I’m still bummed about how many time outs I’m getting on this board. When will the “problem” be fixed?
Oh joy. What I thought was a bad case of allergies has turned into a low grade fever accompanied by body aches and a lot of sneezing. Guess I’m not going to work tomorrow. I am calling work, though, because I work in physician scheduling and I need to get a message to my PCP. And possibly all the triage people who work two cube rows away from me.
At least I put a warning on my desk today that nothing has been wiped down. We had a wipes thief wandering the cube farm this morning so my can is locked up tight in my desk and the keys are hanging on a hook not five feet away from where I’m sitting right now.
Okay, it is spring break time. It is COVAD-19 time. Not a good time to crowd on the beach. But don’t tell the kids that.
One story here.
Plus the dumb fuck governor of Florida won’t close the beaches, and instead wants to limit parties to groups of ten.
Breakers - Hope you get eaten by a shark. And bring the asshat governor along for the shark’s dessert.
This isn’t really a rant, more amusing, but too insignificant to make a thread about anywhere:
I frequently test consumer products. For example, they send me a new handcream, I use it for a few weeks, fill out an insanely detailed feedback questionnaire about the product, its packaging, on and on.
About a month ago I agreed to do a study of a new fabric softener. Sort of a long one: first fill out a baseline questionnaire about me, my mood/health/quality of life, my usage of laundry products and so on. Then they send the product, I use it for three weeks, then another survey. Then I’m to stop using the product for three weeks, then a final survey. I guess to see how much I do or don’t miss using it? Whatever.
Anyway, the three week ‘use product’ stretch ended yesterday and I did the first followup questionnaire.
Which was 95% questions about my Mental Health and Quality of life! No kidding. Question after question about how often I was tense, how often anxious, how well did I sleep, how energetic did I feel, on and on. Not a single question about the fabric softener, like Were my towels soft enough? Did I like the scent?
Which makes me ponder two scenarios:
A) The softener was just a McGuffin to distract from the real point of the survey. For some reason they wanted to get a bunch of people to answer about their life and happiness and how it changed from three weeks ago to now.
B) It was about the softener, but there’s some ingredient in it that they think might affect people emotionally/psychologically?
But how either of those interacts with the current Pandemic is curious.
If “A”, did they [cue ominous chords] know all this corona virus/shelter in place stuff was coming, and want to see what is happening with people? Shades of conspiracy theories…
If “B”, well, surely they couldn’t do a test like that without a hell of lot more disclaimer notices and signing of waivers and all. I mean, there were some questions along that line in the first questionnaire (pre use), but no more than the usual “Are you allergic to X?” “Do you have any of the following conditions?” type questions.
I suppose there could be a case “C” where they really were just testing the fabric softener. Maybe they’ve already done the “Is it thick enough?” “Do you like the color of the bottle/scent/liquid” and so forth survey questions, and now just want to know if having a presumably improved softener would make people happier overall? (It actually is a nice softener, leaves things like cotton sheets especially feeling much silkier to the touch.)
But if that’s the case, I feel sorry for them. How on earth can they possibly tease out people’s reactions due to softer sheets versus, oh, being scared and anxious and irritated over all the worries of the past three weeks?
Really poor timing for them.
I received a letter from a realtor today, telling me that they have a client interested in buying a unit in my condo building and if I’m interested in selling, to please contact them.
The envelope, it appears, was a traditional type that was hand-sealed by licking the glue. :dubious:
Fuck, I wish I’d seen this sooner. In case this info still helps … there’s several dog walking services out there, most have their own phone app.
Rover dot com is one of them, but there’s others. You can schedule a meet and greet ahead of time, book in advance or find someone last minute, and so forth.
Kinda shilling for 'em since I just signed up (on the service provider end) but I know several dog owners who’ve used it in the past and are quite happy with it.
I haven’t been allowed to see my five-year-old grandson since before Christmas, because his mother and my son have had a falling-out. It’s been upsetting, but I’ve been hoping that they could patch it up. Still, there are no signs of reconciliation, and my son will never be able to get his shit together enough to hire a lawyer. Now, with the virus, there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I was thinking about approaching the other grandma to at least pass along the picture books I got the kiddo for Christmas, but it feels like giving up. And I wanted to read him those books. If I think about this, I will cry.
I don’t know whether to hug or strangle my dear, wonderful mother.
Sadly, a few days ago her neighbor was struck and killed by a school bus, right outside their houses. Mom knew her to friendly chit chat, that kind of stuff. While she didn’t see the actual impact, she did see the body. 30mph school bus hitting a smaller woman doesn’t leave much. Mom is shook, which is totally understandable. She’s now dealing with horrific nightmares on top of her normal insomnia. Unfortunately, she also doesn’t believe in reaching out for mental health help, so she’s suffering and there is nothing we can do.
