Another day at home

[susandennis]

I slept really good last night and added a block to my morning walk. I am noticing more and more people and more and more traffic on my walks. We are still on a Stay at Home Level 1 here in King County. But, I kind of get the feeling, especially with the protests, that no one is paying much attention any more.

Yesterday afternoon the city proclaimed a 9pm-5pm curfew through Saturday morning. Last night about 8:30 pm they called it off.

I saw an interesting tweet yesterday "The precipitous fall for governors and mayors from heroic local leaders handling a COVID pandemic to embattled managers of widespread protests is pretty stunning."

I agree.

I'm also going to try and reswizzle my news. I resubscibed to the Seattle Times and I'm no longer going to get sucked into hours of watching the protesters on TV. I have four news tabs open on my second screen - NY Times, Seattle Times, and two local neighborhood blogs that offer particularly insightful coverage of local news.

Moving on.

In the olden days we had checking accounts and savings accounts. And they were two different things for two different purposes. It finally dawned on me today that the olden days are gone. I have a high interest savings account with an ATM card from which I can pay off credit cards. I only ever pay with credit cards and, very occasionally cash. I don't need another account. (I actually do have checking and savings accounts at a local credit union but that's for backup and if I ever need to walk into a bring and mortar bank - like with a giant wad of cash or something.) Interesting how things change.

Today I'm back to the sewing room. Another dress. I'm very happy with the new clothes and particularly happy that I'm making a substantial dent into my heretofore embarrassing fabric stash.

But first, I'm in desperate need of a shower.

And, in case you are wondering... the love of Stickie endures

Comments

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Biggie is the cutest cat!

[susandennis]

Thank you. Biggie and I both totally agree with you :)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the virus will kill cash. Lots of places here are only taking contactless card payments now

[susandennis]

i wonder the same thing. i'd be fine with that.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

What a sweet shot of Biggie. But then they all are.

I'm concerned and frustrated at the seeming ability of humans to only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. The pandemic hasn't just magically vanished, nor has the horrendous and continually increasing US death toll, and I'm worried about the extra deaths and extra months of not being able to go out that may happen now. Can't we be concerned about racism, police brutality AND a killer disease?

[amw.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting to me how different a perspective people get from watching the news vs reading it.

I almost exclusively read news. Even when newspapers do live blogs, i don't tend to play any of the embedded videos, i just read the text and that's it. But a lot of my friends almost exclusively watch news, both livestreams and those talk radio style analysis shows. Even when we have very similar political perspectives and we are following the same stories, our perceptions of what is happening end up quite different.

Personally i think television news tends to emphasize specific "moments" - events, speeches and so on. I think it can give a sense that what is happening in that moment is more widespread or impactful than perhaps it actually is. Newspapers tend to be a bit more abstract, summarizing key points and then delving into the political fallout or related topics. But that also takes away some of the raw energy of the event, perhaps minimizing it.

On checking and savings accounts... I remember the time when savings accounts actually had interest. I don't know what's happened, perhaps i just haven't opened the right account, but i don't think i've had an account that actually gave me more interest than fees in 20 years.

[susandennis]

ok, last first. wow. I haven't had a bank account that charged a fee in decades. my current savings account pays 1.4% interest and gives me all the benes of a checking account.

I really agree with you about the video vs. read. Yesterday was a 90% read and a bit of TV news and it was very interesting. I will continue for sure.

[amw.livejournal.com]

You just made me go check up the different accounts my bank offers and it seems i opened the account so long ago that they don't even list this as a current account type! I think it might be time to take a look through the different options. Unfortunately from a cursory look it seems all the interest rates are like 0.1%. I think i might have a weekend project.

[susandennis]

Sounds like an excellent project!

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Weirdly in our local little world the Mayor Dale Ross and the Chief of Police Wayne Nero marched with the protesters, not a huge group and mostly white, and it was leadership in action. (https://www.kxan.com/news/local/williamson-county/georgetown-mayor-police-chief-join-black-lives-matter-protest/)

I'm sure we have racism in this area but there is also a lot of understanding and the more protests like this, the more positive energy, communication and what starts out as protests becomes a voter registration drive.

[susandennis]

your local world is, indeed, weird but very cool in many ways.