I've been breaking them, that's what I've been busy doing. Someone has to.
First, I'd like to make a point: When anyone says "we're all in the same boat!" that person should be punched in the face.
No. We are most definitely not all in the same boat.
Anyone making that asinine statement has either not lost their job or is too stupid to realize just who is still working.
Politicians are still working and most of them are drawing the exact same pay they received before they forced the rest of us into idleness and poverty and destroyed our dreams of our futures.
Employees of the state are still working. Teachers, cops, firemen...on the job. Teachers have it rough; teaching online, from home, many of them coping with homeschooling their own kids at the same time. As one put it to me yesterday "this is everything I hate about teaching with none of what I love about it." They're still being paid but elementary and secondary teachers aren't paid enough to do the job under these bizarre circumstances indefinitely.
All paperwork and no students is a great way to cull the profession of all the good teachers.
College level instructors were moving online already. And they have tenure. They're not in the same boat with the K-12 teachers. Or if they are, think Titanic; the profs are in first class, the K=12 chumps down in steerage.
Cops are still working but who knows how long we'll need as many as we have now? With everyone stuck at home, I assume crime is down in many sectors. They have nothing better to do than crack down on Mom's riding mass transit with their toddlers for wearing their state mandated masks incorrectly. Expect escalation.
Fire houses are still in operation. Thank goodness because the EMT's have had to come to my Dad's rescue more than once in the last few weeks.
Due to the lockdown at the Senior Living Facility where my parents live, my Dad has not been able to get any exercise in two months. Because of his fall (25 months ago), physical therapy, weight machines and constant walking to strengthen his legs and core have been crucial to his recovery. That's all been out the window since this began. He's lost nearly a year of progress. The results are that he fell twice in one day this week. First, he managed to slip out of bed when the guard rail we installed popped a bar. I was able to fix the rail but in the few hours that the gate wasn't up, Dad took advantage and tried to get out of bed on his own. Three months ago, he could get from the bed to his chair on his own but he can't anymore. He slid to the floor. Mom is tiny and her shoulders don't work. She can't lift him off the floor and has no business even trying. Call the front desk, who called 911 who sent EMTs from the firehouse next door. The beefcake who arrived picked dad up and plopped him back in his chair. Mission accomplished.
That very evening, while preparing for bed, Dad tripped over his own foot in the bathroom, got tangled in his walker and fell. This time, he bumped his head on the shower. 911. EMT's. Ambulance. Emergency room. CT scan. No brain injury, bleeding etc. Just a routine bruise. Back home.
My brother Andy took care of Mom while all this was going on because of course, no visitors are allowed in the ER. Andy lives nearest the hospital, so he and Mom waited to hear about Dad's condition. The all clear came at 1:30, they picked Dad up and took him home.
All this because Dad had to stop exercising. It's fucking exhausting and not just for Mom, Dad and Andy.
Meanwhile, Mom has just started her second month of the infusions she'll need for the rest of her life. Today, she's getting another transfusion, too. Four months ago, Dad could have easily spent a few hours alone in their apartment. Now, we don't know what he'll do and he isn't strong enough to use the bathroom without help.
I don't mind hanging out with my parents several times a week, they're delightful company.
Like Jay, who is a tenured instructor at a State College, I am still working. Ginny has moved operations online and twice a week is at the shop for curbside service by appointment and to take in new orders and finishing. Special orders are still pouring in and that's my department. I feel like I need to keep up with everything she can throw at me, as special orders are the only guaranteed income, with no foot traffic. I'm grateful that I have so much work. I fear that it will dry up when the coming depression and inflation makes a hobby like needlepoint into a relic of a bygone, golden age. I could be wrong about that: I'm no economist. But that is the logical (and historical) consequence of putting 36,000,000 people out of work and printing $3,000,000,000,000.00 out of thin air.
All to fight a virus that seems to only kill the nearly dead.
What?
You haven't heard?
99.29% of the dead were either very old (over 80) or very sick and most are both.
The biggest threat Covid 19, aka Coronavirus, aka the Wuhan flu poses for non senior citizens in relatively good health is a lingering fever, fatigue and the loss of one's senses of taste and smell for a few weeks. It's not fun but it won't kill you.
I don't blame anyone for the unprecedented reaction at the beginning of this thing: no one knew how bad it would get and the stories were all horrible. But within a few weeks it became clear that not even NYC hospitals were going to be so overcrowded that the sick would be dying in field hospitals in Central Park. They never needed 40,000 respirators. This is all very good news but it was never spun that way. Too many people who haven't lost their jobs have been working overtime for the last two months to keep up the hysteria.
Minnesota should have lifted the lockdown orders in the second week of April, when we had a couple of dozen deaths rather than the thousands we feared.
The lockdowns have nothing to do with health and safety; they are a political tool. Nothing less.
I'm not in the same boat with any of the citizens who have lost their jobs, their businesses, their life saving, their standard of living, their dreams or hopes for the future. Not yet, anyway.
And I've been working long hours in the hope of keeping it that way. And of course, taking care of Mom and Dad.
I have managed to see all my grandkids in the last week or so. Since the lockdown started, I've hung out with Xena, Babalouie and Kitten several times. Ty had the fever back at the beginning, so they aren't worried about it. Katie finally allowed us to go visit them and BooptiyBoop last weekend. A lot of growth and development happen over the course of 2 months in 3 year olds. The girls are taller, smarter, stronger and faster. We spent an hour just chasing each other through the back yard. They showed us all the new things they can do on their swing set, jungle gym, climbing tower etc. Eventually, we ended up sitting in the grass, both girls on my lap, as they told me what their favorite movies are. Two months ago, I understood most of that they said. Now, they speak as clearly as people. While I wasn't watching they moved out of toddlerhood and right into being little kids.
I can't believe we spent hours with them and I didn't take a single picture.
Oh well.
Jay and I have been walking every day. It's been gorgeous, watching Lake Harriet wake up from its winter hibernation as the trees green up. Now, we're seeing goslings and ducklings everywhere.
Although few seem to have noticed, Spring came early this year. It's been really beautiful and I feel very bad for the people who have allowed fear to keep them inside, hiding from the boogeyman virus, letting an entire season of their lives go un-lived. Sometimes I pity them but most of the time I'm just disgusted by the allowing of oneself to be ruled by fear. Especially fear of death. We're all going to die, did you really not know that??
Because I'm not afraid, I can't empathize with those who are scared. I've been scared a few times in my life; it's a horrible way to feel. I can't even imagine feeling like that for months on end, especially of something you can't see, feel or smell. I'm fed up with the fear mongers and chicken hearts who encourage them. Fear of the virus is causing unimaginable damage to far more than the virus itself could ever do.
I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.
Now I'm out of time. Gotta go.