Day #144 - Sigh
Aug. 7th, 2020 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAt least it is Friday. A rainy, occasionally stormy, Friday.
Internet went out this morning for no apparent reason. I had power. I just didn't have my network. And Optimum was not responding, outside of saying there was an outage in my area and they'd call me back in over 45 minutes. I called them at 8:06 AM, they called me back five times at 7:30PM. By that time it was restored.
I did figure it out - eventually, it was the power to my network server that went out. There's been random power outages across the city since the Tropical Storm, which apparently was worse than Hurricane Sandy in respect to trees being torn down, and various power lines. Half of Long Island still doesn't have power - and PSEG (the electric company on the island) is informing residents they'll get it back by late Saturday. They've been out since Tuesday. Con Ed services the rest of NY. And no one is happy with them either. Yet, Crazy Workplace apparently stepped up to the challenge and ensured service was up and running again within a 24 hour period, after taking it down during the storm. Considering the damage was worse than Sandy, and it took Crazy Workplace a week to do it post Sandy, that's definitely progress.
Anyhow, picture of
In other news, the NY Governor has given the go-ahead to open schools under the following caveats...
The infection rate statewide—in every region—is below the established threshold and therefore all school districts are permitted to open this fall. Whether your school will be in-person, remote, or a hybrid model, will be determined locally by each individual school district under strict Department of Health guidelines.
Every school district was required to submit a reopening plan to the Department of Health, which will be carefully reviewed. Additionally, school districts must post their remote learning plans, as well as plans for testing and tracing students and staff, on their websites. These plans must be transparent and accessible.
Parents and teachers must feel safe and secure in each school district's plan to return to school, and to that end, school districts are required to engage all parties. Specifically, they must set dates for 3-5 discussion sessions with parents and the community, to be held by August 21, and at least one separate discussion session for teachers specifically.
Based on our infection rate of about one percent, New York State is in the best possible situation right now. If anybody can open schools safely, we can. We can bring the same level of intelligence to the schools reopening that we brought to the economic reopening.
I don't know. Most of the private schools aren't re-opening fully. There's all sorts of liability issues to factor into the equation.
On FB, old college bud posted something that said - "if you are feeling tired a lot of the time, have difficulty focusing, or remembering shit, and often find it hard to care about future plans - give yourself a break, it's normal. This is your brain coping with the stress of having no clue what horrible thing is going to happen next, and attempting to prepare for it."
I found that reassuring. I'm dreading the fall like everyone else. Also trying to understand these people who are traveling about. I can't get up the guts to visit my brother's barn and I know people who are traveling to Orleans, MA. Perhaps I'm being silly? My brother doesn't think I'm being silly - he chickened out of traveling to Maine.
ME: Just to be clear I'm not afraid of dying of the virus.
Mother: No, you are rightfully terrified of getting seriously ill with it for a very long time.
Me: Exactly, with debilitating side-effects that last long after it is over.
Mother: Makes complete sense.
ME: We just don't know enough yet.
I need to get up the courage to visit my office in late August for a Bid Opening. It's silly, there's only going to be one bid. And again it's not the office that I'm afraid of - but the trip to and from the office. Also, it's not the subways in of themselves, it's the idiots who refuse to behave themselves on the subways. I know for a fact that people are NOT wearing masks on those subways.
New York vs. The Coronavirus
From the Governor's email...
1. The total number of COVID hospitalizations continues to remain low. Yesterday, there were 579 total hospitalizations. The State conducted 70,170 tests, of which 714, or 1.0%, were positive. Sadly, we lost 5 New Yorkers to the virus. - to put this into perspective? We were only able to test approximately 400 people by the end of March and April, and mainly going by hospitalizations and the body count. The body count in March was between 700-900 people a day. Now it's more like 1-10 people a day if that. Also the hospitals were overrun in March through April, adding to the body count. 714 cases may seem like a lot - but if you consider that is out of 70, 170 tested, and out of 19 million - not so bad, also it's across the state. It's not 714 cases of 5,000 people tested, which is the case elsewhere.
