First day back to public, in-person school for Mr. 9 in a year and a half. I have to just hope it's going OK.
Schools are mostly canceled here, on account lots of rain.
1: There are so many things we could do to make that better, and we (outside of maybe a few fancy private schools) have done so badly to mitigate the risks. At least we have masks. You can advocate for testing and ventilation improvements, but at a certain point, you just have to hope.
Deeply wrong that a School in MA is back before Labor Day.
Masks are now required here, state-wide.
We have weekly pooled testing in the schools for everybody. Vaccine mandate for staff is happening imminently, though making it official is slogging through some agreements with the unions (they're going to agree, it just has to go through a process, AFAICT). So it's about as good as it could be in 2021, I think.
And yeah, mandatory masking across the board, staff and students both. Even before the actual vaccine mandate, unvaxx'd staff must be in N95 or equivalent, so there's a comfort incentive already.
I like my KN95 masks. Though I've never worn one for long except in an airport.
I can still smell farts while wearing one, so I may not have a good fit.
My sister works in a hospital and she says they tested fit by releasing an odor and seeing how long it took to smell it. She didn't say they had a technician who farted, but she didn't say they didn't either.
She's in Minnesota, so you know they can find people who fart that much.
I see a new market opportunity for N95 underwear.
Freedom's just another word for ripping an SBD.
My arm was pretty sore yesterday. Not sure it was due to the vaccine, but I was feeling generally lousy. Today, my arm is fine, and I'm feeling better.
Back on day 3 of work after a week's vacation. Monday was relatively easy... because everyone was holding their questions until Tuesday, I guess. I got a meeting sprung on me yesterday at the last minute (with an end of day apology for the late notice), and attended training this morning. As a result of this morning's training, I've scheduled a meeting with my boss about the boundaries of my new role for next Tuesday... clearly I've been turned to the dark side, given my normal aversion to meetings!
Would anyone care to offer me some musical validation? This is a thing that I've always thought, but now the song Clumsy by Fergie is on rotation in my house.
Throughout the song there's this little ping/tapping* beat in the background, on two notes which are an octave apart. I swear to god they're offkey from the rest of the song. They're maybe a halfstep too high? I'm right, aren't I?
I currently have that song stuck in my head with the offkey tapping. I actually like the song aside from this infuriating detail.
*Originally I wrote tap/ping, which was really confusing.
What does offkey even mean? I get that you can tell somebody they played the wrong note if it doesn't match the written music. But, if you write the music, just write what you want to play so everything is onkey.
14: My shoulder is really sore today, but I was vaccinated five months ago, and the shot was in the other shoulder.
I'm pretty sure I now have official hip arthritis, but my shoulders are fine.
6: That's good about the n95 requirement. Hospitals are mandating vaccine, but they haven't provided n95s to anybody outside of COVID units. All the e-mails I get from infection control make it sound like this is a droplet- borne disease that's not airborne and that symptom-based screening can reliably prevent transmission.
4: I thought that was super progressive, but then I googled and saw that that only app,ied to schools. Not *truly*/state-wide. Various towns and cities have them here for everybody in public places, but it's not state-wide.
School started for the kid on Monday. We have her in an aftercare pod with three other kids. Tuesday one of the kids stayed home due to illness and today a little after noon their parents let us know that a covid test came back positive. So now we're making plans to get Cassandane tested tomorrow and keep her home from school.
She has no symptoms at the moment and we have no risk factors, so I'm not seriously worried about anything except the hassle of quarantining, but still, exposure on DAY ONE.
Said the actress to the archbishop.
She was horse de-worming medication from him.
16: I've never heard that song before but I think you're right. It sounds to me like the song's in C but the sample is a C-sharp octave. Maybe they were trying for that early hip-hop vibe where you get energy from the samples being out of tune with each other? It's awful though. God is it awful.
THANK YOU. I feel like it's too close to come off as having been deliberate? but maybe it was just bad judgment.
On a different note, poor Rascal literally shit the bed last night, and we cleaned him up and he came into our bed, which he also then shat, and so we are all staying home today and getting covid tests.
