COVID-19: Part 34

June 19, 2020 3:53 pm
  • Quarantine Day 95
  • Livermore cases: 93
  • Alameda County cases: 4,585; deaths: 117
  • U.S. cases: 2,178,000+; deaths: 118,000+

Comparing with my post from last week, Livermore’s case load almost doubled. That’s not good. Restrictions are starting to relax a little, but too many people think that means they don’t have to take any precautions anymore. I don’t know what people are thinking. I know many are tired of dealing with it. Unfortunately, viruses don’t really care whether you’re done dealing with them or not.

California issued a state-wide mandatory mask regulation. As currently written, there’s no exemption for children (except under 2 years old); whereas Alameda County’s rule recommends them on children but doesn’t require them for under 13 years old.

Alameda County issued updated guidelines this week that slightly loosen restrictions again. Outdoor dining will be allowed for restaurants (with strict requirements). Retail is allowed to reopen, but must limit customers to maintain 6-ft distancing. Religious meetings may resume with groups no larger than 100 (no more than 25% building capacity, whichever is fewer) and the county heavily recommends no more than 25 (food and beverage distribution is “discouraged”).

We are still otherwise required to limit travel to essential purposes only. Which seems a bit at odds with allowing dining and shopping. So it’s not 100% clear what it means since shopping for, say, antiques is now allowed, but clearly not essential in any form. So I guess technically we’re still in “quarantine.” I guess I’ll stop counting it when the “travel limited to essential purposes only” rule is dropped.

Tomorrow, Trump is holding an indoors, large-scale campaign rally. Despite pushing a narrative minimizing the risks of COVID-19, attendees must sign agreement not to sue the campaign for contracting the disease at the event. So that will surely go well.

—

Last weekend Ivy and Beryl arrived in Addleston after a long trek from Mt. Atheros. They settled in for a rest at the Slash & Burn Tavern and heard a bard sing a song about two mysterious heroes, named Ivy and Beryl, who have been seen around the kingdom helping people, but were struck down by the dragon at Gambler’s Pass. I wrote lyrics and meter and performed it. I even wrote modifications so the song will work for my other group when they get there.

After their lunch and entertainment, based on information from the tavern keeper, they moseyed out to Hinderstap Manor to investigate the mysterious tragedy that befell the family living there some 20 years ago.

I had a lot of prep work to do (and still some left) for their adventure into the mansion so last week’s adventure ended after they met “Fox” the thief in the gardens and opened the secret passage into the manor house. I’m hoping to finish my preparations tonight so we’ll be ready to go tomorrow. It’s probably my most ambitious quest yet. And I’ll have to top it for the big finale showdown with the dragon in a few more weeks.

My other group was supposed to have another game session last night, but we had to postpone due to scheduling conflicts.

—

I had to spend some time last night fixing by HomeBoard display. Someone at the National Weather Service pushed out a software change that they probably weren’t supposed to because it broke stuff and provided invalid data for some things. I managed to work around the issues and get my display working again in a way that it will still work if they change the data back to the previous form.

Kyle’s Birthday 2020

June 14, 2020 12:34 pm

After celebrating Corinne’s birthday at the very start of the quarantine I honestly didn’t think we’d still be quarantined by the time my birthday rolled around. But here we are.

I started my day by working in my closet. Then lunch in the kitchen and back to my closet for more work. Very exciting.

Once I was done with work, I opened presents:

Here Heather is using her “Poison Rod” to protect me.

The girls gave me new sets of miniatures to use in our Dragon Strike games. Corinne here has her “Fire & Ice staff.”

Jess gave me a set of fancy vanilla extracts: Tahitian, Mexican, and Madagascar Bourbon types. I need to come up with a dish to make to let us taste test them.

A careful observer might wonder why the box on the right says “VHS” on it. That’s the Stranger Things seasons 1 & 2 sets which are packaged to look like 80s-style tapes.

