Day 129 Pandemic 2020

Now more than three months into working from home due to Covid-19 I look at things different than I did at the beginning. I miss the people I work with. I chat with them using instant messenger but haven't seen but two people from work in four months. I don't miss everything. I don't miss wearing work clothes to work. I enjoy wearing shorts and being barefoot. Since May I walk everyday before work then come home and post on Facebook about my walk, the sunrise and what I see and hear along the way. I don't ask when we will be going back to work at the office. Not sure I want to. The company sends an email to everyone if someone from the office tests positive but I haven't been there in so long I don't have to worry. I do worry about the people that are still working at the office. When you see someone has called out it is concerning. 

When I wrote in May I sat in a room with people from the Historical Society I belong to and no one in that room knew anyone directly that had the virus. Today that is different. Not only does one of the people from the Historical Society spouse have it and has been hospitalized and returned home. I now know three people in the same family that have it and one friend has had a relative that died. One of the people I know has recovered except can't smell or taste and the another only recently tested positive and has a cough. As you can see there are different severity of this disease. There are different symptoms and much different recovery times. Yes this is now much closer than at the beginning where I couldn't name a name or even a person that knew a person. So as time changes my situation has changed my actions. 

Back at the end of June it became mandatory if you are in a public place you need to wear a mask or some sort of face covering. Still this doesn't seem to be full proof because one person gets the virus and brings it home. Then you get a house of people with the virus but if they don't know they have it now they are sharing it. I now have multiple masks and wear one when I am inside a public place. I am still lax around family which probably isn't the smartest thing. If you go to a restaurant you have to wear the mask until you are seated at a table then you can remove it. When you are ready to get up from the table you must put your mask back on to leave the table. A few months ago I wouldn't have done this but I wouldn't eat inside either. It is now too hot to always choose to eat outside if we want to go out and yes we still want to venture out I am going to wear a mask when in close proximity to others.

Now that we are almost to August the question of when kids should go back to school and how should they attend school is a hot button. My feel is if the people making this decision aren't meeting in person then how can they expect to send teachers and students back to the classroom together. Kids will be kids and yes after a period of time some are going to learn to understand you can't take a drink out of Sally's juice box and you can't share a piece of chewing gum with your boyfriend but that is going to take time. Probably more than the two extra weeks that they are talking about delaying the start of school. Counties have given parents choices on how they want their kids to attend school. Do they want them back in a classroom or to learn at home. Some kids are not going to do as well at home and others are going to be fearful for going back to school. I don't know which way I would lean. I feel that the interaction with other kids is very important but how do you decide.  

The State of Florida now has over 400,000 cases compared to at the beginning of May it was only 40,000 and Pinellas County over 14,600 and in May was 828. Here is the thing with the statistics other than the fact that we have found out over the last month that some testing facilities are only reporting their positive cases and some people that have gone to be tested and left before the test was completed but had filled out the paperwork were reported as positive cases. All of this information not only skews the statistics but it also makes a person wonder. If these are the things that we know what do we still not know? And as I think about the numbers over 1,200 people have been hospitalized for Covid-19 but how many were only there for a day or two and got better? Since in Pinellas County if only 367 people have died from it does it mean the other 14,300 have gotten better? How long is the recovery time for those that do get better? So, I just end up with more questions the more I look into the facts. 

I don't know where all this is leading. I suppose in a few more weeks I will be writing again about more craziness. I wonder if during the Spanish Flu the people of that time did they know what it was and how to not get it or was it just all of a sudden people started getting really sick and dying? Just more questions. Be safe out there. The world is continuously changing and not much for the better.

