Corona virus, what's different for you.

Same.

I've started wearing a mask at work on busier days. I wonder how the rest of the staff will respond next week.

Welp. Been an interesting week.

I've been vaxxed since April - the wife is an obsessive needle-phobe who's never been resistant exactly but just...almost like a kid, "I don't want to have to do the unpleasant thing" attitude (yes I know it's not *actually* unpleasant but I don't have that hang-up)

So she finally broke down and got the first shot Wednesday - Yay!

But wait, there's more....

Her employment is as a PCA, and the woman who lives next dooe to her client got clever and decided to put a note on her door "to keep people away" (presumably while banging her boyfriend) which implied she had covid.
Another neighbor sees the note and tell's my wife's client.
Instead of calling her supposedly infected neighbor to confirm (she's not real bright but she's very impressed with her own competence) she calls the company my wife works for. They called her and insisted on a test before she could return to work (but somehow declined to require one of the other PCA who's no more or less likely to be exposed)

Came back positive. No symptoms, no *known* point of contact, and no likely suspects except her client who doesn't want to get tested (because she looks for every opportunity to NOT leave her apartment) and the other PCA. We don't DO any sort of extended contact in any other setting (as a matter of lifestyle, not because covid)

Still, that's a minimum of $200+ out of her next paycheck which really can't afford the hit
(this woman has been manipulating the hours by giving my wife's days to the other PCA for six month so she's already down nearly $2,000 in the time that bitch has been working there but that's another long story fit only for the Blue Room)

And that's IF it doesn't develop further. She's at least 5-6 days in if it's a typical situation (most sources say you're probably on at least Day 4 before you get a positive test) so maybe it won't.

PCA?

Personal Care Assistant(?)

Back to mandatory masks at church. Work continues to be optional, but -- broadly speaking -- three out of four ethnic groups largely continue to prefer to wear masks. You can probably guess what the fourth is.

I made it my entire life never knowingly having had anyone (IRL at least) hate my fucking guts...that's come to an end. I just found out my sister-in-law thinks I'm the devil himself because I "forced" my wife got vaccinated. She, of all people, should know that no one has ever forced that woman to do anything in her entire life.

At church?

At the risk of sounding arrogant and/or callous, you're probably safer not attending at this point.

[sarcasm] Well, that's what you get for caring about and trying to keep your wife safe and healthy [/sarcasm].

I know, right? The thing is, I didn't force, cajole, pester, or even ask her to get vaccinated. She wasn't going to get jabbed, and I kept my fucking mouth shut about it. Then, one day, she said, "I can tell you're stressed. What's going on?" Well, a lot of stuff was going on at work, etc, but I said , "Nothing. I'm fine." She kept bugging me about it, and I finally rattled off a long list of what was stressing me out. The fact that I was worried about her (she's immunocompromised because of her MS treatments) was only one of many things I rattled off, and the only one she had any control over. Without any hesitation whatsoever, she said, "Fine. I'll get vaccinated." Apparently, that was me forcing her to get it against her will.

You brute!

Wow, she's immuno compromised? That would worry and stress the hell out of me. My work brings me into contact with a good number of people, and we have measures in place as well. We can't require anyone to wear a mask, but I'd say 98% of the people will wear one if we ask them. And my work also will allow us to not meet with a client of we voice "I don't feel safe/comfortable with someone not wearing a mask". So that is a way to get around that.

Me getting sick doesn't stress me out all that much. I'm more concerned and worried about getting someone else sick. Now that a vaccine is widely available, I still don't want to get someone suck, but if an unvaccinated person gets sick, I still don't want that, but I'm more of the mind that if they do, it's on them, not me.

One of my clients, she's a doctor and works mainly in the ER, her husband and wife are doctors too. She was telling me that at the hospital her daughter works at, they've set up a temporary morgue in the parking lot. And that with all three of them, anyone who is getting Covid and dying, are exclusively those who have not been vaccinated.

I guess I'm lucky, I still don't know of anyone I know personally that had died of it. Unless one guy who I went to school with, he died about a week before my high school's reunion, but I'm not certain of it. But I do know several who have caught it and gotten over it.

Yeah, her treatment, by design, suppresses her immune system. I know I was bitching here about it a few days ago, but she's the reason I still mask up even though I'm one of the only people around here that still does. This kind of shit has convinced me that the anti vacc/mask people who start their screeds with "If you want to do it, that's fine..." or claim that it's about "personal choice" are lying. They'd move heaven and earth trying to ban anyone from getting jabbed or wearing a mask if they thought they could.

Okay, you might remember last year when this nightmare began that one of my supervisors had to take two weeks off of work because his wife worked at a nursing home that was filled with COVID+ patients. Said supervisor wanders around work with his nose sticking out of his mask. Today I found out that he's UNVACCINATED. Dude's pretty much a massive douche anyway, but this really cements my dislike for him. I cannot wait until I can get a booster shot.