And doing laundry. Hope all are well.
Pokey is royally pissed off because 5th grade was his LAST CHANCE to get perfect attendance for the year, and it's only the second week.
Lou Gerhig had perfect attendance and look what it got him.
I mean, a couple of long-standing records and lasting fame aside.
It's notable that the paperwork to get a covid test is 10x as long as the paperwork to get a covid vaccine.
We really did fail at any reasonable testing strategy, as a society. If we have a society.
How did Ida keep so much strength from N.O. to NYC?
All the subways were flooded and service had to be suspended on all lines. Incredible.
So I had a temporary bridge before I get the permanent one that was initially put in with temporary cement but the dentist removed it to take impressions and put it back in with no cement since I should have the permanent one in a few days. This morning I woke up and the bridge is gone and I can't find it. I've turned my apartment upside down looking for the damn thing.
Look for someone trying to sell you a bridge.
Freeze your poops and break them apart to search for it.
36: The usual way is stopping at Waffle House.
39 That thought had occurred to me.
Freezer poops. Freezer poops. Freezer poops.
I gently asked the woman behind the counter how much longer the wait is, because the kids have been waiting an hour and they're going nuts.
The answer: She's not done yet typing in all out paperwork. So she'll look for an open room when that's done.
Is it possible she's just not very good at her job?
Millennials killed typing in bullshit forms.
Next gripe: we all just got deep nose swabs. I think - it hurt a lot and the kids cried. But this is a rapid test. Is there any reason a deep nose swab should go with a rapid antigen test?
Bring her a bag a frozen poop saying it was requested by the doctor.
We misplayed this so so badly. We were flustered and decided we should get tested in person instead of using home tests and the only place open at 6 am was one of these scammers ER places. We're still here at 8:45 am.
Well, Pokey is positive for Covid. Dang. Totally asymptomatic.
What about the rest of you? Don't leave us hanging.
Sorry, heebie! Staying home after a voluntary positive covid test should absolutely count toward perfect attendance. Let us know where to direct our forcefully worded letters.
I always put them in the blue box thing down by the grocery store.
Nobody comes to pick up anything from that.
Negative for the rest of us! Even the shitstorm (so far).
That's awful heebie, though good for the rest of you.
Feels a little like March 2020 - cancel everything and do nothing. All of a sudden we have so much time on our hands.
Pokey feels great except for he might have a small fracture in his arm. We figured we should get it looked at during the same doctor visit, so he walked out with a splint and covid.
Hope he feels better/stays asymptomatic.
IANAP but among the many covid tests we have had chez chill one came back as a (almost certainly false) positive. Immediate confirming tests were negative, no symptoms, everyone else in the house was negative, including the kid with some (cold) symptoms that prompted the tests in the first place. Not saying that Pokey's is a false negative, but if there's an easy drive through PCR test available and you've got 14 days on your hands, maybe it's worth a shot.
That's a great point. Wish I hadn't called the schools already.
65: One member of the household has produced three false positives this summer. All follow-ups were negative, as were other household members tested at the same time, but there was initially wailing and gnashing.
TX is probably different, but here if you get a positive from a quick test (especially the ones mandated by the schools) you can get the PCR for free.
I signed us up to get PCRs today. That said, one of Pokey's best friends also tested positive later on yesterday, also asymptomatic. And Rascal went from running a light fever to a running a more worrisome fever. So my guess is that he's going to flip positive.
Hope the kids feel well soon. They probably all have the same covid status, yes or no.
I have to write things today and it's making me grumpy.
I'm supposed to cut 2,000 words while adding content.
Fortunately, the existing draft is kind of repetitive.
Logistical question: we didn't even try to isolate Pokey in his bedroom. He cannot handle being by himself. (He was weepy last night just with the prospect of having to sleep by himself with the door closed.)
Right now we're having everyone in the house mask up, and Pokey is eating separately. They can take their masks off in their bedrooms.
