385. Summer Doldrums

 

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Coming Soon: de Tocqueville 

7/11/22 - Day 847/35

The Chain just came on here at the Bank Cafe. Now I’m anticipating the bass part, but I don’t think I will be able to hear it the way they have the sound turned down... nope.

I need to return to this blog and get caught up. This week. I’ve pinned my notes. Next I will start copying the text into blogger and posting it day by day. Should be caught up by the end of the week.

I’m now three weeks into the doldrums of July and August where we mostly just work the Sunday Stern Grove Festival concerts. There have been some other events but I’ve dodged them for one reason or another -- mostly because they ran too late or involved back-end table sorting. 

We seem to have the Stern Grove scene down now. Even with large crowds we are mostly done by 8pm. At which point I clock-out and leave whatever remains to the younger workers. One update this season is that I’m now collecting corks and recycling them at Whole Food. I’m thinking about doing a Foster Brooks imitation as I bring in my bag of corks every week.

The music to date has been good -- at least at the end when I show up. And the weather has been a mix of fog and sun, so not too hot and, so far, not too cold. 

7/15/22

For the first time in months I’m caught up with posting this blog. I’m reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog again, but I’ve already said everything I need to say about that. Things may or may not be coming to a head with our huge, long-standing problem at the HOA. Only time will tell. Any real improvement would be a huge surprise. And the pandemic just keeps on keeping on. I finally gave up my fitness center membership as I realized that between all the new COVID variants and the new Monkeypox concern, there was no way I would be returning soon. I did invest in new equipment for doing pull-ups, but I have yet to start using it. Next week probably.

What is new is the widespread conviction that everything is about to go to hell in a hand-basket. Some of this is climate related -- which makes perfect sense, though no one seems to be doing anything that would reduce the likelihood of this fate -- and some of it is political. Again, not unreasonable. And then there’s the economic aspect. I view all this with the perspective of history, so, while I don’t think the conviction is necessarily wrong, I still see these as being “historically” good times. Unusually good times, in fact. 

And I continue to make thirty year plans for my HOA and less-than-thirty year plans for myself. The HOA will almost certainly still be around in thirty years, though the cost of painting at that time is impossible to anticipate. I have no intention of still being around in thirty years. My personal plans get more and more tentative the further into the future I look. In five years I should be relatively unchanged, though I’m not sure about the world. In ten years I can’t expect to be the same person. I see that as the likely time for a major transition, which I have financial plans for -- assuming no huge economic upheaval. There’s good reason to think I should be fine when it comes to money -- unless things get really strange, and you can’t exactly prepare for that. And beyond eighty I don’t see that there is any reason to cling to life. So Plan C at that point would be to bring down the show. Of course that’s what my aunt always said and she clung on until she was a miserable ninety-four. We never really know where our path is leading.

7/25/22

I’m getting near to the end of Hedgehog, I’m to the part where Kakuro dresses Renne. And I’m trying to recall how often I’ve run into this trope. Besides here I’m pretty sure the French Duke did this in one of Nancy Mitford’s novels, but I think there’s at least one more instance. (On the TV show "Castle," Castle sends Kate a spectacular dress to wear for an event. Same trope... I didn't much care for the dress.)

8/13/22 - Day 881/69

Today is the 881st of the pandemic and the 69th since I finally caught COVID. I was reflecting on this as I did my old, simi-steep hill walk today. I left off the stair-master part as it has already been a tough week with three, eight hour greening days. 

On the other hand, my daily exercise routine has recently improved with the return of my three versions of pull up/chin up using a new piece of kit that clamps onto the wall above a door. I’m still trying to catch up to where I was after a break of over two years doing that particular kind of exercise. It will take a few months, but it is going well. I’ve also just recently replaced the larger set of crunches with two different kinds of plank -- normal and side style. That seems to be a big improvement as I was coasting before and now I’m really pressing trying to move above two minutes and one minute respectively. All this because I finally gave up my fitness center membership.

Aside from the complex calculations about when to wear a mask and still not eating inside most places. Life is not too far from normal... at least from our new perspective.

And I’m reading a book that may demand blogging: The Old Regime and the French Revolution by Alexis de Toqueville. This was prompted by my recent rereading of Pirenne, and I think I’m really going to like it -- only about four chapters in. And I may have to follow this up with Adam Smith. Who knew I would spend my Golden Years finally trying to understand the 18th and 19th centuries? Not me. I have considered trying to contact my old history professor at ASU but I would rather not know if he is dead.

8/15/22

Yesterday I worked the final Stern Grove concert of 2022. It was rather worse than I had even anticipated, but really, it was fine. Thousands of people having a very good time. That their fun interfered with my waste diversion is hardly the end of the world. I adjusted and it all ended well.

One of our “old timers” was not scheduled to work yesterday but some other people flaked out so she stepped in. Somehow, she had never been exposed to the Deadhead culture -- which is as odd as the fact that they had never played at the Stern Grove venue. I warned her that, to our untrained ears, they would be playing the same song all afternoon, which she confirmed at the end. What I had not anticipated (but should have) was that the crowd would be dancing on the paths we use to access our ecostations. Normally we can push carts on those paths and then pull and cart away bags of sorted trash. I tried that once and gave up. Fortunately there is a another path behind the stage so I could get back to the dumpsters with my load. 

Deadhead dancing is reminiscent of sufi dancing. There’s a lot of spinning or slowly spinning while apparently stoned out of your mind. While there were some younger people in attendance, the vast majority were probably older than me. There was one “dancer” on the path in my area who appeared to have been dead for some time.

I’m going to try to find out how much money they raised, as that was the point of this final concert of the season.

8/17/22

I’m trying to replace the battery in my beard trimmer rather than just getting a new trimmer... which would be simple. This involves taking two buses to the closest remaining Batteries Plus store in San Rafael. But then they have to “prime” the new battery which takes six hours. So I’m on 4th street killing time. By chance, it is a delightful day. There are actual clouds in the sky and I was already sprinkled on once -- and that is not a Trump kink reference. I had planned to come yesterday, but I judged it to be too hot, and it got even hotter than forecast, up in the 90s. And today is warm but pleasant.

My friend who lives a couple blocks from where I am currently having tea and a cookie out on the sidewalk, is currently either in surgery or waiting for her surgery to start after having broken her femur (I think) while playing pickleball. This is probably fairly routine (though all surgeries involve a degree of risk) but I can’t help thinking how strange it would be if she died as a result of playing pickleball in the midst of a pandemic.

I just remembered that tomorrow will be the anniversary of my mother’s going into the hospital that final time. That was also a lovely time of year in Minnesota, though much hotter. 

8/22/22

This past weekend I only worked a short shift at a street festival in the Western Addition. Too quiet for my taste -- I mean it wasn’t busy, I had both earbuds in as ear protection. We had to do grounds at the end and so left those four blocks cleaner then they’ve probably been in years. Next up is a convention, the only one I don’t really mind working -- VM Ware. Should be a good chance to continue breaking in the new boots I first wore for the street festival. A little ankle discomfort, but otherwise pretty good. And I re-repaired my old boots so now I have a backup pair.

