Hola, shelter in placers doing their civic duty and you folks out there on the frontlines, risking your health because we’ve got a malevolent mango at the helm of the ship of state. From clerks to postalworkers to medical staff, you’re the real MVPs and I appreciate you. I’ve been busy getting trained up for my job, which has gone to waste because I’m now on-call. But you gotta make the best of things. No gym, no in office hours, so outside it has been. Happy to not see folks around. Here’s a few shots from the camera training intensive I used my week off on.
I have no real illusions about this time. I’m fairly lucky, I’m in a small town, my employer is not a science denier and I’ve made my health a priority since I fit the bill of at risk. More than likely, I’ll ride out the next few months with minimal issues. Others, too many others won’t. So, do the best you can to protect yourself and your family, then help others, then enjoy each moment as much as possible. It’s actually a luxury many don’t get.
Stay blessed and support each other. I have a long form post knocking around my brain, but I’m writing for a lot of different things with a goal of being stable & housed by 2022 Kwan Yin willing. In the mean time, here’s some shots of Odo & Hime feeling very pleased all the humans are home and available now.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – What If? (Mix Tape)
Miss Bianca
I’m so glad you’re back! I’ve been wondering where you were and whether you were well.
JPL
So I was just watching clips of the media circus at the press conference and we are going to need lots more of those kitty cat photos.
Baud
Back at you, Ruemara.
CaseyL
Excellent to hear you’re employed! Last I heard you were still looking. What are you doing that involves being on-call?
I am staying well and sane by not watching any TV at all, and certainly not The Malignant Tumor’s press conferences. Only learning about them second-hand via commentary and that’s bad enough. My kitties are also happy to have Mom home all the time, and will probably take it as a personal affront when I can go back to the office.
Sloane Ranger
So, Trump presser.He seems fixated on saying that the US military had no ammo when he became President. I find this hard to believe as it was fighting several different wars at the time. Also not entirely sure what alleged shortages of ammo have to do with dealing with a pandemic.
Also, CNN correcting at least some of his lies and misrepresentations on the chryon below.
WaterGirl
Glad to see this post from you.
P.S. That face!
Baud
@Sloane Ranger:
https://youtu.be/pDmGhethEoQ
Zinsky
This is a little dark but I had forgotten that Edgar Allan Poe had written elegantly about a pandemic two hundred years ago with the incredibly poignant last line:
“And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
— Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death
Link: https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death
Betty Cracker
Living in the moment is the best policy. Not easy to do, but it’s a good goal. Nice post!
ruemara
@CaseyL: Producer/Director for an institution. Which means now, I’m doing more training on distance learning than actually producing or directing anything.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Ooo kitties! Thank you!
BGinCHI
Stay well.
I’m enjoying every day until we can vote the criminal administration out of office and into the courts.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sloane Ranger:
Also he suggested that the sharply increased need for masks was suspicious. He asked if some of them were “going out the back door.”
ruemara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A crook can’t help but see a criminal everywhere he looks.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@ruemara:
That’s true. We better get some oversight on those bailout dollars.
ETA: I once saw a study of job applicants filling out a form that asked if they’d ever stolen anything from work. Those who stole figured everyone did it and it would look fishy if they said no, so they said yes. We really do judge others by what we would do.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sloane Ranger:
We’re talking Trump here, so no bullets to shoot the sick.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
L’etat, c’est moi.
debbie
That top photo is epic!
Yutsano
I made a venture out to the Store. Fred Meyer was quite busy but folks were doing their best with the social distance thing. Asparagus was ridiculously cheap so I had to get some. No flour and I just now remembered there were a few more things I needed to get. Ah well. It’s nothing that can’t wait no matter how badly I want risotto.
I got a strange e-mail from my union last week. The IRS is undergoing an “evacuation order” starting Monday. That involves me going to the office, grabbing my computer, finding a space to set it up at home, and working. I’m applying for an exception since there is no way I can accomplish that. The IRS world will just have to survive without me.
Kirk Spencer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
l’etat c’est moi
The attitude is not new.
Eljai
What beautiful kittehs! Hime looks like very wise, and Odo looks like he’s saying “don’t even think about getting up!”
JPL
@ruemara: It is well deserved though.
rk
We get one mask (not a N5) a day. At lunch or for bathroom breaks I have to put it in a brown bag and attach the ear loop to a clip. Have to reuse it all day. I asked my supervisor how is this protecting us? She responded by saying it’s not. It’s just to stop droplets from dispersing around the work. You’d think that republicans would have an instinct for self preservation at least. I mean if we in the health care field get COVID and start dropping like flies then who will treat them when they get sick. It’s in their interests to help us. But Trump’s getting more popular meaning too many people don’t really gives a damn.
LongHairedWeirdo
I’ve taken to telling grocery workers “thank you for your service” (sometimes acknowledging that it usually gets said to the military instead). It’s appropriate; they are putting their health at risk to make sure we don’t starve, and, they take that risk for what are often low paid jobs.
I think it’s a good thing to do – to make sure the people you have to interact with are aware that we’re grateful for the real risks they’re taking, especially as the numbers bubble up. Some of them might well catch Covid-19 *just* in time for health care shortages.
