Voices of Solaria is a voice-oriented #cripplepunk / #solarpunk Discord server for those who are still looking to protect one another from airborne infections.
I have implemented a new TOOL in the #CovidCautious fight to stay safe.
Nobody masks when they bring out my curbside pickup. Haven't for a long time but
WE ARE IN A SURGE
So after they deposit my bags, I leave my tailgate window open, turn the Ryobi fan on full blast sound out the window, while I drive through the parking lot. Then I turn off the fan, roll up the window and remove my mask.
Have been thinking about launching a voice-oriented discord for covid-cautious folk to come together for parallel play and chore hangs. Yet am trepidatious.
Wanting a space for companionship and mutual support, that affords space for commiseration without being dominated by it; yet avoids traps of self-satisfied superiority that seems all too common. Not sure how to pull that all off.
Suddenly realizing, this is why younger me left UU community: alienated by camaraderie around unhealed trauma.
Welp, daughter #4 has #COVID again. The next few weeks are not going to be fun for her or for us. 😞
She works in retail, some of her coworkers aren't vaccinated, none of her coworkers mask, she doesn't mask either, and she socializes regularly, so it was only a matter of time before she got it again. She's the only one in our nuclear family who isn't being #CovidCautious. She's an adult who gets to make her own choices, but it's frustrating to watch her make bad ones that impact both her and us.
• I wear a mask in my car when I do curbside pickup (I've had pleasant workers lean in rest their arm on the window of my tailgate & have a nice conversation with me without a mask)
• I wear a mask to get gas (I swear if I don't, the worker will come start charging with me way too close without a mask)
• I don't go inside anywhere (small exceptions) after the start of The Gathering Season™ (Halloween thru Feb-ish)...
• I wear a Flomask and keep it in my car unless I'm wearing it but I always keep a spare in my purse in case of a "mask malfunction". Also handy if someone forgot their mask.
This has made life so much less stressful. I don't have to decide. If someone tries to convince me to do otherwise?
This morning at 7:50 a.m., about 43 (ish) people showed up to a theatre in Seattle for a private, Covid cautious screening of Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, The Boy and the Heron.
People took a rapid test and reported results to the organizers before arriving and wore high-quality masks at all times. Folks stayed home if they or anyone in their household felt unwell. Masks and tests were available on site if needed.
Cost was about $13 per ticket after donations from #CovidCautious community members who wanted to help make the event accessible to folks.
CO2 was monitored and never got over 900.
The film was incredible. Knowing there are folks in my community who are willing to wake up early af because they haven't been to the theater in years due to #COVID19 was just as incredible.
Covid safe events aren't just possible, they're desired. Imagine how many people would have attended if it could have been on a Saturday afternoon or evening?
I've told the story of how I got into #EmergencyPrep... Local govt held a community meeting about preparing for a 9.0+ #subduction zone #earthquake hitting the #PNW. Power co, water co, etc all gave useful advice.
"We pay your salary! You HAVE to come help me (if my house is on fire, my leg is broken, my, my, my)"
"That's your JOB!"
He explained that they would much bigger fish to fry, much much bigger problems to fix with infrastructure and limited number of people to do so. They simply could not stop to help every single person along the way.
Boy, even I had no clue the extent of that. Not only are they not coming, (understandable) they're tossing us into the fray (not understandable nor acceptable)
But the masses still believe they're coming to help them.
That they'll tell us to wear masks or take them off. To go back to work or stay home. To take this med or not. To travel or stay home.
I think about the people yelling at that meeting. I wonder if any of them took heed & got prepared. If they are now also the #CovidCautious. Or if they still believe "they" are coming to help them, even after being told point blank that was not the case.
I find it mentally healthier to not dwell on figuring out WHY they think that way but to accept it.
Reaching out to the #CovidCautious people who are trying not to get their brains infected by a dangerous airborne #SARS2#virus because these have not been the best of days. Still a #Covid virgin after all this time but it’s grinding me down just the same. I just can’t quite get my head around the level of mass delusion and people’s utter indifference to human well-being—their own or those they claim to care about.
Also: The r/COVID19positive subreddit is a hot mess now. Story after story.
Early in the pandemic, when my dentist of 25 years insisted surgical masks were sufficient, I decided to switch to a dentist who cleaned the air with HEPAs and was also willing to wear N95 respirators upon patient request. But last time I went in, I had to turn on the HEPA myself because the hygienist had "forgotten", and when I got my text reminding me of what would’ve been my next appointment, they informed me that they were no longer willing to wear N95s. 🙄 So yes, I switched AGAIN. /1
Now, there's a lot more you can do than clean the air with HEPA filtration devices and wear an N95, but I'm pretty low-key--I feel like if a dentist and their hygienist do that, my own raft of precautions can take care of the rest. But there's a place locally (that's sadly even further away from my home, wah) that does it ALL. So I tried them today. I'm not only extremely pleased with them, I recommend them to any #COVIDcautious people within driving distance of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. /2
Sometimes, I wish I did not know what I do about #COVID19. I see my friends' posts from concerts, events, bars & restaurants, and I miss those experiences. I wish I could walk into a crowded place and not wonder how many are infected or if I might end up with chronic health problems due to this event. But, I also believe I'll be grateful for my caution in the years ahead while many others deal with a reduction in health and wellness. Ignorance is bliss--until it steals your life from you.
I feel as if the knowledge I've accumulated has become an iron fortress. There now is no way to liberate myself from it. I feel like you do, and I miss the easier, unwitting life, its blitheness.
Truly, ignorance is bliss, and most people have chosen ignorance and carry it from proudly to aggressively. Sigh.
I can live without what I cannot have, but I couldn't live at all if I were dead.
Four years of being #COVIDcautious, N95/P100 everywhere, avoiding indoor dining, working from home as much as I can, etc.
But there's only so much you can do when you have a two-year-old who refuses to wear the one KF94 I've found that's small enough to fit her face. She started acting cranky a few days before me and wifey felt sick so pretty sure we got it from her.
We're in the middle of a COVID surge and a relative chose today to take a Peloton live class, i.e., an hour in a crowded room full of people breathing heavily and not wearing masks.
Granted, I don't know how good the ventilation is in that room (I hope it's good!) and at least it's unlikely there was anyone with active symptoms (because they wouldn't be able to do the class).
Still, it's dangerous. I just can't understand people. The denial runs so deep. @novid#CovidIsNotOver#COVID
@novid And you know, it wouldn't upset me as much if they understood the risks and were choosing to take them (though, yes, there would still be a community health aspect they're being selfish about), but instead they're actively lying to themselves and me about #COVID and then literally mocking me for not being willing to go along with that.
I know they're doing that because me being #CovidCautious threatens their narrative, but I doubt they understand that, at least not consciously.
In a discussion with octogenarian roommate about Gaza & doubling down on inequality by those who have been hurt by inequality & IBM machines in Nazi Germany & "effective altruism" & "gender-critical feminism" & wounded masculinity of nerd/geek culture that made the tech industry so unpalatable to me & "lost faith in humanity" narrative among many #CovidCautious…
Struck by sudden realization as to why JKR's misanthropy lore was so much more popular than Pullman's critique of institutional power.
Calgary Herald
December 7, 2023
By Joe Vipond, Julia M. Wright, Dan Furst
“It’s time for our society to admit that we’ve made a mistake and change course. The COVID-is-mild experiment, despite the wishing and the hoping, has been a tragic failure.”