Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (313)
June 1, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area
Year 7, Day 27: I’ve got maybe 3 months left. I’ve calculated the PTO to be earned and, if the math is right, I’ll have 3 weeks to add to the severance runway. Did the same for my sick time and am booking off large chunks of that before the end. After the severance and PTO run out, we have 14 months, or 12 months (plus some healthcare, some house maintenance and no dog), in liquid funds. We have an ok amount of time after my severance runs out if my job search is as bad as, or worse than, the last one.
Using the same conservative monthly amount (covers needs, a few wants) to break down all our major assets, we have 12 years of spending in the brokerage and 13 years of retirement savings. Emergencies, large home repairs and other things of that nature would shorten that timeline. If the retirement savings grows minimally (3%) between now and 2036, that stretches to 21 years of monthly bills. That’s a super simplistic view, of course, and intentionally so. I needed a very basic framework to share with JB because they started worrying about losing our home if I don’t have a job anymore. I’d previously said we could pay off the house, which we could, but I found that being able to say “Even without a job, I have our bills covered for 25 years” gives them a more concrete way to understand they don’t need to worry. I don’t feel like I got this because 25 years doesn’t cover retirement (intentional or not) but the breakdown gives me a place to set my feet when I tell them not to worry.
Year 7, Day 28: The fog is hovering so low this week, it feels like we’re wrapped in winter. The pumpkin plants and the one sugar snap pea plant have been sitting outside sheltering in a bucket for five days and nights and seem to be thriving despite the wind and fog so they might be ready to put into the container. Not sure when I will be ready to put them in, though. Definitely not today. My body is giving me a warning buzz that if I do much physically, I’m going to crash. Yesterday was a high-energy expenditure day, so this isn’t a huge surprise. This does cast a bit of a pall on my job-hunting. Everything I read turns into an “I could do that, I have done that, I don’t want to do that all over again”. I’m so tired.
I did an hour of research looking up all the bits and pieces of legalese that I don’t know enough about to agree to, still waiting on the lawyers I’ve reached out to for some replies. Did a volunteer job training and then a task that I trained for. Submitted some FSA claims. Researched candidates for the upcoming primary. I’m in a pickle where I don’t like either of the candidates that I have to pick between so it’s a matter of choosing the lesser evil.
Year 7, Day 29: One of my crow friends showed up solo today, they’re usually in pairs, and landed right on the driveway waiting for treats! They have never done that before! That was a bit of a delight. They even stayed there while I rolled treats to them. So far, only the ravens have been this bold. The crows usually stay up high on street lamps or the roof or the car and wait til I set down treats and walk away. They show a decided preference for dog treats, too, peanuts will be eaten but last. Actually, is that right? Maybe they’re saving the best for last? Do crows do that?
Bigger picture thoughts: We’re not planning to sell the house or move, we’re happy where we are, so that’s not in the plans for the short or medium term. Prices are so high here that we couldn’t make an even trade. We’d have to plan to leave the area, or the state entirely, if we wanted to sell and keep any money. The idea of having to pack, move, unpack and rebuild community all over again is more than exhausting. I’m not good at it!
Year 7, Day 30: It’s deeply irritating to see billionaires fined for anything less than $999M for crimes. Anything less than that is the equivalent of them waving off a gnat! What’s the point?
I now maintain three budgets simultaneously: 2026 with my layoff (real); 2027 with my layoff (real); and 2027 (projected worst case with loss of 2 incomes). This gives me a place to project costs in both scenarios and to know what I can and can’t do with our money. I realized last night that I had added unemployment income but not healthcare costs to the 2027WC, so I’ve added a $2500 monthly expense using an employer estimate of the cost of COBRA for now. That year I’ll need 9 months of saved cash to clear all our bills.
That makes it ok to buy one large callable CD at 4.1% for 18 months right now to earn $500 over the expected 3.1% in the savings account where it’s sitting. I usually buy non-callable CDs but it’s worth buying the callable one now for the slightly higher interest rate for however long it last. Our remaining cash will stay put until we see what’s what. I’m keeping an eye out for other ways to earn extra $500s and more.
Year 7, Day 31: Today’s worries: I’ll need a job again in a year and there won’t be any kind of job worth doing and definitely not paying well enough for the effort.
6 months of severance won’t keep us afloat long enough. (So I’ve decided to negotiate for more after all, the worst that can happen is they say no. Maybe they’ll agree to half of what I’m asking for. Who knows.)
I’m afraid that things won’t come together in 6 months, or 12 months, or 18 months and I’ll have to figure out something while at the end of my tether instead of making this a time to rest and recuperate and then stepping gracefully into a new good growth period like this one turned out to be after the last recession / layoff.
But. I’ve done a thing! Ordered samples to QC whether this staff thank you gift idea is good quality, made a list of who I’d need to hand deliver their gifts to in order to save on shipping costs, run shipping estimates for the people who live too far away and must have shipping. I’ve plotted out a timeline for ordering and delivering all the gifts.
If the quality is good enough, this is going to run something like $700 for the whole team? I hope not more than that. For now while I wait, I write out cards. That’s the hardest part.