though I also know it's in my interest to keep doing that so I don't die
Please don't die.
There are a lot of people around me who are particularly vulnerable to this, and I wanted to use the resources I have to do what I can, even if my only real resource is my stupidly strong immune system, which I have only by the random good grace of genetics.
Also, despite being a lazy asshole, I'm relatively physically fit. On the afternoon of the day my university shut down, I actually went to all of my local urban grocery stores to try to get temp work. I don't need the money - not the shitty minimum wage I'd be paid at the end of four weeks, anyway - but I thought this might help address what was quickly becoming a critical labor shortage. It might also enable the full-time people take reduced hours without consequence, or it might help people who are vulnerable take the next month off.
Unfortunately, everywhere I went told me that there was a hiring freeze. I therefore decided to apply at the local Amazon warehouse shipping service, and they told me I was too old. Which is crazy. I go jogging and do weight lifting literally every day, but I'm "too old." I felt like one of those characters in a JRPG where everyone's like, "This old person is impossibly ancient," and then later you learn that they're supposed to be, like, thirty.
So then I went to various local relief groups, and they turned me away because I don't have medical experience.
This was in no way my experience after Hurricane Katrina, or after the March 2011 Triple Disaster in Japan, or during the BLM movement. In my mind, there are two possibilities, both of which are probably true to some extent: Either the current federal administration is especially shit and poorly equipped to set meaningful policy during this crisis, or the crisis itself is much more serious than most people know.
At this point, I think "stay at home, be kind, and keep the lights of civilization on" is the most effective and courageous action most of us can take right now.
no subject
Please don't die.
There are a lot of people around me who are particularly vulnerable to this, and I wanted to use the resources I have to do what I can, even if my only real resource is my stupidly strong immune system, which I have only by the random good grace of genetics.
Also, despite being a lazy asshole, I'm relatively physically fit. On the afternoon of the day my university shut down, I actually went to all of my local urban grocery stores to try to get temp work. I don't need the money - not the shitty minimum wage I'd be paid at the end of four weeks, anyway - but I thought this might help address what was quickly becoming a critical labor shortage. It might also enable the full-time people take reduced hours without consequence, or it might help people who are vulnerable take the next month off.
Unfortunately, everywhere I went told me that there was a hiring freeze. I therefore decided to apply at the local Amazon warehouse shipping service, and they told me I was too old. Which is crazy. I go jogging and do weight lifting literally every day, but I'm "too old." I felt like one of those characters in a JRPG where everyone's like, "This old person is impossibly ancient," and then later you learn that they're supposed to be, like, thirty.
So then I went to various local relief groups, and they turned me away because I don't have medical experience.
This was in no way my experience after Hurricane Katrina, or after the March 2011 Triple Disaster in Japan, or during the BLM movement. In my mind, there are two possibilities, both of which are probably true to some extent: Either the current federal administration is especially shit and poorly equipped to set meaningful policy during this crisis, or the crisis itself is much more serious than most people know.
At this point, I think "stay at home, be kind, and keep the lights of civilization on" is the most effective and courageous action most of us can take right now.