December 7, 2020
Week 37 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 37, Day 255: I wanted to support a local bakery for our holiday meals. I found one nearby and we ordered two large pies. The online order form offered free delivery to locals but we couldn’t pick a date or time at the time of ordering, we had to call to arrange that. We asked for a delivery well before the holiday, to avoid a rush right before Thursday, but that’s when things got odd. We agreed to a late afternoon delivery. That evening I got a message asking (basically): you want the pies or what?
I called back ten minutes later and the guy said he had already gone home. He was willing to go back to the shop if we wanted them tonight, though. Erm. Yes, that’s why we set up a delivery timeframe and date? Please, my pies…
He then started debating when would be best and kept asking for directions which confused me. Surely you have a method of getting directions based on the address provided when offering a delivery service?
Then he decided that he had to charge me a delivery fee of “only” $15 (just about the cost of a pie) in addition to the prepaid pies. I … What? When he finally showed up, three calls and more than an hour later, he said that they couldn’t charge our card we’d previously used before to pay the delivery fee. We’d have to go order $15 worth of product on the site instead… and not pick it up. This whole experience was deeply confusing.
To top it off, the pies weren’t even as good as your average grocery store quality.
We had Thanksgiving Round 1 and most if it was delightful with one exception. I am really glad we chose to order in this year. We were in no shape at all to cook and bake and cook and bake.
Week 37, Day 256: Every so often I wonder if I remember what I’m aiming for with our hopes of early retirement (along with CAN we do it?). Sometimes I wonder if I’m motivated solely by a crankiness that comes with dealing with selfish or incompetent people too often (I am), or what I would DO. But Mr. 1500’s summary of their version of early retirement with two kids helped remind me My retirement is an expansion of everything I used to do on weekends.
This feels a lot like what I’m seeking. There’s the from the negative space creation which means removing the requirement to report into a set obligation for five days (or more) a week to generate income. Then there’s the desire for freedom to do what I would normally choose all week long, not just on the weekends. More reading. More cooking. More dog time. More cleaning of the sort that I enjoy. Maybe not more long term commitments? But I seem to be incapable of not creating projects for myself…. and honestly that should be fine because I care about those projects but necessarily limit them when 40-50 hours of my life a week are committed.
Week 37, Day 257: It’s always confusing to me why contractors or subcontractors who are doing work for you don’t bother to tell you when they’re not going to show up for the day. I find it infinitely more annoying that they didn’t inform us they weren’t coming so we wouldn’t wait on them than the fact they didn’t come. That’s so inconsiderate!
***
I have been consuming excessive carbs and sugar this indulgent week, but I’ve also been extra sleep deprived and working harder than usual, so it’s a tossup whether my hands are swollen because of overuse or because of what I’m eating.
Week 37, Day 258: We ate Thanksgiving leftovers again for actual Thanksgiving Day. I have no regrets. Except maybe for the pies. Maybe I would have paid extra for another type of pie from Mariposa Bakery instead. We won’t be ordering from this bakery again though, I know that much.
Week 37, Day 259: I spent a few minutes browsing Black Friday sales but mostly wanted to focus on shopping from small businesses if we bought anything. I’ll decide tomorrow if there’s anything we particularly could use.
Bookshop.org has free shipping all weekend too so that’s something I might want to check out. But I am pretty much done with holiday gifts so this would be gratuitous shopping…
:: How was your week?
November 30, 2020
Week 36 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 36, Day 248: I can’t believe that I made it to 7 pm without needing to cuss out someone at work. That’s a first for all Mondays nearly this entire year. Here’s hoping that it isn’t just deferred to tomorrow though I know there’s one specific email that’s going to piss me off when I get around to it.
We had homemade meatballs and sauce from last weekend ready to go for lunch today, and leftovers from yesterday’s Japanese curry dinner was our dinner tonight so on the meals front, we were very pleased with not having to think very much about it. JB doesn’t actually like eating the meatballs very much but they love making them so I promised they could make the next batch.
PiC did the Costco run this evening to make sure we’re stocked up on staples as we see the curve of COVID cases start to trend upwards again. Brave soul. He brought me the large bag of clementines I was craving.
Our Penzey’s gift cards arrived today! I’m gifting one to a friend and this will complete the last of the holiday gifts I intend to deal with this year.
Week 36, Day 249: I caved over the weekend and decided yes, we should order in our Thanksgiving meal this year. I’m just too tired to cook our usual feast which I normally love to do.
PiC would happily volunteer to do all the cooking and then end up stressed, and grouchy in the kitchen trying to do all the recipes I have practiced but he has not all these years and no one would have a good day. He can and does cook just fine but the pleasure of creating a full Thanksgiving meal is something I’ve hogged to myself making it all unfamiliar territory for him. I’d rather spend the money and order in this year so we can all take some time to just be together and rest and not have us be a play of one harassed parent and one harassed cook.
