Bobcat Moran

Hello, Yuletide Author!

Apologies for the delay! Real life has happened, along with a healthy dose of procrastination ^^;;

Pre-emptive thank yous and bouncing with excitement to read whatever it is you write!

Optional Details Are Optional, as the saying goes, so if you’ve already been visited by the inspiration fairy and have a fic idea you’re ready to write, please, by all means, go for it!

However, if you want some extra guidance, I have an overly-long letter.

( hiding behind the cut )

Anyway, I think that (more than) covers it. Happy Yuletide, and don't get eaten by bears!

Skipped updating for a couple days, because I basically was only at my hotel room to sleep.

Day 3 at the Convention Center was spent briefly shadowing one of the many many National Guard who are doing registration, i.e. taking down your insurance info and making sure your name, phone, email, etc are accurate in the system, and then marking up your paperwork to indicate whether or not you're getting your 2nd dose and if you need to visit a nurse for a consultation due to allergies or other potential issues. 99.9% of the time, the worst result from the consultation is needing to wait 30 minutes instead of 15 after your shot, in which case you get a pink sticker with the time you can leave instead of a green sticker from the vaccinator. After about 1/2 hour of shadowing, he let me take the keyboard, and I caught on fast enough to give him a relatively boring day.

Figuring out the insurance was easily the worst part — we'd ask people for their insurance cards and then have to search for their exact insurance plan, enter in their insurance ID and maybe group number, and pray to the digital gods that the insurance would be able to find it and sent back a message of, "Yes, this person is insured by [insert company here]." This did absolutely nothing to dissuade me from my opinion that the American health insurance system is a hot mess of a disaster zone.

Then I spent two days doing "wayfinding," looking at the paperwork that had been marked up by registration, and directing people where to go from there, whether to a nurse, or whether to wait in line for a vaccine. Yesterday was relatively chill, but today required some serious crowd wrangling, since people were coming through registration faster than they were getting vaccinated, and the lines to get vaccinated were backing up something horrible. Fortunately(?) they actually stopped bringing people onto the floor for a bit because we were short staffed enough that vaccine wasn't getting out to the people giving the jabs, and during that pause, the vaccine lines went down. But towards the end of the day, one of the three vaccine locations goes down, and when that heppened, the lines started stretching all the way into the (thankfully empty at that point) registration areas, and we were kept a bit late helping people navigate that.

I don't mind wayfinding as a task, but the big downside is that you're standing in one place on a concrete floor for the vast majority of the 7 hours the site is open, plus about 1/2 hour on either end, and that's just murder on your legs. I'd much rather something where I'm walking around or something where I'm sitting.

Alas, the wayfinding lead thinks I'm "one of the most valuable members of the team" and is probably going to continue to request me, because I'll do things like give people their breaks without being told.

And in out-of-work things, I'm definitely meeting a LOT of people from outside my sub-agency, and I also went to my aunt and uncle's for dinner last night, along with my cousin and her family. Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin are all fully vaccinated, I'm 2 weeks past my first dose, and cousin's spouse and son haven't been in contact with anyone outside the family bubble for at least 10 days, so we figured it's safe. (Uncle was a doctor before retiring, and Cousin works for a health organization, so I figure they especially have good judgement on this). Cousin's son was THRILLED to see me again, as the last time I saw him in August 2019 I established myself as the Cool Older Cousin Who Knows About Video Games And Star Wars. He introduced me to Fortnite (not my jam) and also Yoshi's Crafted World (very much my jam), and I showed him a bit of my Kamen Rider video game.

Tomorrow is a Teams meeting for us folks on USDA vaccine duty in order to go over some of the paperwork we need to submit, and then the rest of the day will be for paperwork and home office catchup. I'm looking forward to a day off my feet. And tentative word is Saturday is a day off for those of us who were at the airport last Saturday, which I am not going to argue with.

....shoot, I need to do laundry tonight. Better get on that.

First day at the Convention Center vaccination site today! I managed to get 3/4 of the way to the hotel (walking because they need all the parking spots possible for folks getting vaccines) before realizing I had left my ID in my room and booking it back. Fortunately, I didn't miss anything, since most of our first hour there was spent trying to figure out where to put the nearly 4 dozen new volunteers. There wasn't nearly enough experienced people to train us all in at any one station, and they wanted us to maintain at least some semblance of social distancing. So we followed someone from the site staff around like a bunch of ducklings, peeling off in tiny groups as we went around and all getting assigned stations just as the site opened for the day.

