384. Now with COVID

 

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COVID finally catches up with me 

Day 795 of pandemic/340 since semi-return to normal - 5/20/2022

I am sitting at the long tables at the Bank Cafe for the first time since the pandemic started. This is because I need to charge my phone and backup battery and I can’t find a convenient wall outlet. Normally I do this at home, but I’ve had my phone on the energy saving setting and it managed to slip below 70% charge without my noticing. I kind of like this phone setting, all I don’t have is easy access to the flashlight and Google search. But I don’t see that it really saves that much. I expected the % left to stay nearly unchanged for days, which has not been the case. I will continue to try it over the weekend while I’m working, but may just return to the normal setting next week.

Recently I’ve been sitting in the lower level of the Bank Cafe, where the bathrooms are. It’s convenient for bathroom access and there tend to be fewer people down there since it’s been off limits for most of the past two years. And there are some comfortable chairs and sofas there as well. Still, it is underground and it is nice sitting up at ground level now and being able to see the street activity out the windows. 

Today the first Boeing Starliner is docking with the ISS. This is an unmanned mission to test all the equipment. Boeing has not looked good running this program. SpaceX looks so much better by comparison. Though landing the ships on land rather than at sea should be an improvement. I hope in time SpaceX will be able to do the rocket assisted landings they wanted. Maybe if Boeing screws up a few more times, NASA will fund that.

There’s a wonderful collection of videos about Classic American cars from the ‘50s and ‘60s called Charles Phoenix Joyride. Depending on the make and model, the peak of American car design was somewhere between 1955 and 1962. Probably. Curiously, the same cars preserved in Cuba by very strange economic forces. Of course these automobiles are also horrible in almost every other way. They are dangerous to the occupants and gas guzzlers. Still, lovely to look at. I’m surprised the MAGA crowd hasn’t built some propaganda around them, it would at least resonate with people of my age cohort -- people born between 1945 and 1965. Even I can wax nostalgic about that period: The foods I ate at the time that I couldn’t eat now. The good times prior to the bad times that followed. When we were naive enough to think well of our political leaders like Eisenhower and JFK. Of course it helps that at the time I didn’t know any people of color or people who were not at least trying to pass for heterosexual. And we will ignore the lead in the paint and gasoline and the radiation in the air and snow. Or the pollution in the rivers (where we would never go).

Still, it is amazing to find cars that are over 65 years old still looking so damn good.

5/23/2022

Just last night I saw an episode of Joyride featuring a ‘57 Bel Air, such a beauty.

This past weekend was Himalayan Fair in Berkeley’s Live Oak Park. So Berkeley. So difficult to get the vendors to understand the trash rules. After working a full shift on Saturday I was proclaiming two of the vendors the worst, most clueless I had ever seen. I only worked a half shift at the end of the day on Sunday, but I had already reconsidered. Yes, they were as bad as I thought, but, when you consider the situation from their perspective, we were like the priest of some really strange religious cult arbitrarily deciding what items go in which of the arbitrarily colored containers. One item even changed from day to day as it was called to our attention that the plates were “wax coated” and therefore landfill instead of compost. (And then this was corrected again so we went back to putting them in compost.) This is why I have “CHILL” written at the top of my Greening reminder list that I review before I leave the house.

Still, diapers in recycling and latex gloves and aluminum containers in compost makes no sense to me. But I’m sure they just see our three bins as festively colored.

The crew chief at the end of the day made what I considered “questionable” decisions about closing down stations serving the vendors sooner than I would have. I did make sure he was the one who had to deal with the consequences, though that meant I wasn’t around to see that. Saying the vendors should bring their end of the event trash to us is one thing, stopping them from just leaving it at the closest park trash can is another. If there is a next time, I can now remind him of what happened here.

Still it was nice to do this event again after the pandemic hiatus. Even if it does mean a 10 block walk back to Bart on the way home. (That actually isn’t true, or at least on Saturday there was a bus I could have taken had I waited for it. On Sunday I walked anyway because of a stunning waitress I had happened to notice on my walk the previous evening. There’s a fair amount of outdoor restaurant activity on Shattuck on the north side of University. Nice to see.

