April 30, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020? Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
I was very peeved to hear that, among other large companies, Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris nabbed money from the PPP when I know tons of small business owners hadn’t even had their applications considered. I’m glad to see they may be returning the funds.
Also good to see that Caltrans and BART are able to use this time to do maintenance that’s difficult to schedule or manage during normal commuting times.
Paula Pant describes her experience with COVID-19 as a healthy young person with no preexisting conditions.
Homemade banh mi recipe. I wanted to share this after making it but I looked at the ingredients and noped on out of there.
Too muchness indeed, Emily.
How Can We Stop Feeling Useless Right Now?
Ally Kirkpatrick of Old Town Books has been really active in finding creative ways to keep her bookstore afloat. We ordered from them a month ago when things started shutting down. I’m sad to see that our one local independent bookstore hasn’t done a whit of communication about how we can support them. I’d hate for them to go away but they don’t seem to have any updated social media presence in lieu of showing up at the (closed) store.
Nannies working during the coronavirus. This article leads me to conclude that most rich people are monsters. Good grief.
A good thing about sharing your giving: stats!
Sadly, true
Quarantined Stuntpeople having fun
April 27, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Weeks 5 and 6 of shutdown in the Bay Area.
This is a record of our weekdays. Video calls with other kids have been spectacularly Not Fun.
Week 5, Day 1: Most of the time, I’m dropping quick money updates in PiC’s ear. He may listen, he may not, but he knows I’ve got it. Things are exceptionally topsy turvy because he actually asked for a check in on our finances. Since I’m obsessively on top of them, it was easy to give him the birds’ eye view. Basically: we’re on the right track, we have a plan, I tweaked it a bit, but as long as we keep our jobs and incomes, we will be ok. We stash lots of cash in case of job loss, but you know I’m going to worry if we do lose a job. It’s how I’m built.
Jenny got me thinking about the Dragonbox apps as way to incorporate math for the kiddo. I would have to find my iPad and charger though. 😬
PiC has me concerned about his job security. I don’t want to have to add worrying about his job on top of my not sleeping, and my extra heavy workload. I just do not want one more thing on this plate please and thank you. I last resolved to go limp on this one and I am very bad at it.
Week 5, Day 2: This was a particularly grumpy day. JB was defiant and rude and frankly bratty most of the day, and simply could not deal.
I was not in the best form myself and my patience wore thin by the time I hit the 6th repetition of simple instructions that they refused to follow. Thank goodness for the one day of warm sun to at least somewhat offset the high level of grouch of the day.
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April 24, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. JB is at their best after rest time. My fatigue was up one day after they’d had rest so they came in to give me a hug, tuck me in, and said, let me know if you need anything!
They came to check on me and update me twice more in the next couple of hours while I rested.
2. My friends are all over the map, have been for the past 20 years, and so we’ve gotten pretty good at long distance support. I am so grateful that my friends are just in my pocket if I ever need them.
3. My toes are ice blocks every night and it takes me hours of shivering in my bed to get warm. I can’t sleep with ice toes.
I could not take one more night of this and ordered myself a $20 sherpa fleece blanket to lay on top of. It is a perfect cloud of warmth and fuzziness and I am extremely happy to be warm at night. Now I wish I could fashion a robe out of this blanket and stay in it all week!
Challenges this week: I think I’m getting even more introverted as a result of all these conference calls. I normally avoid them like the plague, I speak to no humans for 8 hours a day and then only to my family afterward.
4. PiC had his heart set on a specific bike for JB who has outgrown their free hand me down. He found it at Costco for $30 less and no shipping costs than the original shop. I still think he should have checked around for a hand me down but we also aren’t in a position to be checking out used goods. (This is the trade-off of not having school to go to: JB normally has access to all kinds of physical exercise equipment and we didn’t have to spend money on it at home. Now we do because they need a lot of physical activity and there are limited safe ways to get it.)
5. When PiC made it to the grocery store and he managed to get most of what we needed and mostly on sale. No strawberries, but blackberries and raspberries were on sale.
6. I had to pick up some educational supplies for JB’s lessons. I added some craft supplies to the pile since we never really had a lot of those things on hand for arts and crafts. I’m grateful for the $25 gift card that we received a few years back for their use!
:: How are you keeping healthy and occupied?
April 23, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
I’ve been wary of this happening: SO A TOXIC PERSON TRIED TO CONTACT YOU DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
I’m not an HSP but I too am slowly cracking under the pressure of so much noise and disruption.
I have been telling PiC that I want to shave my head for months, I’m tired of long hair, short hair, shedding hair, hair clogging the drains, all the hair! This is extremely tempting.
Equine names
Man forced to quarantine in ghost town with gruesome past. I’m tickled by this article but also by the fact that the category in the upper left corner is “living.”
