Category: covid-19

Sun downing is a Thing

10 years ago (approximately) when my mother was first diagnosed with cancer we learned about a new thing: Sundowning. It seems for some patients, their behavior changes drastically right around the time the sun goes down. My mother went from strong and confident to mean and whimpering and pretty much impossible to reason with.

It happened again today. Due to Covid-19, she is only allowed one visitor for the duration of her stay. It’s my sister. She gets to the hospital when visiting hours start and leaves when it ends. My father wanted to do it but he can’t handle sitting in those uncomfortable chairs for 12 hours. If he tried we’d be checking him into the hospital too.

So my sister had to take the full brunt of the sundowning. Both barrels, BLAMMO! It was awful. My mother waffled from inconsolable to telling my sister right off. She called my father once and told him that if he doesn’t come and bring her home he must not love her. So yeah, dad took both barrels too.

We know that by morning she’ll be back to her normal self again, but for the night time? It’s just awful.

Feelin’ Fine

Everything is okay today. My mother is still in the hospital but she’s improved by leaps and bounds already. Maybe one more day and she’ll be good to go.

There is nothing wrong. There is nothing to be upset about. There is nothing out of whack anywhere in my little sliver of Universe.

Why then do I feel like I’m two heartbeats away from screaming?

What the fuck, bro?

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 54

It’s Tuesday July 21st. It’s my sister’s wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Lisa and Ken! That’s not what has me stir crazy today.

I woke up early today and took out the trash, brought the garbage barrels out to the street because it’s trash day, cleaned out the litter box and brought that out to the street, did a load of dishes, did a load of laundry, took the garbage barrels back in from the street after they were emptied (thank you, Methuen), swapped the office chair I’ve been using at my work desk for a bigger one that was hiding in the cellar, watched the first episode of The Watchman, and ate some eggs for breakfast. All of that before I punched in to work. Yikes! That’s not what has me stir crazy today though.

I’ve had the same password to my work network for something like six months. I was prompted by the system to change it yesterday. I’ll do it today. When I went to log in to work I had forgotten it. After six months? How is that possible? I completely forgot it. That’s not what has me feeling all stir crazy today though.

Twice in the last 24 hours my eye has felt itchy and I’ve reached up to rub it, completely forgetting that I had glasses on. Boom, finger prints on the lens.

That is what has me feeling stir crazy today.

The State of the World

Want to know my take on the current state of the world?

It sucks.

My step daughter is supposed to study abroad next Spring. She’s supposed to spend a semester in Europe. Yesterday, over the breakfast table, she was sharing some of her plans for what she will do if that trip is cancelled. How is that for heartbreaking? Let’s dangle a once in a lifetime experience in front of people and then at the last second snatch it away.

Earlier today Jen and I were discussing what we can do to make sure my step son gets senior pictures taken for his last year of high school. Can you imagine how bad things have gotten when the idea of something as simple as senior pictures becomes a life risking adventure? I did suggest he take at least a few pictures with a mask on, just to demonstrate where in time the pics were taken.

I am tired of having to worry about the safety of my family every time I cough. I cough all the time. I think it’s an allergy thing, but I’ve been coughing off and on since about 2001. It doesn’t mean everyone is going to die, but that thought goes through my head. I want that shit to end.

I want to take a trip to California.

I want to go to a concert.

I am so sick of this crap.

Wash your hands and wear a friggin’ mask.

Vacation Day

I took the day off. I have a shit load of work to do, but I still took the day off.

I did a little work on 50/90, just some lyrics. I’ve watched an alarming amount of TV and played some video games.

It’s a vacation day, but I really need a vacation.

Music Project Confusion

I know that embedded player isn’t going to work but I put it there anywhere because I think it’s nice to look at.

Eight songs for 50/90 underway but a long way from finished. My question is… do I put my focus into 50/90, into sticking with 10 songs per month and telling 50/90 to go get bent, or do I put my focus into Quarantine Tunes Volume 2?

I. Don’t. Know.

I spent some time before work looking at the songs I have marked for volume 2. Okay, back story. When I first started The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project back in (you guessed it) 2015, there were 10 songs on the list. Each year as I tried to restart the abandoned project I added a few songs. When I started this year I was at 21. None of them more recent than 2016 (I think). For some reason I wanted to go with eight songs per volume so I added in three more recent songs to bring the total up to 24. Most of those 24 haven’t been started yet. Of the eight I have planned for volume 2, three will be from scratch, the other five were started at some point along the line over the past five years.

Today, before work, the second guessing started. I was looking at the songs I have marked for volumes 3 and 4, there was one that I couldn’t remember. I dug it out of my alonetone account and liked it. It was from June 2014. I knew there was another June ’14 song on the list so I took a listen to a couple of others… and they were good. It made me question the universe.