And our COVID numbers have come down enough that I’ve returned to eating indoors at the two places I’ve been avoiding. Hit my Burmese favorite on the anniversary of my mother’s death and will be at the Pork store tomorrow.

And tomorrow will also be another run to the PO where I have to sign for letters that missed me at home. Still trying to decide what I will do as a reward after. Or while I’m reading the latest crazy letter. If what I’ve heard is at all reliable, the sale of that property should be final by now. I’m not expecting anything, but still hoping this will get interesting.

The Old Regime and the French Revolution

P96 “Thus each of these small groups lived only for itself and, quite literally, minded its own business.” Speaking of the tiny groups the 3rd estate had broken down into. Isn’t this similar to Voltaire’s “Tending their gardens?” Isn’t this the result of everyone doing this? To the advantage of the dynasty but not the nation.

8/26/22

Women’s belts again. In my continuing research on this vital subject I am having a problem answering the follow up question, Are women without foxy figures following the same trend? The reason I can’t tell is that it seems that only the foxes are dressed so that this is obvious. Partly this is because it is cooler here in SF and most people wear some sort of additional layer. Partly this is because the non-foxes are being discrete. It might be easier to go into a store that sells women’s accessories and ask the sales people if these are dark days for the belt trade.

384. Now with COVID

 

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COVID finally catches up with me 

Day 795 of pandemic/340 since semi-return to normal - 5/20/2022

I am sitting at the long tables at the Bank Cafe for the first time since the pandemic started. This is because I need to charge my phone and backup battery and I can’t find a convenient wall outlet. Normally I do this at home, but I’ve had my phone on the energy saving setting and it managed to slip below 70% charge without my noticing. I kind of like this phone setting, all I don’t have is easy access to the flashlight and Google search. But I don’t see that it really saves that much. I expected the % left to stay nearly unchanged for days, which has not been the case. I will continue to try it over the weekend while I’m working, but may just return to the normal setting next week.

Recently I’ve been sitting in the lower level of the Bank Cafe, where the bathrooms are. It’s convenient for bathroom access and there tend to be fewer people down there since it’s been off limits for most of the past two years. And there are some comfortable chairs and sofas there as well. Still, it is underground and it is nice sitting up at ground level now and being able to see the street activity out the windows. 

Today the first Boeing Starliner is docking with the ISS. This is an unmanned mission to test all the equipment. Boeing has not looked good running this program. SpaceX looks so much better by comparison. Though landing the ships on land rather than at sea should be an improvement. I hope in time SpaceX will be able to do the rocket assisted landings they wanted. Maybe if Boeing screws up a few more times, NASA will fund that.

There’s a wonderful collection of videos about Classic American cars from the ‘50s and ‘60s called Charles Phoenix Joyride. Depending on the make and model, the peak of American car design was somewhere between 1955 and 1962. Probably. Curiously, the same cars preserved in Cuba by very strange economic forces. Of course these automobiles are also horrible in almost every other way. They are dangerous to the occupants and gas guzzlers. Still, lovely to look at. I’m surprised the MAGA crowd hasn’t built some propaganda around them, it would at least resonate with people of my age cohort -- people born between 1945 and 1965. Even I can wax nostalgic about that period: The foods I ate at the time that I couldn’t eat now. The good times prior to the bad times that followed. When we were naive enough to think well of our political leaders like Eisenhower and JFK. Of course it helps that at the time I didn’t know any people of color or people who were not at least trying to pass for heterosexual. And we will ignore the lead in the paint and gasoline and the radiation in the air and snow. Or the pollution in the rivers (where we would never go).

Still, it is amazing to find cars that are over 65 years old still looking so damn good.

5/23/2022

Just last night I saw an episode of Joyride featuring a ‘57 Bel Air, such a beauty.

This past weekend was Himalayan Fair in Berkeley’s Live Oak Park. So Berkeley. So difficult to get the vendors to understand the trash rules. After working a full shift on Saturday I was proclaiming two of the vendors the worst, most clueless I had ever seen. I only worked a half shift at the end of the day on Sunday, but I had already reconsidered. Yes, they were as bad as I thought, but, when you consider the situation from their perspective, we were like the priest of some really strange religious cult arbitrarily deciding what items go in which of the arbitrarily colored containers. One item even changed from day to day as it was called to our attention that the plates were “wax coated” and therefore landfill instead of compost. (And then this was corrected again so we went back to putting them in compost.) This is why I have “CHILL” written at the top of my Greening reminder list that I review before I leave the house.

Still, diapers in recycling and latex gloves and aluminum containers in compost makes no sense to me. But I’m sure they just see our three bins as festively colored.

The crew chief at the end of the day made what I considered “questionable” decisions about closing down stations serving the vendors sooner than I would have. I did make sure he was the one who had to deal with the consequences, though that meant I wasn’t around to see that. Saying the vendors should bring their end of the event trash to us is one thing, stopping them from just leaving it at the closest park trash can is another. If there is a next time, I can now remind him of what happened here.

Still it was nice to do this event again after the pandemic hiatus. Even if it does mean a 10 block walk back to Bart on the way home. (That actually isn’t true, or at least on Saturday there was a bus I could have taken had I waited for it. On Sunday I walked anyway because of a stunning waitress I had happened to notice on my walk the previous evening. There’s a fair amount of outdoor restaurant activity on Shattuck on the north side of University. Nice to see.

Because I wasn’t starting work until 4pm on Sunday, I decided to come a bit early and have lunch in Berkeley. I had done The Butcher’s Son deli last time, so this time I ate at Ike’s. Had a wonderful sandwich, though the bread was practically a dessert. I asked if they offered it as a wrap -- as Subway does -- but they don’t. A pity.

Day 799/344 - 5/24/2022 

Day of first COVID symptoms. Wouldn’t test positive until 5/26. Was probably infected 5/20-5/21. Damn close to 800 days since the pandemic began. 

5/24/22

Just woke up from an adventure movie of a dream with a plot I couldn’t begin to describe and a large cast and, right at the end, music by CCR. Looked at the time and it had been just about 90 minutes since I went to bed.

5/27/22

My standard pasta dish that doesn’t change from year to year but has changed almost entirely over 40 years. Only the broccoli remains.

5/30/22

Difficulty of managing post-covid!!! How long am I contagious? What can I do and what should I not do?

5/31/22

Finally sitting outside at Another Cafe. I was going to offer to switch seats with two guys who joined me here so I would be down wind. Glad I didn’t as they seem to be sicker than I am.

Another has a very good croissant. Now I’m going for my first uphill walk and then -- very quickly -- to the market for some essentials. 

Ran into information suggesting that I may not have been contagious last Monday and Tuesday like I feared. That’s assuming the vaccine did what it is supposed to do. And it looks like there’s a chance I could test negative before the weekend.

