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Y2/D294 - Back in the Office
Jan. 4th, 2022 06:08 pmI managed to make it back to the office without coughing at all, also didn't cough at all last night. (No it waited until I was halfway home to do that, stupid lingering cough.)
Anyhow, I did suck on cough drops most of the morning and on the way home.
And, a group of us decided to get the PCR saliva COVID tests via Mount Sinai, which crazy workplace has folks take twice a week if they aren't vaccinated. Anyone can take them however. It was basically everyone who came in today - who was in my aisle and one down. So, four of us. And I think both managers.
We did it - for various reasons. Amobi and I did it because we just got back from vacation on the 31st, and wanted to be certain. The others did it because AM tested positive for COVID last week. She went downstairs, took the PCR test, was asymptomatic, then about four days later - it said she was positive. So she's out this week working remotely. They changed things - so you can work remotely as long as your COVID positive, without any need for an SL8 form or paperwork. (Why? They have an uptick in cases, and people with COVID symptoms were coming in sick. The procedures they had in place to ensure folks didn't take advantage of sick time were backfiring on them in a different way.)
The test is gnarly. It took forever for me to get registered for it. Since you have to scan, and my phone refused to scan the Q code, so I had to fill out the tablet registration. Once registered, you get a test tube, and go behind a little cubicle to spit in it. There were no wipes or anything, which was problematic. Also it is a lot harder to get spit into a test tube than one might think. I got the spit on the outsides of the tube. After a little while, I did get it inside the tube. (My cough had decided to take a break for some reason.) After you fill it to the fill line ( a tiny amount actually), you put it in the drop box, and wait until they email you the results. Which can take four to five days.
We all thought this was kind of stupid. I mean just think of the number of people you could infect during that time period. No wonder half the workforce is out sick.
Everyone in the office, for the most part, was wearing KN95 or KF94 masks.
Oh, our time-keeping system got hacked (on a global level) over the holidays, so we're manually keeping track again via fillable time sheets. One of my co-workers found a fillable one - and I forwarded it to everyone I could think of in my group. The other one just copied the same date and was impossible to fill in.
***
Cold day. So most folks inside and outside were wearing the masks. Also there were less people on the trains and subways. Less folks traveling in and out of the Air Train building as well.
I told mother that apparently it is physically impossible for me to enter the office, go to my cubicle and not talk to anyone. I just can't do it.
I'm more sociable than I think I am. Mother's response? That I wouldn't be happy as a novelist working solely at home. Eh, I disagree. I could still be social - conventions, etc - also if it was in a nice location.
***
Apparently the US broke another global record in regards to the number of daily cases within the last twenty four hours. It's averaging over 485 cases daily. (Twitter said it broke over a million - but I see no evidence of that.) And has topped 56 Million now, with over 828,000 deaths. New York has 66,164 a day, 90 deaths a day, with 7,774 hospitalized daily, so basically 340 people per 100,000 come down with it. The damn thing has decimated various departments at company - most of one department (that deals the most with the public) is out sick, according to cubicle aisle mate. Subways are on limited schedules, and have delays, same with the trains. This thing has wrecked havoc on the transportation industry.
That said, no issues with my commute this morning or this evening, thank heavens.
***
Making headway through one of my Dad's books, which he independently published, entitled "Beach Walk". It's about a man traveling for business, who meets up with an old flame at a beach resort during the wintertime. She's there for an academic fund raising conference, he's there to pitch a compensation plan to a board of directors. They were apparently lovers back in college, but when she took off to take care of a relative, he kind of disappeared without a trace. No forwarding address. Phone disconnected. Now twenty some years later they meet up on the beach and discuss what happened in the past. Why did he disappear, and more to the point, why did they continue to hold a torch for each other? (I'd worry, except, I know how my Dad writes - which is not about himself, he cobbles together various people he knows and tells a story about them. I do the same thing. Neither of us write about real people, so much as combinations of folks, with most of it made up.) Dad's a minimalist writer. The book is a novella, clocking in at a little under 200 pages. (197 with large double-spaced print). It reads smoothly, and the trope is an established one. My father independently published about six or seven books through Author House (an on-demand print publisher), before the Alzheimer's set in and he stopped.
Every once and a while, mother gets phone calls from folks wanting to help him promote or market them - to which she responds that he has Alzheimers. She made the mistake of complaining to him about it when I was there - and he got all huffy and wanted to know why he can't get the calls and do that.
Somehow we distracted him or got him onto a different topic.
It's an actual print book - since my Kindle up and died on me. And both the HD Fire and the phone kindle are kind of unweildly to read on the trains for different reasons. I plan on exchanging the broken one for 20% off an upgrade, but I may just forgo it and buy a new one eventually.
