#i'm masking and fully vaxxed but still i worry

[naomiknight-17]

Leaving on a business trip in less than 2 hours. Will be gone until Thursday afternoon at least

I'm not freaking out you're freaking out

[tartlette1968]

It's 2023, and we're not post-covid, we're mid-covid,

Nearly 2 weeks ago my sister, in Perth, on her Facebook feed posted something to effect of...

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck faaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrkkk..."

So something was not right.

In actual fact something was very fucking wrong...

My Brother-in-law had covid. My fully vaxxed brother-in-law who is on immunosuppressants to control lupus, has a low functioning thyroid, and diabetes HAS FUCKING covid, from somewhere. He needed hospitalisation in very short time, because of small clots in his lungs, and was released, after being immediately prescribed anti-virals. Then back in hospital again, then released. He is now back in hospital, again, with pneumonia. Now, let me explain this slowly. Lupus is an auto-immune disease, and to control it, you have to suppress the immune system. What they have to do, now, to fight the pneumonia, is to lessen how much they suppress the immune system, which won't be fun for his lupus.

Meanwhile, Huntress and I contracted covid over here in Adelaide. Officially our positive RATs didn't come until Wednesday and Thursday. The RAT I did on Tuesday (when I felt completely shithouse) was negative. There I was sleeping more often than not, smelling literally every bloody smell there was, and finding those smells really awful, my head feeling like it would burst, and the RAT was negative. Huntress did a RAT Wednesday, and Thursday morning showed me the faintest of red lines that showed her to be covid positive. I did another RAT then, and as soon as the fluid from the test dropper hit the line, it turned bright red, for me, no waiting for 15 minutes. I was feeling about 50% better by then, save for my sense of smell being very dull; I still felt like crap, but I wasn't surprised. While I was obviously improving, after Tuesday, Huntress was slowly feeling worse.

But Thursday was the 26th of January, and a public holiday, so there was no calling her GP. We called Huntress' Doctor Friday, and they were eager and insistent on Huntress attending a Respiratory Clinic, to organise a script for the anti-viral meds very quickly. Then the nurse urged us to call the ambulance to monitor her SpO2. That was done, and they were here for hours, but the end result was a script filled for the anti-viral by 6 o'clock that day.

It is day 5 or 6 now, on our own covid journey, and Huntress is improving faster than we hoped after two days of the anti-viral course. I'm smelling things again, and sleeping without waking up coughing every 20 or 30 minutes. Huntress, so far, has managed to avoid an ear infection, and pneumonia, which would cause all sorts of problems, as she is seriously allergic to all antibiotics, save some that really aren't useful at all. She is sleeping, and only experiences the odd coughing fit.

But my Brother-in-law is in a life or death battle, now.

Look, our Government has been defending their slack approach to covid, by trying to reassure us that "Most people are vaccinated, now."

Huntress is vaccinated, with one booster, but the last dose she had, unfortunately, brought on anaphalaxis, which required a day in the ED, and adrenaline shot, and a worry, now. She can't risk another dose, at least not of an mRNA vaccine.

So it's this simple. I was walking around, with covid, breathing this stupid virus... into my mask, because this is exactly the reason why I wear a mask. I get runny noses after one sneeze, all the time. That was no different to what happened on Monday, when I already had covid. My throat feels a little scratchy regularly, and my nose gets blocked weekly, thanks to just stuff in the air. Even if it was just the flu, on Tuesday, I wasn't going anywhere, because I was sick, and I didn't want to infect someone.

People need to remember, we're super infectious before we are even feeling sick, and there are people walking among us who, while they are doing everything they can to prevent being infected, we need to meet them halfway. My sister caught covid a few months ago, and moved into their caravan to completely isolate herself, and keep my Brother-in-law safe. But we need to wear masks, keep washing our hands, get vaccinated, and avoid crowded events and places. Because for some people, even doing all they can do, it isn't enough, and they need us to be brave and step up to do our bit, too.

[timelessbian]

my company literally said yes we will open with mask policies and then only four (4) days later we will make masks completely optional for everyone :) and like... ..no thoughts. head fuck you.