I also try to be patient – there is a lot of stupidity out there (like “no, your grocery bag must not touch this metal surface, which we’re going to clean, anyway, between each order”), and hey, okay, it’s policy, or paranoia, but they’re the ones taking the risks.
Remember, we *are* better than Trump and the GOP. We can make a difference.
CaseyL
@ruemara: So… you’re creating content for educators? Is that why you’re getting trained on distance learning? (Sounds like a good fit, though I realize you’d prefer to be working on original content.)
Did the posts Martin put up give you any ideas?
WereBear
What lovely kitties.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rk:
I thought of you and your colleagues when Trump made that accusation today. I was livid. He praises health care workers with one side of his mouth, and slimes them from the other.
He’s not worth caring about, rk. Everyone but him knows what you all are doing.
Jackie
Just learned country singer icon Joe Diffy died due to complications from covid-19. He was 61. RIP Pickup Man.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Tres bizarre. Sounds (forgive me) taxing.
ruemara
@CaseyL: No, I’m training people on how to distance learn. From a distance. “This is your camera. This is a stand. This is Zoom.”
@WereBear: Oh thank you! And you should know.
HumboldtBlue
This is from a few days ago, Humboldt woman coordinates effort to track down stolen respirator masks.
Kelly
John Prine in critical condition on a ventilator.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-prine-covid-19-symptoms-974909/
seefleur
Here in central Maine the grocery stores have put up “sneeze bar”, shields, like at a salad bar, for the grocery store cashiers. I went to the grocery for the first time in over a week and was pleasantly surprised to find everything that I could possibly need. There were signs saying that some items had a limit, but people were really good about observing the 6-foot rule.
Aside from that, both my husband and myself have been deemed to be “essential” workers for the State. Sigh. While it’s a nice thought that we’re “so important” to the functioning of the state, it’s hugely annoying because I’ve come across a ton of great recipes that I’d love to play with if I had the time – also have gone back to dehydrating all kinds of foods and am getting psyched to get back into canning (thanks John Cole for being an inspiration!). But geez – I can’t do all that if I’m “essential” enough to have to go to work every freakin’ day!!
This site has been a mental health life saver. Thank you all, and carry one!
Yutsano
@NotMax: The nice part is that nothing will change for me. I’ll still be at home social distancing as much as possible. I’ll still be getting paid under the leave category I am now. It’s just going to make things more complicated when my office finally opens back up.
Duane
@Yutsano: When the politicians, lobbyists, and other officials, workers etc., begin to flee D.C. that’ll be quite the scene. Like when your Army’s beat and all that’s left is to run for your life.
Annie
I am very fortunate. My office has issued laptops for us to work at home; one person out of ten of us will be in the office every day to deal with things that can’t be done remotely. So I still get paid and don’t go nuts fro boredom.
Patricia Kayden
I’m feeling sorry for the healthcare workers right about now. Putting their lives at risk and getting little help from the feds.
CaseyL
@rk:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What Dorothy said. It’s hard to ignore the Leperous Pustule, but please know people who don’t have their heads up their asses are very deeply appreciative of – and very deeply worried for – our HC workers.
The Thin Black Duke
Glad to see you again, Ruemara.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you for this post. Sending good wishes your way, and a little petition to Kwan Yin.
Trivia item: in the 1990s, I worked for a shop named after that deity… having earlier encountered her in Spiderweb For Two, a children’s mystery novel by Elizabeth Enright.
Bex
@Kelly: Read that Jackson Browne also has it. Don’t know his condition.
SiubhanDuinne
@H.E.Wolf: The Kwan Yin statue on Father’s desk, that Willy accidentally broke! I adore the Melendys and re-read all four books in order every couple of years, even now.
bjacques
Reposted from downstairs:
Stealing masks, ventilators and other supplies then torching the hospitals for the insurance. But not on Trump’s watch. No sir, now that the Pentagon has plenty of ammo again.
I made it through an hour and got to see the Proud Boy-ish mic tech snatch one away from a reporter to which Trump took an instant dislike.
Mary G
JCNZ
“Himesama, contemplating her place in the world (on top of mom).”
That photo is FOR THE AGES!!!
WaterGirl
@Bex: Fuck
edit: I googled.
So that’s good, unless things go south.
Bex
@WaterGirl: Good to hear.
Elizabelle
Ruemara! Great to hear from you. Those are some attractive, luxuriously whiskered cats. Who are probably real happy to have you home more.
Fair Economist
@Mary G: As expected, Germany is on top of this.
Feathers
Of course the ammo issue was somewhat real, but not at all what Trump was saying. What we were short on, and needed appropriations to buy more than had been budgeted for was very expensive precision missiles because we had been using them in very large numbers during the campaign against ISIS. So there probably was somebody(s) bitching about being told they weren’t getting more until the new ones came in, but it was never allowed to get out of hand. Unlike the whole ventilators thing.
Can’t we get some generals to whisper to him about COVID-19?
Sister Golden Bear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Every accusation a confession.
J R in WV
@Zinsky:
There’s a great dramatic movie with V. Price as Prince Prospero based upon the Masque of the Red Death, by Poe. Great set dressing, costumes, lots of gruesome plague deaths. Vivid color!!!
Highly recommended in these times!