Failing At Posts

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I have a good excuse. Okay, maybe not good, but an excuse: I woke up with every symptom of a bad cold. MIGHT be “just” allergies, but yowza.

I battled it enough not to sleep all day, but I feel like I’ve been. More soon.

65 thoughts on “Failing At Posts”

  3. We apparently had it last week. $SPOUSE$, $DAUGHTER ONE$, and I didn’t have it too bad (although I had one lost day). $DAUGHTER TWO$ was down for two days, and is still running around the house hacking.

    Take care of yourself. Cuddle more with the cats. Dan, too, for that matter. Get it done with before The Day. We’ll still be here.

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      1. Snuggling up to a hot guy named Todd seems more like it would appeal to the ladies here.

        What lady in history or even fiction for that matter, would the guys like to snuggle up with?

        always assuming your significant other would allow it. /wink

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  5. This morning was a good day to sleep in, and I got 8 hours (it’s normally 6, and the past couple of days were 5 hours). Aside from the morning fog that’s still around (it’s 4PM), weather is tolerable, though gloomy; highly appropriate for the Solstice.

    A few seconds more daylight tomorrow. Yay!

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  7. I got 8 hours sleep for a change. Nice. Remember when we were kids, never failed. Got sick, or rather showed symptoms, on Christmas day. Didn’t fail.

    Feel better soonest. Cuddle kitty’s and relax.

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    1. What I am finding interesting, by all reports, employers are back to hassling employees for calling in sick. Even if said employee has never given them any cause they’ve ever abused calling in sick. Oh. How quickly they forget. Even being retired I was thinking that if nothing else came out of the pandemic debacle was that people who were sick stayed the heck home, implied, without fear of reprisal.

      That and working from home was viable and real for those professions it makes sense for. Doesn’t look that way. Signs are there that people are expected to into the office, sick or not. Working at home doesn’t foster the team (didn’t in the office, as far as I was concerned). More than a few hired on because the job posted as remote, not even close to job site, are now reporting being forced to relocate to keep the job. Doesn’t count those that picked and moved away from the job site under the assurances they were never going back into the office even when things turned around.

      Full disclosure. Figured the work at home wouldn’t last except in a few situations. My last company physically downsized their offices and won’t go back. But then they don’t have any money in business real estate either. But the hassle about not going into work sick. Dang it. That I’d hoped would stick. Now you have retail and service people coming into work sick, taking whatever to hide symptoms. Only way to stop that is for a patron to sue after getting sick interacting. Not the employees fault. But how does one prove that?

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      1. the demands to go to the office won’t last. Maybe briefly, but not in the long run.
        they’re terrified of commercial real estate crashing. This is inevitable. It ain’t coming back.

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        1. Zerohedge has been warning about that before the last recession (or was it the one or two beforehand? Asking for a friend). I suspect they’re right this time, and it’s a matter of sooner or later before the crash hits.

          Flyover Falls never recovered (completely, there’s minor progress) from the loss of the lumber mills and wood products companies. A lot of backup plans happened from people who got laid off, and most of them went toes up. Beauty salons, used car lots, “Let’s do a restaurant!”, all had their place, and most of them went toes up. OTOH, the survivors did OK. Still, there’s a lot of empty business addresses that somebody is on the hook for.

          (The current Next Big Thing is the Generic Marijuana Dispensary. Illegal in the county, per se, but legal in Flyover Falls and in one town north a bit. Way too many entrants in the business, and with the fragile nature of doing such a business, I expect the crash to be epic. Haven’t had a toke in 45 years, so my interest is more along the lines of watching two trains approaching each other. Shudder.)

          I’d hate to be the bank holding all that paper. I’d really hate to be an investor in said bank.

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          1. Next Big Thing is the Generic Marijuana Dispensary
            …………………

            Heck. Even in UofO town the dispensaries are a joke. “Anyone notice the ex-whatever-business being renovated? Please tell me it isn’t another green+ (MJ) dispensary! Already on every corner.” (Last is a bit of an exaggeration. But not much of one. More of “Oh look. Another one.”) OTOH short term didn’t drive out the illegal trade. Longer term, however, seems to have. Cheaper even with the taxes. In addition the properties aren’t be held by banks because of fear from the feds.

