Every morning -- and several times a day -- I check the NYT to see the daily death toll to see how the corona virus is impacting our country and the world. I not only check the data, I take a screenshot and save it to my phone so I can compare different points in time. This chart is from this morning. Almost 10K deaths, up from 2K deaths last Monday morning.
This is a mistake, not only because it is depressing, but because I am looking at the wrong data. What we need to look are these datasets, in this order:
- Number of confirmed cases
- Number of confirmed cases who are ill
- Number of confirmed cases who are hospitalized
- Number of confirmed cases who are in the ICU
- Number of confirmed cases who died
- Number of unconfirmed cases with respiratory distress in the ICU in places where there isn't testing
- Number of unconfirmed cases who died in places where there isn't testing
Life in northern Italy was a shitshow before the death toll started racking up. Let's all of those doctors and nurses and EMTs did a great job of saving people and no one died, the IMPACT of the disease was to the medical system that could barely handle those cases and other people with other illnesses who did not get help because the medical workers were swamped with COVID.
On to Remote Life Realities. I've been on a lot on Zoom meetings this past week and weekend. I sit and the counter in my kitchen and this is the view from my laptop (more or less) because my head is in the middle of the screen.
It looks nice, right? A fireplace, a mantle, pictures of my kids, a nice vase my neighbor got me for my birthday last year, a bookshelf, etc. "Wow, that is a nice place and she is so tidy." Also, the lighting from this spot is AMAZING. I look fantastic, if I do say so myself, especially compared to other places in my condo.
This is what I look at:
In short, piles of crap.
Companies are making working remotely a thing. Rumor has it West Elm is selling Zoom backdrops with their furniture to make it look like you live in a stylish space. I bought the Boy a few shirts for his birthday from this site that has a "Cozy at Home" section and "Remote Life Bundles" where you can get a 25% discount with code HITMUTE. They pair t-shirts with underpants. #awesome
Stephen Colbert had an awesome video of his reveal of whether or not to wear a suit on his home television show. Yeah. I'll let you Google it.
And I finally figured out why I am not a big fan of working from home. I was a stay-at-home mom for a million years before I went back to the paid workforce. You know those recurring dreams I have where I am in high school or college and I find myself taking an exam for a class I never attended because I didn't check my schedule and I missed that I had signed up for "The History of Women's Roles in the Middle Ages" or whatever? I am afraid that I might wake up and forget that I have a job and then spend all morning writing my blog or quilting and then go "Oh shit! I have a job!"
Speaking of which, I gotta run.
No comments:
Post a Comment