6/6/22

My first day out of isolation after twelve days in my apartment. Got a veggie breakfast croissant which I ate at home and now I’m sitting at the Bank Cafe with a chocolate croissant and my iced tea. I didn’t bring my personal cup, but I’m pretty sure I’m clean now after two negative tests. And my temp is down to 96F again, too.

Now I’m wondering exactly how much safer am I than before given all the different variants out there? Probably better but it’s not like I can start licking everything.

Day 820/8 days post-COVID - 6/14/2022

Today I made it back to the Pork Store for the first time since I came down with COVID. I’m happy to say my nose and taste buds are still working fine. In fact, I noticed that my favorite waitress was wearing a scent that I swear I remember from the ‘50s. So over 60 years ago, but I would swear it was a scent for little girls. It came in some sort of kit for girls pretending to be grown ups... something like the doctor kits I vaguely remember from the period. Maybe it’s been repackaged for adults?

6/21/2022

Post-covid life is more of a challenge than you would think. On the one hand I survived and everything worked out the way it was supposed to. But now I really want to relax -- after all, what are the odds of my catching it twice in a month! But then I just read in the NYT that the currently most prevalent variant doesn’t give much protection for the next two variants that are now spreading. Not that I have any idea which variant I had. And even if I did know, it wouldn’t help because I also don’t know which variants I could be exposed to in the future... or right now.

This past weekend I worked a North Beach street festival for the first time. I thought it was the Columbus Day event cleverly shifted to another month to avoid the push-back against all that Columbus represents. But I did a little more research and discovered this was an entirely different event and that -- “Italian Heritage Parade” -- event is still scheduled for the usual time. So I was wrong, but I think they would have been smarter doing what I was thinking.

I started out on Saturday with my mask on, but quickly gave up. For one thing I hadn’t used my anti-fogging spray -- turns out that is still necessary even when it’s warm -- and not many other people were and it was outdoors and not that crowded and I just finished isolating for over a week so give me a break. Anyway, I seem to have survived. 

6/23/2022 

And for an odd coda to my weekend: I’m sitting at Caffe Grecco enjoying a compensatory cookie and iced tea after picking up the latest check and crazy letter from the mentally ill woman in my building. So strange to be back in this block after spending so much of the last weekend working here. While we had one day of mid-90sF on Tuesday, it is now back to our usual weather, clear blue sky here, though I can hear the fog horns that signal there is a tongue of fog coming in through the Golden Gate. Every time I am forced to come over here to sign for a letter I didn’t catch at home, I give myself some kind of neighborhood treat. Last time it was an eclair from Victoria Bakery. This should be the last time, but if it happens again I may get an actual meal.

Quantum philosophy

6/29/2022

Over breakfast this morning at the Pork Store I was thinking about Free Will vs Determinism and quantum physics (quantum uncertainty and the collapse of the wave function) and how thoroughly the Ancient Greeks covered this material.

The Stoics hold my view of Determinism while the Epicureans managed to nail the uncertainty of quantum reality that can open the door to Free Will. Meanwhile Homer and the tragedians point out the consequences of Hard Determinism in the story of Cassandra who can actually see the future, which means there’s nothing she can do to change it.

It seems to me that one alternative to the Many Worlds approach to the Present moving into the Future, is a collapsing wave functions view. The future is an endless series of wave functions that collapse as we come to them. This is not inherently either Deterministic or allowing Free Will, but it does seem to allow for the possibility of Free Will. 

My personal view of Determinism is not as hard as the Cassandra story -- or any other story in which people can predict the future -- but I think the degree of uncertainty considering exactly how the next wave function will collapse is very limited. Similar to the uncertainty of very stable substances that will eventually undergo a change but probably not for a billion years or so.

383. The British North Africa Campaign

 

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Pandemic Update 

4/26/22 - Day 770/315

The new case rate has more than doubled since the low point on 3/12. The number of people in intensive care is still very low -- so this is what living with the virus looks like. Everyone has test kits now so if you get it you can quickly respond and get the treatment drug. Assuming you aren’t one of the many people with their head up their ass about COVID. 

I have no problem with this and I think our Mayor Breed has handled the pandemic perfectly. The situation with the “homeless” is impossible so I don’t judge her for that failure -- why should she be any different than all the mayors that came before her.

It’s my impression that viruses tend to become more infectious but less deadly over time -- could be wrong -- but I wouldn’t object to a more deadly variant to thin the anti-vax herd. Especially if it hits before the next election or even the one in 2024.

In non-COVID news, the Peet’s here has been so bad about stocking croissants that I finally looked for other sources in the neighborhood and found three. I tried one this morning (of course today Peet’s had croissants) and it was much better. Not sure if it was $2 better, but it was a nice change of pace. I will enjoy sampling the other two. And then the chocolate versions... the place I tried today even properly calls them Pain au Chocolat. I may end up opting for a combination of Peet’s pastries plus hitting one of the other, better places, when they are croissant free.

I had a great idea of repurposing my A History of Europe material on Medium, but then discovered that it isn’t yet in the public domain -- still at least a decade.

The British North African Campaign Re-examined

When you study the North African campaign in WW2, especially the British phase prior to Torch, it would seem that the British undermined their cause by diverting forces to Greece (March 1941) and then to Syria (June 1941). You might think that, if only they hadn’t done those things they could have performed better against the Germans (and Rommel). But what if this isn’t true? What if the British were being really cunning?

The logic behind the British North African campaign was the same as the logic behind the Peninsula Campaign during the Napoleonic Wars. The comparatively weaker British army would fight on land at a point that was easiest for them and hardest for their enemy. The Axis powers had to transport men and supplies across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa where their ships and planes could be interdicted. The more successful the Germans and Italians were, the more troops and supplies they would need and the more difficult their logistics became. Finally, there was nothing west of Alexandria that the British really cared about. Winning or losing Cyrenaica meant nothing.

When you look at the situation in this way, then every time the British took Cyrenaica they made their logistical situation harder and risked the Germans realizing that this whole campaign was not really worth the trouble. So, by weakening their forces and setting up Rommel for a great victory, they were also pulling more Axis men and supplies into North Africa and stretching out the Axis lines of communications. If the British had sat down and picked a best spot to fight the decisive battle against the Axis in North Africa, El Alamein would have been an obvious option. Their own logistical situation was ideal while the Axis powers were stretched to the limit. And by November 1942 the Americans had arrived and were about to open a second front in the far west. It was time to put an end to the “game” and secure Africa prior to the invasion of Italy.

If this analysis is correct, then Churchill (I think it’s fair to give him credit here, he was a racist and a drunk, but he wasn’t stupid) played the Germans like a fiddle. 

The Bee Tree

The bush/tree outside my kitchen window is actually in the neighbor’s garden. I only see the top and side. If you had asked me, I would have said it blooms starting in March but at least this year it is only now, in May, really in full bloom. The blooms are not that impressive, but the bees seem to like them. As of this week it is buzzing with bees most of the day. I do wonder where the bees come from. I’ve even noticed a few bumble bees recently.The only hives I know of are over eight blocks away... I take that back, there may be one only a block away. I will have to check the next time I’m walking over there.

