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[personal profile] shadowkat
Finds me ordering the following items:

1. A gluten-free pizza from San Remo's with pepperoni and mushrooms, because of I'm frigging tired of cooking and coming up with meals for myself. And need a treat. Still need to try the Thai Kitchen place at some point.

2. An ergonomic chair - Steelchase Leap Chair - rec'd via Wirecutter and the New York Times. It's not cheap, but I did get it on sale - and it is supposed to come fully assembled. Also should arrive June 7. Why? Found out today from Crazy Workplace that I will most likely be working remotely from home for the foreseeable future. In which case, I'm going to need a better chair - the one I own was dirt cheap and for painting or sketching for say two hours? Not working for eight hours. My butt is beginning to hurt. It has a cushion but it's not great. I sent a snapshot to my brother, who told me it was a shitty chair and I should invest in a better one. (I look at it this way - I can always deduct it from my taxes next year as a business expense - because it actually is a business expense!) I also got a warranty on it.

3. A lap-top desk or lift - which raises the lap top to an incline, and also makes it possible to use as a standing desk. Right now the laptop is on a binder and a book to raise it up a bit. The desk that I have is fine - it was always fairly cheap - but it is higher than my desk at work and better made. I wish I could grab the monitors and keyboard and hard drive from work. But alas no. Then again, lap top has been a real trooper, while my computer at work had "issues". It couldn't handle zoom or video conferencing.

The lift was cheaper, as is to be expected. Good furniture doesn't come cheap.


Day started out well enough, then I read the paper, and went to work...and sigh. [ETA: Pizza has been delayed, they were waiting on the delivery guy, so should arrive closer to 7. Oh well, it happens.]

Crazy Workplace vs. Corona Virus

They are slowly bringing folks back but...the office workers or professional services/administrative support is kind of hard to bring back. In part because we've proven that working remotely from home - has been a great success. I find this whole thing amusingly ironic in that prior to the virus
what I and all my coworkers were most worried about was - the biometric clocks and being forced to work too close to one another - such as sharing cubicles or having even smaller cubicles. Why? That's the direction offices were going to conserve space - with people sharing cubicles, having smaller cubicles, and using biometric clocks.

Guess what? Not a problem any longer. Biometric clocks are now deemed unsafe and unsanitary and have been removed. So too has the idea of putting people closely together in cubicles or sharing cubicles. In fact, what Crazy Agency and everyone else is figuring out at the moment is it is actually easier not to mention much cheaper to let everyone work from home.

If there's a silver lining in any of this? That's it. I don't mind working from home that much - it has its advantages. I will however have to start buying stuff to outfit my "at home" office space. Such as a printer/scanner.
Although I may not need it - I've figured out how to turn documents into PDF electronically. But I might want a desktop, large monitor and keyboard going forward - also might want to switch to PC - to be more compatible with work place, then again may not require it. Mac is nicer - less virus problems and more user friendly in regards to conferencing.

Crazy agency is no longer worrying about tracking our working hours, as long as we are being productive and not going nuts or getting sick - it does not care. Nothing like a virus to put things into perspective.

Anyhow, I'm working from home for the foreseeable future. They may move me back into the office on a rotational basis. Come in two days a week, work from home three days a week. I like working from home - it's quiet, there's less distractions, I have a window, my own bathroom, my own kitchen, and I don't have to deal with pesky co-workers that make my blood pressure boil.
Also boss is so much easier to deal with at a distance. My working relationship with my boss has gotten much better as a result.

I do however miss reading on the commute, and my naps on the trains. Also miss being able to ask co-workers and folks in person - questions. I miss the people and the energy of the workplace. But alas, that may be gone for the time being.

Walk About

Since I was expecting a pizza at 6:30, I just took a quick walk around the block. (Note: the pizza came at 6:55 pm and was lukewarm, I had to heat it up. Not their fault. The delivery guy walked in the door of the restaurant at 6:40 pm. I called to check on it, that's how I know. The only delivery that came early this week and was completely dependable was Foodkick.)

Anyhow, I stopped and complimented a woman on her garden. She was an older room within my age range, and we were both wearing surgical blue and white cloth masks. She told me that I could take clippings from her herb garden at any time without asking. Very kind lady, her name was Sue. We exchanged names. There's the oddest sense of community right now - with people talking from their front door stoops, or porches, or meeting at catty corners on streets, or going to Greenwood Cemetery and sitting six to ten feet apart to chat. When before, people barely saw each other - and no one was ever in their front yards, gardening or anything else.

