Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (236)
December 9, 2024
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 5, Day 229: Work is positively harrowing this week. It’s going to be more late nights for another couple weeks after many weeks of late nights. I’m totally over it but still, have to keep on for a bit longer. Telling myself: breathe, hydrate, take it one day at a time. Get through as much as I can the earlier part of the week so that the meetings that come later do not derail everything in my brain.
An annoying thing: I asked my orthodontist about ongoing retainer care last year and was basically brushed off. They told me to keep wearing my last set of aligners. Fast forward a year and change: I’ve ground my teeth at night so much that there’s a hole in my aligner. I was in the office for JB’s appointment and asked them how I’d order new aligners and they were very confused. I should have been offered a retainer and a retainer program that covers up to 2 sets of retainers a year, for $900. For comparison, outright buying a new set of retainers costs $800. Additional annoyance, I was not prepared for that expense to be debited from our checking account and it temporarily dropped our balance below the daily required minimum for a day while the transfer in to cover the charge was taking some time. I normally never use the debit card to avoid this but the receptionist was being a pain about it and I needed to be done. Chase charged me a $12 service fee once that happened so today I politely asked them if they would refund the fee this time. I have never dropped the balance below that number in the 7 years the account has been open, surely we’re good for a waiver once in a long while.
Year 5, Day 230: New money side quests! Some investments a couple years back incurred preemptive withholding tax and it took me ages to figure out how to file the refund request. Finally figured it out and filed for a refund going back three years. This was sent to them in March. We finally received the letter today confirming that they were paying up, but the transfer is now two weeks late. The snail mail letter made it before the actual transfer. I followed up by email to see if they did it properly or if it got kicked back – wire transfers are the pits, and international transfers are worse. Crossing my fingers that they reply promptly and don’t make this harder than it needs to be. I know some financial institutions to have forked up wire transfers three times in a row. And they call themselves professional.
Second one: Saving JB’s backpack from zipper derailment. We considered buying a repair kit, but between the two of us, managed to save that $9. PiC reseated the zipper and then that curved needle I bought last year to save my own backpack came in handy again – though I should get a pair of pliers to help push it through thick fabric. I painfully sewed up the end of zipper into the side of the backpack, and added an extra patch to reinforce the physical backstop. It is very ugly but just needs to hold until the bottom of the backpack wears out – that probably won’t be too terribly long. So many finger cramps!
Also also, DRAT. I forgot to put in my replacement Bookoutlet order yesterday so I lost out on the sale prices. They are so deeply discounted it was still a bargain, but the principle of “overspending” irks me a little.
Year 5, Day 231: So many meetings today! It was really satisfying to put a big DONE through them as I finished up the day but wow was that a lot.
The new laptop arrived, I’ll need to set that up soon. I need to decide if I’m making that my work laptop with all the work it takes to set it up, or if this will be the family laptop. The latter is probably easier.
Bethh was so right! Netflix’s Man on the Inside is delightful. It was just too short, opinion motivated entirely by greed not because they shortchanged the storylines, and I wish we could get full 26 episode seasons of shows like this. It also featured a few other folks from The Good Place, that was fun.
Year 5, Day 232: My gardening has fallen off steeply since the start of November. Everything was dying or dead, I had to rip out my snap peas – so sad. The potatoes were likely ready to harvest but I simply haven’t had time or energy to dig them. This made it a bit more surprising to see all the grass and little clover-like things popping up in the small two foot patch I cleared for flowers. All of six poppies bloomed during the summer, their heads blew off a few days later, and that was it for my experiment with planting poppies. Or so I thought!
While picking out the grasses, trying to keep it clear enough early on so that I don’t accidentally rip out my still surviving poppy plants if I make another next attempt, I spotted three almost microscopic sprouts that look like they’re going to be poppies some day! It’s still so early they may not make it but there’s something so happy about seeing the possibility sprout. I scattered so many poppy seeds and snapdragon seeds (none of which came up), maybe they’re still there and waiting for their time to come.
Maybe there’s a metaphor in there but I worked super late again tonight and my brain is a non-wonder engine, it must shut down.
Year 5, Day 233: “She was sad, I could feel it. I should not be able to feel an emotion that is inside of someone else.” I bounced off Resident Alien the first time I started watch-listening to it but it’s landing this time. One of my reports had a devastating loss today, and I was at a loss for how to best express my grief in the form of support for them and their family. I eventually decided on a multi-tier approach since this won’t be over in a day. Dinner for this first day of bad news and flowers and care basket at separate dates in acknowledgement of the ongoing grief. Obviously until and unless they share with the rest of the department, I won’t either, but I do wish there was a way to push a button that signals a need for comfort and caring without invading anyone’s privacy.
This came on the heels of a physically draining morning and I really just wanted to curl up under the blankets and hide for a few hours. I couldn’t, of course. I had to tough it out and be productive in the few hours I had left in the afternoon before having to host a social event. It was fine but my exhaustion was so high that ten minutes in, I was checking the time. Still, we survived the week, and that’s something.
I hate that there’s no way to know how much melatonin is really in each tablet we take, and same for all the other supplements that I take. They help, but there’s always a chance that there’s other stuff that’s not so great in there. I wish it weren’t so cost prohibitive to regulate them the way medications are regulated. Of course even those aren’t immune to quality control issues. I find myself wishing for a chemistry set and the knowledge sufficient to test my own supplements to confirm they are what the companies selling them say they are.
Yay! I’m so glad you liked the show! I forgot about Resident Alien – I got most of the way through and then dribbled off. I’ll add it to my list of things for when I’m flailing about for something to watch.
You are so kind to think of the ongoing care needs of your direct report.
I could have sworn that the Resident Alien suggestion came from you, right?
I can only imagine the pain they’re feeling right now. It feels like this is the least we can do :/