After presents I picked up some Mexican food for dinner from Anita’s Tacqueria. Since no one else likes Mexican food, Jess made pasta for everyone else. After dinner we needed some time to digest before having cake. So I played a video game for a little while.

We didn’t have enough candles, so I told Jess to use a binary representation. Since the cake is facing me you have to read the binary backwards. So the right-most candle represents a “one” for 32 then there are 3 “zeroes” for 16, 8, & 4 and finally 2 “ones” for 2 & 1.

After dessert the girls headed off to bed and Jess and I watched the 1971 classic movie The Andromeda Strain.

COVID-19: Part 33

June 11, 2020 2:34 pm
  • Quarantine Day 87
  • Livermore cases: 57
  • Alameda County cases: 4,007; deaths: 107
  • U.S. cases: 1,994,000+; deaths: 112,000+

I guess maybe I should stop titling these posts as “Part X.” This is just life and is going to be life for some untold amount of time.

Exactly as the entire medical community predicted and warned, now that states are opening back up the number of daily infections is starting to tick back up in those areas. Modeling is predicting record-setting case loads in a bunch of states sometime between August and October (assuming they continue with their current actions).

And states that were hit hardest in the first wave are still recovering. Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and Rhode Island are still listed as over capacity for ICU beds.

On news of a budding second wave, and a statement from the Federal Reserve that the economic recovery was going to be slow, the stock market did an about face from the fairly steady climbing it’s been doing for the past month and dropped 6.9% today (1,861 points).

—

Alameda County updated the shelter-at-home orders starting this week. We now must wear a mask when in public within 30 feet of others with significantly fewer exceptions. However, they slightly loosened the isolation requirements. We can now meet, outdoors only (while maintaining masks/distance), with a defined “social bubble” of up to 12 people. You may not participate in more than one “social bubble” within any 3-week period. [I’m under no delusion that the bulk of the population is going to pay any attention to the details of this plan; but we will.]

So on Monday Jess had a friend & kids come over to hang out and let the kids play together for a couple of hours for the first time in 3 months. The girls really needed some playmates. It will probably be a weekly thing.

Other restrictions were also loosened slightly. More low-risk businesses have been allowed to begin operating. Libraries are allowed to do curbside pickup. Some youth-group activities are allowed to start if they follow the social-bubble rules and appropriate sanitation policies.

—

Meanwhile, civil unrest has continued on a daily basis across the country. For reasons I could only imagine, multiple senior officials in the Trump administration (and Trump himself) made a point to make statements claiming there is no systemic racism in the country. Given that piles and piles and piles of academic research show quite the opposite I really don’t understand what they hoped to achieve with such statements. Obviously it didn’t calm the situation any.

At this point there have probably been dozens of statues and monuments all around the country that have been torn down. NASCAR even announced this week that they were banning the Confederate flag from their races and properties which made a bunch of their audience angry.

—

Last Thursday I hosted another video-based episode of Dragon Strike for my friends. They finished up the Battle for Bree.

On Saturday, Ivy and Beryl escorted the penitent Dark Mage, Tramii, up Mount Atheros to seek out the Mountain Spirit. Heather Leeroy-Jenkins-ed a group of Orcs and Goblins forcing Jess to clean up the mess. In the cave at the summit of the mountain they fought a Yeti and then Tramii faced a series of trials from the Mountain Spirit. She learned about facing her past and changing her future. She left the mountain as Tramii the White Mage with knowledge of magic designed to help and heal rather than injure and destroy.

Some Thoughts

June 4, 2020 10:43 am

I wrote this in response to a rather callous Facebook post I saw which essentially excused George Floyd’s death because he had a criminal record (I don’t know if that’s even true, because it’s not relevant to what’s happening) and then denounced continued protests because the officers were arrested so, “Sounds like justice was done.”

Some context of my post is lost without the original to which it’s replying, but I’m not going to repost it here. Some quotes that are alluded to in my text: “I don’t know why we keep putting criminals on pedestals for [equality movements]” and “we’ll never get anywhere with an out of control mob.”

