TWERKS & DDOTS May 7th

[186momx]

It's Thursday!

[186momx]

DDOT: I told DD what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. Let me sleep in and then I would like a breakfast burrito and a fancy coffee. I may like to go for a walk depending on my allergies and how many people are out and about but most of all I don't want to have to cook or clean up dishes all day. DD said she could make sure that happens. Tried to explain to DH last night and he grumbled about me wasting the day by sleeping in and if I would get up early we could all go get burritos and eat there (nope can't do that) and that if we left before 8 we could go out and walk at the reservoir park which is still closed. I was so annoyed because he didn't listen to me at all and I'm not asking for a lot plus I'm tired.

TWERK: so far opening the office this week has been going well. Our clients are mostly doing good with social distancing and not touching a ton of stuff. The weather has been decent so being able to have the door open helps a lot.

[covergirl82]

My governor (Whitmer - MI) just extended the stay home order until May 28. I can't guys, I just can't. Our hospitals are laying off staff due to so few patients. The curve is sufficiently flattened. Now she's just punishing people for protesting and for the lawsuit that the legislature filed against her yesterday (for acting unilaterally, which she proved again today that is exactly what she's doing).

[phdmomma]

I feel like mother's day is always rather disappointing. And in normal times, I try to take some time for myself the week following, while the kids are in school/daycare, and I can do something I really enjoy by myself. But I suspect that won't be happening this year.

[rere]

DS got VP for his club for his Senior Year! I am super proud. I am bummed that they didn't have an awards banquet. I have missed it the last 2 years for events we couldn't get out of with DD. They say they hope to reschedule in August.

I sent Dh a link for Texas Roadhouse Mother's Day Special. 4 raw steaks and seasoning, 4 potatoes, salad, rolls and cinnamon butter, and he actually did it!! Sounds great for Mother's Day for me, especially since who knows what I will actually get in my grocery pickup today.

[k3am]

Our county just banned car parades. CAR PARADES.

We have a car parade scheduled for DS's birthday on Wednesday. Nothing huge (maybe 6-7 cars total), we're not in a busy area so it won't block off streets or anything. Our neighbor is on the police force and we'll confirm with him later today, but I'm 100% sure his answer will be that our police force won't be enforcing it. Especially not in our neighborhood, where enforcement of anything is pretty rare.

I'm hopeful people still show up. Some of our friends are the same level of breezy as we are about stuff like that, others are hard core rule followers.

[k3am]

186momx, I bought my own bottle of champagne so I can have mimosas on Mother's Day. That will basically be the extent of celebrations, I'm sure. Unfortunately I don't think my co-teacher knows if they're going to happen at all, that he's responsible for making Mother's Day gifts from the kids.

[hocus2]

May 7, 2020 15:40:28 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

My governor (Whitmer - MI) just extended the stay home order until May 28. I can't guys, I just can't. Our hospitals are laying off staff due to so few patients. The curve is sufficiently flattened. Now she's just punishing people for protesting and for the lawsuit that the legislature filed against her yesterday (for acting unilaterally, which she proved again today that is exactly what she's doing).

Is 900 or so new infects per day really flattened?  I see that IHME thinks that plateau is caused by additional testing but it still doesn't seem like MI is down the mountain yet. I'm NYC and frankly we're not going to be back to any sort of normal for months so I get the cabin fever/sense of economic doom  but I am not sure she's wrong for extending the SIP order.  


covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/michigan

[mellym]

k3am, same with my co-teacher but he is getting me something from him. I will miss the cute kid art gifts this year.

I started wheezing so my doctor told me to go into our clinic's respiratory walk in clinic. They did a chest x-ray and I have pneumonia. I've never wheezed or had pneumonia before. It's not very much fun coughing and struggling to breathe. I know how two of my kiddos feel now. They also tested me for covid finally. The doctor said it was hard to get a test two weeks ago but now they're testing everyone with a cough. Progress! My oxygen levels are fine. It's still nerve wracking and making me anxious. I should get results in 3-5 days and supposed to continue to isolate. It's impossible to rest with DH working full time and the kids here. My Mom offered to come help watch the kids but I don't feel like I can expose her to whatever this is with her own respiratory issues.

Our office is moving forward with everyone reporting back into the office on May 26 unless you have kids and no childcare.