            I’d hate to be the bank holding all that paper. I’d really hate to be an investor in said bank.
            …………………

            Don’t disagree. At least locally most properties where dispensaries are located, the properties are not being held by the banks. The dispensaries are having to buy out the whole complex to operate out of, leaving most established businesses in place. Also running roughshod over said businesses. Which is why most the newer dispensaries, or existing ones relocating, seem to be old fast food type buildings without other businesses attached.

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            1. One of the dispensaries got a lot and modular building near the sewage treatment plant (industrial area) and near the F-Falls homeless encampnent(s). (City policy seems to be “stay away from homes and retail, and we’ll leave you alone for a while”.)

              Right now, the old fast food places are getting new iterations as small restaurants. One taco joint got remodeled and is part of the mini-chain taqueria shop I frequent. (Really good food, and with care, I can get food that doesn’t try to kill me. Always a plus in my book. :) )

              Curiously, Sonic did a brand new place where a gas station used to be. They did a false start around the Summers of Recovery, but dropped that location (still an empty lot). Haven’t checked it out; bunless hamburgers don’t appeal to me.

              Liked by 1 person

          2. Reminds me of a joke my wife told me the other day when we were driving to a friends’ Thanksgiving dinner.
            “How do you know when you’ve crossed into Maine?”
            “You pass a block of marijuana stores.”

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      2. Our badge swiped are now tracked to make sure we don’t work at home too much. This has lead to a lot of coffee badging and poor moral.

        So, no, they learned nothing

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          1. Many years ago when I was a new manager there was a case in California before the Labor Board where a programmer, classed as “exempt” i.e. salaried, who had been riffed won a case where he said he had actually been hourly, and was treated as such, required to fill out time cards and with assertive management monitoring of breaks and how long he took for lunch and so on.

            He won and was awarded a quite humongous pile of back overtime pay at time and a half, or more for weekends and holidays, with interest, based on his imputed hourly pay rate, for all the extra hours he had put in over a large number of years, which the company had helpfully made him document on his time cards – we heard it was millions, before any penalties.

            This sent shock waves throughout California tech, where working exempt employees like this with no extra comp was normal, especially programmers.

            All managers had to go to emergency training, where we were told the only increment of physical presence we could monitor for exempts, and especially that we could ever document, was “did they show up that day?”, and to never complain about length of lunch, or when they showed up, or when they left. We were to manage only to project deliverables, never presence.

            So I wonder, as I am not working in cubeland any more, how “coffee badging” management strategies are being implemented in the golden state.

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      3. We just lost two very good people to jobs that allow them to work from home. The company is somewhat flexible that way, but after an initial flirtation with “work from home if your daily work allows,” they decided nobody could work more than 2 days per week at home, and those days need to be scheduled. I can see why, because you never knew how best to reach someone, and meetings were a crapshoot. (Believe it or not, some things still are best done in person, or at least work better when everyone is doing it the same way.)

        Anyway, my view of it here on the ground is that working from home for the “laptop class” isn’t an expectation that’s going to go away. Companies that don’t allow it will keep losing good people to those that do.

        What really burns my biscuit is the way people have latched onto masks as a thing. My employer dropped the mask requirements literally the first second the state & federal contracting rules allowed them to, which was good. (I think they’re aware of what the data supports and what it doesn’t.) But now we’ve got people coming to work when they’re sick, wearing masks like some badge of virtue — “Look at me, I’m so dedicated that I come in even when I’m sick, and I care so much about my coworkers that I’m wearing a mask to protect them.” pah! That’s what working from home is FOR!

