The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 21

Untitled

Has the human race ever produced a tool as useless as the scissors in a Swiss Army style pocket knife?

Seriously, I’ve seen wet noodles* do a better job scissoring things than these scissors scissor things.

 

*I actually haven’t.  I wrote that as more of an exaggerated expression to illustrate my point.  I wasn’t lying to you.  I was using a metaphorical type thingie.  Really.  I promise.

Can’t Sleep

I woke up at about 2:20am for a biology break. I made the mistake of looking at Facebook. There are so many people bitching about the lock down and listing off the reasons why we should end it early that contradict everything that health experts say that I’m beyond furious and can’t sleep.

I would never have imagined that so many people I know are this convinced that money is more important than life. It’s staggering to me. I guess if something global isn’t happening to them directly then it’s not really happening.

Long Days, Fast Weeks

It’s Friday again.  What is Friday again?

As the lock down gets more and more normal and becomes less and less of a colossal upheaval… well let me rephrase, the colossal upheaval becomes less and less of a 24 hours a day obsession I feel like I can start drawing some conclusions.  Purely personal conclusions, obviously.

The work days feel long.  The work weeks, however, go by really, really fast.  It’s almost as though the clock just stops between 9:00am and 5:30pm.  The rest of the time it’s on overdrive.  I am still getting up and going through my normal morning routine.  I have been ready to start the day by 7:30am every day, which is when I would need to leave the house to get to the office on time.  This morning at around 6:00 I joked to my wife that if this keeps going for long enough I’ll start getting out of bed at 8:59 and punching into work at 9:00.  For now, I’m still ready to go at the usual time.

The 90 minutes or so before work lets me have an actual breakfast, instead of the usual breakfast bar in the car, and I can read the news or watch a TV show or do some chores before I start my day.  Those 90 minutes FLY by though.  If I blink they are gone.  It’s the same with the time after work.  I punch out after 5:30, make dinner with my beautiful wife, and then go to bed.  Not really, but the time flies so fast if feels like that.

As for weekends?  Blink… missed it.

This weekend is a dad weekend for the kids.  They left the house early today because Harry has an online appointment with his diabetes doctor.  It always sucks when they leave for a weekend, but given the current circumstances it sucks extra bad now.  We won’t see them again until Wednesday.  Who knows what the state of the world will be by then?  It sucks mightily.

Want to know what’s worse then all of the terrible stuff that’s already going on?  Yesterday when we woke up it was snowing out.  We didn’t get much, less than an inch, and it had all melted by mid-morning.  If that’s not evil enough, we’re supposed to get more tonight.  The forecast is calling for a couple of inches of heavy wet snow.  You know what, mother nature?  You can just go kiss my enormously fat ass, m’kay?  You can just go eat a big bag of dicks.

I need something to cheer me up.  Where the hell is my cat?

Frustrated

I could call this one a stir crazy but it’s not really funny or silly.  It’s just pissy.  I am feeling really frustrated today.  Everything I try to do fails.  I’m tired and annoyed and just in a bad state of mind today.  Not even the Tewksbury Tweets (!!!!!!!) from last night can cheer me up.  Maybe I’ll just watch a zombie movie and listen to Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut.  Just feed the pissy mood.

At least tomorrow is Friday…. not that that means anything.

COVID-19 Numbers

Here’s what I have for today:

  • Methuen, MA
    • Total Cases: 312 (up 35 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 12
    • Death Rate: 3.85%
  • Massachusetts
    • Total Cases: 29,918 (up 1,755 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 1108
    • Death Rate: 3.70%
  • United States
    • Total Cases: 619,607 (up 20,937 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 27,760
    • Death Rate: 4.48%

Sleep

I had a shitty night’s sleep last night.  I went to bed early but I kept waking up.  My back was sore and I couldn’t get comfortable.  The numbers I got from my watch this morning showed that my sleep was okay but nothing special.  I was really tired when I first got up but I’ve felt a little better as the day rolled on.  I just ate my lunch so I’m feeling sleepy again.

I’ve read that trouble sleeping can be a side effect of all the stress from the social distance.  I’ll buy that, but I don’t think that’s my current problem.  I think I just sometimes have a little back pain.  My stress issue is stress eating but I’m not going to stress over that right now.

Its been warm enough the last couple of days to open a window in the office.  That has felt great.  It’s too cold today though and that’s bumming me out.  We’ve got cold and rain in the forecast for the next few days.  Again, major bumming out.  I needs me some Springtime right now.  I ordered some screens for our bedroom windows.  I can’t wait for a warm, breezy night when we can sleep with the windows open.  It’s going to be bliss.

Nice weather would go a long way toward making the whole COVID-19 thing a little more tolerable, don’t you think?

Maybe it’s Still Not Normal

Just before 9:00AM today I checked to see if my staff had all signed in to work.  One of them hadn’t.  He lives way down South of Boston.  My first thought was, traffic must be bad today.  That was followed immediately by, you idiot.

