Coronapost

Mar. 20th, 2020 09:30 am
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This week I broke "quarantine" to visit my aunt and uncle in NC.

My aunt is my last living relative on my mother's side, if you don't count the younger generations of cousins, brothers and sisters.
I weighed the risks, and talked with her about it, and we both decided it would be ok.

I was supposed to fly but changed that at the last minute to try and pose less of a risk.
Also because if domestic air travel is shut down, I don't want to be scrambling for a rental car or wondering how to get home.
Driving makes things less complicated this time.

Anyway, I drove down and had zero interactions on the way.
If I had to use a gas station restroom, I was careful to use a Love's or Pilot which are more likely to be clean. I opened doors with paper towels and scrubbed my hands like mad. When I reached my aunt I got a shower right away. For the entire visit I'm just seeing her and my uncle, no one else.

That's the best I can do.

If I waited any longer, I might not have gotten to see her this year. You know?

Everything is kind of crazy, we all know.
Unlike many others I am not out of work. The captioning that we do is considered "lifesaving work" as we take many 911 calls and medical calls, so I doubt the call center would be shut down unless it becomes a plague-like situation where there's literally no one available to work. So this virus has not changed one thing about my work schedule or employment. I'm very grateful for that.

But it's chaos at work now. There are so many calls coming in that we're overwhelmed, even with our supervisors and HR and scheduling departments taking the calls. There are just too many. We haven't been able to do our supervisor tasks for a week now, which means people who are violating company policy might be getting away with it, and we can't monitor call quality nearly enough. More and more people keep calling in absent either because they need to take care of their kids, they actually feel like they're getting sick, or they're just fed up with the overwhelming situation at work. The more people call out, the more work for everyone remaining on top of the other mounting problems. We are all doing the best we can but it can't go on like this, something's got to give. I really hope that when I go back in on Monday some higher-ups will have sat down and discussed how to keep going in this situation, because it's showing no signs of letting up until coronavirus has blown over (whenever that is).

Meanwhile Jameson has also lost thousands of dollars worth of gigs. All of his shows, bar gigs, and concerts have been cancelled. It's not clear whether his summer Disney gig will be available, that of course depends on when the park is able to open again and under what conditions. He still has his teach-from-home job, but he was depending on that gig money and it's very stressful not knowing what's going to happen next. He's going to have a lot of work trying to make room online for all of the formerly in-person students as well.

So the good news is we're both about to be really busy, and we get to keep our jobs.
The bad news is I still have to physically go to a call center where hundreds of people work and risk exposure every day.
And both our jobs are going to be very stressful for a while.
And like everyone else, we don't know how long this will all last.

I hope you all are doing all right.
It hasn't "hit" yet, so hopefully over the course of the year we can just get through this and come out ok on the other side.

Here in NC, my aunt and uncle are both working from home. They take walks and do other activities and hobbies, but being cooped up together with limited options is wearing on their nerves. My aunt has lost a lot of her usual activities like Bible study and yoga, and hasn't quite replaced those yet. It's frustrating, just like it is for everyone right now. I'm glad I came to visit because it cheers us both up a little. It's rare we get to see each other anyway, and under these circumstances somehow it's more meaningful. There may be a national crisis, but that will never change how much I love my aunt and value our time together. I'd come find her in a zombie apocalypse, too :)

I'm going to be driving back to FL a bit earlier than planned, on Saturday so I can get my life and my brain together before diving back into the absolute craziness at work. I want to spend Sunday poking around my tiny garden, cleaning the house, doing laundry, meal prepping, and clothes prepping. And chilling with my Jameson, and buying my USUAL AMOUNT of groceries so as not to compromise others.

I think it's a good plan.

Stay healthy everyone.

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