January 29, 2024

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (191)

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 4, Day 300: A thunderstorm roared through last night. We would have slept right through it like cozy babies but Sera needed a quick outing at midnight to make sure her bladder wouldn’t be too stressed this morning (because of her steroids). You should have seen the look she gave me. You want ME to go out in THAT??

Anyway, that was a necessary soaking because at 7 am sharp she was click-clacking to the front door because she needed to go out again. It would have been much worse, and earlier, if we hadn’t gone out at midnight. As tired as I was, it meant that everyone got up and out on time for the first time in weeks.

The kids have been generally cooperative for the past couple weeks. It’s weird. There are the usual hiccups and temper tantrums and all that but it’s on the very mild end of the range. I have to hold on to the memory of this when we move into the next phase of very uncooperative.

A loved one is going through a medical thing right now. Not quite a crisis but it could be one if their body doesn’t respond to the medications. Something like Sera, I suppose, except their medical issue currently has a more clearcut set of pretty dire consequences if they don’t respond to the medication route. I’m checking on them daily and worrying in the back of my mind.

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December 18, 2023

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (185)

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 4, Day 258: My three sweet potato sprouts are dead. Unexpected cold got them, maybe. More slips are growing in the garage, we’ll try again after January. My onions are still going strong, though, the green tops show no sign of going yellow and flopping over. Here’s hoping they continue to grow another month so we don’t have to worry about them right in the middle of holiday stuff.

*****

JB lost a specific set of screentime privileges and has to earn it back by setting the table ten times in a row without being told. They have failed to do this 9 times out of ten so far, and that tenth time they only managed it because I wasn’t home to tell them. Every night, I have to tell them to do it which means they don’t get to check the box that says “I set the table X times without being told.” The whole point of this exercise is to train them to remember we eat dinner every single night and to set the table without my having to tell them what to do and clearly I have failed to set them up for success. Open to suggestions.

Year 4, Day 259: This may have been brought on by being mostly awake since 3 am but I’m having an existential … not-crisis … hiccup? I feel like I’m in a bubble of not-being. Or rather a bubble separated from who I am. In the big picture, this hiccup doesn’t matter because I have a dog to walk, the recycling to take out, paperwork to process, kids to pick up and feed. These things are going to happen whether or not I feel wholly at home in my skin or part of my/any community.

I also feel disconnected from so many people right now even as the holiday cards roll in. Maybe they’re a reminder that I’ve felt so isolated all this year and there’s some guilt over that as well as frustration about having wasted an entire year battling a nonstop circus of viruses. It sucked feeling sick all the time for a whole year. I got nothing done. What a waste.

*****

There is something really grounding about running into a neighbor with their puppy that likes Sera, though! They “played” which was the puppy trying to roll under Sera while she grumpily snarled at them to submit and then getting mad when the puppy kicked her. I gave them both treats and they settled right down.

*****

Had to grab impromptu takeout for dinner because the chicken wasn’t defrosted in time for me to cook it. We used to limit our eating out to twice a week and it was usually $27 after tax and tip. These days it’s more like $55-65 after tax and tip to feed four, usually with some leftovers.

*****

I’ve had to shop Amazon this fall for a number of items we can’t get elsewhere. Just heard that if you tell your Echo device or Alexa app “Thank my driver” they’ll give your driver a $5 bonus. Echo and Alexa are not allowed in my house but if you search “Thank Driver” in the app, you can do it that way too. This little message appears at the top of my app screen:

Amazon should just pay generous cash bonuses and cover the taxes, along with real living wages, but since I can’t make that happen, I’ll do this as long as they have it.

Of course I’m a little suspicious why they have it going, because they’re not to be trusted generally but unfortunately they’re the only source for a number of things we need to buy right now.

Year 4, Day 260: Do you consider your statements to be commitments? Suppose you say “I’ll pick up the potatoes today after work.” Would that be a solid commitment in your mind, or do you assume that it’s automatically hedged with “if I can”?

We have a difference of opinions here. I think if you make a declarative “I will” statement then you’re committing to the thing so either be upfront with your known limitations/conditions (if I have time, if that meeting doesn’t run long, etc) or say you’ll try and leave it at that. PiC thinks treating a statement as a promise is too . I say his way leads to chaos. Disclaimer, this isn’t a huge problem for us. It’s just one of those things we disagree on the basic premise for and I’m curious if it’s just us or if other people see it differently as well.

I see this playing out with JB now. He’ll say “we’ll take a ride on Xday”, so they expect a ride to happen come hell or high water on Xday. And then if something comes up, they’re not just disappointed, they’re also confused about how the statement of fact became false: we were going to ride but we didn’t.