[leximitchells]

Yeah mask wearing had always been a bit shoddily mandated here, I think the messaging around it wasn't strong enough tbh. I don't particularly blame individuals for not wearing a mask seeing as the government basically said it's fine not to, but I'm a bit worried about cases rising. A lot of the population is jabbed though so a plus! It does look pretty bad in some parts of the US 😔

okay that's good that a lot of you guys are vaxxed!! are there a lot of anti-vaxxers in the uk? bc america is CHOCK FULL of them and they're making things so much worse so even though i've been fully vaxxed for months i still always wear a mask everywhere i go bc you never know who's anti-vax or anti-mask etc, it's so annoying

[lianabrooks]

The Ongoing Ita Bag Saga

It's story time!

Back in the Before Times when people could do things like attend cons I became enamored with enamel pins at Emerald City Con (Seattle) and just as quickly found I could lose them easily. After losing one of my favorite pins at DragonCon in 2019 I decided drastic measures must be taken.

I needed a way to save my pins!

In January 2020 I found the perfect, most beautiful, most wonderful cloud-shaped ita bag on a Kickstarter and I backed it in a heartbeat.

And then COVID hit... factories closed. The production kept getting pushed back and as people got vaccinated and cons are slowly reopening in 2021 I found myself still bereft of a bag.

It was time for drastic measures! Or at least going to Etsy and resigning myself to a less-pretty bag. Not an ugly one. Not a ridiculously expensive one. Not one that was still in production. Not one shipping from overseas (because the mail has been absolutely awful ... this is a local problem not anyone else's, but I needed the bag this year).

At the end of March I finally found one seller with two bags left from there earlier kickstarter and I ordered my bag 1-April.

... it never shipped.

Well, according to the seller it shipped, but must have been stolen.

According to the postal service and the shipping label it was never dropped off at the post office ever.

So I suppose it could have been stolen if the seller was using a courier service to get things to the post office. Or if they scheduled pick-up from their house. Anything is possible.

But it didn't change the fact that it was mid-April and I was still ita bag-less.

I emailed the seller who explained their theory and who said they'd send another.

I've been tracking it all week and it finally - FINALLY - got here.

... minus the insert which was supposed to come with it. I don't know if the seller forgot, or if they sold out, or if they shipped the insert separate, or what happened. But I really don't have time to wait.

Next weekend is ATOMACON. It's a (very) small local convention in South Carolina where we were able to practice social distancing even before the plague because South Carolina is not a hotspot of geekdom (or anything, honestly, the economy here is dire... but that's a post for another day). I'm fully vaxxed (yeah for being high-risk?). The other attendees I've spoken with are vaxxed. We'll be wearing masks. And I want to bring my pins.

Because pins are fun and shiny and I need a bag to carry my dice in (for the D&D game I'm playing Saturday night).

So!

I went to the garage where I have a ridiculous number of cardboard boxes. 1) Because we move a lot and this gives me box-hoarding tendencies. 2) I haven't visited the cardboard recycling center in awhile.

But that's okay! Because I found a piece of cardboard the same size as my bag and cut out an insert. An ugly, cardboard insert. That just wasn't going to do.

I was going to use some holographic duct (duck) tape but my youngest child insisted the bag was hers and so she got to pick what the insert looked like.

And, look, I fully understand I should put my foot down, set boundaries, and do the Proper Parent thing where I show my kid whose boss but - honestly - arguing with my child is not worth all that. It would make the whole experience unfun. Plus, as important as boundaries are, there's something to be said for letting a kid do crafts with you.

We are a family big on sharing everything. We pool our resources. We work together. We share most the bags.

Heck, my older girls borrow my shoes and everyone but my spouse has borrowed my wellies (rainboots) at one time or another.

So I figured I'd let kiddo help me with deciding what to do.

I admit, I was very tempted by the idea of an acrylic pour. Mostly because I just really like acrylic pours and I thought it might look good (although that paint is notoriously hard to get good cells with and I really don't love it like I wanted to).

But I worried the pour would take too much time to dry and be - ultimately - too thick for the pins. So we picked the purple spray paint I had on hand from another project, and then watered down some silver and painted over.

It's still drying, but the final effect should look like a moon with silvery clouds.

Once it's dry I can pick out pins to take with me for the con!

[bread-and-roses-too]

I hate being one of the only responsible people in a sea of idiots. I'm sure most of y'all understand this but every time I go in a store no one is masked. Cases are creeping up in our town. Despite being fully vaxxed and wearing my mask every time I'm out I still have to get tested every time I get sick. I just want to be able to go get coffee with a friend without worrying I'm going to get myself or others deathly ill.