COVID-19 - least favourite things. (But I guess you could do favourite things as well)

Sonya Heaney said:

I work from home, so - apart from weekend lunches out and dinners with family - my life hasn't really changed that much. I'm not sure why I suddenly feel so trapped. It doesn't help that even though all my neighbours (and this is usually a lively neighbourhood) are home, I can't see or hear anyone. Even the neighbour's usually loud dog is quiet!

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I hear this.

Today several U.S. national parks closed and so did the Washington state parks. I was terribly concerned about the clog of people who were headed out there and not keeping apart and potentially exposing people in rural areas who don't have as many medical resources as we city folk do. If I were in charge, I would have closed them, too. I had already determined I wasn't going to go to any of them—even though I love escaping into nature and usually do so over the weekend or a holiday break. But when I read that they'd actually close them, I quite literally burst into tears.

It's been a big problem in Vancouver, too. People clogging the beaches, flocking to the hiking and climbing trails, not 'distancing' when walking on the Seawall. Not to mention people wanting to play soccer and basketball and other breath-on-your-neighbour sports.
It's not a freakin' vacation, people! Honestly, the best thing would be a cold spell and a lot of rain.

A new least favorite things: growing reports of people dumping animals at shelters because they fear their pets can spread the virus. In spite of there being no evidence cats or dogs are vectors for this virus (aside from maybe having it on their fur if someone coughs on them), some people are panicking. I don't know if there are cases of landlords telling people to get rid of pets during the epidemic or not. Also, some people are possibly surrendering pets because they are out of work and fear they can't care for them. This is bad, because shelters are closed to the public and already straining their networks of fosterers during this crisis, since they can't hold adoptions.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/19/dog-owner-tried-dump-30-dogs-shelter-coronavirus-crisis-12427261/

It makes me sad to think that we could get to a place where the human tendency to prioritize our needs will lead to the neglect and death of animals.

I am also terrified about how to get care for our own animals if my husband and I both got sick and had to go to a hospital or (if they start having these in the US), containment centers. We usually board our dogs when we can't take them somewhere with us, and have a pet sitter care for our cats. But I doubt she would want to come into a disease-ridden house. And I am imagining the boarding places are going to be over full soon. And one of our dogs is a "special case" who can't be cared for by just anyone, because she is fearful of strangers and shows her fear by biting sometimes (she is a "trainer only" dog at the place we board her, because they know how to win her trust and handle her safely). In any case, how does one transfer one's pets to a kennel without infecting the people there if one is sick?

Something good to add.

My mother, who has a lot of health issues, made the wise decision to isolate herself starting pretty early. The downside to this (well, among many downsides) is that she was getting basically no exercise.

So we've begun doing yoga together apart.

I found some gentle senior chair yoga videos on youtube. We pick one, queue it up and do the exercises at the same time, then have a phonecall "bitchfest" afterward to talk about which parts were most difficult and whatnot.

It's not only a good way to stay active while we're all locked down, it also guarantees she gets regular phone calls and gives us something positive to discuss.

I love that Taz.

Roxxsmom - Try running the carriers through the dishwasher if they're small enough, or washing inside and out in the tub. Then wipe all over the outside with disinfectant wipe after you put the pets in. Or ask whoever ends up taking them what they want you to do.


We are doing OK. *I* was doing OK. We spent 10 days locked inside with no real problem. Then I had to go get groceries. That was hard. Most of them are still out in the car waiting for the virus to die down before we bring them inside. Then yesterday we took the other car out to give it some driving time (it's not great for a car to sit around for weeks without being used) and picked up take-out Indian. YUM.

But that was awful. The food was great! but the gyrations I went through to make sure no contaminated hands that had touched any of the food containers touched any of the dishes was harrowing. I need to do another shopping run and I Just. Don't. Want. To. We had a nice safe cocoon in here, and now I'm introducing potentially contaminated things. ARGH. I've used up more hand sanitizer in the last two days than in the two weeks before that. It's making me very anxious. My wife can't touch anything from outside. The REASON we're so tightly locked down is because of her multiple co-morbidities. So it's all on me to shop, haul, and make sure no virus glitter gets inside the house and kills my wife.

Not sure that this goes here either -- I have muted the word 'Trump' on Twitter for the sake of my health. Apoplexy was going to get me before the virus did.

Helix said:

Not sure that this goes here either -- I have muted the word 'Trump' on Twitter for the sake of my health. Apoplexy was going to get me before the virus did.