Because I wasn’t starting work until 4pm on Sunday, I decided to come a bit early and have lunch in Berkeley. I had done The Butcher’s Son deli last time, so this time I ate at Ike’s. Had a wonderful sandwich, though the bread was practically a dessert. I asked if they offered it as a wrap -- as Subway does -- but they don’t. A pity.

Day 799/344 - 5/24/2022 

Day of first COVID symptoms. Wouldn’t test positive until 5/26. Was probably infected 5/20-5/21. Damn close to 800 days since the pandemic began. 

5/24/22

Just woke up from an adventure movie of a dream with a plot I couldn’t begin to describe and a large cast and, right at the end, music by CCR. Looked at the time and it had been just about 90 minutes since I went to bed.

5/27/22

My standard pasta dish that doesn’t change from year to year but has changed almost entirely over 40 years. Only the broccoli remains.

5/30/22

Difficulty of managing post-covid!!! How long am I contagious? What can I do and what should I not do?

5/31/22

Finally sitting outside at Another Cafe. I was going to offer to switch seats with two guys who joined me here so I would be down wind. Glad I didn’t as they seem to be sicker than I am.

Another has a very good croissant. Now I’m going for my first uphill walk and then -- very quickly -- to the market for some essentials. 

Ran into information suggesting that I may not have been contagious last Monday and Tuesday like I feared. That’s assuming the vaccine did what it is supposed to do. And it looks like there’s a chance I could test negative before the weekend.

6/6/22

My first day out of isolation after twelve days in my apartment. Got a veggie breakfast croissant which I ate at home and now I’m sitting at the Bank Cafe with a chocolate croissant and my iced tea. I didn’t bring my personal cup, but I’m pretty sure I’m clean now after two negative tests. And my temp is down to 96F again, too.

Now I’m wondering exactly how much safer am I than before given all the different variants out there? Probably better but it’s not like I can start licking everything.

Day 820/8 days post-COVID - 6/14/2022

Today I made it back to the Pork Store for the first time since I came down with COVID. I’m happy to say my nose and taste buds are still working fine. In fact, I noticed that my favorite waitress was wearing a scent that I swear I remember from the ‘50s. So over 60 years ago, but I would swear it was a scent for little girls. It came in some sort of kit for girls pretending to be grown ups... something like the doctor kits I vaguely remember from the period. Maybe it’s been repackaged for adults?

6/21/2022

Post-covid life is more of a challenge than you would think. On the one hand I survived and everything worked out the way it was supposed to. But now I really want to relax -- after all, what are the odds of my catching it twice in a month! But then I just read in the NYT that the currently most prevalent variant doesn’t give much protection for the next two variants that are now spreading. Not that I have any idea which variant I had. And even if I did know, it wouldn’t help because I also don’t know which variants I could be exposed to in the future... or right now.

This past weekend I worked a North Beach street festival for the first time. I thought it was the Columbus Day event cleverly shifted to another month to avoid the push-back against all that Columbus represents. But I did a little more research and discovered this was an entirely different event and that -- “Italian Heritage Parade” -- event is still scheduled for the usual time. So I was wrong, but I think they would have been smarter doing what I was thinking.

I started out on Saturday with my mask on, but quickly gave up. For one thing I hadn’t used my anti-fogging spray -- turns out that is still necessary even when it’s warm -- and not many other people were and it was outdoors and not that crowded and I just finished isolating for over a week so give me a break. Anyway, I seem to have survived. 

6/23/2022 

And for an odd coda to my weekend: I’m sitting at Caffe Grecco enjoying a compensatory cookie and iced tea after picking up the latest check and crazy letter from the mentally ill woman in my building. So strange to be back in this block after spending so much of the last weekend working here. While we had one day of mid-90sF on Tuesday, it is now back to our usual weather, clear blue sky here, though I can hear the fog horns that signal there is a tongue of fog coming in through the Golden Gate. Every time I am forced to come over here to sign for a letter I didn’t catch at home, I give myself some kind of neighborhood treat. Last time it was an eclair from Victoria Bakery. This should be the last time, but if it happens again I may get an actual meal.

Quantum philosophy

6/29/2022

Over breakfast this morning at the Pork Store I was thinking about Free Will vs Determinism and quantum physics (quantum uncertainty and the collapse of the wave function) and how thoroughly the Ancient Greeks covered this material.

