Tag: covid-19

Outbreak on Ice

The NHL shut down the Calgary Flames for Covid the other day. Today the Bruins, after playing Calgary a few days ago, had two players, including Brad Marchand, go into the Covid protocol. Then later the league postponed the Carolina vs Minnesota game for, you guessed it, Covid.

The debate is raging over whether or not the NHL is going to participate in the Olympics. How are they going to keep everyone safe in the viral incubator known as the Olympic village if they can’t keep everyone safe during normal operations?

They are talking about keeping everyone home. You know, I was really hoping for some NHL/Olympic hockey this year. It’s going to suck if they back out.

The depleted Bruins are playing Vegas tonight. Here’s hoping no one else gets sick. Covid is a prick.

ADDENDUM: Vegas is kicking the shit out of the Bruins. We are down 3-0 after one. Crap.

Lucky 13

Today is Monday the 13th of December 2021. It is the one year and nine month anniversary of me being sent home from work. Today marks 1.75 years since the start of my personal pandemic lock down. It’s been 640 days. Now I know that there was a couple of months there where we were back in the office a few days a month, but I see that as an aberration rather than a break from the shut down.

Jen and I were talking about it the other day. It doesn’t feel like this is ever going to end. It doesn’t feel like we are ever going back to the pre-2020 normal. This is normal now. It felt like a kick in the balls 640 days ago and it still feels like a kick in the balls today. It’s just a kick in the balls that we’re kinda used to now. Does that make sense?

I was looking back on some pictures I put up on Flickr last year and it reminded me that I was referring to the holiday as “Covid Christmas”. This year needs to be “Covid Christmas 2” (or would it be better to call it “Covid Christmas Too”?). At some point it’s just going to morph back into a plain old Christmas, because this is it now.

Welcome to normal, folks. We’re here for good.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 79: Socks

I haven’t posted a stir crazy since July. I haven’t stopped thinking about it, it just means that all of the quarantine lock down Covid bullshit we were flipping out over 1.75 years ago has become normal and the things that used to be normal are now abnormal. This one in particular might be better allocated to a Rob-is-getting-old-and-stupid file than stir crazy, but this is what I got so this is what I got.

Yesterday morning, I was just out of the shower and I was getting dressed. I sat on the bed, lifted up my left foot, put on my left sock, and put my foot down. Then I lifted up my right foot, put on my right sock, and put my foot down. Then I lifted up my left foot and… wait a second…

Now if that were it, then it would be funny and I would feel like a tool and that’s it. No, there was one more thing. It wasn’t picking up my left foot and seeing that there was already a sock on it that clued me into my doofusness. No. I realized something was wrong when I looked on the bed next to me and couldn’t find the sock that I was looking for. I couldn’t find it because it was on my foot.

I hereby declare myself: Dumbass.

Worse than Lock Down

Next week we will hit the one year and nine month anniversary of my company sending us all home for Covid. Our 1.75th lock-down-aversary.

As bad as that is, do you know what is even worse?

Being in lock down at a time when the Boston Bruins lose to Vancouver. Talk about making things worse. They lost to the Canucks last night in a shootout. They are playing Edmonton tonight and it’s scoreless in the first.

Losing to the pathetic-as-hell Canucks isn’t bad enough to push me off the bandwagon, but it does suck out loud.

Here’s hoping for happier results tonight.

Wallet Fail

In our Covid-19 Lock Down Household, we are still trying to avoid going out in public as much as possible. That means we are still regular users of Instacart for our grocery shopping needs. My wife is a power user. She’s amazing. If there is something out there to be found, she finds it. It’s incredible.

Today was a first for us. We have had Instacart shoppers leave us thank you notes. One left us a zip lock bag with a couple of disinfectant wipes in it. One shopper left us a thank you note with a little bag of M&Ms. I think we’ve had that shopper twice. That is my favorite shopper. Obviously the M&Ms aren’t eaten, but it’s the thought that counts.

Today though, the surprise gift was something special. It was a wallet. Okay, so it wasn’t a gift, but it was definitely a surprise. A nice little leather wallet. Jen was able to text the shopper and let her know, and I left the wallet outside where she could get to it. It’s all set now.

