Day 497/42 = 7/27/21 - Pandemic/"Post" pandemic (since the vaccine started getting things under control
Ran into a quote that makes clear something I should have already known: “The vaccine is best at preventing serious disease, hospitalizations and death, but not infections per se,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF. “The vaccine was never really great at preventing infection.”
This is so obvious once stated. So I’m doubling down on taking other measures -- masking and social distancing -- to avoid infection now that the virus is spreading quickly. I double masked once since the 4th of July but then stopped, but will resume that on public transit. And I will continue to avoid my favorite places to eat as they are too crowded. Though I should still be able to get something to go at my favorite Burmese place the next time I’m out that way.
Day 498/43
Last bus ride to Greenbrae... and back. The storage unit is empty. That chapter of my life is over. Would have worked better if I could have gotten one of the thrift places to pick up, but such is life. I did as well as I could under the circumstances. Better than if a fire or tornado had destroyed everything. Though much harder. Will still be getting rid of stuff and reorganizing storage for about two more weeks. How much did it cost me to clear it out? $295 for the final haul, $200 for the rental car (plus gas etc.), Shipping costs $100?, Bus rides to Greenbrae $127 Mechanics Institute membership $120 Total=$820? [Minus anything I get for silver and glass.]
Day 503/48
At Bank Cafe. I’m happy to see almost everyone here is wearing a mask. I was being more careful than all the others a week ago, but now they have joined me as the case numbers continue to soar.
Yesterday I worked the end of the Joan Jett concert at Stern Grove. Getting better at this every concert, I had a nice little sorting station set up in the middle of the venue after the concert so I could sort all the bags coming in from concert goers and the volunteers picking up trash. We seemed to be all done early so I clocked out after only working two and a half hours only to discover a long line of bags where I had been sorting as I left. I have no idea where they came from. I almost stayed, but there did seem to be enough of our workers on hand to deal with this. Still, if only they had brought the bags out when I was there I could have sorted it all.
Day 510/55
Time flies when you are slowly disposing of a ton of personal belongings. While my storage unit is now a thing of the past, I still have a pile of containers in my living room and a lot of reorganizing to do in my apartment. But slow progress is being made. (The passive voice is so appropriate there.)
Yesterday was the biggest Stern Grove concert yet, featuring Thundercat & Cassowary. It was the largest crowd yet and I would say the best music, though I only arrived at the end so I only heard the one jazzy act. (Not sure which.)
The crowd was, for some reason, also the worst yet at sorting their trash. Usually our stations remain pretty well sorted until the end when everyone leaves and they just toss mixed bags of trash in random containers. But I spent the almost-hour of the concert actually pulling all the recycling and compost out of the landfill. Now I think about it, I think this may have been because people were leaving early as it was -- once again, and unlike the previous Sunday -- cold and foggy.
Because the crowd was considerably larger than we had been told (so we didn't have enough workers) we ended up having to work an extra half-hour to get everything sorted and nearly ran out of room for the compost. (In which case you lay a layer of cardboard on top of the compost dumpster and walk/jump on it to compress it and make more room. Just like old times.)
I was working in a double mask (cloth over surgical) which worked pretty well. When the crowd dispersed I removed the surgical mask. SF's new case count is still exponential, but the hospitalization numbers are not that bad so we are still pretending everything is fine.
Can someone explain to me why people who refuse to be vaxxed are okay with being cared for in an ICU? Shouldn't their need for freedom keep them home?
Day 515/60
The new cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. So far the only local change is a requirement to show proof of vaccination for some indoor activities -- I tried to show mine today at one of my pizza places but they weren’t interested. Concerts are continuing. Though we are promised smaller numbers tomorrow at Stern Grove, though that doesn’t seem to be related to the pandemic as near as I can tell.
I just returned from my first trip out of the Bay Area since 2019 and my first road trip in over a decade. I had a good time racing up to Chico for a quick overnight stay to pass on a bunch of family collectibles for the Air Museum there and for my friends in Chico to try to sell on ebay. Will be interesting to see how that goes. I’m hoping to get back enough to cover the cost of the trip.
Also, I was warm for over twenty-four hours, which is something. The true cost was about nine gallons of gasoline [I was forgetting about the four bridge tolls]. I was early picking up and dropping off the rental car -- and the latter even though I did the idiot’s loop around Oakland (580 to 980 to 880) since I managed to miss the 880 turnoff when getting off the Bay Bridge. And I think my not having driven in years contributed to a stupid mistake I made regarding recording the fuel level at the beginning of my trip -- why the temperature gauge is more prominent than the fuel I don’t know. Once I realized which gauge was which, everything went smoothly and made more sense. The Corolla I rented was very nice and the smoke from the wildfires was never a problem though it was noticeable, especially in the morning when the rising sun was red in Chico.
One of the items I didn’t know the provenance of was an old seven foot long U.S. flag. We opened it up and counted the stars and discovered it only had 46 stars which means it was created after Oklahoma became a state in 1907 And when New Mexico and Arizona became states in 1912. Of course what strikes me about this is how quickly after they became states the navy gave the name to new battleships. USS Oklahoma launched 1914; USS Arizona launched 1915; and USS New Mexico launched 1917. It is also curious that two of these are the only two battleships that never returned to service after the Pearl Harbor Raid.
With this trip I’ve gotten most of the stuff out of my apartment that I still need to find new homes for, but there remains a good deal to do. I will start the next phase of the project on Monday. But everything out of SF is done. Now it’s just local with very little requiring me to even leave my street.
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