Day #85 of Self-Imposed Isolation

Sigh.




1. I went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions, and everything but my contact lens solution - which I forgot. I always forgot something. Last round it was shampoo. Also they have stuff locked up and no way to get to them, so I have to go with substitutes. Did find Charmin - which I snagged, because I am still tramautized by the "Great Toilet Paper Shortage". Also hand soap, hand sanitzer (a small squirt thing of it), dishwashing soap (it's back!), allergy meds, two things of Tynenol Sinus Congestion Headache (it's also back! they were out of it for months and I had to make due with Advil Sinus Congestion - which is not as effective), a bottle of water, and of course, chocolate. I'm getting some delivered tonight and tomorrow - but I had run out. Chocolate is the only sweet I've really been doing. And when I have a little the headache goes away, so there. There was, however, no lysol or clorox or any disinfectant wipes to be found. Oh well, I have two canisters of bleach - I can make my own - I prefer the other though.

I'm less worried about the high blood pressure. I've decided the gauge is broken - it's an electronic, self-pumping gauge, and lately its gone nuts. In that it won't stop pumping air until it cuts off my circulation.
Also it keeps showing error messages. I think the computer inside it is screwed up. I'd get a manual gauge - they are available on Amazon from Paramed, but I've no clue how to use or read it.

Anyhow - they've managed to make the interior of the pharmacy safe enough - except for the people who like to camp out in an aisle and stare at a product or products for twenty minutes. I kid you not. There were three women staring at Downey Fabric Softener for twenty minutes. I gave up and asked them to excuse me as I walked past and around them to get things. They were still staring at the Downy Fabric Softener when I finished shopping and was leaving the store - so for more than thirty minutes.
Honestly, it's fabric softener. Not that complicated - nor do you need it. (I don't use it - it wears out clothing.)

Outside was a different story. No line or crowd this round - but we did have the dirty old men congregating on the benchs near the food trucks. Some appeared to be construction workers, some homeless - hard to tell.
There are two food trucks now, used to be one. And some were wearing masks, some weren't.

But I'm less terrified of the folks not wearing them, and calmer about the whole thing now - in part, because we have 1-2% infection rate in the city at the moment. And it's sunny, and I am wearing a mask, and I'm not near them that long - and quarantine fatique.

2. Crazy Workplace

At the staff meeting today, Boss felt the need to vent. And without going into the gory details, managed to stress out and confuse the entire department.

He asked if there were questions. Silence. He pestered us into asking. Two of us tried at the same time - then backed up. Cubical mate (I thought it was Chidi as did my boss, but it turned out to be Cubical mate) ceded the floor to me. So I asked my question and basically got shot down. I was very happy it was a teleconference with no video. Then Cubical mate was asked what his question was - which turned out to be the exact same question that I asked. After that...the administrative support asked a question - and it was basically, what about.... do you know or am I right in assuming we should reach out to someone else about this?

Boss: You are the brightest person in the room. Excellent question.
Admin: So I'm right - we have to reach out on our own.
Boss: Yes. But don't mention my name. Go do that. Your managers can only do so much on our own.

Sigh. He's lucky this was by teleconference. If it were in a conference room, he'd have seen a lot of nasty looks.

Honestly, I've no idea who to reach out to or complain to, or if it would even matter. No one listens to me. I've zero power. At the age of 53, I've kind of come to accept this fact with a modium of grace. All I can control is how I react to things.

Right now? I'm going with the one day at a time approach to life.

Anyhow, I managed to go from loving my Governor to hating him within the space of twenty minutes. I have a love/hate relationship with the Governor of NY. When it comes to everything BUT crazy agency, I like him. But when it comes to Crazy Agency, I want to strangle him. I'm guessing my co-workers feel exactly the same way.

3. Black Lives Matter

Progress is being made in regards to reforming and possibly defunding the police. By the way - this is not really Federal Government issue, it's something that you have to do on a local and state government level - which is why people in all fifty states are protesting about it.

Also, defunding the police doesn't mean what most people think it does. ( Read more... )

What it means is minimilize the police or don't overfund them. Distribute the funds and their roles to the correct agencies. Such as domestic disputes - handled by social services, and domestic violence services. Child abuse and child welfare issues - child protection services. Homeless? Homeless outreach and mental health institutions. Hand Sanitizers and face masks - the department of health.
The police should just deal with crimes and the resolution of crimes, and they should be held to a higher standard.

And, it should be noted that post-9/11 the police force was given a bit too much power and funding. Why?( Read more... )

Anyhow some good news. New York Repealed 50-A today, which is the law that prevents police disciplinary records and infractions from being released to the public.

Denver, Colorado went even further... Colorado State Senate passes Police Reform Bill 32-1. The lone dissenter was from a rural district and felt the bill didn't address rural issues.

