- Quarantine Day 242
- Livermore cases: 1,110
- Alameda Count cases: 24,732; deaths: 479
- U.S. cases: 10,508,000+; deaths: 242,000+
California, overall, is doing really well right now. Almost like several months of actual leadership with clear plans and requirements is worth something. Looking at the CDC metric of "cases in the past 7 days per 100k" puts California at 12th in the nation at 17 (out of 60 jurisdictions reported). The other end of that chart is North Dakota at 169, South Dakota at 155, and Iowa at 135. The nationwide rate is 41.
Skipping the weekends (which always have lower deaths reported due to reporting mechanisms) we've been hitting over 1,000 deaths per day across the country for almost two weeks now--trending upwards.
Case rates are ticking up here too. Exactly as the medical professionals tried to warn everyone--with colder weather the virus is surging.
Alameda County issued recommendations on holiday gatherings this week (which overall is, "please don't, but we know you'll ignore that, so please do these things instead"). I liked this section:
Avoid singing, chanting, and shouting. If you cannot avoid these activities, keep your face covering on, your volume low, and at least a 6-foot distance from others. More distance and being outdoors are safer.
I'm amused by the idea of being unable to avoid a situation involving singing, chanting, or shouting.
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It started getting colder around here a few weeks ago which was when we discovered our heat didn't work. The furnace's control board needed to be replaced as it was no longer sending power to the gas regulator. I ordered the new control board (a non-identical model that superseded about a dozen old models) and spent an evening replacing it myself which went well. Not too bad if you have enough room to put the new board next to the old board and then one-by-one check the label where each wire is connected and match it up on the new board. So that was a nice way to save a few hundred dollars.
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Last week we finally got our kitchen lights replaced (just a short 7 or 8 months we've been without lighting in the kitchen). I don't have any pictures yet because I still have work to do painting the ceiling. We also had two new ceiling fans installed. And six days later I broke one of them by swinging the comforter on our bed up to put it on and it caught the edge of a blade and snapped it off. So that was awesome. The manufacturer is taking pity on me and is sending replacement blades.
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Our solar install is finally progressing as well. The service panel was replaced this week in order to get a panel with a larger bus bar that can carry the load of batteries, solar, and (at some future point in time) an electric vehicle charger. Our solar installation date is now supposed to be Dec 17. So just in time for the solstice and the least amount of sun all year.