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NYC and Me vs the CoronaVirus
Mar. 17th, 2020 05:06 pm1. Sigh - the bizarre roller coaster ride from hell that is 2020 continues. Apparently there are plans in place to put NYC into "Shelter in Place" (which I've been worrying about for the past two months, it's one of the many reasons my shoulders were hurting so badly. Yes, as you all know from reading this blog, I've been obsessively watching this dumb thing for two months now. What can I say? I have a rather morbid fascination with plagues, epidemics and pandemics.)
( excerpt )
[Our Governor has more or less nixed this idea - mainly because it's very easy to just flee NYC to another state that isn't on lock-down. (We're not Italy, there's no border patrols and they can't afford a Swat Team to keep us from leaving NYC.) Also, it's hard to patrol - and it would kill our economy, and to be honest, we are kind of already doing this. He doesn't want to go too far.]
My crazy workplace has finally put about 85% of its office workers on remote status. My project managers will be working remotely from home tomorrow. Only the people needed to keep the trains going or in operation and the system running are still in place. I'm curious to see if the Mayor and Governor decide to shut down the trains - if they do, that will be hard for health care workers to get to and from various locals.
This reminds me of Italy - where you could only leave to get groceries and pharmaceuticals.
I envy John Scalzi and my brother - who have plenty of supplies, pretty much work from home already, have pets, and large houses with lots of land around them.
OTOH - I kind of like being in an apartment building - but I will have to leave said apartment to pick up my mail downstairs (mother is sending me surgical gloves and hand sanitizer - shhh, tell no one), and laundry (the gloves are for doing laundry).
I do have supplies. I should be fine for three weeks. And I can work from home - so I have something to do. Also, have plenty of entertainment available. Plus connections on social media -- I tend to be here mostly any way.
But I have to get that blood pressure meds. I'm more worried about it than the essential tremor meds which should last longer. The blood pressure meds that I have may make two more weeks if that.
2. From Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on FB:
( what NYC has done so far today )
New York has been a busy little beaver lately. Once they gave up on the Federal Government - they went nuts.
PLEASE REMEMBER:
🔹If you feel sick, stay home.
🔹Utilize telemedicine pre-screening whenever possible if you feel symptoms, to alleviate burdens on ERs.
🔹Practice good hygiene and social distancing.
Until I got home - social distancing was almost impossible. It's kind of hard to do in NYC grocery stores, subways, and pharmacies. Just saying. It's also hard to do at times on the sidewalks. But I did try. Work was impossible, not to mention stressful. Cubical land is not created for social distancing. I spent a lot of time worrying that I'd spread it to people or get it myself. My hands were burning - I'd wash them, then wash them again with hand sanitizer.
3. My brother thinks this is the calm before the storm. But there is good news.
Photos of Volunteers Who Get the First Trial Vaccine in Seattle
I told him that I might end up fleeing to his place in Kinderhook after this is over-- and live in either his loft or the barn. The barn has it's own bathroom and is ventilated, so that is an option. Also easier to get into.
He told me that he had the perimeter booby trapped, so to make sure I gave him the heads up first.
The crazy thing about all of this? Is too much of this fits neatly with the plot of that sci-fi novel I was writing (first in my head in 2010 and then on the computer in 2015) - the one called the Sancricity of Water. Except the virus in that book was more a cure for ailments brought down by aliens, that had the nasty side-effect for elderly folks and some people, of turning them into mutated zombies. I called the plague "The Big Mutant Zombie Apocalypse That Wasn't". I coined this term in 2010.
Also Trump was President - because if you are writing an apocalyptic novel - he's a good pick. And a character based on my brother moved to Hawaii for a period of time, only to return and have a farm up North, where my protagonist flees too.
Yes, this is playing out like a really badly written dystopian sci-fi novel.
4. Weirdly, I got work done today. Set up teams in Microsoft Teams - where we can share files and chat and hold meetings. Also sent a word contract to a co-worker who is trying to put together a contract on the fly. And made sure idiotic boss has my cell phone number.