I texted a friend for a referral code to Good Eggs which gave us $25 off for our dinner. That covered all the fees off the five dish order. It’s definitely too much food but I don’t care, we’re going to enjoy those leftovers! We also ordered a pie from a local bakery.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods? Did you enjoy any of them this year?
Week 36, Day 250: We’ve been avoiding people as usual but because of the yardwork, PiC has been exposed to people who aren’t masking properly when they’re talking to him. Our GP was happy to set up a COVID test for him and since he mentioned I was also not feeling 100%, she went ahead and set me up with a test order too. I love our GP.
We can’t be seen until the weekend, which is fine, I’m just grateful we don’t need to jump through a million hoops to make a test happen. It should be this easy for everyone.
Week 36, Day 251: February 1st was the last time we dined out at a restaurant, and March 7 was the last time we attended a social event with friends. It’s really weird to think about those specific dates as lasts this year. We barely remember what happened in January. We have no real anticipation of when we’ll be able to do any of those things again either. It’s such a weird time right now.
I still get travel deal emails and while I am absolutely not getting on a plane in the foreseeable future, I had a moment of wondering: what fabulous luxury vacation would I want to take in the far off future when that kind of thing is possible again?
Pre-COVID, I hoarded points and miles for a possible fantasy trip to Japan for a few weeks. I wasn’t sure how I’d make that happen but I wanted to have the points and miles to burn. I’d imagined we would eat our way around the country, meeting up with some friends in the cities and outlying countryside. I really do travel on my stomach. Now it just feels like getting as far as being on the plane safely would be a big accomplishment and adventure!
But maybe we could go somewhere balmy and warm and islandy with cocktails and the ocean and time to just read and be. Well, no, that’s not going to be how our vacations look for a very long time with two kids in tow but maybe something LIKE that is vaguely possible.
Do you have any travel yearnings right now?
Week 36, Day 252: I do not have Zoom fatigue the way most people have it. I have too many calls with humans fatigue which is a far bigger circle. I also have people fatigue. Because we don’t have enough to do, we need to spend time fixing the FSA account allotment. We checked on our options since we cannot use up the remaining balance and at the end of that conversation, they were told to leave it alone for now.
Naturally someone then decided to take the initiative and changed our election amount to an arbitrary new dollar amount that’s less than the amount already approved for payment this year. Not helpful!
:: How was your week?
November 23, 2020
Week 35 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 35, Day 241: I’m still slightly stunned that the election was called for Biden. I spent all last week doing my best not to think about it, not allowing myself to doomscroll as usual, and it helped keep me focused even if my anxiety was still keeping me on edge.
Now we have to fight for Georgia if we want to have a hope of a functioning government for the next four years. It would be terrible to be stuck with a Republican majority Senate and Mcconnell at the reins for another Presidency. There are so many ways he’s obstructed governance and I can’t bear to think of what further harm he has up his sleeve.
Week 35, Day 242: Confession. I had a plan to invest every Tuesday this year, rain or shine, market high or market low. What’s the opposite of a slam dunk on that? I did that instead.
At first I had a good reason: I was watching the winds of COVID and the economy, and decided to bulk up our cash to cover the rental as fast as I could. That required a pause on our plans to buy every week.
But then the market gyrations were plain weird and I hadn’t formed the habit of ignoring them yet as far as buying. I’m great at not selling. I’m absolutely awesome at that. But buying when the market is up? I’m not good at that. Yes, this smells like market timing. I have a little trouble with that!
So with this confession, even though the market is up, I’m making myself go back to my Buy on Tuesdays schedule this month. There’s not much of the year left but I had transferred a decent chunk of change to our brokerage earlier this year to force the issue and will keep on investing from that.
Week 35, Day 243: Our sofa! It has arrived! We have been without a sofa for a little over a month, I think? And I really did not like that time. I’m so glad I will have a sofa to rest on, even if it’s a compromise sofa. We had to get the one that would get here before Thanksgiving and fit our living room. We had to give up on the color and exact style we wanted.
Also construction has started and that’s going to be a trial on our nerves but if we are lucky and all goes well, we will have resolved at least some part of the moisture and mold problems we’ve been fighting and even maybe have a usable portion of the backyard before the end of the year. Hope hope hope.
Week 35, Day 244: Before my internal screaming reached a peak, I made myself stop working at noon and go for a walk. That was wise but I think the wiser thing to do would be to STOP ADDING THINGS TO MY TO DO LIST.
Can we do this? Is it possible?
(I don’t know.)
Week 35, Day 245: I was so relieved for Friday even while I was annoyed at how much work was still on my plate. Ah well.
We’d had my yummy low sugar low carb cheesecake every night this week and finished it today. That’s going to make for a sad dinner tomorrow when we’re all out of dessert. I’m tempted to make another one but if I do, I should probably freeze half of it so we don’t eat it five days a week again. I’ve contemplated making it in two smaller Pyrex containers instead of a regular pie pan to make it easier to store the second one.
