Day 578/123 = 10/15/2021
Got my third vaccine shot yesterday so today is a day-off. I had my once-a-month blueberry pancakes out for breakfast and now I’m working at the Peet’s at 8th and Brannan. No exercises today as I’m letting my arm recover and was expecting to not feel that well, though, so far I feel fine.
Getting the shot at my neighborhood Wallgreens lacked the ritual and significance of getting the first two at Moscone Center South. Certainly more convenient, though. I presume I won’t get boosted protection for a couple weeks, but since I’m already taking so many precautions this isn’t so significant. Statistically, it will just move me from under 80% to over 80% protection -- maybe 10% more protection. And there are so many variables that I’m not even sure of that. Probably, because I’m in such good shape and eat so well, I didn’t need to do this at all, but at this point I’m not going to take any chances.
I heard a great bit of new English usage this morning at breakfast. Someone described something as happening in “June of the pandemic.” What I like about this is that it is a way of grouping time that spans two years. (Though I think it was understood that “the pandemic” meant prior to the vaccine.) For me, the pandemic started in March of 2020 and ran until April of 2021 -- so we need to come up with a way of differentiating the two Marchs and Aprils. Perhaps “first April of the pandemic.”
Day 579/124
I’m sitting on the sidewalk at Caffe Greco after shopping at the new Cole Hardware. That corner restaurant between the two has finally given it up and the space is vacant. I got Shoe Goo to repair my boot that Anthony is not in the mood to repair. We are supposed to get some rain this week so I didn’t feel like I could wait to see if he would finally come through. I’m happy to see that Greco at least seems to be thriving.
Everyone talks about workers quiting their jobs or not filling all the empty positions, but I haven't heard as much talk about the small businesses that you can't get to do anything these days. Besides the shoe repair guy, the person who repairs old windows still hasn't responded to my requests for a bid for our work. I'd add the HOA's lawyer to the list, but we always have a problem getting timely response from our lawyers. I don't know why.
I didn’t have much of a reaction to my third COVID shot. The arm pain lasted less than 48 hours so I’m already back to doing my regular exercises. Never did feel sick otherwise. Too soon to tell if my cell phone reception has improved :-|
Day 584/129
By next week we should be under 50 cases a day for our rolling 7 day average. And it is dropping fast. Hospitalizations are holding kind of steady, though they are off their peak. [And this is the problem with extrapolating. The numbers hit 50 and then rebounded.]
So what does this mean for me? Perhaps next week I will go to the Pork Store and not worry about how crowded it is. They are still checking vax status, though I still don’t see the value of that. Aside from annoying the anti-vaxxers.
Day 593/138
I was looking for the daily case numbers to drop below 50 to declare an end to my personal SIP, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. Both the case rate and the hospitalization rate seem to have plateaued or worse right around 50. The next few weeks, before Thanksgiving, were supposed to be my happy time before hunkering down again after Thanksgiving. But maybe not.
I also thought my greening season was over but I’m working at least one more day. I’ve avoided the hell of Outside Lands, but we will continue to sort the trash for four days after the concert ends. All the shifts on Monday were too early, and it’s supposed to rain most of Tuesday, so I took an eight hour shift on Wednesday. I may regret this, but it seems like the least I can do for the team. Plus I repaired my work boots and I want to see how they hold up. And it’s an excuse to have brunch at the Pork Store again. Was there last week and learned that the last of the regular waitresses is leaving at the end of the year. This is the one from Luxembourg.
Day 597/142
Worked a full eight hour shift of table sorting to finish the Outside Lands cleanup. Was working with a new woman who has worked in the past with a returning regular. He should have put us with some of the less experienced people, but it was interesting working with someone who was similarly trained. There is a lot that is subjective about the sorting process. She pulled some tofu containers that I had tossed in the landfill and moved them to recycling. It is almost impossible to get the plastic film off the top of the (semi) rigid plastic tubs. I’m pretty sure they just get tossed by Recology. Then I pulled a big dirty aluminum tray out of the landfill and used a towel I had saved to clean it up enough for recycling. Aluminum is one of the few things we are certain will actually get recycled, so the only reason to not recycle it is if it’s too dirty to clean up.
We were using the largest size debris boxes which was a problem after they got so full you had to close the rear doors. They are just a little too tall to dump a can of sorted trash over the side, unless you are over six feet tall. There was a time when we would have had ramps, but these were judged to be unsafe so now we have to improvise. Stupid. It’s especially a problem when you overload a bag/can making it too heavy to even lift over the side. This is something I’m frequently guilty of. I needed help on multiple occasions as a result.
Up to a certain weight, you can toss bags over the side without much difficulty. Except that bags are not allowed in the recycling stream. Previously this year bags weren’t allowed in the other streams either, but they seem to have made an exception for this event. Thank god.
One of our crew actually lives in San Jose and was unclear on how to get back to the train station after his shift. So one of us knew the best way to get out of the park -- there are still fences up everywhere limiting where you can go. And the three of us took the streetcar that SHOULD have dropped him where he was headed. But then it said it was not going all the way. I talked to the operator and he said we could still stay aboard as his train was going to switch from being an N to a T. This was a new one even for Muni, but I finally figured it out. There was a Warriors basketball game at Chase Center and Muni was adding N trains to the usual K/T trains that serve that area. Makes sense once you realize what they are doing, but the K/T thing is already so nuts adding N/T trains to the mix is just over the top.
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