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| appropriate cowshit sculpture. from DK archive, not sure of source |
today's love in the time of coronavirus update is from me (mike), which is a change of pace. holli was wiped out after working a bunch of extra hours (which is great!) and constantly dealing with the kids' e-learning and the enormous psychological weight of a killer global pandemic that is running wild and unchecked through our nation largely because of the lack of action or even attention from the narcissistic wet man-baby who became president because many americans apparently enjoy punching themselves in the dick (which is not great!). so she went to bed early and left today's update to me. let's go.
i work in an industrial facility, and some clever maneuvering by the Powers That Be allowed us to be declared an "essential business," which is a load of BS. we're still working, but i'm not sure how a high-performance racing-tire manufacturer can be considered essential when there are no races going on anywhere (big, small, overseas, etc.), plus the fact that racing is in no way "essential." we make some fancy and seriously expensive custom stuff that is sold to other companies that are also considered essential (i guess sewer plugs and trampolines are key to national security?), so that provides the justification to keep us open. don't get me wrong, i want to work, as i like and need money and health insurance and such, but i also want to be assured that my coworkers and i can be safe from the killer global pandemic i mentioned earlier.
to address complaints from concerned employees and create the impression that they are taking social distancing requirements seriously, the safety manager (we call him the hambone, for reasons i won't address here) enacted a variety of policies to keep us all six feet apart as much as possible. this mainly involved putting up signs everywhere that say "maintain a healthy social distance" and "wash your hands" and "don't share beverages with your coworkers," things that anyone with two neurons to rub together knew already. tape on the floor lets you know not to get too close together when, for example, using the microwaves in the cafeteria. hambone removed all but two chairs from every table in the break rooms/cafeteria, ensuring employees stay six feet apart. which is all great. however, indiana's version of OSHA (just googled it, it's called IOSHA, of course) made a visit yesterday, and they determined that the break room tables are only 5.5 feet wide. so today there was only one chair per table. you'd think this would pose a problem during times of high capacity (like lunch), but since half the plant was laid off a couple of weeks ago (which is not great), there are still plenty of chairs to go around (which is...great? i guess?). every silver lining's got a touch of grey.
we were also issued two neck gaiters, which are stretchy things you wear around your neck and are supposed to pull up over your mouth/nose whenever in close proximity to another human. a lot of people complained about them, as they are so thin as to be see-through. but since the point is to keep any cough/sneeze droplets from spreading through the air, they appear to be adequate for their designated purpose. a lot of people have been wearing homemade masks, with tie-dye being a very popular fabric choice. so are pigs (?) and cats riding rocket ships (????????).
while all that is great, what is not great is that the back shifts (you know, when the safety people and office types aren't there) don't follow any of the guidelines at all, and they are not shy about bragging about it. they pull extra chairs off the conveniently located stacks in the break rooms to sit five or six to a table, and they don't bother with the gaiters or homemade masks. when i confronted the safety manager about it at the end of my shift today and said, "maybe you should put the extra chairs in the warehouse or something, and maybe hang out after 4 PM and enforce some of the rules," he said he'd think about it. whatever, you useless choad. when the killer global pandemic arrives at our facility, which it eventually will (if it's not there already), it will obviously originate from the back shifts.
i can wipe down whatever i'm working on with bleach wipes before i start (i pack a ziplock bag every morning for this very purpose), and i can wear a mask both at work and the grocery store, but does it matter? is it enough? i have my doubts, especially when so many people around me don't take it seriously. i'm the only person in our household who regularly (or ever, in the case of the boys) goes out, so if the coronavirus visits out family, i'll likely be the source. how the hell do i protect my family?
sorry to be such a downer, but everything about everything sucks these days. florida, home of sandy beaches, theme parks, retirement communities loaded with high-risk elderly people, and trump mini-me governor ron desantis has reported fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19 than models have predicted. which is great! however, the "official" florida case/death tally has consistently been lower than the daily report from the florida medical examiners commission. you know, the folks who deal with the american coronavirus carnage on a daily basis. nine days ago, the commission stopped providing its regular statistics update, and today it's being reported that such information is being withheld by the florida department of health. what's a little information censorship in the midst of a killer global pandemic.
meanwhile, the "president" is trying to blame the lack of coronavirus testing on...President Obama. because of course he is. at today's task force briefing/campaign rally, agent orange said that the government "inherited obsolete tests" and "bad, broken tests" for the novel (which means new) coronavirus, which didn't exist over three years ago when President Obama was, you know, President. jim acosta asked the obvious question: the 2019 coronavirus was unknown three years ago, there was no test for it anywhere, so how could the Obama administration be responsible for "bad, broken tests"? this doesn't even address how china, south korea, and the WHO quickly developed tests for the novel coronavirus, which is great. but the current administration refused them and tried to make their own. which didn't work. so the USA went weeks without functional tests, and the outbreak spread and spread. which is not great. this is truly the worst timeline.
enough. things here are currently good, and we are all holding it together for now. i saw the bluebirds out in the pasture tonight, which was great, but the red-winged blackbirds keep using the bluebird houses as perches, which i think scares off the bluebirds, which is not great. we'll see if the bluebirds (and the swallows) take to the extra houses we just put up farther out in the pasture.
take care of yourselves. please.
nationwide cases: 1,097,415. deaths: 63,849.
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