I tried the pharmacy today, and after about fifteen minutes, gave up.

It was actually worse than this - I gave up when people came towards me with no masks, and a guy was sitting behind me with his N97 mask hanging around his neck. I thought okay...I don't really need anything that badly, I'm going home. Also I knew it was going to rain soon. And guess what? It is raining now.
[ETA: Found out later that the tent were for free COVID-19 antibody testing, that had been arranged by the community for this area. It was from 8am to 5pm today, I didn't know about it until I got home and someone on the neighborhood Kesington Facebook Page announced it.]
But this begs the question - I've been asking myself off and on all week - am I the only person who is still afraid of the virus?
[ETA: Apparently the deaths in NYC have dropped to 0? I don't know about the source. I checked the NY Government site and can't find it. Wiki on Google states it though. Good news. (Except I know for a fact that they aren't tracking all the deaths - so this is the confirmed ones in the hospital.) Although according to the Governor, 42 people passed away due to COVID-19, down from a record-high when 800 died in a single day just eight weeks ago.)
Crazy OrganizationApparently not. My other manager/friend, J, who also happens to be black, called me - after I sent her an email to see if she was okay. (I've decided to check in on my black co-workers and friends this week. They are all fine - better than I am, actually. None are protesting - of the ones that I talked to and responded. Granted two didn't respond to my email/text, but I'm hoping they are okay as well.) J is more worried about the virus than anything else.
Crazy organization has sent emails to all of the managers requesting that they volunteer to give out PPE (hand sanitizer/masks) across twenty three stations out on Long Island and in the City. They are supposed to set up a PPE station, and hand stuff out to the customers who request them. J has not volunteered and doesn't think we should be doing it. Also it's expensive - we can't afford it - where's all the money going to come from?
J ranted about this for about fifteen minutes. I kept trying to talk about the protests or other things - but this was her main concern. She's also terrified about being sent back to work - apparently they are considering sending some of the managers back. Also she has her own office. It's not her office she's concerned about - it's getting to her office. I can identify - that's why I don't see them sending most of us back. She can't drive there - no parking. Trains - not really possible to social distance on trains, and according to those who've taken them? The trains now have a person in every row. So...where are we putting additional people? And what about the jerks who aren't taking the virus seriously? Have the police help you with them? Uhm, that didn't go over all that well during the stay at home phase.
(It's very interesting to work for a public transportation agency during a pandemic, you would not believe the issues that come up - and how complex this situation truly is. Add to that civil unrest and protests. Honestly one of the worst possible times to have protests and civil unrest is during a pandemic. Yet, I know why it is happening now. People are fed up. They've been cooped up for three months, and a lot of them are dead broke and struggling. Plus they got to deal with the threat of police violence. I kind of saw this coming a mile away. But it does pose interesting issues for a public transportation system struggling to keep running and working during a pandemic.)
Speaking of Crazy Workplace...I had a lengthy discussion about comic books over Microsoft Teams with one of my project managers.
He had his video on - and it looked like he was in a storage closet with files at work.
ME: Where are you?
Project Manager: My second office.
ME: Looks like a storage closet-
PRoject Manager: Oh this? I collect comic books.
Me: Cool! I love comic books.
[He lives in the suburbs with his wife, and now his daughter who recently returned home. His wife is working out of the living room. No one has left the property. He leaves work by going downstairs, and sits on an outdoor sofa on his lawn and he's home. I just take my laptop from my desk to the armchair - and I'm home. It's a quicker commute.]
He collects comics and sells them on E-Bay, also sells them for other people. He sold a mint-condition Incredible Hulk, issue #1 for a friend of his at well over $250,000 on E-bay. An X-man #9 on E-bay went for $95,000. He showed me a Captain America #1 in a glass encasement, an Avengers #1 also in glass encasement, and an Amazing Spiderman #1 in glass encasement.
We had a lengthy chat about the selling of vintage comics. And collecting them. We also discussed the procurement of a security assessment, which was the reason for his call. I didn't grace him with a video of myself. I do not do video chatting.
Fighting with People on Social Media is ExhaustingMeanwhile - because I'm frustrated at work, and easily distracted, I got into heated debates with people on social media. Yes, I know, it's a bad idea.
( fighting with entitled rich white guys on social media on both sides of the divide )New York, The Protestors & Human Rights Advocacy The Governor meanwhile has proposed an act entitled "Say Their Names" with four cornerstone's :
The 'Say Their Name' Reform agenda includes:
1. Allow for transparency of prior disciplinary records of law
enforcement officers by reforming 50-a of the civil rights law;
2. Banning chokeholds by law enforcement officers;
3. Prohibiting false race-based 911 reports and making them a crime; and
4. Designating the Attorney General as an independent prosecutor for
matters relating to the deaths of unarmed civilians caused by law
enforcement.
It's a start. I want more of course. If it were up to me, we'd ban all guns in this country, but it's not up to me. Getting people to give up their guns is akin to telling a guy - you are cutting off his dick. It ain't happening.
And dear god, the stuff on the news about the protests in New York are painful, sickening even - but it's not what I've seen friends post nor in my area.
( Read more... ) MiscellaneousDidn't really get much of a walk in. And I think after 47 days of waffling that my period may be coming? I'm sipping a Lime Tequila Margritta - that came in a can courtesy of Foodkick. Cheaper and easier than buying all the ingredients, also less sugar and alcohol.
Watching cartoons on The Disney Plus channel - at the moment "Wolverine and the X-men", one of the better animated of the Marvel cartoons. It's close to what they were doing with Justice League. The writing is about the same - except I have issues with how they've developed and written Cyclops. (But I always do. I've yet to see an animated or live action film that handles that character well.)
And trying not to let the world outside get to me, too much. I realized today that I have not been on a subway, car or any means of transportation since March. Nor have I walked further than Prospect Park or Greenwood Cemetery. Co-worker today said it was the end of week twelve of our confinement. And there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.
In two weeks, I will have to brave the subways for a doctor's appointment, hopefully blood work, and COVID testing as well. I am hunting more masks.
It's more compulsive than anything else.
Anyhow, tomorrow my desk chair shows up. I think. Hopefully it will be fully assembled as advertised. Fingers crossed. Also that it will work and solve some of my problems. Then I got to figure out what to do with the other desk chair. Small issues, I know. Embarrassingly small.
I miss being close - physically to other people - without fear. I wonder sometimes when that will change. That fear.
Anyhow, I leave you with a sunset..it was taken on my birthday at the exact time I was born - in Costa Rica in 2017. An enlarged photo of it hangs in my apartment, it is the only picture hanging on my apartment walls.
