Day 1 of rollback - California Covid spike- governor shuts us down

Monday. 7/13/20.

Oh my. What a surprise. Shut down begins again. Read some of my previous posts where I rail against the Governor for opening too early. Here’s the latest:

The governor announced what amounted to one of the most sweeping rollbacks of efforts to reopen businesses, almost four months since the state became the first to impose a stay-at-home order. Statewide, bars are shuttered and NO in-door dining at any restaurant. Wineries, museums, and movie theaters must also shut down. Additionally, in 30 counties [the state has 58 counties, total] on the state’s monitoring list, where 80% of Californians live, indoor malls, churches, hair salons, gyms, and other types of businesses [read ‘lash lounges’ and ‘nail salons’] must close down unless they can operate outdoors.

For small businesses, this constant toggling between open, closed, and somewhere in between is a f—king nightmare. I read that thousands of California businesses are now closing for good…

6:30 - 7:30 - I’m awake so I listen to The Daily and Air Talk, then take the dog out. She pooped near the front door. Cheese.

7:30 - 8:30 - I have an important phone call with CalPERS regarding my retirement application at 8:30 and I don’t want to miss it. BC, state employees would walk into a regional CalPERS office and retire, in person, with the help of a CalPERS employee. That’s gone now. All CalPERS regional offices are closed indefinitely and everything is done online and by phone. My retirement began with me calling CalPERS last week and waiting on hold for 45 minutes, in order to schedule a telephone call 5 business days later, for 8:30 a.m., which is today.

The same applies to retiring from my agency. I have to separate from my agency, but my pension is through CalPERS and both my agency and CalPERS have to coordinate with each other. On Friday, I began filling out the online forms from the Retirement Checklist that were emailed to me by my agency’s HR, only to find out that I couldn’t access several of the forms on my computer, so I will have to go into work on Monday in order to download them there. On Saturday, I filed my online application for CalPERS retirement, without any guidance, whatsoever. I can only pray that I filled it out correctly.

In the meantime, my ex-husband is fixated on L.’s health insurance. This is all he has talked about for the past two months. My ex moved, so L. can’t be on his insurance anymore. I have to move L. to MY insurance and neither he nor I know how to do this. He’s obsessed with the fact that it’s against the law or some stupid policy violation for someone to have double coverage. I keep explaining that this applies to state employees who are trying to game the system, NOT an ex-husband and ex-wife who are earnestly trying to do the right thing in the midst of the Covid-19 era. This health insurance thing is the least of my problems. Imagine for a moment, dear reader, trying to retire from your agency and ensure you receive your monthly pension (which you have worked 23 years for), without being able to TALK to anyone…it is truly a nightmare.

L. is going through the same thing with her college. Parsons New School finally announced they are going virtual and nobody knows what that means. Simultaneously, Parsons Admissions and Records emailed L. that they don’t have her senior-year transcript. L. has an email from her high school’s Admissions and Records office showing that the transcript was emailed to Parsons. When L. emailed Parsons proof that it was sent, Parsons replied that they only take ‘mailed’ transcripts. So, L. called her high school again and they mailed the transcript weeks ago. Only, Parsons still doesn’t have it. This time, L. ‘called’ Parsons and spoke with whom she thought was a college intern. The intern confided that since there are no staff physically working at Parsons, there is nobody to open the mail and it is piling up. So why won’t they take ‘emailed’ transcripts?

7:45 - My ex texts me that he wants to talk about L.’s health insurance before my CalPERS phone call. I text that I’ll call him AFTER the phone call.

8:15 - My ex calls me (sigh) to talk about L.’s health insurance.

8:30 - 8:45 - I have a 15-minute conversation with someone I can’t really understand due to his accent. I hope this comment doesn’t come off as racist - it’s just that I can’t understand what he’s saying and the phone connection on his end is bad. I’m able to make out that I need to contact my agency to put L. on my insurance - CalPERS does not handle this. This and the fact that I will pay nothing for my health insurance (it’s free) is the only information I’m able to glean from the appointment that I scheduled five days ago.

8:45 - 9:45 - Overwhelmed, I get my coffee and escape to my book, Notes on a Silencing but remember that it’s trash day and scramble to get my trashcans out in time.

10:00-11:30 - My ex calls me (sigh) to talk about L.’s health insurance. We have a long conversation about L.’s college choices and how hard it is to retire solely online. Always the optimist, he’s supportive and says everything will work out in the end. He made me feel a little better.

L. leaves for work.

12:00 - 3:30 - Food prep for the week. I go through the refrigerator and see what I can salvage and what I need to toss. The sloppy joe mix I made a week ago is still in play - I had it at the beach yesterday - so I finish most of it for lunch with some chips and cheese. I trim the ends from the celery sticks that are stored to freshen them up and pull the best spinach leaves from the box before I toss it. I make two salads (one for today and one for work tomorrow) with the remaining leaves - the spinach turned and must be thrown out - and add tomatoes, onions, peas, and cubed cheese. Somewhere along the way, L. bought a basil EVOO salad dressing, so I try it on the salads.

I batch cook dinner for the week. L. rarely eats what I cook anymore so I typically double any given recipe (s) and eat that for dinner the rest of the week. I don’t mind eating the same thing over several days and this limits the amount of time I have to spend cooking. I make Tuna-Macaroni for the week and it’s somewhat labor-intensive because there is a lot to do. I make the macaroni from a box (one of the few processed items L. and I will eat), then add a can of salmon, cheese cubes, peas, and onions.

The kitchen looks like a bomb went off so I put everything away and clean it. I pack my breakfast in my lunch bag and prepare my coffee for tomorrow.

3:30-5:00 - Shower and I wash my hair again. Then, I braid it. I lay out my clothes for work tomorrow and check my work bag to see if there’s anything I need to bring. I then load all of my gear and equipment in the state vehicle so I can store it in my cubicle for when I process out. An entire shelf in the garage is now empty - it’s a good feeling.

5:00-6:00 - I check email from my state job and then send an email to “Ting”, my HR liaison regarding putting L. on my health insurance before I retire. Yes, this is one of the few times, if any, you will ever see an actual name in this blog. I couldn’t resist - my HR liaison’s name is Ting.

-One of our Experts is unable to access the “expert pkg” from the electronic drop box and has tried over several days with no success. My secretary and I can’t figure out the problem; neither can IT. For every day we can’t figure it out, another day passes preventing the Expert from conducting his review. I won’t miss this when I retire.

6:30 - 7:30 - L. comes home from work. I go through more retirement material that Ting emailed me last week.

7:30-9:00 - I spray the astroturf in the backyard and water all of my plants.

9:30-11:00 - L. and I watch Love After Lockup and scream at the TV. I have the absolute last of the sloppy joe mix. I’m really pushing it and hope I don’t get food poisoning.

11:00-12:00 - Night time ritual. Bed.