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Since it was elected, I have used ������ on Twitter and on one of my blogs where I do a weekly link round-up of interesting stuff

A few weeks ago I started using �������� (Liar Liar Pants On Fire).

Because I'm a grownup.

Being a grownup is hard and I'm not good at it. At all. I just deleted an inappropriate tweet I posted in answer to the current resident's calling Governor Whitmer "in over her head", "clueless", and claiming she blames others for "her own ineptitude". I thought that was rich coming from him but I shouldn't have posted what I did.

Ari Meermans said:

Being a grownup is hard and I'm not good at it. At all. I just deleted an inappropriate tweet I posted in answer to the current resident's calling Governor Whitmer "in over her head", "clueless", and claiming she "blames others for her own incompetence". I thought that was rich coming from him but I shouldn't have posted what I did.

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Does this mean I shouldn't tell Hannity to die in a fire with ten thousand boils for every lie?

Not if you don't feel bad about it, no. And there is justification, after all.

I was just plain mean-spirited.

Oops. I should have paid more attention to getting the quote right: the word used was "ineptitude", not "incompetence", which would seem to indicate his fat little fingers didn't type it.

I think my least favorite thing was the Covid-19 nightmare I had last night. It was a pretty simple one: I needed groceries, and the store was crowded. Absolutely terrifying.

As for good things, I have thirty-one lemon tree seedlings on my patio; my hibiscus is throwing out healthy new leaves and flowers; my roses are getting ready to bloom; my oregano is plotting global domination; and a pair of cardinals have taken to my bird feeder.

Least favorite:
A few things. One, I'm a teacher. My district is huge, and spans really rich schools and really poor schools. Mine is the latter. Half my kids don't own computers, and so our district has basically not given us ANYTHING to do. This isn't a vacation. This is torture. I have 27 kids who, for some, have school at their safe place, and I can't provide that for them. I don't get to see their faces, I don't get to hear their laughs, see their smiles, help them learn. I'm not even really able to teach from home right now. It's not cool.

Also...about the virus, I gotta admit, I'm scared. I have asthma. If I get it, there is a big chance that it could be life threatening, and something like that is really freaky.

Wariforever, so sorry to hear that your school district just abandoned your students. I suspect that there's a lot of that going on, everywhere. Too many assumptions are being based on everybody having access to a computer, or, at least, a cell-phone. It will come as a shock to your district that not everyone can recieve a text message.
At the very least, they could have given every student a couple of notebooks and either a list of topics, or instructions to keep a diary. Like the Tazlima's plan of yoga with her mother, at least it might encourage the students to pay attention, in order to have things to write about.
All my best to all of you.

We did manage to get them a packet, but like, there's no accountability to that. I'm planning on meeting with them on Zoom tomorrow (since they can get on with cell phones too!) so hopefully that goes well! I've managed to call some of them but some of them I haven't heard from at all D:

I've also started reading HP and the Goblet of Fire (The book we WOULD be reading in class) to them every weeknight. I would love for them to keep a diary. If I would have had a chance to say goodbye, I would have put something in place :O

Thank you

Ari Meermans said:

Being a grownup is hard and I'm not good at it. At all. I just deleted an inappropriate tweet I posted in answer to the current resident's calling Governor Whitmer "in over her head", "clueless", and claiming she blames others for "her own ineptitude". I thought that was rich coming from him but I shouldn't have posted what I did.

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That great brooding presence that currently occupies the White House sees the entire world through a twisted mirror. Everything, yes everything, he accuses others of being is what he in fact is. Speaking of not being a good adult--it makes me think of that childish chant: "I'm rubber, you're glue..."

And that adage about people who live in glass houses being ill advised to throw stones.

Wariforever14 said:

Least favorite:
A few things. One, I'm a teacher. My district is huge, and spans really rich schools and really poor schools. Mine is the latter. Half my kids don't own computers, and so our district has basically not given us ANYTHING to do. This isn't a vacation. This is torture. I have 27 kids who, for some, have school at their safe place, and I can't provide that for them. I don't get to see their faces, I don't get to hear their laughs, see their smiles, help them learn. I'm not even really able to teach from home right now. It's not cool.

Also...about the virus, I gotta admit, I'm scared. I have asthma. If I get it, there is a big chance that it could be life threatening, and something like that is really freaky.

