Tag: coronavirus

Mad at My State

I am mad at Massachusetts right now. Jen sent me this article which lists out the percentage of Covid-19 vaccine doses that have been distributed by each state.

Massachusetts is the heart of health care in the United States and somehow we rank 44th having only administered 54.09% of the vaccine doses we have available.

Massachusetts
Doses distributed to state: 1,156,375
Doses administered: 625,477
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 54.09

How can we be that far behind? We have the best hospitals, the best health care staff, the best everything. How can we be so far behind on this? I don’t understand.

Vaccines

One person I know has received the vaccine.

One person I know has a confirmed appointment to get the vaccine.

One person I know is likely going to go along to that appointment and also get the vaccine.

Two people I know are expecting phone calls to schedule their vaccine.

These are all first doses. No one I know has received a second dose, but has anyone?

Selfishly I have to add that none of the people listed above are me. I very much want to get vaccinated. I want to be able to go back into the world, even if it’s on a limited single-dose basis. I’ll still wear a mask and I’ll still social distance and all of that but that’s not really the point of this post. The point is, vaccination wise things are progressing enough that it’s starting to hit home. This pleases me and my over protective covid response greatly. Very greatly.

I Forgot

I have kept track of Covid-19 case and death counts for the United States going all the way back to March 1, 2020. Originally I was pulling the national numbers from a CNN tweet thread, but after a couple of weeks I ended up on the Johns Hopkins dashboard.

Massachusetts has been releasing the state’s data once a day since the beginning so I pulled the national numbers at the same time I pulled the state’s numbers. There have been a few times when I didn’t get a chance to look things up until the next morning, so my numbers weren’t exactly “daily” but they were close enough. The totals all worked out in the end.

Yesterday was the first day since I started this back in March that I went a whole day without looking up national numbers. Massachusetts is posting at 5:00 PM now so I try to do everything then. Yesterday when 5:00 came I was up to my eyeballs in work and I missed it. For the rest of the night and most of today I was so stressed out by work that I didn’t even think of my Covid spreadsheets.

Around 4:00 today I realized my mistake. I pulled yesterday’s MA numbers and brought that spreadsheet up to date. The US numbers… why bother. For the first time since all of this insanity started, my US spreadsheet is missing a day. The numbers are accurate now as I updated today at 5:00. Today’s entry just has two days worth of numbers.

It doesn’t matter though. I feel like I let the country down. I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.

President Biden

The world has been dealing with a global pandemic for about a year now. For the first time, the United States of America is actually going to take the situation seriously and implement a unified national response.

We’ve lost 400,000 lives so far and we are going to lose many more. For the first time though, we are going to do something about it.

What is that I’m feeling? Is it optimism?

Wow… I forgot about that one.

Memorial

We are watching the COVID-19 memorial from earlier today. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters…. the adults are about to be in charge again.

It’s a beautiful thing. Empathy. Compassion. Civility. It seems like it’s been a million years since our nation valued these things. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 71

When the COVID-19 craziness kicked off back in March, 10 months ago, one huge corner of our bedroom was completely empty. As the lock down progressed we bought a big cabinet for stuff and we inherited a great big dresser. Now that we’re thinking of rearranging the room we had to find new homes for those two giguntic pieces of furniture. Suddenly the room is looking empty again.

It’s weird that going back to what we had just a couple of months ago seems to be weird. It’s weird that it’s weird, right? Weird.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 70

This isn’t so much a stir crazy moment as it is a monthly check in. Consider it more like The State of the Lock Down.

Yesterday marked 10 months since the last time I was at my desk in Waltham. Ten. 10. 10 months. Unbelievable. So much for two or three weeks. I keep writing that same thing every month, but it’s true. Harry is half way through his senior year in high school. Bellana is a couple of weeks away from staring her fourth semester in college. Jen and I are still plugging away at working from home. Life inside the house is still going well. Life outside of the house is crashing and burning in spectacularly horrifying fashion. Jen just told me that Massachusetts is sending National Guard troops to Washington, DC. 2021 is a nightmare and it’s only two weeks old.

