Day #140....

One hundred and forty days since I started working from home. Since that time, I've been on the subway precisely one time - to see the doctor, and it was just a twenty minute ride. That was on June 16.

I'm back on the roller-coaster ride. Slowly moving up the hill. Until the next time, our work from home contract gets extended. We currently have an extension until the day after Labor Day. Three unions got the extension.

Meanwhile a tropical storm is on the horizon, it got upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, in time to make landfall north of Charleston in Myrtle Beach. I'm just relieved that it has skirted my parents and they don't have to evacuate after all. We'll get more than they will - mother told me she's not getting any of it at all. But NYC is slated to get the Tropical Storm and taking precautions. NYC is kind of paranoid post Superstorm Sandy, every time a storm comes its way - it goes nuts with the sandbags and the whole deal.

Took a brief walk after work, when it was still clear, and sunny, and unfortunately hot. Ninety-degrees with 47% humidity, more than I can handle. I don't like summer. I don't enjoy hot weather. Anything hotter than 85 degrees and I retreat into air conditioning completely. There's a reason I live in the Northeast and not the Southeast.



[ Picture is of The troll under the bridge in Seattle - from 2018.]

Mother said my father was tired of all of this. The news is the same. He's tired of it all. I responded aren't we all. I told her that the social isolation thing wasn't bothering me all that much. It only bothered me when people talk about it - and say things like - "ooh, you need to be with people" or " you need physical contact"...but the truth is I'm kind of okay without it.

Mother: Do you realize how much you are like your grandmother? (My Granny or my mother's mother, who died in 2009.)
Me: It may explain why we got along so well.
Mother: She had no problem living by herself - actually enjoyed it. Just puttering around on her own. She'd do social things, when prodded, but didn't really need it one way or the other. You are a lot like her.

And my brother's a lot like my mother's father. Which may explain why my brother and I always got along very well with my mother's parents, we kind of understood each other. We also didn't need the constant presence of people. We're both fine doing things alone.

So the social isolation portion of the pandemic doesn't really bother me that much. As long as I don't discuss it with anyone, I'm fine. ( Read more... )

They are still fighting over sending kids back to school in the fall. ( Read more... )

Work was quiet today - which it kind of always is in a way. But I had headphones on, so didn't hear too much of the banging in the kitchen above my own - I did hear a lot of debris tumble down through the walls. Spent most of the day updating a spreadsheet. Which I was doing on a browser window in Microsoft Teams...interesting experience.

And ...New York has now permitted ice cream makers to..legally manufacture and sell " Ice cream containing liquor" in New York State. I didn't know it couldn't be done. It's also suspended 19 liquor licenses.

I finished listening to a book today. It's the first book I've finished since February. Granted it was listening to one. But still I finished a book. Progress.

On that cheery note...I leave you with whatever half-way decent photo I can find without too much effort.

Links..

1. Share Your Medical Bills on the Coronavirus

Have a bill you want to share? Go straight to the form

Across the United States, Americans like Ms. Krebs are receiving surprise bills for coronavirus care. Tests for the virus can cost $199 to $6,408 at the same location. A coming wave of treatment bills could be hundreds of times higher.

This patchwork of medical billing is one reason our colleague Sarah Kliff, an investigative reporter who covers health care, is starting something new today: She’s asking readers to send in copies of medical bills for coronavirus testing and treatment. She told us that the prices hospitals and insurers negotiate are kept secret from the public, and patients often don’t know the price until they get a bill.

“It’s a very inefficient method to ask people to send in their bills, but it’s the best strategy we’ve got,” Sarah told us. “My hope is to really shine a light on how this is affecting patients. And then, people can make decisions about where to be treated, and legislators can decide if something should be done to change this.”

If you’re interested in participating in Sarah’s reporting, you can submit your medical bills here.

Related: More than two million Americans, already hit hard economically by the pandemic, have also recently lost their health insurance, according to a new analysis of census data.

I have a feeling that the US insurance system is about to have its day of reckoning.

2. My Father Trafficked Me Through My Childhood - It Looked Nothing Like People Think

Gist? A young woman tells how her father trafficked her as a child to clients throughout her childhood. Her story is particularly harrowing and stuck with me long after I read it.

3. Finished Butcher's Peace Talks via audible. The audio book was rather good, provided the ability to breeze past the boring bits. Although the he said's and she said's got on my nerves after a bit.

I got a credit from buying it, which I used to buy another one - which I'd read ages ago, got rid of, and had forgotten.