Gr. Or, why are they like this when they could choose otherwise?

My morning and early afternoon have been frustrating, personally and professionally.

Bright spot: had two nice long walks with the dog already, and she has behaved herself and not gotten into long barking fits at strange dogs either time. She has done some understandable reply-barking, but was able to be steered away and calmed quickly both times.

NOW TO THE GRUMP!


- My job is now having "Town Hall Meetings" every week, which involve the leaders of our large division scheduling literally anyone they can think of to talk to us about how important our jobs are. It's about 150 people and they would never have done this Before Covid because the organizational cost would have been too high. But now they can waste our time to feel important, so they do. 

The meeting is entirely fluff and as far as I can tell, it serves to make the head our division feel important since there is no one to fawn over them in their office all the time since we are all working from home. Today, it was the university's head [men's] hockey coach, who talked about how hard it was for young players to have the season end before their championships could be played.

His speech was deeply offensive. Sports are an entertainment, even college sports. People are dying, and at no point did the coach acknowledge that the reason the season was canceled because having a large crowd of people gathered to watch the game would have endangered their lives. To add injury to insult, the speech was also very, very long - the coach was allowed to speak for nearly an hour, and none of it was relevant to our jobs or our work in any way other than the fact that, yes, some donors give because they like the sport. (Coach, if our jobs are so important, why are you taking up an hour of our time?)

(Sidebar: is there anything more absurd than unrelated adults addressing a fellow adult as "Coach" when he is not the coach of a team they are on? It's not a title. He's not a lord. He's Mister Dudeface unless he's YOUR coach.) 

I spent the meeting with my headphones plugged in but nearly muted so that I could limit the level of irritation while I got actual work done. 

- My upstairs neighbors (You know, the ones who flooded our closet and basement with the DIY home improvements that they did not consult us about back in, oh, January of this year, ten thousand years ago?) have once AGAIN flooded the shared basement when they found out their ancient water heater broke.

They could have replaced the water heater in January, of course, because the program we did the building insulation with is actually about energy efficiency generally - they will give you an interest-free loan to get a new water heater, if you do a bit of paperwork and choose a model they approve. But the neighbors  did not do that. And they did not do that despite the fact that, apparently, last summer, they had seen that the water heater in our unit had broken and been replaced with a new one immediately before they had bought their condo.

While they were calling around to find a plumber who can help them, the wife asked us in the group chat if we have a carbon monoxide alarm down there - state law requires one and the plumber wanted to check since a heater had broken. I wasn't sure - our side has a fire alarm but it's not clear if it does CO as well. I volunteered to let her use the one I have in the bedroom (b/c CO is no fucking joke and it's important to have more than one alarm in your home). And of course, she didn't say thank you for the CO monitor and seems to not understand that it is a loan. She seemed to think it was just a spare. 

She also stood waaaay to close for social distancing (easily within arms reach) and wandered into our basement section area to check the fire alarm herself.  I am skeeved by this because they travel every weekend, despite the stay at home order, AND she was still going into the office for at least a week after the state of emergency was announced by the governor - I don't think they have siloed themselves effectively at all. I washed my hands and face after meeting with her in the basement to hand over the CO monitor and I am writing it off as a loss - I can buy another more easily than I can sterilize the one I have given them, and it's reasonable to have one in the basement anyways. 

And now, to work. 

Alright, there are some bright spots

-Sewing masks is going well - my local fabric store's kits are excellent and I will soon receive another set of 20 to make. This set will have slightly different set up that is more conducive to wearing the mask with glasses (ear real estate being at a premium if you have glasses) and I'm going to make a bunch for the bespectacled nerds in my friends group. 

-The day is beautiful out and a pleasure to go for a walk in. 

- Schitt's Creek continues to be charming.

- Coffee supplies are good. 

- There is plentiful booze. 

-The vet has a clear idea of the dog's allergies and a treatment plan that involves oral meds and occasional baths with a medicated shampoo. I am training the dog to enjoy small treats in the bathroom and she's having fun. Super cute.