We binge watched The Queens Gambit and it was every bit as riveting as you’ve heard. The first Disney+ Marvel series, WandaVision, premiers tomorrow. I just read they are releasing two episodes, which means I probably won’t be caught up before work in the morning. Wonder Woman ’84 was probably not as bad as most people are saying, but it wasn’t very good. I’ve seen Pedro Pascal in three roles now. He was outstanding in Game of Thrones. He is perfect in The Mandalorian. He was horrendously awful in Wonder Woman. What the hell happened? As for Diana, wishing for her lost love? The goddess who hangs everything on some man? I don’t buy it. It’s clear what she would have wished for. She would have wished to be able to go home. Whatever. Bellana and I started watching The Stand. My favorite book by my favorite author (arguably, it’s either him or Clive Barker) has been turned into a television series and… we’re a few weeks behind now, but it’s not that good. Cobra Kai season three is out there but we haven’t started it yet. Bellana’s not interested so we’re holding off until she goes back to school at which time Jen and Harry and I will likely binge the whole season in a day.

Our Christmas decorations are down and put away. Everything except the lights outside. We had originally agreed to leave those up until inauguration day. Now we’re joining up with a little movement one of our local hospitals is pushing to leave them on for the month of January in honor of those risking their lives to fight Covid-19. Absolutely. We are on board.

One of our cars has it’s check engine light on. I am assuming it’s something to do with air leaking into the gas line, but messing with the gas cap hasn’t helped. It’s low on gas right now so hopefully it will resolve when I fill it again. Unfortunately the car also has an expired inspection sticker and I just don’t want to risk exposure for it. The other car doesn’t expire for a couple of months. That one had tire pressure warnings so I did go to a gas station to top them off. I didn’t run into anyone. It was safe.

Obligatory thank yous to folks on the ground from amazon and grubhub and instacart. You’re all helping to keep my family safe and I will never stop appreciating it.

Jen and I are still lighting candles in every room in the house for no reason at all. Amazon just delivered a big box of fresh supplies. We’ll be telecommuting by candle light for a while longer.

I’m really tired of all of this crap. The upside is that we’re about a week away from having an actual government Covid-19 response plan. It’s probably too late, but maybe it will straighten out the bullshit we’re seeing with vaccine distribution so far. Fingers crossed.

Mostly, fingers crossed that this ends soon.

Covid-19 Case Counts

I’m still updating my Covid-19 spreadsheets every day. Infection and death counts every day for both the United States and Massachusetts.

Today is day #316.

I really want to stop. I really do. I just can’t bring myself to do it. It’s devastating to watch the US go from 21 million cases to 22 million cases in four days. It’s heartbreaking to see the 375,000 deaths creep closer and closer to 380,000.

Still… I can’t stop. I feel like I owe it to the people who are sick. It’s stupid, but I do sort of feel that way. I owe it to the people who’ve died. It’s literally the least I can do.

Wear a damn mask and wash your damn hands.

Home Workspace Update

I had to go in to the office and swap my little desktop computer for a shiny new laptop. The guy in charge of the process was kind enough to bring the new box out to me so I didn’t have to go into the building. I did, however, have to drive an hour each way. Yikes!

I straightened out my desk a little. It definitely doesn’t meet my wife’s very high workspace standards, but it’s okay for me. The headset, mouse, keyboard, and GIGANTIC monitor are all Jen’s and I’m just using them during the lock down work from home zaniness. The closed laptop underneath the laptop stand is actually my pre-Covid work-from-home box. These days it’s my watching Netflix while doing my 30 minutes of exercise box. The iPad is not for work use. It’s for listening to music or podcasts (not books) and sometimes youtube streams (like when trump’s terrorist mob attacked the US Capital two days ago) while I work.

How long until I go back to the office? Who knows. Do I want to go back to the office? Nope.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 69

Episode 69… hehehe… sorry

A thought on the continuing saga of lock down. We are all swearing more. A lot more. All of us. Casually, emphatically, humorously, savagely. We’re all swearing more.

We watched an episode of a new show about swearing. I think it was called Swear, oddly enough. Is that a sign that people outside of our house are swearing more too? All of America is swearing more, so much so that we need a TV show to celebrate it.

I’m okay with that. There are a lot of things worth swearing about.