I cannot believe how overwhelmingly busy my stupid quarantine has become, and I'm so very bitter about it.
I was waiting for this to splat about my concern for someone else. I can't even tell what percent of this is totally legitimate concern and what part of this is just projection or some expression of my own needs, which is another manner in which it's very frustrating.
My concerns about my quasi romantic partner fall into two broad categories, emotional and financial. He has underlying mental health issues, similar to mine, but more serious, and mine are serious. By his report, anyway, he's totally alone right now, wandering around the Rockaways, where he's crashing for free at an empty apartment of someone he knows, and feeding stray cats. I've invited him to come stay here (he could even take my roommate's room) and made it totally explicit that that would be a favor to me, and he keeps saying he's thinking about it, but never resolves one way or the other. I can't imagine this level of isolation is good for him, and he's sent a couple texts expressing longing for a dog to take care of. I also don't know how much money he has. This should have been the time of year his seasonal manual labor was picking up, but it's going to be minimal to nonexistent for a while. He said he got a couple days work at a brewery about a week ago, and he was doing some translation work, but I don't know if that last pays out immediately.
My information stream is really impoverished. He hates the phone because of his accent. The last time I asked him if he was talking to anyone, the answer was roughly no, although he must be calling his mom. We've just been exchanging a couple of texts a day. The last text I got with authentic sounding details about his mood was on Wednesday, and since then less and less. After we had a text conversation yesterday about me paying him to make an Anki deck I suggested we have a Zoom call about it, which I had an ulterior motive for since I would really like to be able to actually talk to him about how he is. I haven't gotten a reply to that text (sent yesterday at 6). It's not an unusual lag. It's just that all considered he's the most vulnerable person in my life right now and I'm not sure he would ask for help, from me or anyone, if he really needed it. Like, if he were literally starving, which is not outside of the realm of plausibility, I don't know who he would tell or if he would tell anyone.
There are still food banks and he (probably) knows this and has a bike, so that's a way he can get food.
Probably a silly question, but is it feasible for you to simply go and visit? The NYC rules surely allow travel to check on the welfare of vulnerable and isolated people, which you have good reason to believe he is.
5: Yeah. I wouldn't even have to take the subway. It's 25 miles which isn't outside my ability to bike. I even talked about the possibility that instead of living together we could just set up a visit exchange by bike, and it would amount to the same quantity of germ exchange. The real obstacle is his communication. I just don't know how to say that I worry about him, or that I really want to talk to him, without just triggering some inauthentic reassuring response. I am thinking about just calling later today if he doesn't write back to the Zoom text. In the past he has tended to pick up the phone because it signals urgency to him, even though he hates it.
I'd do that then. Bring him a cake or something so it doesn't look so much like "I am arriving to conduct an unscheduled psychological readiness test, starting NOW" and more "I wanted to come and see you in an affectionate way". Speaking personally I'd be absolutely bowled over if my significant other cycled a 50 mile round trip to see me, especially if she brought a cake.
Can you frame it as something you need for your anxiety? Like 'I know you're probably fine but can you just tolerate my foible of seeing you in person? Doesn't have to be a long visit but I just want to soothe myself'
But also (and realizing this is possibly me being a jerk) have you read Captain Awkward's theme for the year about letting people mess up if they want to?
In corona news, my province got to double digits but still no reported community spread. Well Baby appointment switched out of the hospital which is reassuring. Quebec has a huge and hugely increasing number of cases but they're blaming some of the differences between Ontario and then on definitions which is :/ Alberta just cut 25,000 public service jobs so the federal gov't is now on the hook for EI and everyone hates Alberta even more. Can't wait for them to get transfer payments and vote for the separation party ( :| ).
Oh also Tia, I wanted to mention that in my experience profs are pretty bad teachers in terms of theory. Like they haven't read current or even any best practices so I am unsurprised your prof isn't on the ball. And also the reward structure is such that there's little reward for improving teaching and therefore little time put aside to improve anything. You probably know all this but just reinforcing that good STEM profs are often accidental.
