My area wasn’t nearly as bad, but we’ve had an uptick in violence in my town lately due to white supremacists and I was hit again with that wave of fear and anxiety that I experienced last March? June? that I had forgotten about when I heard gunshots last night.
I’m apparently very good at forgetting trauma periods when in a longer term trauma period 
Tonight my mum was bragging to me about how she and her equally elderly friends have been flouting the restrictions and finding workarounds. Today her church group, who are almost all over 70, gathered in a basement in an act of idiotic rebellion.
It made me really sad. She sees it as getting one over on religious persecution. I keep thinking of those people who didn’t hear that WWII was over and so kept killing and dying. Why get through all of this and to the point that there is a vaccine just to hang out with your friends in the basement?
My grandmother tested positive yesterday and has been moved to an isolation ward (she lives in a group home thingy). I’m scared and frustrated.
I keep hearing people be like “oh it’s probably a false positive” which is…like…I know it’s comforting to think that but also no ?? it probably isn’t ???
Our community health department has issued a survey about people’s behavior during covid. It is well intended, but none of the multiple choice answers fit me.
For example, I have seen my friends and family, but ONLY outside. Neither my husband nor I have stepped foot into someone’s house unless there was a true need, mask on, and if it is for an extended period of time like my husband helping his frail parents, he wears an n95 to protect them and him.
But no, I don’t wear a mask outside (in the open air) of my home unless I am in a crowd. You couldn’t pay me to eat inside a restaurant. To me this is different than the choice on the survey that indicates we have reduced our socialization. Almost everyone I know can answer that they have reduced their socialization outside of their home, but our measures to reduce our risk in doing so are at the extreme end in our particular social group. I also think the use of the word “outside of the home” is problematic, because being outside in the open air is very different than being outside of my home but inside someone else’s. (And it’s also very different from people who have a bubble where people actually limit their exposure to those only in the bubble, or always use PPE when outside of the bubble. I wish I had a bubble like that, but I don’t, so we simply abstain from 'hanging out" in inside the spaces with others).
I am very sure I am overthinking this survey. I really do not like multiple choice. Maybe I am just trying to make myself feel better about my own choices, so I bristle at being lumped in with others who would answer the survey and the same way…
Surveys are so hard to design!
Total agreement.
Snacky, that’s so sad. The vaccine is here and people just need to be careful until they get it. I really miss seeing my friends but haven’t even been seeing them outside because many of their husbands work in jobs with a big risk. I am seeing my kids outside. I talk to my friends on the phone frequently. Luckily I have my husband and I know many older people are alone. My friend dying when he only left the house for groceries in 9 months was sobering.
This is super scary, and is largely why we’re not going into buildings any more.
Now, if I can just defend my apartment against all of the repair people that my landlord keeps letting in… (seriously, there are SO many workers in and out all the time, so far only one has had to come in here, but, yikes. Does she really need to immediately remodel half the building when there is a pandemic on?!)
Some people dismiss it asking if he had underlying conditions. Who doesn’t have something in their 60’s? I have exactly one friend that doesn’t and she is 86. He probably had 15-20 years left.
More than half of Americans take medication for chronic conditions (asthma, high blood pressure, etc.). Are literally HALF of us exendable?
That’s horrible.
The “underlying conditions” things makes me so mad.
Who cares if you do? If they were being managed, you weren’t going to die except for covid.
I cannot believe how little Americans seem to care for their fellow human beings, but maybe the whole “people in cages” thing gave it away, and it’s actually easy to believe how callous people are.
A friend posted their Santa visit.
I thought this was great- Santa is behind plexiglass, in a face shield, and the kids talk to him with walkie talkies.
This friend, however, has had large maskless house parties. She wears a mask out in public, but her kids don’t. I think the people just think “no one I know could possibly have covid”. The group gatherings just kill me.
But yeah- good on this mall for figuring out a safe santa.
I noticed it’s the refrain of people that haven’t lost anyone close to them and still are in denial. I am 66 and should have at least 20 years left. I am being super careful with the vaccine so close. But my friend was more careful than me. When I watch the news and see younger people dying it’s so depressing. Those people had their lives cut short.
My friend’s 7 year old son tested positive today. I’m guessing her 5 year old, husband and herself may be at high risk now. I feel so bad for her.
This made me laugh today. A sad, sad laugh.
A Zodiac killer cipher was just solved so there are a bunch of new Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer memes and tweets out there. They make me very happy. Fuck Ted Cruz.
I told H that the one cypher got cracked and his first response was “does it say ‘I’m Ted Cruz’?”
