Tuesday, April 7, 2020
It is a beautiful day today! A clear blue sky and a high of 70 degrees; it is simply fantastic. My seven-year-old, Mika, and I have already taken our walk because we went to the school to pick up her learning packet and a lunch. Mika was disappointed they did not have milk in the lunch, but she was excited to get a hamburger. Tomorrow will be another nice day, and then winter returns. The current forecasted high for Monday is 28 degrees. On the bright side, I do not need to venture out into the real world until next Thursday for my wound care appointment.
Yesterday did not have a fabulous start to it. The local morning news kept repeating the newly released rationing of care guidelines if we were to run out of available ventilators in Colorado. If I get sick and need a ventilator during a rationing period, I will be toast. First responders get first priority, then single parents, then those without preexisting conditions, then parents of young children… Finally! I fit a category. I might get a ventilator if the other choice is a 90-year-old male with heart disease, asthma, prostrate cancer, and one lung... A girl can dream.
Later in the day yesterday, the governor of Colorado announced a two-week extension to our stay-at-home order. An extended stay-at-home order does not bother me, I already work from home, and now I am actually talking to my neighbors. I read an article about how staying home was a luxury, and wealthier households stay home more and started staying home sooner than poorer households. I believe that statistic, to a point. I have a middle-class family, and one family member still works outside the home.
Our income has not really changed, so we are not concerned about paying bills. Several people in our neighborhood are retired, and not experiencing much of a difference in their income either. The same middle-class family in Detroit probably has a laid-off worker from an automobile factory. That family may be staying at home and worrying about paying their mortgage. My family is one of the lucky ones.
I agree there are more “essential” jobs that are held by lower-class workers that require them to leave their home than upper-class workers. Pharmacists and doctors are generally upper-class, and they are not staying at home. Walmart and Amazon employees are frequently lower class and there are many more of them than pharmacists and doctors. Restaurants, movie theaters, and retail stores laid off millions of lower-class workers that now are likely to be at home. I think industry matters more than class for who stays home. My older daughter is only still working because her third job is in healthcare.
I just got off the phone and I was listening to a town hall meeting hosted by one of my Colorado senators. My senator hosted a tele-town hall meeting before the CARES vote. I pressed the button to ask a question, and when I had been waiting for more than half an hour, I gave up so I could eat my supper. Today the call was earlier in the day, so I decided I would wait as long as necessary to ask my question. I signaled my wish to ask a question within two minutes of connecting to the meeting.
Approximately 40 minutes into the call, the moderator came on the line to ask me my name, city, and question. The moderator told me I had a good question and she would put me in the queue to ask my question. Success! When the moderator quit speaking to me and I could hear the town hall again, the senator wrapped up his call and I was once again Susanne out of luck.
My piece of advice to you is to keep trying. The senator mentioned in his wrap up that we could leave a voice message at the end of the call, so I waited a few minutes for the system to put me through to leave my question. I will also try again when I get the next tele-town hall meeting call.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
It is a beautiful day today! A clear blue sky and a high of 70 degrees; it is simply fantastic. My seven-year-old, Mika, and I have already taken our walk because we went to the school to pick up her learning packet and a lunch. Mika was disappointed they did not have milk in the lunch, but she was excited to get a hamburger. Tomorrow will be another nice day, and then winter returns. The current forecasted high for Monday is 28 degrees. On the bright side, I do not need to venture out into the real world until next Thursday for my wound care appointment.
Yesterday did not have a fabulous start to it. The local morning news kept repeating the newly released rationing of care guidelines if we were to run out of available ventilators in Colorado. If I get sick and need a ventilator during a rationing period, I will be toast. First responders get first priority, then single parents, then those without preexisting conditions, then parents of young children… Finally! I fit a category. I might get a ventilator if the other choice is a 90-year-old male with heart disease, asthma, prostrate cancer, and one lung... A girl can dream.
Later in the day yesterday, the governor of Colorado announced a two-week extension to our stay-at-home order. An extended stay-at-home order does not bother me, I already work from home, and now I am actually talking to my neighbors. I read an article about how staying home was a luxury, and wealthier households stay home more and started staying home sooner than poorer households. I believe that statistic, to a point. I have a middle-class family, and one family member still works outside the home.
Our income has not really changed, so we are not concerned about paying bills. Several people in our neighborhood are retired, and not experiencing much of a difference in their income either. The same middle-class family in Detroit probably has a laid-off worker from an automobile factory. That family may be staying at home and worrying about paying their mortgage. My family is one of the lucky ones.
I agree there are more “essential” jobs that are held by lower-class workers that require them to leave their home than upper-class workers. Pharmacists and doctors are generally upper-class, and they are not staying at home. Walmart and Amazon employees are frequently lower class and there are many more of them than pharmacists and doctors. Restaurants, movie theaters, and retail stores laid off millions of lower-class workers that now are likely to be at home. I think industry matters more than class for who stays home. My older daughter is only still working because her third job is in healthcare.
I just got off the phone and I was listening to a town hall meeting hosted by one of my Colorado senators. My senator hosted a tele-town hall meeting before the CARES vote. I pressed the button to ask a question, and when I had been waiting for more than half an hour, I gave up so I could eat my supper. Today the call was earlier in the day, so I decided I would wait as long as necessary to ask my question. I signaled my wish to ask a question within two minutes of connecting to the meeting.
Approximately 40 minutes into the call, the moderator came on the line to ask me my name, city, and question. The moderator told me I had a good question and she would put me in the queue to ask my question. Success! When the moderator quit speaking to me and I could hear the town hall again, the senator wrapped up his call and I was once again Susanne out of luck.
My piece of advice to you is to keep trying. The senator mentioned in his wrap up that we could leave a voice message at the end of the call, so I waited a few minutes for the system to put me through to leave my question. I will also try again when I get the next tele-town hall meeting call.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.