2. The moratorium on evictions in New York State has been extended to September 4th. The moratorium was first put in place in March to protect residential and commercial tenants facing financial hardship due to the pandemic. As long as we are in the middle of the pandemic, there will be no evictions. - Yes, landlords have been threatening to evict people. Honestly they should just extend it until August 2021, and be done with it. Can you imagine evicting someone during a pandemic? How do people live with themselves?(With lots and lots of lying and justifications. People are very good liars - or so I've discovered. Or really good at deluding themselves. )
3. The next federal stimulus bill must include state and local aid for New York. I issued a letter today with NY Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to New York's Congressional delegation outlining the state's urgent need for federal aid. Like many other states, New York has spent millions on COVID-related expenses, even as state revenues went into a free fall. New York requires $30 billion in federal aid over 2 years to avoid dramatic budget cuts that would leave our state and every one of its communities in a precarious financial position. We're still trying to get money from our stupid federal government. This must be confusing to people living outside the United States. I was going to explain it - but it was giving me a headache.
4. Over 4 million TV viewers across the U.S. have seen New York's "Mask Up America" PSAs. In partnership with the Ad Council, these ads—featuring the voices of Morgan Freeman, Jeffrey Wright, Robert De Niro, and many others—are aimed at promoting mask-wearing not just in New York but around the country. Watch the series of ads here. - See, still trying to get everyone to behave themselves and wear a mask. Unfortunately more and more New Yorkers are entering the I don't give a Fuck stage of this pandemic.
I don't know about you? But I need a flower. My walk today around the Cemetery - which was relatively brief on account of the fact that a) I wanted to hit the grocery store, b) it was humid and I was dripping wet, and c) I had to pee and wasn't sure I'd make it.
[I did manage to go to the grocery store - where I stocked up on hard Kombachui - which makes me think I'm being healthy, while drinking alcohol at the same time. It's basically healthy beer. Or probiotic beer. Along with green beans, berries, cucumber, steak, watercress, and chocolate. No, I'm not on a plant-based/fish diet like a lot of other folks. Fish isn't that available - for one thing. I don't like it that much. And there's a lot of vegetables that my digestive system can't handle - most of them are the ones with protein in them.(ie - beans give me severe gas pains) And eggs and me, tend to be unmixy things on a regular basis. I can't be a vegetarian. It's not possible. )
Also managed to get home in time to pee. No embarrassing accidents occurred, although when I opened the door - it was a bit worrisome for a bit. My bladder has decided since I hit my fifties that once I enter my apartment - it can let loose or at least leak a bit.
But I did get a good walk in at least. About 1.9 miles round trip (which answers my question about how far the Cemetery is from my house - not that far). Not many good pictures though - the light wasn't quite right and many of the statues just look like dark silhouettes or unrecognizable slabs of granite.
Passed a lot of idiots without masks, and a lot of kind souls who had them. I'm half tempted to start taking photos of everyone who doesn't wear a mask and post pictures of them on social media. But I hate confrontations, and really don't want some irate asshole punching me and taking my phone. This feels surreal. I see people acting as if nothing has happened. And others, like myself who are being careful. I'm guessing if everyone were careful, we'd have no cases. But I think those who aren't probably haven't been directly affected, and it seems even less real.
The upstairs neighbors have acquired what sound like an odd tumbling habit, either that or they have decided to run up and down the steps fifty times.
Oh well, another week down. It's been five months now. I think. This is the sixth month. The world has changed. I looked back over old posts and found myself flinching, much as I did at old 9/11 photos.
It's as if there's always something lurking over the horizon poised jump at me like some fangy spider. Without warning. And I'm forever on the look out for it.
On the doors to the lobby of the building, there was a notice that various apartments would have their power shut off for about three hours on Monday and Tuesday to hook them up to their new electrical meters next week. Great another power and internet outage to look forward to - and in the middle of my work day, no less. They said I don't have to be home during it. Yippee. Except I most likely will be. OTOH, I'm glad they are getting it done now. I don't like having it sitting over my head, like everything else.
Here's a few flowers to brighten your evening...all I can offer right now in regards to hope appears to be flowers.
