Day 51 - Governor Newsom imposes new restrictions

Walmart (sigh)…

1/5/21. Tuesday

The vaccine situation is dire. Operation Warp Speed said 20 million Americans were going to be vaccinated by the end of December. As of the date of this blog, 4 million Americans were ‘allegedly’ vaccinated. I say ‘allegedly’ because I have no way of sourcing this data. President-elect Biden says that at the rate the vaccination is going, it will take us 5 years to vaccinate our countrymen and women.

Apparently, vaccines are, in fact, being shipped to hospitals and stored in their freezers, where they…sit. There is no coordinated vaccine campaign because the hospitals don’t have staffing so once the hospitals are done “jabbing” [as the Brits say] their own front-line staff, the remaining vaccines are left in the freezer. Governors are not involved in vaccine dissemination, preferring to burden their counties and hospitals with this task, yet providing no resources. Governor Cuomo actually threatened to fine hospitals if they don’t get their shit together and start vaccinating people. How about providing medical staff for them? Are we really going to rely on a few over-worked, traumatized, burned-out medial employees to vaccinate 330 million people? This is as bad as Trump telling the Governors, “You’re on your own” when Covid-19 hit in February 2020.

Due to the fact that the American people are fucked and our federal government is incapable of disseminating a vaccine, there has been a huge push to vaccinate Americans with ONE dose…NOT the 2-dose requirement that is needed to ensure 95% efficacy. Political pundits are saying that 1 dose will give you…hmmm…I don’t know…around 80% efficacy…and that should be fine. The issue is compounded by the fact that as soon as the vaccine is thawed, medical staff have just 6 hours to disseminate it. Hospitals can’t seem to coordinate a vaccination program and with a mere 6-hour window, it’s safer to let the vaccine sit in the freezer.

Or, you can do what the Northern California hospital in Mendocino County did. Their freezer was holding 800 doses when it malfunctioned. Hospital staff got on the horn and began calling prisons as they frantically tried to unload the virus in a mere 6 hours.

I like Governor DeSantis’ [Florida] model. “First come, first served” and the line of “blue-hairs” was 10 miles deep, similar to the Florida polling places - in Democratic districts, of course - during the 2020 election. Seniors drove hundreds of miles in their RVs and camped out for over 2 to 3 days in order to receive their vaccine. And that was just for the first dose. Thank God they’re retired - this allows them the time to repeat the process in three weeks, IF they want 95% effectiveness.

But, what’s this?…I’m hearing more whisperings…what are these voices saying now?…There is a suggestion that is picking up steam, as a result of our epic failure to vaccinate quickly and effectively, to only give Americans a…HALF-dose of the vaccine. You know…like if one dose is 80% effective, well…hey, a half-dose is 40% and…better than nothing. 40% is still an F, people! I also read that if an individual had a mild case of Covid-19, he/she will be immune for around 3 months - then it’s back to being vulnerable like the rest of us. If you contracted Covid and were really sick, you have a 6-month immunity window. I don’t know how accurate this information is.

The most troubling aspect of all of this is that medical staff across the country have been refusing vaccination. In some areas, medical staff refusal is as high as 50%. In San Bernardino, there is a 60% refusal rate collectively. Do they know something I don’t know?

1/5/21. Tuesday

9:00 – 9:30 -  Up and I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog.  She pooped in two places today – next to the front door and in the middle of the dining room.  When we go outside, I see she also pooped on the patio so I clean it up.  I water two of my plants.  Back inside and pieces of chicken for her, coffee for me.

9:30-10:30 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up.

10:30-11:00 – I leave for my therapy session. Today is also “Errand Day.”

11:00-11:30 – Therapy session.  It goes well.

11:30-12:45 – I need an oil change so I drive down the street to Jiffy Lube. When I arrive, staff tells me it’s a 1-hr wait. I was here last summer and thought nothing of sitting in the waiting room with other people, as long as we were masked.  I can’t believe I felt like that just a few, short months ago.  Today, sitting with others in an enclosed space is inconceivable. I see several customers sitting on a curb outside while they wait, social distancing.  I also see a stone patio table and decide to sit there.  I pull out my netbook and work on a blog post while I wait.

12:45 – 1:30 - Oil change is done.

I drive to Walmart to return a bathing suit that I ordered online; it’s too big and doesn’t fit right. I’m also returning an Oral-B electric toothbrush that I never ordered but was packed in a box of items that I received. I should note that I was never charged for the Oral-B electric toothbrush so, conceivably, I could keep it or give it to someone else with none the wiser, but I want to do the right thing.