The Stoics hold my view of Determinism while the Epicureans managed to nail the uncertainty of quantum reality that can open the door to Free Will. Meanwhile Homer and the tragedians point out the consequences of Hard Determinism in the story of Cassandra who can actually see the future, which means there’s nothing she can do to change it.

It seems to me that one alternative to the Many Worlds approach to the Present moving into the Future, is a collapsing wave functions view. The future is an endless series of wave functions that collapse as we come to them. This is not inherently either Deterministic or allowing Free Will, but it does seem to allow for the possibility of Free Will. 

My personal view of Determinism is not as hard as the Cassandra story -- or any other story in which people can predict the future -- but I think the degree of uncertainty considering exactly how the next wave function will collapse is very limited. Similar to the uncertainty of very stable substances that will eventually undergo a change but probably not for a billion years or so.

370. Last of Just the Pandemic... I hope

 

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Pandemic day to day

Day 183 - Had to run an errand to the P.O. so I stopped in at the Bank Cafe to buy an iced tea and to see if they have a schedule for returning to normal operations. No. Two of the regular Peet’s staff were behind the counter, which was nice to see. I noticed when doing my first of the month banking yesterday that I hadn’t used that debit card since March 15, 2020. And normally I use it four or five times per week.

Day 185 - 69 turns out to be one of those shocking birthdays. It isn’t 70, but it may as well be. Just when you had gotten used to the idea of being in your 60s now it’s going to get even worse. It doesn’t help that neither of my parents made it out of their 70s with all their faculties intact... or at all in one case. I can’t assume, as I always have in the past, that in ten years I will be roughly the same person I am today.

As it happened, today is laundry day -- not what I would have chosen, but sometimes you need clean laundry. Regardless I will do my usual 200+ pushups and 190 crunches and I’ll take my daily exercise walk -- though not the one that takes me to the top of Nob Hill three times, that was yesterday. So I’m doing what I can to stay “me.” 

I plan to hit my favorite restaurants later in the month, after the covid-19 vaccine has had time to be at full strength, but I am having some of my favorite dishes today -- even if I have to prepare them myself, which is not the same thing at all. Last birthday I was new to the pandemic routine and just ate what I had. (I checked, and I had Burmese, but not from my favorite Burmese place.)

Recently there have been a series of mass shootings which has everyone (people on the left) talking about meaningful gun reform. Background checks should be improved, but banning certain types of weapons and magazines is a bad idea. Not because these weapons are needed -- if it was up to me there would be no semi-automatic weapons in civilian hands -- but because a ban like that risks far more than it could ever help. 

The reality is that mass shootings kill fewer than 200 Americans a year. And keep in mind that most of America is happy with 1,000 covid deaths A DAY. Or at least they prefer that to taking the common sense steps that would easily stop the disease caused mass deaths. If they won’t wear masks, social distance, and stop traveling then asking them to give up either the guns they already have or give up the right to buy more weapons will be viewed as an existential threat. As stupid as that is. The risk of civil disorder is not worth saving maybe 100 lives a year.

Day 391 - This will be the last day of my “Shelter-In-Place” since my vaccination should reach full strength tomorrow. I’m still not sure how much difference this will really make, but I will be back on public transit (with a double mask) and trying to catch up on all the little things I’ve been putting off for over a year. I will also be eating out and, when I get food to go, I will be getting a meal at a time rather than trying to reduce exposure by getting 4-6 meals at once. Or at least that’s my expectation.

The virus -- and new mutations of the virus -- are still out there and people -- especially the young and the dumb -- continue to ignore the reasonable and easy steps people can take to stop the spread of the disease. We are currently in the fourth surge of cases in many parts of the country just as we should be reaching the end of the pandemic. Carpe Mortem... seize your unnecessary death while you still can.

For young people losing a year of their short lives seems intolerable. My Stoic view is rather different, but at the same time, and especially as I’ve just hit 69 and so am on the cusp of my 70s, I am aware that I’m “losing” what is probably one of the few good years I have remaining. Carpe Diem, indeed. 

