So the president has Covid now. I don’t wish ill on anybody… but I don’t know how to finish that sentence. He will likely have mild symptoms, because he has access to top-notch healthcare, and most people have mild symptoms, regardless (one of the confounding things about this virus is that it kills some people and hardly affects others), and then once he gets better I'm sure we will hear a stream of logorrhea about how he overcame the Chinese Virus, and it’s actually not that big a deal, and the fake media… blah, blah, blah.
But it’s not a good look for him, anyway you slice it. It underscores his recklessness and keeps Covid, a bad issue for him, in the news. I doubt it’s going to swing the polls much, because, at this point, I don’t think there is really anything that can swing the polls much, but hopefully it’s another drop in Biden’s bucket, a fraction of a percent of win-probabilty added to his side of the ledger. The debate, for all it’s awfulness (and it was awful; I watched the entire thing after telling myself I wouldn’t turn it on at all), probably played a similar role. And with the election only a month away, and millions of ballots already cast, the situation is pretty clear: If the polls are anywhere close to being accurate, and if there are no voter suppression shenanigans (two big ifs), Biden will win handily. If you are thinking, “But everybody said the same thing about Hillary in 2016!” you’re not totally wrong, but you’re not totally right, either. There are some key differences between the two races (FiveThirtyEight has been doing solid work on this, as always), but I get the consternation. I feel it myself. It’s not irrational. Nothing is 100%. Long shots sometimes cash in.
In other news, something is wrong with my right shoulder, probably a bad case of tendinitis. I’ve had it for years; like, I remember first feeling it at an exercise class I took maybe six or seven years ago, and according to my records (i.e., this very blog), I was rehabbing it in physical therapy in 2016. Obviously, the PT didn’t totally take. I can’t even remember if it got better at all. I quit after a handful of sessions because the woman I was working with moved away, but I imagine I would have continued if I was happy with the results. But it just won't go away. The discomfort is always there, and I've learned to navigate around it. Sometimes it flares up and causes me pain; sometimes it’s just a little annoyance; most of the time it’s somewhere in between.
A couple weeks ago, it was irritating me enough that I broke down and went to the doctor again. I wanted to go straight to a specialist, but I needed a referral, so I saw a GP at my neighborhood clinic first. She told me it's probably tendinitis, and then I saw the specialist who also told me it’s probably tendinitis. Neither one thinks there is structural damage, because the injury doesn’t seem to affect my strength (which might be part of the problem; I’m not forced to rest it). Currently, I’m taking an anti-inflammatory (basically extra strong ibuprofen), and, once again, doing PT. I’m not optimistic that it will work, but I’m willing to try.
I have a follow-up appointment with the specialist in two weeks. I think we will try a cortisone injection then. If that doesn’t take, then I’ll get an MRI to try to find out if something else is up. That’s probably what I really need, but it’s an expensive procedure, and I have to try everything else first to get insurance to cover it, and even then I expect the copay to be hefty. So, I don’t mind putting it off a bit. I’m already dipping into my HSA to cover the PT copay: $70 a pop for 45-minutes sessions!
Okay, enough about health woes.
We had a little incident this week with my elderly next-door neighbors, and by “incident” I mean my kids and their friend were throwing stones at the side of their house and broke their glass door. We were working from home at the time, and the sitter* told us the neighbors came over and said they heard a crash and saw the door was broken. So, I went outside to check things out, and it was like that scene in The Simpsons where Homer steals Flanders air conditioner.
The broken door only faces our yard, and there were a bunch of stones lying around it that perfectly match the kind used to pave our walkway that the kids are constantly digging up.
*Remember how I told you our sitter wasn't very attentive? Yet another example. If the kids are taking a break from school and playing in the yard, I don't expect her to literally be watching them everywhere they go, but, my goodness, she should know if they're throwing rocks at our neighbor's house, or anywhere, really. I can't wait to be done with her. It's super hard to find babysitters right now. A couple we know just had there's up and quit and them, totally leaving them in the lurch. That's the only reason we're keep ours. I mean, she's really nice, but she's just not good at the job.
I brought all the kids outside and asked them what went on, and they all claimed ignorance. I was 95% sure at least one of them was lying, but nobody actually saw them do it, and they repeatedly denied it, so what could I do? I told them to go back inside, and then we (S also came out by this point) told my neighbors we would pay to get their door fixed and clean it up for them, but they waved us away, and said “don’t fret over it.”
Later that night, I decided to work on the younger one a little bit more. Initially, he again repeatedly denied having anything to do with it, but then he slipped up and gave me a little opening, saying maybe his brother did in on accident, because he was trying to throw a rock on the roof. I thought he actually did it and was trying to blame it on somebody else (he plays with those rocks the most), but his brother overheard us talking and finally confessed to it. That’s the thing about little kids, they eventually crack. Probably they even want to tell the truth, but they’re too scared to do so. Honestly, I was pretty surprised they all lied, somewhat convincingly, for as long as they did. (S called their friend’s mom, and apparently it took even longer for her daughter to come clean.) Lil’ S1 actually broke the window, but they were all throwing rocks, which might explain why nobody threw him under the bus immediately.
I was pretty hot, but I played it cool. I didn’t think raging and screaming would do any good. Plus, to get them to fess up, I told them they wouldn’t get in trouble if they told the truth. So, they didn’t get “punished.” But they did have to go over to our neighbors and admit their wrongdoings and apologize face-to-face (properly masked, of course). As a little kid, that was so much worse for me than going without TV or whatnot. Also, we made each of them hand write apology notes, which we are going to take over to our neighbors this weekend. In part, this is also an excuse for us to check up on them and ask again if there is anything we can do. (They’ve insisted there isn’t and been pretty cool about the whole thing so far.) I feel bad, because they’re really old, and just the act of going out to purchase a new door, which I saw them doing, looks like an ordeal. They do have an adult son who lives with them, but I’m not sure what's up with him. I think he has issues. Whatever the case, he doesn't seem to help his parents much.
Well, I think that's enough for now.
Until next time…
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