Instacart exploits their drivers. They don't pay them nearly enough. (Buying them safety equipment would cost the company money, so the company doesn't do it for exactly the same reasons they pay so little.) And Instacart has a lot of customers who don't have much money, but need their groceries delivered.

If Instacart charged more for delivery, some of their customers would look at the total cost and decide to go to the store themselves. In February? Yeah, sure. Now? in addition to all the people who didn't go in February because of inconvenience or disabilities or transportation problems, there are a lot of people who should stay out of stores now as a matter of public health. Even when we relax the quarantine to the point of only isolating medically vulnerable people and those who might possibly be sick...that's quite a few people. Many of them elderly, disabled, single parents, and/or unemployed, and thus short of funds.


Sometimes it staggers me, how lucky I was to have so many offers of help when I got sick. And sometimes I worry about exhausting those reservoirs of good will from people who are helping me when I can't help them in return. (And don't see how I can help them in the forseeable future.) It's so hard to ask for help. It gets harder to ask when I don't exactly need help, when I can manage on my own but maybe not manage all that well. I haven't seen any hint of fragility in my own safety net, but I still can't quite believe it would hold up if I had to use it long term. It ran for weeks on people's desire to feel helpful and charitable, but it can't possibly run for years, can it? Or would that curdle into resentment and we'd have to change over to running on cupcakes?

I was looking into Michigan grocery delivery, because my 79-year-old mother lives in Michigan. She thinks the virus isn't really dangerous and doesn't want to waste a lot of money on delivery services when she can just go to the store herself. (And not wear a mask. And complain bitterly when store employees try to enforce distancing.) An organization called "Umbrella" says "In response to the coronavirus outbreak, we are arranging no-contact deliveries of essentials for adults 60+ nationwide. It's easy and affordable, supported by an amazing network of volunteers and workers." My mother doesn't know any neighbors at all, so these nice people will find her one who is in good health and eager to help for only...Wait. They want my mom to pay $10 for the delivery, which is not very much to save more than an hour and some risk. The trick is that the money all goes to the corporation, because the driver is a volunteer. Is this really a good solution to the problem of worker exploitation?

Last month, I posted about a medical procedure I was planning to have on December 16th. It was scary and expensive, but I was hoping it would stop my migraines for a few months. I knew it wouldn't be an immediate fix. Patients who have good results report some pain after the injection, even headaches as a side effect. And the good results don't happen for at least a week. The doctor told me to expect optimal relief beginning 2 or 3 weeks after the injection.

I have mixed feelings about this "optimal relief."

The first week after the injection was very, very, bad. The shoulder pain flare was spectacular, and referred to hand and jaw. And my headache got worse. And a lot of my coping mechanisms stopped working, because I couldn't use my shoulder. (This made me overuse my bad hand on the other side, which wasn't any good for me either.) Fortunately, the worst of that effect was temporary. My shoulder pain is back down to the level it was in early December, with a reasonable range of motion. The problem is that I can't lift much at all.

You might have thought I couldn't lift much before. I certainly complained about not being able to do the hands-on part of my work in materials engineering. I was unhappy about not being able to carry a preschooler, or a whole turkey with a lot of vegetables. It's different when a 5-lb bag of oranges, all by itself, is too much to carry home in my backpack. It's different when it seems prudent to return paperbacks to the library one at a time.

For all that, it DID help my headaches. I had a continuous migraine from 10/29 to 12/29. Since then, my migraines have been frequent, but not continuous. I've even had a couple of half-day intervals with no headache at all, which were just lovely. That hasn't happened since the summer of 2000.

Thus, as I said, mixed feelings.

Way back before Arisia, on January 12, I had a prescription to pick up from the doctor's office. One of the advantages of having a car is that I can leave work less than an hour before the doctor's office closes, while it can take almost 2 hours to get there by bus. Unfortunately, I could not start my car. There wasn't anything wrong with the engine -- I just could not turn the key in the ignition. I made a couple of phone calls to ask for advice, and see if a friend could pick up the prescription for me. marius23 suggested turning the steering wheel all the way to one side and then trying to turn the key, but that was no help. So I just left the car in the parking lot at work. Another friend (not on LJ) picked up my prescription the next day, and we saw each other at Arisia.

Arranging for towing and repairs seemed rather daunting, especially in a crowded, icy, parking lot. So I didn't deal with it right away. It's not like I had an urgent need for the car. All I did was look up what might be wrong, and discover it's a known problem. http://consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_focus_ignition.html
I didn't find the information terribly reassuring. While I was stalling, I got something from AAA that I would ordinarily consider junk mail. They offered me a discount membership, with free roadside service and towing. They were generous enough to include a temporary membership card I could activate immediately. It's a sensible business practice on their part; "It's January, your car might break down in the snow, wouldn't you like to buy some inexpensive insurance so you don't get stuck?" I don't expect many people receive the offers when their cars are actually broken down and actively in need of towing or other roadside service.

So, Friday night, AAA sent a tow truck out for my poor car that wouldn't start. The driver asked me what was wrong with it. Then he asked me for the key. He applied enough force to get it to turn, and the car started. I started it a few times, to check that I could, and drove it home.

It bothers me that my hand wasn't strong enough to start the car myself. Even when I wasn't being careful to avoid setting off pain flares, just pushing as hard as I could, I simply did not have the strength. It bothers me a lot more that it did not occur to me to consider brute force as a solution to the problem. There are strong people at work I could have asked for help (with a lot less time and trouble than calling AAA), if I had thought of it. I'm finally accustomed to not being strong, to not using my hands. But I don't like it.