Tag: social distance

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.

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.

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.

Indoors is Still Scary

I took my mother to a doctor’s appointment today. It went well, thank you.

Based on the massive traffic I struggled through getting home I would say that pesky pandemic is over. If that’s the case, why was I freaking out so while hanging out at the hospital?

I was cool as a cucumber on the outside, but a basket case of Covid worry on the inside.

I am so ready for this bullshit to end. Get the damn vaccine.

Healed

I don’t get it. I was in so much pain yesterday. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t think straight. It was awful.

Today? It’s a little tender. A little sore. Not bad at all. I’m not even limping or anything. What the hell happened? Stupid foot. Stupid, stupid foot.

Anyway, 24 hours from now I expect my little quarantinie fun time to be over and history and a memory buried so deep I am not even sure it’s real. Covid-19 test at 8:09am. Freedom to roam the house without a mask approximately 15 minutes later. Kick ass, dude.

I have so much music to do in the next three weeks that I’m starting to freak out a little. Just warning you all that there might be a lot (I mean, a lot) of 50/90 music posts coming in the immediate future. Just so’s ya know. I mean, I just came up with terrible lyrics for song #40. I have three songs ready to sing. I can’t do car music until Saturday and I want to have 5-10 ready for vocal tracking by then. Yikes!

Okay, I need to fill up the cat’s food bowl, grab myself a caffeinated diet soda, and start my work day. The laundry is running already and the puddle formerly known as Lake Asshole has been cleaned up, including emptying the wet vac and the dehumidifier.

I think I’m good to go for now.

Wish my quarantinied ass luck.

Door to Door

Just had a knock on the door. Were we expecting someone? Nope. Is there a global pandemic that has killed 600,000 Americans? Yup.

In this case though, it was less than disturbing. There were two people at the door. Both wearing t-shirts with the word Vax on them. They were there to distribute vaccine information. When I told them I was already vaccinated they asked if I needed any masks. Nope. We’ve got mountains of them.

Now, is it really the smartest thing to do to go door to door during a pandemic to spread the word about the pandemic? Well… when you think it through and do the math… nope, it’s not.

Still, the thought was nice. Also, if they manage to convince a citizen or two to take their shots? Then I suppose it’s all good, right?

Idiocy

On September 1, 2020 the state of Massachusetts had 355 new cases of Covid-19. The United States as a whole had 41,976 new cases.

On September 2, 2021 (after having multiple vaccines available for over seven months) the state of Massachusetts had 2,037 new cases of Covid-19. The United States as a whole had 187,489 new cases.

What the fuck is wrong with us?

Take the god damned vaccine, you fucking morons.