work updates
Shobhit and I did some more grocery shopping yesterday, this time at the Central District PCC, then, instead of MacPherson's Produce on Beacon Hill as I expected, Shobhit decided he wanted to go to the Asian grocery store on 12th Avenue in the International District—Hau Hau Market, I learned is its name, after having been there countless times before.
I used to hate going to Asian grocers with Shobhit, years ago, because his primary concern was always cost, even if it meant digging through huge bins of half-rotten produce to find something decent enough to buy. That particular grocery store is closed now though, and it has been since even before COVID. Hau Hau isn't that bad. I do still think MacPherson's is better, but Shobhit finds somewhat more obscure vegetables he likes at the Asian market. Also, Hau Hau sells packaged deep fried tofu that I love.
When we got back, we made ourselves sandwiches for dinner, and also split one of the several half pints of Deli salads he decided to get when we were at PCC. He had no interest in the movie I watched for review, so I retired to the bedroom to watch it.
And, as it happens, the only redeeming value to spending two hours watching that dumb movie was getting to write a C+ review of it and then posting it to social media as a warning to others. Now, I look forward to getting my library DVD copy of the original Hitchcock version of Rebecca, which by all accounts is a far better film—not to mention actually a good one.
And now, some work related updates.
We had an all-staff virtual Town Hall on Zoom yesterday, that being a deviation from the norm in that it was not only for office staff. There were some five pages of little zoom boxes to tab through, and I saw several feeds of people in break rooms at stores watching along. They also recorded it for people to watch later if they wanted, since of course many at the stores had to be working while it was happening.
For the most part, it was dull as hell. Via Skype chat, Tracy and I played "Marry / Fuck / Kill" with the people on page 1 of our Zoom call. This game can really be a challenge if, say, you have zero desire to fuck a single one of the people in question. You have to narrow it down just by having no better option than who you choose.
It's kind of odd that this didn't come up on the call yesterday—or actually, maybe it makes sense, since this affects office staff only and not any store staff. We just received an email this morning from our interim CEO, Brad, acknowledging a change from the last time they told us how long we should be expecting to work from home. Before, it was "at least until January." Now, there is little expectation of fully reopening the office "until mid-2021." This has been my own general expectation for months anyway.
I mean, let's get real. Cases are spiking across the country, and around the world in fact, and that is something that has been an oft-repeated warning for months: cases will likely spike again in the fall. Now we're here, and it's happening. For my own part, my thinking is that I must not get lax with the precautions I have been taking all along, and so long as I avoid being around too many people for any longer than brief encounters, especially if they don't have masks on, odds are I will be fine, even as others engage in more and more moronic behaviors. Just last night I went to the east building of my condo complex to pick up a couple Amazon packages, and when I got back into the west building lobby, there was a young woman about to get into the elevator without a mask on. No way in hell would I join her; I took the elevator. She turned out to be someone on my same floor, as it happens; somehow I got to the fourth floor via the stairs at exactly the same time she did on the elevator. I don't know what the fuck her deal was either; it had been ages since I'd seen anyone at all in the lobby without a mask on. I suppose she may have thought she might be able to make a quick trip downstairs without encountering anyone. That would still make her an idiot.
Anyway. No expectation of returning to the office full time until, I'm going to guess, summer 2021 at the soonest. I'm already quite used to this anyway after seven months of it; what's another seven or eight months? I will be delighted when we can return, but the system we have now also works, and is far safer.
One last thing. Just two days ago they sent out the annual sign-up sheet for working shifts at a store the two days before Thanksgiving. I never want to do this, and this year more than ever I don't want to. But, I'm sure Eric would "gently suggest" I sign up just like he did last year, and honestly, now that there's a store I can literally walk to, what real excuse do I have not to, anymore? So just like last year, I signed up for two half-shifts, noon to four, on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, so I can still be doing office work in the mornings and be available for POS. It won't be that bad, and I still kind of dread it. I may have to start taking Thanksgiving Week vacations again in the future as really the only excusable way I can avoid it.
[posted 12:28 pm]