The blooming should be over some time next month at which point I will trim the bush back substantially as it has grown about two feet this spring and brushes against my building.

Our stubborn little tree in a large pot out in the alley is fully leafed out now. There are two branches at the top that seem to be dead and I’m wondering if I should prune it back now and how far. Last year it was really slow to green but this year it popped out early and looks pretty healthy. Pretty amazing considering what it has gone through over the years.It lives on my bath water, for the most part -- actually the water I catch while waiting for the stream to get hot when I take a shower. I would put in a pump to give me instant hot water without any waste, but that would require both electrical and plumbing work in a very small bathroom. Saving the water for the garden is probably the smarter solution.. 

Day 785/330 5/10/2022 Pandemic

The numbers are interesting. The new case numbers are almost as high as the Delta peak, but they are not going up at the same rate -- and nowhere near the Omicron rate -- and the hospitalization rates are still quite small. Lots of famous people are testing positive -- Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach is the latest --, but with minimal symptoms. If Omicron cleaned out the pockets of the unvaxxed, then maybe it is under control. I’ve stopped eating indoors and am taking extra precautions at times, but life is going on pretty much as normal. We are greening all the usual events -- I’m trying really hard to dodge working Bay2Breakers, I may have to play the “I’m 70!” card again.

For weeks I was trying to get caught up with a backlog of recommended pieces to read. I was just not making much progress. So I sorted through my inbox deleting all the old links it looked like I would never get around to. Now I’m caught up and wouldn’t mind looking up some of those links. Sometimes you just can’t win. So I’m going to reread my blog of A History of Europe starting at the beginning, or nearly the beginning.. Something I’ve been meaning to do in any case.

My second world traveling friend has contracted a mild case of COVID. This time in Italy. Everyone seems to be going to Italy.

Day 792/337 - 5/17/22

Noticed something I can’t explain while riding the bus just now. A young woman trotting barefoot in the mid-Market area caught my eye. The second time the bus caught up with her I noticed more: She was wearing a skirt and matching top but didn’t have any sort of bag or even a pocket; while her clothing looked normal, there was something about her fixed gaze that looked off. My guess is some sudden mental health breakdown. In a way, this is more disturbing than all the usual raving lunatics I see all the time.

Day 794/339 - 5/19/2022

Good looks

Since my “office” is in the same block as the Max Mara shop, I am teaching myself to appreciate those clothes Martha Grimes is so fond of. And I do like them, as clothes. A very simple, understated look that obviously is expensive to achieve. But I can’t say it’s a look I would prefer to see on an attractive woman. Perhaps my opinion would change if I actually saw them on attractive women.

There are a couple “looks” I have noticed recently and liked. There’s a simple jeans with a top look where the jeans are worn without a belt. I’m not sure why it works but it does. And there’s a somewhat older look where a woman wears long sleeves that cover most of her hands, only exposing perhaps half of her fingers. If she has nice hands, it is a great look. Again I don’t know why. And I’m still seeing that jeans with tall boots look that has worked for so long now. 

Ran into a thought provoking piece on Medium examining the various responses to the COVID pandemic and questioning some of the decisions that were made. Basically, she was thinking that perhaps the Swedes had it right all along and we shouldn’t have locked down in 2020. 

If you compare the experiences of NYC and SF, I think most people would agree that SF handled the situation better. The cost of locking down sooner was economic. The cost of waiting too long was in deaths and the overwhelming of the hospital system and resulting burnout of those workers. It would be interesting to compare the rate of essential hospital worker turnover in both areas. The nurses here think they are short staffed, but I don’t think they’ve ever been slammed like nurses in other areas have been. 

Yes, there is a high economic cost associated with this. Businesses here are still dying even as others are reopening or opening for the first time. Was the economic cost too high given the low fatality rate of the disease? How high would it have to be to justify the cost? Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how high the fatality rate will be before the fact so this calculus doesn’t really get you far. If you acted on the assumption that it would be just another flu, and then it turned out to be much more deadly you would be screwed. Though, given that a substantial portion of the population would rather see thousands of people die every day than get a free vaccine, you also have to question if all those potential deaths would be that much of a problem.

Our new case numbers are quite high right now, and I’m taking even more precautions than I was a month ago, but I’m still out every day and I do not want to see the city locked down again. The hospitalization rate is up, but the Intensive Care rate is still surprisingly low given that most of the cases are from the unvaccinated. And just in the past three months I finally know people, three at last count, who have caught mild cases of the disease. Now it really is more or less like the flu and my only regret is that it isn’t thinning the herd of more of the “hesitant.”

But we really should be planning for the next time, and not just the next surge. I continue to think that pandemic cases should be limited to specific facilities. The majority of hospitals should be able to operate normally. The hours nurses can work should be limited to prevent their burning out. People should be encouraged to remain at home if at all possible. Oxygen and other supplies and advice should be provided -- perhaps also a visiting nurse service -- but people (especially unvaccinated people when there is a vaccine -- should be kept out of the hospital as much as possible. Perhaps we need a form of pandemic hospice which may or may not end in death.

As for the economy, this is basically a natural disaster, like an earthquake or fire or hurricane. There should be governmental aid to help businesses. The biggest problem for business is when the customer base dries up as is the case here in the Financial Districts and Union Square. But this, again, is similar to what would happen in a major natural disaster. Tourists and conventioners and workers are going to be scarce after all the buildings burn down. 

This get especially complicated and I have no idea how to deal with it, but businesses need to be able to suspend operation for a reasonable length of time. Ruining retail business is not in the interest of landlords or the city. One thing that would improve the situation here is more residential units in the commercial/shopping districts. I would like to see at least 30% residential. This would guarantee a basic level of business even during a pandemic. The neighborhoods here in SF have suffered, but not nearly as much as their customer base has only decreased a little rather than a lot.

382. Cherry Blossom Festival 2022 & Time

      

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Time, again 

Day 745/290 - 4/1/2022 

I’m caught up with everything published in Bloggity. Which means that I now have to start posting again and really catch up. I also may get around to my chronological review of Pirenne’s book. Always worth the effort.

I’m really enjoying my “fetal” perspective on celebrating birthdays. The wisdom of age can be a wonderful thing. 

Day 757/302 - 4/13/2022  

I’m happily working in the Bank Cafe after a solid two days of working the first Cherry Blossom Festival since 2019. I was very cold the last day but otherwise working the event in my seventies was no different than from my sixties. I have added a new exercise to my daily routine to make it easier for me to climb into trucks. We will see how that goes.

The event itself was smaller than usual with fewer food vendors. Since this is also the warm up event for me -- the first greening work I do this season -- the lighter load was appreciated. And none of us will miss the parade that is not being held next Sunday. On the other hand, the person acting as the end-of-the-day crew chief now needs more help than the previous person did, so I have to work longer than I have in the past. From a half hour to a full hour on Saturday. Such is life when you work for a group that almost inevitably loses its best workers over time.

