On March 17, 2020 Massachusetts had 218 Covid-19 cases and no one in the state had died. The United States as a whole had 6,135 cases and 79 deaths.
On March 17, 2021 (today) Massachusetts has had 608,377 cases and 16,732 deaths. The United States as a whole has had 29,585,015 cases and 537,583 deaths.
What a difference a year makes, right?
Patches wants to wish you all a Happy St Patrick’s Day.
The second consecutive Covid-19 Pandemic edition of St Patrick’s Day. Don’t be stupid. Stay home.
I guess today is technically the anniversary of the first day of lock down for me as it’s the first day I didn’t go to work. I think I focus on yesterday’s date for two reasons. First, 3/14/20 was a Saturday so I wasn’t going to work anyway. Second, 3/13/20 was a Friday the 13th and that just seems more fitting.
So what did I do last year? I posted about a couple of things. I mentioned what a crappy guitar player and songwriter I am. I was working on the March album in a month and apparently had a bad couple of days. I had two posts about setting up my desk. I took my work PC home with me the day before and spent some time with Jen rigging things so that I could add it to the setup on my desk without unplugging anything else. At the time I had this MacBook that I’m on right now, the Windows laptop I had been using for telecommuting, and the work desktop. Now I have the MacBook and a new work laptop running into one monitor and the old windows pre-covid work from home laptop is on the desk but not hooked into anything. One year ago I was setup to have the same mouse and keyboard for all three machines, but now I have a big clickity clackity mechanical keyboard and a nice gaming mouse for the work machine and wireless Apple keyboard and MagicPads for the Macbook. When I change machines I just change the input on the monitor and use the different keyboard and mouse. It’s not the neatest setup but it’s working great for me.
The only really important post from this day last year had to do with some errands. I got the Mazda inspected. Doing the math, that means I have to get it inspected again this month. I remember it feeling really weird being inside the garage’s waiting room. I sat as far away from the rest of the customers as I could. It also mentions that I went to a supermarket. I remember that pretty clearly. We usually go to a Market Basket in Salem which is probably a mile or so away from home. Both of the kids used to work there. They had not yet implemented any social distance measures and stuff was flying off the shelves as people started getting scared. We decided to try alternate super market choices and I went to a Shaws in Windham which is about a 15 minute drive away. I went there because the crowds were tiny and they hadn’t started running out of stuff yet. Over the first couple of weeks of lock down we went to that store and the Salem Market Bucket a couple of times each and it was stressful every time. Then Jen started using Instacart which let us shell out some extra money to avoid the stress. The folks doing the shopping for Instacart (and similar services) are among the true heroes of the pandemic. Thank you. All of you.
And that is a summary of what I was up to on the first full day of my coronavirus lock down.
Boy, was that a long two weeks.
One year ago today I left the office for a two week work from home, flatten the curve, pandemic safety stuff thing.
365 days later, that two weeks is still going… and going… and going…
I wanted to write something profound to commemorate the occasion, but I gots nuttin.
I took this in the parking garage on the way in to the building on that last day. That final Friday the 13th.
On this day last year Massachusetts had 123 cases. As of last night we had 598,859.
On this day last year the United Stats had 2,204 cases. As of right now we have 29,348,298.
So much for all of that curve flattening shit, right?
On the plus side, at least we have a President now who actually understands that pandemics are bad and not political statements. We have vaccines now and folks are starting to get shots. The daily infection rates are dropping steadily. There actually appears to be an honest to goodness end in sight.
I’ve been staring at this post for about an hour now. Just trying to think of something interesting to write about. Still nothing coming to me. 365 days worth of covid lock down. The next covid-versary is March 21st. I believe that was the last time I was in a store, with the exception of the time we went to get a flu shot.
I’m tired of covid. I’m tired of coronavirus. I’m tired of lock down. I want this shit to end. Pretty please?
I just looked back through the blog posts from one year ago today. There were five of them and all were Covid related.
Yup… as anniversaries go, this one blows chunks. It blows chunky gravy all over its clothes and furniture and pets and friends and family and neighbors. Like, it blows chunks literally everywhere.
When the shut down began last year I started keeping track of the daily COVID-19 statistics for the city, the state, and the country. It was depressing but I did it almost every day. On February 28th I stopped. I just chose not to look up the numbers and that was it. I had my state and US spreadsheets (the city had stopped regular updates long before) open on my desktop for almost a year and I closed them. That was it. I don’t know why, but that’s what I did.
I opened them up again today. I don’t know why I did this either, I just felt I needed to. The pandemic is funny that way, I guess.
597073 cases in Massachusetts. 16551 deaths.
29286650 cases in the United States. 530829 deaths.
Now I am thoroughly depressed again.
If I did my math correctly, and if my memory is correct, today is the one year anniversary of my wife’s company sending everyone home. I remember it being a Wednesday, and my company made the same call on Friday the 13th, so that would be today. For some reason though my brain keeps telling me it was the 9th.
