@work, mostly did meta data cleanup. Also starting to figure out how to document this whole Covid-19 situation. I’ll set aside one of the masks I make for the archive.
I asked my Facebook friends what they’d like to see documented. Several suggested I document the utter failure of the presidency, or explain why it took so long for the people of the United States to awaken to the issue. I tried explaining that national events are a bit outside the scope of a local archive, and that archivists document, they don’t let their beliefs color the documentation. I got pushback. It hurts when people try to tell me I’m doing my job wrong. I waffled between angry face and sad face reacts, but I don’t have the spoons to leave a comment. I’m not feeling up to conflict, so I stuck with sad face.
It was very windy today.
I didn’t get any sewing done. I’m just burned out on everything.
On, and Trump said the president is the boss of the governors and he gets to decide when the states reopen. He also dissed Dr. Fauci. The states said ‘nuh-unh’ and now there’s and Eastern and a Western regional pact to coordinate covid-19 response and quarantine-related efforts.
I’ve just started making masks for local groups. I got into it through a Facebook group. I first joined NextDoor, because, what with the Covid-19 crisis, I felt I should be more in touch with the local community. The NextDoor group linked me to It Takes A Village: COVID19 Danbury Outreach. That group linked me to Tri-State Mask-Making. I joined Tri-State Mask-Making and lurked. I made a mask for myself out of an Ikea curtain.
After a while, I felt like I should make masks for other people. There’s a fair amount of social pressure to help other people. So, I ordered fabric and waited for it to arrive. It came last week.
I also signed up with a web form on the Sew For Ny website. I was contacted by a coordinator who was very eager to get any masks I had. Michelle, my wrangler/coordinator pinged my Friday to see how many masks I had (none, but I could try for 30 by Sunday). It seems like fulfilling needs is a fast-paced, stressful business. Eventually, it was decided my 22 masks would go to the local Federal Peniteniary. They were goiing to be picked up Monday, then Michelle asked if she could pick them up Sunday night. A lady that works at the penitieary is picking them up from Michelle Monday at 5:30 in the morning. She’s really, really, in-tears happy that the mask-making group has almost 100 masks for them.
Pile of 11 home-made masks
Overview of mask-making process
Fabric arrives via mail. I get the mail and either wait 3 days for any virus on the outside of the package to die, or I lysol the package and open right away. I put the fabric in a delicates bag and launder it on “OMG Hot” so it shrinks as much as it is going to.
Once the fabric is washed, I iron it. I fold it in half, so that it is about 10″ x 17″ (it’ll have shrunk in the wash). I trim off all the loose threads from washing. I iron it into a rectangle.
I do this for all the fabric from the laundry. Once I have a collection of folded, ironed rectangles, I cut a strip off the edge so that the rectangles are about 10″x15″. I save the long strip for making ties, when I run out of twill tape. Then I cut along the folded edge.
I take this collection of roughly 10″x15 rectangles, and I fold the short edges down, iron, the fold them again and iron. This hides the raw seam. I then fold the rectangle roughly into thirds, with the hemmed edges overlapping, and the smooth side of the hem inside. I iron this fold in.
Once the whole stack is ironed this way, I take it to my sewing machine. I sew the hems in. Then I put the ties into the fold… really, I’m just following the Korean 3d pattern. I don’t need to go into this all.
After I have a set of masks, I wash them again on hot, with unscented laundry detergent. Then I dry them, also on hot. I put on my own mask and gloves to take them out (all wrinkly!) , then put them in a Trader Joe’s brown paper bag, with a note saying how many, the pattern used, and the date.
When my wrangler needs masks, she asks me how many I have of what pattern. She asks if I need any supplies. She texts me when she’s at my apartment, I pop down (in mask and freshly washed hands, naturally) with my paper bag of masks, put them on the ground, then back away. She picks up the masks and puts down any supplies I asked for. It all feels very cloak and dagger.
Mask-making costs:
Order fabric. I like bright patterns and variety–I think I’d get bored if I only had one fabric to work with. So, I order fat quarters (21″x18″ pre-cut pieces of fabric). They tend to come in a variety pack, and each quarter costs between $2-$3. This works out to about $1.50/mask. Then each mask takes four 18″ ties or 2 yards total. Twill ribbon costs about $0.25/yard if you buy in 250 yard spools. So, $0.50/mask for ties. Thread is currently negligible. So, each mask costs me roughly $2 in materials, plus my unpaid labor. I’m not even sure this is tax deductible.
There is a GoFundMe to purchase materials, but I’m financially solvent enough that I can buy my own materials and I’m sure there are sewsters out there that would benefit from financial assistance more than me. Plus, I like picking my own fabrics.
i made 22 masks over the weekend, using fabric and other materials I bought myself. I estimate each mask costs about $1.50 in materials, including the ties. They take about half an hour each to make.
The masks I made are going to the local Federal Penitentiary. They already have a few cases and they’re low on PPE.
Saturday i reached the end of my resilience. It’d been chipping away over the last month in quarantine, and I just woke up without any left. Chris was gentle with me and helped me find some. I think I’m ok again.
Worked from home. Told a friend u was doing ok, then not 5 seconds later screamed out my window at someone who was in their truck, playing music in too loud. No one’s doing ok. We’re just hiding it with various levels of skill.
Discovered a stinkbug nest. Vacuumed the suckers up, then dumped them into a tub of soapy water. Diatomaceous earth is on order. Stinkbugs do not belong in my home.
After work, took a nap. This constant low-key stress is draining. I’m tired.
I think testing is overwhelmed. Fairfield county has 4882 positives. Danbury has 632 state lab-confirmed cases. The really scary thing is that 1802 patients were tested yesterday. 1003 tested positive. That’s over 50% positive. That’s bad.