It was nice to work again with three of our other regulars. Two of us happened to approach the seme ecostation at the moment a festival goer was dumping her food related trash. She got it so wrong it would have been amazing if we hadn’t seen it so often. Our eyes met in acknowledgement of what we had both seen, but neither of us bothered to say anything, what’s the point? The great thing about wearing masks is that they hide our facial expressions for the most part. The eyes can still reveal a lot. Another one of us was trying to work with the food vendors to get them to sort their own trash properly. He couldn’t see my smile as he reported this. These particular vendors are among the worst we deal with and I’ve learned that the most you can hope for is that they bring you their mixed bags so that you can properly sort them. And that is my job.

There were lots of great dogs at the event and so many people now have chest or back carriers for their smaller dogs. It’s a pleasant surprise to be eye to eye with so many dogs as I pass through the crowd. And so many Akitas. I prefer the Pitties, but Akitas are more appropriate to the context.

I also noted that the little cafe on the SW corner of Sutter and Buchanan, where I used to eat breakfast on occasion back in the ‘70s was closed. There were posters in the windows wishing the owners a happy retirement. So little is left now from the SF businesses I knew back then. Of course that’s also true about the business I frequented in the ‘90s. 

Day 763/308 - 4/19/22

On Time - We will see how much this is a call-out to The Magic Mountain...

This month has been the first time since 2019 that I’ve worked both weekend days twice in a row. Physically I’m fine -- all my exercising paid off, in some ways my legs are stronger than before and I’ve added a new exercise to address the way they are not as strong as before -- but I feel like I’ve gotten behind on housekeeping and errands and like. Just this morning I had to remind myself that I’m semi-retired (and I live alone) so it really doesn’t matter. But I also found myself almost envying pandemic time of mid-2020 when I had nothing but time on my hands. Now I try to squeeze my fitness work into everything else whereas then I tried to spread out my workouts to give me more things to do. Rather than napping.

Hans’s situation was different in that he had staff to deal with what takes up most of my time: shopping for and preparing food, housekeeping. But his situation, once he eased into life on the mountain, was not unlike my semi-retired situation. This is what most incensed Settembrini. Aside from his “taking stock,” it didn’t much matter if he did a thing today or tomorrow or not until next week or next month. 

If I didn’t prefer to work here (the Bank Cafe, where it’s warm and expansive) rather than in my tiny ground floor garret, I would have almost pandemic time on my hands. This is like imagining how much money I could save by preparing all my own meals. Maybe later... if necessary. 

Cherry Blossom Festival update

The second weekend of CBF is now past. It was surprisingly busy. I did my usual thing with the vendors and had that situation under control early. Can’t say the same for the situation on the other street where we were still picking up piles of bags as my shift ended. I took advantage of my “senior” status to clock out and go home on time when the others were working overtime. While I did still have to get out my building’s trash -- remarkably contaminated for some reason -- the real reason I didn’t want to stay was that I think it’s absurd that they hadn’t done a better job of breaking that street down earlier. I’m sure this had something to do with all the idiot vendors, but I’m pretty sure most of those bags had been sitting out there for hours. 

Anyway, my part of the event went well and I’m all ready for a near normal season of waste diversion.

381. Way of all Fish and Ukraine War

     

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Pandemic continues 

Day 725/270 - 2/12/22

The Pandemic - At the moment the latest surge has peaked and crashed but the new cases numbers seem to have flattened at just under 100 per day. I suspect this reflects the transmissibility of the current variants. I was hoping to see the numbers fall to around 50, but it looks like this is the best we can expect.

Life is largely returning to normal regardless. This too is a little concerning, but I feel the same way. Two years isn’t that long but there’s no assurance things are going to change drastically in the near future, so we may as well try to resume our lives while some of our favorite businesses are still hanging on. There is talk of an even better vaccine that may counter all variants, but that is just talk so far. So at this point I’m with all the idiots who just want to return to the way things were. With reservations, of course. I’m writing this at my office, the Bank Cafe, and I seem to be the only one here wearing a mask. And I’m thinking about buying pull-up equipment rather than returning to my gym.

My Birthday

This week would have been my father’s Birthday -- 102nd, to be precise. And just past the end of the week is his death day -- now 23 years in the past. I’m thinking about that because my birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I will be nine years shy of the age my dad died. My health is much better than my dad’s, but I also don’t have my mother around to call 911 if something dire happens. My point is, it wouldn’t be at all shocking if I were to die in my seventies. This is a thought to give one pause. No previous decade came with this fine print.

I continue trying to balance taking care of myself -- working on my fitness and improving my diet in small ways -- with seizing the day. One of the main perks of our being past this latest COVID surge is that I’ve returned to my favorite breakfast place on a weekly basis -- though I try to hit them during the week when they are less busy instead of my previous preference for visiting on the weekend when they are the most crowded. It’s going to be a while before sitting elbow to elbow at a crowded counter is going to be an attractive option. And I’ve returned to my favorite Burmese restaurant, where I will be on my dad’s Birthday and Deathday.

The week of my birthday I will hit a number of other favorite places that I have been avoiding the past two years. There is still only one of my favorites that I know to have gone out of business... I just checked and their other location is still open! So I may go there as well.

Day 735/280 - 3/22/22

In my review of my blogs I’ve made it to the start of the pandemic... and Proust. Almost exactly two years ago but it seems like longer, or only yesterday. And the new case numbers seem to have found a floor around 80, which is a little worrying. My hardware store was having a big sale and I stocked up on 3M N95 masks, both the good ones and the kind with the valve. I’m now thinking I may try going to the gym while wearing an N95 with a valve. My guess is that most people aren’t wearing masks there, so I really don’t need to be concerned about protecting them. And if I don’t do this I really should give up and buy pull-up bars for the building. But after two years, I need some months on the Gravetron machine to get back to where I can pull-up my own weight.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the war in Ukraine. I’m so happy to say this has nothing to do with the USA for once. (According to Chomsky, that statement isn't true. He claims the USA tricked the Russians and Ukrainians into the war. Maybe. There are so many conflicting views about the "real" reason for the war. My theory is actually cheating, but I think also true. The war is the result of Ukraine agreeing to give up their nuclear weapons.) It is so odd that the YouTube history channels are all covering the Battle of Stalingrad and even the 2nd German conquest of Kharkiv just as the Russians are battering the place to ruins yet again. Given how frequently Ukraine gets destroyed, it’s a wonder everyone still thinks they want to possess it. Given that everything gets destroyed every few generations anyway, maybe they should try rebuilding with paper or cardboard.

Over this past weekend I got together with my old brunch club for what has become our annual gathering at someone’s house instead of out at a restaurant. And I’ve eaten out at actual restaurants with two other friends.Trying to seize the day -- or the dip -- before case numbers start rising again. 

Day 742/287 - 3/29/22 

I’ve now progressed in rereading my blog from less than a year ago. It’s actually fun to read about those early heady days after I was first fully vaccinated... before we knew there were still more surges and variants to come.

