Year #2 - Day 92
Jun. 16th, 2021 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSunny and cooler. Blue skies. Took a brief walk after signing out of work, and talking to mother - but got distracted by a car accident on the corner of Ocean Parkway and Church, near where I live in South Brooklyn.
The van and sliver car swiped into each other. I was waiting to cross, and cuaght the accident out of the corner of my eye - made me jump. It was near the dangerous intersection. Super's wife told me that I was lucky that I lived towards the back of our building or quiet side. They get nothing but sirens, honking horns, etc all night long. [I told her that I deliberately chose the apartment that I did - for that reason. I've lived on busy streets most of my life - I know how noisy they can be.]
In other news... Mother informed me that two of my distant relatives on her side of the family contracted COVID after being vaccinated. She doesn't know which vaccine they got. Since they are over the age of 70, I'm guessing Moderna. Anyhow, Everett had injured himself and was in a rehab facility - when he contracted it from an independent contractor (who'd not been vaccinated). Then he died. He was 87.
Mother: Do you remember Everett and Ruby?
Me: No.
Mother: You met them at all of those reunions you went to with your grandmother.
Me: Oh right.
Mother: Well, they both got vaccinated right? Then Everett went to a rehab facility and ended up contracting COVID from an independent contractor.
ME: After being vaccinated?
Mother: Yes.
ME: Are you sure?
Mother: The vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't get the disease, just that you are less likely to. Anyhow, he's 87, and immune compromised...so, he passed.
Me: He died of COVID after being vaccinated?
Mother: Yes. Then Ruby came down with it.
ME: Whoa.
Mother: So they decided to skip the memorial service and just do a short grave site funeral. Our cousin Anita told me all this - stating she was going to fly in for the funeral, but decided not to - because they had to cancel everything. It's about 100 degrees in Kansas right now, anyhow.
She was warning me to continue to be careful - since I'm immune compromised, and I could still get COVID and die. So could you.
After that conversation - I got paranoid again - and when I went for my walk around my neighborhood, donned the mask. Most people are still wearing them, for the same reason. Although the two guys in the car accident weren't. Mother told me not to worry - I'm vaccinated, I'm healthy, and considering I was wandering about un-vaccinated, no mask, etc when the virus was out there and we had a 48-50% infection rate in NYC back in November 2019-March 2020...
Other than that she's doing well enough. My brother is going to buy my Dad a television set from Walmart, and take her to get a CAT Scan tomorrow.
Both my brother and sisinlaw have informed mother that she needs to stop floating the idea that my father can return home - and the Preston is temporary. It's instilling him with a false hope. My brother also reminded her that they chose this place. We didn't. (True, we didn't. We had no say in the matter. My father and mother made this decision all on their own.)
***
Staff Meeting From Doom
Sigh.
I'm beginning to wonder why we bother having any management. They provide little direction, and don't appear to know what we're working on.
BYT announced that if we wanted her to review anything - we'd have to get it to her before June 22. Or she'd not get to it until July, since she's taking the end of June off. (Explains why she though I was taking June 21 - July 2 off, she's doing something similar.)
Management didn't talk about the Return to Office reversal. But Gabe stated that they missed those of us who weren't in the office, all 18 of them. Apparently only 18 came in out of roughly 75. Ricky said he had reasonable accommodation just like I did.
It was amusing though - since one of my co-workers was having issues with his feed, (we were on a MS Teams call) and he kept adjusting it. Making us dizzy watching him, also Boss tried to talk during this adjusting, but just gave up.
***
News such as it is
1. Russia vs. the US and Cybersecurity.
Basically the US is getting tired of Russia's cyber attacks, and told them to cut it out or else. The US even provided Russia with laundry list of critical infrastructure that was off limits. In other words - if you have to do this - please don't attack these items, or we'll have no choice but to respond in kind. Russia reluctantly agreed without admitting to doing anything.
Putin denied Russian responsibility for a surge in cyberattacks against U.S. institutions and rebuffed U.S. criticism of human rights abuses. Biden said that he had handed the Russian leader a list of 16 examples of critical infrastructure that were off limits to cyberattacks, and said he made clear that if they were attacked, “we have significant cyber-capabilities” and would respond “in a cyber way.”
Among the outcomes was an agreement to open U.S.-Russia talks on cybersecurity and arms control, and for ambassadors to return to their posts in Moscow and Washington. Here are the latest updates.
“I did what I came to do,” Biden said after the summit. Speaking separately, Putin said: “I think that in this situation, there can’t be any kind of family trust. But I think we’ve seen some glimmers.”
2. The US wants to investigate what went wrong and how the pandemic got so bad in the US. (I don't know why they need to investigate it - it's kind of obvious. I could tell them.)
As the virus fades in the U.S., there have been growing calls for an investigative commission to examine the pandemic and the devastating loss of life in the country. Despite the publication of thousands of news articles and even books examining what went wrong, major unanswered questions remain.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of Congress to create a bipartisan panel, and so far, the discussion has not produced partisan discord — at least, not yet. However, in Washington, a commission with subpoena power could be a hard sell to Republicans wary that such a panel would become an instrument to investigate former President Donald Trump. Given the current climate, a nonpartisan effort would have more success, said Philip Zelikow, a leader of the Sept. 11 commission.
