Archives April 2021

So our country  is basking in an abundance of vaccine availability, so much so that I heard they were handing out vaccines to fans attending a NBA basketball game.  If you want a vaccine in America you can get it without much difficulty at all at this point.  However as is sadly most often the case, Americans are blind or just don’t give two shits about the reality in the rest of the world.  Latin America is getting obliterated by Covid, it is running rampant, overwhelming the resources available.

India is even worse, where only 1% of it’s population has been vaccinated and the country has a horrible shortage of oxygen to help keep covid patients alive and hospital space to treat them.  It is an unmitigated disaster.  What is even more scary was that in February India proclaimed that they had covid under control and relaxed restrictions, much the same script as in Latin America. Hell even Canada just did a one week hard lockdown in certain areas because Covid started to spike wildly. It has been a classic example of what happens when you trust people to use their better judgement, most of them will fail that test.  It’s no different here in the USA, the only difference is we have a tidal wave of vaccination going on to help blunt the edge of human beings ignorance.  The hospitalization numbers all across the country have steadily risen since restrictions have been relaxed.

I have seen the end result in my immediate circle of existence where more people have gotten sick in the last month than at any other time during the pandemic.  You see mass indifference to pandemic protocol everywhere in the US.  Lemming mentality is strong, you see a group of people doing or not doing something in this case, a large portion of people will just go with the flow of least resistance.  I guess my point is to all of those that have said that the potential impact of covid has been overblown, all you need to do is turn your TV off of local news and take a look at what is going on around the world to see what reality can be in other circumstances, it’s dark.

This weekend is our last branch conversion.  I am looking forward to knocking it out.  This branch is only about 5 miles from my house so at least it is more geographically convenient.  I have several smaller tasks already written down on the weekend list.  Cindy and I started talking about doing a small long weekend road trip to the Kennedy Space Center.  We originally were going to incorporate that into my birthday celebration a couple years ago but wound up skipping it.  It’s far enough away to make it feel like a road trip but close enough to not require a lot of planning to make it happen.

I did not get a chance to see Biden’s address to Congress, a socially distanced and attendance restricted Congress.  I read there were only about 200 people in there instead of the normal 1600.  I only skimmed the highlights which included the strong Covid vaccination progress and talk of additional programs to bolster the country from the middle up instead of top down, which we have proven does not work since it started in the 80’s.  Clearly when given a choice, the ultra-wealthy will always opt to fattening their bursting at the seams pockets as opposed to allowing much of that wealth to flow down to the millions that do the everyday work to make it happen.

From a greater good viewpoint, I agree with this scenario.  Raising taxes on the wealthy to levels still significantly inferior to what they were during the Reagan era is a complete no brainer.  The rich have been using lobbyist dollars to further their tax advantages for the last forty years.  However I also am a person that supports work ethic and being responsible for your own outcome in life.  I have no interest in a society where the majority of it’s population suckles off the teet of others because they simply can, and are too lazy or unmotivated to do anything else.  Walking this line is tricky without question.  We should never de-incentivize hard work yet we also can not allow the ultra-rich to control legislation that depresses the results of middle class hard work,  giving 1 percenters infinite tools to further their advantage.

Last night I shot a very quick reaction video to a weird situation that popped up in one of the EUC forums. It’s easier if you just watch the video instead of me trying to explain it.

I had a bad start to my morning.  I prepare myself eggs every morning.  Part of that prep is putting a little freshly ground himalyan pink salt on the eggs.  The bottle we had was empty so I pulled out a new one.  I removed the protective wrap on the top of the salt and then popped off the lid to the grinder.  I turned the salt upside down, grabbed the grinder portion and started to turn.  As soon as I did the grinder pulled off and 5/6th of the salt crystals dumped out on top of the eggs with a good portion of it spilling onto the counter and floor as well, I was pissed.

The eggs were not salvageable so I just dumped the pan into the sink and then scooped up the mound of salt with a wet paper towel to throw away, along with the eggs.  I then had to enlist the Dyson to sweep up the salt on the floor, counter and stove top, it was a glorious mess.  With no time to make another set of eggs my breakfast instead consisted of two cherry Pop Tarts, a slice of toast, a small glass of OJ, and a glass of almond milk.  Happy Thursday.

