Apr. 24th, 2020

shadowkat: (Politics)
1. And apparently it really is epidemic central? I got news last night that Brooklyn is gaining on Queens as the area with the most cases of the virus, and the most deaths. I mentioned this to my mother during our lunch-time chat on the phone. (Mother lives in a locked down retirement community in Hilton Head, South Carolina.)

Me: So, now Brooklyn is considered the worst hot spot in the US with the most cases, 7% of the death rate in the world.
Mother: I thought that was where you worked - Queens?
Me: Yeah, either way? I'm doomed. And people wonder why I keep procrastinating doing laundry. If it weren't for my co-worker giving me the link for Imperfect Foods, I would have to go to the grocery store. Can't get deliveries from anywhere else.
Mother: But there are people who are literally without food - sitting in cars waiting for hours and by the time they get to the place to pick up their food, nothing is left. They keep showing it on the news.
Me: I know. It's heart-breaking. Another food bank popped up in Grand Army Plaza near the Barclays Center. They told us about it on the Neighborhood Kensington Site.
My first thought was - oh cool. You don't need an ID, or proof of need, or anything and it's free. Second - no, I'll go to the grocery store or use Imperfect Foods.
Third - if I did need this - I'd be stuck, no car, and I'd have to take public transportation. There's no food banks that I know of near me. Oh god these poor people.
Mother: So many live paycheck to paycheck. It's heartbreaking.

We have 26% unemployment rate and it's rising. The US is rapidly turning from an economically well-off first world country to a third world country over-night.
Meanwhile we have these nitwits on social media and sending emails asking what wonderful new skill you learned, who you reached out to via Zoom, etc. Folks? People are stressed out and struggling, a little mindfulness goes a long way. Not everyone is well off.

One of my co-workers, the administrative assistant, is starting her own worm farm. She's using worms to compost and then transferring the soil to raise various plants.
More power to her - I couldn't begin to do it, even if I wanted to or understood it.
My main goal next week is to do laundry. I find laundry to be very anxiety inducing at the moment. Yes, we've moved from worrying over toilet paper to doing laundry.
This thing is bringing forth anxieties I never knew I had. Oh well, at least I can laugh at my own absurdity.

Anyhow, last night I posted on FB a NY Times article that 1 in 5 New Yorkers most likely had the Coronovirus or been exposed. I was shocked and dismayed by it. Because I don't really know anyone who has tested positive. I know people who think they had it. But not quite the same thing. So I posted, and got responses from fellow New Yorkers informing me that they knew people who had it, including many who had died from it. Gad.

2. It's an overcast, rainy day - so I took a walk after work - and after taking out the trash, and picking up a package. (I bought olive oil.) And well after talking to my mother first. We talk twice a day. It helps to hear another voice outside of my own and the television set/music once and a while. Although I do, on occasion, speak to various co-workers. Just haven't done so this week - been a bit slow most of the week. Picked up speed on Thursday, when I got inundated with emails. They waited until Thursday to respond to my emails. Three days of waiting - then wham. Highly annoying.

So, I took a walk - as I told my mother, "I'm going to take a long walk now, since it's over cast, cold, and kind of drizzling, so fewer people will be out."

There were people wandering about and riding bikes. But less people. I live in NYC, there's always people wandering about. During a blizzard with white out conditions, there are people wandering about - usually walking their dog or something. Honestly, I feel sorry for the dog. No self-respecting dog is going to want to wander about in a blizzard. But today, actually not many dog-walkers. Of course I wasn't really walking along the area with the dog-walkers. Quite a few people carrying groceries, or riding bikes here and there. But it was more like ten, as opposed to twenty or thirty.

The trees were beautiful. Just a wisp of green, feathering out from their branches. Or blossoms in pinks and whites. Mostly varying shades of pink. And the air through my mask smelled fresh and crisp, after a rain. I love rain right now. It cleans everything. Rain and sunshine. And it was a nice long walk down Ocean Parkway, about ten blocks, or a little under a mile. Not that far. Sometimes, I miss my old neighborhood - where there was a Whole Foods within a mile of my home, but alas, I had to move - also the Whole Foods would most likely be a nightmare to get into now. It was back then. And I much prefer where I am living now - it's quieter, and the apartment is far nicer.

3. New York vs. the Corona Virus (and still Senator McConnell along with the State of Kentucky by association.)
Read more... )

Oh, this too funny - the subject heading of the NY Times Coronavirus Briefing? "Coronavirus briefing - do not ingest bleach". LOL! Sigh. Yes, we are the only country in the world where our alleged leader and elected President is telling people to actively poison themselves to kill a virus. And you thought your leaders were bad - at least they don't tell you to ingest bleach. Add to this? He gets up every morning to watch the news from 7 AM to 12 noon, and then goes to work. He wants to know what everyone is saying about him. NY is trying not to piss off the Doofus at the moment - because they need federal funding!
shadowkat: (Default)
So, if you request that NY State keep you informed as a citizen, you get an email from the Governor of New York State each day. Below is the one that I received tonight from the Governor - who I actually did vote for in the last election. (Albeit reluctantly, because he makes people including myself in Crazy Agency crazy. We call him our mercurial governor.)

Read more... )

I'm ignoring President Doofus. I've been doing that for a while now.

In the US, you can actually do that to a certain extent. The way our government works is we have a central Federal Government - but it really is more involved in "foreign affairs" and affairs across the country, such as domestic and international trade, etc. The individual State governments are responsible for those states, and the citizens in those states, and their laws. New York is possibly the most socialist of the States - in that we have the most government agencies, welfare programs, highest income and property taxes, and social programs. Also, we have the most human rights legislation. California and Massachustus are about the same. California, Massachustus, and New York have been ignoring and fighting the Doofus for the past four years.

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