I wound up spending nearly all day scheduling people for their second doses, first shadowing another gal, then doing it with her watching, and quickly going to doing it on my own. After I took lunch, I wound up at a mobile workstation they'd wheeled in at the end of the big row of tables and computers, and once the line died down a bit, I went on the move, going to people spending their post-vaccine 15 or 30 minute wait, and helping out people with mobility difficulties get their second shots scheduled while they sat down rather than them having to stand and walk over to the computer ranks.

Of course, as soon as it was noticed that I was doing scheduling, I was slightly mobbed with people asking me to schedule them, and not all of them were happy with the idea that I was passing them by to get to a man with a cast on his leg. Eventually, one of the floor staff started helping out with crowd wrangling, since trying to answer people's questions, give directions, and actually target who I was trying to, was getting to be waaaaay too much.

Speaking of mobility needs, because this clinic is in the convention center, it's a BIG site with a LOT of walking for folks to get their vaccines there, and since one of the main groups eligible right now is over-65s, some people were visibly having difficulties with it. Wheelchairs and people to push them are available, but I'm not sure if there weren't enough of them, if people were overestimating their stamina and/or underestimating just how much walking there would be, or if pride played a factor.

Supposedly the drive-through vaccine clinics like the one I was at yesterday are supposed to be particularly targeted at people who'd have difficulty walking for that long, but since getting ANY appointment is still such a crapshoot, and since each site is open different hours on different days, and especially since not everyone has a car and this site is very easily accessible via public transit, there's still a lot of people I saw who, by the time they reached the station I was working at, the last one before they exited, were clearly exhausted.

Site vaccine count for the day: over 6000. Step count: 10,960.

Putting this here because I think this is something I will want to remember in Future Times, and I feel MUCH more confident about Dreamwidth not going anywhere than, say Tumblr.

So on Tuesday, I got a call from one of the supervisory-types I know with the sub-agency of the USDA that I work for. He's doing volunteer wrangling for the mass vaccination site(s?) in Portland, OR, and saw my name on the list of people who'd signed up last month when the new Biden administration decided to make it an "all hands on deck" sort of situation.

He asked if I'd be willing to come out for a month, and, once he was able to verify that it wouldn't eff up my own vaccination schedule since I'm due to get my 2nd Moderna dose on April 2nd, I said yes! Cue most of yesterday being spent tying up loose ends, getting done with a quick closeout inspection for a lab that's no longer working with regulated organisms, and frantically getting my plane, hotel, and rental car reservations squared away. Also putting my mail and Sunday paper delivery (yes, I get an actual newspaper on Sundays. Shut up.) on hold and praying the Star Tribune won't eff it up like the last time I was out of town this long and came back to three papers piled up in front of my apartment door (oddly, they did go ahead and cancel my subscription charge for those three weeks, so I got 3 free outdated papers).

Also, packing. Probably overpacking, because we were told we might be working indoors, might be working outdoors, and weather here this time of year can range from 30s in the morning to 60s in the afternoon, and maybe rain. All. Day. So I have multiple options in short sleeve and long sleeve and flannel and fleece and what the heck, I'll just wear my winter jacket and bring a hat and my glomitts just in case. And I had to try on everything to make sure it still fit decently because hi there, quarantine weight gain.

Woke up at 5 this morning, got done packing a couple last-minute things (thank goodness I got into the habit of keeping on hand 2 of most toiletries back when I was travelling frequently for fumigations, often on only a couple hours notice), watered my plants one last time (thankfully they're all succulents or cacti that won't be too worse for the wear), took out the trash and recycling, and hopped into a Lyft for the first time in a year and a half. My driver was super pumped when I told her why I was travelling.

The airport was chaos. Unclear where to check in, since the line went on and on and on, with only the barest nod to social distancing, and things were roped off weirdly in I guess an attempt to keep people from crowding the check-in machines. Security again, aside from the masks and the face shields perched on the foreheads of the TSA agents herding us, occasional plexiglass wall, and how we had to scan our own licenses and boarding passes showed no sign that there was a pandemic raging. My carry-ons were pulled aside, and I waited and waited and waited, and finally they got to them, and the TSA agent said, "Well, they didn't even scan at all, it's just blank, so they have to go through again." Wait some more. Someday I'll manage to get through security without a problem, but today wasn't that day.

