Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (23)
November 9, 2020
Week 33 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 33, Day 227: I was having a bad parent day. I was in the doldrums and tired and cranky. Then I was impatient with JB for being tired and cranky and out of sorts. That’s hardly fair. It was incredibly hard to get myself on balance to avoid snapping at them for having the same feelings as I was having (but didn’t realize in the moment).
I did take them out for a short midday exercise session (with all the groaning and whining you’d expect from a tired and cranky under-6 whose parent is being stern and crabby). They did get their exercise in. So that was something.
I was trying to focus on the small good things: a small Christmas treat surprise I found for the family since we won’t travel this year. The order of gift books I placed from an independent bookstore. The spices I will soon enjoy cooking and baking with. The huge batch of ribs that are going into the freezer and will save our butts one of these days when we have nothing for dinner (which feels like most nights).
It didn’t make up for the tired and fury that the new SCOTUS justice was going to be confirmed right under our noses no matter that we are less than two weeks out from the election.
I’ve worked late every night last week and some over the weekend as well. It makes a real difference, both when I’m swamped and on these brain fog / no energy days, but it takes a toll on my quality of sleep and each subsequent day. PiC had an early morning meeting scheduled so I decided it was wiser to take one night off and take the pile-up as it comes than to lose any chance at getting some rest.
Week 33, Day 228: I woke up SIX times in the night, thanks pregnancy and PiC’s alarm that would have been thrown somewhere if I could reach it! Not working late Monday night meant that despite all that, I did manage to string together just enough rest to get up on time. Good call, me!
JB made me a creative snack of granola sprinkled over clementines. It looked absolutely awful but I took a couple bites and it wasn’t terrible. Still, I let them help me finish it off.
JB and PiC went off to run errands and snuck in a stop at the beach because it was empty and JB got to splash in super cold water. Yay for them! My already cold feet were happy to miss that, though.
I have got to carve out time to make the final call on our open enrollment choices. I’m 90% sure that I want to test out the HMO with HSA option for a year and see how we feel about it. I want to be able to contribute the maximum amount to the HSA for one year at least and see how I feel about the experience with the new HMO plan levels of service. I’m not at all excited about the PPO-like nature of this one because we now have to care about a family deductible but I want the investing for health care option enough to at least give it a shot. We can change back next year if we hate it.
Week 33, Day 229: Today was hard on everyone. PiC was very frustrated with JB. JB was alternately oblivious or defiant. They got under my skin whining and stomping about not being able to find a toy when it was last seen in the closet. (I refuse to know where everyone else’s stuff is. Your toy, your responsibility.)
I had another regular OB check up where I anticipated bad news because I’m a pessimist but everything is fine. Every in-person check up is exhausting though. Then we followed it up with a short trip to the grocery store where we loaded up on fresh produce. (I do so love having a variety of fruit on hand now. We’ve gotten into the habit of having some fruit after dinner most nights.) It left me drained and we were only halfway through the day.
I’ve been checking in on my friends who are also pregnant (one month ahead, one month behind) and that helps me sort of center myself a bit. To try and settle that “I’m not READY” feeling, I also ordered myself some nursing tops. That’s not going to help me actually be existentially ready but at least I’ll be a little bit ready for the practical stuff? Maybe.
We are super appreciative for the baby-related hand me downs that have arrived from friends and family across the country. We are also super appreciative of the unexpected but super thoughtful gifts we’ve received from friends old and new.
Seamus’s mini pharmacy is growing yet again. We are adding two supplements to his daily med routine to help with his arthritis and his chronic UTIs. He’s also on his third infection of this round and a third month of antibiotics. It’s a whole THING keeping on top of the logistics of all his meds and ordering all the refills on time.
I had to work late again after dinner but I made myself stop before 10 pm.
Week 33, Day 230: Minor annoyance – I went the cheap/frugal route 3 years ago and picked up an off-brand insulated water bottle. It’s worked great! I use it primarily for cold drinks but it can also keep hot liquid warm for a really long time which comes in handy when I’m sick and working – I don’t have to get up for a refresh of my now-cold tea every 15 minutes. It came with two lids, a normal steel screw top and a straw / spout lid. I’ve alternated between the two depending on need and preference. Foolishly, though, I allowed JB to drink from the spout when they were younger and of course they kept biting it which of course has led to the spout deteriorating over the years. It’s now gross and bits are coming off and I need to replace it. Except the only place I can find it is the site that claims to be the company’s site and it looks really shady and unprofessional. Maybe it’s just bad design but not listing shipping rates anywhere at all, including on the check out page, is a dealbreaker. Also the replacement lid is half the cost of the bottle itself and something about that math is weird to me. Anyway, I think I’ll just skip the lid replacement, pick up a backup water bottle that has a spout that no one else gets to use, and switch between bottles instead of just swapping out lids. I don’t love it but it’s the compromise I’ve got right now.
Week 33, Day 231: Elhoffer Design has a promo code for maxi dresses! I love their designs and the fact that all their clothes have pockets. I loathe that my maxi dresses don’t have pockets. I think this might have to happen. But I will mull over the weekend.
We had so much going on today we had to grit it out. I had two appointments in a day when my rule is normally one appointment per week. (I have+had four health appointments all week. Ugh!)
One appointment was a consult for my teeth. I’ve had some orthodontic work quoted in the past two years and I’ve hemmed and hawed over it this whole time. It’s never felt like the time was right. It’s always felt too expensive. And it is. But during this open enrollment, with all the possible changes, it actually seems like we can cover this without too terribly much financial pain. A combination of insurance covering part of it, a referral discount, a paying in full discount, and the new 2021 Limited Purpose FSA meant that we’d be out of pocket a whole lot less than previous quotes. Plus this ortho is much more available than the one at my regular dentist. This one is in twice a week, that one was only available once a month.
Speaking of open enrollment, I had to finalize our elections today. The past two weeks have involved so much spreadsheeting, projections, asking questions and getting useless answers from the Benefits department. I’ll spare you the gory details but needless to say, I highly resent only getting 2 weeks to evaluate the changed benefits and doing our research.
I finally managed to get through everything and make some decisions. We’re going to try the PPO-like health plan that allows us to open an HSA account. We’ve never had an HSA before and they have non prohibitively expensive options so we’re giving it a try. We’ll give up the regular FSA, take the HSA instead, and we will also get a Limited Purpose FSA for dental and vision costs. It took the full two weeks to figure that out between tax implications and budgeting! My hope is that the administrative headaches with the HSA are minimal but I don’t have the highest of hopes on that front. We also don’t get any information on the fees for the HSA account until after we’ve elected it so that’s also annoying.
We have no flipping clue if childcare for Smol Acrobat will be an option anytime in 2021. None at all. So I chose not to set aside money for the Dependent Daycare FSA, knowing that 31 days after they are born we will be able to change that again if we have to but that it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll know any more / better at that point. I simply do not know.
Of course I had to log in more hours of work this evening as well. Because of course.
I hear you about the trials of Open Enrollment. My husband wades thru the morass (we buy off the exchange) b/c he uses the insurance more than I do. I look at it as catastrophic and prefer to pursue natural cures. That said, even for basic insurance, you have to do analysis on Excel!
It would be awfully nice if we didn’t have to do THAT much data crunching just to figure out healthcare.