COVID-19: Part 49

November 20, 2020 4:08 pm
  • Quarantine Day 249
  • Livermore cases: 1,184
  • Alameda County cases: 26,164; deaths: 490
  • U.S. cases: 11,650,000+; deaths: 251,000+

California moved most of its counties (including Alameda) back to the purple (strictest) tier this week and a 10pm-5am curfew goes into effect starting tomorrow night. This despite our cases-in-last-7-days-per-100k only increasing to 24 (up from 17). The goal, of course, is to stay ahead of the exponential curve because if you react once it starts spiking you’re already too late.

Heather and Corinne had just restarted in-person gymnastics classes 3 weeks ago. Heather got to go twice, Corinne went once (she had a badly skinned knee the first week), and now they’re shut down again. So the girls are pretty bummed out about that.

North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, and Utah are all above 100 cases-in-last-7-days-per-100k.

The CDC recorded 2,045 deaths for yesterday. The highest since April. And as a nation we surpassed 250,000 deaths this week.

We’re seeing news reports, again, about states setting up emergency treatment facilities in sports arenas and parking garages. El Paso county in Texas is now using at least 10 refrigerator trucks as temporary morgues while paying prisoners $2/hr to move bodies.

There’s been promising news from the vaccine researchers over the past couple of weeks. Some are hopeful that emergency use authorization and administration to the highest-priority populations could happen before the end of the year (this would be front-line medical personnel).

I am quite concerned about what’s going to happen to case rates with Thanksgiving less than a week away with already serious surges happening throughout the country. Thanksgiving is historically the busiest travel week of the year and that travel begins today.

Public health departments and medical advisory groups are practically begging people to stay home and not gather in large groups. The CDC issued an advisory statement recommending people to stay home and not travel for Thanksgiving:

Meanwhile, as the country melts down around us due to lack of any national leadership on the pandemic, Trump continues to deny reality that he lost the election. He’s currently attempting to convince Republican-held legislatures in states he lost to instruct their electors in the Electoral College to vote for Trump instead of who the voters in that state voted for. This is just the latest tactic in his so-far completely failed attempt to “prove” that he actually won despite all available evidence.

It has me concerned because apparently more than half of self-identified Republicans believe him. They’re convinced that Trump won and will do anything to overturn the actual will of the people. And Trump is fueling this fantasy with a constant fire hose of disinformation. I’m becoming increasingly concerned about what these rabid followers might do come Inauguration Day when Biden is sworn in as president. We’ve already seen one group arrested in Michigan for plotting to kidnap their governor, seize control of the state-capitol building, and air a week of executions of democratically elected officials. This was their plan that they were actively pursuing. They think they’re patriots and the disinformation campaigns they’ve glued themselves to convince them they’re right.

When I was taking the graduate course on terrorism and counter-terrorism at Texas A&M in 2014 I had not thought that just a few years later we’d need to adapt the principles of radicalization intervention to be applied to right-wing terrorist groups within the United States. But here we are and it won’t actually happen so long as the guy in charge of implementing such an intervention is instead actively fueling the radicalization efforts.

I discovered that I’m probably not at fault for the broken fan blade mentioned in my previous post. I watched another one fall off the fan yesterday with nothing happening to it. I then inspected the remaining blades and found that all of them had been cracked in the same way due to improper installation and were all just waiting to fail.

I then inspected the 2nd fan we had installed and found those blades had also been incorrectly installed, however in a different way that did not damage them. We’ll see what the company I paid to install them has to say about it. I’m hoping they are appropriately embarrassed and offer at least a partial refund for the work.

Our tree is a really nice orange this year. Though it looks more brown in the picture.

COVID-19: Part 48

November 13, 2020 3:12 pm
  • 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.

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.

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.

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.

COVID-19: Part 47

October 14, 2020 7:05 pm
  • Quarantine Day 212
  • Livermore cases: 968
  • Alameda Count cases: 21,597; deaths: 433
  • U.S. cases: 7,835,000+; deaths: 215,000+

This post is just to celebrate Alameda County moving from red to orange on the State’s reopening plan (purple, red, orange, yellow)! I’m pessimistic that we’re going to see a reversal in that trend as we go through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. But at least for the moment we’re continuing to move in the right direction (even while large swaths of the country are moving the wrong direction).