Then I was off. Stores and eateries were about 1/3 to 1/2 closed past security, but people were actually keeping their distance in lines now that there was room to do so and the mood was much more relaxed. One guy at the gate while I was waiting was sitting there with an American flag neck gaiter pulled up to right under his nose. He made an exasperated noise and rolled his eyes when the announcement went out that you'd be allowed on the plane with a neck gaiter only if you doubled it up so it was 2 layers. He reached into his carry-on, pulled out another, identical neck gaiter, and nestled it around his neck. Fortunately, he did eventually pull up both gaiters properly when he had to board the plane. Boarding was back-to-front, only a few rows at a time, spaced out enough that the jetway could totally clear between each — SO much more efficient. I hope they keep doing this after the pandemic. A flight attendant offered us individually wrapped Purell wipes as we boarded.

I got a whole row to myself — Delta is still leaving middle seats open unless you're all in one party. Beverage/snack service consisted of ziploc baggies, each containing another individually packaged Purell wipe, one of those cocktail napkins, a tiny bottle of water, a packet of Delta branded biscoff cookies, and a packet of salted almonds.

I had a bit of a layover in Seattle and took the opportunity to get myself a coffee and a danish since I felt that being in Seattle and not getting coffee was a tragedy, plus I usually have a caffeine boost around lunchtime, which it was...in Central Time Zone anyway. And I was peckish since, again, lunchtime, but I'd had Plane Snack as well as a granola bar earlier, bites stolen with my mask off momentarily to get food in my mouth.

It was really good coffee. And they had the tables VERY widely spaced, so probably minimizing the risk as much as you can for enforced indoor dining. Also, I saw a gal go by on a skateboard (again, this is in the middle of an airline terminal) while having my coffee.

Flight 2 was on a puddle-jumper of a plane, and although I had the misfortune of a seat with a poorly aligned window, the view was INCREDIBLE. Definitely made up for how very narrow and crammed together the seats were, though I suspect I might've felt different if I'd had someone in the seat beside me.

Got to Portland, got my rental car (BRIGHT blue, thank goodness, because this way I can actually find it), and had some downtime before hotel checkin would open, so I went to a Fred Meyer for the first time in over a decade (I spent a summer living in southeast Idaho) to pick up stuff for breakfasts and lunches, as well as some snacks, tea, seltzer, and local beer. Fortunately, I have an in-room microwave and very mini fridge (if I'm staying somewhere for a month, especially when indoor dining is a risk I don't want to take if I don't absolutely have to, I will 100% pick out a hotel with them. Would've like a proper stove burner or two, too, but that wasn't an option given price limits and geographic limits).

Got to the hotel to check in and — oh. Breakfast coupons. This hotel doesn't normally have free breakfast, but I guess arrangements were made for us to have it from their restaurant. Very nice, but now I have a tub of granola and yogurt. Oops. Whelp, granola and yogurt and a clementine or two for dinner it is. Also beer. Mmmm, cocoa stout. Also, mmm, Nancy's yogurt. I love it, and it's so hard to find back home.

Anyway, tomorrow I find out allllll the details that I don't have yet, which are many, including my work schedule. Should be an adventure, and I'm glad to be doing my part! Out of all the things I've done in my over a decade as a public servant, I'd say this is probably gonna be by far the greatest service to the public.

Hello, Yuletide Writer!

Many many thanks and good seasonal tidings towards you!

Optional Details Are Optional, of course, and if you have a great fic idea that you're just dying to write, please by all means go for it!

However, if you want some extra help, I have an overly-long letter ( behind the cut )

I hope this helps and that you have a bear-free Yuletide!

You'd think an episode with the barricade and romantic drama and tragic deaths would be more exciting. You'd be wrong.

( I'm with Grantaire. Let's just go hide in the Corinth until this is all over )

Thoughts cut for spoilers below:

( choices continue to be made )

Thoughts cross-posted from Tumblr:

( spoilery, so beneath a cut )

Watching the Great Tumblr Purge of '18 approach, and having lived through a few of these before, I am thankful that at least they gave us warning. At least we aren't all waking up one morning and going "What happened? Where did my/my friends/that-person-i-don't-really-know-but-i-like-their-stuff go?"

And then the massive scramble to figure out WTF just happened and if anyone had somehow archived things elsewhere or if it was just gone forever.

Stuff's still gonna be lost. But at least we got a little bit of a chance to run for the lifeboats.

(I'm not leaving that hellsite just yet — too many friends still on there — but I'll be logging off the Tumblogs tomorrow in as part of the protest).

Holy new subscriptions, Batman!

I'm guessing most/all of y'all who're following me on here now and/or have given me access followed me from Tumblr.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out who all you guys are. I've mutually given access and subscribed to those I know, but there's some usernames I don't recognize. Please feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourselves! I don't bite!