In other news, one of my coworkers was out for a while and nobody seemed to know the reason why. He came back to work today and we found out that it was because his 7-year-old daughter caught COVID at school. (He's vaxxed, so's his wife, who's a nurse.) He had to quarantine until he got a negative COVID test. His daughter, BTW, is fine. She had a low-grade fever for a few days, but that was the worst of it.

Got an email from corporate saying that employees not fully vaccinated by the first part of November will no longer be working for the company.

Good.

I'm looking forward to the shit show at my work, it should be fun(ny) and entertaining.

You have to wonder about the competency of anti-vaxxers.

But this goes for the whole conservative movement.

Funny! Same thing for me. I was in an executive meeting yesterday, and my organization is going to make the announcement on Monday that they're going further than current government direction and will mandate that all employees be vaccinated by mid-November or they will need to find employment elsewhere.

My only concern is that some executives seemed to show sympathy for the unvaccinated and said we will need to be respectful.

I had to tone down my usual Wordforge reaction, which would have been: "Fuck that. They can kiss my vaccinated ass."

Well, we've had a reprieve for my wife going back to work because of her reaction to the vaccine.

Still another 2 months of work from home. After that she's supposed to go back.

And she can't get the booster, because of her reaction. Sigh.

In other news, my son is home today. He went in yesterday morning, went to the office complaining about nausea.

So we had to get a covid test and wait 24 hours before he could come back to school.

Turns out no covid, probably a bad batch of meat, as I to was ill later that day.

I appreciate the protections, but we were lucky to get a covid test the same day. Most places I checked had at least a 3 day waiting period.

We've got one outspoken anti vaxxer at work who works in the same dept as my GF.
She was telling me how yesterday she was called in to cover because the other three people scheduled to work with this anti vaxxer all called in sick.

And another concert canceled.
This time it's because Portland Public Schools said no to outside groups using their facilities (probably a good decision), so OSB had no rehearsal venue and couldn't find alternative rehearsal space for a group that's 60-70 people big + percussion.

I found out that a former coworker of mine (waaaay back when I worked at the foundry) has COVID. He seems to be doing okay, from what I understand. (No idea if he was vaxxed or not.)

Also found out that a friend of mine whom I've practically known since birth, is in the hospital, not with the 'rona, but with pneumonia, heart problems, kidney problems, and probably other stuff as well. I know that she's vaxxed and if she lived in a state like mine, probably would have trouble getting a bed in a hospital, which means that she'd be dead.

My younger brother who died last month contracted Covid when he was put in a nursing home in Arkansas. His wife died a couple days before (not of Covid) and her sister died of Covid like ... two days before my brother's funeral. My niece and nephews just lost three influential adults in their life within a month.

sad smiley is liberals' attempt at thoughts and prayers. Everyone knows they don't have the former and don't do the latter.

The gas station close to my apartment that I get gas and occasionally coffee used to sell yogurt parfaits. Fruit on the bottom, then yogurt, then granola. They stopped with the pandemic. Ok. I get that. Someone is spooning the stuff in the cups and that person may or may not be sick so we just won't sell them. Well, now they're back. But, now, they're putting the label over the top so I have to remove that before opening it. then the sides are all sticky. Seriously, is it a problem with people opening shit that they don't buy? plus, there'e the plastic wrap around that needs a blow dryer to shrink wrap around the cup. So they would have had to remove that too. What karen bitch complained about the fucking parfaits??

Have you ever worked in a gas station and met the people who come in? If they can jam something in there to taste it, they will. Not everyone, but just enough people that you need to do that. That is not including the dumb asses who will fuck with the shit in the store for fun. Then you got the motherfuckers with the animals. Yes, please wrap that shit up in plastic so I know there is not chihuahua service dog drool and shit on there. You just know those people who need emotional support animals just do not give a fuck where their little shit eating drool factory goes.

You may not see it because you are in the gas station for a few seconds, but if you have worked there you know. You have seen the worst of the worst.

I guess you read right over the part about the plastic shrink wrap already on the container. If that is broken, I'm not stupid enough to buy it - regardless of who might have drooled into it.

Well, I just found out I have a breakthrough case. Right now it feels like a mild cold. Since I got the Pfizer course about four months ago, everything I'm reading makes it sound like there's a pretty good chance it'll stay that way. If it does, I guess at least I'll get some housework done...

why did you get tested?

Woke up Sunday with a mild cough and intermittent muscle aches, and it didn't go away. Decided I'd rather know quickly and be able to go about normal activities or ... not.

(Even if it were just a cold I'd probably still take extra measures to avoid spreading it to anyone, but I wouldn't be 100% isolating for 10 days.)