It doesn’t matter, the point is that this week is the anniversary of the last week that things were open. I took a look back at what I posted to the blog on 3/11/20. Here are some highlights.
I wrote a long paragraph on why we needed to lock down. Statistics based on China told us that were were going to have more cases requiring hospital care than we had hospital beds. Shutting down would cut down on the number of cases, therefore freeing up hospital beds. It wasn’t about infringing on rights or over reacting, it was about resource management. Knowing what we know now, half of America decided to ignore that little factoid by about May. Selfish assholes. I mentioned social distance a couple of times, and always put it in quotes. I wonder when I stopped doing that. I did add this parenthetical aside following one mention though:
I fucking LOVE that term and I’ve been practicing it since I was about four years old
There was another post where I wrote about the University of Vermont telling students not to come back after spring break. They cancelled the first two days and then went full remote on the third day. Bellana was prepared for it and had everything she needed at home already. She was itching to go back though. She did. Eventually. About 10 or 11 months later.
The last post of the day was me speculating on selling my Fender Stratocaster. I had planned to bring it to Guitar Center to try trading it for an amp. I was going to go that night but decided against it, given the state of the world. I pushed it off until the weekend but the weekend never came. I wrote this line, showing the spirit of things in the early days:
This is the very definition of non-essential. It can wait.
I am so tired of all of this. I want my world back. I want everyone safe even more though, so we stick to the lock down and wait. It’s just getting harder and harder to wait.
It’s Monday. The first day of a new week. Yippee. The 52nd week of Covid shut down. Last week had a nasty work issue. This week is likely going to have another. Still, I have made a decision.
I have decided that this week is going to be better. Granted, every week since late January has been pretty crappy, but this week is going to be better.
The bed is made, the dishes are done (except for the caste iron skillet, I have to do that again), the cat is fed, I’m 3/4 of the way through last night’s Walking Dead (Dog, the early years), Harry just found a playlist with the theme songs from all of the episodes of WandaVision. Today is International Women’s Day and my wife and my step daughter are shining examples of intelligent, strong, powerful women who deserve to be celebrated every day of the year not just today, but given the situation I will celebrate them like crazy today.
This week is going to be better. New week, new attitude.
Granted, it’ll probably go to shit as soon as I punch into work, or try to scoop the kitty litter, or something. For now though… This will be a good week.
I spent a good chunk of this morning going through nearly every vaccine distribution center in Massachusetts trying to luck into booking someone else’s cancelation. No dice.
Is it possible that part of my frustration at not being vaccinated yet can be chalked up to FOMO? The Fear of Missing Out?
No. No, it can’t. Not getting an invite to the Dispo app is FOMO (even though the entire concept of that app is flat out dumb, I still want in damn it, let me in!), but not getting vaccinated is not. The frustration over not getting a vaccine appointment is due to not having a vaccine appointment. That’s all, folks.
Jen is working today and Harry is at his dad’s so I am on my own. I’ll think of a cleaning project to do for a while then I’ll mess with my amplifiers. I said Jen is working, but the cat just ran into this room and Jen followed. Sometimes the cat gets into “Timmy’s stuck in the well” mode and makes us follow her places. It almost always ends on the bed where she just wants us to focus all of our attention on petting her. Our cat is both smart and powerful.
I am also trying to cheer myself up over my lack of a vaccination appointment by listening to Rush. Clockwork Angels, to be exact. Allow me to say that “Seven Cities of Gold” is possibly the best song ever recorded. The music annoyed the cat enough that she left the room (and allowed Jen to leave as well) but to me it’s pretty much the pinnacle of human accomplishment. I mean, that and the moon landing, but mostly Rush.
Okay, now that “Seven Cities of Gold” has finished, I’m listening to “The Wreckers” and I need to correct myself. “The Wreckers” is the high point of human accomplishment. There, fixed that.
It shouldn’t be frustrating but it is. I want a damn vaccine. We have three options now, I don’t care which one I get but I really can’t deal with waiting to get something.
Massachusetts is open for people under 65 with two of a short list of medical issues. They open new appointments at all delivery sites on Thursday at 8:00AM. It’s 8:07 and they haven’t released anything yet. They announced yesterday that there are so many people booked for their second dose now that there will be very few first dose appointments available this week. I was also hoping that next week they would be opening up to people under 65 with fewer than two comorbidities but they announced that they are opening up to all teachers and school staff first. That’s a good thing, and it’s something I wanted to see, but I wanted us to be done with those heroic folks already. That happens on March 11th. Pardon me while I spend another couple of minutes refreshing the appointment page….
It’s 8:10 now. Still nothing.
March 13th is the magic date for me. 3/13/20 was the last day I worked in my office. That’s the one year mark. I was hoping I might luck into my first shot before the anniversary. It doesn’t seem likely.
It’s 8:15, still nothing.
Frustrating.
8:20. Still nothing.
Inside the Red Head's Head 