—

Despite announcing independence from Britain with the phrase “all men are created equal” the founders of this country immediately produced a government where the only citizens that counted were white, male, land owners. And, despite fighting an entire war with ourselves over it, we’re still trying to fix that failure.

George Floyd’s death happened to be the straw the broke the camel’s back for this generation. Having the officers involved arrested and tried does little to address the larger issue. Until systemic change actually happens there will be repeated cycles of pressure build up and outbursts.

One of the most prominent recent protests for the cause of racial equality was a football player peacefully and respectfully kneeling during the national anthem and a huge part of the country denounced him for doing so. Years of peaceful attempts to have racist monuments removed throughout the South have failed. And throughout, repeatedly and regularly, black men and women have continued to be killed at the hands of white police officers with little improvement.

Sadly, as JFK portended, when the people populating the institutions of power ignore the problem eventually it bubbles up into a violent confrontation. Our country brought itself into existence by violent confrontation. Slavery was ended in this country by violent confrontation.

Throughout history, and around the world, we’ve repeatedly seen that unfortunately an “out of control mob” has sometimes been the only way that we “get anywhere.”

I don’t know anything about Floyd’s past. But his past is entirely irrelevant. No one should have a police officer kneel on their neck until they suffocate to death. The pedestal he’s put upon is the pedestal labeled “humanity” and we all stand on it together.

To dust our hands and say, “Sounds like justice was done” because in this one instance–after days of protests and rioting across the entire country–the perpetrators were arrested is to ensure that the cycle of anger and violence will continue for another day.

COVID-19: Part 32

June 3, 2020 6:02 pm
  • Quarantine Day 79
  • County Curfew Day 3
  • Livermore cases: 55
  • Alameda County cases: 3,450; deaths: 96
  • U.S. cases: 1,827,000+; deaths: 106,000+

On Monday evening, after my post that day, Trump made some televised remarks and then ordered police and National Guard troops to forcibly remove–with tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets–a lawfully and peacefully assembled group of protestors so that he could walk across the street, stand in front of a church, hold up a Bible, and take a picture. Which was then promptly turned into a campaign video.

American citizens, American journalists, and foreign journalists were all caught in the violence. One in particular was an Australian news crew that was broadcasting live when police officers attacked them with riot shield and baton; they were also hit with rubber bullets as they tried to clear the area. Australia is pissed.

The publicity stunt was denounced by the bishop of the church in front of which he stood. The county, which had provided additional officers to the city for crowd control, denounced the stunt and pulled their officers out of the city. And it was denounced throughout the country and around the world.

Today, in response to these events, former Secretary of Defense (for Trump) James Mattis issued a stunning excoriation of the president.

Some selected quotes:

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.”

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’”

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society.

We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.

I found it pretty stunning that a former Secretary of Defense would publish something against the president they served calling for the country to unify without the president and for accountability for abuse of executive authority & making a mockery of the Constitution.

Not only has Trump done nothing thus far to attempt to deescalate the anger or address the serious grievances, but instead has repeatedly used racially charged language to threaten protestors.

There have been daily protests in all 50 states and every major city and many minor cities. Given that there are tens of millions of people unemployed due to COVID-19 I don’t see how this starts getting better until an actual leader steps up. And within a few weeks we’ll be dealing with a massive second wave of COVID-19 infections due to protestors being in close quarters for extended periods time.

The summer is looking a bit bleak right now.

On the bright side, a bunch of racist monuments throughout the South that civil-rights activists have been trying to get removed for years are now coming down–with or without the cooperation of the local governments.

—

Today we had a “drive by ceremony” for Corinne’s preschool. She was really excited to get to see her teachers again (and to be in the van going somewhere for the first time since March). Sadly, we were the only people wearing face masks that we saw. I don’t understand why people don’t “get it” about epidemiological reality.