While I have not hated this past year, in fact I’ve learned a good deal from it, I am also very ready to get out again and start doing things. So long as I can stay safe -- which the vaccine and the now normal safety measures should make possible. It has even occurred to me that riding the bus will be marginally more pleasant while wearing a mask. I will be sad to see that particular change revert to normal, if it in fact does.

Day 392 - Ate inside at one of my old favorite places for the first time in over a year. Almost like old times. Had to ask for the password as I have a new Chromebook now.

As it happens, this morning they “paused” J&J vaccinations because there have been a couple blood clot problems. As a result they are now talking about dropping the second shots of the other vaccines for a while to get more people basic protection. This is what I wanted to do but they wouldn’t let me. The advantage of waiting a couple months for the second dose is that there is time for upgrades to match new mutations of the virus.

On the other hand, that they are pausing the J&J because of only six problems out of the millions of doses given indicates that people have a poor grasp of statistics (shocking, I know) so they probably wouldn’t be happy with the marginally less protection with the single dose. You really can’t win.

I never come here, Village Pizzeria, in the late afternoon so I didn’t know that, at least at this time of year, there’s sun reflected off the relatively new building across the street giving me almost direct sun at my usual window table. Very nice. And, as always, only more so, there’s no one here so this continues to be the ideal place to eat and then work while sipping my iced tea. I’m back, Baby! This could be the best belated birthday present for this crazy year.

Also, they’ve moved the bus stops yet again so the outbound buses now stop in front of Village like they did originally. This, too, is temporary as they will be moving to the center of the street eventually. They’ve actually made considerable progress with the BRT infrastructure over the past year, but there’s still a way to go. And I still can’t see exactly how it will work.

Day 396 - It is so strange acting almost like before the pandemic. I’ve been on multiple buses every day. I’ve eaten inside places with my mask off. Aside from the double mask while on transit, it, especially on Muni, would be just like old times. Golden Gate Transit has removed seats and taped off every other row of seats. Muni just asks you to board at the rear so you don’t infect the operator. Muni announces you must wear a mask to board. GG Transit announces you must wear a mask while on board. GG Transit wins that one.

I was back at The Pork Store for brunch this morning for the first time since 3/8/20. I would have been there 3/15/20 for my last pre-lockdown meal, but I had already decided public transit was too risky. By 3/8/20 I had already had brunch there eight times in 2020 so that gives you some idea how often I like to eat there. I was happy to see that my favorite waitress has survived along with the place itself. They were only seating at four tables inside -- the owner is dead cheap so I wasn’t surprised they had not spent money on outside seating. I won’t return on the weekend until they reopen the counter, but I might return on a weekday when I’m not hogging a table a party could be enjoying.

And yesterday I had my first, good, Indian meal since early 2020. So good. I’m now four birthday meals down with six more to go.

The only problem has been that it is still on the cold side here, almost never above 60F, which makes eating outside less tempting. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer so I hope to take advantage of that. And it’s a one day “heat wave” so I really need to seize the day.

Day 400 - The guilty verdicts came down so fast yesterday that people were still in the process of boarding up all the windows around Union Square after the danger was past... for the moment. I was out for lunch inside another restaurant I hadn’t been to for over 400 days -- I hit it just before as I knew it was probably my last chance. Unfortunately, they took my favorite menu item off the menu again so I had to make do with something that was not nearly as good. And it was still good to be out doing something almost normal. Almost normal because I was the only customer eating inside. And now it’s cold again. We may even get some much needed rain over the weekend, though I’ll believe it when I see it.

Day 402 - Spotted the first bee in the still ripening blossoms of the bush out my kitchen window. There are even more little buds than last year so it’s going to be buzzing with bees soon. I am going to have to cut some of the branches back after they finish blooming as they are now long enough to brush against our building. Against the paint on our building. If the tenants below me hadn’t requested otherwise I would have cut the bush back to the property line last summer.

There was some looting across the bay the night before last but as they didn’t have the cover provided by hundreds or thousands of people violently protesting in the streets, the police stopped it quickly. They must have been very disappointed by the verdict.

