I’ve had a split right on my thumb tip (from cold, dry air, incessant hand washing, antiseptic gel etc.) for so damn long now, and it’s gotten so deep, that I feel like I have a fucking cloven hoof.
If y’all don’t see me here for a while, I may have turned into a goddamn deer. Or possibly goat.
Just got an email from my grocery store: repeats of all the previous restrictions (only one member of a family inside, limited numbers total, they have someone fulltime at the carts to sanitize the handle and so on for you, no deli workers, marked locations for waiting on cashiers, you can’t bring your own reusable shopping bags, etc.) but they’ve come up with two more:
All aisles are one way, marked in masking tape on the floor. Probably a good idea, except I hope you can go both ways in the aisles at the front and back, otherwise if you forget you wanted baking powder as you go by, you’d have to do another entire lap of the store to get back there!
All customers to wear masks. Okay, I can understand, although the experts are really mixed on whether cloth/homemade masks are of any benefit at all, and some say they’re even harmful. The thing is, I don’t have any masks. There’s been none available in stores here for over a month, and since I didn’t think the cloth ones were any good, I didn’t try to buy some from Etsy or whatever. And I don’t have material or a sewing machine I’m not going to just whip one up – and today is my shopping day!
I’ve been scrabbling through my dresser, playing with my bare handful of scarves. Most of them would only be long enough to tie around my head if I folded them into a triangle, like a classic bandanna I mean. But these are densely woven silk, I can’t really breath through a double layer of silk. I have just a single long rectangular scarf that I could tie in a single layer, fine, except it makes my glasses fog up almost instantly.
I’m just not really the scarf type. The ones I have have mostly never been worn anyway, I’ve never owned a cotton bandanna ever. I do have some winter scarves, but they are loosely crocheted wool, can’t imagine they’d serve any purpose at all. 
Oh, and the email also apologized that they aren’t going to be having listed sale items until whenever, because they are starting to have ‘troubles assuring supplies’ and don’t want to promise things they can’t deliver.
I’m not complaining about the store, they’re doing everything they can, the managers and clerks are all super nice and helpful. But added all together, grocery shopping is turning into about the worst hassle in my life currently.
Which no doubt means I should be happy, not having REAL TROUBLES right now, but that’s not how it goes. When you have a splinter in your thumb nobody but a Pollyanna sits there going, “Well, at least my arm isn’t broken.”
Not yet, but I did find a workaround on the brownies. I set the oven to Broil, waited for it to reach 525F, then turned it off and put the pan in for about fifteen minutes. After three iterations of this, I put a cast-iron griddle over two burners on the stove top and brought that up to temperature. Then I laid a cookie sheet upside down on the griddle, put the brownie pan on top, and gave it twenty minutes to “bake” the bottom layer.
They aren’t the BEST slut brownies I’ve ever had, but they’re passable, and I wasn’t about to let two dozen chocolate-and-peanutbutter Oreos go to waste.
I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish I had even more dramatic, amazing news, but I hope your days get lighter, even if only bit by bit.
Thanks, kind words help … the frustrating part is that none of his friends know what happened. Did he go in his sleep? Had he been in the hospital? Or did he keel over and die before he hit the sidewalk?
Not even our pastor can get any details… The guy was part of a close, hard-drinkin’ Men’s Group, and we closed the local Scottish pub many a time (the place did a Half-Price Scotch happy hour til 7… then again 10 to midnight. What did they expect?).
That reminds me, I need to pour out a wee dram o’ Speyside for him…
Easy DIY no-sew face mask:
All you need is a bandana, a couple of hair ties, and a coffee filter. It won’t protect you, but the coffee filter will absorb any droplets when you breathe, cough, or sneeze. It’s reusable, just toss out the coffee filter and wash the bandana.
No bandanas. No scarves. No hair ties or rubber bands. No coffee filters. I am *literally *missing at least one (or more!) critical element for every do-it-yourself face mask I’ve seen. The only way to get them would be to go to a store (sans mask) and get them. IF they’re in stock.
I was given a paper mask when I went to the walk-in clinic for my eye the other day. I’ll reuse it if I have to go out before the “Multi-purpose Neck Gaiter with Safety Carbon Filters” get here. Earliest delivery date is Wednesday the 15th.
Meantime, I’m eyeing an old pair of underwear right now. Cotton fabric, elastic waistband and leg holes. Oh, wait. No thread; it’s all rotted (hey, it’s probably 35 years old!).
I love my bestest friend. She reminded me that I have a second dish towel that is long enough to use (I got it to cover the counter to keep cat cooties away when giving my cat his rub on the inside of the ear medication) and she linked me to how to use an old dress sock, which I think I have. No sewing required!