Day 55 Pandemic 2020

Now that we are well into the second month of dealing with the Pandemic of 2020. I am not sure if I am more or less afraid of contracting the virus. Part of me would like to believe I am one of the many asymptomatic people that have already had it and by being home all the time I have not exposed others and will easily be able to move back on into whatever the new normal life becomes. The other part of me goes out to the grocery store once a week and worries that when I come home that I could have gotten it. Maybe not from personal contact but from a box a cereal I picked up. The more I read and watch on the internet the less you know what to believe. The virus only lasts a few hours on that box of cereal or does it last a few days. One so called expert said that you should leave the mail or your groceries outside as long as you can before bringing them into your house. That isn't really a Florida thing there would be all kinds of critters in your groceries. I am sure that people that live in the wilderness couldn't do that as well. That bear might eat the ice cream or your stimulus check.

The Florida Department of Health has a dashboard of information to make it easy to see and since the last post in regards to the Pandemic my assessment was correct we seemed to have hit our peak of new cases on April 3. As of today 35 days later May 8 we now have a total 828 confirmed cases in Pinellas County, nearly 40,000 for the state of Florida. I have tried but unable to find comparable views of the Flu. My personal opinion which means nothing. I think if you are susceptible to one you are to the other. If you are likely to be hospitalized for one you would the other as well and in turn if you do the simple things like washing your hands and keeping your distance from people that are sick you would be less likely to get either. But what do I know. I don't have a medical degree and I have no background in diagnosing diseases and outbreaks. See what I just did. I gave my opinion and then said I have no idea what I am talking about. If the people that put stuff out on the internet would use the same disclaimers the world would be a better place. I feel the political talking heads have given us their opinion but they aren't medical doctors most I wouldn't consult for anything let alone life or death. Again that is my opinion and I am not a political science major and watch as little of that as I can.

As of this week the beaches are open again. Still with social distancing. I really hope whoever said it first got it copy written. The state of Florida officially decided there will be no more school for the rest of the year. Kids are a mixed bag on this as I can imagine our house would have been when we were kids. What am I going to do with I have so much time to do whatever I want. Time can be a blessing or waste. I am really trying to make more of a blessing out of my time at home. Trying to write and be productive.Not waste the day watching tv. I heard today that phase 2 is to start next week which will include opening barber shops and salons. My brother is hopeful for a social life again and would love to go out and stand next to someone at the bar.

Just as a final thought I shared with some of the people I volunteer with this week while sitting around a room all about 6 feet from the next. I don't personally know anyone that has had this terrible disease and neither did any of them. I wonder what does that mean. The people we know are lucky or have been doing what we are supposed to or are there more people that have had it that didn't know they had it. As for wearing a mask my husband has to for his job. Me personally I have not. I have 2 that people have given me. but haven't found myself in a position where I thought I needed to. Some say you aren't wearing it for yourself that you are wearing it to protect others. I am not sure about that logic either. If a business required that I do I would make a decision at that time. Because I have a choice to shop in that business and wear the mask as they request or not. Well for now I will keep working from home until I am told to come back to the office and will keep washing my hands when I come home from everywhere and keep my hands away from my face. Still the grocery store is my big outing each week. A trip to the museum by myself to work on one project or another alone. Looking forward to social interaction myself.

Day 18 Pandemic 2020

It is always hard for me to start and sometimes that is because I know where I end up or the point I want to make. Today day 18 of my personal dealing with the pandemic of 2020 or whatever they end up calling it. I have no idea where we are going. I am doing my part. I have been out in public about once a week to go to the grocery store.

I have to start back at the end of January was when I first remember hearing a story on the radio about this Corona virus and that young people for some reason believed that this virus originating in China was caused by or could be prevented by drinking Corona beer. This seemed stupid to me as I learned the virus is spread like the flu. It is a respiratory disease that is passed from person to person. The logical person that I am was like we can avoid this by staying healthy and washing your hands just like avoiding getting the flu. I am and was at that time quite confident that I can avoid this.

March 11 was the first day there were two confirmed cases of Corona virus in Pinellas County.