Now that I’ve come out the other side of the pandemic, it’s interesting to look back on the experience. A year ago, when I made a rare trip to the market I would return with the thought that I might have been infected and that my chances of surviving were not good. Not because my health is compromised, but because I don’t have any in house support. If I got sick there would be no one to take care of me. I would survive on my own or not. And as time progressed and I learned more about the situations in the hospital and the dangers of being on a ventilator, I became even more reluctant to go that route. So either I would beat it or I would probably die. This is the kind of thing you try not to think about but it hangs over you. 

In the past week I’ve been living almost as before. Walking all over town running errands and eating out, riding public transit almost every day. The Bank Cafe is still not open for its intended third space purpose, but I suspect that will come next month or the month after. I’m still being cautious, wearing a double mask when I’m around groups of people, but the constant background fear is gone. I still wipe down my grocery purchases with alcohol, but this is mostly a habit now. I don’t think of the items as being coated with poison as I did a year ago.

I also just discovered that I’ve spent my stimulus payments down to the last dollar -- exactly. These were all expended on items that needed to be replaced in any event -- from a refrigerator to laptops to shoes and clothes to new eye glasses -- but I’m still surprised I didn’t save any of it. Most of it was even purchased locally, supporting local business or at least the local workers of national businesses.

Day 410 - I’m eating -- and working -- at my other favorite neighborhood pizzeria for the first time. Aside from its being empty and my wearing a mask now that my meal is over, it’s just like normal. And this is the place with good music, which is still just as good.

My birthday celebration is now past and my spring cleaning is still waiting on weather warm enough to throw my windows open. As soon as I get caught up on my errands I plan to resume with Proust. While the pandemic is as bad or even worse than ever in India and Brazil and a few other places -- Michigan is still a mess -- but, unless something strange happens, I think it is over here. I may only mention it now as even more places open up and as my usual work returns. Still hoping for the end of this summer but 2022 is probably a safer bet.

336. B2B Expo +

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Medium

Was on Medium just now and I’m still amazed by how much interesting content they have. An interesting piece on Seneca -- one of many? -- and another on existentialism and nihilism. Medium is almost always a handy way to start down a philosophical path. 

Seneca is always a mixed bag for me, Stoicism makes wonderful sense if you are a Stoic, the same is true with Buddhism. But this piece focused on Seneca’s ideas on how best to spend your time, or how best to not waste it. And this is problematic for the same reason Buddhism is problematic -- deciding what constitutes “wasted time” is not easy. Much of what Seneca -- or Cicero, for that matter -- would consider well spent time I would consider questionable at best. I can’t recall the name of the Roman poet I love to quote (Horace) who is so well spoken on enjoying life while you’re young, but I like his ideas too. Seneca was keen on spending time doing things that, in the end, ironically, probably had very little value. In his death tub I wonder if he had any second thoughts. Interesting that Seneca and Marat are both famous for dying in a tub.

Here's Horace:
"Tomorrow and her works defy;
Lay hold upon the present hour,
And snatch the pleasures passing by,
To put them out of Fortune's power.
Nor love nor love's delights disdain;
Whate'er thou gettist today is gain."

B2B 2019

My goal every year at this time is to avoid working Bay2Breakers. B2B is a charming SF tradition, a combination of a footrace across the peninsula and a party. There are clever costumes. There are always nude men. There’s still a lot of drinking. Working it is a pain. For years I dodged it by working Maker Faire and then last year, when we stopped doing Maker Faire, I switched to Himalayan Fair in Berkeley. This year I was unable to get a shift for that -- I’m not the only one trying to avoid B2B -- so I signed up for a Saturday shift at the B2B Expo instead. 

I wasn’t really happy about that move, but it worked out perfectly. For starters, we’ve been getting a series of winter storms in a month that should be the start of our dry season. Saturday was wet in a major way, so much so that they canceled the Himalayan Fair. And the B2B Expo turns out to be held inside one of the enclosed piers on our waterfront. Aside from some leaks, I got to work inside out of the rain on a day of serious precipitation. 

The only bad part was that I had to work my complete shift because we couldn’t finish before everything from the Expo had been hauled away, revealing all the signs and bundles of newspapers and random trash that the vendors left behind. It was a lot like the early days of volunteering for GreenFestival. Except that I was being paid and, being a much smaller event, it wrapped up hours earlier. 