Last night Cindy and I had another virtual mini-golf game on the toughest course so far.  I  enjoy playing and it really does simulate the real thing to a surprisingly good degree.  The physics are spot on and the 3D golf course environments are very bright and unique.  Cindy only played one game with me, afterward I dove off into VR Chat and BigScreen to observe the randomly random interactions and conversations that hit you like a machine gun.

We completed our second to last branch conversion today leaving only this Saturday to go until the weekend work concludes.  I look forward to having weekends free and clear once more.

I had another short Saturday since I had to go to yet another branch for a migration.  Once again the process went smoothly so we were wrapped up a little after 10AM.  Thankfully next weekend will be the last conversion.  Once these are behind me I think I would like to get some time off on the calendar.

When I got home it wasn’t bad as I had already done the weeding on Friday evening.  After lunch we loaded up Sadie and Elsa into the truck and ran a couple errands.  I shot a quick video showing changing the Model Y from hubcaps to alloys.  There was a twist though this time, I 3D printed some white lug not covers to match the car color somewhat and give it a unique look.

Saturday night we watched the new Mortal Kombat movie on HBO Max.  During my younger video game days Mortal Kombat was a staple of my fighting game experience.  I was never particularly good at the game but the gore and violence that was part of it was pretty extreme for it’s time.  Over the years the backstory for some of the characters has been built upon in prior MK movies.  This version seemed to go in a different direction.  I drank a few alcoholic beverages going into the movie, just in case it was terrible, it wasn’t IMO.  I found it fun, keeping my attention throughout.  Even Cindy, who was more skeptical about watching it seemed to like the movie overall, I’d give it a B.

Sunday morning after paying my bills I asked Cindy if she was interested in going out on the mountain bikes for a ride. Despite the temps escalating quickly she said was down with going.  We first rode to the new park which is rapidly approaching completion.  It is going to be so awesome to have something like this a little more than a mile from our house.  Most of the athletic fields look completely done.  They have begun construction or the water park as well.  It actually looks like this will be BETTER than North Collier Regional Park which was my high bar as far as local county parks.  This park is supposed to be finished up sometime in July, Cindy and I can’t wait.

We made an on the fly decision to then ride to Dunkin Donuts for lunch, much like the park, a recent addition to our area.  We ordered on my phone so I could just walk in and grab it.  We enjoyed our food under the umbrella outside.  By the time we got back we both felt like we put some work in.  I was glad that I decided to wear my old padded triathlon bottoms under my shorts to reduce the ass pain penalty this time around.

Early in the afternoon I recorded another video.  This was again just a talking commentary video where I am sitting at my desk and talking about a situation in the EUC community.  For whatever reason these style videos seem to do well on my channel.

After I got done with all of the editing it was approaching 3:30.  I told Cindy that I was feeling lazy, my accomplishments for the day felt very low.  I decided to go out and grab the weed whacker and knock down the property, it was looking ragged around the edges.  By the time I finished up it was almost 5:30 PM, the task took longer than I expected.  The rest of the evening I reengaged lazy mode and was ok with it.  If I don’t accomplish some work each and every day it fcks with my sense of well being.

I’m happy to report I am almost 24 hours post Moderna shot number one and doing ok.  I definitely feel some overall tiredness, I believe the scientific word for it is a general sense of “blah”.  I also had the stitches removed from my face yesterday afternoon.  That too went well and so far, knock on wood, I don’t have any Bells Palsy symptoms popping up.  I am hoping by this time tomorrow I feel 100% normal, until I get the second dose a month from now which I expect to be more impactful. I got home a little early yesterday which was nice, I didn’t have much energy so the night consisted mostly of watching some recorded shows and WoWing it up.

The administration of my first Moderna shot went smoothly.  There were a lot of people waiting as this was the last day for first shots for county employees.  Once my form was filled out and handed in I was pricked and sitting in the 15 minute cool down chair in no time.   For most people, the first shot is pretty uneventful with a sore arm being the most common complaint.  Dose two is often a different story.  My buddy at work got his second shot yesterday and confirmed feeling like shit last night although he made it into work today.  I have heard similar tales from others with that shitty feeling last for a couple of days max.

Today the stitches get yanked out of my face.  I am crossing my fingers no Bells Palsy develops this time around like it did in 2019.  The best part of the double medical procedure schedule is I get to call an early end to my work day.