And, yeah, don't say you did it because you were worrying about him because as you say (and it sounds plausible) that will just trigger inauthentic reassurance. Say you did it because you were worried about yourself - getting stressed in isolation, worried about snake-related issues, etc. - and seeing him will cheer you up. That'll make him feel a lot better, I would reckon. It would with me. I'd be a bit flattered actually.
have you read Captain Awkward's theme for the year about letting people mess up if they want to?
No, and seems like solid advice in general. It's part of why I've tried to give him space. But when the things that you're concerned about extend to "does this person have basic food security" and "is this person maybe going to try harming himself" and there's reason to think the chances of both of those things might be above remote it's maybe not the for this moment.
Since he does seasonal labor, you could call and wish a happy Cesar Chavez Day.
Still here, still holed up. Semi-homeschooling Mr. 7 is getting increasingly tense. I believe he was just kicked out of an online class because he wouldn't stop fidgeting with the whiteboard feature in the Zoom meeting, which seemingly takes over the screen of everyone in the group.
10: For sure. Advice is practically useless at the best of times.
tia, much sympathy that type of worry and anxiety is one of the absolute worst. cake often a helpful component in human interactions! maybe small cakes in a tin, if you aren't sure he has access to somewhere to store a cake? but then you think he is staying at someone's apartment, so whole cake probably fine.
here things are generally on a gentle upswing, would prefer a more dramatic arc in that direction frankly! an extremely short, slow, excruciatingly unambitious stroll on sunday resulted in a 5 hour nap and uptick in fever, so the antibiotics are helping but damn whatever viral thing kicked off this party is hanging around loooooong past its welcome. dancing with various asthma medications. child and partner bouncing mildly through the whole thing, whatever it is, thus far.
am hopeful to see that the mask situation may finally be evolving in a more rational direction, incredibly angry and sad at how profoundly broken so many usian institutions are, and being heartbreakingly shown to be, with so so many defenseless humans being mercilessly ground up in them.
Still functional. On my third week of working from home. I'm kinda made for this - introverted, antisocial and I worked from home for a decade.
But I also live alone and now leave the house about once a week. I think I'm gaining some empathy for Howard Hughes.
Our basement is way too small for me to store all my urine even if I could get that many jars.
Visiting with the excuse ajay laid out seems like a good idea to me, Tia.
I've not been out for 9 days, going a little stir crazy and the mounting sense of impending doom isn't helping my mood at all.
maybe small cakes in a tin, if you aren't sure he has access to somewhere to store a cake? but then you think he is staying at someone's apartment, so whole cake probably fine.
Oh, great, now I've given dq Cake Anxiety.
I go out on a walk everyday because apparently 11,000 steps a day is one of my core values.
Back home. I've gained five pounds because my exercise was my commute and evening team activities. I totally hate running or exercise videos.
I found out my brother was furloughed. If you can imagine a job that would be completely shut down when any public gatherings are banned, that's what he does. (Moby bait for some clever response)
19: Moby is a character in a John Barth novel?
The Floating Opera
it hinges on a hundred and twenty-nine pickle jars filled with the bodily waste of Harrison Mack
And I think they are bequeathed to someone in a will.
23: I'm sort of succeeding at doing the 2 meals a day thing. And until we replenished over the weekend I found I was cutting back portion sizes to make our supply last. Two egg omelet instead of three, etc. ; not really a deliberately strategy at first, but I embraced it when I realized I was subconsciously doing it.
Said the Jesuit to the drag queen.
Didn't Hughes save his urine in jars?
23. Tourist guide?
Tia, I think the cake option is probably the nearest you're going to get to a plan, but you know this person and we don't, so you're going to have to figure out the details of how you do it.
I've had no bad news from any of the people I'm worried about. We had to go out for an urgent but now completely resolved pediatric medical issue, so that reset the 14-day clock on being able to have designated visitors. The mental load I'm currently under is not sustainable. It occurs to me that there's no reason not to have a virtual Unfogged meetup at pretty much any time, but someone else will have to take that ball and run with it.
