[Spongebob Narrator's Voice] 17 Months later....

And Matilda is finally back on a school campus with other students. She's got a two hour orientation that started at noon (took a Muni bus and arrived with three whole minutes to spare).

She is excited to see her teachers from last year who she's never seen in person, except her science teacher briefly handing out text books last year. She is also psyched to get to hang with her two friends there, MI and Ruby.

Her Sophomore year of high school starts next Monday, the 16th.

Sophomore! I'm agog.

I went to a lovely potluck in Glen Park on Saturday and there was a ton of food and people were great, and now I'm worried I shouldn't go to book club tomorrow in case I contracted the delta. SIGH.

This whole delta thing is just argh.

And I just booked a hotel for work travel in late September. I don't want to get on a plane!

Yay for back to school. How did the summer gig go for her?

This whole delta thing is just argh.

Seriously. I did a test before I came to FL. Haven't gone anywhere or did anything so hoping I don't have to do it again when I get back to NY, but I might anyway. I can't get a sniffle without wondering. The thing with vaccinated people being asymptomatic carriers is very concerning.

Also, I was pretty surprised with the plane travel part. People were very good about the masks and even with the 6 hour delay people were good natured and there were no obnoxious passengers like they love to show on the news. Might not hurt to pack duct tape though, just in case.

The thing with vaccinated people being asymptomatic carriers is very concerning.

I worry about that, combined with the fact that people who are immunocompromised and vaccinated are still turning out to have a lower amount of antibodies. Tim is vaccinated, but he takes immunosuppressants, and we don't know how well protected he is. I'm hoping a booster shot will help, whenever that gets the official thumbs-up.

How did the summer gig go for her?

It's been great. They love her. She works hard. The kids enjoy her.

Perfect schedule Tues-Fri, 10:30 to 3:30. Got us through the whole summer, got her out of the house, and she got paid for it.

The thing with vaccinated people being asymptomatic carriers is very concerning.

That is true but the window for being an asymptomatic vector is fairly short compared to somebody who's unvaccinated and has a 4-6 day incubation period. Whereas in most vaxxed people the body is going to shut it down fairly quick. Maybe a day or two.

It's not a significant driver of the current surges at all, where Delta is just tearing through the unvaccinated populations because it's so much more transmissible.

I hate all the fucking clickbait panic mongering breakthrough stories, because nobody really has a number on that. And adding up all the anecdotes doesn't tell us anything right now.

My doctor tested my antibody level a month after my 2nd vax. I expect he will do it again when I see him in the Fall. If it weren't for the travel stuff I wouldn't worry.

Perfect schedule Tues-Fri, 10:30 to 3:30.

Dreamy schedule for sure. Can I sign up?

Still in FL, but I got water back in the pool again so I have been swimming the last 4 days. Feels so good. Don't know what it is, but the pool seems bigger with the new patio and coping. Brendon thinks it is because we don't have as much crap out there so not only the bigger patio but even the pool looks that way. It is also lighter which might add to the illusion. He and I noticed it, and other family members have said it looks bigger too. Odd.

Really hope we hit the road by end of week. Too much to do here and too much to do there. But I'm still more relaxed about it all in the mountains.

Yay for Matilda being an awesome camp counselor and for the start of her sophomore year. Even though it has to be a trick she's old enough.

Work has been... well stuff keeps breaking down. Two weekends ago a kid got trapped on the elevator and after they were freed the elevator wasn't working. Then Saturday someone peed on the elevator. I don't know if it was an adult or a child but it may have been an adult (probably was) and other customers WALKED through the pee and tracked it. And then after a couple of times of it being used the doors got stuck half way open and they had to have an emergency call out yesterday to fix it. And then today when the our mail guy was leaving he tried to close the rolling door on the loading dock and it did something and came slightly off track and couldn't be closed. When I left at 6:30 it hadn't been fixed and I'm not sure what they were going to do since it's an open door to the store and they can't leave it.

Although we did get another truck so there will be people there until 11 or so tonight. This month we are getting as much stuff as we got for the last 3 months. Christmas stuff is starting to show up, but that is going in stock rooms until it's closer to Christmas. And we will have plenty of stock rooms because most of our fitting rooms are being converted to stock rooms.

Today was supposed to be my team lead's last day but our assistant manager told him on Thursday for that to be his last day and for him to take off the rest of the time he was supposed to work so he can pack and get ready to move to Mississippi. He came in briefly yesterday to say good bye to some people I saw him briefly and gave him a quick side hug and kind of said a sort of good bye. He was going to come in today so I didn't want to take up time for people who wouldn't be here today. But I guess he has been busy because he texted and asked when I was off (or he's coming in tonight , I don't know) and I told him and I said if I didn't get to see him again I would understand. I had a card for him but I could leave it with someone .

He texted back Nope! he was going to be in this weekend and he would see me face to face for a proper good bye and a proper good bye hug "we've experienced a lot together and it's been awesome getting to know you and I want a proper hug" .

So I'm feeling sad because he's been really supportive at work and a good sounding board when I've had some communication issues and struggles but he got this awesome promotion and I know he's going to do great at it.

And then the person who was going to replace him just put in their 2 weeks notice for a job out of retail. So... I'm a little nervous about whoever gets brought in to be the new team lead.