Year #2 - Day 87
Jun. 11th, 2021 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell, it was cooler today, if overcast. I went grocery shopping after work - and after I talked to mother. Also talked to sci-fi fan co-worker about crazy union - he wanted to talk to a rational person about it.
Crazy union is being difficult.
Members: Why do we have to go back en mass on June 15, when the rest of our departments can go back on July 12 or September 15? It's not fair!!
Management: Take it up with your union - they made this decision.
Union: That's not true it was management.
The mistake was management told everyone that only the union folks had to come back en mass on June 15. And to make matters worse - they told them that only the union folks assigned to one location had to - when in reality it was everyone in the union.
I have a feeling there's going to some discussions this weekend regarding that - and some folks will be working through the weekend to resolve it.
They so deserve to lose a weekend over this stupidity.
Me? I got permission to go back in July - which works for me.
***
The mask situation in my neighborhood is the same. Most wear them, some don't - although more and more people aren't outside. Also at the grocery store today - they told me there was no more line down the aisle, and we could just line up behind the registers or find an open one. There was still a mask mandate in place. The restrictions are slowly beginning to lift.
First day on diet, not so bad. Still have the nut habit in the morning. Also had dark chocolate bar with tart raspberries after lunch which wired me. Also resulted in hot flashes. So, did not buy chocolate at the grocery store - I didn't buy any sweets. Nothing with sugar in it - will except for the natural sugar in the mango peach salsa. And fruit. No alcohol, no chocolate, no ice cream. I stayed away from the ice cream and chocolate aisles. No kombuchi. Just water. Eggs. Veggies. Meat. Gluten-Free Oatmeal (with no sugar). Poultry. Fish. Strawberries. Berries. Apples. Greens. That's it. I'm basically on a meat/poultry/fish/veggie/fruit/eggs/and nuts diet. I might do cheese, but I'm slowly moving away from all diary. I don't think it agrees with me. I have three weeks to get comfortable on it.
Also tired of the slow-cooked oat meal, so going off it in July won't be an issue - just do it on weekends. And getting tired of deliveries - stopped the Foodkick deliveries in May, and doing Greenwood Cemetery on the weekends now. Plus changed my shower time to evenings, and my bedtime from 11:30 to 10:30-11PM, plan to move it up to 10 soon, with wakeup at 5:40 am, right now it's at 6:15 am. Moved it from 6:30 to 6:15, soon to 6 AM.
In September - I discovered ripping the bandaid off, so to speak, does not work for me. It result in a panic attack and elevated blood pressure. So, I've chosen to take the next three weeks - to prepare myself for the return to the office. If the union extends the agreement again - that's okay, but I need to mentally prepare myself for July 6. I could try to extend the reasonable accommodation - but I don't see them agreeing to it. I'm vaccinated.
I do need to step up on the exercise, more walking is in order the next three weeks. Also maybe a couple of bike rides on the citibikes around the park. I need to be able to do the commute. There's a lot of stair climbing, and walking involved at a quick pace. Getting used to the commute again is going to be hard. But I'm not alone - this will be hard on everyone in different ways.
***
News...
* Las Vegas, Nevada just outlawed non-functional turf or ornamental grass.
“We’re kind of at an existential point right now in the West,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the nonprofit Great Basin Water Network, in a phone conversation. “Even basic terminology that once was a given — now we’re seeing a shift in the nomenclature toward saying, well, we’re not in a period of drought, we’re in a period of aridification.”
Enter aridification, exit grass. Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada just signed into law bill AB356, which requires the removal of all “nonfunctional turf” from the Las Vegas Valley by the year 2027. The effort will conserve about 10 percent of the region’s annual allotment of water from the Colorado River. “It's a really good time to have put forth something like this,” said Mr. Roerink, whose organization was part of a bipartisan coalition, including the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, that supported the bill.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has not yet formed the committee that will actually define “nonfunctional turf.” For now, the category loosely describes the few thousand acres of grass carpeting the region’s street meridians, office parks and housing developments, and amounts to roughly one-third of all the grass in the region.
[Source NY Times Evening Briefing.]
If you want grass? Avoid Nevada.
Also...
New maps produced by The Times show the most severe drought conditions in the American West in at least 20 years. And the hottest months of summer are still to come.
The outlook for the 2021 fire season is “as bad as it can be,” one expert said. The situation is especially dire in the Southwest and California, where a drier-than-usual winter and warm spring temperatures have made for a dangerous situation. The state is unlikely to get significant rainfall again until October.
In other climate news, the Biden administration plans to restore environmental protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest that were stripped away under President Donald Trump. The administration also plans to sell leases to develop offshore wind farms between Long Island and New Jersey that would generate enough electricity to power more than 2.6 million homes.
Oh well, at least they are doing something now. By the way - my apartment is powered by Wind Power, I have 100% Clean Energy. It's not more expensive.
* U.S. lawmakers introduced sweeping antitrust legislation aimed at restraining Big Tech, the most ambitious effort to update monopoly laws in decades.