[supertrooper1]

I'm frustrated with work right now. It's busy and much of it seems avoidable. High volumes of data from our partners are bogging down the systems, creating backlogs, which then creates more emails. COVID-19 exemptions for some things are being put into place but announced before a full plan is thought out so we're left answering more emails that we don't know how to answer.

I'm trying to stay out of the drama at my old job, but I still hear bits and pieces. The horrible coworker that was one of the reasons I left now seems to be rewarded for her bad behavior. This was the incompetent leave abuser that was addicted to oxy. She somehow beat the agency and is now getting her old job back. It's bringing up bad memories and I don't miss that place at all.

[sdlaura]

Today is DH's birthday. His friend/coworker stopped by with fancy coffee for him this morning. I'm making an apple pie now, and my parents will come over for that after dinner. Then we have an 8:30 pm zoom (that he doesn't know about) and I sent cupcakes to two faraway couples and dropped off cupcakes for two local couples we're friends with so we could all eat treats together after singing happy birthday.

k3am that is so ridiculous about no car parades. Can no one have any fun anymore, even from a distance? We have a car parade Saturday and DD is really looking forward to it, since she keeps seeing them happen for other people.

[k3am]

sdlaura, we already had one go by this afternoon. Our police officer neighbor is actually taking a patrol car to one tomorrow... so at least I'm not worried about about DS's now!

[traveltheworld]

The kids have gotten 2 frogs from the nearby pondm. After much begging from the kids, I told them they could keep the frogs for a day and we'll return them to the pond tomorrow. Of course one jumped out when DD was playing with it and now we can't find it. I'm super upset about it. I know I'm being dramatic but I just feel awful that I let the kids keep the frogs and now one is dead.

Yup. That's pretty much my update.

[erinshelley21]

DD has been rocking potty training. She is having a couple accidents per week, but her more recent accident happened because she sat down before she pulled her pants down lol. If she makes it to Sunday without another I'm not counting it and she can pick a reward toy. She has pooped on the toilet 2 days in a row, due in large part to reward ice cream, so hopefully that sticks. I'm so tired of cleaning poop out of panties, or just throwing panties away depending on what is happening at that moment.

DS is starting to struggle with social distancing I think. He has always been a pretty emotional kid, but its been happening a lot this week. He got to see his teacher in person today. She is a friend of DH's family and DH had to pick up a trailer. DH said her and DS hugged like 4 times. I'm not mad or worried at all. I'm more happy than anything. I've arranged for our nephews to stop by Saturday (it also gets them out of their house and drama there) so hopefully I'll have my boy back soon!

[waverly]

I think we are entering the crabbier weeks of the shelter in place. We are trying to get out, but I think everyone is over it. I was super crabby the last 3 days and DH hit a wall today.

In good news since I told my boss the board needs to make the decision he backed all the way off and went with my original date. I was trying to compromise and do one week earlier, but he know the board President is scared of this virus, so he thinks they would be not in favor of having staff in sooner.

[mae0111]

mellym - I hope you start to feel better soon!

DD1 has been really difficult this week. Tons of screaming, tons of nastiness with her sister. I’m truly exhausted. Normally after a week like this, DH and I would try to sneak out for a date night. But obviously that’s not going to work.

Mother’s Day will be uneventful. We will go to my parents’ and sit outside, but otherwise probably not much. There is talk of snow here on Saturday, which makes me sad.

[Katiedid]

May 7, 2020 15:40:28 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

My governor (Whitmer - MI) just extended the stay home order until May 28. I can't guys, I just can't. Our hospitals are laying off staff due to so few patients. The curve is sufficiently flattened. Now she's just punishing people for protesting and for the lawsuit that the legislature filed against her yesterday (for acting unilaterally, which she proved again today that is exactly what she's doing).

I’m going to take a wild guess and say you live on the West side of the state? The curve is not sufficiently flattened. This is the most ridiculous response to the shelter in place order. I too live in Michigan and our governor is doing a fantastic job. She’s listening to the data, not the morons protesting.

[callmekd]

May 7, 2020 16:29:16 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

May 7, 2020 15:40:28 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

My governor (Whitmer - MI) just extended the stay home order until May 28. I can't guys, I just can't. Our hospitals are laying off staff due to so few patients. The curve is sufficiently flattened. Now she's just punishing people for protesting and for the lawsuit that the legislature filed against her yesterday (for acting unilaterally, which she proved again today that is exactly what she's doing).

