Cordelia's Mom, Still

FURLOUGHED: Week Eleven

Posted on May 29, 2020 by cordeliasmom2012

Slowly, but surely, we’re getting there. The COVID-19 pandemic is slowly, ever so slowly, going away.

Five regions in New York State are entering Phase II of their reopening as of today. Phase II includes most office workers and some retail (with restrictions). For many, it seems the most important aspect of Phase II is that hairdressers and beauty salons will reopen (again with restrictions). Blonds can be blond again, and none of us will be forced to cut our own hair (or shave our heads, as some men have done).

I live in Western New York, which is still in Phase I. The question now is: When will we reach Phase II? Western New York may, or may not, reach Phase II on Tuesday of next week, depending on how many COVID-19 hospitalizations there are in this region over the next few days.

The good news is: I have been in contact with my employer, and even if Western New York officially reaches Phase II on Tuesday, I won’t need to return to the office until Monday of the following week. I am in the high-risk group for infection based on my age and health condition, and there are still issues in the office building which need to be resolved to be in compliance with the state guidelines for reopening.

As you all know, I am in no particular hurry to get back to work, especially under these circumstances. I’ll be happy to take a few days vacation or unpaid time while everyone else gets their acts together.

Meanwhile, here in the backyard, nothing has changed. The weather alternates between sunshine and monsoon-like rain. Puppy Cody patrols the perimeter looking for bunnies and squirrels:

View from Under the Crabapple Tree (see Cody over by the fence?)

Mr. Rabbit, Where Are You?

I tried numerous times to get Cody to pose for me (“Cody! Be Pretty“), but no dice. She was simply too intent on her “job” as she sees it.

Of course, Cody decided her security duties ended when The Boss got home from shopping:

Dad’s Home!

I should rate such enthusiasm. But then, I wasn’t returning from the store, maybe with treats.

Hope all is well with all of you. If you’re in the Northeast, things are probably improving; everywhere else, you may have a long road ahead of you. But in any case, this pandemic will end eventually for all of us.

Hugs, Everyone.

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalieStudio

Posted in Covid-19, Health, That's Life | Tagged Covid-19, employment, furlough, pandemic, Puppy Cody, work | 22 Comments

FURLOUGHED: Week Ten

Posted on May 22, 2020 by cordeliasmom2012

The end is near.

The COVID-19 pandemic is coming under control. At least for the moment, the infection and hospitalization rates are declining.

Here in Western New York, we have started reopening by phases; currently, we are in Phase I, which includes manufacturing and construction. Should all go well in Phase I over a two-week period, we will then reach Phase II, which includes pretty much everything except restaurants and large entertainment/recreational venues.

Phase II means I will have to go back to work. I’m not sure I want to go back to work. I’m enjoying my time off.

Of course, one of the reasons I’m enjoying my time off is that I’m receiving New York State unemployment as well as the enhanced Federal unemployment benefits. Once Phase II arrives and I am asked to return to work, if I don’t return to work, those benefits will terminate.

Like everyone else, I have bills to pay. So I guess I’ll be returning to work within the next couple of weeks.

Just my luck that reopening occurs when the weather has finally gone from winter to late spring. Just when I was thinking how nice it would be to spend time outdoors with my camera. Maybe even somewhere other than my own backyard.

Busy, busy, busy.

On the other hand, a return to work might be a good thing. It would get me out of the house (finally) and give me something to do other than baking and playing videogames.

The good news is, I received an email from my employer indicating that I do, in fact, still have a job and my return to the office will be welcome. It’s always nice to be wanted.

Meanwhile, I’m busy, as I said, cooking, baking, playing videogames – and catching up on my backlog of reading materials. This week, I even volunteered to beta read a couple of soon-to-be-published novels. Normally, I get paid for beta reading, but hey, we’re in a pandemic and no one has extra cash floating around. Am I good person or what?

REMINDER TO READERS: You can still hire me to beta read/proofread. After the pandemic, I’ll be running an introductory sale – your first beta reading/proofreading project is free; after that, my rates are very reasonable and well below the current market. My email is cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com. Go for it!

BTW, you might want to clarify who you are when you send me manuscripts; too many of you have similar names and/or email addresses, which can be confusing especially if two of you similarly named people send me manuscripts at the same time (as recently happened). In all cases, it would be wise to email me before sending any materials, to check on my current availability.

Anyway.

This is Memorial Day weekend here in the United States. Hopefully, people won’t go crazy, ignore social distancing, and refuse to wear masks. Such negligence would likely result in a resurgence of the virus and force us back into lockdown.

So, everyone, enjoy your holiday but stay diligent and safe. We can all do that for a few more weeks, right?

Always remember those who have lost their lives, and those who have fought so hard to keep the rest of us alive.

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Posted in Covid-19, Health, Photography, That's Life | Tagged Covid-19, furlough, hire Cordelia's Mom, Memorial Day, unemployment, work | 20 Comments

FURLOUGHED: Week Nine

Posted on May 15, 2020 by cordeliasmom2012

Really? Have you, or anyone you’ve ever known, tried to eat raw flour?

Then again, our own incompetent ~~King~~ President recently suggested ingesting bleach to cure COVID-19, so maybe such a silly warning is, in fact, necessary.

New York State is slowly coming back to life. Five regions in the state are starting to reopen today – including those regions which contain Rochester and Syracuse (yay for you, Mark!). Erie County, however, still has growing hospitalization numbers, so we remain in total lockdown.

