Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (156)
May 29, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 59: A very Mondayest of Mondays – we have work up to our ears, unethical/shady customers, my ribs feel caved in and I can’t raise my arms to shoulder height because they feel like they’re getting dislocated, and of course, car trouble. Oh and then midday brain fog floated in that I want to box it. But I can’t because the arms, they cannot be raised. Ger-offa-me!
We have quite old cars and they’ve been relatively low maintenance. Certainly maintenance has been cheaper than any car payment would have been. My car started acting up on Saturday, which is unnerving at this age. I always wonder if this time will be more expensive to repair than it’s worth. That’s a mix of not being in charge of car maintenance and my usual catastrophizing tendencies (work in progress!) PiC is working on it but this week we’re effectively down to one car. We’ll make it work but it’s not great with the 2 different school dropoffs/pickups and PiC going to work onsite plus appointments this week.
We ran the diagnostic tool thingie (which I’m sure has a real name) which told us to replace the spark plugs and ignition coils. Crossing my fingers that this is all that’s needed. I’ll be grateful if we only need to spend a few hundred to get her up and running again.
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We’re meeting with a potential dogsitter this week. This person is much closer than our emergency sitter we’ve used for the past two trips. We really LIKE the emergency sitter, but it’s such an impractical distance to travel at the best of times.
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Year 3, Day 60: We’re coming up on the last day of school in these parts fast and we’ve been putting together JB’s camp schedule. The problem is, I don’t know a single soul at this new camp we’re trying for a few days. I do NOT feel comfortable leaving my kid there without a known reliable adult or any friends with kids there. I don’t know when I’ll be ok with that, probably not for a few more years. This means I’m going to be work-camping out all week at the new camp for the first week. We’ll be back at a known camp after that. Yes, I realize this seems like overkill but it’s my comfort level. That requires back up power packs with higher outputs since I can’t count on having an outlet to plug into. Now isn’t the ideal time to buy but now it when I need them and they were always part of the multi-layer plan to be prepared for power outages so I might as well test them out.
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I started collecting funds to hold for the Fall shipment of snacks for Penny’s students before folks disperse for the summer. $20-25 contributions go a long way when we all lift together! We’ll be able to set them up nicely in the fall and it’s really good to know we’re concretely helping hungry kids get some food during their school days.
I’m also collecting funds for the next Lakota family. I’m reserving $120 to ship 4 boxes and a stash of gift cards to shop the Thanksgiving sales this fall. I wonder if we can repeat last year’s Thanksgiving and Native Heritage Month drive. I really HOPE to but….it’s been a weird year for a lot of folks.
Year 3, Day 61: JB has been dealing with conflict with a kid in their class on and off all year. We hadn’t heard anything for months until this week, and a whole jumble of bad behavior came out. This kid tries to push a mutual friend to take sides, tells the mutual friend to keep a secret and loudly proclaims “DON’T TELL JB!” and tries to turn the other kids against JB at lunch. She tried on stomp on JB’s belongings and weaponizes a teacher-relative against the other kids. JB has tried to talk to her about it but the kid just rolls her eyes or denies having ever done anything wrong. In short, this kid is a giant jerk. It makes me angry on their behalf that this kid seems to go out of their way to be a jerk. We had a lot of talks about it, but there’s no real solution for a second grader beyond: stay away from people who treat you like crap. Then again, that’s true of many such jerks they’ll encounter in life.
I hope that the jerk either grows up over the summer, or disappears from JB’s life entirely, lost to the crowds of people that they’ll encounter as they change classes each year. I know there’s no guarantee they won’t cross paths again, but I can hope!
I’m also hoping this isn’t developing into a real bullying situation but it sure shows the early signs of being one.
Year 3, Day 62: Smol Acrobat woke 5 minutes after midnight and plaintively asked to sleep in the big bed after they calmed down. I caved and let them squirmy wormy all over my prone self as I tried to sleep and ignore them, they’re using grumpy at night when they’re getting sick and I worried.
We’ve finally registered JB for a mishmash of gymnastics camps next week. They’re pretty excited about it. Today, I registered them for 6 consecutive weeks of summer camp at almost $500/week. ☠️
It’s starting to sink in that in addition to daycare, we’re paying another $2000/month roughly for camp.
Between these, and our recent car trouble, summer is $$$$!
Year 3, Day 63: Uf, another “big bed” night for Smol coupled with a 550 am “Mama, eat”. Nooooo…..
We need more postage for Ye Little Art Shoppe. We’ve had a steady trickle of sales but they’ve stopped for now. Thinking ahead, I’ll be with JB nearly all next week, working, monitoring their camp, and prepping their latest round of art to prepare new cards for the shop.
I won’t have time to fill card orders next week so I might as well treat next week as a rest and regroup period. That means I can order postage online instead of trying to add a trip to the post office with all our meetings and appointments. It’ll cost $1.55 extra but buying online means one less errand to run over a holiday weekend and I can get a variety of the new forever stamps that our local PO is too small to have. This might have to be my last indulgence for a few months.
I’m sad today. My friends from my working college days are in town and initially they were going to spend a day with us. But instead they’ve changed their plans to go sightseeing further north instead. I couldn’t afford the energy to go with them today, even though we haven’t been able to see them in years, before the pandemic. I understand but I’m sad.
Just a quick note to suggest you check out pirateship.com for postage. I use it for all my business shipping and print my postage away.
Oh! Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve heard of them before, only by way of folks doing some serious shipping so I hadn’t thought of it for this little venture. Is it really free?
The service itself is free, and when I first started using it, I was able to confirm that the postage was a bit less expensive. Another big thing for me was that I could print it from home and schedule a pickup.
Thanks so much!
For power sources: if you have or need an electric leaf blower / hedge trimmer tool with a battery, you may be able to get an adapter to turn that battery into a portable power source. We have (i think) an M18 battery and we got the adapter to use for outages and/or camping trips. If you don’t already have the power tool, it is likely not that cost effective, but sharing in case it is useful.
I hope JBs classmate moves away over the summer…
That’s an intriguing thought. We have long thought we needed an electric hedge trimmer but I’ve never been motivated enough to get one. If we do, it’ll be good to know it can be adapted too.
With all the classmates who ARE moving, I wish the meanie was one of them! I have a sad feeling that they won’t be, at least not this year. 😒 But maybe if enough of us are hoping for it….