Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Day 248

For posterity, here's a quick COVID update and a short anecdote to file under "working from home with a pack of wild animals." 

Wyoming has had over 25,000 with COVID, 800+ in just the last 24 hours.  We've had days in the last week where that daily average has been over 1000.  I think our state is in the top four for cases and deaths per capita.  Not a great statistic, Wyoming.  155 deaths as of today.  More counties are passing mask mandates but there are still big chunks of the population who think that masks are an infringement or they just don't work.  The outbreaks aren't coming from the schools in our town at least.  It seems to be tied more to bars, restaurants and gatherings.  The Governor may announce new restrictions soon, but he seems to want to leave it up to personal responsibility and that just doesn't seem to be working.  I'm trying to focus my energy on things that I can control - my family wearing masks, limiting our contact with the general public, good hygiene and staying sane.  Some days it's easier to do that than others. 

UW's football game has been canceled for the second week in a row because once again the other team has too many cases.  The college football season just seems like a big random mess at this point, although I have appreciated the distraction and a little bit of a normal feeling Saturday afternoon every once in a while.  I don't see how basketball at any level can happen but we'll take that one day at a time, too.  

Today I gave a presentation online to about 130 people.  Everything was going well until I knocked on my table to emphasis a point. Well, the dogs lost their ever-loving minds thinking that someone was at the door. I couldn't mute my microphone in time and the sound of my dogs barking ignited other dogs listening to their owner's zoom call to also bark and chaos ensued.  Everybody had a good sense of humor about it but I did wish I could rewind time just 10 seconds or so and not knock.  Anything but knocking.  I have to give the same presentation tomorrow so I'll either be looking up the hounds in another room or working on another way to speak with my hands.  

Earlier in the day, I participated in a different training and the presenter was talking about all of the ways that people manage their stress.  She mentioned that she watches NCIS-New Orleans and just typing that still makes me giggle.  Apparently, that's the worst of the NCIS options.  So we all jumped in with shows that help us distract ourselves. I admitted to Murder She Wrote.  Murder shows were actually pretty high on the list.  Who knew?  

One week from tonight, I'll be baking pies and hoping that we are getting together with family members the next day.  Fingers crossed.  

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