Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (127)
November 7, 2022
Year 3 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 3, Day 227: Halloween! š
After a trunk or treat, a scavenger hunt playdate, and a school parade, my body was so done this morning that I woke up too late to take JB to school and my brain didn’t even understand that until PiC and JB were almost out the door. Oops š¬ šµāš«
We still had today’s trick or treating so I cranked that heating pad up as high as it could go as if it were a magic carpet that could transport me out of the Peninsula of Pain I currently live in. It helped take the edge off but only just.
I had to consciously decide to slack off at work: only catch up on the weekend’s work backlog and not care that I didn’t clear my inbox or do every single task that could possibly be done. It’s Monday. I’m tired enough for it to be Friday but it’s only Monday.
*****
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving update
I’m extremely online on Twitter, and here, but that’s it. I don’t Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or anything else. So the news out of Twitter with the Awful Musk Gland takeover is depressing. It’s my water cooler, my direct connection to the world on terms that I can handle, and I hate that it might all go away soon because he’s a horrible person who is intent on transforming Twitter in bewildering ways likely to render it unusable (like reinstating accounts full of hate). That’s also why I’ll keep a set of the Lakota families updates here as well as the Twitter thread I started on the weekend. If Twitter falls apart, I don’t want to lose our progress.
Day 6 spend: $0
Day 6 balance: $1318
Year 3, Day 228: We’re wrecked from Halloween festivities, and we only did half of the parties and carnivals JB had an invitation to! It was a load of fun but I’m D-O-N-E. Phewwwww.
Happy surprise: my FI globe trotting friend happened to be in the area and gave me just enough warning to come over for dinner. I adore her and our conversations and it made my heart very happy.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving update
Also happy, I experimented enough with price comparisons and online shopping carts to nail another excellent deal. This time it was baby footie pajamas at Costco. I’ll be ordering more in the coming days but if I order up to ten items, that nets a $60 discount on top of the sale price! I bought 10 sets of 2 pairs of footie pajamas in two sizes.
Day 7 spend: $83.50
Day 7 balance: $1,385.33
Year 3, Day 229: Uh oh. I felt a sore throat briefly yesterday and assumed it was a fatigue thing. I’m definitely fatigued. But Smol Acrobat coughed this morning and it sounded congested. And I feel… not good. I’ve got a cough and my body just sort of feels….off. Then we felt their forehead and along with the drippy nose, fever. Oh. Goody.
I cancelled my massage appointment because NOT sharing germs is caring, and sort of called off work. We can’t send them to daycare with a bit of a temperature. I almost cancelled my call with a loved one but it’s been many months since we last got to talk, the kids always monopolize her when we get together, but caught myself. If I’m going to prioritize anything on a day with extremely limited time and energy, it should be my family, not work. Yes, the work has to get done but it’ll still be there tomorrow. (It’ll still be there stressing me out, yes, but this is a process!)
We had a long chat, a few sentimental tears were shed, and a bit of emotional support exchanged. Before I knew it, it was school pickup time, and Smol waking from nap time, and brain and body absolutely frazzled and shutting down time. That didn’t help with my parenting. I kept butting heads with JB. They kept choosing to doing and saying little annoying things that I simply had zero patience for like sticking their face in Smol’s and then saying “yeah I WANT to get sick!” GRRRRR. That particular thing ticked me off way more than it should have but being sick, and having to tend to a sick Smol all day, did not put me in the right frame of mind to let that sort of thing pass.
In a move I’d be proud of if I weren’t so tired, I shut my computer down well before the usual point of “yeah that’s enough work” because my body checked that box first and I listened.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving update
It turns out that the item limit at Costco is across all sizes and colors of each item so I had to call in backup to order the next 20 fleece footie pajamas in different sizes. I’ll order the next set of items that qualify for that extra $60 off tomorrow. I’m wrecked today.
Day 8 spend: $0
Day 8 balance: $1,385.33
Year 3, Day 230: Blurgh. I foolishly hoped that I would feel better today. Neither of us feel better. Smol’s had a fever all day and clingy as a baby koala. Just as grouchy, too. I’ve just been hanging on by the skin of my teeth. Catching up on yesterday’s work ate up way too much energy, as did soothing Smol every half an hour during their attempted nap. PiC had to take JB to their class tonight, and then we both completely forgot about the PTA meeting so we missed that.
Sigh. This was not the best of days.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving update
Lots of admin type stuff today: organizing support, checking all the money transfers went through, confirming the Center has received the orders, paying for the orders that have been shipped and confirmed, getting info out the folks who are going to ship gently used items themselves.
As I put a coughing, feverish Smol to bed, it occurred to me that I could (should) put in the order for women’s jackets currently $10 off, and get that extra $60 off the order with the deal they have going on. I wanted to hit the showers and go to bed but ALSO want to get that deal today and be able to get a repeat tomorrow so I ordered ten medium (the only size they had left, so now I’m really glad I bought them) women’s jackets. Ten women will have a nice warm water resistant jacket with a hood! Yay!
I picked out tomorrow’s cart and was puzzled that it added the extra $60 off that cart as well. It says one redemption per member per day…. I decided not to take the chance and wait until tomorrow to buy.
Day 9 spend: $177.55
Day 9 balance: $1,207.78
Year 3, Day 231: Completing the set, both PiC and JB fell ill today as well.
Just as a precaution, while JB was at school, I grabbed the first set of PCR COVID test appointments available and we three went off and had our swabs done. JB would like one too but we’ll do a home kit for him since all three of us are negative.
Smol’s temp was bouncing from 100-103 all day. Meds helped with that but their mood was alllll over the place and nothing could help with that. Also their snot. So much snot.
It was a real struggle to get through my to do list today: work, paying bills, filling in our election ballots, finishing up a card for a friend with a new baby, finishing up a letter for an elderly friend. I’d like to finish that third letter for an old friend but I ran out of time and get-up-and-go.
Watching the meltdown of Twitter is a strange experience. I’d hoped we could still have the platform at least as long as through the end of this year or next but at this rate, it’s hard not to wonder if it’ll still be functioning and useable by end of the month. Firing half the staff? Not to mention the monstrously shady and inhumane way it was handled. The wheels are coming off and even though it’s been troubled for a long while, as a very small fish in a large pond who’d seriously curated the user experience, it was my main source of regular manageable socializing and I hate that it may be gone soon. I also hate that I’m going to have to figure out mastodon sooner than later to see if it works better than discord.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving update
Something went wonky with my Costco order so I’ve abandoned it for today and went sale hunting at Lands End and Macy’s to find deals on men’s coats and good quality blankets. Nothing hit the Excellent Deal! button though, so I’ve left it at that for now and worked on the two boxes of stuff I’m personally shipping: warm clothes, kid masks, COVID test kits, treats and art supplies. The first of two boxes are ready, but the second still needs some work.
Day 10 spend: $53.30
Day 10 balance: $1,224.48
