Adaptation to COVID world

My daughter is 16 and fairly self-sufficient. She is great at keeping herself busy. She draws a lot. She's so damn good, but wasn't often making time for it before this all happened. She is on the phone with friends constantly, especially her boyfriend. We hang out as a family. Sometimes she and I have these long conversations about everything and anything that I love. We are having more of those because we have the time. Hell, she even cleaned the house the other day.

That said, I know she's struggling. She let the facade crack a little yesterday and told me how upset she was that she can't see her boyfriend. She told me if she could see him for five minutes, she would just want to hold him the entire time. She was supposed to take her road test a few weeks ago, but they cancelled it the day before while my wife had her out practicing. She is losing her junior year of track and field. Her first shot at the SAT got cancelled. Every little thing that gets taken away from her hurts. I admit I have a lot of frustration over what is happening right now and seeing her upset just gets me thinking this plan better fucking work.

 

Had not really thought about the own bags thing. I usually bring my own to the grocery store, but I almost always use self checkout. Went to Wegmans yesterday and went through the regular checkout (she was wearing gloves and wiped down the belt before I loaded my groceries and they have contactless pay there, so that's good). She didn't say anything about me using my own bags, but that makes sense.

Also, the people wearing masks in the store all of a sudden think they can get close to you just because they have a mask on. I actually had to bark at a dude who tried to reach over me to grab something. He gave me a shitty look but fuck if I cared. Definitely going to try to limit my grocery trips to once every 10 days if possible. That was more of a harrowing experience than I expected yesterday because people continue to be fucking dumbasses about this.

 

Our grocery store is opening an hour early for people over 60. Everybody else is allowed in at 7:30 a.m. That's when I get there. That is how I got two packages of antiseptic wipes and some rubber gloves last Saturday. I keep expecting a crowd, but it is usually relatively quiet. Last week, they said customers who bring their own bags have to pack them, which is fine with me. If they tell me I can't use my bags, that's good, too.

Cosmo's idea of making it every 10 days is sounding like a good one.

 

Oh, great, now I've got to monitor my kiddo's Zoom meetings with her teacher.

 

I haven't seen a Clorox wipe (or the store brand version) in the store in weeks. Supposedly some bodega around here keeps getting them in so I may venture up there today to buy a couple of packs. It's worse than the toilet paper thing.

 

I bought an all-natural alternative in Target, but I have no idea if it's antiviral. I want something single use for my kitchen counter, rather than the same sponge I use on everything. I have house-brand Lysol spray for my kitchen trash can, but that's going to run out soon.

A friend who normally buys natural products sent this PDF: https://www.americanchemistry.com/Novel-Coronavirus-Fighting-Products-List.pdf

 

I had a new one today. My brother is a minister and like so many others, he has been holding services via Zoom the last few weeks from one his bedrooms. This wasn't his church, but back near my hometown a very popular fellow passed away this week. Only his wife, children and their spouses were allowed in the church for his service this morning, so it was streamed live on YouTube. When I checked in, there were 400+ people online.

 

Inky, I just worked a piece on that. The hackers spreading hate in Zoom meetings. These are evil folk.
At least the FBI seems to be on top of it.

 

I've been in voluntary isolation since the first week of March. My respiratory issues and my mother's age were reasons enough to stock up, hole up, and try to ride this out. Nothing comes in without a wipedown. Packages sit for days until it's safe to open them even after they've been disinfected. Wandering around the city in my downtime feels like it was lifetime ago. Then again, so does not being afraid of my own government.

It will be interesting to see how the kids of today remember and recount the plague year. That might sound callous and I don't intend it to sound so clinically removed. Many of my teen clients lost years as well. The difference between them and your children (and us as well) is mostly predicated on choice and circumstance. It's easy for us to have treasured memories and the artifacts that serve as proof of the lives we lived. Access for us was mostly easy, free, and safe.

 

This has been the bane of my existence this week.
Use Zoom. It's the greatest thing ever.
Don't use Zoom. Hackers!
You still need to meet with your classes, so use Zoom safely.
Be careful using Zoom. Hackers!
It's great for your students to interact with you.
But don't use Zoom!

For the love of freakin' mother. Just tell me what you want me to do.
My school system has major issues between instructional leaders and tech people. There isn't a tech person that I haven't personally threatened to murder to their face.

 

On a sad note, I just got notification that the performance of Escape to Margaritaville I had tickets for has officially been canceled.
I wasn't surprised, but getting the confirmation was disappointing.

 

Could they do something like the old Second Life concerts?

I went on SL because I wanted to see Dwight Shrute's town and I am a nerd. Two Shakespeare companies and some Broadway oldsters did performances there. Of course, this was a long time ago. Dunno how it would play now.