Year 2 - Day 97 - Sunset
Jun. 22nd, 2021 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSo, my Crazy-Ass Union is yanking us around again. After insisting that they had no say in when we returned to the office, the union threw a hissy fit and threatened to file a complain that we were being phased back into the office with everyone else on July 12 instead of June 14, as the union had reported. They insisted that management phase us back into the office on June 24.
I don't know why they did this. They refuse to explain themselves. Whenever I ask - they deflect in various ways, either by "playing the victim", or by ranting at us for not being "unified" and "supporting them", or by whinging about a permanent telework from home agreement not being signed. I've had it with them.
Union to Crazy Org: It has come to our attention that you are phasing people back on July 12. This is a violation of our agreement. If you do not start phasing them back this week per CDC Guidelines, we will file a violation of our agreement.
ME: I fail to understand why you are insisting we all go back in June. What's wrong with the July 12 date?
Union: Because, it's against our agreement, they are violating their own agreement.
Me: So what? I mean you told us when we asked for it to be extended to July 12 like everyone else - that it wasn't the union making this decision it was management. It wasn't up to you to decide when we returned to the office. Now, per your own email, you're stating it's a violation if management has us return to the office on July 12, instead of say this week? Also what about the poor people who have to make childcare arrangements? Plus I'm paying union dues, everyone is - shouldn't you be representing us.
Union: Please this is not meant to be for childcare. And crazy org refused to sign a permanent telework from home agreement that we offered to them, it's all their fault - it's crazy org's fault. Selfish people who only care about themselves and go on about me, me, me all the time. And what about being "union"! You are supposed to be united behind us no matter what! We're in this together! There's three points of view to this story.
Me: For the record I am a single person, with no children, and reasonable accommodation. It would help greatly if you would send us this permanent telework from home agreement that you offered to the Crazy ORG, or at the very least explain these mysterious items you requested that is preventing you from agreeing to the July 12 extension. I also think you need find someone who can communicate and explain the union's perspective on this and why you did this - because right now, it makes no sense.
I lost my temper. I tend to get very condescending when I lose my temper and didactic. As I told a co-worker - I tend to channel Mr. Spock for some reason in my writing. Also, I get a headache, and my hands shake uncontrollably, which just pisses me off more. I wanted to strangle the guy - so instead I dressed him down with logic and common sense.
Anyhow it doesn't hurt me at all. It hurts other people, but not me. I'm upset on their behalf. I'm fine with the current schedule. No skin off my nose. I just think it's stupid and illogical, and the union has failed in its responsibility, and should be summarily penalized by its membership for being a jerk.
I got reasonable accommodation back in September because of the idiotic union yanking me around. I have no idea what the idiotic union thinks it is proving with this - outside of pissing everyone off. At any rate, boss kindly threw me into the C group, which means when I come back in July - I come into the office one day, July 7, a Wednesday. Then the next week July 12 and July 15 (Mon and Thursday), then Tuesday and Friday, and Tuesday and Friday. I can totally do that. That's reasonable. Once I got the schedule, my blood pressure dropped considerably.
What pissed me off the most was the comment that we had to be "union strong" and the whole point of a "union" - was to be united behind your sisters and brothers no matter what. I just can't go along with that BS.
I don't like being told what to do if it doesn't make sense. I'm not a lemming. I don't understand lemmings. If the authority explains it to me in a logical and reasonable fashion, and it makes logical sense to me - I can be persuaded to follow it, otherwise I won't. I'm fairly flexible and open-minded about most things - but I have to understand the logistics or the why, where, how, what, who - and it has to make logical or reasonable sense to me. If it doesn't make sense to me - I'll question you to death on it, until you can make it make sense to me or you change your mind.
Also, I'm not the sort of person who only fights for my own rights, I'll fight for others too - if I think something is unjust. It's just how I was put together.