Off to make dinner. The rest of the news is depressing. I gave up.
The van and sliver car swiped into each other. I was waiting to cross, and cuaght the accident out of the corner of my eye - made me jump. It was near the dangerous intersection. Super's wife told me that I was lucky that I lived towards the back of our building or quiet side. They get nothing but sirens, honking horns, etc all night long. [I told her that I deliberately chose the apartment that I did - for that reason. I've lived on busy streets most of my life - I know how noisy they can be.]
In other news... Mother informed me that two of my distant relatives on her side of the family contracted COVID after being vaccinated. She doesn't know which vaccine they got. Since they are over the age of 70, I'm guessing Moderna. Anyhow, Everett had injured himself and was in a rehab facility - when he contracted it from an independent contractor (who'd not been vaccinated). Then he died. He was 87.
Mother: Do you remember Everett and Ruby?
Me: No.
Mother: You met them at all of those reunions you went to with your grandmother.
Me: Oh right.
Mother: Well, they both got vaccinated right? Then Everett went to a rehab facility and ended up contracting COVID from an independent contractor.
ME: After being vaccinated?
Mother: Yes.
ME: Are you sure?
Mother: The vaccine doesn't guarantee you won't get the disease, just that you are less likely to. Anyhow, he's 87, and immune compromised...so, he passed.
Me: He died of COVID after being vaccinated?
Mother: Yes. Then Ruby came down with it.
ME: Whoa.
Mother: So they decided to skip the memorial service and just do a short grave site funeral. Our cousin Anita told me all this - stating she was going to fly in for the funeral, but decided not to - because they had to cancel everything. It's about 100 degrees in Kansas right now, anyhow.
She was warning me to continue to be careful - since I'm immune compromised, and I could still get COVID and die. So could you.
After that conversation - I got paranoid again - and when I went for my walk around my neighborhood, donned the mask. Most people are still wearing them, for the same reason. Although the two guys in the car accident weren't. Mother told me not to worry - I'm vaccinated, I'm healthy, and considering I was wandering about un-vaccinated, no mask, etc when the virus was out there and we had a 48-50% infection rate in NYC back in November 2019-March 2020...
Other than that she's doing well enough. My brother is going to buy my Dad a television set from Walmart, and take her to get a CAT Scan tomorrow.
Both my brother and sisinlaw have informed mother that she needs to stop floating the idea that my father can return home - and the Preston is temporary. It's instilling him with a false hope. My brother also reminded her that they chose this place. We didn't. (True, we didn't. We had no say in the matter. My father and mother made this decision all on their own.)
***
Staff Meeting From Doom
Sigh.
I'm beginning to wonder why we bother having any management. They provide little direction, and don't appear to know what we're working on.
BYT announced that if we wanted her to review anything - we'd have to get it to her before June 22. Or she'd not get to it until July, since she's taking the end of June off. (Explains why she though I was taking June 21 - July 2 off, she's doing something similar.)
Management didn't talk about the Return to Office reversal. But Gabe stated that they missed those of us who weren't in the office, all 18 of them. Apparently only 18 came in out of roughly 75. Ricky said he had reasonable accommodation just like I did.
It was amusing though - since one of my co-workers was having issues with his feed, (we were on a MS Teams call) and he kept adjusting it. Making us dizzy watching him, also Boss tried to talk during this adjusting, but just gave up.
***
News such as it is
1. Russia vs. the US and Cybersecurity.
Basically the US is getting tired of Russia's cyber attacks, and told them to cut it out or else. The US even provided Russia with laundry list of critical infrastructure that was off limits. In other words - if you have to do this - please don't attack these items, or we'll have no choice but to respond in kind. Russia reluctantly agreed without admitting to doing anything.
Putin denied Russian responsibility for a surge in cyberattacks against U.S. institutions and rebuffed U.S. criticism of human rights abuses. Biden said that he had handed the Russian leader a list of 16 examples of critical infrastructure that were off limits to cyberattacks, and said he made clear that if they were attacked, “we have significant cyber-capabilities” and would respond “in a cyber way.”
Among the outcomes was an agreement to open U.S.-Russia talks on cybersecurity and arms control, and for ambassadors to return to their posts in Moscow and Washington. Here are the latest updates.
“I did what I came to do,” Biden said after the summit. Speaking separately, Putin said: “I think that in this situation, there can’t be any kind of family trust. But I think we’ve seen some glimmers.”
2. The US wants to investigate what went wrong and how the pandemic got so bad in the US. (I don't know why they need to investigate it - it's kind of obvious. I could tell them.)
As the virus fades in the U.S., there have been growing calls for an investigative commission to examine the pandemic and the devastating loss of life in the country. Despite the publication of thousands of news articles and even books examining what went wrong, major unanswered questions remain.
Bills have been introduced in both houses of Congress to create a bipartisan panel, and so far, the discussion has not produced partisan discord — at least, not yet. However, in Washington, a commission with subpoena power could be a hard sell to Republicans wary that such a panel would become an instrument to investigate former President Donald Trump. Given the current climate, a nonpartisan effort would have more success, said Philip Zelikow, a leader of the Sept. 11 commission.
Off to make dinner. The rest of the news is depressing. I gave up.