On the other hand, she is continuing on with her daily activities. Stupidly. She was on a tear because a grocery store had eggs on super special and she HAD to have them. Go during elder/vulnerable shopping hours? No! It’s still dark out! She has been trying the past three days, at a few times during the day, to go get these damned eggs. Finally managed to snag them tomorrow. So this 5’1", 100lb, elderly woman with heart issues now has 36 fricking eggs. Because they were on sale. Plus, she went to the bank, the post office, church (3x), and tried to go to the library - alas, they’re closed. So she came over here. Then became irate when I basically limited her to the entryway. Bummer. You need to stay the fuck home, old lady. You croak now, no funeral for you, you get that, right? Then she complains to me about my daughter working in a store bakery - oh, she could get sick! She needs to stay home! You going to pay her bills with all the money you’re saving on fricking eggs? Seriously, woman. Think.
Man, that sucks. Hope things change between the kid’s parents.
Thanks, kayaker.
I was just talking with my sister (on the phone) and she was griping about an aspect of the lock down that hadn’t occurred to me. She keeps her hair in one of those super short precise clips that just HAS to be cut every six weeks. If she goes even two weeks over it starts looking messy and vaguely unkempt no matter what she does with it. Guess who just got called by her hair dresser to inform her the hair saloon is closed down ‘probably for a month.’
Sister is freaking out. Not only does she have a job where she simply has to meet with people face to face all day, every day, but now she’s going to have to do it looking like 'a hobo or something." Her words.
Just another reason to be glad I have shoulder length wavy hair. If things are shut down too long, I can just switch to wearing it up.
another damn dup.
I’m just two months into growing my hair out from one of those kind of cuts, tho not a super short one. But my hair is now messy and the bangs falling into my eyes are driving me insane. And the salon is closed. But, somehow, I am not freaking out. Of course, I am old and not beautiful and do not have a job. I do sympathize with your sis but is she still going to work? If so she should be worrying about getting infected by those people she “has to” meet with every day.
My hair is normally buzz-cut, but I’ve waited too long to get it cut. Now I’ll have to wait till this insanity is over. Looks like I’ll be wearing a pony tail.
Why does my nose start itching furiously as soon as I go out in public? I was waiting in line to get into the Costco, and as soon as I got my cart, my nose started itching. There I am, standing in a crowd of people, all standing 6 feet apart, half of them wearing masks, and I am using up every ounce of willpower I own, not much at the best of times, trying to keep from scratching my nose.
Also, my usual excuse when going up to the cashier with a half dozen bottles of wine and a handle of Scotch, “Oh, I’m having a party,” doesn’t really work in these circumstances. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one. She just judged me silently, I’m sure.
Sympathy on the bangs – I remember how awful that was. (Though I’d usually just take my scissors to them when it got too bad to endure.)
Yeah, sister is a bit vain. OTOH, I think a lot of it is diversionary griping. Better to bitch about her hair then fall apart over her real worries.
And, yes, she still has to go to work, in fact, she’s had to work ten hour days, 7 days a week, for almost four weeks now. Her usual (wonderful) assistant is out with a brand new baby, and of the normally three people at her level in the department, one had recently been poached by another company, the second is now waiting for his embezzlement trial, and that leaves…her. The company was in the interviewing process, but with unemployment so low they’re having a hard time finding suitable people who want to work at that non-favored location. (Not that it’s in a slum or high crime area, it just isn’t a NYC or Boston or Philadelphia or the like.)
I tell her that clearly means they aren’t offering enough money, but apparently TPTB are being stubborn that what they’re offering is fair.
She’s obviously not in PA or CA, then. Only “life sustaining businesses” are allowed to have people onsite right now. In PA, life sustaining is largely (but not entirely) restricted to grocery stores, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, businesses that supply healthcare equipment, gas stations, and things that keep utilities running or restores service if it goes out for someone.
I’m supposed to have my ductwork cleaned out next week, and I plan to call the company and ask to reschedule. I’m a high risk, so the less contact I have with people the better.
Just me and my furballs.
Sheesh, I saw a car wash open today, and a landscaping truck running around. Guess that’s what California considers “essential”.
I long for the day that I can go to the grocery store and not only not have a string of profanities running through my head from the moment I grab the (soggy) cart to the moment I make it to the end of the (overly long) line, but I can find every goddamn thing I need without having to make two trips because the fucking hoarders have bought up all the (thing that I’m out of.)
I better not see a damn one of those hoarders in the grocery store until July.
For the last 20 years or so, I’ve grown my hair to about my waist and then cut off a foot of it to send to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital to be made into wigs. I was planning to do that in February but then my mother was hospitalized and died. With all that and now the pandemic, I just didn’t get it done. Now it’s driving me crazy. It grows really fast and is now below my waist. I keep it piled up on my head all the time. I’m seriously thinking about taking some scissors and chopping it off. I mean, who’s going to see it? I’m not going anywhere.