Walmart is packed and there’s a long line at Customer Service.  Covid is spiking in California and I’m seriously re-considering standing in this line just so I can return a $16.00 bathing suit, even though I’m double-masked.  All of us are standing on social distance circles, but I wonder about this next point: As we move forward from one social-distance circle to another, aren’t we immediately breathing the person’s germ-cloud who was directly in front of us, standing for at least 5 minutes?  Even if everybody is masked? The woman in front of me is wearing scrubs and tightly masked but who really knows how exposure works? 

When I finally get to the cashier, he says he can’t refund my purchase because I already started the return process at home.  He takes the Oral-B box, though. I explain that I started the return process through my Walmart account and was instructed to print out the return label, but when I do, there is no return label – it’s blank.  Although very polite, he says he can’t help me.  He does add that the vendor is located in Hong Kong.  Great.

I leave with my bathing suit, having jeopardized my health for nothing.

1:30 – 2:00 – Back in my car, I drive to Pick-up on the other side of the parking lot to get two items that I ordered for a garden project I’m designing.  After 10 minutes, an employee answers the phone, but doesn’t have my order because I’m at the wrong Walmart. Great.  At least, this time, I’m in my car.

2:00-2:45 –I have had nothing to eat all day, but I just want to get “Walmart” off  my errand list.  I drive to the Walmart on McBean. Pick-up is a huge cargo hangar on the far side of the parking lot.  When I reach the entrance, it says only Walmart employees can enter.  I actually have to go inside to pick-up my garden project.  I spend a few minutes debating this and ultimately decide to go in – I’m sure it won’t take long and any potential viral load will be minimal. However, I’m dismayed to find that Pick-up is at the very back of the store!!!, so I have to walk the entire length of Walmart to pick up $7.00 of materials that I ordered because Walmart refused to deliver those items, which weigh 2 pounds and are only 7” by 12” [inches, NOT feet].

I take the “walk of death” and/or “the walk of infection”, arrive at the appropriate area, and present my bar code only to be told I’m at the wrong Walmart. How many Walmarts do we have in this community?

2:45 – 4:30 – I give up, momentarily, and drive home for lunch.  I have the last of L.’s pasta dish and a pre-made salad I prepared. I read a Money Diary.

L. is working at the Art Studio today.

4:30 – 5:00 - Errand day, unfortunately, is not over so I press on and brave the elements (Covid-19)

To the 99 Cent Store so I can buy a b-day card for L.  The store is largely empty – I’m double-masked and in-and-out in 10 minutes.

5:00-5:45 – To CVS to get batteries for our garage door remotes and standard envelopes, so I can use my 30% coupon and a $6.00 coupon.  I decide, on a whim, to purchase a bottle of Cooks as I haven’t had that brand in 10 months and forgot what it tastes like.

5:45-6:15 – To Kohls to use my $5.00 Kohls cash for a gift for L.  She requested a bottle of Marc Jacobs’, Decadence, but they don’t have it.  Kohls is deserted but I do NOT want to spend time browsing just so I can use $5.00 of free money. The perfume isn’t here and I immediately leave.

Throughout “Errand Day”, I continuously ask myself, “What is my health worth? A 30% coupon and $11 in CVS and Kohls Cash?”  The items I’m searching for, or ultimately end up purchasing in a brick-and-mortar store, could have been ordered online…

6:15-6:30 – Home. Not hungry.

7:00 – 9:00 – I purge files G through L in my filing cabinet, then scan all of my tax information to my tax man in preparation for our conference call on 1/12/21.  If you read this blog, you know my scanner is a piece of shit and scanning a few documents takes forever.

-I check Walmart.com about the bathing suit I’m trying to return and note that a new instruction has posted.  It says “Return complete” and yet, when I check my credit card statement online, there is NO credit posted to my account.  I order another one-piece and make sure it’s American-made – Hong Kong be damned.

-I download the photos I took of my exterior Xmas lights to my Walgreens photo account and select “shipping” as the method of delivery, even though it costs me an extra $4.00.  After ‘Errand Day’, I  want to go inside as few stores as possible until the California Covid-19 spike [or is it the B.1.1.7. spike now?? – who knows?] is under control.

-My Distance Education course came through via College No. 2!  I’m officially enrolled, so I open it up and complete the first two modules.  Only 13 more to go (sigh).

-I check email from Pasadena City College.  Still nothing on the French Cinema course that I’m trying to enroll in.

9:00-10:00 – I work on blog posts.

10:00 – 12:30 – L. is up for watching The Wilds and we watch another two episodes while I have some leftover salad and champagne.  I’ve forgotten how tasty Cooks is….

12:30-1:15 – L. is working on some art assignments for school and shows me her progress.  We talk about her first week of classes and how it’s going.  L. mentions that she might need some cardboard for  a few art projects, so I check our recycling trashcan and pull out several “good” pieces that I set aside in the garage.

1:15-4:00 – more blog posts.

4:30-5:00 – Nighttime routine and bed.