Greetings from week five of Social Distancing and Isolation!
We’re all mad here.
In this edition of “Cari attempts to resurrect her defunct blog” I’m putting together random quick thoughts. Let’s all find out together how many there will be.
1. Home schooling is the PITS. I hate trying to pay attention to my own work whilst also answering questions, playing IT professional, and acting as resident therapist for my kids. We’ve had tears and breakdowns. We’ve had mandatory Google Meet band lessons that were unmitigated disasters – why OH WHY does 5th grade band think that introducing new music is a GOOD idea right now?! We’ve had missed assignments and asinine requirements from teachers who think GPS tracking my kid is the only way to prove he did the work. (It’s GYM CLASS. Simmah down there, hoss.) I do, of course, recognize that the teachers and administration are doing their best in an unprecedented situation. We are all just hanging on to our butts and hoping for the best. Some days, though, “best” is defined as “NO ONE CRIED TODAY.”
2. Related to topic one, last week Governor Wolf finally announced what I’d been bracing myself to hear for two weeks – schools are closed for the remainder of the year. Remote learning is the new norm. Seniors to graduate; all others to move up. I’m mostly sad about this because I can see my kids struggling with the fact that school no longer has any kind of social aspect to it. All work and no play and all that. But, the district has announced they’re finalizing a plan to move to a pass/fail grading system for the fourth quarter of the school year and I’m hoping that’s going to take some stress off the kids. Trying to maintain their grades in the face of all this has been draining.
3. Continuing on that topic, SWEET FANCY MOSES, some of the Moms in the school district need to unbunch their panties from their butt cracks. They heard about pass/fail and flipped out. MY GOD, THIS IS SO UNFAIR TO THEIR CHILD WHO HAS WORKED HARD TO KEEP UP. The general gist being that, if your kid is struggling, they’re just LAZY and don’t deserve to have “the playing field leveled” in their favor. The local universities are doing pass/fail on an opt-in basis, meaning students can choose pass/fail or a straight grade, and BY GOD, we should do the same! Of course, we’re not a university and shouldn’t act like one but don’t let that keep you from going off, Karen. I will say that quite a number of other mothers voiced support of the plan and those that felt their precious snowflake was getting the shaft quite neatly had their asses handed to them.
4. The one decision that the Governor has made that was completely bass ackward is that he closed down the liquor stores in the state. Let me give some quick background – PA is the next best thing to living Prohibition times. When I moved here 20 years ago, beer was available at beer distributors by the case. You could buy a six pack at a ridiculous mark up at a bar. Wine and liquor were only available at the state stores. END OF STORY. Over the last 20 years the rules have relaxed a bit. You can get a selection of beer and wine in some grocery stores but you must pay for it separately from the rest of your grocery order at a special check out. Breweries have exploded and so being able to buy growlers and such right from the source became a thing. We have a number of local distilleries, too, and you can buy from them direct but their product, while good, is expensive. However, most liquor and wide selections of wine as well as cordials like vermouth are still only available at the state stores. Which are now closed. Beer distributors are still open because they are not state owned and are actually classified as “convenience stores” so they slipped through the shut down orders. But if you want booze you are shit out of luck.
Neighboring states – NY, MD, DE, OH, WV – have now all closed their borders to PA residents who try to buy booze. Cops are pulling over PA plates at the border to find out where you’re going and what you’re doing. Liquor stores have been told not to sell to anyone with an out of state ID. And still, we cannot get booze.
So they decided, after having the stores closed for 2.5 weeks, to open up the website associated with the state stores and allow online purchasing and shipping. Can you guess what happened when 12.5 million alcohol starved isolated homeschooling PA residents tried to buy liquor? I’m sure you can.
The website is now metered. They fill only a certain number of orders per day and it’s a crapshoot whether they let you on to order or not. I’ve tried literally hundreds of time (I refresh it multiple times throughout the day) and I’ve had no joy.
So. Isolation is about get real cozy with beer. And the grocery store offerings of wine are going to be picked over so enjoy the cheap stuff, Cari!
5. Then there’s all the scary stuff happening. I read today that we’re on the verge of a meat shortage in this country because of the way COVID is hitting meat packing plants. Trump said today that “when somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total.” He said this in reference to overruling governors on state shelter-in-place orders. He’s becoming more authoritarian and more unhinged by the day and he just plain scares me. There’s rumblings that we’re looking at a vaccine taking at least a year and we don’t even know if immunity from catching this shitty virus is strong enough to prevent reinfection. I saw that at least one east coast University is considering not having students return to campus until January of 2021. Meanwhile, all the government wants to do is send me a measly $1200 check and pat me on the head then turn around give millions to their corporate buddies like the airlines and gas and oil folks. THEN, they use FEMA to seize shipments of PPE to states and hospitals so that the Feds can turn around and line their own pockets by auctioning it to the highest bidder. Millions are going to die and I’m terrified. I keep looking around at the people I care about and wondering which one I’m going to lose. Or will it be me instead? I should probably have a will, huh?
6. Let’s close on some good stuff. I still have my job and have work to keep me busy for the foreseeable future. I’m still able to make rent and pay my other bills and feed my children and myself. NO ONE I LOVE IS SICK. I’m dating a person whose mere presence lowers my stress level and keeps me going. The spring flowers are blooming. I have an 18 pack of toilet paper.
Entry one, Coronavirus Diaries, complete.
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