- Quarantine Day 108
- Livermore cases: 196
- Alameda County cases: 6,223; deaths: 137
- U.S. cases: 2,679,000+; deaths: 128,000+
Several states now have reimplemented restrictions due to spiking case loads. Texas re-closed bars. 19 counties in California were ordered to stop a bunch of indoor business activities that had started. Arizona re-shut-down bars, theaters, gyms, and water parks. A bunch of states have enacted mandatory face-mask wearing (I have not seen any reporting on what compliance levels look like). Alameda County has postponed further relaxations, but has not re-implemented any restrictions.
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have announced mandatory quarantines on people traveling in from 16 states.
Dr. Fauci warned Congress that “[he] would not be surprised” to see the U.S. hit 100,000 new cases per day if more isn’t done to curb the spread. The head of the WHO, Ghebreyesus, warned in a briefing that, globally, the worst is still ahead.
So things are going well [sigh].
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Last weekend we didn’t play any Dragon Strike. I didn’t have another adventure prepared and Heather never brought it up. But I’m planning to have one ready to go this weekend.
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On Sunday we did go walk around downtown a little because the weather was really nice and it was a chance to get out of the house. We wore masks and most other people were also wearing masks, but not all.
People seemed to feel that because a mask isn’t mandatory when eating that as soon as they sat down at a restaurant (outdoor seating only) that it made sense to take off their masks. So I saw many people reading menus and waiting for food without masks on. Which, of course, makes no sense.
I made pizza with my new, fancy, imported flour. It did get more browning than my other bread flour, not a lot, but some. I’ll have to play with the oven conditions. Aside from the browning, the texture was noticeably different than with the bread flour I’ve been using. “Fluffier” or “smoother” or something might describe it. I guess that’s the point of “00” flour (which is more finely ground). I liked it.
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We’re exploring getting solar panels installed on the house. We have other, higher-priority projects we’d like to get done (like the lighting in the kitchen), but a photovoltaic system could be installed without workers coming into the house (which they’re not supposed to be doing for non-essential work).
We’re also looking at including a battery backup so we can run independently when the grid is down. However, battery installs are wait-listed until next Spring. There’s also apparently some concern about our main feed and whether we can run a solar and battery system. We’re waiting on further details from the company’s electricians.