like I should send some Starbucks gift cards to the IT folks at the health department – they’re going to have 500K people trying to register on the same day. I am sure there will be some folks who will say, “I can wait for it to calm down a little” – I don’t think I am one of those people.

The big question now is “does registration open at 12:01 AM or something like 8AM?”

Though we have zero control over it, I’m hoping my brother and I can get appointments somewhat close together whenever we do get appointments – it would suck if one of us was vaccinated for an extended period of time while the other was still waiting.

I was talking to a friend out in California last night who just got his second shot and he was saying, “Oh, it has to have been hard to not be able to go to your bar” – it’s sucked to be sure, but, it hasn’t been *hard*? Avoiding covid and trying to keep others safe in the process has been a very, very easy call over the past year. Introversion & caring for others FTW, I suppose.

While I’ve been super excited for everyone getting vaccinated, I’ve not really gotten amped up for the idea of getting vaccinated myself cause being in the last group, and watching how relatively slow it’s been so far, I just couldn’t see it happening anytime soon. And I keep reminding myself that registration <> an appointment anytime soon, but I am getting a little excited.

AND MY PADRES WON THEIR OPENING DAY GAME!!

OK, time to go work SO WE CAN GET TO THE WEEKEND!!!!!

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