COVID-19: Part 46

October 10, 2020 1:52 pm
  • Quarantine Day 208
  • Livermore cases: 944
  • Alameda County cases: 21,217; deaths: 431
  • U.S. cases: 7,641,000+; deaths: 213,000+

Air quality was lousy again for most of the past couple of weeks. It’s finally good again and the temperature is down. So we actually have the windows open today.

President Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 a week ago. He received multiple experimental treatments (but not hydroxychloroquine which just a few months ago he was touting as a miracle cure) as well as what’s apparently a pretty heavy-duty steroid. He left the hospital a few days later claiming to be all better, but it was quite obvious in the news videos that he was having difficulty breathing just standing outside before walking in to the White House.

Something like over 30 people connected to the White House have tested positive. Which is really no surprise since they’ve been apparently avoiding taking just about any precautionary measures.

The second debate was supposed to be next week. In response to Trump being infected it was changed to a having them participate remotely. For reasons no one can explain, Trump threw a fit about this and the debate was canceled. But maybe that has more to do with his performance at the first debate being widely considered to mark a new low in American politics for basic decency and decorum.

We finally played through the final Dragon Strike adventure. Ivy and Beryl, with assistance from Halbarad, Fili, and Tramii, confronted Darkfyre. They defeated the dragon and rescued the queen. The kingdom celebrated, parties were held, and Pluck, the bard of Addleston, sang a special song in honor of the heroes.

It was a ton of work to write the story line and design each of the adventures and my creative juices are pretty much dried up at this point. But Heather had a ton of fun. We may investigate a Dungeons and Dragons starter kit at some point once I’m not burned out on it.

Alameda County has moved from purple down to red on the state’s reopening plan. Which means that school districts can begin limited reopening of elementary schools if they choose. Livermore is still considering whether to do so or not. Not really sure how to feel about it. If the medical data says it can be done with minimal risk, then that’s probably fine. My only request is that it be done based on medical reality and not on the vocality of the groups demanding one or the other.

A right-wing domestic terrorist group was arrested this week on charges of actively plotting and working towards kidnapping and assassinating the governor of Michigan. Their complaint against her apparently being that she’s been trying to institute basic, medically-supported, public-health measures to save lives during a global pandemic. Morons have convinced themselves that such actions are oppression on par with gassing people in death camps.

COVID-19: Part 45

September 26, 2020 11:23 am
  • Quarantine Day 194
  • Livermore cases: 880
  • Alameda County cases: 20,346; deaths: 395
  • U.S. cases: 7,009,000+; deaths: 203,000+

Our air has finally cleared (though plenty of fires still burn throughout the state). We had actually blue skies this week for the first time in what feels like months.

I decided it really need to be fall around here so I bought some fall-themed t-shirts to wear and ordered an 8-foot tall, artificial maple tree and set it up in the living room. It also lights up. I didn’t really care about it lighting up, but that’s what I found and it actually creates a nice ambiance at night. I can turn the tree lights on and my fake fireplace lights and it makes the living room a bit cozier. Jess ordered some new curtains and hung up her fall, crocheted things garland. So it feels a little more like fall around here and not perpetual March.

We went and got flu shots yesterday. The drive-in clinic took an hour and a half and Heather had a full-fledged freak out when it came time to get her shot, but we made it through.

I’ve gone to work on site a few more times recently to get some more things done. But I’ve mostly been continuing to work from my closet.

Two weekends ago (Sunday the 13th) Corinne had a fever after complaining of joint pain the day before. The advice nurse told us to keep treating her symptoms and to call back if she got worse. Her fever continued through Monday, but she seemed to be fine by Tuesday and she’s completely fine now. No one else has exhibited any similar symptoms.

My friends group tried to play more Dragon Strike on Thursday but the technology was not cooperating so we couldn’t do it.

Since last weekend was Jess’ birthday we didn’t play the final Dragon Strike adventure, maybe we’ll do that tomorrow.