I say day 18 since March 17th was day one of my personal reality check. My work which didn't allow employees to work from home, wanted me to test working from home. Besides the "come see me" message I received from my manager to see the director of our department standing in his office, all I kept thinking is I didn't do anything wrong. It is natural for me to believe I must be in trouble. I try to fly under the radar at work. That day I was asked to do something no one had done before. I felt empowered and scared at the same time. If I mess this up I mess it up for a lot of people. So I was given an hour to get my computer home and hooked up and online and back to work which really was unrealistic but I did it. My manager was waiting to see me connected and asked, how it went and I said, I did it. I worked the rest of the afternoon and sent an email the next morning with the challenges that I had. I had never worked from home before and with no training manual I was getting through my personal challenges.

By the end of the week I had a routine down. The next Monday March 23, day 7, I sent a message to my manager and he said the company wants you to come back to work in the office. Now the situation in the world hasn't gotten better. I truly felt like I must have failed. Maybe I didn't work hard enough even though the day I was on the phone I took 90 calls which is really a pretty good day. So I packed up my computer and monitors and went back to work. The other employees questioned why I was back and did it not work? I just kept saying it did work. By this time we were to social distancing at work. They spread out people across two buildings using every empty office and conference room. A strange new normal had begun. I still had my morning social with my friends that arrive early, we never sat closer than 6 feet apart before so now was no different.

We learned this week that we are considered essential employees. The term is to define employees that still need to work versus those businesses that are not essential should close and their employees should stay at home. The jokes began. My essential pay is no different than my non-essential pay. Essential employees drive better than non-essential employees.

March 30, 129 confirmed cases of Corona virus in Pinellas County

Another week passes and now on day 15 March 31, and while at work I hear a voice I don't know trying to get everyone's attention. This voice is from a person I don't know but find out that it is the Vice President over our department telling us that they are going to send half of the department home to work. Once again I pack up my computer that afternoon and take it home and set it up and the next day start working from home again. I do miss the people I have my morning social with. We now text each other in the morning before work. We are all usually at work 30 minutes early so we have a good talk before it is time to work. Gossip is a little harder to come by but don't worry it is still out there.

April 1, the biggest jump in confirmed cases in Pinellas County to date. 61 confirmed cases almost doubled the day before. Brings the total confirmed to 213. As of today when I am typing this April 4th total 300 cases in Pinellas County with 7 deaths.

The world seems to be sliding down hill. Some aren't taking this social distance stuff serious and maybe I don't take it serious enough. I refuse to wear a mask over my mouth and leave my nose exposed as the people I see at the grocery and I don't wear gloves to touch everything and then take the mask they aren't wearing properly off before removing the gloves. I wash my hands, I try not to touch my face and I try not to have close contact with anyone. But Thursday just before going to the grocery store I learn that 2 employees have been confirmed to have the virus that work at the two stores closest to my house. The part of me that likes to worry has been nervously anticipating the thought that at some point this thing is going to get close. But after reading another article I learn that the employee at the store we normally shop at hasn't been at work for 10 days and that the store has been sanitized multiple times since then.

Like I said at the beginning we don't know where this is going to end. My father being in his 70s has been taking this serious from the beginning and has not let anyone come over. We have all called to check that he doesn't need anything. My sister dropped off eggs to him. Leaving them on his porch to get once she got back towards the car. My one sister that works in a drug store is still working normally, my sister that is a dental assistant hasn't worked for a couple weeks, my sister that works at an elementary school hasn't worked in the traditional sense since their Spring Break a couple weeks ago. She gets online and is available to help students as needed. My brother that works for the City was told last week that he had the next two weeks off except two days a week he comes in to pick up trash from parks. My nieces and nephew that are in school are adapting to online school.

Brian and I are home together nearly 24 hours a day. It is a good thing we love each other and more importantly like each other and even know when to walk away from each other. I can't watch tv like he can so I spend a few hours writing or working outside.

These strange times have brought strange commercials about contact less pizza delivery and restaurants doing family style meals for pick up.

Since these are historic times weather or not everyone living through them realizes. Some day 72 years from now (because that is when this year's census data will be available to the public) Genealogists will be looking at data from the 2020 census which hopefully you logged in and participated in. Will note that it happened during the outbreak or the pandemic or whatever they decide to call it by then. They will know who you were quarantined at home with and they will compare data on some families and learn that some people were alive for the census but died soon after and wonder if the virus is what killed them. They will then look for a death certificate to confirm.

