Day 8 - Mask mandate RESCINDED; we do NOT need to mask indoors

Hiked “East Canyon” with B. today…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ongoing and this continues to dominate the news cycle. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is trying to move past Covid. CDC ‘Rochelle’ proclaims Covid 19 a “seasonal illness” similar to the flu.  Really? “Delta” was a summer surge.  If by seasonal, Rochelle means Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, then, yep, that sounds about right.  Why don’t we call it “quarterly”?  A new variant seems to surface every 3 to 4 months.

Meanwhile, the UK is inundated with the BA2 variant – a 7% increase in the past 2 weeks and hospitalizations are on the rise. “As the UK goes, so goes the nation [America]”  We’re usually a few weeks behind the UK when infections occur so I’ll make a prediction. The s—t will hit the fan, i.e., the BA2 variant will be the only variant found in our pee and poo wastewater samples, by the last week of March. Will it kill us?  Unlikely.

Those of us who’ve already had Omicron [recall that at one point 800,000 people a day were falling out] will likely NOT contract the BA2 variant. If you haven’t already had Omicron, it’s a certainty that you’re going to get BA2. I love how the “public health officials” continuously advise that this variant is even more milder than Omicron. With every variant, people continue to develop Long Covid symptoms at a rapid rate and the number of afflicted patients is rising – this is something that’s rarely discussed in the lame-stream media.  It doesn’t matter how mild the variant du jour is once you come down with Long Covid – this is an extremely debilitating disease.  If I hadn’t already contracted Omicron in January, I’d be terrified…not of BA2…I’d be terrified of Long Covid.

 3/11/22. Friday

8:00-8:30 – It’s too early and I didn’t get enough asleep.  I take 30 minutes of transition time and resume lying in bed.

8:30-8:45 – I’m up so I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal. She’s still asleep so I rub her tummy until she’s ready to go outside. We head for the backyard and I stand around, waiting for the dog to do her business.  I note that she pooped on the patio (sigh).  Return inside: cheese for her, coffee for me.  I go upstairs.

8:45-9:45 – Shower. I sit in the shower, drink my coffee, and put ice on my eyes. I listen to The Daily. Lotion. Light make-up. I put on my hiking uniform [cargo pants, tank-top, zip up sweatshirt, jacket vest].

9:45-10:00 – I drive to my therapy session and listen to What a Day.

10:00-10:30 – Therapy.

10:30-11:00 – Return home

11:00-11:30 – I check my lunch bag and backpack to make sure I have my supplies and snacks.

-L. leaves for work

11:30-12:00 – B. picks me up and we drive to East Canyon [an “Open Space”] right next to the Church of the Nazarene.

12:00-1:30 – This hike is one, long, continuous incline, spiraling around the mountain.  B. and I never make it to the top because the trail is deceptive, like an optical illusion.  Just when you think you’ve reached the end, the trail continues spiraling and keeps going…I estimate it would take B. and I 3 hours to get to the top.  Along the way, we stop for a few “photo ops” and by that I mean we don’t actually take pictures, we just look at the amazing views.  I liken it to the Grand Canyon, but I’m not sure B. feels the same way.  By my estimate, we make it halfway up the mountain, before we turn around and head back.

1:30-2:00 – B. wants to go to the Burrito Factory for lunch and we get burritos to go.  B. gets a burrito the size of his head and a “Big Gulp” coke; I get two chicken tacos that retail for $3.75 a piece.

2:00-2:30 – B. and I are en route to my house when B. asks how I’ve been feeling lately. I reply like I always do…”Um…I think I have Long Covid.” B. smirks and starts laughing, then says, “I’m not trying to dismiss how you’re feeling, but” I cut in and say, casually, with no inflection in my voice that this is exactly what he’s doing…dismissing my feelings and not taking me seriously. B. replies, “But you just completed a strenuous hike!” I explain that since having Omicron, I’m typically good for ONE physically strenous activity, and then I’m out of commission the rest of the day. I have difficulty functioning after said activity, which was never the case before. Prior to having Omicron, I could “stack” tasks…this ability seems to have disappeared.

2:30-3:00 – Return to my house and I pour a shot of Jack Daniels for B. and a glass of champagne for myself to commemorate “climbing Mt. Everest.”  B. polishes off his entire burrito and most of his Coke. 