The bipartisan bills — five in total — take direct aim at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google and their grip on online commerce, information and entertainment. The proposals would restrain their power and stave off corporate consolidation across the economy, and would also empower regulators with more funds to police companies.
Also out of Washington: Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out a detailed plan for protecting voting rights, including doubling staff and scrutinizing new laws, and saying it would act if it identified a violation of federal law.
*
The biggest international soccer tournament (after the World Cup) began today.
The European Championship — a year late and with stadiums only partly occupied — kick-starts a month of international soccer tournaments that will play through the pandemic. At least one of the favorites, Spain, is already nervous over a potential coronavirus outbreak, and more are possible: Matches will be held in 11 countries across the continent.
Italy beat Turkey 3-0 in Rome in the tournament’s first match.
In tennis, Novak Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal in a marathon four-set French Open semifinal. He will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the men’s singles final on Sunday.
The unseeded Barbora Krejcikova will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 31 seed, in the women’s singles final on Saturday.
* While people are - once again gallivanting about, and celebrating the "end of the pandemic", others are dying still. A long-time social media friend posted on FB that it gave her pause - when the CEO of her company stated they'd spend a three day weekend hanging with co-workers in a nearby hotel. (She's doing the meetings by ZOOM.) And people are still wearing masks. Other's responded that in their area - they were the only ones wearing masks in the store.
NYC believe it or not - is more cautious than it may appear via the media.
We are wearing masks indoors, on public transportation, hospitals, prisons, offices, etc. Even outdoors.
Per the COVID Dashboard of Doom...there are currently:
33.4 million cases (US), 599,161 deaths,
175.16 million cases (global), 3.7 million deaths and 2.28 billion vaccinations
But the cases are falling in the US, and there's hope.
Meanwhile there's a porch pirate stealing packages from the buildings in my area, including mine. He probably took the binoculars that I ordered for my birthday.
After months of this and in a fit of desperation - the Super posted the below bit on the front doors. A notice to the UPS, Amazon, and FedEX folks, and tenants to not just let anyone in, and to ring for the super. Also, pictures of the porch pirate take by security cameras in various buildings including ours.
Bro told mother - he's going to reach out to me to come up and see him, when he gets back. I'm thinking of going up to see him in July. Take a four day weekend.
On my walk to the grocery store today - discovered someone had planted their little yard with wildflowers..
Crazy union is being difficult.
Members: Why do we have to go back en mass on June 15, when the rest of our departments can go back on July 12 or September 15? It's not fair!!
Management: Take it up with your union - they made this decision.
Union: That's not true it was management.
The mistake was management told everyone that only the union folks had to come back en mass on June 15. And to make matters worse - they told them that only the union folks assigned to one location had to - when in reality it was everyone in the union.
I have a feeling there's going to some discussions this weekend regarding that - and some folks will be working through the weekend to resolve it.
They so deserve to lose a weekend over this stupidity.
Me? I got permission to go back in July - which works for me.
***
The mask situation in my neighborhood is the same. Most wear them, some don't - although more and more people aren't outside. Also at the grocery store today - they told me there was no more line down the aisle, and we could just line up behind the registers or find an open one. There was still a mask mandate in place. The restrictions are slowly beginning to lift.
First day on diet, not so bad. Still have the nut habit in the morning. Also had dark chocolate bar with tart raspberries after lunch which wired me. Also resulted in hot flashes. So, did not buy chocolate at the grocery store - I didn't buy any sweets. Nothing with sugar in it - will except for the natural sugar in the mango peach salsa. And fruit. No alcohol, no chocolate, no ice cream. I stayed away from the ice cream and chocolate aisles. No kombuchi. Just water. Eggs. Veggies. Meat. Gluten-Free Oatmeal (with no sugar). Poultry. Fish. Strawberries. Berries. Apples. Greens. That's it. I'm basically on a meat/poultry/fish/veggie/fruit/eggs/and nuts diet. I might do cheese, but I'm slowly moving away from all diary. I don't think it agrees with me. I have three weeks to get comfortable on it.
Also tired of the slow-cooked oat meal, so going off it in July won't be an issue - just do it on weekends. And getting tired of deliveries - stopped the Foodkick deliveries in May, and doing Greenwood Cemetery on the weekends now. Plus changed my shower time to evenings, and my bedtime from 11:30 to 10:30-11PM, plan to move it up to 10 soon, with wakeup at 5:40 am, right now it's at 6:15 am. Moved it from 6:30 to 6:15, soon to 6 AM.
In September - I discovered ripping the bandaid off, so to speak, does not work for me. It result in a panic attack and elevated blood pressure. So, I've chosen to take the next three weeks - to prepare myself for the return to the office. If the union extends the agreement again - that's okay, but I need to mentally prepare myself for July 6. I could try to extend the reasonable accommodation - but I don't see them agreeing to it. I'm vaccinated.
I do need to step up on the exercise, more walking is in order the next three weeks. Also maybe a couple of bike rides on the citibikes around the park. I need to be able to do the commute. There's a lot of stair climbing, and walking involved at a quick pace. Getting used to the commute again is going to be hard. But I'm not alone - this will be hard on everyone in different ways.