Nicole and Maggie help you out with the yeast shortage problem. With science.
The Bitches break down the 1.5 TRILLION dollar injection to the banks. Now I realize I also didn’t understand what happened there at all.
Thank your mouser!
April 20, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Winter! December 21 through March 19
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What I read
Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals (Amazon, IndieBound). When the world is too much, you just need Pratchett.
All the RWA nonsense (in Reno in 2005) and over the 2019 Christmas holidays made me have a look into romances to support the decent writers. I’ve mostly avoided the romance genre through the years because I wasn’t interested in books with HEA built in but you know what? With the world being what it is right now, that’s now something I appreciate! Clearly everyone had the same thought in my town because all of Courtney Milan’s books were checked out 🙂 Also Jeannette Ng interrogated something about romances of more than ten years ago that makes a lot of sense to me now – basically, the older romances defined love in a narrowly Western way that I didn’t recognize or didn’t resonate with me. Today’s are more varied and nuanced. So fittingly, I had a whirlwind romance with romances.
Sherry Thomas
The Luckiest Lady in London (Amazon, IndieBound)
The One in My Heart (Amazon, IndieBound)
The Hidden Blade (Amazon, IndieBound)
Jade Lee
What the Groom Wants (Amazon, IndieBound)
What the Bride Wore (Amazon, IndieBound)
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April 17, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. Weekends seem to be the time for my body to say NOPE THAT IS ENOUGH and I have to crawl back into bed for several more hours of lying down. PiC and JB are understanding, thankfully, and with no work to do aside from basic survival like eating and walking the dogs, it’s not so bad for them either. At age 5, JB is reasonably independent and I can rely on them to responsibly watch a bit of TV, turn it off as agreed, then report back in for other activities.
2. PBSKids.org yielded a treasure trove of lovely printables with activities we could do. We took the Spring Color Wheel for a walk and JB stopped every ten steps to draw another plant they saw that fit into our color wheel.
3. TMobile’s freebies this week included a free postcard, designed and mailed for free, so I shot a photo postcard off to a loved one who is sheltering in place alone. It was super easy, didn’t require an account, and I loved it.
Challenges this week: Stress is trying to eat me alive so it’s made me feel sicker than usual, my appetite is all off, and so is my sleep. BOO. I keep saying I won’t stress about PiC’s job and I’m saying it again but it’s mostly to try to keep the stressing low.
4. I found my Very Old iPad, and the charging cord, but not the charger adapter. I repurposed an old one in hopes that it’ll bring the tablet back to life but I’m not sure I remember my password anymore! Oh dear. But I may have to reformat the whole thing anyway judging by this error message:
5. Finally! Put the last stamp on the 6th envelope that needs to go out today. We have belated birthday cards, Easter cards, and other letters to loved ones that have been piling up on my sideboard because I haven’t had time to walk them to the mailbox. We’re shipping a box of goodies to sick homebound family and that means I can schedule a pick up for the box AND the regular mail. Yay. We also ran into our postperson on their regular rounds and they confirmed that they were getting the masks they needed to do their job more safely. I’m glad. They are good people.
6. I’ve been wanting to do ice cream in a bag with JB and was excited to find this post on it but dismayed that we need half and half for it or some equivalent. We only have fat free milk right now.
:: How are you keeping healthy and occupied?
April 16, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Ali and Alison are making plans within plans within plans as they face the ever-shifting circumstances of COVID-19 as nomads. I appreciate this level of planning.
Hmong conference radio, a fascinating look into how Hmong preserve connections.
It looks like the lack of people at the zoo is making some animals sad!
I find it rather monstrous when people insist that our values should be primarily about the money and getting businesses “back to normal” because “some people are going to die anyway”. And it definitely seems like this contrarian is cherry-picking data to suit his goals.
How To Enjoy Working From Home During A Pandemic (A Parody): Don’t think I haven’t been tempted by #1.
As a parent and a manager, I’ve had this question on my mind: how can we make sure flexibility for parents isn’t unfair to everyone else? My solution boils down to: no matter what kind of flexibility you need, you get it. If it’s kid related, you’re fine. If it’s family related, you’re fine. If you need time to hunt and gather, you’re fine. I don’t care why specifically my team may need the flexibility because it doesn’t matter. PANDEMIC. They’re all doing their work to the best of their abilities, and when they need something, they get it. Some will need more, some will need less. It shouldn’t matter if it’s not exactly the same as long as everyone gets what they need, when they need it, the way they need it. No one is asked to cover for anyone else unless it’s truly necessary and if it is, we share out the work as much as possible so no one person is impacted. Because that’s the point of fairness. Right?
I hope none of my readers experience job loss during this terrible time, but if you do, or if you don’t feel prepared for a recession, One Frugal Girl’s post is a good primer for what to do.
Pizza groundhog