8: For real? Alberta did that? Looks like it's teachers too. My late FIL was kind of conservative and did not like that Ontario received transfer payments. I can't imagine what he would think of Alberta doing that. Looks like it's teaching assistants and substitute teachers. My MIL was a supply teacher (both short term and long term) because their local district wasn't hiring experienced people when they moved there. She was a fully qualified teacher, but she didn't have a contract. Ugh.
I was out on Friday and went for a walk at 8:45 on the bike path. It was ok at first but too crowded at the end. Guess I have to do 5:30 again.
Kids on bikes were not respecting space. I went outside Friday, so this was my 1st time outside the apartment in 3 days.
Sleeping too much, too little. Too sweaty, too cold. I have chocolate milk, but the chocolate settled to the bottom.
Didn't Hughes save his urine in jars?
He saved urine in jars. As far as I know, there's no actual evidence whose it was.
31.last Unfogged virtual meetup!
I find I've been losing my appetite*, and hence some weight. I'd probably lose a lot more weight if I cut out/down the drinking but I'm committed for the duration.
*And a little worried it's because of some other underlying health issue.
"Actually, it was somebody else's vomit."
I don't think a full cake of any size would be likely to survive a 25 mile bike trip. I guess maybe if it were something quite solid, like fruitcake. In any case, he won't eat any sweets so I would have to think of some other food treat.
Once in grad school I tried to bike a key lime pie to my lab. It did not go well. No one but me would eat it in the end, even though it still tasted good as pudding with bits of crust.
Still doing OK other than increasing stir-craziness. Parenting question - is perfection and competitiveness more or less normal in 4-year-olds, or a quirk of ours, or what? A game of one-on-one soccer degenerated into soccer golf (i.e. trying to kick the ball to stop exactly on a certain marker) when I wouldn't let her win every single time, and then into a general tantrum this morning because she just got so frustrated that it wasn't working the way she pictured.
41: Really common among the nieces and nephews. We dreaded playing games for a while, because we would play nicely but not cheat to let the kid win. After that comes the cheating phase, which is less pleasant than just competitiveness.
41: Really common among the nieces and nephews. We dreaded playing games for a while, because we would play nicely but not cheat to let the kid win. After that comes the cheating phase, which is less pleasant than just competitiveness.
Ugh, so common I can tell you over and over how common it is!
Children are assholes. Nobody says it aloud very often.
38: I've had success with pound cake like things (see also, banana bread) surviving long bike trips. Pretty much nothing else dessert-y, unless it was taken in components to be assembled on site.
46: Defintiely. Imagine if one of them was President.
I went from basically-unscathed-from-covid to losing my income yesterday, so that was fun. Overall doing well though, and financially I can weather it ok.
49 arguably the majority of presidents have been assholes though. Far fewer were children.
Best wishes that layoff (?) is short.
Sorry to hear that, soup biscuit, it really sucks.
Tia, as non-sweet baked goods that might survive a long bike ride, how about cornbread or savory muffins? Cornmeal/cheese/jalapeno/sundried tomato or similar?
54 is really confusing for UK commenters.
I am on my second day of antibiotics and steroids and I can feel and fill so much more of my lungs today, which is exciting. And right after I posted about how I'm not even halfassing school I got a message that the district superintendent had recommended me as someone to be interviewed about how non-traditional instruction is working. So I gave the journalist the caveat that I can't talk well and sure haven't been an involved parent and I guess I'll talk to him this afternoon, then go drop the dog with my girlfriend to stay for a while so that she's not all alone. We're getting by still, better than I would have guessed.
Probably too soon for balloon animals.
Sorry, soup.
Tim is doing busy work and required to put together PowerPoint presentations every 2 weeks showing what he's done.