I explained that extenuating circumstances happen and they happened in this case. But as kids will do, they fixated on when when when will we take that promised ride?

How do you receive these statements?

Year 4, Day 261: Now that TV ads are a thing on our streaming services again, I’m seeing those holiday car commercials “Lease a BMW for $699 a month!”. It got me thinking I can’t imagine having a giant monthly payment ever seeming like a good thing to take on again. But on the other side of it, the idea of saving that same amount each month in preparation for buying something large seems totally reasonable. Both are taking money out of the paycheck, but the perspectives feel completely different.

*****

This is my fourth day trying out Dear Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream in what feels like a probably fruitless attempt to calm down my rosacea redness. The redness annoys me and this is the first time I’m trying a product to combat it. Maybe it takes a week or two for this sort of thing to work if it’s going to help? Maybe it can only help reduce redness temporarily, it’s not like it’s curing anything.

*****

Out of four pairs of Old Navy jeans, boot cut and straight cut, in dark wash and black, only the black pairs fit and the straight cut fits best. Drat. I don’t love boot cut like I used to. They’re all the same size but the dark wash was a struggle to pull on. The working theory is the dark wash jeans were made at a different factory. The takeaway: buy two of each of everything when trying to figure out what size you are to have a chance at having two pairs of something fit well.

Year 4, Day 262: A friend insisted on giving me a Christmas gift, despite my protests she’s already been so generous to us, so I caved and admitted I would love an ebook from any of my comfort reading series that I’ve only given the library money for (Murderbot, Toby Daye, Kate Daniels). I’ll pick up the others myself, probably slowly, but she can start me off with the first one. I have some of the Innkeeper books and some of the Incryptid series already, when I found sales a few years back.

*****

I planted two sets of onions from sprouts. The six sprouts from the first set are still going strong. One of the three from the second set turned yellow and flopped over which is how you know they’re ready to harvest, except that it was just dead. Eight possible onions left! 🤞

*****

Friday food! This was very much a make-do week. Monday we had the fundraiser burgers. Tuesday we grabbed Chinese on the way home from activities because the chicken was still frozen. Wednesday must have been leftovers, and I also threw together a diced chicken and Chinese broccoli slivers stir fry with a packet of leftover bulgogi sauce. Thursday, PiC and Smol got home first so they started prepping breakfast for dinner. Friday I tried to place an order to the taqueria for pickup four times online before I finally gave up and sent PiC in my place. I’ve taken to adding a pozole to my order so we’d have a warm delicious soup for dinner or for leftovers.

The three remaining packets of chicken thighs were still kind of frozen so they had to wait for weekend cooking.

December 4, 2023

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (183)

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 4, Day 244: I’ve spent all year preparing for the end of the year: clearing holiday shopping ahead of time, getting (almost) all the check ups done before December, etc. Now that it’s upon us, I’m flabbergasted. How did it get to be December?? SMH. Also, we’re back to the grind of just the two of us trying to do ALL THE THINGS. We had a very lovely reprieve, it was rejuvenating even though I was short on sleep the whole week. I forget how much feeling supported offsets feeling tired. Under the “but no thank you” heading, Smol Acrobat is sick AGAIN. I bought them

On Bluesky, @vikrambath.bsky.social skeeted: “Very normal college admissions process we’ve got here in the United States of America” with a screenshot of an article: “Esther’s academics weren’t “stellar”, Kim said – only a 4.3 GPA 1520 SAT and nine AP courses. But in her personal statement, she wrote about her mother’s fight with breast cancer. And she was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. “That was her trump card. It was a unique situation that she overcame,” Kim said. “To be frank, she got really lucky.”

My good friends back in the day were accepted to Berkeley, UPenn, Cornell, Columbia. I never once thought about their application process back then but these little snippets into college admissions processes today are at least a little unnerving. I wonder how much of that is limited to the colleges I’d never have tried for and wouldn’t expect my kids to try for, and how much of this has spread across the board to more … normal? run of the mill? standard? colleges. I don’t know what to call them exactly, but the ones that are in our pay grade.

(Whispers so I don’t jinx it: Smol Acrobat fed themselves eggs this morning and salad at dinner! With their own hands!! The way they eat their pizza is a complete travesty but I’ll take it!)

