In other news...

Not a lot of new stuff going on.

I heard from my employer last week, they wanted to know that if schools allow us to run day care (even though they're not going to open this year, at least until November) "are you still with us?"

By which they mean, would I be interested in working?
I would, actually, but I'm not sure what that will look like.

I told Casey that I have some risk factors, so I would really like to know exactly how we're going to be protected.

Portland Public Schools (PPS) is floating the idea of charging families $1000 a month to offer full time daycare for their children in a school building.  So far none of the other districts have said they're going to offer any sort of care, even though, at least in our area, school will not open until 'at least' November.

Although some people want child care (those who have jobs, anyway)  they're not eager to pay more money for it. Since they're  already being taxed for schools they're not using, they're understandably pissed off at the idea of being asked to fork over still more for day care.

I checked out the conversation on the local news station's FB pages, quite a lot of anger.

They'd also like to know why, if it isn't safe for their children to attend school, why is it safe for them to have child care AT the school? I find their concerns and questions to be valid, but of course the educrats aren't forthcoming with any sort of explanations.

In addition, I was going through my wallet today and found my CPR card. Which expired last month.

Can one re-certify for CPR during this pandemic? I don't know if I'd feel safe taking a class, particularly with the dummy practice that happens during those courses. If my employer calls back, that will be one of my questions.

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I heard from the person who's investigating all the stuff that went on during the horrendous couple weeks of tossing poison medications at me.

She said that her counterpart, who is in charge of the stuff that happens in Providence clinics, is now investigating what my doctor did. Or didn't do.

I have mixed feelings, my doctor isn't someone I dislike, but she really did me no favors with the medications that were flung at me. I don't really want her to get in a lot of trouble, but you know, I don't think her judgement was very good, either.

At this point, the highest my BP has been in more than two weeks is still a LOT lower than it was on the medications!

Most days it's about 122/81, which is NOT high even though the cuff blinks a little light at me that says, "High. High. High."
Yeah, no.

241/178 ON DOCTOR PRESCRIBED BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION... THAT is high.

There have been several occasions that my reading was under 'normal' by a couple points, too.

I see no reason for concern at this time.

Kim (that's her name, actually) had asked me what I'd like to see happen, and I tossed the question back at her. "If you were in my position, what would YOU like to see?"

She gave standard answers of 'being heard and respected' which isn't wrong, but doesn't go far enough. NO ONE should have to go through the hell I went through for those few weeks. Ever. What a goddamn nightmare. I know that if I'd kept taking the medication(s) I could have been seriously damaged. Or even died. That shit is no joke, and I'm angry that they kept tossing different medications at me and never called to check on how I was doing. Worse, they repeatedly dismissed me when I called to ask for help. Acted like I was stupid.

I'm a lot of things. Not usually stupid, though.

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Speaking of stupid.
Eric has a step sister. 

We haven't seen her in 38 years.
She stayed with her mom and Eric's dad when we left Looseyanna all those years ago, she was 12? I think.

It was 1982.
A lifetime ago.
That's the last time we saw her.

Her mom was a lunatic.
In SO many ways.
Eric's dad divorced her not too long after we decided we didn't belong in that state.


Since then, little stepsister's been through all kinds of hell.
Substance abuse, physical abuse from various partners. Never married, no children.

Moving cross country and losing everything a couple times. In conversation with her brothers, we've learned about a few other bad experiences she had, although she hasn't told us about them.

She called a few years ago one evening, she wasn't sober. She cried when she described how lonely she'd been after we left.
"How could you do that to me?" she wailed. "How could you leave me like that?"

Well, we were barely past being teenagers ourselves. And the last thing we considered when getting the hell out of Louisiana was step brothers/sister. We just knew it wasn't the place for us.

So we haven't been in contact much. One of the stepbrothers passed away about five years ago. Brain tumor. He also had a ton of substance abuse issues. He married a Looseyanna girl, they had a baby about the same time we did and a year later, divorced. 

One of the other brothers, Mike, also has the same substance abuse issues. He got married, they had two daughters, then divorced.

The third brother seems to have escaped the abuse/divorce cycle, he has a wife and family and even some grandchildren. He's operated a successful business for many years.

In the last year or so, I've connected with the two remaining brothers and the sister on FB.

We're not related really, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for all of them, particularly Mike, who was in the seventh grade when we got married and who sobbed throughout the entire ceremony.

I tried to comfort him, "Mike, don't be sad, you're not losing a brother, you're gaining a sister!"

We hugged. He sobbed, "I'm not sad! I'm," (sob), "Happy!" I don't think he quit sniffling even during the reception.

While we all still lived in the same town, they stopped by often. We had a lot of overnight game nights, Monopoly and chocolate chip cookies. Eric felt responsible for them all and tried to help them be strong against the crazy that was their mom.

Stepmom had been abused, too. Her whole life. She passed away about three years ago, I think. Stroke and then just didn't ever really recover.

I felt some compassion for her, she really did have an absolutely nightmarish childhood and her teenage years were bad, too. She had a baby that she gave up for adoption (it was either her father's child or her oldest brother's, no one ever really told the truth about it) and I'm pretty sure she never had a happy day in her life. But she wasn't a great mother, she was an utterly horrible stepmother, and her kids are all messed up in one way or another.

So this past week on teh Book o' Faces Stepsister's been trying to convince me to see political things her way.

She tried to tell me that Portland is 'burning to the ground'. Since I live in Portland, and that's not true, I told her, "I live in Portland. That's not true."

There was a lot of back and forth. She's not a bad person, but maybe not the brightest bulb in the string, either.

She ended by lamenting 'what the hell happened to you' when I didn't agree with her politics.