Good morning, and…happy birthday to me!!!
I’m forty-two today! My back definitely feels it, and
I’m growing a lovely crop of new white hairs, but forty-two isn’t a big deal.
It’s just nice to be here another year, you know?
In a little while, we’ll all get dressed and ready and
go boat around a local forest preserve. My son and I are going to kayak, and my
husband is taking our daughter on a paddle boat as per her request, so that’ll
be a good time. We’re picking dinner up from a local falafel place, and tonight
is the return of the rabbis at my synagogue from their month off, so I’m
looking forward to them leading services again. That’s a pretty good birthday
right there!
Here's what I found interesting online this week!
Millions
of Americans have long COVID. Many of them are no longer working.
Oof. Yet another good reason to keep up the
precautions and avoid getting COVID if at all possible. I’ve got friends who have
developed long COVID and they’re really struggling, and I feel terrible for
them. And that whole ‘no one wants to work’ narrative that people keep pushing?
This is partly responsible (along with people dropping out of the workforce to
care for sick/recovering family members; there was a COVID-denying man out
there who mocked the vaccine, got COVID, and ended up in the hospital. He survived,
but he lost both his legs due to complications from the virus. His wife had to
quit her job to become his full-time caregiver. Absolute nightmare al around).
Anyway, this is obviously a huge problem around the world, and we’re not doing
much of anything to prevent more of it from happening.
Along those lines…
About
1 in 5 healthcare workers have left medicine since the pandemic began – here’s
why.
That’s a MASSIVE number, and I’m only surprised that
it’s not higher, given what I’ve seen online and heard from friends in
healthcare. The number of people who scream that the hospital killed their sick
loved one who had COVID is disturbingly high (instead of understand that this
is a deadly virus that has killed millions of people around the world, but
these are people who have always believed COVID is either fake or nothing more
than the sniffles, and that all the deaths are either made up or just
government lies, sigh). The stories I’ve read and heard about healthcare
workers being screamed at, assaulted, followed home, had their cars and homes
vandalized… what did we expect? How is there going to be *anyone* left in
healthcare at all if this continues???
Binders,
backpacks…and inflation are on this year’s back-to-school shopping list.
Inflation is
hitting everyone and everything hard this year, and back-to-school supplies are
no different. I noticed this earlier this summer, when I went to buy a five-subject
notebook and found that they were up to seven dollars EACH. YIKES. We can
afford it, but there are so many families out there who can’t, and families who
have multiple kids for whom to purchase supplies. Depending on where you’re at,
school registration alone (even for public school) can cost hundreds of dollars,
sometimes close to a thousand, and with multiple kids??? We’re not at full-society
Great Depression-era levels of inflation and struggle yet, but...
Speaking of struggles at school…
The
Jackhammer Parents Are Here and They’re Destroying School.
Oy. We have these parents in our area. They protested
outside schools last year, screaming at (I wish this were an exaggeration, I
really do) kindergartners and first graders for wearing masks into school. They
scream and get violent at school board meetings. They target and harass other
parents and teachers. They fight with teachers, call and email them incessantly
and bully them to try to get what they want, they harass school librarians and
principals. They’re the nasty, entitled people they try to claim the rest of us
are, and it’s not only exhausting, it’s scary. The end goal to all of this (their
stated goal, when you dig deeply enough up the chain) is the collapse of public
education, and at this point, I’m just wondering how long until they’re
completely successful, because they have some powerful people on their side (there’s
a lot of terrible things going on with education in Tennessee right now, and
their governor is happily leading the fight against public ed).
It's going to be a terrible ‘dog who caught the car’
situation if they ever win out, but right now, it’s making teachers leave in
droves, and I can’t blame them.
Yeah, so the US is really bad about maternity leave
(the worst story I’ve ever heard was a woman going back to her job as a waitress
FOUR DAYS after having an emergency C-section. Can you even imagine?!?!?? That’s
INSANE!!!), not to mention any kind of leave for fathers to bond with their new
baby and care for their partner (a male family member had to go back to work
Monday after his wife had an emergency C-section on Friday, and they had
TWINS). We don’t value families - hell, we don’t value our citizens at all, and
it shows in this article. How depressing. The non-US families (besides Korea,
whose policies don’t look great, and the UK policies look like they need improvement)
are what family-friendly policies look like, when governments value health,
family bonding, and child development. Basically, we could do better, but we’re
actively choosing not to, and far too many people are fighting against doing
better.
Nazis
try to get on the ballot in Massachusetts – but may not have collected enough
signatures.
This one is scary. Like, really, really scary. These
people are legit monsters and would gladly harm me and my family if they could.
And they want to be in charge of the government. And there are people like them
in every state.
It’s exhausting and infuriating. I’m glad the people
of Massachusetts didn’t fall for her garbage, but UGH. The fact that she’s out
there spewing her hatred all over the place, in person and on the internet
(which is an absolute cesspool of antisemitism in the first place) makes me so
angry.
This
Sticker Looks Inside the Body.
How cool is this?!?!?? Instead of needing to, say,
wear a bulky and uncomfortable halter monitor, we’re getting to the point where
we may be able to just slap on a sticker monitor in order to keep tabs on a
person’s heart or lungs or other organs for up to forty-eight hours! That’s
pretty huge. I’m not the greatest in the world at math or science; I’m
competent, but I’m obviously no Einstein, but I’m glad that there are people
out there who make this their life’s passion, so that developments like this
are possible. I find this so cool. : )
And finally…
A
librarian collects all the things left in books – from love letters to old photos.
Such a cool idea! I love finding stuff in books, from
notes to shopping lists, to receipts (both from the library and from other
stores), it’s a tiny peek into the life of the person who previously checked
out that book, and I find it fascinating. This librarian is obviously a kindred
soul and has been collecting all the items she finds in books and posting the
collection on the library website.I can see how this has the potential to be
embarrassing (imagine writing a love note, never sending it, and then it ends
up posted in full on the library website! GAH!), but as a bystander looking
from the outside in, it’s pretty neat!
And that’s it for this week! I have a book review or
two to catch up on this weekend, and a few more house projects to tackle before
the end of our summer break, but really, not much going on. I’m sure I’ll chat
with my mom at some point today and we’ll probably figure out a time to get
together for a picnic, so maybe that’ll happen this weekend or in a few days.
We’ll see! It’s Tisha b’Av starting Saturday evening, a Jewish holiday that
commemorates…basically a lot of Jewish tragedies. I’ll try to find some online
service to attend somewhere (it's a fast holiday; I tend to do a more modified fast, because I don't want to do anything that triggers a migraine, and going without water is a big no-no for me health-wise, and health comes first in Judaism). I also have a book sale on the schedule for Sunday,
so the kids and I are looking forward to that. : )
Wishing you all a lovely, peaceful weekend. Shalom,
friends. : )
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