Some things have not returned to normal, I still can’t use my reusable cups at the Bank Cafe -- I tried today and was told that Peet’s was allowing this but the bank still wasn’t. (As of this week, 4/17/22, I can!)

I’ve been cleaning out the electronic mess of my home desk. Removing my old desktop computer for recycling forced me to finally clean and reorganize everything. I’m using regular office butterfly clips to control the cables. It is still a bit of a mess, I would need easy access to the back of the desk to really get things the way I want them, but it’s much better than it was. My laptop, speakers, and printer can all be powered individually so they are only “on” when I need them. I was hoping to do the same thing with my router, but that is powered by my back-up battery. I would have to manually disconnect and reconnect it every day -- probably not a good idea and it would also prevent my using my computer during the night or first thing in the morning. Like the egg I’ve decided to eat once every three months, this will just have to be the rare unnecessary electrical excess I allow myself. Similarly, I still haven’t taken the final water saving step of turning off my shower head when I’m lathering up. That’s probably coming soon, but tends to involve also keeping my bathroom a little warmer. 

The Way of All Fish by Martha Grimes

This is the first book I’ve checked out from the Mechanics Institute Library. I adore Martha Grimes and I loved Foul Matter, the first novel in this series, but I hadn’t bothered to pick up the new one until now. While I’m having fun reading it... and I’m reading it as slowly as possible to extend the pleasure... I can’t say it’s her best work. There seems to be a randomly flailing around aspect to many of her mysteries, but this one seems even worse than usual. On the other hand, she’s managed to toss in her beloved Tamiami Trail (from the Emma Graham novels) and references to both George Gissing and The Magic Mountain. The first was surprising enough and I still don’t know where she’s going with the latter. A seance is coming up, but I’m not sure if the character is even aware of the seance sequence in the book. If not, this would be even stranger, so I’m going to assume that’s where Grimes is heading. (No, still a mystery.)

Mostly she has her characters smoking, drinking, and eating. (They also love expensive clothes) And one of them, of course, is having a hard time writing... almost identical to a similar character in Foul Matter. Perhaps Grimes likes to play with writer characters who are having more trouble than she is. Her character in one of the Jury mysteries who literally chained herself to her desk to write, is my favorite example of this. And in a mystery this is killing two birds with one stone as you know how that’s going to turn out.

As 3/12/22 now seems to have been the low point after our recent winter COVID surge, I am really tempted to seize the day now rather than later. But my birthday is coming up in less than a week, so it seems like opening your Christmas presents early. So, I’m considering celebrating my final fetal days instead of my birthday. When you think about it, from the perspective of the fetus the birthday was when life started going downhill. This new way of looking at things works especially well this year as I’m also celebrating the final days of my sixties. Why would I celebrate entering a decade my chances of surviving are only fair?

379. The 42nd Infantry Division in the "Other" Battle of the Bulge

    

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Day 631/176 - 12/8/21

I’ve discounted my old printer to free and still no takers. I have gotten rid of the first batch of Christmas items and I will be posting the second batch later today. I figured they would be easy to unload. 

The weather is also changing, finally. I’ve been running my space heater after 8pm of late and even reversed my ceiling fan. It is supposed to get colder with rain this weekend -- kind of looking forward to that. Much of my time is now taken up reviewing this blog and reformatting previous blogs into a edited down, paper format. For whom am I doing this? Not sure. Myself mostly. It would be interesting to see it all in something like manuscript format.

Day 636/181 - 12/13/21

I’ve been looking at the current pandemic numbers in SF compared to last year at this time. Quite a change. Now that we are several weeks after Thanksgiving I think the numbers are significant and they are quite reassuring. The most important number -- intensive care hospitalizations is currently one fourth what it was a year ago and isn’t even in a clear upward trend. The case numbers are in an upward trend, but it is only a fraction of last year: 79 now compared to 272 last year. I think the hospitalization numbers even include some patients from the dumb as dirt counties where the hospitals are over-filled. Why is it so much better given that we have not one but two more infectious variants than last year? The main factor is that we are mostly mask-wearing sheeple. The other factor, especially when it comes to hospitalizations, is that most of us are vaccinated.

I know that many people are not being as careful as I am, but on the whole we seem to be being careful enough. I remain optimistic that the omicron variant will be our ticket back to normalcy, but until that is confirmed, I’m being overly cautious and only lusting in my heart for meals at my two favorite restaurants.

Day 653/198 - 12/30/21

It’s been a while. The latest Omicron phase of the pandemic is now going exponential here. The numbers are astonishing considering how careful we’ve been all this time. We are now looking at daily new case numbers that are about double our previous highest numbers. I even now know someone who has had it -- they were vaxxed so it was like a mild cold with a bad headache. The news from South Africa is that this version of the virus spreads so quickly it burns through the population in only a few weeks. And that certainly is the way it looks now. 

I’m being even more careful -- what I’m calling defcon 2 -- but I’m still working at the Bank Cafe as much as I can because it is also very cold and the air here is both filtered and heated. 

We are not locking down to the extent you might expect, but that is because SF is highly vaxxed so we think we can get by with a lot of cases without overwhelming the hospitals. Unfortunately, the numbers we have are so delayed, and hospitalization is itself so delayed following infection, that we won’t know if we are making a big mistake until it is far too late. Just today the hospitalization numbers finally turned up noticeably and our numbers are still from before Christmas. I think the Mayor is playing this right, but we won’t know for sure until two weeks to a month from now.

The "Other" Battle of the Bulge 

Recently I ran into an interesting piece about WW2 in Europe history on Medium. The author was the son of a soldier in the US Army’s 42nd Infantry Division -- while I’m the son of a platoon sergeant in the 40th Infantry Division -- so I wanted to be supportive, but the account he gave was deficient in a number of ways.

At the end of 1944 the divisions that had lead the breakout from Normandy and the race to the West Wall were largely spent. The fighting at Normandy, during Market Garden, and especially when the Allies reached the West Wall resulted in substantial casualties. Fresh divisions were flowing into France and Belgium and Luxembourg, but it would take time to fully activate and train these units. The 42nd Division is an interesting example of this.

At the time of the 2nd WW, the US Army’s primary fighting unit was the “Regimental Combat Team.” This consisted of an infantry regiment supported by Divisional assets like artillery, tank destroyer units, cavalry, and the like. When (Wacht am Rhein) the German offensive in the Ardennes started, reinforcements from 3rd and 7th Armies to the south were rushed north to counter the German attack that started the Battle of the Bulge. Units like the 101st and 82nd Airborne had been regrouping following Market Garden, so they were readily available -- though unprepared. Other divisions had to be pulled out of the line and replaced with whatever units were at hand. Near Strasbourg, the 42nd Division had not yet been formed, but the three infantry regiments were on the scene, so they were thrown into a quiet sector in the hope that not much would happen and they would gain a little experience before the rest of their Division arrived. It was a reasonable thing to try, but the Germans had other plans. Wacht am Rhein was the main but not the only German offensive planned for the winter of ‘44-’45. Operation Nordwind was a follow up operation to attack a similar Allied “bulge” in Alsace. It would prevent the Allies from sending additional units to the Bulge while giving the German’s a second shot at penetrating the Allied lines and disrupting their plans for 1945. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was actually in command in this sector.

