Just when you thought it couldn't get more fun [teaching]

[rebeccmeister]

Last night, S very generously commenced with the preparations for driving Princess TinyHouse to the state-run Covid testing center (namely, making sure she would start up and figuring out the morning checklist). He then got up at 6 am to continue with the morning preparations. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get over to the testing location, so we got there at 7:35, before the gates were open. To keep ourselves entertained, we drove a 12- minute lap around the campus. When we got back to the entrance, the gates were open.

As we approached the first checkpoint, we observed a sign (well, several signs, but this was the most pertinent one):

"No vehicles over 7'4" allowed."

We don't actually know how tall Princess TinyHouse is, but the person at the checkpoint directed us straight out.

I had to sit there in an outer parking lot for a couple of minutes before I had the emotional energy to call a friend. Said friend said it would be right around 9:00 before he could make it over to the testing site - he needed to drop his daughters off at daycare. So we had about an hour to kill.

As S has pointed out, Princess TinyHouse is a cop magnet, so I had to figure we'd start getting questioned in that hour-long window if we lingered around the UAlbany campus. So it seemed like it might be better to use the hour to accomplish the next task of the morning, driving over to my campus to water the ants and crickets, and to reset my work desktop computer's remote access PIN.

We arrived back at the testing site right as my friend got there, so I was able to climb in his vehicle and get the test done while we chatted about all the other terrible Covid testing logistics we've experienced so far, plus the irrational bureaucratic element that in spite of being fully vaccinated I remain prohibited from being on campus until I submit a negative PCR-based test result.

So now that's done and I'm back home again for who knows how long, now constantly refreshing the update pages for two different testing services, waiting for one to turn up negative (one hopes). At this point I feel like I've done my due diligence and it just sucks that this is going to continue negatively impacting my students more than anything.

I hate having to pull Hail Marys like that, although I am incredibly grateful to this friend and will now need to think of a good way to express my appreciation.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I'm boggled that they are making getting a test so difficult with the US have just passed half a million dead!

[rebeccmeister]

I think perhaps this provides some important insights into why the US reached that landmark. The disparities in access to healthcare, education, and opportunity in this country are just astounding.

I often think about the point early on in our prior president's tenure where he vaguely referred to African nations writ large as "Shithole countries."

Not that anyone should ever heed any of the words that came out of that vile man's mouth, but that phrase has really stuck out as an apt descriptor of this country.

It's also sad that part of why this virus has spread globally is because of the nature of global travel - the same travel that is very much denied to most of the people who cannot meet their basic needs while living here.

At this point I don't know how one can get the oppressed in this country to organize and demand change.

[graydon]

The oppressed are not passively oppressed; they're shot if they protest, and know it. You don't get demands for change in a system like that; you may get cataclysmic revolution, but you don't get incremental change. (the fate of the New Deal is a really strong proof of this.)

Incremental change has to come from the bourgeoisie, as is nigh-everywhere the case and why the owners want to get rid of it as soon and as comprehensively as possible.

[rebeccmeister]

Good points!

[graydon]

Well, that sucks for logistics.

Glad you made it through!

I have the impression Princess TinyHouse is some sort of motor home?

[rebeccmeister]

She is! Here's a recent photo of her, back behind me:



In this photo I am also leaning against S's sailing dinghy, which TinyHouse is able to tow.

One of these days, though, we need to get TinyHouse's rear axle upgraded. She's a 1972 Toyota Dolphin and they have fake dually rear axles, which are not a great design.

[graydon]

And a snazzy wicker front hamper, too!

Axle upgrade as a fifty-years-of-service present seems entirely in order, somehow.

(also, my "sailing dinghy towed by dolphin" mental image was amusing, but not materially correct.)

[mallorys_camera]

I spent six months living in an RV that looked very much like yr Princess TinyHouse when I traveled with the circus. 😊

I think the reason the opressed in this country continue to be opressed is because they seldom act in their own best interests, having been persuaded by TV and other media dedicated to idealizations of various aspects of American culture that they're actually members of the middle class.

Anyway, it sucks that you had to go through all that.

[moodyduck]

That's so baffling that they don't have testing centers not requiring a vehicle. Here at least if you go to the clinic for a test they expect you to sit in your car but I'm sure it would be no problem if you came on foot or bicycle and stood in the parking lot and waited. It seems so easy to accommodate that?

Of course until very recently it was impossible to get a test here if you just wanted one as a precaution, not because of known exposure or symptoms or pre-procedure.

[rebeccmeister]

After this experience with the state testing site I'm even more grateful that the drugstore chain was willing to bend the rules for me. Sheesh.

And, yeah. I'm pretty pissed about this employment testing requirement, given all of the above. I would really like to be able to keep my job, and for that matter, do it as well as I can.

[annikusrex]

I really can't believe you need test results if you can show you've been vaccinated. Is this thought out, like they want to make sure there's no virus in your nose even if you're fighting it off, or are they just being dumb?

[rebeccmeister]

They are just being dumb, although part of it is that they have so many moving pieces to manage that it's pretty much impossible to be not-dumb.

But I mean, I guess it's still good to know that my vaccinated nose didn't have virus particles in it last Wednesday, or the Tuesday after, either.

There will also be some potentially interesting data this spring from the continued campus surveillance testing, as I'm going to guess they aren't going to discriminate between those who have been vaccinated and those who haven't in choosing who gets tested.

We have wastewater surveillance going again, too, and so far the wastewater is coming back hot and 6 students have tested positive and are quarantined already.