The Bank Cafe

I’m currently sitting in the just opened remodeled section of the Bank Cafe. Now the center of the space is blocked off including the stairs. This is a huge improvement over before. And by that I mean over the previous blocked off state -- but also the remodel is quite nice, with more seating in the windows, for example and a much better sound system with better music to go with it. The most noticeable change, besides the new wood floor, is that everything overhead is now bright white except for the fire sprinkler pipes and the three oversize pendant shades over the central table, all of which are dark red. The new furniture is an improvement. Both better looking and just not as worn out. There are two small “rooms” on the Kearny side, I’m sitting in one now, and it appears that they are intended to have doors for increased privacy, though the doors are not installed as yet.

The biggest improvement is that we now have windows again for the first time in months. It was pretty oppressive. The trade-off being that not as many people have been working here so the WiFi has been better.

187. Trump as Commodus

If you leave, they will come

Yesterday I was home all morning dealing with the sump pump and cleaning the building (while waiting for the pump guy). Then I went out a couple hours in the early afternoon for lunch before returning home. The United States Post Office figured early afternoon would be the best time to find me at home, to sign for my new Vegetarian Shoes.

Since they "missed" me, I had to walk to the PO on the other side of North Beach (so, past two closer POs) to collect the shoes that I'm now wearing. I'm still at the cafe across from the PO -- a place I used to frequent back when the Trader Joe's a block away was still the closest one to my house.

Making sense of the senseless

Someone shared on Facebook yet another interesting political take on what the Trump Presidency really means. This one is by Andrew Bacevich in The Nation (here). What is particularly frustrating is that I agree with everything he says to here:

STARTING OVER

I am by temperament a conservative and a traditionalist, wary of revolutionary movements that more often than not end up being hijacked by nefarious plotters more interested in satisfying their own ambitions than in pursuing high ideals...

Right after this he tosses Burke, and any notion that "the people" have consciously made the decisions they have made, out the window and comes up with an action plan for a commonwealth in the best of all possible worlds.

Previously, he points out something I hadn't thought of, that American Presidents have been increasingly "Imperial" since FDR, and that it's just the insane casting of Trump in this role that has shocked us into noticing this. So, rather than looking at an American version of the fall of the Roman Republic, we're looking at the American version of the end of the Pax Romana and the reign of the Good Emperors. Interesting.

But then he comes up with a Liberal view of what America stands for (something America has never stood for) and expects the people who voted for George W. and Trump to suddenly reveal themselves to be a -- momentarily confused -- philosopher electorate, and right our ship of state. What no one seems willing to acknowledge is that it is our form of democracy that is in question. Just as the Founding Fathers never imagined semi-automatic firearms, they never imagined such an irresponsible and ignorant electorate. (I wouldn't like the electorate they were familiar with either. If you admit that the Enlightenment was naive, then where do you go from there in establishing good government? I have no clue.)

The New Yorker

Someone dropped off a bag of New Yorker magazines the other day that ended up in my care. I've been working through the cartoons. But this evening I noticed a Qualcomm ad on the back page of one issue and thought it might be interesting to note the advertisers today, as compared to back in the 1970s when I was a regular reader. Only there aren't any. Or very few. Here's the list of ads for this issue: 

1. A full page for Citi -- but American Airlines and Master Card are also visible so it may be co-advertising.
2. A vertical column for The Metropolitan Opera
3. A full page for Accura
4. A full page for ehrmantapestry.com
5. Two vertical columns for The New Yorker Festival sponsored by mastercard and Land Rover
6. A vertical column for healthyish ("a new site from Bon Appetit")
7. A full page for New York Presbyterian Hospital
8. A full page for Qualcomm
9. Two vertical columns split between five advertisers (plus one small ad for the New Yorker. I haven't included self-advertising)

So all together seven full pages of ads out of eighty printed pages. How do they manage to stay in business? Though, with my original thought in mind, the only ads that would have puzzled me in the '70s would be the website and Qualcomm and I guess the Japanese luxury car instead of Lincoln -- who has the first two pages in the next issue I picked up. Maybe the first week of July is not prime time?

Quicker than the automat

I was sitting in the Bank Cafe when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something launched from near the Peet's counter toward where people were sitting and thought, "Wow, they have introduced an exciting new form of table service." But instead it was a crazy woman tossing things around the place. She was chased out.