Day 34 post-pandemic
Today I treated myself to breakfast at the Pork Store. I figured it would be much less crowded Monday mid-morning, and I was right. Unfortunately, by the time my food was delivered the place was packed. So this will be the last time... for now. Still waiting for more details on who is and who isn’t getting the new cases of covid. The numbers are soaring, but if they are all unvaxxed people then it isn’t my concern.
I volunteered for a couple hours at the latest Stern Grove concert on Sunday -- which was packed. My new anti-fogging spray (Zeiss!) seemed to work well so I kept my mask over my nose the entire time. And I only went into the main seating area after the concert was over when the crowd was leaving. I have some qualms about working at what could be a super spreader event, but it is outdoors and it was a windy day. Still seems like a bad idea to me, but we are proving to be a stupid people.
And I do like the work. Almost as much as I like being here at the Bank Cafe working in the deserted mezzanine with my mask on. I ended up training a new hire who was a little too chatty for my taste but her heart was in the right place. Not sure she will really work out -- there are so many variables in this business: Will she blanch at climbing into a compost dumpster? Can she deal with event goers who don’t give a damn? Will she figure out what she should be doing or will she be one of those people who wander around waiting for someone to tell them what to do? In the immortal (apocryphal) words of Zhou Enlai about the French Revolution, still too early to say.
Sometimes I can’t believe how consistent I am. My approach to greening events has always been to find the busiest ecostation or group of ecostations and to work there. As the oldest, in both senses, employee, I can almost always get away with just doing this. On Sunday, without even thinking about it, I dropped down from the main path -- lined with a bunch of ecostations -- to the single ecostation down near the front of the crowd. This was where most of the volunteers were bringing bags of trash they picked up from the stage all the way back to that other path. Then I just stayed there sorting the bags that had already accumulated and the new bags as they came in. If I had been thinking about it this is where I would have gone, but I didn’t even have to think about it. The missed year and more of greening was evidenced in my failing to drag over a box to use as an improvised sorting table, but we worked around that. A lesson for next time -- that I’ve already passed on to my boss.
And since I was just volunteering and not on the books, I left when all the field sorting was done and everyone had moved to the dumpsters for the table sorting of everything else. My least favorite part of the job. I ended up working two and a half hours and the first hour was just monitoring a couple stations on the edge of the crowd because I managed to get there an hour early and was bored.
The music was good this week and the weather was, again, cold, foggy, and windy. Weather that suits a concert venue in a redwood grove.
Day 37
Have I written before about why I’m nervous about entering my seventies next year? I’ll have to review. I had a good example of why I’m nervous just this morning. I did some painting in our hallway and went up to look for misses and problems under the different light at mid-day. What I noticed instead was that the weatherstripping installed yesterday was not done properly -- lots of light showed through indicating that the weatherstripping wasn’t tight against the door and so, wasn’t actually doing anything.
The person who installed that weatherstripping is now past 85 and that fact is more important than that he was an engineer with a long career at one of the nations top engineering firms. He is helping his son remodel the apartment, but his son is in the awkward position of finding him things to do knowing that he may have to do them over again himself. It’s like when little kids want to help but if you let them you either have to watch them like a hawk and teach them how to do it right, or hope they don’t screw it up more than you can repair later. Second childhood, indeed.
And this older gentleman is not the type to just sit around and meditate or tell old yarns. He insists on being busy. I’m rather lazy myself, but it is still something I will have to watch as I know I can be a busybody about some things. His wife kept him under control -- or else riled him up -- in the past, but she died last year so he’s having to negotiate that as well. I certainly don’t have the heart to show him what’s wrong with the door.
Day 39 (19 of my personal SIP)
The contrast with last year at this time is striking even though I’m still fully masked most of the time. And I finally bought that Zeiss anti fog spray for my glasses so I can see when I’m working. Last year when I had any kind of an encounter with someone or just grabbed some groceries I was concerned I was going to die a horrible death as a result. Yesterday I was riding the Muni 1 California bus home after a trip to Marin county (part of my storage unit cleanout process) and the bus was a little too crowded. Even after the asshole who refused to wear a mask left, it still felt like I was pushing my luck a little so I only rode to the top of the hill and then walked down from there. It only added two blocks to my walk and was nicer as I walked through Huntington Park.
Then I fixed myself a very nice lunch and spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting in a very comfortable chair in an out-of-the-way spot of the Bank Cafe mezzanine. Last year, after an uncomfortable bus trip, I would be swearing to never leave the house again.
Now my concern is that I will get sick enough to lose my sense of smell and taste. This would be a huge deal for me. I worked a minimal shift at Stern Grove last week and will probably do that again as one worker is still in the hospital for something and her shift hasn’t been picked up by anyone. If I were the city, I would pull the plug on the Festival given our exponential new case and hospitalization curves. But since these are almost entirely people who haven’t bothered to get vaccinated, I don’t feel that strongly about this. Until it affects everyone else’s ability to receive hospital care, it’s just stupid, not that harmful to sane people.
And I do want to work the end of the concert again to refine the technique I stumbled upon last week that worked so well. If the event turns out to be a superspreader for idiots, so be it.
There’s a decent chance my storage unit will be cleared out by the end of July -- next week. I wish I could have found homes for more of the furniture and random items, but I did my best under the circumstances. It will be nice to see the last of the place. Though I still have stuff at home to get rid of. That process will pick up the first two weeks of August. I think this will be easier. Aside from a road trip to Chico (I’ve already rented the car) I at least shouldn’t have to leave the City again while unloading stuff. Getting a little tired of riding the bus to Marin county. It will also be nice to sort out my apartment so there is no longer a pile of boxes in my living room and items to get rid of on every flattish surface. Maybe by the end of August. I’ll wait until October to try to get rid of the Christmas stuff.
For months now -- many many months -- I’ve been reviewing my old blogs and have finally made it all the way to this one. This is the first time I’ve reread bloggity. The early organization is a bit confusing, but I think it will fall into place soon. It is fun to reread and remember about all these books. What a long, strange trip it’s been.
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