A succulent breast dispensing good recommendations (yendi) wrote,
A succulent breast dispensing good recommendations

Assorted COVID-19 thoughts

Random thoughts on COVID-19:

1. Current tally of folks I know who've died from the virus is three: My middle school music teacher, the father of a childhood friend, and liamstliam. I really hope that's where the tally ends, but suspect that won't happen. If we count internet friends I haven't met (and Liam was someone I had), there's probably folks I'm not aware of, nor ever will be. I know more who've gotten it and come through (including my mom's best friend, who's nearly 80 and is a cancer survivor), of course.

2. I consider myself lucky to be able to work from home, but the money drain all colleges are feeling right now scares the shit out of me, and I dread the thought of someone deciding that cutting middle managers is a great way to save money. And I'm hugely worried about the entire industry, of course. We're a reasonably specialized school, which is great on a lot of fronts, but a lot of our specialites require some degree of hands-on or experiential learning. I worry a lot about smaller and more general liberal arts schools, too, especially with the spate of closings we've seen already over the last few years.

3. I'm a lot more worried for other industries, of course. I know too many folks who make a living from restaurants, and that industry is likely to change forever. Ditto singers/bands, actors, burlesque performers, and pretty much any other performing artist.

4. But worried as I am for all of them, I so much more worried about the folks who have decided that the "economy" is worth human lives. Even here, there are tons of folks who do not give a rat's ass about social distancing. Out in AZ, where my mom lives, she just told me that there are stories about crowded clubs already, and I don't doubt that'll be followed by a huge spike in cases (and deaths). Same with my former home state of GA. There are plenty of good alternatives - the $2K a month one the Dems floated, for example -- but the rat motherfucker in the White House and his allies like McConnell have no interest in helping people.

4.5 See all the USPS and what the Republicans are doing to it (even though it's literally a lifeline for their own constituents).

5. We have not, thankfully, had issues on the shopping front, other than occasionally not finding chicken breasts or pork chops (and even then, we still find 'em). Even toilet paper, once scarce, has been in stock at our Star Market the last few times. The only thing that seems impossible to find is Prego Marinara sauce, which is my daughter's favorite (and a good one for 'song, too, since it's gf). I have no idea why that one's gone missing.

6. While money's tight in general (a lot less income than years ago, stuff is more expensive, etc), I still try to order food once every week or two, focusing ideally on local Chinese restaurants, which were hit even harder than a lot of places. And yes, I know about the issues around Grubhub and other delivery vendors. Ours uses BeyondMenu, which is supposedly better, and also has the best damned hand-pulled noodles I've had (so if you're local, try them. It's also the chance to have something resembling a little normalcy.

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