I see other health systems cutting pay and furloughing all non clinical staff. I'm working on support for an app to track Covid symptoms if you've been seen in a respiratory clinic to try to make myself look useful.
53 Popovers.
If the apartment has an oven, you can just bring batter and a cupcake pan. Because they're way better warm (and because you'll have time and a distraction while you make your assessment).
59: holy shit, there but for the grace of god etc
59 Jesus H Christ. I give it three weeks before people reckon that if granny dies, that's the price of progress and getting back to work (and,by the same token, destroying the planet in due course)
Maybe it's just a really inefficient system?
59 is the kind of thing that makes me pretty sanguine about my situation - if need be I can manage for quite a while before anything starts to get painful. Links like that remind me how much that isn't the case for so many people.
63: They only just planted the vegetables.
We're basically fine, and basically recovered from our apparently non-Coronavirus sicknesses. And we just had our lowball (well, 7.5% off list) offer to buy an apartment accepted, at least verbally. Which is kind of terrifying.
Hah. Maybe, but since it went through the broker, I don't know.
I'm alive and well still. Yesterday was difficult; Monday was a big reminder to my wife that she's still non-essential. She rose late, got frustrated checking in on her industry and the number of people trying to stay open whatever the consequences to others are, etc.
Today she slept in late, but decided to drive one of the deliveries that was redirected to our house to the store, and should spend a while getting them input and ready for sale, etc. Not that she'll be able to sell them for at least two weeks, but doing something is much better than stewing.
I have a sore throat and a bit of a cough, feeling kind of poorly in general. I rarely have a sore throat, especially not in the first stage of a cold. Starting to freak out that I may have infected my dad with the virus.
Sorry, soup. It's good to keep perspective about others' people's situations, but it still really sucks.
oh soup i am so sorry.
sir kraab your piece in the other thread is so so good. ❤️
Sorry to hear that, soup, and fingers crossed that buying Old Lady Voorhees' apartment works out for you, X. Trapnel.
Dave, that sounds worrisome. I hope you and your dad are ok.
I'm sorry soup biscuit. Best wishes.
59: My wife made the mistake of reading the comments on that photo at the newspaper site. A number along the lines of "look at all those cars, if they can afford a car they can afford food."
Popovers use milk, eggs, and flour. You might as well be proposing to him if you're gonna make those.
5th death statewide; Gov Bullock just suspended foreclosures and evictions.
78 -- I guess you're right. And the smell of them baking would induce pretty much anyone to say yes.
Earthquake!
6.5, near Challis Idaho. Just waves by the time it got here.
(Closer to Stanley, actually. Folks who have not been the Stanley Idaho should consider finding an excuse to go there.)
83: Second that. The wildflower scene in June is amazing. Stream is Iron Creek, lake is Redfish Lake.
https://live.staticflickr.com/3028/2896885025_52a46e3cdc_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/3001/2896881301_cd517b3885_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/3172/2896883449_30f277453c_b.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/3189/2896882167_aaff905b86_b.jpg
County? Sawtooth area around Stanley is Custer County.
Is that a fencepost in the stream?
Islands in the stream, that is what they are.
If the branch of a downed tree can be counted as an island.
I can't tell what you're looking at that resembles a fencepost.
Been a while since that trip. Was our last minute camping trip to like 10 days before I started academy. On the last hike on the last day up there I badly rolled my ankle like 50 yards shy of making it back to the car. I was so paranoid about them firing me I didn't tell anyone and just kept wrapping the hell out of it. Throughout academy it looked like my 1.5 mile run times were making great strides but really it was my stupid ankle healing up.
We try to get up to lolo pass for the camas bloom every year. Probably some pix in my FB feed. Very important part of the diet of Indigenous folks here and there.
The C of D offered different spellings, as you'd expect: https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1805-09-22#lc.jrn.1805-09-22.04 https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1806-06-29
Best wishes, soup!
75, thank you. I'm feeling beter today, thank god
I just want to complain about something else.