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November 20, 2023

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (181)

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 4, Day 232: I submit a motion for Mondays to be abolished. JB vomited twice before 9 am so no school for them. Smol Acrobat woke up late and dragged their feet every step of the way. Their fever is finally broken, and they’re still coughing a bit, buuuut they just want to play at home. No no. No no no. No. You need to go play with people your own size and age at daycare! I need you to be with people your size and age. I’m also in a mystery back and forth with Kaiser, I don’t know why. They called me but won’t tell me why they called. I called back and asked – no answer. 🤷🏻‍♀️ PiC injured his back a couple days back and we’re not sure yet how serious it is. I’m topped up on Sudafed, Tylenol/Motrin, and an antiviral that’s trying to fend off Smol’s germs at least partly successfully or unsuccessfully depending on how you look at it. I’m coughing, sneezing, congested and tired but it’s not as bad as it normally would be. Indescribably grateful the antiviral helps me get through enough of the day.

I wish I could rest more during the day but alas. Unexpectedly pressing and unavoidable deadlines sprang into our lives last month and I have to deal with them. We are slowly crossing out stuff on our to-do list, though, and that is satisfying. Never mind that the to-do list might be a hydra. We’re not thinking about that today.

Year 4, Day 233: Because our total contributions to date for the November Lakota fundraising this weekend was $1700, I waffled over the plans for spending it. Try to shop in bulk for the Allen community? Focus on helping families directly? Hit the Holiday Okini? They all have their challenges. Then I spotted a posting from a 72-year old grandmother, in need of dialysis, with a broken washing machine, needing a bed for herself, and a bunk bed for the grandkids she’s raising. The four teens she raised needs clothes, and the household needs cleaning and hygiene supplies. That decided it for me. We’d outfit a couple families as completely as possible. I wasn’t sure we had enough money to tackle more than the washing machine and furniture but I went for it anyway. Thankfully, while I was pricing out bunk beds (4 stores, 3 dozen beds) to find one that we could afford AND that would ship to the Reservation, another group clubbed together for the washing machine and then a few large donations came in.

That left me with a lot of shopping to do on a larger than usual budget. What a good problem to have. I’m so grateful to generous friends and readers who make this possible.

I also picked up a second family that is out of food and filled a giant Subscribe and Save order for them. Amazon is unfortunately the only place that consistently ships food to the Reservation. Every other store I’ve tried is an exercise in futility.

Of course since I spent my morning happily shopping for families, I ended up working deep into the night to catch up on work. Worth it!

Year 4, Day 234: Uh, I have bitten off more than I can chew. Belatedly realizing that’s an ironic turn of phrase because the REASON I put myself in this position is that Family 2 for November is a household of 12 children and adults who are out of food. I couldn’t put off ordering another day, I can’t bear the thought of people going hungry on my watch. Sadly, you need a vast amount of food to feed a family of 12. I consulted with a friend who has experience with providing food to large families and she confirmed that the 26 items I bought in bulk wouldn’t last more than a week. A case of chili makes one meal. If only Costco would let me ship to PO Boxes, that would make such a difference.

Quick recap: I’ve a huge deadline looming at work, and ALSO am neck deep in over 100 items in various stages of processing to keep track of and pay the bills for. Also, we have to finalize the fundraising for our daycare teacher by tomorrow. EEPS. Deep breaths.

Unrelated I love this Cyndi Lauper song, Fearless. I’ve always been a fan of True Colors but this one grabs me.

Year 4, Day 235: We’ve wrapped up the daycare teacher fundraiser, write her a nice note, and PiC is set to pick up some pastries for the teachers tomorrow. That’s one thing down.

About 3/4s of the two Lakota orders have shipped, sometimes one item per shipment, making me really wish that we had the option to ask for these giant orders to be shipped all together. But that would probably be impossible, my guess is that products are in different warehouses and they simply couldn’t. But one can dream.

It’s time to put together our Thanksgiving meal menu. Can’t scrape together the brain cells for it just yet but definitely stuffing, maybe turkey, maybe prime rib instead?, mashed potatoes yes, and …. What vegetable? JB used to vote for Brussels sprouts. We haven’t done them in a while.

Year 4, Day 236: Friday food review! We leaned hard on takeout again this week, just trying to get through. We grabbed a family pack at Jollibee, fried chicken AND mushroom beef patties, which got us through two nights. I did do a very easy honey butter salmon bake one night and that’s relatively reliable. Otherwise Smol was the greatest of pains during dinners.

Rain set in this week, bringing some impressive thunder and lightning. I worried my plants would drown but when I checked on them, the older batch of onions’s green tops shot up another two inches. Just from two days of rain! I was trying not to overwater them, now I’m not sure if they’ve been stunted from underwatering.