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I hear you (fellow asthma sufferer here). I teach too. In my case it's biology classes at a community college. Some of my students lack computers at home too. We have students falling all over the spectrum in terms of economics.

And many of my students had jobs doing things like driving for Lyft or Uber, working in restaurants or retail sales jobs, or working jobs on campus. All campus casual/hourly workers are essentially laid off now, unless someone can find a way for them to provide some service from home. A few of my pre-nursing students work in health care jobs, so they're slammed right now and barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone do school. And many have kids at home, which are a constant distraction.

And our district has just informed us we should be prepared to offer course offerings online in the fall too. And we all just know some administrators will use the fact that we instructors put in extra time and did the best we could to adapt to this horrific situation as a rationale for trying to force us to put more and more of our courses online. Administrators adore online education. They seem to be the only ones that do, aside from a handful of instructors who have really long commutes.

Asthma doesn't seem like it's so bad most of the time, but then when something like this happens...well, I don't trust my lungs one bit. Not with this virus. So I'm staying put as long as I have to, unfortunately. It's not worth the risk. Luckily, my husband is a good, smart boy and doesn't mind XD

It's bad when my dad, who is a doctor, basically told my husband that he's worried if I get this I'll die. Thanks Dad.

Gosh, I can't even imagine doing online school in the fall, but I suppose if this keeps up and we don't get a vaccine or something, it could easily happen!

Least favorite: worry about the majority of my family that are essential employees, one of which is a firefighter. My ex-husband is sick this weekend and my son was with him last week, so we're worried it could be Covid-19, in which case we've all been exposed, including the firefighter as I watch her son when she is on-shift. I'm a single mom and just started dating this year, so yeah, not a good time for my love life. I'm a teacher for an online school, so I'm still working full-time (from home, thankfully), but my son (and bonus kid) need to be entertained and fed and helped with school work and separated when fighting, so that's a lot. The willful ignorance and greediness and misinformation are hugely annoying and frightening. Also, my county (and the only hospital in it) aren't taking the threat seriously and are mishandling the entire situation. My local hospital is the one in WA that just fired that doctor the other day for speaking out about how badly this is being managed.

Favorite: I get lots of time with my son, which he needed for his anxiety and he finally stopped asking me constantly if I was going to leave him. In regard to dating, guys can't complain about having to text for weeks before meeting I can't go out and spend money on restaurants or things I don't need at stores or craft fairs, so my savings is getting a decent boost (though we have ordered food to go from small local places to help them out).

gradually_ladylike said:

... Also, my county (and the only hospital in it) aren't taking the threat seriously and are mishandling the entire situation. My local hospital is the one in WA that just fired that doctor the other day for speaking out about how badly this is being managed.....

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Wow that sucks, and is quite foolish. Hospitals here in King County will hire him on the spot.

Roxxsmom said:

Administrators adore online education. They seem to be the only ones that do, aside from a handful of instructors who have really long commutes.

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Not just school administrators.
There are a lot of employers drooling at the thought of getting rid of a physical presence. No employees = no big building, no parking, no maintenance, and, people can probably be suckered into buying some of their own supplies.
Not to mention the long term advantage - makes it harder for employees to gather, spread news, workarounds and complaints. A union only provides structure and leadership, the righteous indignation is fomented in the washrooms and breakrooms.

And, a lot of work-from-home is going to end up being piecework - calls-per-hour, documents-per-hour, etc.

My employer is already pushing for more (all) of the customers to eventually go on-line.
Again, ignoring that a lot of our customers are not exactly computer-friendly.

frimble3 said:

Not just school administrators.
There are a lot of employers drooling at the thought of getting rid of a physical presence. No employees = no big building, no parking, no maintenance, and, people can probably be suckered into buying some of their own supplies.
Not to mention the long term advantage - makes it harder for employees to gather, spread news, workarounds and complaints. A union only provides structure and leadership, the righteous indignation is fomented in the washrooms and breakrooms.

And, a lot of work-from-home is going to end up being piecework - calls-per-hour, documents-per-hour, etc.

My employer is already pushing for more (all) of the customers to eventually go on-line.
Again, ignoring that a lot of our customers are not exactly computer-friendly.

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And work from home could ostensibly be outsourced, couldn't it? So could online courses.

I hate finding out things like this:

John Prine: singer-songwriter critically ill with Covid-19 symptoms, family says

He's on a ventilator and has a very poor prognosis.