The city is slowly re-opening, I saw Con Ed working in the street today for the first time in a while. There are still twenty-somethings, or the kids as Chris Rock put it, who refuse to wear the masks. And people chatting on cell phones without one. But many wear them now.

New York vs. the Corona Virus and Racism

Our Governor today gave the speech that the idiotic President should have given, but did not. Instead, the Doofus got into another fight with Twitter, because he tween incited more violence - and Twitter put a warning on it that you should know before clicking that the tweet incites people to violence. I'd love for someone to charge Trump with hate speech. Less said about that awful excuse for a human being, the better.

The Governor read off all of the incidents since roughly 1999 - of black men and women killed by cops in the US. And stated firmly that he stood with the "protestors", that those who committed the crimes should be charged. As a former prosecutor, he would charge them with murder. That the re-ocurrence of this crime over and over showed we never learn, that we make the same mistakes again and again - and it has to stop. That it is not an isolated incident, that it is shameful, and this is not who we are.

And then, he stated that furthers his point about the inequalities in our society. The Corona Virus has hit the low-income and minority communities the worst. And we need to stop this. We cannot let this continue. At his press briefing he explained how they were going full-press against the remaining hot spots or areas in need.

New York has come down the mountain finally.


As some areas of the state begin to enter Phase 2 of reopening, it's worth reflecting on our progress. New York State, and New York City in particular, was the epicenter in the U.S. We had more cases than any other state in the country. The virus came, we now know, via Europe — and 3 million flights from Europe landed in NYC in January, February and March. But although we were dealt one of the worst hands, we successfully flattened the curve. The situation forced us to be smart and aggressive. All the numbers are way down; we went from well over 3,000 new COVID hospitalizations a day to under 200. The best way we can help keep these numbers low is by continuing to be smart, diligent and New York Tough.

Here's what else you need to know tonight:

1. New York City is on track to begin Phase 1 of reopening June 8th. New York City is the last region in the state to begin to reopen, and the city is currently working on bringing its contact tracing capacity up to meet the required metrics.

2. Five regions of the state are ready to begin Phase 2. Central New York, Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, North Country and Southern Tier can enter Phase 2 of reopening today. Phase 2 allows real estate services, in-store retail shopping and some barbershop services to resume, and allows some office-workers to return (but not at full capacity). Business guidance for Phase 2 of the state's reopening plan is available here.

3. We are implementing a new "early warning dashboard" to monitor virus containment. The dashboard allows New Yorkers to see for themselves all of the state's data tracking new infections and their severity, hospital capacity by region and other metrics. The early warning system dashboard was developed in consultation with internationally-known experts who have been advising New York State. See it here.

4. The numbers of total COVID hospitalizations continues to decline. Total hospitalizations fell to 3,781, from 4,010 the day before. The number of new COVID hospitalizations fell to 152, from 163 the day before. Tragically, we lost 67 New Yorkers to the virus yesterday.



Gist? We've come down from 3,000 cases a day to roughly 200. And New York City along with Long Island are moving into Phase 1 next week or by June 8.
Phase 2 is sometime off yet. Although, I've been told that they may have me continue to work from home - hence the investment in a sturdy, adjustable and comfortable office chair.

As this, the tenth week of isolation comes to an end, I feel like I live in two countries - the Country of New York, which has a good leader, and kind people who are diverse, and rules in place protecting us, and America which has increasingly become a foreign entity to me, and one in which I cannot say I feel much pride in. I'm proud to be a New Yorker, but I'm not so sure that I'm proud to be an American.

Family

My mother ventured out to the bank and the doctor's office. (She lives in South Carolina - not New York.) Apparently masks weren't an issue - they provided them, when she asked, they were paper masks. And there weren't that many people. Also, they were able to duck by the liquor store just after the pharmacy, and pick up two large bottles of wine for my poor father. It's the only vice left to him - and his 83, I'm letting him have his wine.