Is 900 or so new infects per day really flattened?  I see that IHME thinks that plateau is caused by additional testing but it still doesn't seem like MI is down the mountain yet. I'm NYC and frankly we're not going to be back to any sort of normal for months so I get the cabin fever/sense of ecconomic but I am not sure she's wrong for extending the SIP order.  


covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/michigan

I’m guessing MN will be extending longer too. Our cases are still rising but manageable. But we have a republican controlled state senate that is mad and pushing on the Gov.

[mustardseed2007]

May 7, 2020 18:40:14 GMT -5 k3am said:

sdlaura , we already had one go by this afternoon. Our police officer neighbor is actually taking a patrol car to one tomorrow... so at least I'm not worried about about DS's now!

We're going to DS' BFF's birthday car parade today! 

I can't imagine why those aren't ok?


Truly no one in the ones I've done gets out of their car (we did pull over a block away to wave at people ourselves). 

[twinmomma]

Are the parades banned because of traffic? That's so strange!

It seems like around here people have taken to just putting "Honk for the birthday kid" signs or telling friends "Drive by between this window of time and honk" instead of trying to organize actual parades. We're driving by a friend's house this afternoon and I'll probably do the same kind of thing for the girls in a few weeks.

[polecat8]

PA just extended stay in place to June 4th. But counties can go to yellow phase if their numbers stay low. Yellow phase means some stores, day cares, car dealers, and real estate offices can open.
I think our governor is doing the best that he can. All of his decisions are data driven and all of the policies are published on the state website. There are some angry people, but no major clashes for the most part.
I'm starting to settle in to working from home long term. My company is moving to a smaller office in the same building to save money on our lease. Since we have been so productive, the CEO is starting to come around to work from home options. He is very old-school and thinks that you must be in the office to get anything done.

My biggest complaint right now is the weather. We have had freeze warnings all week. The highs have been in the 40s. What happened to spring? The kids have been stuck inside and it is starting to show. Yesterday, my coworkers could hear my kids yelling upstairs while I was on a conference call downstairs. Better weather is coming, but not until next Thursday.

[rere]

May 7, 2020 18:41:50 GMT -5 traveltheworld said:

The kids have gotten 2 frogs from the nearby pondm. After much begging from the kids, I told them they could keep the frogs for a day and we'll return them to the pond tomorrow. Of course one jumped out when DD was playing with it and now we can't find it. I'm super upset about it. I know I'm being dramatic but I just feel awful that I let the kids keep the frogs and now one is dead.

Yup. That's pretty much my update.

DD tried to bring home a turtle from our walk this week.  Umm.. no kid.  Turtles live forever.  She thinks this is totally unreasonable.  If we don't get this kid out soon, she's going to have a zoo.  

[waverly]

Can I just vent one minute. I've literally been the one to do all the work on the re-opening plan despite the fact it is really the directors and boards job to do. The director has been busy with the budget, and I know he doesn't have time to do it. Why he didn't have the budget nailed earlier, I don't know.  

All people do is question and try to poke holes in my plan, meanwhile I am the one doing all the work. And if they would just read the document all their questions would be answered. In all fairness, I was just adding to it the morning before the meeting, but if that is the topic then maybe bring it up and read before the meeting. And now he wants me and this other person to present it to the board. The reason I don't want to be director is I don't want to work with a board. They are very painful, and I already went to a board meeting already this year.

They are fraught with issues. For example he would ask me to come and then not put me on the agenda. That happened 3 times, after the first time I started reading the agenda and not showing up if I wasn't on there. He wouldn't tell me, he would just forget or on purpose IDK (but I think forget), and then just cut me after he asked me to be there and then not tell me he cut me.

And plus also since he hasn't done any of the work then at least he could do the presenting, right? And it's an in person socially distanced meeting with masks. Maybe I can zoom in? But probably not since they are all 6 feet away from each other.  Plus my co-worker offered to be there, so I don't know why I need to be there as well. 

ETA- Also he likes to bring up half baked ideas to the board that are not in the plan, and put me on the spot with them which wastes time because the half baked idea is not feasible. 

[covergirl82]

May 7, 2020 21:05:42 GMT -5 Katiedid said:

May 7, 2020 15:40:28 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

My governor (Whitmer - MI) just extended the stay home order until May 28. I can't guys, I just can't. Our hospitals are laying off staff due to so few patients. The curve is sufficiently flattened. Now she's just punishing people for protesting and for the lawsuit that the legislature filed against her yesterday (for acting unilaterally, which she proved again today that is exactly what she's doing).