        And it’s what I’m doing right now, because I have a cold that doesn’t have to stop me from working, and I don’t want to be that jerk that shows up sniffling and sneezing and coughing on everybody. In the old days, I would’ve had to burn at least one sick day and maybe come in when I felt a bit better but was still infectious. It’s beyond me why, in a time when working from home is acceptable almost everywhere at some level, anyone would choose to come into the office while sick.

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        1. My last job didn’t have official “sick hours”. But we were expected to stay home if sick. If sick but not too sick to work remotely, then great. Either way, call in (later log it) why not in office (pre-pre-pre-pandemic, and not California). There was a spreadsheet where we tracked vacation and later time out actually sick, after Oregon made earned sick leave mandatory. Which most companies just turned into earned PTO (sick, vacation, and holidays, whether the company facilities were open to be able to work, or not). With a *maximum PTO (unless burned).

          ((*)) Son’s prior job did this. Based on how many hours PTO under old system (80 < 5 years, 12 for 5 – 9 year, etc. Earned PTO/hour worked. But often worked 60+ hours/week (often “required”). Not-Exempt, so paid overtime. When (every two weeks) paycheck showed pushing the cutoff, would ask for a day of PTO paid off (burned). Also usually got holidays paid when company didn’t work with the PTO. Thus never didn’t earn PTO (why not everyone did this? We have no clue.) Company also paid off the PTO that was on the books in the last paycheck of the year. Current job. PTO is granted at the beginning of the new year. Gets 4 paid holidays. PTO is “use it or lose it” no pay out. Same type of job. More variety within the same work. Difference is stress levels. Technically more pay too. More/hour. But without the required overtime. Thus less/per paycheck.

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      4. I suspect that the working from home bit may have had some bearing on their deciding my hours could be cut. I’m just watching the long term, low priority work build up while I do the necessary daily stuff, and I’m going to have a very large laugh at their expense whenever the SHTF because if it.

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    2. Day Job says, “Sick days are just that. STAY HOME. Please. Or Management will send the plague saints to afflict you, not cure you.” OK, not explicit on the last, but we’re supposed to be the good example for others.

      Oddly (?) my stuffed-up head doesn’t mess with creativity. I can still write and blog. Since I’m supposed to be on Christmas Break, that’s what I’m doing.

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  10. Don’t worry about posting; take care of yourself and family. We’ll survive; you be sure to do the same.

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  12. I admit that I read the title as “flailing at posts” and thought “Might want some arm protection doing that”.

    Feel better!

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  14. I spent a week in Thailand very sick. It could have been a cold, it could have been another bought of covid-19. In any case, it was very unpleasant. I hope you get better soon.

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  16. I’ve had the crud. Heavens forfend, seems every one else has it now. May all suffering folks (regardless of whom, where, or what despicable politics they may or may not have) be made healthy, soonest!

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  18. I assume the normal seasonal crud that’s going around is the new all-piled-together thing we used to call flu season, about which they were all “whoop! whoop! red alert! RSV! H3N2! C-19 variant-of-DOOM!! Tripledemic!! Masks again!! MuhwahaHaHA!” trying to gin up another panic a month or so back.

    I’ve found that when I feel the first hint of an immune system activation, if I drop one of the ‘Airborne’ fizzy dissolve tablets in the first tall glass of water, then slam a couple more glasses of water and go to bed, in the morning I feel better.

    The exception was when I got IT last winter (after getting the original J&J vax back when it came out), where I felt like I was run over by a truck for three days and then it felt like gravity was at 120% for a couple weeks, but it was still just a bad flu.

    Talking to a whole lot of health care folks over the past year, all of them have got multiple shots to keep their jobs, and all of them have had C-19 multiple times. And they all say masks are like trying to stop rain with a chain link fence.

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    1. where I felt like I was run over by a truck for three days and then it felt like gravity was at 120% for a couple weeks, but it was still just a bad flu.
      ………………

      For me it was more like 14 days and a month, both times. Otherwise agree, just bad flu.

