Adaptation to COVID world

Have traveled a bit for work in the last few weeks, so some observations on hotel stays:

* If you're staying multiple days, there is no maid service in between days. Normally wouldn't bug me (I don't change my sheets every day at home, you know?), but I was eating exclusively takeout meals, and the trash piled up quickly. Heading for a four-night stay next week near Dulles, and I'll ask if I can leave trash outside the room for them to pick up every day.

* Speaking of takeout ... there was a Texas Roadhouse next to the hotel (I was exhausted and it was right there, don't judge). Ordered food, and the only silverware they had was flimsy plastic, which is awful for eating steak, obviously. May be worth bringing a set of decent silverware with you if you plan on eating out because the hotel probably isn't going to have any, and neither will the restaurants.

 

Yesterday saw a woman walking down the lobby in front of the store. Yelled at her to mask up. She came back with one on, when I realized I had just yelled at a bookkeeper/customer service worker a couple of weeks ago. I had never seen her without a mask.

(And, before you ask, yes, a solid 6).

 

This weekend, I put together a hammock for the backyard, extended out the string lights to cover the whole patio, bought better cushions for the fire pit and lounge chairs, bought misters and ordered heaters for when it gets colder outside. Figuring that we aren’t going anywhere for the short-medium term.

 

So who fucked up in the all-white game?

 

I was supposed to be at Red Rocks tonight watching Lucinda Williams and Jason Isbell. Fuck this fucking virus.

 

Did it for years because I was trying to help a parent who was going down clinically. Had little choice if I wanted to try and help. More than four months ... did so for four-plus years until I had the professional shot I couldn't pass up.

Now ... tried to reset after a series of personal and professional upheaval, no luck. Not sure if I did the right thing, though I'm confident it was the right thing for now, professionally because that market might have been dead to me for reasons beyond help and personally because some in my family have decided that family is a card to be played out of convenience instead of a fact of life.

While I'm a loner by nature, this is pretty close to the extreme. Had a dozen of years of fairly high-level practice ... suppose perfecting the art would be the next step.

 

Stunned at how many in my area are either not masking up or who can't be bothered to do so correctly - nose blatantly hanging out or pulled under chin. The latter examples are basically keeping one handy because a lot of places will not permit entrance without it.

Apparently, they couldn't care less about their health, which is their problem.

Worse, they couldn't care less about anyone else's health, which makes them a problem for everyone else.

 

After Wal-Mart made it mandatory to wear a mask to get in, and even had a person at the door to make sure people had masks, there were several who flat took it off, not even half-assing it, and just stuck it in their pocket after they started shopping.

 

And you can't keep sliding the mask off and on. That breaks down protection every time.

 

Last time I went to the grocery store, one woman had hers under her chin. I figured she wore it in just to get in. Another wasn't wearing one at all and was going down all the aisles backwards, ie, so she was always in the face of other shoppers. Why? What is the point?

 

Damn, I would love to see Lucinda live.

 

Last week, I was finally allowed to file for unemployment after being laid off on May 1.

Thanks to the severance I got, I could file before then. But since I'd started the process and quit filing weekly (and getting a denial letter), I had to get my claim reset. This could only be done by speaking to a person on the hotline. Over two days, I called more than 100 times before I didn't get the "sorry, all our representatives are busy" message. After being on hold for 47 minutes, I finally got to speak to a person.

That's when I found out my identity had been compromised. So I had to go fill out a police report and take a photocopy of my ID to the local unemployment office. The local PD employee said they'd taken several hundred similar reports in the past couple of weeks.

Sunday rolls around and I try to file my weekly claim. No go. I get a message that I need to speak to somebody at my local office. So I call and call and call the local number. The very nice gentleman tells me I need to call the hotline.

I'm on call 37 so far this morning.

I swear, it's almost like the system is set up to discourage people from using it. I hate to think what people in serious financial trouble are going through due to all this.