My mother went into a nursing home right when the pandemic started and it's been so challenging trying to see her. In the beginning, no visits. Then over the summer, window visits. Then, in the fall, when her facility got things under control finally, outdoor visits. For about a week in November we then had indoor visits but then someone in her facility tested positive, so it's back to outdoor visits. On Monday I went to see her. It was REALLY cold. This is how I dressed. This is how I have to suit up to protect myself from the cold and my mother from me. This is what life is like the second week of December, 2020 as we are drowning in what they are euphemistically calling a second wave. Let's be honest and call it what is is: a fucking tsunami. For the record, for all you future historians studying this archive when those of writing this are all dead (Hopefully of old age and not covid) let's be clear: IT DIDN"T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. New record deaths--Three thousand just today. And we've still got months and months to go. No national mask mandate. No national movement restrictions. Hospitals rationing medicine. People getting sent home to die. All because we have a fuckwad of a president who is more concerned about overturning an election HE LOST, rather than governing and helping people. Right now all we can do is go day by day and hope that when Biden takes office he can turn this thing around.
December 12, 2020
This week the pandemic has affected my life in that I have spent most of my time at work catching flak from parents who are cranky that the school district wants their kids to have a COVID test and stay home for several days after being called in sick, as per county health department guidelines. The pushback comes largely from parents of students with a history of frequent absences and no accompanying doctor's note. I don't believe these students have COVID, nor that they were necessarily symptomatic, nor that keeping them home and testing them for COVID will have a measurable effect on public safety - but I also have zero sympathy for the trouble that this causes the parents and zero inclination to argue for a more lenient interpretation of public health guidelines.
May 18, 2021