I’m going to take a wild guess and say you live on the West side of the state? The curve is not sufficiently flattened. This is the most ridiculous response to the shelter in place order. I too live in Michigan and our governor is doing a fantastic job. She’s listening to the data, not the morons protesting.

We can agree to disagree.  The SIP was originally put in place to give the hospitals time to prepare and have capacity, which has been accomplished.  She has moved the goal post.  Tell me one hospital that is at or near capacity.  Total cases since the beginning of March equates to approximately 0.5% of the population (with total deaths being about 0.04%), but there is over 10% of the population that has filed an unemployment claim (so far, some people still can't get through to even file, so I'm sure it's more than 10% who are unemployed), so unemployment is a greater issue.  Mental health is also a big issue.

www.crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/total-number-covid-19-cases-michigan-tops-45000  The graph at the bottom shows no curve for Outstate MI, although hospitalizations have gone down for the last week or so.  Given the population of MI, I would guess most of those hospitalizations are from West MI (GR-Holland-Muskegon).

I also see the bigger picture and longer-term impact:  Healthy people's immune systems will continue to weaken the longer we are prevented from interacting with other people.  So when SIP is lifted, more people will get sick in general due to a weakened immune system.  You don't quarantine healthy people for that reason.

And with regard to the "morons protesting," the Constitution was not meant to give the government power to constrain the citizens, it was to give the citizens power to constrain the government.  I think a lot of people need a refresher on why the Revolutionary War was fought and why a system of checks and balances was set up for governmental branches.  "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin  (And keep in mind that Hitler quarantined Jews in ghettos for the "safety"  and "health" of the non-Jewish Germans.  The ghettos were one step before the extermination camps. (https://www.ushmm.org))

[waverly]

covergirl82, I can understand your perspective in above paragraphs. I may not agree, but I can understand some points.

But it's some kind of racist bullshit to compare a Holocaust to a Pandemic, FFS.

[twinmomma]

May 8, 2020 9:54:35 GMT -5 waverly said:

covergirl82 , I can understand your perspective in above paragraphs. I may not agree, but I can understand some points.

But it's some kind of racist bullshit to compare a Holocaust to a Pandemic, FFS.

Thank you. I've been sitting here just.... staring... trying to figure out how not getting a haircut for safety reasons is the same as the Holocaust. I just... no words. 

[mommyatty]

There’s a reason the Michigan protestors were waving swastikas and Confederate flags and carrying guns into a government building. And it ain’t because they are great supporters of democracy.

The protestors who were armed should have been shot by state police the moment they forcibly entered the Capitol. If nurses protesting lack of PPE today showed up armed and entered the White House forcibly, you can guarantee they would be shot on sight.

[covergirl82]

May 8, 2020 10:15:15 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

There’s a reason the Michigan protestors were waving swastikas and Confederate flags and carrying guns into a government building. And it ain’t because they are great supporters of democracy.

The protestors who were armed should have been shot by state police the moment they forcibly entered the Capitol. If nurses protesting lack of PPE today showed up armed and entered the White House forcibly, you can guarantee they would be shot on sight.

They did not forcibly enter the Capitol.  Everyone who was inside had their temp taken before entering.  In Michigan, it is legal to carry a gun inside the Capitol building; some lawmakers carry a gun on Capitol grounds/inside the building.  I wasn't there, but heard from reliable sources.  I can't speak to the swastikas and Confederate flags, but I would be against people carrying either of those.  And if there were any people there with either of those, leave it to the media to find those people.  (Keep in mind all the fake pictures recently the media put out with "packed beaches" that were false.)

[covergirl82]

May 8, 2020 9:56:43 GMT -5 twinmomma said:

May 8, 2020 9:54:35 GMT -5 waverly said:

covergirl82 , I can understand your perspective in above paragraphs. I may not agree, but I can understand some points.

But it's some kind of racist bullshit to compare a Holocaust to a Pandemic, FFS.

Thank you. I've been sitting here just.... staring... trying to figure out how not getting a haircut for safety reasons is the same as the Holocaust. I just... no words. 

I was comparing Hitler's method of propaganda and dividing people and how he framed it as being for their safety and for their good. 

[covergirl82]

So anyways, I think I need to take a break from here for a while. Take care everyone.