Day #20 of Year 2 - Pandemic
Apr. 5th, 2021 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt's an odd thing to be still in a kind of lock-down, of sorts, while folks around you are gallivanting about. Outside of doctors appointments, getting the vaccine, and picking up transportation passes - I've not left my neighborhood in a year. I have walked around said neighborhood, and gone to the grocery stores (there's four that I frequent) and pharmacy, but that's about it.
The Cemetery has become a refuge of sorts or a sanctuary - it is the one place where I can walk for about an hour or long snatches of time - alone, without a mask on, beneath trees and sky. Now that it is light longer, the Cemetery is also open far longer - so I walked around it for an hour and a half, possibly longer. I left around 4:55 and got home at 6:30.
I usually have to work myself up to it, but once I do it - I feel better. It's kept me sane during the pandemic - these long meditative walks between gravestones, and beneath changing trees and sky.
As you can see, it was a lovely day. Blue sky. In the 70s. With flowering trees tickling my nostrils. Walked for about three miles. My way of handling this pandemic has been to stick to a kind of routine - I meditate or do yoga in the morning, oatmeal, sign in for work, check emails, and work, sometimes dance to music (sometimes listen to an audio book), at noon, talk to mother, fix/eat lunch, watch the news, back to work, listen to music, then after work - call mother, take a walk, watch my soap/make dinner, and write in this journal. Weirdly this has kept me sane - along with photographs, corresponding with folks on FB and DW, and via email.
Plus the occasional Zoom bible study, and church on Zoom/FB.
I talk to my brother on occasion, and my niece and various family members here and there. Along with Wales. I'm not that good on the phone. And I use the phone and Teams a lot with work.
I feel like I'm rambling at the moment.
Sis-inlaw has decided against getting the second dose of the Moderna. Apparently the first is 85% effective against the virus, and the second dose just boosts it a bit. Her reason? She got a staph infection on her leg - a huge boil that is rather painful and being treated with antibiotics or pencillin - which is screwing up her digestive system. So she can't risk going through it again. She also go rather ill with the first shot. We knew she was going to have issues - since sis-in-law is severely allergic to a lot of things, and highly sensitive to stuff. Also immune compromised.
I hope she's going to be okay. Mother seems to think she will be. We're not close, or I'd call. They'd gone to Beacon on Sunday, so niece could play with a few friends.
News from Crazy Union -
1. Apparently I was right, the Union agreement was about a pay increase. We're getting slight pay increase and back pay.
2. And our work from home agreement has been extended to May. (To the surprise of no one, I already knew it would be, the cases are on the rise again - and Crazy Org has learned its lesson.)
I was surprised about the pay raise. Wasn't expecting that. I honestly expected our pay to be frozen for another five years at least. Weirdly the pandemic hasn't affected me at all financially - if anything the exact opposite. It's very odd. Not that I'm not exceedingly grateful, I am. I just find it odd - considering how terrified I was of losing my job. But then it's rare that I'm not terrified of losing my job - I seem to go through this sort of anxiety every other year, sometimes, if I'm lucky every three-four years. During the Trump era - every year. Republican administrations tend to equate unemployment in my experience. They don't like infrastructure.
So that's good news. Nice to have some good news.
New York vs. Corona Virus
We'll for better or worse, NY is slowly opening up its entertainment venues. More and more movie theaters are open to limited capacity seating now. I noticed Cobble Hill Theaters were the last time I swung by the Doctor's Office. Also, they had one theater on Broadway give a pop up performance for a limited seating - 150 people in a theater that can seat about 1,500. Nathan Lane and Savon Glover took turns performing. And they staggered the seating of the people who came in - with everyone socially distanced and wearing masks. So, hey? At least they are trying to come back? You got to give them credit for that. I think it was an experiment to see if they could do it - with volunteer guinea pigs. They also had a dance performance at Hudson Yards outdoor/indoor ampitheater which seats 7500, they did limited seating with spacing and masks.
Also, not to be out done? Churches had people come for Easter Sunday services at limited capacity. (Not the Unitarians, who are being cautious.)
My poor beleaguered city. It's struggling to rediscover its footing, with lots of baby steps. We're fluctuating between a 3.15 and 3.92 % infection rate across the State. My area is still at a 4.49% infection rate. We've never really gone down that far - kind of impossible - it's New York City.
