Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (317)
June 29, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area
Year 7, Day 55: We’ve been doing a LOT of walking the past week, much more than normal for me, and my fatigue and pain are (mostly) only ratcheting up a couple notches rather than zipping straight to the top of the chart. This is novel! I’m curious whether this could be a potential new low baseline when I’m not working a huge horribly stressful job, but it’s too early to tell. There are also the variables of travel/vacation mode, a lot of family taking care of everything in ways that won’t be possible at home, being deprived of my laptop so being unable to attend to my usual schedule of household responsibilities and so on. Removing the job aspect is only one variable.
My hands have been swollen every day for the past two weeks. That’s an unusual reversion to the pain points of my youth. I’m used to working around the hand mitts (it’s awkward) but I’ve become accustomed to roving pain giving me a bit of relief by way of changing daily pain points rather than these stationary pain points.
Year 7, Day 56: I spent a lot of time on the Paze Spend $10, Get $10 Back Promotion: Get $100 per Credit Card offer today. Mostly because I was moving very slowly.
There aren’t a lot of merchants that we use yet and the Newegg gift card hack was dead by the time I got there, only a week after the promotion was live! But we need more pimple patches and back pocket supplies (little sunscreens and hand sanitizers) for when we have to travel REALLY light, so I picked some up using the deal.
Microburst of stress cleaning: I tackled our medicine cabinet: discarding expired meds, recycling empty bottles, putting all our reusable baggies in a new clear box to get a better view of what we have on hand.
Year 7, Day 57: The kids have begun anticipating the COVID booster for our summer travel and that reminded me that I need to decide if we’re going to pay out of pocket for it since Kaiser has stopped paying for, or approving, more than one shot a year. Since I am functionally still (if not diagnostically / officially) immunocompromised this is a problem. I have access to antivirals for now but my immune system is still trash. Annoyingly, Costco used to list their COVID vax prices but don’t anymore. It used to be about $125 per person? I can’t find pricing for CVS or Walgreens. They all say something about accepting outside insurance but don’t list the price for uninsured patients.
Microburst of stress cleaning: The chaos drawer that’s never once been organized, full of reused storage, rubber bands, bag clips, etc, has been completely cleared out and set to rights. SmolAc was so confused when they opened that drawer, they closed and opened it a few times wondering if they were in the wrong room.
Year 7, Day 58: All of the ARGH. Delta Dental won’t cover part of JB’s recent procedure because their definition of requirements for coverage do not match the procedures. That’s another $600+ out of pocket I have to cover. That’s in addition to two sets of braces, another oral surgery, increased auto and home insurance policies…. the list isn’t endless but it feels like a wallop. We still have income through the end of the year but mild to moderate financial surprises make me very uncomfortable now.
On the bright side, I have found the documentation to submit my claims for some missing money. The really old address one 3 homes back was causing some consternation. This will result in maybe $12 if it comes through. I should find out in something like 2 months since these are very tiny cash-type claims.
“Unclaimed property law allows up to 180 days from the date that we receive a complete claim package to review all documentation and make a decision on whether or not the documentation supports the claim. Property owner claims that involve cash only may be processed in as little as 30 to 60 days. More complex claims, such as those filed by heirs, involving multiple owners, or involving businesses are generally processed within 180 days.”
Year 7, Day 59: I’ve been manually updating all my file backups. I maintain a networked and a non-networked backup. I’d like a third layer, honestly. This double layer backup system helped me with the claims. Some files were inexplicably missing from one system and I was able to retrieve them from the other. I do need to spend some time figuring out how to manually back up the photos though, they’re currently backed up automatically into the networked system and I can’t easily drag and drop from there.
Microburst of stress cleaning: I went through all the Halloween candy, discarding old candy so I could finally wash and put away the buckets that have taken up permanent residence on the counter in the past few years. The buckets were replaced with a nice basket to hold snacks and the fresh candy. Even the counter got scrubbed! I will not confess to how long it’s been since it’s had a proper scrub but the fact I can’t remember should tell you it’s been too long. This is the price of keeping two kids alive and working two jobs – we have let things slide around here.
Time to yell at lawmakers again: Exclusive: The Bay Area’s National Archives Office Is Closing. Researchers Are Worried