Yeah, that was a new one for us.

5,000 Per Day

So Covid is over, right? Let’s have huge holiday parties. WOOHOO!

In Massachusetts, we have had three days in a row of 5,000 new Covid-19 infections. The US has had about 140,000 new cases a day this week. That’s fun too.

So yeah, go out without a mask and have yourself a merry little huge gathering. Covid-19 is over and everything is back to normal.

Hashtag sarcasm.

Lunch Break

I feel compelled to post something during lunch breaks. Why is that? Why must I give in to the need to overshare?

There is literally nothing going on today. I have done some unusual, sort of interesting stuff at work today. I have a meeting to get through this afternoon. All is well on the work front.

I haven’t done any christmas shopping yet. I don’t know what to get anyone, but I have to get on it. With the shipping issues going on these days I can’t put faith in last minute stuff. I have to get it done and get it done soon. But what to do? I don’t know.

So… Omicron… Asshole. It’s in California and Minnesota. The person in Minnesota recently travelled to New York… so safe to say it’s all over the country now. I’m so tired of this. The rumors are that it’s significantly more contagious, but not as severe as other recent variants. Still, not as severe sort of implies you aren’t going to the hospital to be hooked up to a machine that breathes for you but it does not imply that you don’t get really fucking sick, you know?

Okay. Back to work with you, lunch break boy.

Wash your hands, social distance, wear a mask, get the vaccine… don’t let yourself get sick and in doing so don’t get others sick. Seems pretty simple to me.

Welcome to December

So I guess I have to put christmas lights on the house now, eh?

December 2021. Heading into Covid month #19 and somehow things are getting worse again? Figures. Lock downs forever.

I guess I have to start christmas shopping now, eh?

It’s not that I don’t enjoy the holidays, it’s more like I just don’t want them to be here yet. It seems like they were just here yesterday and it was Covid and all that and now it’s back and it’s still Covid and I just don’t want to deal with it. I want my old christmas back, and with each new day I become more convinced that the old christmas is never coming back. Covid crap isn’t abnormal anymore. Everything else is now abnormal and it makes me sad. I guess.

The upside is that we’re just a few weeks away from the kids being home again. Bellana is going to school in Europe next semester so she won’t be here for long, but she’ll be here for a while and that’s good. Harry will be around for his whole break.

I am not sure what I want to do for music in December. I can promise you that I won’t be writing a christmas song. Guaranteed. I want to start sneaking over my parents house and doing some cleaning. I want to start on the second floor and work my way down. More sorting than cleaning, I think. A pile of stuff to save, a pile of stuff for other people to review, and a pile of stuff to donate/trash/junk/whatever. I just want to do something. I’ve been wanting to do something for months but haven’t yet.

What else. I’ve got 20 minutes until I have to punch in to work and last night’s episode of The Flash is still playing so what else should I write about?

I have no idea what to get anyone for christmas. In other words, this December is kicking off exactly the same as every other December. HoHoHo and all that.

Okay. I have a shit load of work to do today so I guess I should just get to it. Time to punch in. Welcome to December, everyone.

Sigh

Yesterday was Monday and somehow I was feeling optimistic about the state of the universe. Today is Tuesday and… sigh. Something about tomorrow being the start of December is messing me up today. I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s probably Covid-19 and holiday related. We’re not getting a normal Christmas for the second year in a row, which implies that our Covid Christmas is actually now the normal. Shit.

I had three projects to do at work in less than two weeks. I picked off one of them yesterday and was feeling pretty good about the state of things. Now, simply because it’s the next day, I am feeling a little defeatist about the remaining two. Why? Where is my rational brain hiding? Come out and play, brain. Pretty please?

I took the barrels out to the street this morning. The barrels are full to bursting, partly with Thanksgiving detritus, but they’ve spent the whole week in the new little shed thing so the squirrels weren’t able to get at them. 10 minutes after I took the barrels to the street I looked out the window and saw a squirrel sitting on the barrel snacking on some stuff. Sigh.

Okay. Time to punch in to work. Here’s hoping the state of the universe improves a little. Fingers crossed, folks.