Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Days of Covid, 6

I thought the hiatus from classes would be like an extended snow day: might as well get comfy! Read more, clean some things that need cleaning, enjoy some enforced inactivity. It really doesn't feel like that; the anxiety is almost incapacitating, but there is next to nothing I can do to avoid the trouble we are headed straight for, and I don't know how long it will go on or how bad it will get.

Despite my best efforts to stay optimistic, I am having a hard time believing we will be able to go back to work in 15 days. I fear we are in this for months. It's useless to follow that thought but I am helpless not to.

I felt better when the relief package passed but now it is seeming hopelessly complicated & the information on it is incomplete or contradictory. It's based on 2019, so if you haven't filed your 2019 taxes as of today...do you get nothing? Nobody knows. And it's mid-March, millions and millions will not have filed their 2019 taxes yet!

My credit card company says "Contact us if you've been affected by Covid-19!" but then the function on their website crashes, and nobody answers the phone. I filed for unemployment but who knows when they will be able to talk to me. The things that are supposed to help, so far have not been helpful. I know there are good reasons for this - well, one very good reason, and that is that everyone needs help right now. But the credit card company, for example - they could have just suspended payments for 60 days, no penalties, no interest. They could have taken that worry off people's shoulders, without piling on one more call to hold on for hours, one more decision of someone else's to wait on. Don't tell me they couldn't afford it: it costs something to staff those call lines, too.

I see individuals & small businesses stepping up. I will try to focus on that.

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