Monday, December 7th, 2020
We thoroughly enjoyed the Luminari yesterday. Today was all about tidying up after the weekend events. EM brought in all the bags and distributed the decorative stones I had bought last year in the crevices of my newly redone patio. I shall need to go and see how it looks. I have a niggling feeling I may need to buy more. I have also used all the greens I had decorated my improvised Christmas market with to cover the roses. I think I should probably trim them back a little, but so far could not bring myself to cut them.
The day after events is the day before the next. I do not want to jinx it so am doing nothing about packing anything up at this stage. The only thing I am organizing is the Maxi care plan as that takes some level of effort and coordination but can also easily be undone if need be.
Today was a good day. EM and I are on good terms again and just hoping there was no fall out from the Christmas party. One of the mums told me her daughter had kept her mask on. EM told me the girl not part of our pod was mostly self-isolating from her mother and her sister at home as one is a nurse and the other goes to in presence cosmetic school. So, praying we are good.
If not, we need to stay home for 10 days, by which point in time it will be too late to get home in time for Christmas, given the quarantine on the other side. Mum is taking it in her stride, staying positive about it all.
I did make the pool today, though my lane was outside. For the swimming itself that was fine, especially as they let us start the minute, we get there rather than making us wait for the appointed time, so I got 40 instead of 30 minutes. It is the getting out of the water that poses the problem. In particular with today’s wind. I quickly dried of, wrapped myself in my towel, threw on a coat, made a dash for the car, cranked up the heat and turned the seat heating on to stay warm. At home I made straight for a very hot shower. Now the fire is going and I am writing this in the company of a glass of red.
At work I am really hoping we can send this proposal I have been working on for ten months out tonight. This of course does not stop my colleague from continuing to be obnoxious. I have no idea where he thinks he is working or why he feels he needs to police everything. I do know though that he is very much annoying me and creating unnecessary work for all of us. There are times when I am just tired of it all. I think I may just stop communicating with him directly and talk to his supervisor who happens to be someone I know and have worked with well in the past. Because of the email flurry caused by my zealous colleague I of course did not get to the Sudan research. Ah, tomorrow is another day, I guess.
As we are in lock down this week our life is rather unexciting so the blog over the next few days will be short so as not to say boring; unless I find any surprises in the news I can go on about. I am desperately hoping we can go on our trip.
Things in the US are not looking good and keep going from bad to worse every day. The news is full of the current surge which is predicted to overlap with the next surge. As cases increased by 175k today to reach 15.3 million, the US Surgeon General warns that the current COVID spike is different as it is about health care capacity.
I suggest that all those COVID deniers as well as the anti-maskers forego any medical treatment; after all they chose the freedom to get sick and potentially die (anti-maskers) and if it is just a cold they can cure themselves with whatever they normally do. Surely one cannot expect to be treated for something one does not believe exists. And just to prove the point reports of overwhelmed and understaffed hospitals are starting to make the news. Especially in rural America where the virus is currently raging hospitals are no longer able to treat patients.
As of yesterday 290k Americans have died and the dying continuous. I am in utter disbelieve that a country as advanced as the USA cannot manage the virus. That people in the richest country in the world are going hungry; with numbers increasing every day. I cannot but shed the feeling something has to change. It needs a systemic change, but I doubt a Biden administration could deliver that, given the structure of the Senate. The current administration is so not helping either. They are doing what they can to set the incoming administration up for failure. The Covidiot in chief is filling the administration with political appointees and passing legislation to protect them. As it stands the current administration is passing regulations as if there is no tomorrow.
This is just not a nice country. When it is time to go, I will miss the Aikidoka and I will miss our beautiful house, but that is about it.