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.