There was also a second or two this morning as I was getting ready for the day when I thought it was Thursday again.  It’s not.  It’s Wednesday.  I double checked.

So the whole social distance thing is getting more and more normal every day, but we’re still not 100% there yet.  I seem to still have some adjusting to do.

Unrelated: That last post… I proof read it twice before publishing it.  I just read it again a few minutes ago.  There are at least a couple of dumb grammar/usage errors and one I-could-blame-it-on-auto-correct-but-I-typed-it-on-an-actual-Windows-box error.

Moron.

States Rights

In a move that flips the bird at the nazi in the white house, the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Massachusetts are working together to come up with a plan to bring us back from the COVID-19 shut down.  There is a similar group forming on the west coast as well.

In response, the nazi in the white house says he has “‘total authority’ over state decisions” because he’s never read the constitution and he’s a fascist anyway so even if he had read it he wouldn’t care.

I’m a month shy of my 49th birthday.  Prior to the nazi in the white house’s inauguration in January of 2017 I was pretty much a full on Federalist.  That term doesn’t really apply anymore but it works.  I was always much more focused on issues at the Federal level than at the State level.  That isn’t to say that I ignored the goings on in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but I just tended to look at things nationally more.

That mostly changed when fascism took over the Federal government.  Now, despite having a Republican governor, I find that I look to the state to undo a lot of the bullshit that the feds try to force on us.  This move by the governors of the Northeastern states cements my new attitude like nothing else ever could.  While the nazi in the white house stands in front of the entire world and declares that he is the head of an authoritarian regime, the individual states laugh in his idiot face.  I am so proud of my governor right now.  Granted, if he were up for re-election today I would still probably prefer to vote for a Democrat.  I have to say that he his making me happy.  Good job, Charlie.

Look at me, being all states rights and shit.

As for the presidential election.  Joe Biden was not my last choice in the primary.  Bloomberg was.  Biden would probably ahead of Gabbard too, but I’m not sure about that.  Everyone else who threw their hat into the ring was preferable to me than Joe.  I’m still going to vote for him though.  I am still going to contribute to his campaign.  I am still going to do whatever I can to get him elected, though the sexual abuse allegations need to be dealt with before he gets a dime from me.  The nazi in the white house who thinks he has total authority over the states needs to be removed from office and we sure as shit know the fascists in the senate will not do their part in that.  Whatever.

Biden said he would choose a woman as his running mate.  I am 100% behind that decision.  I wanted a woman to be president, but if I am stuck with it then I want a woman to be vice president.

Having said that… New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is currently the most presidential figure in American politics today.  When we see the nazi in the white house trying to rewrite the history of shit he pulled just last month, as if no one in American has a memory that goes back that far, what we should be seeing is someone who handles himself and the crisis the way Andrew Cuomo does.  If Joe reneges on his pledge to choose a female running mate, I hope Andrew Cuomo is who he chooses.  I still want a woman in there though.  Preferably Elizabeth Warren.  Or Kamala Harris.  Or Amy Klobuchar.

Enough politics for today.  Go wash your hands and don’t you dare come within six feet of other people.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 20

Tuesday morning:

Changed the litter box
Emptied the trash
Took the barrels out to the street
Brought the Poland Springs delivery inside and wiped it all off
Took the barrels in from the street
Took the instacart delivery into the house and wiped it all off and put it all away
Changed the batteries in the electric door lock because Alexa told us to
Just realized there is still an amazon delivery on the back step

Oh yeah, and I’m working too.  All but the door and amazon were before I punched in.

Jen and I share an office.  We’re both working from home and sitting in the same room together.  We both have regular meetings each day.  I have at least one and sometimes as many as four.  She has them pretty much all day long.  It’s tough for both of us to join a conference at the same time, so I created what I now call Conference Room A.

227/365

Also known as the conference call nook.  The little couch thingie is actually Bellana’s.  We bought it so she could take it to school with her but when moving day came she asked if she could leave it here.  I’ve always wanted to have a bedroom couch so I set it up.  When she moves back to school, whenever that might be, she is going to take it with her.  I’ll need to come up with a conference call nook alternative at that point.  For now, the brutally uncomfortable folding couch thingie wins.

The fact that this conference call nook exists is not evidence of stir crazy.  The fact that I wrote a post about it is.  Oh yeah.

COVID-19 Numbers

Here’s what I have for today:

  • Methuen, MA
    • Total Cases: 261 (up 13 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 10
    • Death Rate: 3.83%
  • Massachusetts
    • Total Cases: 26,867 (up 1,392 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 844
    • Death Rate: 3.14%
  • United States
    • Total Cases: 572,169 (up 25,295 from yesterday)
    • Deaths: 23,070
    • Death Rate: 4.03%