Now I need to reference “Band of Brothers.” Many people are familiar with the series and or the book, which is wonderful, but it gives a misleading view of what a normal infantry battalion was capable of. Parachute infantry are specially trained to act independently and the assumption is that they will usually be surrounded by the enemy. Here’s a very telling example of the difference between parachute infantry and regular infantry: My father was the platoon sergeant for a weapons’ platoon in the Pacific Theater (40th Infantry Division). The assumption was that his company would be fighting as a group and if they needed mortar or machine gun support they could call on the weapon’s platoon. With parachute infantry you couldn’t make that assumption so each platoon included a weapons section. It wasn’t as powerful as my dad’s platoon, but it would give the platoon some degree of support. The 101st was always delighted to get artillery or armor support, but they never counted on it. A regular infantry division did. So when the unsupported regiments -- that were not yet the 42nd Division -- were hit by the German attack at the beginning of 1945 they fell back in some confusion. In some cases, their losses were heavy. But they did manage to fall back and contain the German attack. One of the regiments -- the 222nd -- fought the final delaying action before the 7th Army units returned from helping save the day in the Ardennes and proceeded to drive the Germans out of the positions they had gained in January.

By the time the Allied attack into Germany started, the 42nd Division fully existed and its regiments had even been tested in battle. The “other” Battle of the Bulge achieved nothing in the end. 

380. Pandemic and Post-industrial Age

    

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The 2021-22 surge 

Day 668/213 - 1/14/2022

If the published statistics are anything to go on, and they may not be, this COVID surge may have peaked on 1/5. The reason I question the numbers is that test kits have been in very short supply of late. More test kits, more new cases. But if the numbers are accurate, then we are looking at exactly what I was expecting -- a couple weeks for the virus to burn through the less cautious, followed by a fairly rapid return to “normal.” The next week should tell the tale.

I am working at the Bank Cafe, as usual, but yesterday I had been planning to eat and then work at my favorite pizzeria but when I walked in there were too many people there so I left, did my marketing, and went home to eat. Whole Foods still has its prepared food section open, which I took advantage of. Since everyone in the store is now masked, I figure it is safer than it was pre-pandemic. So far at least it seems to have worked out.

I have a list of errands I’m waiting to do once the surge is over. Mostly they involve riding on public transit -- in one case for a very long time. In the past three weeks I’ve eaten out only three times at restaurants that were nearly empty. My Christmas present to myself was a food chopper/blender, so I’m making some good and healthy new drinks/dishes. But I really miss my salads. There’s no reason I couldn’t make my own salads, but this almost always results in an annoying degree of food waste.

Day 681/226 - 1/27/22

Recently I’ve been thinking about the wonderful post-industrial world we were promised in those architecture/sociology classes back in the mid-’70s. The idea was that, thanks to automation, we would live in a world with little work but many things and so our biggest problem would be what to do with our leisure time. I’d like to say I feel cheated, but I never bought this load of BS even at the time. I recall quizzing the arrogant professor after class -- this was another class taught in a huge lecture call -- about what possible mechanism there could be to get wealth out of the corporations and into the pockets of the people. He just blew me off.

Anyway, thinking about this now I think the current chemical dependency pandemic is one aspect of the brave new world without work that they were not anticipating. And this would probably be the case even if there were a method of redistributing wealth. 

But even worse, the environmental consequences of the fortunate leisure world they anticipated would have been even worse than what we’ve actually done to the planet. Imagine how much more consumption and travel and petrochemical consumption there would have been if everyone had had the funds to do what they wanted? Our billionaires certainly produce more carbon and pollution than the average citizen, but probably not as much as what millions of people could do if they had a share in those fortunes. One could go full-on Pangloss about the current American system of wealth inequality from this perspective.

The pandemic: Continues. The local new case numbers seem to have peaked but we are probably still a couple weeks away from KNOWING that we are in the clear again. Extrapolating from week old data that isn’t reliable does not produce confidence. Consequently, I’m still at defcon 2: I’m at the Bank Cafe most weekdays, and I eat out once a week, but only where I can be distanced. Otherwise I’m masked or double masked.

Over 2,000 Americans are dying each day but I prefer to think of it as over 1,500 Republicans. This is based on the vague numbers I’ve heard about vaxxed vs unvaxxed in hospitals. I still have yet to see actual fatalities broken down by vaccine status -- which would be the most interesting and might even change a few minds.

Day 682/227 - 1/28/22

Best laid plans... I try to hit my neighborhood Chinese restaurant once a month (now that my favorite Burmese place has closed). I hadn’t been there in January so I planned my weekend around picking up food there on Friday. Only they are closed this Friday for Chinese New Years. So, Plan B, I went to the pizza place near me where I love the salad but not the pizza. I don’t know why they were closed mid-afternoon on a Friday. So, Plan C. I’m at the other pizza place but instead of my usual pizza which is not vegan I’m getting a Greek salad, garlic fries, and a glass of Merlot (always a shout-out to Sideways). 

This is similar to, but not identical with, the meal I had planned for Thanksgiving when I ended up too sick to eat. Now I just have to come up with the three more meals this weekend+ that were supposed to be Chinese leftovers -- and vegan. Correction, like me it was almost vegan. I had forgotten the feta in a Greek salad.

Day 685/230 - 1/31/22

It’s the ultimate day of January and my Chinese restaurant is still closed for New Years. Year of the tiger, apparently. This sent me to Subway for a veggie salad wrap. I think this is going to become my new standard order since bread in general is something of a negative and Subway bread is especially questionable. And I quite like the wrap.

The case numbers are still coming down nicely and the hospitalization numbers appear to have plateaued. Meanwhile over 2,000 Americans are dying every day. And they’re dying for “freedom” so I guess you can’t get more American than that. (sick joke)

I’m really hoping to be back to eating indoors -- my main pandemic complaint -- by the middle of February. I already have a list of places I want to eat. So many voices are urging us to start returning to life as usual and I’m not opposed to that. I’m just going to wait until the case numbers of this surge drop below 100 and with luck, below 50. I was really hoping to get back in the gym, but they just changed the rules about wearing masks in the gym, so that’s on hold again.

Have I mentioned here that I’m rereading my blogging of A History of Europe? It is so good I’m planning to start over as soon as I’m done and this time read it in chronological order. 

This week should see the completion of two jobs around our building that I’m indirectly in charge of. In one case I need to pay the contractor on behalf of the HOA and I need to photograph the end result of both. I can’t think of anything else coming up after this until the weather warms up so I can throw my windows open and do my spring cleaning. 