JB has been getting into the Octonauts show and dammit if “Creature Report” isn’t stuck in my head on repeat. Help. Me.
:: How was your week?
November 17, 2020
Week 34 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 34, Day 234: I had a completely horrible night of sleep because of course that’s how you want to start a week that’s already going to be rough.
This recipe for Slow Cooker Meatballs in Tomato Sauce didn’t have wonderful reviews but it seemed good enough and we happened to have ground beef, ground turkey, and the other ingredients on hand so I tackled it first thing this morning. It just made sense to start early in the day so I could space the steps apart enough to not completely exhaust myself.
(more…)
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).
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October 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, $1,905.47; Rural libraries, $346.69.
Week 32 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 32, Day 220: Mondays keep on Mondaying. I had to walk away from my desk to make dinner leaving 70 emails and three hours worth of other time sensitive work and I was in a real mood about it.
I was in a mood most of the day though, from having to reel through a dozen management decisions to finding out that our Joybird order wasn’t just delayed in transit. They hadn’t even started making production until this week. It was slated for delivery starting tomorrow through the end of the week. I was livid, in fact, because they were a month behind and wouldn’t you think that warranted some kind of proactive notice? Not only did they not bother to give us a single update until I started contacting them, they took a week to answer my email and ignored all subsequent contacts. Couldn’t get them to reply to an email, texts, or even answer their phone. I can handle delays if I know about them. But delays like this and a refusal to make sure we’re updated honestly says to me that this is a shady company that isn’t going to come through and can’t be relied on to honor their refund policy if the product is shoddy. Especially when I see the absolute bonanza of complaints from other people trying to get them to answer emails and phone calls for months.
I’m preparing myself to have to dispute the charges if and when they fail to deliver what they promised.
I did catch myself on the verge of blaming myself for not doing deeper investigation into the company, an unhealthy go-to reaction when I’m mad at someone’s shortcomings but feel helpless to change it. I turn the anger back on myself for not seeing it coming.
But I did due diligence, I did do research, and I did check with people who’d used them before. It’s not like I just jumped in feet first eyes closed, and it’s not my fault they stink. I’m getting mad all over again typing this up because we moved our old sofa out already to make space, timing was an issue, and I need a sofa. I need to find a back up sofa option because I have my doubts that Joybird will ever come through. Highly do not recommend.
Worked super late this evening. Did not love that either but I find that even if it’s exhausting, the reduced stress when I do the extra hours and see an actual reduction in my workload for the next day, it matters. Plus during the day sometimes I have to deal with administrative nonsense and at night I can focus solely on my work.
Week 32, Day 221: Seamus’s puff pastry looking ear is worse but the vet isn’t very concerned yet. He’s thinking it needs another few weeks to start to reduce in size. I hope so. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by it but I don’t want it to progress to the point where it does bother him. We’re crossing our fingers that he’s beat his multiple infections, we should find out later this week.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that Joybird is a terrible company and after being given a chance to rectify their error they chose to obfuscate and basically use 1209 words to say the product was going to be a month late, too bad so sad. PiC and I were disturbed by the sheer volume of negative experience being reported this month so after a proper fume and grumble, I did some research and talked extensively with the AmEx rep to confirm the best course of action. I decided to take one last shot at getting them to cancel the order on their own.
Tuesday was no less a terrible day than Monday but with second late night at my desk, I might have done enough for tomorrow to be less terrible.
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October 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, $1,816.35; Rural libraries, $346.69.
Week 31 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 31, Day 213: We had a talk with JB’s tutor about the two priorities we’re balancing: academics vs structure. Structure is the part that they have always had with daycare scheduling to prepare them for the way a traditional classroom is run, vs the learning itself (academics).
Kindergarten completely lacks consistency and structure. We never know what they’re going to be doing at any given time of the class session, or even what time the class will end. Daycare was incredibly structured down to the five minute mark and we always knew what they were expected to be doing at any point in the day. Our tutor expressed concern that if JB were to continue on a trajectory where they are academically a grade level or two above their current grade but continue to lack that ability to handle the structure, skipping a grade would be a real problem. We appreciated that insight but we realize that JB’s social development isn’t progressing at a pace that I would think skipping grades could work well for them in the next year or two. That could change, but at the moment, with the few opportunities they have to socialize, I have my doubts it’ll shift much over the next year.
We decided that within the tutoring session, focusing on the academics will be our higher priority. PiC and I will continue to work on balancing flexibility and structure across the whole day so that they aren’t completely feral by the time first grade starts.
Today I introduced a short post-kindergarten class exercise session. We took the dogs outside for a very short walk to a safe part of the street where I could send JB to do wind sprints. I posed this as their “real dog owner training”. They need to build up strength and stamina if they’re going to have a hope of keeping up with running Sera one of these days. Then they get to do a quiet activity of their choice for up to 40 minutes, followed up by an assigned chore. We’ll go into lunch and rest time before their afternoon educational session from there. (more…)