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    2. I’m noting a trend in things. since early ’21. Everyone I know who has not been vaxxed that has gotten the WuFlu has had middling cold to mild flu symptoms with something that stood out as a bit more than just cold or flu (i.e. no taste or smell, way more exhaustion than usual, etc. For me, it was middling cold but sharp pain and I never had the lost taste/smell thing), and everyone I know who has been vaxxed, and gotten it anyhow, seem to have more severe versions, and many have had multiple cases, and the more the shots, the more often it was a more severe case.

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      1. There was only a narrow window* before they majorly discouraged getting the less-creepy non-mRNA J&J vax (because of six (!) cases of side effects out of 8 million doses), and it became available slightly later, so most people who got vaxxed in the US, and everyone who got boosted, got an mRNA vax.

        So the symptomatic distinction you are seeing is pretty much all from those mRNA vaxxed.

        I’ll need to go back and look at the more recent studies and see if there are any interesting trends in those by specific vax – I know I’ve seen data on the traditional vax they did in India vs. the mRNA vaxxes, but I’m not sure I have seen anything lately on mRNA vs. J&J.

        And as far as now, actual working docs say they have Paxlovid which works really well to keep people from getting dangerously ill from COVID, which is the remaining claim for the vax, so why bother?

        And it seems to be sinking in: The publicly reported latest booster vax rate here in ultra-maskey Silicon Valley (I still see the occasional driver here alone in their cars in traffic wearing a mask) is only 19%.

        .
        * J&J/Janssen vax emergency authorized Feb 27, 2021, “paused” April 13, 2021, unpaused but really hard to get after April 23, 2021, and officially mostly unrecommended May 05, 2022.

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        1. Two anecdata points:
          1. A friend of one of my dentist’s office workers got the J&J shot, and ended up paralyzed from the waist down.
          2. SIL and BIL both got the J&J shot, with no apparent ill effects.

          We got the Mark I C-19 in March ’20, and barring a stint of (suspected) flu for me last December, no major effects. Minor effects: $SPOUSE does have her sense of smell modified. Some bathroom cleaner used to be intolerable, but no longer. Ground coffee, that she can’t stand any more. For me, I tend to have more gunk that I cough up, though I’ve been prone to sinus issues for decades.

          FWIW, my other BIL got a flu shot at the same time as a Covid booster. Took a month before pneumonia killed him. We skipped flu shots starting last year, and as the mRNA and/or Flu+Covid shots are introduced, we’ll keep skipping.

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          1. as the mRNA and/or Flu+Covid shots are introduced, we’ll keep skipping.
            …………………

            Same. What I’ll do is tell the doctor, when it is due, “Got it at the pharmacy.” (Me? Lie? Convincingly? No, so don’t usually bother. But they can’t call me on it. So, whatever.)

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        2. I got the J&J. Then got the coof five months later. I have to get the annual flu jab, but I made darn sure it was a real vaccine, not the mRNA stuff. And I am NOT getting the RSV or other shots.

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        3. I had the J&J shot and booster, before the controversy (so non-mRNA version. We chose the J&J because it wasn’t mRMA.) First time got it was before any vaccinations (or tests) available (or that it was actually “here”. BS. Now they are admitting it was here before then.) Second time after vaccinations. Also had the annual flu vaccination. Both times same symptoms, same wipe out. Why bother with the boosters? Doctor says (company line, he is close to retirement) I would have been sicker without the vaccinations (no, he is not listening. Changing doctors is impossible.)

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        4. I should have mentioned that one of the people I know who got vaxxed and got the Wu was J&J vaxxed, but he said it was not as bad as some Flu cases he’s had, and I think he’s only gotten it once. Said he still had the taste/small loss, and was complaining how long it took to come back. His wife, also J&J was tested positive last week, but she was retested a day or two later and came back negative (was going in for a C Section of Twins, and both babies tested negative). and it would have been her second case if valid. He was in discussion of one of the “3 shots and 2 bad cases” folks I know, who got boosted because of a trip to Hawaii.
          Paxlovid has its own issues. Paxlovid rebound. Biden’s case was such. You take it and after a few days, the symptoms do seem to be less than not taking it, but the symptoms seem to come back just as bad and the pattern is the same, so you are sick twice as long, and I had seen some debate on if it was worthwhile for the at risk folks, seeming to extend the time they might be susceptible to complications, but data was too short at the time I paid it any mind. Also, like a lot of this, the data is being scattered and hidden for “disinformation” reasons. I do think it probably works better than the mRNA shots. speaking of which, how are they allowing Pfizer to use mRNA in their flu shot? That has not passed the testing, just like the Vaxx hasn’t ever passed full certification. Are they sneaking it under the EUA?