I have an immune system question: If Rascal and Ace both test positive, then everyone in the house is either vaccinated or positive. At that point, how much can we loosen up on mask-wearing? In other words, if our vaccinated immune systems have successfully fought off Pokey's strand of Covid for the past week, is it likely that we can fend off a maxi dose from three kids for the following week?
My assumption would be that he's already given it to all of them, and that it would be futile to mask. (both kids need to be physically on me when they are ill.) I don't know, however, if there are studies on the effectiveness of masking when one has lived with the person through the asymptomatic stage.
Metaphorically, kids in the same house are all using the same spoon.
If I get within 100 words of the limit, I'm just going to remove all the "However"s.
eliminate all throat clearing, mobes - it's just the worst. "as previously discussed" & all the gazillion variations thereon is not only irritating to read, they don't help the reader. where??? and if you direct them to the prior discuion, you've just written a reference haven't you? cite at the end of the sentence or put it in a footnote.
If you don't cite Princess Fluffykins Hussein Obama, I'm going to assume your paper sucks.
The reviewers had the same conclusion for different reasons.
That sounds miserable Heebie -- such a terrible overnight to get everything off on the wrong foot, then test results that explode your plans. All the sympathy; hope that you get a chance to do some fun things and/or get some quiet time with your time off.
I'm getting better at archery. I can now hit the target about 5/6th of the time from 45 yards. May go further back or start using a smaller target. Currently, I'm shooting at a stack of six hay bales.
I'm leaving because two deer just walked into the range. I feel accurately disrespected.
OT: Selena Gomez is not telling Steve Martin and Martin Short everything she knows.
She knows Steve Martin Short is two people. She doesn't need to tell them that.
The childhood friend, in the conservatory, with the horse de-worming medication.
The state of America in a single headline.
Anyway, I'm watching Heathers again to remember back in the 80s when the fucked-in-the-head were at least entertaining.
I was once in a "5-Minute Movie" skit of "Heathers". I played one of the creepy frat guys and some other minor role. Color me impressed!
Son came in and says, "This is a rape. I don't want to watch this." I decided that the rapist being murdered and painted as gay was probably not going to come off as uplifting these days. So I went for a walk and let him play the Xbox instead.
And the blowing up the whole school belongs to a world where it wasn't really an actual concern.
Twitter says the Rolling Stone story is inaccurate. I almost care... sadly unsurprised that "Heathers" hasn't aged well, but not quite ready to congratulate myself on having aged better.
Even in 1989, it was a weird movie. I don't think it's a good thing to watch if you can't get into it and somehow it didn't feel like good parenting to try to press the issue.
95: We're about the same age, right? As far as I remember, everyone I knew at the time thought it was not-particularly-well-executed satire by adults who had clearly forgotten how high school actually works.
By the time I got involved, the 5 Minute Movies had been a thing for like 10 or 12 years, so the impresario was kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel for things that would actually resonate on a broad enough pop culture level. I got to be in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan though, and that was kind of my thespian apotheosis.
I don't think I saw it until at least five years after it came out, which was after I graduated college. In high school, I mostly drank beer on county roads.
Now I'm at urgent care with rascal, who has continued to shit the bed since Thursday but now has added vomiting to the mix. I'm wondering if we'll be sent over to the hospital for an IV.
Yikes. Hope he feels better and can keep stuff in soon.
Oh heebs. I hope he's feeling better soon.
If so, and he has a removal, he'll be able to go to Antarctica more easily.
oh no little rascal! ours had to have his out, i'll never forget holding his hand in the er, so much pain, and i'm pretty darn sure i know when it burst. if rascal is spare, the poor little one may have to endure multiple forms of scans - the ones they start with don't work so well on people without much to them. between 2nd and 3rd scans my little one had to drink a large quantity of disgusting tasting stuff and i feel like i had not mothered so intensely since giving birth to him, nor since.* but i got him to drink it through sheer loving will. at any rate, it is a good thing that they want to make sure the little ones actually do have appendicitis before they open them up. surgery worked, he seemed to have only stopped getting taller for the couple of hours from appendix bursting to showing up in the recovery room. but man oh man he was skinny when he got home, and it took a couple of months to rebuild his minimalist frame. thinking of rascal and you with much solidarity.