Internet went out this morning for no apparent reason. I had power. I just didn't have my network. And Optimum was not responding, outside of saying there was an outage in my area and they'd call me back in over 45 minutes. I called them at 8:06 AM, they called me back five times at 7:30PM. By that time it was restored.
I did figure it out - eventually, it was the power to my network server that went out. There's been random power outages across the city since the Tropical Storm, which apparently was worse than Hurricane Sandy in respect to trees being torn down, and various power lines. Half of Long Island still doesn't have power - and PSEG (the electric company on the island) is informing residents they'll get it back by late Saturday. They've been out since Tuesday. Con Ed services the rest of NY. And no one is happy with them either. Yet, Crazy Workplace apparently stepped up to the challenge and ensured service was up and running again within a 24 hour period, after taking it down during the storm. Considering the damage was worse than Sandy, and it took Crazy Workplace a week to do it post Sandy, that's definitely progress.
Anyhow, picture of
In other news, the NY Governor has given the go-ahead to open schools under the following caveats...
The infection rate statewide—in every region—is below the established threshold and therefore all school districts are permitted to open this fall. Whether your school will be in-person, remote, or a hybrid model, will be determined locally by each individual school district under strict Department of Health guidelines.
Every school district was required to submit a reopening plan to the Department of Health, which will be carefully reviewed. Additionally, school districts must post their remote learning plans, as well as plans for testing and tracing students and staff, on their websites. These plans must be transparent and accessible.
Parents and teachers must feel safe and secure in each school district's plan to return to school, and to that end, school districts are required to engage all parties. Specifically, they must set dates for 3-5 discussion sessions with parents and the community, to be held by August 21, and at least one separate discussion session for teachers specifically.
Based on our infection rate of about one percent, New York State is in the best possible situation right now. If anybody can open schools safely, we can. We can bring the same level of intelligence to the schools reopening that we brought to the economic reopening.
I don't know. Most of the private schools aren't re-opening fully. There's all sorts of liability issues to factor into the equation.
On FB, old college bud posted something that said - "if you are feeling tired a lot of the time, have difficulty focusing, or remembering shit, and often find it hard to care about future plans - give yourself a break, it's normal. This is your brain coping with the stress of having no clue what horrible thing is going to happen next, and attempting to prepare for it."
I found that reassuring. I'm dreading the fall like everyone else. Also trying to understand these people who are traveling about. I can't get up the guts to visit my brother's barn and I know people who are traveling to Orleans, MA. Perhaps I'm being silly? My brother doesn't think I'm being silly - he chickened out of traveling to Maine.
ME: Just to be clear I'm not afraid of dying of the virus.
Mother: No, you are rightfully terrified of getting seriously ill with it for a very long time.
Me: Exactly, with debilitating side-effects that last long after it is over.
Mother: Makes complete sense.
ME: We just don't know enough yet.
I need to get up the courage to visit my office in late August for a Bid Opening. It's silly, there's only going to be one bid. And again it's not the office that I'm afraid of - but the trip to and from the office. Also, it's not the subways in of themselves, it's the idiots who refuse to behave themselves on the subways. I know for a fact that people are NOT wearing masks on those subways.
New York vs. The Coronavirus
From the Governor's email...
1. The total number of COVID hospitalizations continues to remain low. Yesterday, there were 579 total hospitalizations. The State conducted 70,170 tests, of which 714, or 1.0%, were positive. Sadly, we lost 5 New Yorkers to the virus. - to put this into perspective? We were only able to test approximately 400 people by the end of March and April, and mainly going by hospitalizations and the body count. The body count in March was between 700-900 people a day. Now it's more like 1-10 people a day if that. Also the hospitals were overrun in March through April, adding to the body count. 714 cases may seem like a lot - but if you consider that is out of 70, 170 tested, and out of 19 million - not so bad, also it's across the state. It's not 714 cases of 5,000 people tested, which is the case elsewhere.