I know that this situation is making more work for the staff in my building, rather than less, but it upsets me to see two of the older staff members of our building still working (and not wearing masks). One of them recently lost his goddamned son to gun violence and so it would only be extra devastating for his family if anything happened to him or his wife. I wrote the building manager and the board a few days ago to say, hey, I know I am not in a position to understand all the logistical challenges of running the building, but maybe there are ways we could cut down on what we are doing (like leaving the front door locked and only allowing key fob access or something, and not vacuuming, which seems like an inessential cleaning task right now), and I volunteer to help with anything that isn't knowing by sight who should be let into the building and who shouldn't (the building manager did already ask for volunteers but the single thing they asked for volunteers with was sitting at the front desk and I really don't feel confident at that specific task), and I would contribute to an emergency fund to allow anyone with heightened health risk not to work and I know my roommate would too, and I did not get a response. I know we have contracted with an outside firm for extra cleaning. I also know that our finances are a clusterfuck. But it's going to be super shitty if someone I see every day gets sick and dies so that I don't have to be home to receive a package.
All the doors to the stairwells and near the elevators in my building are propped open, only the front door of the building is closed.
Nia has been getting more congested the last few days and had a huge grumpy meltdown last night and then slept from 11:30 or so to 2 pm, waking to tell me she feels truly sick now. I called the doctor to ask if she could just get the same prescription Selah and I got rather than have to drag through the screening process there again, so I hope I'll hear about that soon. Right now Selah is downstairs rapping Bodak Yellow while Mara drums to it, after which Selah needs to get her hair washed so I can take her braids out while she gets some homework done. Tomorrow the reporter wants to video chat for an hour to watch me work with one child, probably Mara. Then someone will come by and take a photo of all of us out on the porch. There's going to be a story about six different families in the area juggling non-traditional instruction and I think we're exemplifying sickness or something? And I also need to finish this issue of the academic quarterly I edit by this weekend, but no big deal, right? The steroids have made me cranky but the exhaustion from the antibiotics and just being sick and parenting for all this time is at least outweighing the usual tendency steroids have to keep me awake.
98: That sounds like a lot, Thorn! Sending you strength and patience.
Yes, take care. Hope the antibiotics kick in soon. It was a bad winter for lungs even before Coronavirus.
They did a telehealth session where I talked to the nurse for a couple of minutes and she called in the same prescription I'm on. I'll pick it and another humidifier up after I make dinner. Dinner is just trout and a loaf of garlic bread and asparagus, but it's the closest I've gotten to cooking a real meal in quite a while and I feel good about it! Also like a ghost dragging along a body made of lead or something, but you can't have everything.
We're good. Shiv's GI bug turned out to be no biggie, and we're managing, although I think I've passed exhausted and gone plaid or something. I'm so wired while worn out.
We're good. Shiv's GI bug turned out to be no biggie, and we're managing, although I think I've passed exhausted and gone plaid or something. I'm so wired while worn out.
Oof, Thorn, I hope you regain some energy and feel more like yourself soon.
Cala, "gone plaid" made me laugh and I am right there with you.
Can I check my intuition on a situation? I'm running an academic conference, scheduled for April. Obviously we cancelled the whole thing a month in advance. The host university is charging us a per capita fee of about 20% of the registration costs.
In any real sense, it's all peanuts. We can get some money from the national organization and pay it, although our chapter is pretty lean, it's less than we were planning on paying towards the conference anyway. So in a recession when a bunch of nonprofits are scrambling, why not share the losses with the University?
But on the other hand, they didn't spend any money on us. We had some rooms reserved, and we had a website up. That's all that had been done. The catering people aren't charging us. It's not like they would have been able to rent the rooms if we hadn't cancelled - the whole university is closed, of course, and it was only because they were dithering so much that we cancelled on them, instead of the other way around.
I guess I just don't understand why they're charging us per capita. Is this worth understanding better? Or should I just let public institutions make a judgement call in a pandemic and not worry about it?