Stay safe.

One Call Resolution

This all started a few days ago at work. I don't always deal with customers but the ones I do, are usually not happy. The thing is over the years I have learned to care for a customer like a friend. I mean old habits die hard. These customers I talk to are transferred to me by other agents that couldn't reach a compromise with the customer for them to move on. One of the things they do is warn me about how bad or good the customer has been on the phone, which doesn't help me. It makes my heart sink into my stomach before I even get the customer on the phone. Now sometimes I get a customer that once I listen I can usually get them to schedule an appointment we can agree on a resolution or steps we are going to take to get to the resolution. Sometime between right now and tomorrow night. It just isn't realistic to believe that there are people sitting at the end of your street waiting for you to call.

So the incident that brought on this post was a customer that has had service issues and I acknowledged that. We had been out before but the first word out of his mouth was not the greeting any woman or female dog would want. It was not a conversation about resolutions or anything else that might have been constructive. I know this man SCREAMED at me for quite a while and I put him on hold which meets two points, one I can think and two I was trying to get him calm down so I can help fix the trouble. When I returned he continued to SCREAM at me again, for quite a while at one point told me I didn't care and I said, "If I didn't I would have already hung up." I did get him an appointment and it was for that afternoon. Even after that it wasn't enough and he SCREAMED more.

I did what I needed to do but the only thing that kept me listening to this man's abusive tirade was that I didn't want him to call back and treat someone else like that. I feared that it might happen anyway with the promises he made during the periods that he wasn't SCREAMING.

I have worked with customers of one sort or another my entire working life, everyone does. Not are they always customers as we are when we shop in Publix but sometimes customers as in another employee that works for the same company that you help resolve an issue to help them complete the job. At Eckerd I would fix someone's in-house email password so they could do their job but they were my customer or assisted with how to use the email service back when that was new. I have always thought that if a customer asks for help I should take them to the product they are looking for or help them as much as I can without doing their job for them.

The point of all this is expectations of customers who believe they are always right. Well like a child having a tantrum kicking and screaming on the floor in the front of the store, that is not going to get you a toy or a piece of candy and it shouldn't. Rewarding poor behavior will not get us anywhere. Acknowledging a problem, and a compromising resolution these are the things that are realistic. I know in my time doing customer service over the phone in other jobs, where I was truly trying to help them fix their problem. One call resolution was what we called it. That was you called in to get help and the person that answered the phone fixed the problem or scheduled an appointment. You the customer off the phone in 15 minutes or so and know that if the issue isn't fixed it will be whenever that tech gets out to fix whatever the problem is.

So why a few weeks ago did Brian call the phone company because the pole in front of our house had been switched out and there was a line hanging down draping across the driveway. It wasn't ours it was to our neighbor who doesn't live in the house year round, he was just trying to help and get the line fixed or cut down. He was on the phone more than an hour and was transferred 11 times and when he hung up they said it would be two weeks before someone could come out. Now how does a company think that that is effective customer service.  I would have given up long before that and waited until I saw a utility truck on the street and gotten them to cut it or fix it. Ironically, that afternoon the power company was back out to remove the old pole and took care of the line. Not his line but the other company's. Not because it was his job but it was the right thing to do.

As an employee that has no bearing on what happens before or after I talk to techs or customers I do the best I can to assist them or point them in the direction of the best person or department to fix their issue.
FYI. There is no better satisfaction than a tech telling me how many other people and how many departments they have spoken to and a few well placed clicks of my keyboard and I have resolve their problem and that of the customer.

If not results Hope.

The Beatles sung "All we need is love" but in truth after any tragedy I think the thing people need most is Hope.  Another shooting another time I can not watch tv or listen to the news and again the sadness returns. I watched CBS Sunday Morning today as I do every week. Knowing at some point I may have to pause or fast forward through names and numbers I can't hear. I know to those that lost someone hearing their name makes you think they will be remembered but I can tell you 5 years afterwards that sometimes that is the hardest thing. Not that you don't love and remember those that you lost but just like losing my mom sometimes it is easier not to think about the end and just remember the good times we had.