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      2. Counter-anecdote: the person I know who almost died from COVID blot clots in the lungs was not vaxxed. (His wife and kids have trace allergies to some bizarre things, including medical additives, so they would not get vaxxed without a full ingredient breakdown, which nobody would give them “because you don’t need that.” In spite of the fact that they clearly do.) Up until his oxygen saturation tanked, he was having a milder presentation than the rest of his family, too, which means severity of symptoms does not indicate total impact.

        (He and his family are on bout #2, but apparently Paxlovid is doing its job, barring the unavoidable stress on his wife. He was intubated and in a medical coma with the dangerous bout, and he was that 1% survival group.)

        Anyway. The whole thing overall seems to be a crapshoot. Some people are having better results with the vaccine and some demonstrably worse. I don’t have the statistical analysis to break it down, but the data are compromised anyway.

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        1. Sounds more like he is one of those susceptible to complications no matter the disease, but WuFlu is one of the worse types to get if you’ve got those. Dad died from a pneumonia that he’s gotten 2 or 3 times before (and killed him one of those times, but they jump started him and pumped the Oxygen up, but he was 45 then, and recovered, but in all cases, he was “fine” until suddenly he wasn’t. The other times he didn’t have non-existing heart-rates he was able to get oxygen soon enough to get past it) and covid could have very well done that to him, then again, the vaxx might have added to the complications that brought it about in him after his Cancer treatments. He just got whatever the VA was shooting that day, and iirc it was Pfizer (it was a 2 shot mRNA, I suggested the J&J but he’ didn’t get a choice at the VA). Anyhow, too little data to know for sure.
          An old family friend/neighbor has an allergy to vaccine ingredients (found out years back when she got a flu shot and it nearly killed her), and her personal doc said to not get it because it was going to be in there, yet every other medico she came across pushed her to get it, even after she explained she has that allergy. She waited on some procedure, because they were not going to do it unless she got the shot. Finally they stopped asking, and her doc made damned sure they were not going to try and sneak it in.

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        2. oh, and I’ll add them to the no poke, multiple cases ledger in my mind. My cousin is overloading the other ledger with his “had it before they knew what it was, then mandated to get vaxxed (gov’t contracts worried Corporate) and now on 5 cases of the damned thing”

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        3. Here’s a vid from doc (Vinay Prasad, MD MPH; Physician & Professor, Hematologist/ Oncologist, Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Medicine) who has an interesting take on testing, plus towards the end his take on Paxlovid which runs counter to what I’d seen before, with lots of clear analysis and actual data (or noting lack thereof):

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          1. Split to avoid moderation for two links:

            From that videos the fact that C-19 mortality has fallen to now being slightly less lethal on average than the flu is very interesting given the public health bureacracy’s continuing attempts to panic people:

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  21. Woke a few days ago with near migraine levels of headache and a stuffed head. Much caffeine, aspirin, and Tylenol (basically Excedrin) and just moving about cleared things up, so I shouldn’t be sick for the final weeks of the year. It had me worried. Off work today, so off with the alarm . . . only to wake up about 20 minutes before the alarm would have normally gone off. le sigh
    Cats were happy “Give us Gooshy!!”

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    2. There’s a bit in an ep of STTNG where data is testing “a watched pot never boils” and notes to Riker that “the water always boils after the same amount of time per my internal chronometer”, to which Riker replies “Data, humans don’t have an internal chronometer.”

      My pattern of consistently waking up just prior to my alarm going off begs to differ.

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