I know that my 2013 RPM Challenge went better than most. My 2016 RPM Challenge also went better than most. The 2014 50/90 had some extra good stuff too. Apparently I should be including June 2014 in the list of good ones. So what, do I drop some songs and replace them with June 2014 songs? Do I start planning volume five? I. Don’t. Know.

I don’t want to abandon the album in a month per month thing I’ve been doing for five months now. I don’t really want to abandon 50/90 either. I don’t want to abandon the great re-recording either, but I don’t want it to dominate everything else and as it stands right now it is.

Crud.

You know what? Weekly Lizardfish practices would be better than any of this shit.

Screw you, Coronavirus.

Not-So-Happy Monthiversary

Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of my first day working for my current company. I literally cannot believe it’s been 16 years. Does not compute. Syntax Error. Core Dump. Happy Employmentiversary.

On a significantly more depressing note, today marks four months since my last day at work in the office. Four months ago today, 1/3 of a year ago, I packed up my PC and drove home and haven’t been back since.

There are rumblings about going back in September, but nothing is settled. Some folks are traveling to customer sites again, some folks are back in one of our many Massachusetts buildings. Not a lot, but some.

I looked back at some of my posts from March and April the other day and they were all talking about how none of this felt normal. Well, after four months it’s all pretty normal now. It’s all pretty routine. It’s really nice being around the kids more, and we are always having dinner as a family and all that good stuff. There’s no traffic to worry about. I still haven’t put gas into the Mazda since this all started. We’re still making the bed (most of the time) and I’m still getting up and ready for work by 7:30-40 or so. We haven’t started sleeping super late or staying up super late. We’re still being good doobees.

The stir crazy has us though. We’re thinking about trying to find a cabin or an air bnb in the mountains somewhere this weekend and seeing if we can go do all of the same shit we do at home only in a different place. Probably not going to happen, but we’ll see.

As for the state of the nation? Florida had 15,000 new cases yesterday and Disney World re-opened. Our country is a shit show of world ending proportions.

At least we’re doing the right things in this house. We’ve got that going for us. I guess.

Clear Your Schedule for August 1st

The NHL is coming back. Play returns on August 1st. All teams qualifying for the play offs, including teams that will play in the extra play-in round will be assigned to either Edmonton (the Western Conference teams) or Toronto (the Eastern Conference teams).

It is my great hope that the good people of those two historic Canadien cities are smarter than any of their American cousins and will do what is necessary to keep COVID-19 from decimating the league and putting an end to play once again. MLB and the NBA are also expected to come back before the end of the summer, but they are going to be playing in the USA, which means everyone is going to get sick and many of them are going to die… because Americans are too fucking stupid to wear masks and not go to bars.

Please, good people of Edmonton and Toronto… help a brother out. I needs me some hockey.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that the labor (labour) agreement the league and the players just ratified includes sending NHL players to the next two Winter Olympics? Well, assuming we ever have Winter Olympics again.

This is all good news. It could all go horribly wrong if COVID-19 gets it’s way, but for now I am going to believe that this is good news.

August 1st. Be there or be a knob, you hosehead.

HOCKEY!

COVID-19 Numbers

Here’s what I have for today:

  • Massachusetts
    • Total Cases: 111,110
    • Deaths: 8,296
    • Death Rate: 7.47%
  • United States
    • Total Cases: 3,158,183 (up 69,270 since yesterday)
    • Deaths: 133,777
    • Death Rate: 4.24%

I never intended to post numbers on consecutive days, but Jen clued me in to a missing piece of info in the Massachusetts COVID-19 dashboard. I mentioned that we stopped counting presumed cases. I was slightly wrong. We didn’t stop counting, we just stopped adding them into the total in the summary. She found the spot on the daily post where they list the presumed numbers, so from now on I am going to add them back in on my spreadsheet. The Johns Hopkins page I use for national numbers was already re-adding those cases in for Massachusetts, so now my numbers reflect that site more accurately.

Just shy of 70,000 cases in the US in the last 24 hours. Yeah, let’s all go out to eat. Fucking psychopaths.

COVID-19 Numbers

Here’s what I have for today:

  • Massachusetts
    • Total Cases: 105,138
    • Deaths: 8,053
    • Death Rate: 7.66%
  • United States
    • Total Cases: 3,088,913
    • Deaths: 132,934
    • Death Rate: 4.30%

Methuen hasn’t given updated numbers since June 30th. I am disappointed in my city. A month or so ago Massachusetts had a huge spike in cases and deaths. Turns out they had changed the way they were counting and had started including presumptive cases along with the confirmed cases. Last week they did they opposite. The infection count dropped by over 5000 as they stopped counting the presumptive cases.

The US has topped three million cases. We are a plague pit. We are a joke. We are the laughing stock of the international community, and we totally deserve it. Wear a fucking mask, you prick.