Covid, ridiculous protests causing citywide curfews & NOWHERE to escape to.
Sorry for the rant but with the onset of these stupid BLM riots & ensuing curfews on top of everything Closed due to Covid; I really think I'm losing it! I used to be able to go to the bar & shoot a few games of pool and talk for a couple hours with friends on the occasional Sat evening; at the local pool tourney. Mom doesn't understand having to wear a mask for the store or to get her hair done let alone remembering it an hour later. If I make a sound, she's up like a shot and hounding me to come downstairs and stare at the boob tube. I can't work on my cars, **she complains I don't care to spend time with her**. I can't stay upstairs to clean (GOD know how Bad I need to clean & organize) w/o her; **response **. If I'm upstairs trying to sleep and go to the bathroom during that time, **response**. I try to get her up before I try to do something for myself and she wants another 5-10-15 min so after an hour I tell her I gotta do something, **response**. BTW, I'm also one of the few that I know of that are under 60, divorced, has LO living with them, over-employeed (5-12's/wk), on swingshift & haven't been able to get ahead finacially for the last 5 years because of her condition because of having to lose 1 job. My current one allows FMLA W/O pay but takes away all vac, personal & sick time but forces you to take your mandatory 2-4 week vac every year due to contract stipulations related to the stressful nature of the job but refuses to fight to get our vac pay "safe" if you have FMLA. Just shoot me. I have NO escape until the world regains their sanity before I lose mine!!!!!
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DH is WFH and he needs it to be quiet, as he is often on long calls.
Funny, as much as I thought how much I'd enjoy a period of time where I would clean and organize some much needed areas of my home, I have found that my anxiety level is so high, I can't focus.
I get outside as much as possible, so that's a plus.
We're outside of a larger city, but no rioting or real enforced curfews.
COVID is here to stay, and all we can do is be careful and wait and pray for a vaccine. I had a chemo infusion last week (had cancer last year this is the FU treatment) and my oncologist said that even WITH a proven vaccination, 40% of the population won't take it. Same as flu vaccines.
People are outside and most families I know are meeting and hanging out together.
I don't have a mother or father to look after--just my immunosuppressed DH and myself. Dh forgets to wear a mask, and I do hassle him about that--saying 'You may think you won't get this, but if you do, it will probably kill you. And, hey, you could give it to me!" So he's about 75% compliant.
My 90 yo mother gets out once a week. YB takes her to the grocery store and she sits in the car with a mask on. It's really stupid, but she feels like she's been 'out'.
Make sure you have a place in your home that is all yours and retreat to it when you can. Even with just DH and me, I need to be able to get away from him. And he definitely needs space from me!!
Toward the end of the CV safer at home in our area, Mom would go on a rant 1-2 afternoons a week where she demanded we go visit someone, anyone, right NOW! After explaining we couldn't go visit today, trying to distract her various ways (including planning tomorrow's visits), I finally settled her into her recliner (which she cannot get out of without my help) turned off the baby monitor I use to listen to my mother and used a camera without sound to keep an eye on her while I relaxed in my room, or cleaned in the kitchen. Mom did keep up a one sided dialog for a while, but eventually gave up when I didn't respond. It wasn't ideal, but it did allow me/us to have a break for 1-2 hours.
A good way to blow steam off the pressure of not being able to accommodate the request.
This made my day imagining her giving you the what for in silent pictures🤣
Even though both my parents had passed a few years ago, I wonder how they would react to the virus. I can't imagine my Mom wanting to wear a mask. Dad would.
The way I deal with the virus limitations is to think back to the times of when my grandparents had lived. Imagine life without a cellphone [kind of hard to carry around that large wooden box known as a wall telephone, ring ring].... no computers.... no television... no light bulbs, my Dad did his school work by kerosene lamp as the house had no electricity.
No two zone heat. Heat came from a kerosene furnace that warmed the main floor rooms. On the ceiling were open registers that you could see upstairs when the floor registers were opened, that was the way the heat got to the upstairs.
Oh, the bath room was the little house behind the big house, imagine going out there at night, had to light a candle or use moon light. Interesting part, my Dad and his brothers were never bored. What did my grandparents do for a living? Farming. No paid vacations, no paid sick leave, no FMLA, no health insurance, no social security, no Medicare.
Makes one appreciate what they do have now a days, even during the pandemic.
If you have a front porch or front steps, go outside for a break and watch whatever is in your neighborhood. I have a bird feeder and it is so cute and comical watching baby birds flying for the first time. They can't get the hang of landing yet :)
Thankfully you are working. I am in the process of closing up a business that my boss started over 50 years ago. He thought the C-19 virus was overblown, a hoax, etc. He died of the virus last month. If only he would have worked from home, and STAYED home. He had a zest for life.
Keep safe.
We need to be kind.
We need to be smart.
We need to think globally, or at least locally!
We need to respect the rules that are trying to keep us safe.
We need to love more and judge less.
We need to remember we are ALL in this together.
We need to re-examine our feelings about racism and equality and how it affects each and every one of us.
We need to slow the pace of our lives a little and do a good thing daily.
Millions dead of a virus around the world, but oh no, I can't go to a bar or play pool.
Corona Karen, I dub thee.
Once there is a proven vaccine, and it's been made widely available to those who want it, my thought is life can go back to "normal", whatever that looks like. If you choose not to get the vaccine, and you get the virus, that's on you. This also goes for the "innocent bystanders" who would contract it from symptomless others. If you have the vaccine, you won't get it.
Right now there is no way to prevent becoming infected. Wearing a mask and social distancing are our best options. Once those who want the vaccine, when available, have had an opportunity to get it, my feeling is that those who choose not to get it are on their own. Why wear a condom when you've had a vasectomy and you only have one partner?
It really sounds as though you need to start researching placements in your area, depending of course, on how COVID is behaving in your area.
If caring for your mom is having an impact on your ability to make a living and save for YOUR retirement, other arrangements need to be made.
My opinion only.
My mom's mantra was "I never want to cost my children money". I had to give up a second job, even though mom was in care; I felt obliged to visit her once a week and she was 90 minutes away. I couldn't do that on one weekend day and do my second teaching job on the other weekend day; it left me with no time at all to re-charge.
Hoping that things have eased up a bit in your area.