The cough is definitely still lingering for me, with some random bouts of horrible congestion. JB’s cough still sounds awful, it’s a deep rattling thing, but their energy is just fine. Smol Acrobat seems to have turned the corner finally. They’re still extra moody, and sobbed for 3/4 of the drive home today because I was driving and couldn’t hug them. PiC’s back is pretty bad, it’s being diagnosed as a herniated disc at the moment just based on physical exam. I hate that they’re not willing to scan it yet, and I hate that a herniated disc sounds so awful.

November 6, 2023

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (179)

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 4, Day 218: There is going to be so much disruption this week. Two tomorrow for Halloween: the kids’ school parade and then trick or treating. Two appointments on Wednesday for the kids, and PiC has a procedure that requires anesthesia Thursday so I’ll have to handle the drop off and pick up of everyone that day. Taking several deep breaths as we plunge headlong into the fray.

Underlying all this has been a gratitude for the flexibility that I have had to DO all this stuff in the first place. Unfortunately this gratitude was shattered today with news that I can’t share yet. If things go in one direction, the job as I know it, with all the stuff that makes this job good for our lives, would probably go away. It’s always been work, of course, but it has also been a set-up that let me do my best work at the least cost. Losing that would be devastating.

If my job changes substantially next year… whoof. The urges to (obsessively) go through our money to figure out what our options are and to wander the neighborhood muttering imprecations under my breath are strong. This timing is crappy. We’ve lived with slightly bated breath for more than a decade as this grew from a start-up and it was always possible for it to disappear at any time but it’s still crappy timing. We’re projected to pay back the emergency fund next August at best so that’s a small stresser. My health is improved but not enough to add a commute to our lives and work in an office again, even if I was willing to. That’s the much bigger stresser. The cost of commuting and in person work is too high. For now I don’t know anything concrete will happen so I just have to hope like hell that the economy swings things in my favor.

I’m also on my 12th sore throat for the year. I would really like my body to stop overreacting to viral infections by causing sores in my throat which is nearly as bad as getting sick.

Year 4, Day 219: We had a break with Halloween tradition this year, inviting new friends out since our usual Halloween friends were booked, and the kids had a LOT of fun. The new friends haven’t ever done it this way before and their mom predicts they’ll want to do it this way again next year. The kids were like Energizer bunnies, still bouncing to go go go after we adults were throwing in the towel. We even stayed out an hour too late and they STILL wanted to stay out later. My body wanted to have some words. Of course now I’m also going to have angst over whether our usual friends will be free and want to go out next year. I don’t mix friend groups as a rule, it gets too chaotic and it’s harder to enjoy each set of friends so we’d have to pick.

It’s spreadsheet day but after working until almost 11 pm, after walking miles for trick or treat, I simply have to push that to another day. I love spreadsheeting.

Year 4, Day 220: The world’s worst dental appointment was had today by Smol Acrobat who screamed all the way through their cleaning. I have no clue why. They’ve been eagerly anticipating this appointment for weeks and excited about all the goodies. They specifically freaked out about having to lay down for the exam and cleaning, so now we have to practice doing brushing and flossing laying down.

I plowed through my work in four hours and rewarded JB for their hours of chores and mostly staying occupied without bothering me too much with a trip to the library.

We still haven’t celebrated our wedding anniversary, so we need to decide if there’s something we actually feel up to doing. One more hectic day to survive this week, first.

Year 4, Day 221: Today was the MARATHON day of this marathon week. Drop off JB. Drop off PiC. Drop off Smol Acrobat. Go home, scarf three bites of breakfast, and turn back around. Pick up PiC. Work for a while. Pick up JB. Take them to self defense. Pick up Smol Acrobat. Pick up take out for dinner. Yell at my phone’s touchscreen for refusing to work. Make it home slightly late for the PTA meeting.

Brain: fried. Body: Extra crispy.

Year 4, Day 222: Friday food! I took another run at seafood pasta because PiC needed a low fiber diet this week and tried this recipe with shrimp, scallops, and calamari. My first try was only with the calamari using another recipe and while it was ok, it was pretty bland. Adding a lot of butter and broth turned things around nicely. I also accidentally harvested a plate of tiny potatoes while I was fertilizing the garden so that turned into a small batch of Japanese curry. Enough to feed four and have some left over. We relied on freezer food Wednesday, the Trader Joe’s Indian and Costco lasagna, which are all delicious but absolute torture on my sore throat. We’re on week two of that particular beauty. I need non-spicy foods for this throat. We tried a new Thai restaurant yesterday. It was pretty good and they had DUCK. The pad kee mao duck could have used a lot more duck but it was tasty nonetheless.

I also knocked out a few outstanding to do things: Putting out the final Lakota Families call for the year, sent the call out 2 emails, sent cards to my doctors to thank them for being supportive and attentive healthcare professionals. I pulled some special stickers to mail to a friend.