Natter 76: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Foaminess
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I received and completed our 2020 census today!
Me too. I know that sounds like a weird thing to be happy about, but I guess it feels like one little cog in the machine is still turning, at least.
We have one more day on campus tomorrow to finish remote learning training and then start WFH on Monday for the next two weeks. The two weeks after that are spring break, so the first time classes on campus could start again is April 13. I'm just hoping that drastic action over the next month will flatten the curve.
NILLY! Hi. Nice to see your pixels. I'm sorry things are so stressful there right now.
And yeah, lots of other people I want to give a virtual hug to. I'm glad we still have this community during this challenging time.
Also, hi Nilly! Glad to see your pixels, even if the reason is quarantine.
remote learning training
We're not even getting that. We were pretty much just told to figure it out.
The Orthodox rabbinical council in the county where I grew up has closed all the synagogues, and put out a letter telling people that they should not organize prayer groups on their own, should not invite each other over for Shabbat meals, should not organize playdates for their kids, essentially should not interact with anybody outside their immediate family. All the kosher restaurants under that group's supervision have been told that, until further notice, they should only serve take-out and not seat anyone. The schools all closed within the past few weeks. The only exception is funerals -- religiously, you need ten Jewish men to say certain prayers at a funeral, so funerals can be immediate family plus as many additional people as needed to get to that ten, but no more. They're keeping the mikvahs open, and I can kind of understand their reasoning, but I also think it could backfire badly.
Can you stand a piece of good news?
My cat Pearlie has been very sick and skinny due to a mysterious imbalance of one liver enzyme. I've been force feeding just to keep her systems functioning, which worked on her a year and a half ago.
Today she was excited to be presented with kibble and gave me her signature melting look. I'm so relieved that I am beside myself.
I got a work email at 9:30 that our distribution center was closing until Monday due to a staff member being in quarantine, and at 11:00 got a robocall that my kids' high school would be closed today because of a parent in quarantine.
It's going to be such an interesting time at work. I have one staff member who was visibly freaked out on Wednesday and has now called off sick through the weekend; she could be actually sick but I suspect she's just worried.
I woke about 4 AM with worry about what is going to be going on at work and for all the people I know (including all youse Buffistas), so I read some of Trevor Noah's BORN A CRIME and felt a little bit better because yo Apartheid was evilly fucked up beyond belief. So I felt a little better, but I'm just exhausted.
And I don't have to make a whole lot of decisions at work, aside from ordinary things like figuring out who gets what box and where I can find a small spatula that a little old guy who likes to mix up his own oatmeal can use easily.
With so much of the Boston traffic not happening, it should be easy to drive around, except to the hospitals. So thre's that.
Oh! And I'm very bummed that the city stuff that Somerville shut down includes the libraries. I don't know if Cambridge (the main branch is two blocks from work) is also shutting them down or not.
It's not like I don't have two shelves+ of unread books, and a ton of other wonderful books that I could reread at my leisure.
Those of you who don't need to use the libraries at this time - stay away! Use ebooks! Read the books in your house!
We're open to be a safe place for people (including children out of school) who don't have any other place to be, and to provide internet/wifi for those who don't have that at home (and, for example, are trying to be schooled remotely.)