In other news, the storm passed and we got a sunset - and with it went my frayed nerves. It's not the chocolate or the sugar - it's the frigging weather. Last night we had an electrical storm - and I had troubles sleeping. And today, it rained all day and the barometric pressure kept shifting - I wanted to jump out of my skin. I'm highly sensitive to shifts in energy - any major shifts, or weather changes.
I difficult being a sensitive. It's kind of a gift and a curse at the same time. I can sense negative and positive energy. I avoid certain areas on instinct. And thunderstorms make me kind of ill. My mother told me that I was so sensitive, always had been even as a small child.
I've decided to ask my primary care for a referral for an endocrinologist (which I can't spell), due to the diabetes and hormonal fluctuations (which mother reminded me - I've always had to some extent - they were evened out with birth control pills for a bit). I need a specialist - enough of this GP crap. Just procrastinating.
***
Mother is driving herself nuts over father's care. She's realized that she can't bring him home with her - and feels as if she's abandoned him or failed in some way. (The woman has a fractured hip that refuses to heal, is using a walker everywhere, and a wheelchair, and can't put any wait on that leg or drive. We still don't know how she fractured her hip - but have come up with a wide variety of possibilities.)
Today she took a break from visiting him. She'd visited him just about every day for almost five days straight. Figured she'd give them both a break. Bro said in some ways she seemed freer with him in the facility, even with her fractured hip. That's because when he was home with her - her life revolved around caring for him 24/7.
I don't know why I feel the need to share this - maybe to make sense of the insensible? My father is sometimes lucid, when he's not he is either upset with her for interrupting his "shareholder's meeting" or wants to come home. Alzheimers is the worst, just saying.
***
COVID
I'm questioning the US's desire to open up. And the way it is doing it. NY is bragging about the low infection rate, but it's kind of about the same as it was last summer. Also, we still have cases and deaths - it's not 0.
COVID hospitalizations are at 485. Of the 58,372 tests reported yesterday, 251, or 0.43 percent, were positive. The 7-day average percent positivity was 0.37 percent. There were 114 patients in ICU yesterday, down four from the previous day. Of them, 62 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 10 New Yorkers to the virus.
I don't know, this does not make me feel warm and fuzzy and like frolicking with strangers. It makes me want to remain cautious. 251 cases - is still cases of COVID. And they are all variants now.
And 114 people in the ICU - is a lot of people. And ten people dying, means folks are still dying of the disease.
Am I crazy? I don't know. Apparently when I was a small child, I touched the grass before I'd venture out on it. So it's clearly ingrained in me.
In other news, mother is discouraging me from visiting until Fall. It's the height of tourist season down there right now. Very crowded. Also the American Airlines keeps canceling flights without notice - because they furloughed a bunch of pilots during the height of the pandemic, and don't have enough now to fly the planes. (Not that I'd take American Airlines - I hate American Airlines. I prefer Jetblue or Delta.)
I'm thinking the first or second week of September is a good time to go, school will be back in session - and less people traveling. I discovered that when I visited my cousin in 2018. September is a good time to travel.
No one else is. Another good time is October. However, we do have hurricane season approaching. I'm praying it skips the Southern Atlantic Coast and sticks to the northern Gulf. Leave my parents and Aunts alone, they have enough to deal with.
***
Politics
I deal with so much politics via my work place that I find that I've little to no patience for it outside of the work place. I don't care for example about the Mayoral Race. I should. But I don't. And no, I didn't vote in the primaries - because I don't care.
I'll vote in the General Election of course - just to keep the Republicans out of office. That's all I care about, keeping the evil Republicans out of office. Anyhow, it looks like it will be Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn Borough President. Which I'm okay with. He can be annoying, but he's not as annoying as De Blasio or Cuomo.
Meanwhile Congress - specifically the Senate is taking on the fight regarding the Voting Rights Bill. The West Virgina Senator is on board. I think this battle may end up costing the Republican Party the filibuster. I think it's going to result in the Senate killing or changing it, so it has less power, and if that happens...the Republicans may end up being dead in the water. Please happen. I want that party powerless, and defunct by 2025.