3:00-4:30 – B. brought his palm sander today so I can use it for my palette project, but we need still need special sandpaper sheets so he proposes we go to Home Depot.  As it so happens, I need a few supplies…it’s crunch time for one of L.’s projects and she wants to frame one of her pieces for an installation that she needs to present at Otis. I have an idea for the framing…I think I can purchase a cheap chair rail or molding, cut and superglue the pieces, and mount everything on poster board from Michaels. It won’t look professional, BUT the frame only needs to last for the length of L.’s critique (2 hours).

-B. and I go to Home Depot and I buy two chair rails, sand paper sheets for the palm sander, a door stop for the kitchen because my door stop broke, regular sand paper, light bulbs, and a plant for one of my pots.

4:30-5:00 – Return home and B. and I play around with the sander and it works!  Unfortunately, the sandpaper squares I just bought are too small and I need to exchange them for bigger squares…but not today. My body is starting to stiffen and exhaustion is creeping in.

5:00-5:30-B. leaves. I put the supplies away, ready my lunch bag and coffee for tomorrow, change into yoga pants and a sweatshirt, and crash for the next three hours.

-B. texts me with some ideas as to how to mount L.’s work and says he has some plywood that I can use.  However, in the midst of our texts, L. texts me that Fast Frames is in the process of framing L.’s project and will finish it by tomorrow. Spoiler Alert: L. pays $600 for the frame, which she takes out of her college fund.

6:00-9:00 – Nap

9:00-10:30- L. returns home after going out to drinks with her co-worker, C., and wakes me up so she can “spill the tea.” There’s drama at the “O.K. Corral” [Art Studio]. It appears that L. has been deemed “a problem employee” and is “targeted for termination.” Apparently, L.’s supervisor, La, had a meeting with one of L.’s co-teachers (a co-worker). L. and her co-worker teach the Saturday class together so La, went behind L.’s back and asked L.’s co-worker, “Why is Mattie working on the mushroom? She’s supposed to be in the D5 book.”  Trigger Alert:  the following is so stupid, you may feel compelled to stop reading and vomit.

According to L., Mattie wanted to move to a different book so she could work on something more interesting as opposed to staying in the “baby book”, which has nothing for her. L. allowed this concession in order to maintain the student’s interest in art, but moving a student to another book BEFORE that student has completed ALL the assignments AND without receiving approval from La, is a violation of policy. L.’s co-teacher knew exactly why Mattie was working on the mushroom [again, all of this is so stupid] because L. shared her strategy with her fellow co-teacher. However, she kept responding to La, “I don’t know. I don’t know” because she didn’t want to implicate L. and throw her under the bus.

It should be noted that taking time out of my blog to cite this trivial bullshit is so irritating. Who cares if Mattie is working on a mushroom instead of, say, a frog in the D5 series?  This is so typical of incompetent management. Throughout my entire career, I spent most of my work life simply trying to do my job while spending an inordinate amount of time navigating the petty bullshit that my current supervisor routinely dumped on me. The amount of work I could have finished, the important tasks I could have accomplished if Management would have simply got out of the way and left me alone, are immeasurable.  I will never understand why Management routinely targets their most COMPETENT employees, while leaving the losers alone, to skate and do nothing.

-It’s my opinion that the majority of middle management supervisors feel threatened by employees who can do the job better or just happen to be more intelligent than the manager in question. These individuals would actually prefer to be surrounded by incompetent people, even if it means the employees are generating sub-par work. It’s really quite remarkable.

-During this same conversation, L.’s supervisor, La,, asks L.’s co-teacher, “Why is Alisha in oils? None of the students in this time slot should be in oils!” L.’s co-worker continued to respond to La’s stupid questions with “I don’t know. I don’t know” even though she does know. Does La know how stupid she sounds?  Probably not.

11:00-12:30 – Blog post.

12:30-1:30 – I start grading Question #1 of the Socratic Seminar assignment for Specialty Class 1B.

1:30-2:30 – I accidentally fall asleep.

2:30-3:30 – I take my contacts out.  I absolutely have to finish grading Question #1 today or, based on my calculations, I won’t finish grading the papers by Monday.  I have 13 papers, which means I have to grade 13 Question #1s.

3:30-4:00 – I fall asleep again, but AFTER I finish grading Question 1 for 12 of the essays. Adequate progress.

4:00-4:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed. I set my alarm for 6:30.  I know it’s only two hours of sleep, but I already slept for five hours throughout the course of the day so maybe tomorrow won’t be so bad…