378. COVID & Christmas & Clocks

   

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Clocks 

Day 617/162 - 11/22/21

I’m all caught up on HOA errands and I have my new printer working so it’s time to clean up my apartment -- and this time I mean it.

I’m so confused by the COVID case numbers. After dropping to 50 it quickly rose to just over 80 but now it’s back below 60? It’s great news, but I don’t understand it.

Just now as I walked into the Bank Cafe, Clocks was playing on the sound system. You can’t get more “90’s” than that. Which got me playing my favorite game to make me feel really old. Back when I was waking up every morning to contemporary ‘90s music like Clocks, the radio station also had an evening program -- their “Attic” -- when they played classics from the ‘80s. In other words, old music. Today, the Attic would be playing music from the Teens. Music from the Aughts would be as old as music from the ‘70s was then. And my ‘90s music would be as old as music from the ‘60s... even early ‘60s. Like the late Sinatra I can’t stand. This makes me want to buy a walker with custom tennis balls for feet.

day 625/170 - 12/2/21

Sad day in the neighborhood. The taqueria that kept me sane and well fed last year was closed when I went by just now on account of a broken hand. Since I haven’t been by in over a week, I don’t know how long this has been the case. Since there are two people there, and one could just be working the register, I hope they are only closed because this JUST happened. Selfish of me, I know. I diverted to pizza. 

It’s an odd Christmas season in Union Square this year. Compared to last year it is pretty normal but thanks to that rash of smash and grab/flash mob robberies some stores are boarded up again, last last year. Still, much better, but not at all back to normal. And the number of empty storefronts is even higher than before. At least now the area is crawling with police so it doesn’t feel as dangerous as it did last year when I completely avoided the area.

Because the new case numbers are low, I keep trying to talk myself into going to my favorite indoor dining places -- but the low numbers are from before Thanksgiving and we won’t know how THAT changes things for another week at least. So it’s still outside or at home. 

My reorg and unload program has not ended, though I hope to have it practically wrapped up by the end of the year. The next big item on my list is getting rid of family Christmas decorations. That will either be satisfying or especially painful. Time will tell.

Day 627/172 - 12/4/21

This morning I ate my first egg in over a year. My intention is to be almost a vegan but to not completely eliminate non-meat foods from my diet. I consume some cheese and probably sour cream every week, but it has been easier to avoid eggs and so I forgot about occasionally including them in my diet. I went out this morning and quickly found a sandwich place near me that sells a pretty good veggie, breakfast croissant sandwich featuring an egg. Now I just need to remember to order this at least twice a year to keep my enzymes in business. 

It’s been over three hours since breakfast and no indication that my GI tract is rejecting the egg. So far so good.

For early December it is very fair, a little warm, and too dry -- but that’s what a drought is like. Our COVID case numbers fell below 50 today. My first thought was to rush over to the Pork Store for breakfast, but then I looked at the numbers a little more carefully. Because of the delay in getting reliable statistics, the numbers we have now are from before Black Friday. Just looking at the raw data it is obvious that the case numbers are unusually low on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Saturday and Sunday following. The statistics won’t reflect the true after Thanksgiving situation until after next Monday. So the below 50 number means nothing. If the numbers remain low until next weekend, I will hit the Pork Store the following week -- but that isn’t going to happen. I’m just messing with myself. 

The number spiked immediately after Halloween, and I expect them to spike even more after Thanksgiving. And then comes Christmas. Same as last year. Realistically, March is when I should be able to return to eating inside. Thanks to the vaccine, that’s a month earlier than this year.

I am now contemplating creating a printed version of my blogs. This would mean going back to the start and editing and reformatting them in new files to be printed out. A re-edit is always valuable. The reformatting is going to be tricky as I have to consider what to do with the links and images (such as they are). I could just print out the URL, or print what I view as being the key text -- the URL approach has several advantages. If I really do this, it will be a year plus project. And what would be the advantage over what already exists in blogger?

377. HOA and pandemic

  

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Toast

Day 719/144 - 11/6/21

I had one of THOSE senior moments this morning while looking for a place to eat brunch on Polk. I noticed Toast was not open and walked up to read the sign on the door. They claimed they were just closing to “refresh” the look after twelve long years in business at the location. What grabbed my attention was the fact I essentially stopped coming here, with a couple exceptions, back when it changed to Toast from one of my favorite (cheap) greasy spoon places on Polk. Shocking that over a decade has passed. I still remember the old place. 

Day 723/148 - 11/10/21

This morning I was sitting in my local Walgreens waiting for my post flu shot fifteen minute hold to end when, standing just in front of me across the aisle, was what I’m almost certain was the trophy wife of a guy getting his COVID booster. She was looking splendid in skin tight jeans -- certainly not “Mom” jeans. My fifteen minutes were up before he finished with the paperwork, so I left and continued with my morning errands. I guess this is what Herb Caen would have called a “Sightem.”

Day 729/154 - 11/16/21

Today has been a truly unique day. I picked up my new printer (haven’t hooked it up yet) but the really remarkable thing was that I went to our storage cabinet looking for a fairly random piece of electrical gear and found it. I actually found two of them. Now I still have to disassemble one of the emergency lights on the 2nd floor and see if I can really use this to fix the problem (possibly created by the painters last year), but at least I have the bit I think I need. Usually, even when I know I have something I can’t put my hands on it.

Of course, this is something the electrician we paid $950 to should have taken care of. He did what we needed him to do but I can’t say I was impressed. The company sent one of those “How Did We Do? Emails, but I haven’t responded to it. I may later or I may just not say anything. 

My new printer is amazing. I was still in awe of my old HP all-in-one from around 2003 but this is a big step up and it cost less than $100 before tax and the service contract. When I think about my first real computer printer, the dot matrix for the original Mac I want to cry. The quality was terrible. It was amazingly heavy and I had to carry it all over the place to be repaired and all it did was print.

This Epson (also 4100) has 2-side printing! It has a flatbed scanner! And it is wireless so I can now print from both my Windows laptop and my Chromebook. And it has three color cartridges instead of the HP single cartridge that has to be replaced when you run out of any color. 

I've only used it to print out, copy, and scan a few things, but it seems to work as advertised. And I may have found a new home for my old printer. I listed it for $10 but I will forget that if they just pick it up.

I'm still working on the 2nd floor emergency light. Plans 1 and 2 didn't pan out, but plan 3 is to cover up the gap with some painted balsa wood. A kludge, but no one but me will ever notice. I noticed the electrician also left the severed conduit un-capped, so I bought what I hope will work as a cap. Confidence is not high. I probably could just fill it with Spackle or fix-it-all, but... actually that might work well. (The improvised cap fit perfectly! I still can't believe it.)

Pandemic update:

Case numbers quickly rose from 50 to 80 a day, but now they've settle down a bit. Hospitalization numbers are still looking good with the trends still down slightly. I guess the big question for the 2nd Holidays Surge is will the "hesitant" also be "hesitant" about that COVID treatment that is supposed to be so effective. Perhaps they will want to stick with livestock dewormer. I remember a time when that would have been a joke.