****
Other news items
* We have the first NFL Football Player who has come out as gay. (I'm betting there are more but in the closet.) Carl Nassib “agonized” over the decision to come out as gay. He is the first active N.F.L. player to do so.
“I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now,” Nassib, a defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders, said on Instagram. “But I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
Nassib, who said he kept his sexuality to himself for 15 years, comes from a football family, and was a walk-on turned all-American at Penn State. The N.F.L. commissioner, his college coach and his team all expressed support for him. But the fact that he is the only active player to be publicly out in a major American men’s pro sports league suggests that male athletes still face a barrier."
If I live to be 100, I may never understand the stigma aka prejudice against homosexuality or homophobia or why people and religions have issues with LGBTA. Don't quote the Bible to me - I'm analytical and a critical thinker - I've analyzed it in school, religious bible studies, etc. Also living your life based on a text that is over 2000 years old and was written for people over 2000 years ago, in a different world from yours, with different needs and requirements, and has been translated so many times it is impossible to determine what is even the correct interpretation is insane. Religion is completely insensible - it relies on texts that make little sense, have little relevancy, and are in languages long forgotten.
I just don't understand homophobia at all. Why do people care? Racism and xenophobia make a little more sense to me. Not a lot, but more.
I think the problem is people have been programmed to hate or be intolerant of other people by their communities, religions, educational systems, friends, families, and media over time. And not everybody is taught to think critically or question stuff. I was. I don't understand people who don't question things. I do it naturally.
At any rate, I've stopped fighting with idiotic homophobes or bigots. I realized a while back that my tolerance for homophobia had leapt out the window and went running down the street - never to be seen again. Just whack the homophobes over the head and be done with it.
Oh well, at least things are finally changing in this regard.
It's late time for bed. Sorry for all the rambling about stuff.
Here's a picture of a little free library in my neighborhood. Mostly bibles, for some reason. I think people are trying to get rid of them.
I don't know why they did this. They refuse to explain themselves. Whenever I ask - they deflect in various ways, either by "playing the victim", or by ranting at us for not being "unified" and "supporting them", or by whinging about a permanent telework from home agreement not being signed. I've had it with them.
Union to Crazy Org: It has come to our attention that you are phasing people back on July 12. This is a violation of our agreement. If you do not start phasing them back this week per CDC Guidelines, we will file a violation of our agreement.
ME: I fail to understand why you are insisting we all go back in June. What's wrong with the July 12 date?
Union: Because, it's against our agreement, they are violating their own agreement.
Me: So what? I mean you told us when we asked for it to be extended to July 12 like everyone else - that it wasn't the union making this decision it was management. It wasn't up to you to decide when we returned to the office. Now, per your own email, you're stating it's a violation if management has us return to the office on July 12, instead of say this week? Also what about the poor people who have to make childcare arrangements? Plus I'm paying union dues, everyone is - shouldn't you be representing us.
Union: Please this is not meant to be for childcare. And crazy org refused to sign a permanent telework from home agreement that we offered to them, it's all their fault - it's crazy org's fault. Selfish people who only care about themselves and go on about me, me, me all the time. And what about being "union"! You are supposed to be united behind us no matter what! We're in this together! There's three points of view to this story.
Me: For the record I am a single person, with no children, and reasonable accommodation. It would help greatly if you would send us this permanent telework from home agreement that you offered to the Crazy ORG, or at the very least explain these mysterious items you requested that is preventing you from agreeing to the July 12 extension. I also think you need find someone who can communicate and explain the union's perspective on this and why you did this - because right now, it makes no sense.
I lost my temper. I tend to get very condescending when I lose my temper and didactic. As I told a co-worker - I tend to channel Mr. Spock for some reason in my writing. Also, I get a headache, and my hands shake uncontrollably, which just pisses me off more. I wanted to strangle the guy - so instead I dressed him down with logic and common sense.