Mother
Mother told me to continue to avoid getting sick or injuring myself like she had. Mother is frustrated with her injury.
Bro thinks he can bring his family down to visit her in June. She told him there's little she could do with them. He told her that she didn't really have to do anything with them. They could entertain themselves.
My problem is I don't have the flexibility he does. I don't drive. Not being able to drive is not an issue at all in New York City or even NY and the northeast that much. It is in South Carolina during a pandemic.
Mother: Stop it. You may not have an issue in a few years - self-driving cars.
Me: Yes, that's definitely a possibility. (I've seen them - I know they are feasible unlike flying cars, which aren't.)
I'm learning not to think about things I can't do anything about. It's a waste of energy.
Mother did have a nice visit with father. She even brought the Penn State Hat and glasses for him . I'd gotten him the Penn State hat for Xmas.
Mother: Your father apologized to me, he said he's been a little depressed lately.
Me: I can understand why - probably bored.
Mother: Well, no, he told your brother this long story about how he was working with an utility company and coaching a soccer team.
Me: Didn't he do that once?
Mother: No, he never coached soccer. And you don't understand - he was discussing how he was busy doing it now. It didn't make a lot of sense. But as you can see, he's hardly bored.
While wandering to the Cemetery, threading my way through various neighborhood blocks - actually I tend to go the same route each time - I listened to Michelle Obama's book Becoming, which I'm almost done with. It's a long book. She spends a lot of time discussing what it was like raising daughters in the White House, and dealing with gun violence - she got very involved in addressing all the school shootings. It's weird to listen to, as I wander beneath the trees and along the sunny neighborhood streets.
Spring is in the air. My nostrils twitch with allergies. Tree pollan is high. But overall not too bad. I got very close to some flowers though...as you can see below. They were waving in the breeze.
The Cemetery has become a refuge of sorts or a sanctuary - it is the one place where I can walk for about an hour or long snatches of time - alone, without a mask on, beneath trees and sky. Now that it is light longer, the Cemetery is also open far longer - so I walked around it for an hour and a half, possibly longer. I left around 4:55 and got home at 6:30.
I usually have to work myself up to it, but once I do it - I feel better. It's kept me sane during the pandemic - these long meditative walks between gravestones, and beneath changing trees and sky.
As you can see, it was a lovely day. Blue sky. In the 70s. With flowering trees tickling my nostrils. Walked for about three miles. My way of handling this pandemic has been to stick to a kind of routine - I meditate or do yoga in the morning, oatmeal, sign in for work, check emails, and work, sometimes dance to music (sometimes listen to an audio book), at noon, talk to mother, fix/eat lunch, watch the news, back to work, listen to music, then after work - call mother, take a walk, watch my soap/make dinner, and write in this journal. Weirdly this has kept me sane - along with photographs, corresponding with folks on FB and DW, and via email.
Plus the occasional Zoom bible study, and church on Zoom/FB.
I talk to my brother on occasion, and my niece and various family members here and there. Along with Wales. I'm not that good on the phone. And I use the phone and Teams a lot with work.
I feel like I'm rambling at the moment.
Sis-inlaw has decided against getting the second dose of the Moderna. Apparently the first is 85% effective against the virus, and the second dose just boosts it a bit. Her reason? She got a staph infection on her leg - a huge boil that is rather painful and being treated with antibiotics or pencillin - which is screwing up her digestive system. So she can't risk going through it again. She also go rather ill with the first shot. We knew she was going to have issues - since sis-in-law is severely allergic to a lot of things, and highly sensitive to stuff. Also immune compromised.
I hope she's going to be okay. Mother seems to think she will be. We're not close, or I'd call. They'd gone to Beacon on Sunday, so niece could play with a few friends.
News from Crazy Union -
1. Apparently I was right, the Union agreement was about a pay increase. We're getting slight pay increase and back pay.
2. And our work from home agreement has been extended to May. (To the surprise of no one, I already knew it would be, the cases are on the rise again - and Crazy Org has learned its lesson.)