And thank you, kaylasdad, when I finish work for the day I will watch that video and check if I have an old tee shirt I can bear to lose.
Woot!
I got a pleated paper mask at work the other day, just to get my supervisor to stop bugging me. I don’t like it; wearing it makes my glasses fog up (but only when I breathe, so I guess that’s my fault). Then on Tuesday, when the CDC advised us to wear a cloth masking item for self-protection, I bit the bullet, dove into my bag of PPE, and brought out my balaclava. It does the job quite nicely.
if you’re lacking in bandanas, cloth napkins work really well.
I didn’t have any of the normal materials, or sewing skills, so I cut up an old t-shirt and used the top 1/4" of a pair of socks. Looks low-rent, but it’s Badass Black (lots of old band t-shirts, almost all black).
I remembered hubby had an old wool scarf of some woven plaid stuff, more breathable than my silk scarves but way less ‘holey’ than my crocheted ones. Plus it was long, intended for wrapping around the neck and then down inside the front of his coat on both sides. For me, it was long enough to do a trip around my lower head/jaw, then another around my neck, and then just a simply crossover knot gave enough friction to keep the part in front of my nose/mouth in place. Success! Though if I was doing something more active than walking through a grocery store I might want to add a clip or pin or something to be sure it didn’t come loose.
I’ll go ahead and order some more permanent mask solution (several each for me and hubby) and hopefully they’ll be delivered before we need to venture forth again.
Oooh, good idea on the cloth napkins! I have a ton of those, in various colors and pretty prints, which I mostly don’t use any more. Now if I can just find suitable hair bands, we’ll be set.
Old nylons cut into rings work in lieu of rubber bands. More comfortable too.
Dearest coworker:
Our business is essential, and we’re working with an odd schedule, with some employees only coming in for a few days every couple of weeks (and working from home the rest of the time), and others opting to work a second shift. It’s confusing and stressful, especially with the complete lack of communication from management about who is working which days, or that a second shift exists at all. Good thing my manager was kind enough to print a copy of my department’s schedule for the next few weeks (which was completely ignored for the three days I was in the office, despite its prominent location). We’re all still getting used to working from home, especially considering that we’ve had to rapidly implement a procedure for digitally signing the various documents we deal with.
Despite these conditions, your screaming tantrum yesterday was completely unprofessional and uncalled for. I couldn’t tell if you were more upset that some people were getting work from home, or that some people had to actually show up at the office, but none of the engineers had a say in the schedule. We would all like to be working from home, but there are various tasks that have to be handled on-site. Yes, you are acting as a “gopher” when people working from home print things and email you to pick them up from the printer and deliver them to the correct location. But you know what? You work in DOCUMENT CONTROL. That part about delivering documents places is in your fucking job description. Everyone is having to pick up a little extra work in the office to keep things moving; you aren’t special in that regard. Like the two other engineers who were working with me, I spent most of my three days in the office making sure other people’s work got processed correctly, and assessing jobs as they came through to determine if they needed to be scanned and sent to someone at home, or if they could be handled in the office. I didn’t accomplish what I had expected to, but I kept things moving for my department.
Regarding our digital sign-off procedure: no, it’s not perfect. We’re learning as we go. Screaming at me multiple times about how you can’t add bookmarks to PDFs once we’ve digitally signed something, or how horrible we are for not stamping a document before digitally signing it, will not make things better. Blowing up at one of our two remaining professional engineers on the phone because he had the audacity to request your help in getting a drawing sent to the large plotter, then having it issued to the correct department, will not help either. And repeatedly complaining about this on speakerphone to your friends during work hours should quite honestly be a discipline-worthy offense.
Also, your supervisor is not a bitch (your words!) for working from home. Despite being in an at-risk age group, she did not ask to work from home; she was sent there by her manager.
Or handkerchiefs, or really, any square piece of fabric.
What are you supposed to do, cut it so it’s a tube and wear it like Mort in Bazooka Joe wore his turtleneck?
New car will remain at dealership until they replace the cracked display screen that occurred when they were replacing an electronic unit in the display. This car has been in their possession longer than its been in mine. I bought before covod19 lockdown and now I’m forgetting what it looks like and why I bought it.
Can’t you say “I need the car now. I can drive with a cracked screen. I’ll make an appointment to bring it back in when it’s convenient for me.”
I decided to let them keep it until they can return it to me in brand new condition. I have a loaner car from them that really hasn’t moved in two weeks. I don’t know how bad the cracked screen is and I don’t care really, the car has about 700 miles on it and it would give me fits of irritation every time I looked at that jacked up display.
