6/21/23 - No longer counting pandemic days as it’s over a year since I tested negative again. But it’s still a weird mix of back to normal and pandemic times.
Facemasks
Last week I gathered up all my cloth facemasks, washed them, and put them in a plastic bag. I’m now using some disposable KN95 masks. It was a blast from the recent past to see the first masks I ordered online back in 2020. Twenty or fifty years from now people will be emptying out houses or attics and find collections of these masks and wonder what that was all about.
I still don’t know how effective some of mine were. I do know that many people were not wearing their masks properly. Today, the use of masks here in San Francisco is a mystery to me. In Chinatown almost everyone has a mask on, but elsewhere I see East Asians wearing them over their chins, like so many other people do. Some people don’t wear masks on crowded buses and trains -- where I always do wear one, while other people wear masks walking down deserted streets. Our case numbers are very low. I have no idea how people make these decisions.
What’s changed
If our urban ship was at one point running on a single engine powered by a single boiler, today we have both engines running but only four to six of our twelve boilers burning. So many businesses, especially downtown, have closed and more continue to close. It now looks like Union Square is going to be the neighborhood most affected.
What’s back to normal
The events we “green” seem to be almost back to normal. Juneteenth actually seemed to be bigger than ever.
It may be more accurate to say that many things have arrived at a new normal. My eating out is mostly back to normal now. I tend to eat out just under once a day. And I am trying to keep my favorite places in business as best I can -- considering how cheap I am. That I’m also down to about one drink per week doesn’t help with this.
And I’m still trying to support my neighborhood corner markets, though the one closest to me went out of business at the end of 2022. I try to go to the next two closest ones when I can, and I try to hit the mini-supermarket about three blocks away every week or two. For that matter, I’m also trying to do some business with the closest Walgreens so that they don’t close.
I still have not been back to a bar -- but then, given my non-drinking, that is only in part for COVID reasons.
I don’t expect the City to be “recovered” for another eight years. And I think it’s most likely to get worse over the next several years. It looks like the Financial Districts and the Shopping District need to reinvent themselves which could take years. And the problem of the unhoused people on the streets requires the redevelopment of infrastructure to support the mentally ill and changes to the laws to compel them to go into the new supportive housing. At least our governor has a plan to do this, but it will take years even if it gets approved. Until then, things will continue to get worse and worse.
No one has acknowledged this (that I have noticed) but our overall housing shortage must have been ameliorated by new construction and the departure of something between 40,000 and 70,000 residents. They must have been living somewhere and now they are not.This doesn’t affect the “homeless” problem on the streets as they are mostly on the streets because they lack the skills or means to live in regular housing. The means problem can be more easily addressed than the skills problem -- this was one of the lessons of the effort to place them in hotel rooms during COVID lockdown.
Greening again
I’ve already worked a bunch of events including three days of Cherry Blossom Festival, Himalayan Fair (where I probably caught COVID last year), and I just worked the first Stern Grove Festival concert featuring Snarky Puppy. More of a Jazzy sound than I was expecting. They reminded me of someone but I could never put my finger on who.
The most notable thing about Stern Grove was the piles of logs from fallen trees. San Francisco had a series of major storms this winter which brought down trees all over -- including three in my neighborhood -- but really look to have hit the grove hard. Most of the logs were eucalyptus but I saw some redwood, too.
As I deal with another season of event trash sorting -- and idiotic event goers -- I repeatedly ask myself how long I’m going to do this. I am at least thirteen years into this final career (with two slack years due to COVID). While I think we do make a difference (most of the time) that’s no longer the main reason I do this. It’s a toss up if my main reason is the money -- which I do need to balance my expenses -- or the fitness aspect. The job keeps me in shape and forces me to stay in shape. That I continue to get in better shape into my seventies is, I think, solely a consequence of needing to for my work. Also, I would be really bored without the greening and HOA work. I could probably come up with something else to keep me occupied, but would it also add $5k to my annual income? Though I’m also doing a good job of reducing my expenses My expenses this year should be lower than last year and next year lower still. But even with the $1,500 I knocked off last year, I’m not sure this all comes to $5k.
The other Class of ‘70 guy in the company, who waited until he was seventy to start collecting Social Security, has stopped working. So that decision may have been right for him. I’m still happy with my decision to collect as soon as possible.