* although working through the psychic mountain of ditching the russians for tap dancing is up there.
If that's not a ballet thing, could you please explain.
Also, Happy New Year where applicable.
There may be a covid appendicitis link: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20201208/COVID-19-may-be-linked-to-acute-appendicitis-in-children.aspx
They still have to remove it though.
oh fuck. we were ready to get an ultrasound and I realized I'd given Pokey's bday instead of rascal's and now they have to redo a bunch of paperwork and not get the ultrasound yet.
105 - was a ballet thing.
110 - oh what a misery so sorry 😐.
I'm so sorry, heebie. hope the ultrasound is soon and not too painful.
I had an ultrasound once. It didn't hurt and the tech told me she'd never seen someone with so much gas. I didn't think of it at the time, but I should have just farted right then.
Obviously, that's not good advice if you've got diarrhea.
Glad there's no surgery needed, but there's no getting around the fact that it is so much more convenient to have a kid that shits the bed in a hospital where somebody else changes the sheets.
Technically on the car ride home, he shat the car seat. They're much smaller now though than they were on the first day.
Well, Ace also has the shits and now Pokey is throwing up. But no one else seems to have Covid symptoms.
123: Yuck. Happy three day weekend. (And something like 24% of COVID patients have GI symptoms, but who knows.)
A few years before covid, I remember my son came down with some insta-puke bug. It got it all over me because the puking happened on an airplane during the phase of landing when you couldn't get up. My dad got it and I was afraid it would kill him but basically he just emptied out, slept for twelve hours, and felt better. Then I got it and it was the same except I had a Godfathers breakfast pizza from the airport, so throwing up was over determined.
I don't remember if I had a point.
I guess the moral of the story is that small children are really bad at puking in that little bag they give you but flight attendants are very helpful.
Except I didn't mention the last part when I told the story.
And something like 24% of COVID patients have GI symptoms, but who knows.)
True, but it would be weird to have symptoms for 5 days and have 4 negative tests while symptomatic.
I just learned that Fauci sounds like Larry David. Nobody tells me anything.
128: I have a barf bag autographed by most of Van Halen in its 1986 incarnation, a souvenir of an early-morning flight from Biloxi.
Unused. For some reason, I feel compelled to specify.
For a time I kept as a souvenir a barf bag from Qantas that doubled as a bag for sending in your film to be developed. Presumably if you had not also used it for the first purpose.
Even if you used it to get the autographs of the ur-hair band, you still couldn't send it in with you film.
And now Michael K Williams. WTFF!!!
On the plus side, I made banana bread for the first time and it came out pretty good. I had to use a cake pan because we don't have a loaf pan.
138 is just wretched news. RIP.
We haven't had any barf today and butt explosions were mostly contained in pull ups, which we just put them on him after he's half-asleep and he just disposes of in the morning.
Also Ace had the cute neologism, "What's spiteful mean? Is it the opposite of despiteful?"
141 As is this https://twitter.com/lamzyxl/status/1434978229878771719
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Hey New Yorkers- please consider contacting Schumer about the SSI fix that disability advocates want put in the Build Back Better Reconciliation bill.
https://tcf.org/content/commentary/building-back-better-must-include-strengthening-supplemental-security-income/
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How much does it cost to spam people? Is there like a company I can hire (one that won't blackmail me for having spammed people after I'm done). There doesn't need to be a way to reply to the email. I just want to tell 200,000 people that Ivermectin will make your penis shrink. I think this will help me relax.
If that doesn't work, I'll go back to trying deep breathing or alcohol.
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I wonder why, with Covid, we aren't seeing public service commercials. ("Only you can prevent forest fires" "Don't drink and drive" "Buckle up" "Keep America Beautiful" etc.)
Googling around, it appears that Washington State and New York City have done stuff, but I haven't seen a Covid commercial.
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147: Don't forget to tell them that Brazilian snake venom has the opposite effect.
I guess the best way is to claim nothing specifically bad about a medication but offer something as a solution that implies the problem.