Well seeing the young man from the high school speak his mind about change and about expecting something this time from people in positions of power who have not budged before on gun laws made me think. The thing this kid wants is hope. Now I know how this thing played out in the past and every tragedy the survivors think this is the time that Congress is going to listen. This time there will be change. Well the one thing the young man said today that got me was that if they elected officials don't make a change that we will have to. Now in my mind that is saying if you won't change the laws fine expect the end of your term to be the end of your political career. Because honestly people don't change and if you want change then you want new people. And the only way that happens if more than 5 percent of the voting population get out and vote for a change.

I always find it interesting how time changes your perspective on an event. But some situations shouldn't have to happen. In 2011 I volunteered at my nephew's school a few times a week while I was unemployed. I went through a back ground check and a stood outside for fire drills and sat on the floor under the window during a lock down with the blinds closed. These things were all before our family's tragedy. Before I believed it could happen to someone I love. As a volunteer sometimes the teacher would let me know the drill was coming just so I was prepared and knew what to do to assist.

As for Hope. After Brian and I came home we went to a group counseling for people who had lost relatives. I only went once. I couldn't do it again because what I wanted was to see progress. To see that it gets better. I wanted to see time does heal all wounds. Even big gaping ones that you at that moment can't imagine healing.  I will not share the things I heard that night but I didn't see hope. It could be that group had been together a long time and they commiserated with each other and their pain but Brian and I were not the only people there that night for the first time and some of these people had been dealing with their loss for years and I felt were no further along in the grieving process than we were. I found other people to talk to and I found that those people didn't have to live through the same things that I did to listen. Same goes for all the rest of the people and their own personal struggles. Sometimes someone on the outside looking in can gleam a bit of hope for you.

So before I go to work today again I pray. A prayer I have prayed to many times before but because I have hope will probably pray again. Dear Father please watch over the people suffering losses this big because any loss is a large loss to You. Hold them in Your hands and let them know that their is hope. There is a light and that light is You. Amen.

How did this happen?

Someone commented on a recent post I wrote on how much thought goes into what I write. Well really everything I do. When I sat down this morning, the 9th of November 2016 I intentionally did not turn on the TV or go to any of the news media's webpages to find out who the next President of the United States will be. I know it is one of two people neither of which I voted for. I thought about that very seriously. Here is what I decided:

The reason I did not vote for either of the main candidates was that I felt that neither of them were the best choice. No amount of commercials or phone calls to my house could make me choose. I would get the question, "if the election was today who would you choose." and my answer every time was I don't know.

I had considered the lesser of two evil approach which maybe that would have been better but I don't know who won so I don't know the answer to that. I could have helped one or the other out since I know as of last night Florida was a state that they were very close in the polls and returns. But that should not be the approach we take in electing our President. I also considered the fact that I always thought a woman would be a good President but I don't know that the woman running was the candidate I wanted to choose.

In my life I have voted in almost all the elections since I turned 18 and it got to the point where the percentage of people voting was so small that there were times that I thought why doesn't everyone take this seriously. Well... Now will the rest of this country take elections seriously. You have a right to vote being a citizen of this country but you also have an obligation to help select the next "Leader of the Free World". I don't want to be embarrassed by things that our President says and does. One of the candidates has already spent time in the White House and had embarrassing moments there already. Did we really want more of that? Or do we want a business person who's ethics were lost before Millennials were even born. One way or another one of them will be sworn into office in January.

People often say life was better when I was a kid. I had freedom to go outside and play til the street lights came on and my parents didn't worry that I had been abducted. Even people who have lived through times of war in this country saw the good in the times that people helped each other out. Women went to work to support the war effort. Everyone was doing their part. Victory gardens and tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree. Times were hard but life was simple.

