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shadowkatSo, Chidi has been wandering about with his mask below his nose. (It's been going on since we came back en mass. Lots of people do, and I can't figure out why.)
Me (as he passes by my cubicle after asking me a host of questions about a contract I just handed over to him): Out of curiosity, can you explain to me why people wear their masks below their nose?
Chidi: People in general or just me? I can only speak for myself.
Me: You?
Chidi: Well, I didn't until I got the blue masks, which are more comfortable. I used to wear the one you have - the KN94 masks. But with this one, it's easier. And I wear glasses. (Glasses can fog up. I know I wear them too at various points. But if you perch them right - they don't. There's a trick.)
Me: Well, not everyone wears glasses.
Chidi: True.
Me: You do realize that you contract the virus through the nose, right? If you aren't going to pull it up and over the nose - you might as well not wear it at all. It's kind of pointless.
Chidi: Really?
Me: They test for the virus by going up through your nose with the swab - it's how most folks get it, and it's where the virus infects you - through the nose - they breath it in through their nose.
Chidi: Oh, right, that is true. (He pulls up his mask). I'll work to wear it up then.
Me: Thank you. I just want you to be safe.
Honestly, it's not just the pandemic, I'm currently fed up with - it's human stupidity. Which was admittedly always a problem.
Sy-Fy Co-worker: Eliot Spitzer had a 70% approval rating, he was impossible to beat and primed since a young age to run for President.
Me: But he couldn't stop himself from playing with the hookers. It's kind of funny actually.
Sy-Fy Co-worker: It's not funny.
Me: No, it really is. It's hilarious if you think about it. We have Cuomo, Weiner, and Spitzer, and of the three Spitzer is actually not that bad, and he served the shortest term. All he did was pay women for sex. At least it was consensual.
Sy-Fy Coworker: That's true no one got hurt with Spitzer.
Me: They also got paid, it's just he was using government funds -
Co-worker: No, he was doing it on government time.
Me: Ah. And it was illegal. Now, if it had been in Nevada, he'd have gotten off the hook - so to speak.
Co-worker: All arrogance.
My wry sense of humor keeps me sane.
Played about on Twitter - and I can't quite decide if my Twitter is whiny or its just my section of it that is? Maybe my annoyance with humanity and life in general is attracting whiners? [That was a rhetorical question that does not require answering.]
**
If they turned off the electricity today in my apartment - I saw no evidence of it. Came home and made a quiche. Which was okay, not the best I've made, but not the worst either.
At least my shoulders don't hurt. Concerned about mother who was going to a choir party at 5pm but has not returned home apparently or called yet. Maybe the party ran late?
I shouldn't worry. It's pointless to worry. I can't do anything. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
**
So, I picked up Buffy: The Last Slayer by Casey Gilley & Joe Jaro. It's okay. I liked it better than the other BOOM! Buffy comics, but it rehashes a somewhat overdone trope - the old lone wolf hero who takes in a wet-behind-the-ear's kid and trains them. This trope dates back to the Western genre, if not beyond. It always takes place in an apocalyptic future, the hero is always ragged, down on their luck, alone, no friends, grouchy and bitter. The kid is always naive, sent by some distant relative or estranged friends to be trained. And it's always a way to redeem the hero who has given up on saving the world because of some horrendous event.
I'm tired of this trope. I really hoped it wouldn't go that route. But it did and here we are.
Outside of the flogged to death trope - it's not bad. The art is good, the writing is good. So if you can wink past the trope...
As to favs? Willow and Tara send their kid to Buffy. So in this AU, Willow and Tara are alive. Anya is kind of training Buffy, and the only one Buffy is in contact with. I don't know what happened to Cordy, Xander, Angel, and Spike or Dawn. Or if Dawn exists in this universe. All the slayers who came up with Buffy are dead. The earth's sun has eclipsed permanently so vampires can walk the earth regardless of the time of day. Humanity and Vampire have come to a sort of truce, but slayers are outlawed, and it is a crime for vampires to kill humans, and for humans to kill vampires.
Giles is also gone.
It's as if they took aspects of the Dark Horse Buffy Comics and the Television Series, but ignored other aspects?
I don't know. I'd have to read the next issue. The way it's written - you figure it out as you go.
****
I will not worry about my mother.
***
Gabe told me that there are rapid COVID Tests you can take at home. And if I couldn't find any in the pharmacy in my area, she could pick up a few and I could pay her back. That's what she uses when she goes on a trip. Kind of like a pregnancy test - except for COVID and the nose.
Crazy Org just released an email stating that people had shown up to work with COVID symptoms and you are not supposed to do that. (Honestly, some symptoms are similar to allergies and the common cold. I showed up with allergies, but they went away real fast. And no headache, nothing else.)
