Life Under Lockdown, Day ????
Jul. 16th, 2020 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caitri I mean, what even is time, really?
We've begun our staggered return to work, where our shifts are organized so that we are socially distanced into different parts of our unit. I am also maybe the only person that doesn't hate Mondays, and so I've had a few times where I'm literally the only person there, which is lonely and kind of eerie. (Empty libraries are just...antithetical.)
My uni has developed a saliva covid test, so you go to a tent and they give you a tube and you spit on it, and they give you your results a few hours later. TPTB are insistent that at least some students will be present on campus come the fall, and we'll all be doing this regularly and using contact tracing and that will manage everything. Me being more cynical, I think that's a cute plan but in reality the kids will come back, there'll be a spike, and then as soon as checks for the dorms clear they'll send everyone home with apologies. I don't like being cynical but there you go. (Also I went to take the test and made the mistake of going on a hot afternoon and really struggled with producing enough spit. That was. A thing.)
Since we have somewhat reopened I've gone for my annual exam and to visit the dentist. This and work have been my only real "outings" in months and I feel like I'm being conditioned into becoming agoraphobic or something. I see people and I feel anxious. It's an awful feeling, and it can't be helped. And I'm lucky enough to live in a place where people are being pretty good about their mask use and so on. Sigh.
We've begun our staggered return to work, where our shifts are organized so that we are socially distanced into different parts of our unit. I am also maybe the only person that doesn't hate Mondays, and so I've had a few times where I'm literally the only person there, which is lonely and kind of eerie. (Empty libraries are just...antithetical.)
My uni has developed a saliva covid test, so you go to a tent and they give you a tube and you spit on it, and they give you your results a few hours later. TPTB are insistent that at least some students will be present on campus come the fall, and we'll all be doing this regularly and using contact tracing and that will manage everything. Me being more cynical, I think that's a cute plan but in reality the kids will come back, there'll be a spike, and then as soon as checks for the dorms clear they'll send everyone home with apologies. I don't like being cynical but there you go. (Also I went to take the test and made the mistake of going on a hot afternoon and really struggled with producing enough spit. That was. A thing.)
Since we have somewhat reopened I've gone for my annual exam and to visit the dentist. This and work have been my only real "outings" in months and I feel like I'm being conditioned into becoming agoraphobic or something. I see people and I feel anxious. It's an awful feeling, and it can't be helped. And I'm lucky enough to live in a place where people are being pretty good about their mask use and so on. Sigh.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-17 01:35 pm (UTC)I share your skepticism about reopening of your school and the good possibility that infection rates will rise. I think it will happen exactly like you predict.
We are facing a similar thing with the possible reopening of our public schools here. We will find out 10 days whether schools will be back in their buildings, on line with distance learning, or a hybrid of the two. My department will for sure still be back at work no matter what scenario is chosen like we were in the spring. Studies on children infection rates in some of the southern states doesn't bode well for schools, as far as I am concerned.
*sigh* I don't have a lot of confidence that our district will be forward thinking on how to protect the students and staff. They are just now instituting some of the measures I had asked for this spring, like temperature checks on ALL people entering the buildings and having everyone wear a mask. Do you know why they were instituted? Because two people in the district office came down with COVID-19. Meanwhile, our concerns this spring had been downplayed and minimized.
OMG! I feel the same way when I've been out on my yearly medical appointments this summer. I feel anxious when I have to meet people on my morning walks, which only happens rarely, but I definitely move so that there is more than 6 ft between us. Mask use is spotty at best up here in rural Minnesota.
Good luck at work. Keep safe. And let us know how reopening is going.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-17 07:38 pm (UTC)Today there's a petition going around where employees of all levels are asking the academic senate to have a debate on re-opening. Staff, particularly those employees who work in the high risk sectors like janitorial and food services, not only feel unsafe, but feel like the faculty are being privileged because they have the option* of doing online versus in-person classes.
*I'm not sure what those options are like for the teaching faculty, and apparently for grad students they are just being told what they are going to do? At any rate it's clear that, oh, maybe more discussion needs to be happening asap.
I'm sorry to hear your district is likewise dilly-dallying. It's frustrating and disheartening and scary. Stay safe!!!!!!!!!!!! And likewise check in when you can. <3