Honestly, I think my workplace and everything else will be very different after this.
[ETA: Apparently there's 19 Million people in NYS. 12 million of that is in NYC. And they've done 10,000 tests to date. With 1,709 infected.]
( excerpt )
[Our Governor has more or less nixed this idea - mainly because it's very easy to just flee NYC to another state that isn't on lock-down. (We're not Italy, there's no border patrols and they can't afford a Swat Team to keep us from leaving NYC.) Also, it's hard to patrol - and it would kill our economy, and to be honest, we are kind of already doing this. He doesn't want to go too far.]
My crazy workplace has finally put about 85% of its office workers on remote status. My project managers will be working remotely from home tomorrow. Only the people needed to keep the trains going or in operation and the system running are still in place. I'm curious to see if the Mayor and Governor decide to shut down the trains - if they do, that will be hard for health care workers to get to and from various locals.
This reminds me of Italy - where you could only leave to get groceries and pharmaceuticals.
I envy John Scalzi and my brother - who have plenty of supplies, pretty much work from home already, have pets, and large houses with lots of land around them.
OTOH - I kind of like being in an apartment building - but I will have to leave said apartment to pick up my mail downstairs (mother is sending me surgical gloves and hand sanitizer - shhh, tell no one), and laundry (the gloves are for doing laundry).
I do have supplies. I should be fine for three weeks. And I can work from home - so I have something to do. Also, have plenty of entertainment available. Plus connections on social media -- I tend to be here mostly any way.
But I have to get that blood pressure meds. I'm more worried about it than the essential tremor meds which should last longer. The blood pressure meds that I have may make two more weeks if that.
2. From Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on FB:
( what NYC has done so far today )
New York has been a busy little beaver lately. Once they gave up on the Federal Government - they went nuts.
PLEASE REMEMBER:
🔹If you feel sick, stay home.
🔹Utilize telemedicine pre-screening whenever possible if you feel symptoms, to alleviate burdens on ERs.
🔹Practice good hygiene and social distancing.
Until I got home - social distancing was almost impossible. It's kind of hard to do in NYC grocery stores, subways, and pharmacies. Just saying. It's also hard to do at times on the sidewalks. But I did try. Work was impossible, not to mention stressful. Cubical land is not created for social distancing. I spent a lot of time worrying that I'd spread it to people or get it myself. My hands were burning - I'd wash them, then wash them again with hand sanitizer.
3. My brother thinks this is the calm before the storm. But there is good news.
Photos of Volunteers Who Get the First Trial Vaccine in Seattle
I told him that I might end up fleeing to his place in Kinderhook after this is over-- and live in either his loft or the barn. The barn has it's own bathroom and is ventilated, so that is an option. Also easier to get into.
He told me that he had the perimeter booby trapped, so to make sure I gave him the heads up first.
The crazy thing about all of this? Is too much of this fits neatly with the plot of that sci-fi novel I was writing (first in my head in 2010 and then on the computer in 2015) - the one called the Sancricity of Water. Except the virus in that book was more a cure for ailments brought down by aliens, that had the nasty side-effect for elderly folks and some people, of turning them into mutated zombies. I called the plague "The Big Mutant Zombie Apocalypse That Wasn't". I coined this term in 2010.
Also Trump was President - because if you are writing an apocalyptic novel - he's a good pick. And a character based on my brother moved to Hawaii for a period of time, only to return and have a farm up North, where my protagonist flees too.
Yes, this is playing out like a really badly written dystopian sci-fi novel.
4. Weirdly, I got work done today. Set up teams in Microsoft Teams - where we can share files and chat and hold meetings. Also sent a word contract to a co-worker who is trying to put together a contract on the fly. And made sure idiotic boss has my cell phone number.
Honestly, I think my workplace and everything else will be very different after this.
[ETA: Apparently there's 19 Million people in NYS. 12 million of that is in NYC. And they've done 10,000 tests to date. With 1,709 infected.]