This bird visited our feeder recently. The front part is primarily all red, and the back is black and white.

Cases of COVID-19 have doubled in my county in the past 2 weeks. We now have more COVID cases this month than we had in the 3 months we were in “lockdown” combined. People continue to just go where they want and do what they want and no one wears a mask. I have yet to see a single person wearing a mask on the rare times I get to leave my house.

A few weeks ago, I said that my goal was to live until my next birthday in March. Given the current circumstances, my goal is to live long enough to see Christmas. We are all either going to end up dead or unemployed.

This week, a 6th person I know has died. I have now known 6 people who have died since April. I have never had 6 people I know die in one year before, let alone in a 4 month time frame.

People I know who can go to stores tell me that shelves are still empty in places and that there are limits on certain items. For me, nothing has changed. There are still food shortages in the allergy community. Many items I cannot get at all because they are not there. When I am able to get food, I am paying 3x or 4x more than before the pandemic.

I am very happy that I get this time to be home with my cats. I try to keep things as normal for them as possible so that they do not know we are in the middle of a global crisis. The only thing that is different for them is that I am pretty much home all the time. I am not sure if that is setting off alarm bells for them or if they are just enjoying it. 

I can say that if I do die, these months home with my cats are the happiest of my life. I love spending time with them. 

That said, I am so sick of this pandemic and wish it would just end. 

I am hoping to be able to get some relaxation this weekend. I have now been working 14+ days straight without a day off because people seem to think “working from home” means “available all the time.” Even when I tell people it is my day off, they say “but I just need …” and continue talking. If anyone calls me this weekend, I am going to hang up on them. Fair warning. 

I am extremely grateful to still have a job, but I am really over this “working from home” shit. 

Being in quarantine when everyone else is running around makes me feel forgotten. Instead of calling me for work and yelling at me about pandemic related issues I cannot control, it would be nice if someone would just call to ask “how are you?”

The hard part is, I do not have much to talk about right now since I am still in quarantine. My big excitement of the day is when a new, unknown bird visits my bird feeder.

We are all living in our private hells right now.

Stay safe, be kind, and please wear a mask.