They went to the bank, because of the stupid stimulus check. My father, a liberal Democrat his entire life, and who came from working class roots, has been fixating on it. He wants to make certain it goes to charity. My poor father is used to handling the finances, which have fallen to my mother - and it's not really her thing and she's been procrastinating. Makes sense, she was afraid of going to the bank. (She hadn't figured out how to get it by direct deposit.) I personally think the stimulus checks were done poorly.
Only the people who were in desperate need should have gotten them - not people like my parents and my uncle who are giving theirs to people who desperately need them. Fixating on things - is a symptom of dementia. It's when the brain focuses on a specific storyline or tread and won't let go.
Meditation really helps stop the brain from doing that. My father didn't fixate on the past. My mother isn't surprised by it - her mother had done it, she just isn't sure how to deal with it.

Anyhow they survived, only to not wash their hands when they arrived home. She called me and told me that she hadn't washed her hands yet. I told her to put down the phone and wash her hands. Five minutes later, she informed me that she used hand sanitizer on her hands and my father's. (Sigh. Frigging parents.)

I texted brother, who didn't want to talk to me and didn't seem to understand why the frak I was texting him to begin with.

Me: Heard, your daughter has taken up residence in your barn. There can't be that much room in there.
Brother: It's a big barn. It has an outdoor shower and a bathroom.
Me: Also has a lot of stuff in that. Unless you cleaned it out. Watch it, though, I might come up and join her in the barn.
Brother: It's getting hot and there's no A/C in the barn. I doubt you'd last for very long. Also it's hardly safe. Nothing against your profession - but trains aren't safe right now.
Me (after deleting multiple responses): Well, considering how often I came up pre-Covid, I don't think you have much to worry about.

Meanwhile on FB, I'm arguing with another pesky family member, my Uncle, about what happened over sixty-two years ago. I think I need a break from the pesky family members? Told my mother to please be careful, considering she's the only person I talk to twice a day. Although I also talk to various people at work. Job continues to be socially interactive - if at a distance.


Twitter and Facebook

Were all about what was happening in Minnesota and Lousiville. Meanwhile there were protests in New York about the idiot woman in Central Park who should get charged with a hate-crime.

On Twitter, someone going by the tag "Janet" from the Good Place, reminded me of why I never liked Janet. She stated "White People Can't Experience Racism" - eh, not true. She's confusing racism with discrimination and privilege. They aren't the same thing. She's conflating the terms for ease.
And that leads to miscommunication and lack of understanding. I resisted the urge to enter the fray and correct her - because really what good would it accomplish?

I remember taking a sociology course back in the 1980s, with a black female professor (whose name I forget - nothing racial about that - I can't remember most of my professor's names), who said that it wasn't prejudice or racism that was the problem - but discrimination, in particular instutional and systematic discrimination. What is this? It's when an institution or system - such as say the Police or the Justice System, treats people differently based on their ethnicity. The US has a long history of doing this, and it has weakened our country and economy and shown us in a derogatory light. I can't help but wonder if the US would have been less likely to have been a terrorist target if it had less systematic racism.

Individual racism - you really can't do much about. And we all have it. There's a very good song from Avenue Que that kind of puts individualized racism into words - Everybody's a Little Bit Racist. The statement that whites can't experience racism is in of itself "Racist".

That, as my professor stated, is NOT the problem. The problem is when a system or an institution furthers or awards racist actions. And that's what happened in Minnesota, Lousiville, and even in New York. The police automatically pull over or arrest someone as a suspect if they aren't white.

I get very annoyed with social media for clouding the issue. The target of your rage should not be Archie Bunker or the idiot woman making the phone call in New York, but how the system responded to their claims. How the system gives them power, and how institutions give them power.

That's what is happening with the Corona Virus - in the US. Those individuals who do not have access to health care, information, food, shelter, etc - are being hit hard by the virus. And that's a systematic and institutional issue.

A very long time ago - I figured out that the only way to combat racism was to do it on the institutional and systematic level. It's why I went to law school. And it's why I do what I do now - work for a black man, in a diverse work place, with laws in place ensuring jobs for minorities and disadvantaged businesses. I also donate to the ACLU and for a while the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's also how I vote. And I attempt, not always with success, to correct individualized racism. I've met a lot of Archie Bunkers and George Jefferson's in my life time.

My Governor gives me hope, but god, the news...it makes me want to curl into a ball and hide.

I did however like this tweet on Twitter - a great deal, Before you call the cops...

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