***
Random photo of the evening...
Anyhow, I did suck on cough drops most of the morning and on the way home.
And, a group of us decided to get the PCR saliva COVID tests via Mount Sinai, which crazy workplace has folks take twice a week if they aren't vaccinated. Anyone can take them however. It was basically everyone who came in today - who was in my aisle and one down. So, four of us. And I think both managers.
We did it - for various reasons. Amobi and I did it because we just got back from vacation on the 31st, and wanted to be certain. The others did it because AM tested positive for COVID last week. She went downstairs, took the PCR test, was asymptomatic, then about four days later - it said she was positive. So she's out this week working remotely. They changed things - so you can work remotely as long as your COVID positive, without any need for an SL8 form or paperwork. (Why? They have an uptick in cases, and people with COVID symptoms were coming in sick. The procedures they had in place to ensure folks didn't take advantage of sick time were backfiring on them in a different way.)
The test is gnarly. It took forever for me to get registered for it. Since you have to scan, and my phone refused to scan the Q code, so I had to fill out the tablet registration. Once registered, you get a test tube, and go behind a little cubicle to spit in it. There were no wipes or anything, which was problematic. Also it is a lot harder to get spit into a test tube than one might think. I got the spit on the outsides of the tube. After a little while, I did get it inside the tube. (My cough had decided to take a break for some reason.) After you fill it to the fill line ( a tiny amount actually), you put it in the drop box, and wait until they email you the results. Which can take four to five days.
We all thought this was kind of stupid. I mean just think of the number of people you could infect during that time period. No wonder half the workforce is out sick.
Everyone in the office, for the most part, was wearing KN95 or KF94 masks.
Oh, our time-keeping system got hacked (on a global level) over the holidays, so we're manually keeping track again via fillable time sheets. One of my co-workers found a fillable one - and I forwarded it to everyone I could think of in my group. The other one just copied the same date and was impossible to fill in.
***
Cold day. So most folks inside and outside were wearing the masks. Also there were less people on the trains and subways. Less folks traveling in and out of the Air Train building as well.
I told mother that apparently it is physically impossible for me to enter the office, go to my cubicle and not talk to anyone. I just can't do it.
I'm more sociable than I think I am. Mother's response? That I wouldn't be happy as a novelist working solely at home. Eh, I disagree. I could still be social - conventions, etc - also if it was in a nice location.
***
Apparently the US broke another global record in regards to the number of daily cases within the last twenty four hours. It's averaging over 485 cases daily. (Twitter said it broke over a million - but I see no evidence of that.) And has topped 56 Million now, with over 828,000 deaths. New York has 66,164 a day, 90 deaths a day, with 7,774 hospitalized daily, so basically 340 people per 100,000 come down with it. The damn thing has decimated various departments at company - most of one department (that deals the most with the public) is out sick, according to cubicle aisle mate. Subways are on limited schedules, and have delays, same with the trains. This thing has wrecked havoc on the transportation industry.
That said, no issues with my commute this morning or this evening, thank heavens.
***
Making headway through one of my Dad's books, which he independently published, entitled "Beach Walk". It's about a man traveling for business, who meets up with an old flame at a beach resort during the wintertime. She's there for an academic fund raising conference, he's there to pitch a compensation plan to a board of directors. They were apparently lovers back in college, but when she took off to take care of a relative, he kind of disappeared without a trace. No forwarding address. Phone disconnected. Now twenty some years later they meet up on the beach and discuss what happened in the past. Why did he disappear, and more to the point, why did they continue to hold a torch for each other? (I'd worry, except, I know how my Dad writes - which is not about himself, he cobbles together various people he knows and tells a story about them. I do the same thing. Neither of us write about real people, so much as combinations of folks, with most of it made up.) Dad's a minimalist writer. The book is a novella, clocking in at a little under 200 pages. (197 with large double-spaced print). It reads smoothly, and the trope is an established one. My father independently published about six or seven books through Author House (an on-demand print publisher), before the Alzheimer's set in and he stopped.
Every once and a while, mother gets phone calls from folks wanting to help him promote or market them - to which she responds that he has Alzheimers. She made the mistake of complaining to him about it when I was there - and he got all huffy and wanted to know why he can't get the calls and do that.
Somehow we distracted him or got him onto a different topic.
It's an actual print book - since my Kindle up and died on me. And both the HD Fire and the phone kindle are kind of unweildly to read on the trains for different reasons. I plan on exchanging the broken one for 20% off an upgrade, but I may just forgo it and buy a new one eventually.
***
Random photo of the evening...