Alternatively, get them by the balls. I'm thinking the sword gives more social distance.
Can you call their dean and ask for a better deal?
It's becoming more clear to me what I'm wondering. Legally, I doubt they can really charge us much, if anything. What's the right thing for me to do? Question the charges because I represent my organization, and therefore I should act in order to save us some money? Or let it go because it's a recession and it's not like it's Scrooge McDuck on the other end of the negotiation?
The former is my inclination, but I've never represented an organization.
Is there any explicit language around cancellation in your contract?
What's your stress level without haggling? If you have the capacity and 20% isn't spelled out in the initial contract, you could try "I'll need to run this past some other official to approve. But if it's only 10% then I can approve it myself because threshold and pay faster."
If you're busy with other stuff, let it go and you have one less communication thread to keep track of.
112: "Shitty cancelation fuckers".
I'm inclined to tell that university to pound sand. Probably at least in part due to watching the Kennedy Center get 25 million in bailout money and then lay everyone off anyway. My trust in these institutions to do the right thing is running a little low.
Unless you know otherwise, I'd start from the assumption that this is relatively low-level people just applying their normal cancellation policy, not a considered decision by university leadership in the midst of a pandemic. I'd push back, especially if I could find someone to talk to/videoconference with to get a better sense of what's going on in their heads. Academic colleagues in the host institution might also be able to help you start to navigate the bureaucracy.
(The above on the assumption that they're already holding your money and the argument is about how much you get back. 110 implies otherwise. If that's the case, I'd be more inclined to start by just saying no, but still would try to find the right person to talk to in order to assess whether they really really need the money or are just being ridiculous.)
110. Scrooge McDuck doesn't wear pants. Neither does Daffy or Marvin, or even Pppporky.
For a week or two, our official policy was "We are aware of the coronavirus situation, and we will follow the host campus policy on large gatherings to determine whether the conference goes forward" because surely they were going to cancel all large gatherings very soon. But then they kept dithering, and their Covid website was something like "Look, you know how to prevent the flu, don't you? Focus on that!" and it became clear that we had to cancel first, because they were not being proactive. It was strange. So calling it "our cancellation" chafes a bit, because they ought to have called it already.
In fact, part of our decision was to cancel before various payments were due. But I also did not see any of the contracts. I can email the local point person on that.
Send them back the head of a horse.
Like in The Godfather or like in all the memes.
122: Then my starting point would likely be nope, not paying, this was out of everyone's control and we shouldn't owe you anything. But do look at whatever documentation you have, starting with whether there's a written contract, whether it has the 20% penalty spelled out, and whether there's a force majeure clause or something similar that gives you at least an arguable out. Also take a look at who the named parties are, whether they are actually existing legal entities ("State U" exists, but "State U Chapter of the Modern Academic Association" probably doesn't), and whether the person who signed the agreement on your side actually had legal authority to bind an actual legal entity. And even if all of that checks out in their favor, chances are good that they can't or won't do much beyond bluster (especially if your institution and theirs are both public).
Disclaimer: I am not your lawyer. But in my current, non-legal professional life, I'd approach this more as a problem in applied bureaucracy than anything that needs a lawyer.
It's a public serving institution.
Thanks, Dave, I appreciate it. I will track down the contracts and go from there.
It's only March 33rd and I'm ready for fall to come back.
What would Thomas Cromwell do? I don't think he'd pay that bill.
April is...
Ahh, shit, just can't.
My frustration is getting through to my mother at the moment. We got her a cheap GSM phone for her room, and the carers will sometimes unplug it (there is a battery that needs charging). In that case we can't call her and she can't fix the problem. So I use Alexa to drop in on her Echo dot speaker. But the carers will also switch her radio on and leave it on. When that happens, she can't turn it off, and neither of us can hear the other.
Yesterday I took all the masks that Ume and I had left over from our last trip to Japan (back when the problem was hay fever and pollution) and dropped them off at the home for the staff to use; also as a sort of bribe in the hope that when asked they will do things like fixing the phone (which is off at the moment). They promised to do so but have not.