I’m ok with that. At this point, I’m not sure I even want to go back to work – although I’ll have to once the federal and state funds run out. It would appear that my return to work will coincide with Mother Nature finally agreeing to stop the rain and allow us some sunshine. Of course. I’ll get to go back to work at the exact same time the nicer weather is telling me to get out there and do something already.

Like a bull in a … construction zone. Maybe he’s getting stir-crazy, too?

I do have “real” masks now. Although the China-sourced masks are still maneuvering the U.S. Postal Service somewhere in this country (they did clear customs in Los Angeles, but no word since then), the Arizona-sourced masks have arrived. Apparently USPS simply never updated their tracking system to show that the masks were, in fact, on the way.

Meanwhile, the cooking, baking and video game playing continue. Even Puppy Cody is growing lazy. Thank heavens we have a decent sized yard in which she can chase bunnies and squirrels:

Can you see Puppy Cody behind the garage? She looks so tiny from so far away.

I have to be especially diligent when Cody is out there, because we’re into bunny mating season and last year (and the year before) she found the bunny nest before I could and ate one or two of the babies. Definitely not a fun time for me, although Cody seemed to enjoy herself (and her treat) immensely. Ugh.

Where are those bunnies? (This was taken last year. We don’t have flowers yet this year.)

Last year’s bunny family – weren’t they cute?

Anyway.

Now it’s time for the highlights of my day – watching Gov. Cuomo’s daily news conference, and doing laundry. Probably no baking today, we are well-stocked with homemade cakes, cookies and rolls. I’m afraid to get on the scale since I wasn’t thin to begin with.

To those of you who are venturing out into a newly reopening world – wear your mask and keep your distance. The rest of us will be watching to see how things work out for you before we go out ourselves.

And to all my readers: Hugs. Stay safe and healthy.

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Posted in Covid-19, Health, Pets, That's Life | Tagged baking, bunnies, coronavirus, Covid-19, lockdown | 28 Comments

FURLOUGHED: Week Eight

Posted on May 7, 2020 by cordeliasmom2012

Two months in.

But the end is in sight. If the infection and hospitalization rates continue to decline in New York State, a limited reopening may begin by May 15. I have mixed feelings about that – while I think it would be nice to go to a restaurant, for a haircut, or to the zoo, the idea of being around people who still might be infected does not sit well with me. Sure, as King Trump said in a recent interview, we all have to die sometime anyway – but I don’t want it to be now, and I don’t want it to be because of COVID-19. I am at risk because of age and immunocompromization (is that even a word?), and I don’t care to take any chances.

The good new is – the face masks I ordered from China have finally made it across the ocean and are now physically in Los Angeles, so maybe they’ll arrive next week. However, they’re disposable dust masks, and we’ll still need washable cloth masks when we eventually return to work.

The bad new is – the washable face masks I ordered from a company in Arizona have still not arrived. Before ordering, I checked the information on Amazon to be sure they weren’t being imported from China and learned they were manufactured in Mexico and were “in stock.” Great! If they’re “in stock”, how long could it possibly take to get from Arizona to Buffalo, New York? I ordered them the third week in April, and within 24 hours I received information that they had been shipped – and was given a USPS tracking number.

When I hadn’t received those cloth masks after two weeks, I logged onto USPS.com to track the order. Which is when I learned that a shipping label had been prepared but that the package had not yet been given to any USPS facility. Say what? Have I been scammed? Did the seller merely prepare a shipping label in order to receive payment from Amazon, with no intentions of delivering the product?

I’ll wait another week before asking for a refund. Because I’m naïve, probably stupid, and very patient.

Meanwhile, we need cloth masks. I have several friends and acquaintances who are making these types of masks, but I see no need to pay for a homemade mask when I could probably do just as well myself (especially since I’m currently sitting home with nothing much to do.)

So I did.

I found a polyester turtleneck shirt I bought last year and which never fit quite right. I was going to donate it to charity, but realized the material was just the right weight and elasticity to make some really nice masks.

The first mask I made took all of five minutes. I merely had to cut off the turtleneck part of the shirt and add rubberbands to either end to put over the ears. Then I took a couple of tucks at the top and bottom to make the mask tighter around the nose and chin.

Not the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, but it works and it is very comfortable:

The tuck at the top keeps the mask tight enough to prevent my glasses from steaming up. My only complaint is that the mask is fairly hot to wear – I hate to think what that’s going to be like come summer if we’re still required to wear masks.

But I still wanted something that looked like some effort had actually gone into it, and I had plenty of material left (the whole shirt, as a matter of fact). So, I went online and found a YouTube tutorial on how to make a face mask – without a sewing machine.

Perfect. I haven’t had a sewing machine in years, and my hand sewing isn’t too bad. The tutorial was very easy to follow – simply a matter of cutting out a circle of material (the tutorial made it look really easy to cut a perfect circle, but it wasn’t), folding and cutting it into fourths, and then sewing everything together the right way. The tutorial recommended using those wrapped hair ties that little girls use for pigtails, but I opted (again) for rubberbands for the ear pieces (rubberbands I have; hair ties would have required a trip to the grocery store).

This mask took a long time, merely because hand sewing is so tedious. I think it took me over an hour to do what I could have done in about 10 minutes with a sewing machine.

The mask still isn’t pretty (yeah, I totally forgot it was a plaid pattern which wasn’t going to match at the seams), but again, it’s functional. However, because it’s smaller than the first mask, the rubberbands have to stretch further and it’s not very comfortable on the face.

Looks like I’m seriously in need of a haircut, doesn’t it? I may have to deal with that on my own (heaven forbid).

In any event, I now know the basics of making a face mask. I’m sure the next ones I make will be nicer. Hopefully, I won’t have to make too many.