COVID questions I ask myself

COVID-think is a thing now.

Here are some of the questions I ask myself:

1. Is whatever it is I'm thinking of doing worth getting sick to do?

Like if I run to Target for underwear and get sick from it, I will be really ticked off. And there is very, very little that I'm so anxious to do that I would be willing to chance getting sick to do it.

2. Is whomever I'm thinking about seeing someone that is worth me getting sick to see?

In my head, there are now tiers of people importance. You probably don't want to know which tier you're on.

3. If I do whatever it is I think I want to do, will I actually have fun doing it if I have to wear a mask and feel anxious around people?

Like flying. While I would love to go to France, I would hate to be in an airplane even if everyone is in masks. I don't like flying anyway and require extensive amounts of Xanax. With COVID, this would be entirely too much anxiety, therefore not worth it.

Also, France, Denmark, Amsterdam, Spain, Hungary, and Japan won't let me (or any of us COVID-y Americans in).

4. How long will Kroger keep their curbside pickup free of charge, and if they decide to once again charge $4.95 per pickup, is it worth $4.95 to avoid humans in the store?

There was a time when I was cheap and would have said my time is worth the $4.95 to schlep around for my own groceries, but it is worth my peace of mind to pay the $4.95 to avoid people.

5. How bad must things be when the gal working at the state park last week (which was very un-peoply on a Tuesday) thanked me for complying with mask-wearing and being nice about it?

I mean, this particular visitor center was about the size of the main floor of my house, so not huge. There weren't nooks and crannies where one could go to "get away." I don't understand why people are being such complete assholes, especially to people at places of business who have ZERO power to change anything even if they wanted to.

6. How many days can I go between showers without feeling completely funky?

My body can go at least 3 days, but my hair says no more than that. I have tested this.

7. Do my kids' brains still work?

My 16-year-old told me the other morning when it looked very overcast that she hoped it didn't "thunder rain."

At this point, I looked at her and said, "You mean "storm?"

And she replied, "Yes."

The answer to Question #7 is no.

The USPS and other COVID-y things

 Lawd amighty. 

There is some serious discontent in my neighborhood surrounding the USPS, which I find pretty funny, mostly because the folks who seem to do the most complaining on our neighborhood FB page are diehard Republicans. And a more efficient, less wasteful USPS seems like it is exactly in-line with conservative principles.

Principles. Shminciples.

Principles don't matter when it concerns MY mail, I guess. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not loving things books taking a much longer time to arrive. 

Still, not getting things instantaneously is a good reminder to me of how spoiled we've all become by modern life.

It's not a bad thing to have to wait.

I mean, hasn't this been what every parent since the beginning of time has been saying to their children?

Doesn't delaying gratification build character? 

There is much I don't love about COVID-life, but it's not such a bad thing for my children to have to remember to write down on a list what they want me to order from the grocery and then have to wait for the next time I pick up groceries.

It's not a bad thing that my children aren't being able to do exactly whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it.

I wish many of the adults would get a handle on themselves and be reminded that they, too, can learn to manage their disappointment.

Myopia that has nothing to do with eyesight

I am near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other eye.

I like to think this is a reflection of my personality, too, because I try to see both sides.

That doesn't mean I agree with both sides, but I try to understand where people are coming from.

I understand the desire and need parents have to send their kids back to in-person school.

I understand the feeling that one's kid(s) is doing nothing except playing video games right now in the summer so the idea of doing more screen stuff for the foreseeable future as "school" is not appealing. 

But I have to laugh at the notion that kids, suddenly, now during the pandemic, are for the first time in their lives going to bed at all hours of the night and not keeping a normal schedule.

There is a global pandemic.

Everything, for lack of a better term, sucks. 

But while the pandemic is making things suck more for a lot more people, it doesn't mean that school and everything "normal" made life right as rain before.

And if we suddenly go back to school in person that children's lives will once again be precious and special and whole.

In-person school caused an awful lot of kids stress, for one, whether that stress was teacher-induced or getting up early-induced or not understanding school work-induced. 

And I knew PLENTY of kids who would stay up all hours of the night playing video games and then come to school the next day. 

Just because they were in-person in a school building did not mean they were getting anything like an education. 

They were checked as physically present, but they were emotionally and intellectually not on the premises.

There were many times that I watched students do absolutely nothing. 

Yes, that was with me, a sub. 

But I know from their teachers that they still did nothing. 

EVEN WHEN THEY WERE IN THE FREAKING BUILDING.

They would sit and not work, even with their teachers. 

One teacher I know said one of her classes would get maybe, if she was lucky, 2 days of work in a 5-day period because they just played around and had no interest. 

So I do get my panties in a bunch when adults act like kids were a-ok before pandemic but now are suffering depression and anxiety because they aren't at school.

That appears to be correlation, not causation.

Maybe they are depressed and anxious because there is a GLOBAL FUCKING PANDEMIC.

AND THE ECONOMY IS IN TATTERS BECAUSE THE US, especially, HAS ACTED LIKE WE CAN JUST GO ABOUT OUR BUSINESS AND KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON. 

I'm not sure sending them back to school in a building with its public health rules and the potential for quarantine when someone turns up COVID-positive after two days in the building (hello Charlestown HS) is gonna reduce that anxiety/depression.

For all we know, it could make it worse.

And by saying all this, I'm not suggesting that the kids who stayed up all night and played video games and were just zombies in the building was alright. 

I didn't like it, and it's not right, and I know there are ways to resolve it with enough funding and enough work and making class sizes WAY, WAY smaller than 30 kids or even 15 kids in a class. 

But it is super pollyanna-ish to act like putting bodies in a building is going to make life normal.