Anyhow it doesn't hurt me at all. It hurts other people, but not me. I'm upset on their behalf. I'm fine with the current schedule. No skin off my nose. I just think it's stupid and illogical, and the union has failed in its responsibility, and should be summarily penalized by its membership for being a jerk.
I got reasonable accommodation back in September because of the idiotic union yanking me around. I have no idea what the idiotic union thinks it is proving with this - outside of pissing everyone off. At any rate, boss kindly threw me into the C group, which means when I come back in July - I come into the office one day, July 7, a Wednesday. Then the next week July 12 and July 15 (Mon and Thursday), then Tuesday and Friday, and Tuesday and Friday. I can totally do that. That's reasonable. Once I got the schedule, my blood pressure dropped considerably.
What pissed me off the most was the comment that we had to be "union strong" and the whole point of a "union" - was to be united behind your sisters and brothers no matter what. I just can't go along with that BS.
I don't like being told what to do if it doesn't make sense. I'm not a lemming. I don't understand lemmings. If the authority explains it to me in a logical and reasonable fashion, and it makes logical sense to me - I can be persuaded to follow it, otherwise I won't. I'm fairly flexible and open-minded about most things - but I have to understand the logistics or the why, where, how, what, who - and it has to make logical or reasonable sense to me. If it doesn't make sense to me - I'll question you to death on it, until you can make it make sense to me or you change your mind.
Also, I'm not the sort of person who only fights for my own rights, I'll fight for others too - if I think something is unjust. It's just how I was put together.
In other news, the storm passed and we got a sunset - and with it went my frayed nerves. It's not the chocolate or the sugar - it's the frigging weather. Last night we had an electrical storm - and I had troubles sleeping. And today, it rained all day and the barometric pressure kept shifting - I wanted to jump out of my skin. I'm highly sensitive to shifts in energy - any major shifts, or weather changes.
I difficult being a sensitive. It's kind of a gift and a curse at the same time. I can sense negative and positive energy. I avoid certain areas on instinct. And thunderstorms make me kind of ill. My mother told me that I was so sensitive, always had been even as a small child.
I've decided to ask my primary care for a referral for an endocrinologist (which I can't spell), due to the diabetes and hormonal fluctuations (which mother reminded me - I've always had to some extent - they were evened out with birth control pills for a bit). I need a specialist - enough of this GP crap. Just procrastinating.
***
Mother is driving herself nuts over father's care. She's realized that she can't bring him home with her - and feels as if she's abandoned him or failed in some way. (The woman has a fractured hip that refuses to heal, is using a walker everywhere, and a wheelchair, and can't put any wait on that leg or drive. We still don't know how she fractured her hip - but have come up with a wide variety of possibilities.)
Today she took a break from visiting him. She'd visited him just about every day for almost five days straight. Figured she'd give them both a break. Bro said in some ways she seemed freer with him in the facility, even with her fractured hip. That's because when he was home with her - her life revolved around caring for him 24/7.
I don't know why I feel the need to share this - maybe to make sense of the insensible? My father is sometimes lucid, when he's not he is either upset with her for interrupting his "shareholder's meeting" or wants to come home. Alzheimers is the worst, just saying.
***
COVID
I'm questioning the US's desire to open up. And the way it is doing it. NY is bragging about the low infection rate, but it's kind of about the same as it was last summer. Also, we still have cases and deaths - it's not 0.
COVID hospitalizations are at 485. Of the 58,372 tests reported yesterday, 251, or 0.43 percent, were positive. The 7-day average percent positivity was 0.37 percent. There were 114 patients in ICU yesterday, down four from the previous day. Of them, 62 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 10 New Yorkers to the virus.
I don't know, this does not make me feel warm and fuzzy and like frolicking with strangers. It makes me want to remain cautious. 251 cases - is still cases of COVID. And they are all variants now.
And 114 people in the ICU - is a lot of people. And ten people dying, means folks are still dying of the disease.