I know we can't go back but kids today don't know any better. If I never again see an ad on TV talking bad about another candidate I will be happy. How did we get to this point? I tried this past week to look up information on a candidate for Sheriff here where I live and his entire webpage was dedicated to the wrong doings of the other candidate. I couldn't find any information on his webpage about him. Instead of spending money on talking bad about someone else please tell me the good that you can do or have already done.

So here is my idea for running for office. If every time someone offered money for your election campaign you said donate that money to a local charity instead of all the millions of dollars spent on negative ad campaigns we could have provided charities all across this country with money that maybe they could do some good with, instead of padding the TV and Print Ad companies pockets.
I think if $100,000 is donated in the name of your campaign word will get out that you are doing some good in the world and not bad talking the other candidates.

I know in this day and age that what ever bad you have done in your life is probably already on the internet and that is probably the reason people that could be excellent candidates for office decide not to run because maybe they have dirty laundry and don't want it strewn across their front yard for everyone to see. But I guess we have 4 more years to think about all of this and see if we can get collective heads off of the internet and back to real life and realize that this isn't reality TV this is for real and one of those two people will now become our next President.

Our children or grandchildren will study this election and ask how did it happen? And hopefully we will be able to show the good that comes from the error in our ways. God Bless America.

Another Tragedy in the World

So it is 5:30 in the morning and I cannot sleep. I can't turn off my brain and all I keep thinking is that I am avoiding the news and the stories and the drama on tv but my brain still knows it is going on.

I know the suffering the choices that people are making. I know that for some this is all more than they can take in and that somehow going out for a night on the town should never have turned to this tragedy. But it has. I always read a previous post before I start writing. Today I looked back to find what I had written after the Sandy Hook shooting. I first had a hard time finding the post. I didn't realize it was back in 2012, the same year as our own tragedy. After reading what I had written it came back. The feelings then were still fresh, the wounds still open and the anger was real. Part of me thought just re-post what you wrote back then. It is still true, my feelings have not changed and guess what neither has gun laws or the amount of suffering in the world. I do stop and check myself so I just looked up gun law changes in wake of Sandy Hook shooting as far as I could find nothing changed on a national level and only 3 states made changes to existing gun laws: Connecticut, New York and Maryland. So thank you to 3 out of 50 states for saying that a clip holding more than 10 rounds isn't necessary. I know some will think I am cruel but if Congress can't change laws after a shooting in an elementary school what makes anyone believe they will make a change after a shooting in a bar.

One thing that most don't realize when I write these thoughts I am so careful in what I say and have spent an hour writing and only written 2 paragraphs where normally my fingers are tired at this point from all the typing. I have erased more than I will probably share today. I think of the suffering and the sadness. I know that everyone deals with something like this in their own way. Some have to talk about it and get it out and others keep everything inside. I don't begrudge those that must talk about it just please don't talk to me about the details. If you want to talk about healing or getting through this that is fine but the details are not for me.

In the wake of this tragic event I will just remind the world that this is not over for all the families. Even though another week or so will pass and the news will start to wane. It will take months for some to be able to go out in public again and others may never. Family members will hold tight to a t-shirt or a teddy bear instead of their family member. Some will seek help and others will not. And for some years will pass in a blink of an eye and they will continue to live in these days. They hold on to the darkness and don't let in the light. They will be unable to move on. Unable to live their own lives. But they will not make the news. Their suffering will go unknown by most. This is where the terror lives. I think it is great that health care agencies are letting their patients know that they do have people that you can talk to on the phone and who may be able to help some deal with the tragedy.

So I have learned this morning that I today am more about the healing of the victims and their family members than the changing of the world.

In closing I pray. I pray for the victims those both with visible scars and those without. I know the wounds are real for both. I pray for the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. The friends and acquaintances of the victims. I even pray for those who may have thought of going out that night but decided they were too tired they to have survivors remorse. You will heal and it will take time. Be open and share your feelings. Take one day at a time and each decision that you make or don't make is ok. Everyone heals at a different rate and your healing will come. Amen.