See? This is why remote from home makes sense right now.
Checked my pharmacy and they were sold out, next shipment will be this coming Tuesday. Lovely. I'll tell Gabe, and try to get some on Tuesday, if I don't find any - anywhere else.
***
Oh, and one of the remaining Monkeeys, Mike Nesmith, died today, he was 78 years of age. I think that leaves Mickey? Yep, that leaves Mickey at 76. Davey Jones, and Peter Tork died some time
***
Mother called finally. It was a long party. (She'd gone to her choir's Xmas Party). Twenty people. They cooked a full meal, with all sorts of deserts. And had a beautiful and well-decorated home - Mother was amazed. Apparently made lots and lots of Christmas Cookies, some even in the freezer. (Sigh, I miss Christmas Cookies, haven't been able to eat any since roughly 2005. Some substitutions here and there - but alas, not the same. My favs were the lemon and coconut bars, also the iced ones that decorated our tree when I was a kid. Plus the spritz cookies. I did not like the powdered sugar cookies as much - me and powdered sugar are unmixy things.)
Me: Okay, I hesitate to ask...were these folks vaccinated?
Mother: Everyone was vaccinated.
Me: Oh thank god.
Mother: Carol drove me, and both she and her husband were vaccinated, you needn't worry.
Me: I feel as if people want to go about as if things are normal and there's not a pandemic raging about us.
Mother: We'll they certainly were acting as if things are normal at this party. I'd have to go far to beat that party. It was amazing. Only twenty people there - in this large beautifully decorated home, with long tables, and lots of amazing food. The hosts ate very little. No one brought anything (usually it's potluck), and they made all of it. And it was really good.
Me: Well, I'm glad you had fun.
[I am not going to the Holiday Parties Crazy Workplace is throwing. (Oh well at least our group stopped doing that - we've kind of been broken up, so there's no real point anyhow.) Union is having one out on Long Island with a live band. And there's one the President of the Railroad is throwing at the Station Headquarters, you can come and pick food up - individually wrapped. I am ceiliac and diabetic, with a restrictive diet, I won't be able to ate anything anyhow.]
Wales is upset with me for not making plans to meet up with her for dinner sometime this week before I leave to see my parents. I can tell. She's giving me the silent treatment. (Which is an improvement over the angry crazy texting, so there's that at least.)
***
Random photo of the night..
Me (as he passes by my cubicle after asking me a host of questions about a contract I just handed over to him): Out of curiosity, can you explain to me why people wear their masks below their nose?
Chidi: People in general or just me? I can only speak for myself.
Me: You?
Chidi: Well, I didn't until I got the blue masks, which are more comfortable. I used to wear the one you have - the KN94 masks. But with this one, it's easier. And I wear glasses. (Glasses can fog up. I know I wear them too at various points. But if you perch them right - they don't. There's a trick.)
Me: Well, not everyone wears glasses.
Chidi: True.
Me: You do realize that you contract the virus through the nose, right? If you aren't going to pull it up and over the nose - you might as well not wear it at all. It's kind of pointless.
Chidi: Really?
Me: They test for the virus by going up through your nose with the swab - it's how most folks get it, and it's where the virus infects you - through the nose - they breath it in through their nose.
Chidi: Oh, right, that is true. (He pulls up his mask). I'll work to wear it up then.
Me: Thank you. I just want you to be safe.
Honestly, it's not just the pandemic, I'm currently fed up with - it's human stupidity. Which was admittedly always a problem.
Sy-Fy Co-worker: Eliot Spitzer had a 70% approval rating, he was impossible to beat and primed since a young age to run for President.
Me: But he couldn't stop himself from playing with the hookers. It's kind of funny actually.
Sy-Fy Co-worker: It's not funny.
Me: No, it really is. It's hilarious if you think about it. We have Cuomo, Weiner, and Spitzer, and of the three Spitzer is actually not that bad, and he served the shortest term. All he did was pay women for sex. At least it was consensual.
Sy-Fy Coworker: That's true no one got hurt with Spitzer.
Me: They also got paid, it's just he was using government funds -
Co-worker: No, he was doing it on government time.
Me: Ah. And it was illegal. Now, if it had been in Nevada, he'd have gotten off the hook - so to speak.
Co-worker: All arrogance.
My wry sense of humor keeps me sane.
Played about on Twitter - and I can't quite decide if my Twitter is whiny or its just my section of it that is? Maybe my annoyance with humanity and life in general is attracting whiners? [That was a rhetorical question that does not require answering.]
**
If they turned off the electricity today in my apartment - I saw no evidence of it. Came home and made a quiche. Which was okay, not the best I've made, but not the worst either.