2. The moratorium on evictions in New York State has been extended to September 4th. The moratorium was first put in place in March to protect residential and commercial tenants facing financial hardship due to the pandemic. As long as we are in the middle of the pandemic, there will be no evictions. - Yes, landlords have been threatening to evict people. Honestly they should just extend it until August 2021, and be done with it. Can you imagine evicting someone during a pandemic? How do people live with themselves?(With lots and lots of lying and justifications. People are very good liars - or so I've discovered. Or really good at deluding themselves. )
3. The next federal stimulus bill must include state and local aid for New York. I issued a letter today with NY Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to New York's Congressional delegation outlining the state's urgent need for federal aid. Like many other states, New York has spent millions on COVID-related expenses, even as state revenues went into a free fall. New York requires $30 billion in federal aid over 2 years to avoid dramatic budget cuts that would leave our state and every one of its communities in a precarious financial position. We're still trying to get money from our stupid federal government. This must be confusing to people living outside the United States. I was going to explain it - but it was giving me a headache.
4. Over 4 million TV viewers across the U.S. have seen New York's "Mask Up America" PSAs. In partnership with the Ad Council, these ads—featuring the voices of Morgan Freeman, Jeffrey Wright, Robert De Niro, and many others—are aimed at promoting mask-wearing not just in New York but around the country. Watch the series of ads here. - See, still trying to get everyone to behave themselves and wear a mask. Unfortunately more and more New Yorkers are entering the I don't give a Fuck stage of this pandemic.
I don't know about you? But I need a flower. My walk today around the Cemetery - which was relatively brief on account of the fact that a) I wanted to hit the grocery store, b) it was humid and I was dripping wet, and c) I had to pee and wasn't sure I'd make it.
[I did manage to go to the grocery store - where I stocked up on hard Kombachui - which makes me think I'm being healthy, while drinking alcohol at the same time. It's basically healthy beer. Or probiotic beer. Along with green beans, berries, cucumber, steak, watercress, and chocolate. No, I'm not on a plant-based/fish diet like a lot of other folks. Fish isn't that available - for one thing. I don't like it that much. And there's a lot of vegetables that my digestive system can't handle - most of them are the ones with protein in them.(ie - beans give me severe gas pains) And eggs and me, tend to be unmixy things on a regular basis. I can't be a vegetarian. It's not possible. )
Also managed to get home in time to pee. No embarrassing accidents occurred, although when I opened the door - it was a bit worrisome for a bit. My bladder has decided since I hit my fifties that once I enter my apartment - it can let loose or at least leak a bit.
But I did get a good walk in at least. About 1.9 miles round trip (which answers my question about how far the Cemetery is from my house - not that far). Not many good pictures though - the light wasn't quite right and many of the statues just look like dark silhouettes or unrecognizable slabs of granite.
Passed a lot of idiots without masks, and a lot of kind souls who had them. I'm half tempted to start taking photos of everyone who doesn't wear a mask and post pictures of them on social media. But I hate confrontations, and really don't want some irate asshole punching me and taking my phone. This feels surreal. I see people acting as if nothing has happened. And others, like myself who are being careful. I'm guessing if everyone were careful, we'd have no cases. But I think those who aren't probably haven't been directly affected, and it seems even less real.
The upstairs neighbors have acquired what sound like an odd tumbling habit, either that or they have decided to run up and down the steps fifty times.
Oh well, another week down. It's been five months now. I think. This is the sixth month. The world has changed. I looked back over old posts and found myself flinching, much as I did at old 9/11 photos.
It's as if there's always something lurking over the horizon poised jump at me like some fangy spider. Without warning. And I'm forever on the look out for it.
On the doors to the lobby of the building, there was a notice that various apartments would have their power shut off for about three hours on Monday and Tuesday to hook them up to their new electrical meters next week. Great another power and internet outage to look forward to - and in the middle of my work day, no less. They said I don't have to be home during it. Yippee. Except I most likely will be. OTOH, I'm glad they are getting it done now. I don't like having it sitting over my head, like everything else.
Here's a few flowers to brighten your evening...all I can offer right now in regards to hope appears to be flowers.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-08 06:42 pm (UTC)