Author: Kyle Dickerson

Hakone Japanese Gardens

October 30, 2021 9:18 am

Jess’ parents drove out and visited us from the 19th to the 24th. On Friday I took the day off of work and we drove down to Saratoga to visit the Hakone Japanese Gardens while the girls were in school. We thought it’d be nice to actually meander around rather than be dragged about with constant complaints of it being boring. We were right.

Jess and I had watched a Great Course on Japanese history and we both agreed we liked the aesthetics of the gardens and then found there are a handful of such gardens in the Bay Area (which has a pretty long history of Japanese immigration).

It was cloudy (it actually rained every day her parents were here, the only rain we’ve gotten in 10 months) so my pictures are rather muted, so nothing spectacular. But I still enjoyed the trip.

We sat in a waiting pavilion for a few minutes which had a large window (that’s one of the pictures in the gallery). I went outside to try and get a picture of Jess with her parents sitting inside through the bamboo, but the dynamic range was too much for my camera and I couldn’t keep it still well enough for an HDR shot, so this is what I have. Now just imagine all the bamboo is rich green instead of blown-out white.

I had intended to set up a group picture of all of us before they left, but it kept slipping my mind until it was too late.

The girls enjoyed their visit. They warmed up to “Papa” and “Bubbie” much more readily than we had expected. Corinne was super happy to have more playmates around and Heather happily showed them projects she’s working on and read them things from books.

Before their visit we had asked Heather if she’d be comfortable with them visiting during her birthday. She was a little upset at that idea and asked that we keep her birthday to just us. So they scheduled their trip to move on to their next stop at the beginning of this week.

Their next stop was in Utah and they intended to drive highway 50, “The loneliest road in America.” But the storm system made a mess of the Sierra Nevada passes. One was closed due to flooding and the others were covered in snow and ice. Traffic wasn’t moving at all on them when they were leaving and there were chain requirements in effect. So instead they drove south through Las Vegas.

And a Kitten Named Phoenix

October 9, 2021 4:42 pm

Two weeks after we picked up London from the shelter Jess brought home another kitten, Phoenix, that she couldn’t live without.

She’s a total scaredy cat. She hid behind the dryer in the laundry room for most of her first 48 hours at home. Then Jess used cardboard to block it off and forced her out into the rest of the house. It took several days, but she eventually became more comfortable in the house. She’s still a scaredy cat though. She’ll let Jess and me pet her if she’s in the right mood, otherwise she’ll bolt if anyone gets close. After the girls go to bed, and the house calms down a bit, she’ll come sit next to one of us.

She and London had a difficult time at first. London was not interested in having a new cat in her territory. There was a lot of hissing and we’ve been keeping them separated to try and make the bulk of the house into neutral territory. And we seem to be making progress. London has switched to being more playful and less aggressive. Phoenix still mostly runs away though.

Here’s each of them today after chasing each other around for a while:

Jess’ Birthday 2021

September 25, 2021 10:34 am

Monday was Jess’ birthday which started with getting the girls off to school and me to work (in my closet). She went to lunch with a friend and the girls had homework and swim class in the afternoon. I dropped the girls off at home after swim class and drove out to Melo’s to pick up dinner while Jess got the girls cleaned (and heated up chicken nuggets for Corinne). Potato/bacon pizza for Jess, pepperoni/chicken calzone for me, and cheese pizza for Heather.

After dinner was cake and presents!

So far I haven’t had a great track record in picking birthday cakes that Jess loves, but this year we seem to have a winner. I spent the weekend attempting a new cake cobbled together from a couple of other recipes: A salted-caramel cheesecake with blondie crust and salted-caramel topping.

It ended up a little undercooked–the center wasn’t fully set, but it was still delicious.

And presents!

A Kitten Named London

September 18, 2021 4:56 pm

A couple weekends ago we went to the county animal shelter and looked at the cats and kittens they had that were looking for homes. We picked out a tuxedo kitten (~3 months old) and Jess brought her home on Wednesday after she was spayed.

The girls have been ecstatic. Heather went into research mode and checked out books from the library all about cat behavior, how to play with them, how to care for them, and how to train them.

Her name in the shelter was “London” and we decided we better keep it to avoid an endless argument about what her name should be.

She came from the shelter litter-trained (yay!), with most of her vaccinations, and micro-chipped. But she seems to have picked up an illness before coming home because she’s been sneezy, a little snotty, and a little lethargic. But we had her checked out on Friday and she seems to be doing a little better today. The vet prescribed some antibiotics and she gave my leg a good scratch while we were trying to give her the first dose (one of her hind legs got loose), but we’re figuring out the trick to getting it done without blood.

She likes me (or at least my body heat) and will happily snuggle up on my lap or against my legs while she naps. She’ll happily nap next to Jess too. She’s still getting used to the girls and the girls are still getting used to her. They’re a little too excitable and fast moving to make her fully comfortable.

Here she is sleeping next to me this morning, before her flower collar arrived:

COVID-19: Part 63

September 7, 2021 6:05 pm
  • Livermore cases: 5,814; eligible vaccination rate: 69.1%
  • Alameda County cases: 106,262; deaths: 1,264; eligible vaccination rate: 75.6%
  • U.S. cases: 40,085,000+; deaths: 647,000+; eligible vaccination rate: 62.3%

The main update for today is all the states that have medical systems that are collapsing. The first entry is Idaho (from the Associated Press): “Idaho public health leaders announced Tuesday that they activated ‘crisis standards of care’ allowing health care rationing for the state’s northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle.” Meaning, patients will be scored for survivability and that will drive who receives what care.

Patients are being treated in conference rooms or education rooms using whatever resources are available. The National Guard has been mobilized to assist in managing the crisis. The director of the Department of Health and Welfare recommends avoiding needing emergency care until the crisis passes [sigh].

From the same article, Hawaii is sheltering its hospitals/employees from liability if they begin rationing care.

NPR has additional coverage here: “A COVID Surge Is Overwhelming U.S. Hospitals, Raising Fears Of Rationed Care.” Which includes, “According to the model, ICU capacity will be under ‘extreme stress’ in states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Hawaii, Georgia, Delaware and Wisconsin.”

The latest messaging on the vaccines receiving emergency authorization for kids 6+ is that it won’t happen until winter. 🙁

The girls’ school (the whole district, but broken down by school) is maintaining a daily report of positive cases on site. So far their school has only had 2 known cases on site since school started. So that’s encouraging. The district overall has had 49 cases, with 13 of those being a cluster at one of the high schools (Granada), with 4 of those being recorded today. The other high school (Livermore) is at 3 for the year, so hopefully Granada can get their cluster under control.

Work rolled out their mandatory attestation process this week which comes from a federal requirement. All employees must attest to their vaccination status which will determine whether they operate under protocol A or protocol B. Protocol A is to continue as we have been and will allow for reduced controls as conditions permit. Protocol B will require weekly testing and will not be eligible for reduced controls. Rather dishearteningly, there are apparently a bunch of anti-vaccination people working at the Lab, so this is going to be a mess. Refusal to comply will result in currently-unspecified disciplinary action (at least one other national lab has stated that employees will be placed on unpaid leave until they comply).

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In other news, we decided to get a cat. We picked one out at the county shelter over the weekend and we’ll bring her home next week after she’s been spayed and received her next round of vaccinations. The girls are ecstatic.