It is all incredibly frustrating as well as frightening. My whole technique for getting the home to work for mother was based on frequent personal visits and getting to know individual staff members and sort the good (often very good) ones from the chaff and the agency carers. I can't work that at all now. I'm dependent on whoever picks up the phone. I can't access her records electronically. I can't get to her room to fix the broken communications.
The nightmare is not just that the virus gets into the home and she has to die all alone among strangers. It's that the staff panic or fall ill and stop turning up for work, and the whole place becomes a bedlam. Since she is almost completely incapable of autonomous movement now she'd just lie in bed unless she could wriggle out of it and fall to the floor and lie there, perhaps with something broken -- oh, christ, I don't want to imagine any more of this.
But we have at least two months to get through from here.
Still, at least she's not in Stockholm: this morning's paper says that the virus has got into a third of the nursing homes there; that if you are getting care at home you can expect to be visited by ten different carers in a fortnight (the union says the record is 25); there is of course a shortage of protective equipment. That is not going to end well.
Oh no. That scenario is a nightmare. I am so sorry, NW.
NW, this is such an awful situation. I'm so sorry.
NW, I'm sorry. How awful and frustrating. I wish there were anything clever I could suggest, but I'm at a loss.
Great time to have the fire alarm go off in my apartment building and it's not a drill. Also not a fire but a malfunction apparently but I really didn't appreciate having to get dressed and go down several flights of stairs and onto the street being careful to keep my distance from my fellow humans.
I think I may have got her phone working again, which would be something. But I haven't tested it yet
aaaargh! partial success. I asked the woman who was manning the office phone to fix my mother's. I think she may have done, but when I dropped in with Alexa, another carer handed my mother the phone mouthpiece, fuck knows why, and she replaced it wrongly, so the phone still isn't working, but the Alexa dropin is. On the other hand, my sister can't make that dropin work. It is all *so* frustrating. HOwever, mother sounded sane, and had hoisted in that something awful was going on in the outside world, even if she was pretty vague what it might be. And so, for the moment, things are not too bad.
All sympathies above greatly appreciated.
That's good to hear. My mom is still moving and answers the phone when she wants to. She's grumpy at times, I think because nobody visits. Or it could be because the staff is keeping them in their in rooms and she misses the older residents.
Then the Guardian publishes this story
Care home managers have threatened to resign over new government guidelines that state they have to accept residents who have coronavirus.
The guidance also says hospitals will not routinely test residents entering care homes, meaning managers will not know if returning residents are infectious but asymptomatic.
"Some [returning] patients may have Covid-19, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic," the guidance says.
And the next sentence of the guidance is fucking Trumpian in its callous detachment from reality: "All of these patients can be safely cared for in a care home if this guidance is followed."
146: Seriously? We in MA moved some people in nursing homes/ skilled nursing facilities so that we could use those SNFs as step down facilities for COVID patients.
I'll join the sympathies previously expressed, NW.
The fear of staffing issues was even bigger than the fear of being a captive to fellow resident exposure in getting my siblings and I to argue, successfully, that my 85 year old mother should leave her old folks apartment* and go live with my sister for the duration.
* She's been calling it her cruise ship for a couple of years.
OMFG NW, that's such a criminally dangerous policy. I'm so sorry.
And the next sentence of the guidance is fucking Trumpian in its callous detachment from reality: "All of these patients can be safely cared for in a care home if this guidance is followed."
In other words: we don't have a plan, we've never had a plan, to care for the most vulnerable amongst us, in the event of a serious public health emergency. We're now going to issue some last-minute "guidelines" that won't work, and then blame the managers of care homes and nursing homes for our own lack of planning, because, after all, we did issue some "guidelines"...
Similar stuff now happening in Ontario, where lack of planning is now hitting long-term care homes, nursing homes, retirement homes, and the like.
All sympathies to you, NW, and also to your mother.
