Day 312...gloomy, with bits of sunshine

Little depressed today, even though I did get a spot or two of good news.

Family vs. COVID

Mother is doing better, and it appears that she and possibly my father will get the vaccine within the next two weeks. They have more doses and are bringing the permission forms within the next few days. Her home health-care coordinator informed her that she's going to arrange for mother to get one, and check to see if father can as well. Since both are in the high risk group and eligible (they are above 75).

New York vs. COVID

New York has officially run out of doses, they cancelled and shut down all the big vaccine sites, including the two they'd planned on opening twenty-four seven. ( Read more... )

Crazy Workplace vs. COVID

Cubical mate emailed me today - turns out that he caught a severe case of COVID over the holiday. Got it from his mother-in-law, who lives in the apartment below him - who got it from work. The mother-in-law got a mild case, cubical mate's was severe - and he's happy it's past him now. Said he got it around New Years, and it laid him out for about two-three weeks.
(I've not seen cubical mate since September.)

Meanwhile, a video came out today of all the people from my organization that have died from COVID-19 to date. It's well over 100.




I found myself missing my Dad today, I mentioned this to my mother, and she began to cry - so I began to cry. I was listening to the Barack Obama book and thought about my Dad, and how cool it would be to discuss it with him. And I can't. I even sent him the audio book at Christmas - but they never got around to listening to it. I feel as if I've lost him, already.
And fear I'll never see him again. Yes, I could call - but it would only confuse him and make things worse.

What I've been struggling with through all of this - is my anger and this overwhelming sense of futility. I'm frustrated with everything. ( Read more... )

The news..or some items from the evening briefing:
( Read more... )

Online...I was discussing the pardons with the Lawyers from the Left, and hit upon a guy with the name Miles Vorkosigan. After responding to his comment, I did a double take. Wait a minute. This name seems really familiar. So I google it and I'm right.

Me: Do you realize you have the same name as a fictional sci-fi character in a series of novels, or is that deliberate? (I provide the link.)

The internet continues to amuse me with its absurdities, apparently there are fake journal publishers scamming academics now. Meanwhile a church member is upset with the novel Nickle & Dimed (which fat-shames), being chosen for a social justice discussion group about economic injustice. Unfortunately when it came time to discuss? She lost the Zoom link and couldn't get in. I told her the Universe was most likely looking out for her best interest. It does that for me all the time - I'll get pissed off with some comment on FB, move away for a bit, still be pissed, try to respond and can't for the life of me find it again. A few hours later, my anger has receded - because I can't find it again - it's gone.

No, I didn't get to walk around the cemetery tonight, just to the pharmacy and back. ( Read more... )

I hope someone is enjoying these increasingly long missives. They keep me sane at least. I love writing letters. Brings back the good old days, when I'd write long letters to friends in multi-colored ink.