I was surprised about the pay raise. Wasn't expecting that. I honestly expected our pay to be frozen for another five years at least. Weirdly the pandemic hasn't affected me at all financially - if anything the exact opposite. It's very odd. Not that I'm not exceedingly grateful, I am. I just find it odd - considering how terrified I was of losing my job. But then it's rare that I'm not terrified of losing my job - I seem to go through this sort of anxiety every other year, sometimes, if I'm lucky every three-four years. During the Trump era - every year. Republican administrations tend to equate unemployment in my experience. They don't like infrastructure.
So that's good news. Nice to have some good news.
New York vs. Corona Virus
We'll for better or worse, NY is slowly opening up its entertainment venues. More and more movie theaters are open to limited capacity seating now. I noticed Cobble Hill Theaters were the last time I swung by the Doctor's Office. Also, they had one theater on Broadway give a pop up performance for a limited seating - 150 people in a theater that can seat about 1,500. Nathan Lane and Savon Glover took turns performing. And they staggered the seating of the people who came in - with everyone socially distanced and wearing masks. So, hey? At least they are trying to come back? You got to give them credit for that. I think it was an experiment to see if they could do it - with volunteer guinea pigs. They also had a dance performance at Hudson Yards outdoor/indoor ampitheater which seats 7500, they did limited seating with spacing and masks.
Also, not to be out done? Churches had people come for Easter Sunday services at limited capacity. (Not the Unitarians, who are being cautious.)
My poor beleaguered city. It's struggling to rediscover its footing, with lots of baby steps. We're fluctuating between a 3.15 and 3.92 % infection rate across the State. My area is still at a 4.49% infection rate. We've never really gone down that far - kind of impossible - it's New York City.
Mother
Mother told me to continue to avoid getting sick or injuring myself like she had. Mother is frustrated with her injury.
Bro thinks he can bring his family down to visit her in June. She told him there's little she could do with them. He told her that she didn't really have to do anything with them. They could entertain themselves.
My problem is I don't have the flexibility he does. I don't drive. Not being able to drive is not an issue at all in New York City or even NY and the northeast that much. It is in South Carolina during a pandemic.
Mother: Stop it. You may not have an issue in a few years - self-driving cars.
Me: Yes, that's definitely a possibility. (I've seen them - I know they are feasible unlike flying cars, which aren't.)
I'm learning not to think about things I can't do anything about. It's a waste of energy.
Mother did have a nice visit with father. She even brought the Penn State Hat and glasses for him . I'd gotten him the Penn State hat for Xmas.
Mother: Your father apologized to me, he said he's been a little depressed lately.
Me: I can understand why - probably bored.
Mother: Well, no, he told your brother this long story about how he was working with an utility company and coaching a soccer team.
Me: Didn't he do that once?
Mother: No, he never coached soccer. And you don't understand - he was discussing how he was busy doing it now. It didn't make a lot of sense. But as you can see, he's hardly bored.
While wandering to the Cemetery, threading my way through various neighborhood blocks - actually I tend to go the same route each time - I listened to Michelle Obama's book Becoming, which I'm almost done with. It's a long book. She spends a lot of time discussing what it was like raising daughters in the White House, and dealing with gun violence - she got very involved in addressing all the school shootings. It's weird to listen to, as I wander beneath the trees and along the sunny neighborhood streets.
Spring is in the air. My nostrils twitch with allergies. Tree pollan is high. But overall not too bad. I got very close to some flowers though...as you can see below. They were waving in the breeze.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 03:34 am (UTC)Evening, though? Gets you things like this to stare in wonder at:
Yowzers!
no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 02:18 pm (UTC)Speaking of walks I was listening to the news the other day and they were talking about how much people fear shark attacks which are relatively few each year whereas mosquitoes kill 500,000 people or so annually, and that with global warming those tropical diseases are going to be spreading north. Fortunately we're relatively far north and the winters are sufficiently cold to deter them but that cold period is certainly getting shorter.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 02:30 pm (UTC)I may try to skew towards morning walks in the Park. Cemetery isn't open until 10/11 AM.
But I can't get to bed until 11:30, and I wake in the middle of the night - so I don't sleep perfectly. I tend to get up at 6:30 am for work at 8 am. When commuting? 5:45 am. If I wanted to take a walk before work? I'd have to get up at 5 and do it in the dark - just no.