"Whisky in the morning" shall be my new COVID song.

Dog. The immediate pain of losing my dog is subsiding into a dull ache, with sudden unexpected spikes of pain when I do something that reminds me of her. For example, I used to feed her canned food. And after feeding, I'd wash out the cans in the utility sink in the laundry room. I needed to use the utility sink the other day to clean a tool I'd been using and ... bam ... thinking of cleaning out her food cans, and I'm weeping again.

Work. Tomorrow is my first day of "Friday unemployment", because Friday is a holiday, so I actually have three days of work, one day of unemployment, and one day of paid time off for the holiday this week. BUT. I'm one of the tens of thousands of people who hackers filed false unemployment claims for back in April. So my account with the unemployment department is locked and closed while they do an investigation. So I can't file for unemployment until their investigator talks to me directly. And from what I can tell, they are working on an 8-13 week backlog right now. So when I can regain control of my account with the unemployment department, and actually file for unemployment, it will be too late for me to file, and each of the 4 Fridays I will be unemployed for need to be filed as separate claims that will be individually researched and adjudicated, and each will follow their own individual path/case to resolution.

They also require me to present them with a photo of my Social Security card. Which I haven't even seen in 30 years.

4th of July. I normally shoot a professional fireworks show on July 4th. But it has been canceled. So a bunch of the crew are getting together to have a BBQ instead. Many of them live at the fringe of the Fox News sphere, and believe a lot of crazy right-wing shit. As we only shoot fireworks together once a year, that's all fine. We just get along and shoot a fun show. But I'm not convinced they all take COVID seriously, and I'm concerned for everyone's health at this BBQ. I've expressed my concern, but I feel a lot of trepidation. This is also in the town where one person with COVID just went to a surprise birthday party last week and infected 40 of the people who were there.

My wife and I live in a part of town on the edges of the "unincorporated" area, which simply means it is not under local police jurisdiction, and the rules are much softer for people 1/2 a block from our house. On the 4th of July it's like the bombing of Dresden here, from about 3:PM to 4:AM constantly.

So we need to leave here, but not go to the BBQ.

Plus, I've got a 4-day weekend, so we contacted old friends who live out in the boonies on a river, and asked to come hang out with them. We are going to camp next to the river on their property, away from everyone, and try to forget that our house may be burning down, our friends and family might be getting COVID, and that my pay and job are in a precarious position right now.

Should be fun! :-/