Am I crazy? I don't know. Apparently when I was a small child, I touched the grass before I'd venture out on it. So it's clearly ingrained in me.
In other news, mother is discouraging me from visiting until Fall. It's the height of tourist season down there right now. Very crowded. Also the American Airlines keeps canceling flights without notice - because they furloughed a bunch of pilots during the height of the pandemic, and don't have enough now to fly the planes. (Not that I'd take American Airlines - I hate American Airlines. I prefer Jetblue or Delta.)
I'm thinking the first or second week of September is a good time to go, school will be back in session - and less people traveling. I discovered that when I visited my cousin in 2018. September is a good time to travel.
No one else is. Another good time is October. However, we do have hurricane season approaching. I'm praying it skips the Southern Atlantic Coast and sticks to the northern Gulf. Leave my parents and Aunts alone, they have enough to deal with.
***
Politics
I deal with so much politics via my work place that I find that I've little to no patience for it outside of the work place. I don't care for example about the Mayoral Race. I should. But I don't. And no, I didn't vote in the primaries - because I don't care.
I'll vote in the General Election of course - just to keep the Republicans out of office. That's all I care about, keeping the evil Republicans out of office. Anyhow, it looks like it will be Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn Borough President. Which I'm okay with. He can be annoying, but he's not as annoying as De Blasio or Cuomo.
Meanwhile Congress - specifically the Senate is taking on the fight regarding the Voting Rights Bill. The West Virgina Senator is on board. I think this battle may end up costing the Republican Party the filibuster. I think it's going to result in the Senate killing or changing it, so it has less power, and if that happens...the Republicans may end up being dead in the water. Please happen. I want that party powerless, and defunct by 2025.
****
Other news items
* We have the first NFL Football Player who has come out as gay. (I'm betting there are more but in the closet.) Carl Nassib “agonized” over the decision to come out as gay. He is the first active N.F.L. player to do so.
“I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now,” Nassib, a defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders, said on Instagram. “But I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
Nassib, who said he kept his sexuality to himself for 15 years, comes from a football family, and was a walk-on turned all-American at Penn State. The N.F.L. commissioner, his college coach and his team all expressed support for him. But the fact that he is the only active player to be publicly out in a major American men’s pro sports league suggests that male athletes still face a barrier."
If I live to be 100, I may never understand the stigma aka prejudice against homosexuality or homophobia or why people and religions have issues with LGBTA. Don't quote the Bible to me - I'm analytical and a critical thinker - I've analyzed it in school, religious bible studies, etc. Also living your life based on a text that is over 2000 years old and was written for people over 2000 years ago, in a different world from yours, with different needs and requirements, and has been translated so many times it is impossible to determine what is even the correct interpretation is insane. Religion is completely insensible - it relies on texts that make little sense, have little relevancy, and are in languages long forgotten.
I just don't understand homophobia at all. Why do people care? Racism and xenophobia make a little more sense to me. Not a lot, but more.
I think the problem is people have been programmed to hate or be intolerant of other people by their communities, religions, educational systems, friends, families, and media over time. And not everybody is taught to think critically or question stuff. I was. I don't understand people who don't question things. I do it naturally.
At any rate, I've stopped fighting with idiotic homophobes or bigots. I realized a while back that my tolerance for homophobia had leapt out the window and went running down the street - never to be seen again. Just whack the homophobes over the head and be done with it.
Oh well, at least things are finally changing in this regard.
It's late time for bed. Sorry for all the rambling about stuff.
Here's a picture of a little free library in my neighborhood. Mostly bibles, for some reason. I think people are trying to get rid of them.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-23 04:43 pm (UTC)This feels like a lot of marketing to push forward the economy, but I looked at the numbers - our infection rate right now isn't much lower than it was in June 2020. And Vermont has a lower rate - and a higher vaccination rate than New York.
It's hard to know who to believe sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-23 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-23 05:07 pm (UTC)Humanity's overall response to the pandemic has been less than positive in my opinion.