At work we updated the server. The newest version of arclight fixes that problem we were seeing, so that’s awesome. We also cleaned up a bunch more of the CCC slides.
I sewed two more face masks. I think I’ve finally figured out a pattern that works for me. Also, t-shirt ties are awesome.
Me in a face mask made out of an IKEA curtain
I should be getting proper fabric but Friday. It’s glow in the dark and has unicorns on it.
Today’s numbers were a bit late to get posted. The state had some sort of issue with data. Fairfield County is up to 4417 cases. Danbury has 699 (622+cases tested outside of CT).
Tuesday the 7th, I dropped off a USB cable to a friend’s octogenarian dad, so he can finally get back online. My friend had been trying for weeks to ship his dad a cable, but the orders kept getting cancelled.
I also tried to pick up Tylenol for my friend’s dad, but the pharmacy was entirely out. Ibuprofen, blank space, naproxen. Freaky. They also didn’t have TP.
Trader Joe’s had a line to get in because they’re now limiting how many people can be in the store at once.
I also had Indian food from my cupboard and it did not cause GI distress. I’m happy about that.
I worked on cleaning up the CCC scans. The photoshop macro used initially was a bit agressive and whitened some of the images too much, so manual manipulation was needed.
We also updated the archives server and got word back on an arclight bug we’d encountered. Someone else knew what caused it and was pushing up a bugfix. That’s the best kind of bugfix.
In my personal life, I talked with Andrew on video chat. It was a good talk. I like Andrew.
I ordered rice from an online Asian grocery store a week or so ago. I haven’t gotten a shipping notification yet, but they did charge my credit card. I hope that means they silently shipped. Rice is scarce around here, especially rice that isn’t long grain (my household has preferences, ok?).
My purple hair dye kit arrived. It’s in the isolation box until Friday, then purple hair for me!
I’m also waiting on fabric, cord locks, and pipe cleaners. 3/4 of those items havent shipped.
Math
I did some sad math today. 611 Danbury residents have tested positive for COVID-19 as of today, according to the mayor. There are about 85,000 residents of Danbury. Only severe cases get tested nowadays. If it takes 10 days after infection before a case is “severe” and only 14% of cases get that bad, then 5% of Danbury was infected 10 days ago. More have certainly been infected since.
Fairfield County has 3719 cases. Danbury has 611 (570 tested by in-state labs, then 41 test out-of-state).
I ended Sunday very tired and just slept. It was lovely. Then I woke up ridiculously early on Monday. My eyes are itchy. I hate allergies and can’t even take Benadryl because it knocks me out and I want to focus.
Anyway, Sunday was nice and slow. Did some light cleaning of the living room. At 3pm there was an online Haponik Family Reunion on Zoom. So many family members I’ve never met! It was great! Lots of puppies and one cat! We’re doing it again in 2 weeks, now that folks know how to work Zoom there can be less on-air tech support.
I also ordered fabric from Spoonflower. It’s pretty and it’ll take 2 weeks to ship, I think.
Today I’m expecting 2 packages–a pair of face masks and a set of hair dye supplies. I might make my hair super purple tonight, or might do it tomorrow.
Talked with Andrew and that was nice. I asked if he’d like me to make him face masks (while cautioning that I don’t currently have fabric) and he was keen. His family’s level of self-isolation caution does not match his desired level.
I slept in, thanks to a Benadryl I took Friday night (stupid pollen. Stupid allergies).
My big accomplishments today were ordering dog supplies from Chewy, making a practice face mask following the Korean pattern, and ordering supplies for making masks.
Joann Fabrics cancelled the order I placed on Friday–i guess their inventory system just isn’t up to the strain. All the items I ordered were out of stock.
The mask I made for myself is nice. I made it out of a polyester/cotton blend curtain.
I’d like a nose wire, and ties are more annoying to deal with than elastic.
The next mask will be easier because I now know how to raise the foot on my sewing machine.
I think the whole mask-making thing is important to me because it’s a way of taking control over the situation.
Fairfield county is up to 2824 cases. Danbury has 418 confirmed cases.
I’m changing up this title scheme since numbering is hard/I don’t want to have to read yesterday’s post to know what to call today.
A package!
The most momentous thing today was going outside to get a box of Soylent. I don’t know why the Amazon Hub didn’t open it for me yesterday when I got the other items–it’d apparently been there for a few days. I took Elvis with me because I figure he’s probably a bit cabin sick, too. He peed on all the things. We ran for a bit. I saw my neighbor Gerri walking her dog and we talked a bit, which was nice. I like Gerri.
Elvis and I bathed as soon as we got in and the (giant, heavy) box of Soylent went into 3-day isolation. As soon as he got out of the bath, Elvis lay in the tub of potting soil in the living room.
So, he got another rinse off.
Other things that happened
I also took a nap, said “Happy Birthday” to my friend Alison, and ordered cotton fabric with which to make masks. I’m not confident mask-making is actually useful, but it feels useful so I’ll do it. Plus, I want to practice using my sewing machine and masks are a nice, quick-win project.
Ordering fabric was weirdly stressful. Both Joannes and Michaels show things as in-inventory on the search results page, but they’re not in inventory when you try and add them to your shoppping cart. I guess fat quarters are in demand. No elastic or interlacing to be found, naturally.
Symptoms: I have a bit of a sore throat. This might be from all the stress yesterday at the grocery store, then the exercise of carrying heavy items up the stairs in a face mask. Or maybe I have Covid-19. It wouldn’t be from the grocery trip–the incubation period is more than 1 day. Maybe it’s just allergies. The pollen count is wicked high lately.
As of 7pm today, Fairfield County has 2717 confirmed cases. Danbury is up to 402 lab-confirmed cases. There was a delay in data entry, so some of these should have been included yesterday.
