I am 'done' with certain people, but still find myself giving folks the benefit of the doubt. I am programmed to be nice to others, sometimes unfortunately for me.
But I must say a massive sigh of relief now our inauguration is over. I have felt so stressed throughout the last year.
And the good natured Bernie memes are all making me smile.
I hope you are alright. I always enjoy your posts here about the cats and your local goings-on.
These are difficult times and there are a bunch of things I am entirely "done" with, many people included. I live a mostly quiet life nowadays. Though for mental health's sake, I need to start limiting how much news I look at.
I'm fine day to day. We are fine day to day. A huge relief for me is that on the 28th it will be 2 weeks since my wife had her second vaccination and that means she is much less likely to get covid19 and if she does she is much less likely to have an extreme case. That lifts a lot of stress. Also, next week the residents of her home will get their 2nd dose and that is helping with my wife's stress. We are both people who can deal with little outside contact if we have to so we are comfortable and content for the most part.
But other fucking people need to die.
OK. Not all of them. BUT FUCK.
My wife goes to too many places but she has no real choice. When you are responsible for feeding 130 people in a home every day you can buy everything from the big international vendors and let them eat not so well or you can buy some from those vendors and search out deals from smaller vendors, retail stores, independent butchers and green grocers, and even direct from farms. Back in March and April she was working six and seven days a week because so many people were off sick or in isolation. Now she is redesigning the dining room and making purchases because soon they will be able to get people out to eat together again but there will still be some risk so things will need to be different.
People in health care have had a hell of a year and it is not close to over. My wife and I and so many others have been trying to do everything right so that children and moms and dads and grand parents and just everybody should not have to get sick or die from this pandemic. Lots of other people have been wearing whatever gear they can get so people can eat and smoke and drink and fix their car or house. Most people I know and most people I see on the occasions I get out seem to be doing their part too. But a significant number of people are assholes.
In the past 10 months a couple of friends have died, and a couple of acquaintances, and my wife's mom and her aunt. There have been no funerals. It is just too much of a risk. A quick search will show that funerals are great super spreader events. Maybe in 2022 we can gather with friends and family and remember our dead.
But.
In-laws from the U.S.
Fucking Americans man. (sorry to those of you mericans here but fuck me y'all) We got flak from them for not having funerals. These people range from mid 70s to mid 90s. Somehow they can't see the danger (being white and wealthy helps I am sure).
We Canadians have our own home grown fuckwads too. People just a mile from my house have been protesting masks and closed bars and vaccinations and all sorts of shit. There have been arrests and fines and tickets. Health care workers do 12 hour shifts wearing masks and shields and gowns and gloves and hats to care for your people and you can't wear a mask to go buy cigarettes? FUCK YOU! You tell people not to get the vaccine because chips and something something Jews something mind control something. There are plenty of good reasons to hate Bill Gates without having to make shit up.
Two family members and one friend are having mental health crises and two of them are having housing issues and now is not a good time for that. It is never a good time for those things but now is even worse.
But hey lets all use Facebook and learn about the plandemic and... I just don't even know anymore. I wash my hands of anyone involved in this shit. Trolling and lulz and irony and the rest of he is not really racist or misogynist or conspiracy theorist or just joking can die in a fire. I am willing to burn bridges these days.
This pandemic has shown me that climate change is a lost cause. We can't deal with this illness well so I don't believe we are going to deal with our changing of our environment at all. The planet is going to change dramatically this century. Sadly many of the other creatures on the planet will pay the price.
As for me, being under 60 and with no pre existing conditions and not in health care and not in another front line position I will be in the last group to get the shots. They say that will be September but with the U.S. saying today that U.S. made vaccines are for Americans first and the E.U. saying that E.U. vaccines are for the E.U. first I'll be surprised if that happens. Thanks to 90s conservative governments we went from a leader in vaccine research and production to a back water. So I ordered myself a 3M P100 half face mask.
So things are OK but I need to be done with so many people or else the anger would kill me. Time to just protect myself and those close to me and say fuck the rest.
Yeah, I've been pretty much in self-protection mode since March. My life is tiny. I only see two people - separately and outside - and all other interaction with co-workers, friends and family is online.
In the past two days I've been out of my routine more than I've been in the past two months, I think. I've had a UTI and after a telephone consultation with the doctor, she prescribed me some antibiotics, which I had to collect from the pharmacy. She noticed that I'm a very rare visitor to the doctor's and that I hadn't had a blood test since 2002. She wanted me to get pee and blood tests, which meant I had to collect a couple of forms and a pee collector (a very fancy device that automatically fills a test tube without having to touch the pee - science!)
As a result, I had to call into the GP and pharmacy yesterday, the first time I've been near either of those places in at least two years. I also took the chance to go to our one local supermarket. It's a small-ish branch of Waitrose and it was very quiet, with 99.9% of people wearing masks.
And today I had to get my blood test. I walked to the test centre (about 2 miles), and it was very quiet, only two other patients, and 3 staff in total. I was in and out in 10 minutes. I got the bus home, the first time I've been on the bus in 6 months.
I know in relation to what most people are having to go through with work, family, living situations, I am one of the privileged as I can stay at home permanently if I want to, and have everything delivered and work as normal.
As far as self-protection online is concerned, I've unfriended a few people recently. I use Facebook mostly to keep in touch with family and friends and that's about it. I don't get involved in controversy or arguments and tend to stick with my people.
But there are far, far too many people in the UK who are utter arseholes about doing even the tiniest thing to keep themselves and others safe. I have to avoid the forest at weekends as it is mobbed with people not wearing masks or social distancing.
I hear my upstairs neighbour - a breathing therapist in the ICU - crying at night when she gets home from work. She is exhausted and says it's much worse than it was in April.
Stay well, dear arse_hat. You are one of my people.
I am so happy there's a vaccine, but it's tantalizing and I have no idea when I might get it. It made January kind of awful, and Feb. seems the same. People on social media are so cranky, angry, impatient. Everybody posts on fb without thinking to go to the state coronavirus web page, which is up to date and useful.
I'm mid-60s and my state thinks I might get vaxxed by March. That would be so great. I walk when I can, sometimes with a friend. I can't handle really cold weather. Today was mid-30sF, @ 1C, and even dressed properly, was chilly. Only a short walk as my knee is being wonky. I so want to go have a meal out, go to a bar, hear live music, dance with people. But I'm okay. I can keep waiting and be safe.