I've been silent on here for hmm, 17 days. In that span life has totally changed for all of us. Bond's older sister lives in Italy, so we/me have been tracking things since Italy started into this pandemic. On the 8th of March I started seeing models for the first time that showed that the US is 8-11 days behind Italy, but tracking just the same.
It's my nature to research a thing to the point of exhaustion, and to find credible sources, so much of my time has been dedicated to that effort this past week and a half give or take. I started posting on my Facebook page about COVID-19, trying to spread the word and get people to take precautions. I have posted so much information that I was concerned I was being obnoxious, but people started sending me DMs to tell me how much they appreciated it. It has been very affirming to get those messages, and so I have continued to make posts, albeit at a slower rate, as I feel I've given them the tools to find the information. Here's something that struck me as a weird coincidence...last night and the night before two different people that I really don't interact with often in real life (one is the SIL of my former roommate, and the other is a bestie of my bestie that lives up north) and both of them told me "you're a good egg". So there you have it folks, I'm a good egg and not a bad one. That's weird, right? For both of them to use the same phrase? One is in CA and the other is in MN. They have never met.
I'm anxious and somewhat frustrated that our leadership, all the way from the president, to our governors, to the director of the bureau I work for, is lagging in mandates and direction. At the same time, I realize it takes time to get people to psychologically adjust to restrictions placed upon them, so it has to happen over a matter of days. While I feel our country should be adopting the restrictions European countries are instituting now, I understand why it will take time to get there. And it makes me afraid for our country, and our world. Don't get me started on governors that won't close beaches!
Mostly it was frustrating that the upper management where I work didn't acknowledge that in a week's time we would need to be working remotely. One week ago today I sat in a meeting between two agencies and one of the bureau heads made a kinda-joke about coronavirus disrupting things in the future and no one responded. I knew, and I think he probably knew, that between Thursday and Monday our world would change so much that our total focus would shift to getting people set up to telecommute. I brought my laptop home with me on Friday. My work didn't have a policy in place for telecommuting at the time, so Monday and Tuesday I had to use vacation time in order to not come into the office even though I worked the majority of those days from home. On Wednesday they announced an official policy.
B's ex and his gf traveled right before this and they got sick shortly after returning home. WP, her ex, has been tested for COVID-19, but the results haven't come back. I highly suspect it'll be negative, but we've restricted interactions with her household as a precaution. As fate would have it, her furnace quit working yesterday, so Bond had to go over there last night to check it out. B and the kids left the house, after spraying Lysol and wiping things down in the furnace room. He entered via the patio door on the lower level next to the furnace room too to limit exposure. In the end, he had to set up a service appointment for today. Today marks 10 days since she or the kids have been in contact with him, and none of them have shown any signs of infection. Going on the fact that it's three people that haven't gotten sick we're feeling pretty confident that we can resume contact. It's been a long haul not being able to be together and we're all glad that we can once more be at each other's homes.
My son in southern KY is off of school for at least two weeks. He's going for welding so it's not possible to transition that to online classes. His gf works at a Tractor Supply distribution center and they are still working. I talked to him today and they are having a very hard time finding groceries. She has a 12 month old baby, too. I directed him to Walmart online, but I'm not sure how many days out they are at this point. My backup idea is to set them up with a meal kit delivery subscription.
My other son is rather stressed, because he is finding that potential tenants are scared to sign a lease. He is also stressed with work, because he is the Environmental Health and Safety person so a lot of this falls on his shoulders. Twenty-six years old and he has to make the calls. He said he's had people yell at him every day this week. And to think one week ago he thought this was just a flu until I told him differently. He requested I send him information saying differently and from there his world flipped/broadened/closed, all of that.
This is going to be a shit show.
On the positive side, it's been rather nice to be working from home with Bond set up working from home behind me. He has a hell of a lot more equipment than I do, and he talks aloud quite often when sorting things, and he has more meetings than I do, including web meetings of which I may show up in the background. But it's nice to have company. Oh, the cats have also moved into the new office space with us.
It's my nature to research a thing to the point of exhaustion, and to find credible sources, so much of my time has been dedicated to that effort this past week and a half give or take. I started posting on my Facebook page about COVID-19, trying to spread the word and get people to take precautions. I have posted so much information that I was concerned I was being obnoxious, but people started sending me DMs to tell me how much they appreciated it. It has been very affirming to get those messages, and so I have continued to make posts, albeit at a slower rate, as I feel I've given them the tools to find the information. Here's something that struck me as a weird coincidence...last night and the night before two different people that I really don't interact with often in real life (one is the SIL of my former roommate, and the other is a bestie of my bestie that lives up north) and both of them told me "you're a good egg". So there you have it folks, I'm a good egg and not a bad one. That's weird, right? For both of them to use the same phrase? One is in CA and the other is in MN. They have never met.
I'm anxious and somewhat frustrated that our leadership, all the way from the president, to our governors, to the director of the bureau I work for, is lagging in mandates and direction. At the same time, I realize it takes time to get people to psychologically adjust to restrictions placed upon them, so it has to happen over a matter of days. While I feel our country should be adopting the restrictions European countries are instituting now, I understand why it will take time to get there. And it makes me afraid for our country, and our world. Don't get me started on governors that won't close beaches!
Mostly it was frustrating that the upper management where I work didn't acknowledge that in a week's time we would need to be working remotely. One week ago today I sat in a meeting between two agencies and one of the bureau heads made a kinda-joke about coronavirus disrupting things in the future and no one responded. I knew, and I think he probably knew, that between Thursday and Monday our world would change so much that our total focus would shift to getting people set up to telecommute. I brought my laptop home with me on Friday. My work didn't have a policy in place for telecommuting at the time, so Monday and Tuesday I had to use vacation time in order to not come into the office even though I worked the majority of those days from home. On Wednesday they announced an official policy.
B's ex and his gf traveled right before this and they got sick shortly after returning home. WP, her ex, has been tested for COVID-19, but the results haven't come back. I highly suspect it'll be negative, but we've restricted interactions with her household as a precaution. As fate would have it, her furnace quit working yesterday, so Bond had to go over there last night to check it out. B and the kids left the house, after spraying Lysol and wiping things down in the furnace room. He entered via the patio door on the lower level next to the furnace room too to limit exposure. In the end, he had to set up a service appointment for today. Today marks 10 days since she or the kids have been in contact with him, and none of them have shown any signs of infection. Going on the fact that it's three people that haven't gotten sick we're feeling pretty confident that we can resume contact. It's been a long haul not being able to be together and we're all glad that we can once more be at each other's homes.
My son in southern KY is off of school for at least two weeks. He's going for welding so it's not possible to transition that to online classes. His gf works at a Tractor Supply distribution center and they are still working. I talked to him today and they are having a very hard time finding groceries. She has a 12 month old baby, too. I directed him to Walmart online, but I'm not sure how many days out they are at this point. My backup idea is to set them up with a meal kit delivery subscription.
My other son is rather stressed, because he is finding that potential tenants are scared to sign a lease. He is also stressed with work, because he is the Environmental Health and Safety person so a lot of this falls on his shoulders. Twenty-six years old and he has to make the calls. He said he's had people yell at him every day this week. And to think one week ago he thought this was just a flu until I told him differently. He requested I send him information saying differently and from there his world flipped/broadened/closed, all of that.
This is going to be a shit show.
On the positive side, it's been rather nice to be working from home with Bond set up working from home behind me. He has a hell of a lot more equipment than I do, and he talks aloud quite often when sorting things, and he has more meetings than I do, including web meetings of which I may show up in the background. But it's nice to have company. Oh, the cats have also moved into the new office space with us.