***
News...
* Las Vegas, Nevada just outlawed non-functional turf or ornamental grass.
“We’re kind of at an existential point right now in the West,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the nonprofit Great Basin Water Network, in a phone conversation. “Even basic terminology that once was a given — now we’re seeing a shift in the nomenclature toward saying, well, we’re not in a period of drought, we’re in a period of aridification.”
Enter aridification, exit grass. Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada just signed into law bill AB356, which requires the removal of all “nonfunctional turf” from the Las Vegas Valley by the year 2027. The effort will conserve about 10 percent of the region’s annual allotment of water from the Colorado River. “It's a really good time to have put forth something like this,” said Mr. Roerink, whose organization was part of a bipartisan coalition, including the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, that supported the bill.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has not yet formed the committee that will actually define “nonfunctional turf.” For now, the category loosely describes the few thousand acres of grass carpeting the region’s street meridians, office parks and housing developments, and amounts to roughly one-third of all the grass in the region.
[Source NY Times Evening Briefing.]
If you want grass? Avoid Nevada.
Also...
New maps produced by The Times show the most severe drought conditions in the American West in at least 20 years. And the hottest months of summer are still to come.
The outlook for the 2021 fire season is “as bad as it can be,” one expert said. The situation is especially dire in the Southwest and California, where a drier-than-usual winter and warm spring temperatures have made for a dangerous situation. The state is unlikely to get significant rainfall again until October.
In other climate news, the Biden administration plans to restore environmental protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest that were stripped away under President Donald Trump. The administration also plans to sell leases to develop offshore wind farms between Long Island and New Jersey that would generate enough electricity to power more than 2.6 million homes.
Oh well, at least they are doing something now. By the way - my apartment is powered by Wind Power, I have 100% Clean Energy. It's not more expensive.
* U.S. lawmakers introduced sweeping antitrust legislation aimed at restraining Big Tech, the most ambitious effort to update monopoly laws in decades.
The bipartisan bills — five in total — take direct aim at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google and their grip on online commerce, information and entertainment. The proposals would restrain their power and stave off corporate consolidation across the economy, and would also empower regulators with more funds to police companies.
Also out of Washington: Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out a detailed plan for protecting voting rights, including doubling staff and scrutinizing new laws, and saying it would act if it identified a violation of federal law.
*
The biggest international soccer tournament (after the World Cup) began today.
The European Championship — a year late and with stadiums only partly occupied — kick-starts a month of international soccer tournaments that will play through the pandemic. At least one of the favorites, Spain, is already nervous over a potential coronavirus outbreak, and more are possible: Matches will be held in 11 countries across the continent.
Italy beat Turkey 3-0 in Rome in the tournament’s first match.
In tennis, Novak Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal in a marathon four-set French Open semifinal. He will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the men’s singles final on Sunday.
The unseeded Barbora Krejcikova will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 31 seed, in the women’s singles final on Saturday.
* While people are - once again gallivanting about, and celebrating the "end of the pandemic", others are dying still. A long-time social media friend posted on FB that it gave her pause - when the CEO of her company stated they'd spend a three day weekend hanging with co-workers in a nearby hotel. (She's doing the meetings by ZOOM.) And people are still wearing masks. Other's responded that in their area - they were the only ones wearing masks in the store.
NYC believe it or not - is more cautious than it may appear via the media.
We are wearing masks indoors, on public transportation, hospitals, prisons, offices, etc. Even outdoors.
Per the COVID Dashboard of Doom...there are currently:
33.4 million cases (US), 599,161 deaths,
175.16 million cases (global), 3.7 million deaths and 2.28 billion vaccinations
But the cases are falling in the US, and there's hope.
Meanwhile there's a porch pirate stealing packages from the buildings in my area, including mine. He probably took the binoculars that I ordered for my birthday.
After months of this and in a fit of desperation - the Super posted the below bit on the front doors. A notice to the UPS, Amazon, and FedEX folks, and tenants to not just let anyone in, and to ring for the super. Also, pictures of the porch pirate take by security cameras in various buildings including ours.
Bro told mother - he's going to reach out to me to come up and see him, when he gets back. I'm thinking of going up to see him in July. Take a four day weekend.
On my walk to the grocery store today - discovered someone had planted their little yard with wildflowers..
no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 12:28 pm (UTC)Go HERE
There's brush. Rocks. Etc.
Grass is kind of a luxury item in the American South West. It's arid. If they didn't water it, the grass would be dead. There's very little rain.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 03:10 pm (UTC)ETA: Almost everyone has desert or desert-adapted plants in their front yards. I have sages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucophyllum_frutescens), a tall saguaro cactus and a shrub originally from dry areas of Australia.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 11:02 pm (UTC)One of college pals, who lives around Phoenix Arizona, actually I think she's in Scottsdale, posted temperatures in 115/114/and 112, and is always celebrating when there's rain. They have rain, but it's infrequent, and tends be all at once. Not helpful for growing grass.