I see a fight brewing on the horizon between urban vs. rural rights. ( Read more... )

Anyhow, I'll take the good news wherever I can find these days. I'm also rather pleased by the fact that Europe has began removing statues of racist assholes - in solidarity with the US, who did the same thing. And
there's monks marching in Australia under the banner Black Live Matter. Yay!

My neighborhood is doing their own little batches of protesting.( Read more... )

4. COVID apparently is no longer interesting...it should be, it's still out there.

The NY Times had a really interesting analysis on it. They Compared Various Death Tolls Around the World to Other Historical Natural Disasters Around the World - Putting it mildly? COVID is right now the worst. It rivals the 1918 Spainish Flu. And we're not even through it yet.

Harvard Medical Doctor projected another 100,000 American deaths by the end of the summer. I think he's right. People are selfish, thoughtless and stupid when it comes to viruses. Apologies to all the horror film makers out there - yes, people will do that. Who knew? The horror film makers apparently.

I leave you with...

(no subject)

1. Watched Big Hero Six finally on ABC tonight. They are doing movies. Disney is advertising it's streaming channel on ABC by showing various movies on it.

I loved it. I found it very comforting. I needed something comforting.

2. So, they are tearing down statues of racists again.

[Note this is by no means the first time they tore down statues in the US - they did it about three years back in 2017? All the Confederate Statues were torn down in a flood of protests through the deep south. (If you follow the link above - you can see where.) And in sympathy, New York and various Northern States and Communities tore down their racist statues as well. (There aren't any in Greenwood Cemetery that I know about. Just a War Memorial to the Union Soliders who fought in the Civil War.) This lead to a nation-wide debate on whether preserving the statues was required in regards to historical narrative or if doing so, merely preserved racist sentiments and a racist agenda. A potential compromise - was to put the statues in museums where they could be preserved for historical purposes. Some even argued they were art - an argument that was quickly put to rest when it was revealed that they were all taken from a mold and kind of similar, and not all that artistic in character. All of this lead to a bunch of protests and counter-protests in the Southern US, culminating in that really horrible incident in Charlottsville where a White Supremacist rammed his car into a woman during a peaceful counter-protest (the counter-protest was against the Neo-Nazis and KKK) - later shown in the movie BlackKKlansman. Note then as now, the violent protestors were the White Supremacists, with few exceptions. So, as you can see this has kind of been building up for a while now. ]

Anyhow, I bring that up because what is interesting and encouraging about the tearing down of statues this go around is that, well, for one thing the US isn't alone, other countries have decided to do it too. And it's not just Confederate assholes, but "all" slavers, racists and genocidal leaders throughout history that are getting torn down worldwide. Personally, I don't think these people should have been honored or commemorated in the first place. But, hey, better late than never, right?

My favorite?

Last night, Christopher Columbus statues in two separate American cities were destroyed. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters tore down a Columbus statue, set it on fire, and then dumped it into a lake.

Roughly eight hours away in Boston, meanwhile, a separate Columbus statue located in the city’s North End was beheaded overnight.

Hee Hee. This kind of made my day. I despise Christopher Columbus.

3. NASCAR Bans Confederate Flags at All Its Events and Properties

Why they didn't do that before now, I've no clue. The Confederate flag should have been banned in the 1800s, after the Civil War.

I remember a black co-worker and her husband (who is Hispanic and a War history buff) visited Gettysberg, PA. She reported being uncomfortable.
When they went to a restaurant they were stared at. There were confederate flags in a Souvenir shop, along with other racist items. And one of the diners they went into had a Confederate flag hanging on the wall. It unnerved her. She'd never seen that. I told her that it didn't surprise me and I'd seen it. That a good portion of Middle White America was racist.
I remember her eyes getting big and she told me that she'd never seen it before. That when she went down there it was the first time in her life that she felt black. Or was aware of her skin color. She'd not been aware before then.

I'd like to live in a world where I'm not aware of skin tone or race. Where it doesn't matter. I do not see that happening in my life time, but I have hope. It's tiny, but it is there. DW gives me hope - why? Because I interact with people who use alias, and really don't see each other's skin tones, or races or creeds or genders, and we treat each other as well people. That's what I loved about the ATPOBTVS fan board for the most part - I felt as if what I looked like didn't matter. I don't want to be defined or identified by my race, ethnicity, religion/creed, sex, size, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It shouldn't matter. And I can't begin to tell you how much I hate that it does.

I have hope that one day we'll evolve beyond it. But probably not in my life time.

4. HBO Max removes Gone with the Wind from streaming service
- most likely until they can figure out how to add disclaimers to it - like they did with the Looney Toon Cartoons. Disney has similar issues and has removed similar content - such as Fantasia (which was redone several years ago), and Song of the South (which you'll never see - and I've mixed feelings about. Song of the South is a bit like Huckleberry Finn and old Mickey Mouse Cartoons and Looney Tunes.)

Gone with the Wind is kind of interesting. ( Read more... )