At least my shoulders don't hurt. Concerned about mother who was going to a choir party at 5pm but has not returned home apparently or called yet. Maybe the party ran late?
I shouldn't worry. It's pointless to worry. I can't do anything. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
**
So, I picked up Buffy: The Last Slayer by Casey Gilley & Joe Jaro. It's okay. I liked it better than the other BOOM! Buffy comics, but it rehashes a somewhat overdone trope - the old lone wolf hero who takes in a wet-behind-the-ear's kid and trains them. This trope dates back to the Western genre, if not beyond. It always takes place in an apocalyptic future, the hero is always ragged, down on their luck, alone, no friends, grouchy and bitter. The kid is always naive, sent by some distant relative or estranged friends to be trained. And it's always a way to redeem the hero who has given up on saving the world because of some horrendous event.
I'm tired of this trope. I really hoped it wouldn't go that route. But it did and here we are.
Outside of the flogged to death trope - it's not bad. The art is good, the writing is good. So if you can wink past the trope...
As to favs? Willow and Tara send their kid to Buffy. So in this AU, Willow and Tara are alive. Anya is kind of training Buffy, and the only one Buffy is in contact with. I don't know what happened to Cordy, Xander, Angel, and Spike or Dawn. Or if Dawn exists in this universe. All the slayers who came up with Buffy are dead. The earth's sun has eclipsed permanently so vampires can walk the earth regardless of the time of day. Humanity and Vampire have come to a sort of truce, but slayers are outlawed, and it is a crime for vampires to kill humans, and for humans to kill vampires.
Giles is also gone.
It's as if they took aspects of the Dark Horse Buffy Comics and the Television Series, but ignored other aspects?
I don't know. I'd have to read the next issue. The way it's written - you figure it out as you go.
****
I will not worry about my mother.
***
Gabe told me that there are rapid COVID Tests you can take at home. And if I couldn't find any in the pharmacy in my area, she could pick up a few and I could pay her back. That's what she uses when she goes on a trip. Kind of like a pregnancy test - except for COVID and the nose.
Crazy Org just released an email stating that people had shown up to work with COVID symptoms and you are not supposed to do that. (Honestly, some symptoms are similar to allergies and the common cold. I showed up with allergies, but they went away real fast. And no headache, nothing else.)
See? This is why remote from home makes sense right now.
Checked my pharmacy and they were sold out, next shipment will be this coming Tuesday. Lovely. I'll tell Gabe, and try to get some on Tuesday, if I don't find any - anywhere else.
***
Oh, and one of the remaining Monkeeys, Mike Nesmith, died today, he was 78 years of age. I think that leaves Mickey? Yep, that leaves Mickey at 76. Davey Jones, and Peter Tork died some time
***
Mother called finally. It was a long party. (She'd gone to her choir's Xmas Party). Twenty people. They cooked a full meal, with all sorts of deserts. And had a beautiful and well-decorated home - Mother was amazed. Apparently made lots and lots of Christmas Cookies, some even in the freezer. (Sigh, I miss Christmas Cookies, haven't been able to eat any since roughly 2005. Some substitutions here and there - but alas, not the same. My favs were the lemon and coconut bars, also the iced ones that decorated our tree when I was a kid. Plus the spritz cookies. I did not like the powdered sugar cookies as much - me and powdered sugar are unmixy things.)
Me: Okay, I hesitate to ask...were these folks vaccinated?
Mother: Everyone was vaccinated.
Me: Oh thank god.
Mother: Carol drove me, and both she and her husband were vaccinated, you needn't worry.
Me: I feel as if people want to go about as if things are normal and there's not a pandemic raging about us.
Mother: We'll they certainly were acting as if things are normal at this party. I'd have to go far to beat that party. It was amazing. Only twenty people there - in this large beautifully decorated home, with long tables, and lots of amazing food. The hosts ate very little. No one brought anything (usually it's potluck), and they made all of it. And it was really good.
Me: Well, I'm glad you had fun.
[I am not going to the Holiday Parties Crazy Workplace is throwing. (Oh well at least our group stopped doing that - we've kind of been broken up, so there's no real point anyhow.) Union is having one out on Long Island with a live band. And there's one the President of the Railroad is throwing at the Station Headquarters, you can come and pick food up - individually wrapped. I am ceiliac and diabetic, with a restrictive diet, I won't be able to ate anything anyhow.]
Wales is upset with me for not making plans to meet up with her for dinner sometime this week before I leave to see my parents. I can tell. She's giving me the silent treatment. (Which is an improvement over the angry crazy texting, so there's that at least.)
***
Random photo of the night..
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Date: 2021-12-11 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-11 04:40 pm (UTC)