I was relieved to see the guilty verdict in the George Floyd murder trial.  If there was any other outcome the protests would have been massive and deservedly so IMO.  Hopefully this and other recent incidents are pushing the needle of change in the right direction, despite the Trump era doing all it could to pull it back as hard and as fast as it could.

Tomorrow I get my first dose of the Moderna vaccine and I follow up in the afternoon with getting the stitches in my face removed.  I have some mild apprehension about both procedures.  I would be lying if I said the death of my high school gf after receiving the vaccine was not on my mind.  Granted I am in good health and should not have similar risk factors, still, the little seed of doubt is there. I also keep thinking about the year and a half mystery fatigue syndrome I dealt with which seemingly was timed up with my receiving a tetanus booster shot.

The last time I had stitches removed from my head by the dermatologist the next day I developed Bells Palsy which lasted for about two weeks.  I basically lost control of one side of my face during that time, it was not pleasant. I was lucky it only last two weeks, in some cases it can continue for years.

My expectation is I will emerge from both procedures largely unaffected but there is no 100% guarantee with anything in life, you just hope to fall on the winning side of the odds.

I had a hectic day at work Friday, trying to keep several balls in the air at the same time.  Some of it was related to the migration work we had to do on Saturday.  Unlike the week prior this branch was larger, more than double the amount of staff.  Luckily we also had more hands on deck to help so things went smoothly.  There was an extra chapter of work on this branch as once the migration was done I rewired the network rack which had a cabling nightmare going on.  I cleaned it up the best I could but the layout of components at this branch doesn’t allow me to organize things as much as I would prefer.  I got home right around lunch time.

Cindy did a number of the chores I would normally do on Saturday morning so I had less to attend to when I got home.  I still had a number of things to keep me occupied during most of the afternoon.  Somewhere around four I decided to take a quick ride over to the school to zip around on my One Wheel Pint, a device that has seen very little attention over the last year.  The lack of focus isn’t because I don’t like the Pint, I love it.  The issue has been for a combination of reasons I just have not been setting aside as much riding time as I once did.  With 10 PEVs in my collection that translates into a lot of them sitting unused for long periods of time, like the Pint.

One of my goals was to try a skill someone suggested to me, a slide stop.  Before I got a chance to practice the skill I found myself face down in the dirt.  It happened when I transitioned from asphalt to grass, going down a small decline.  I wasn’t paying close attention to the height of the nose of the board and it dug into the ground, sending me flying.  Luckily the impact wasn’t horrible, my biggest injury was a brush burn on my right knee as the knee pad had slipped down.  The skill came relatively easy to me and is something I would like to use more often as it is a quick, cool, and easy way to dismount the board without doing an awkward, stationary heel lift.

I couldn’t stay that long because we were meeting Deb for dinner.  We again ate at Brooks Burger, Cindy just loves the burgers there.  I could definitely tell that season is shifting as the crowd was not as big as the last time we visited a few weeks back.  After dinner Deb followed us to the house where we enjoyed a desert she baked.  We started watching Synchronic on Netflix.  The girls weren’t that into it but I found it interesting.  We stopped watching it after maybe 45 minutes but I finished it myself later (give it a B)  Deb headed out, it was a nice way to spend our Saturday evening.

Sunday was more conventional in it’s pacing meaning I did the chickens, did my weekly bill paying session and then Cindy and I did an errand run including DD, the post office, and Home Depot.  The afternoon was pretty laid back with minimal housework.  Last night Cindy and I did another round of virtual mini-golf and then I hung out in VR making a quick VR Chat pit stop which was ridiculous as always. I opted into Big Screen where two clearly older men were having a lengthy conversation in the theater lobby before I went into a “drive in” where I watched 30 minutes of Hobbit 3D with a dozen other people.

Late Friday I got a text from Todd with some pretty shocking news.  He told me my ex-girlfriend from high school had died Thursday night.  Evidently she got her first vaccine shot Thursday morning.  I am not sure of which brand.  She had a normal day but evidently died in her sleep that night.  I was stunned.  I haven’t had contact with her for years and we never were on good terms after the split but this still hit me hard.  She has had decades of health problems so she definitely would have been in the high risk category but this still is not an outcome anyone would suspect.  The news instantly made me feel my mortality, front and center.  You just never know when your clock will be punched, better enjoy the moments you have.

It’s a crushing loss for her family and I wish them my sincerest condolences.

So I had been trying to get scheduled for the Johnson & Johnson shot for a few weeks unsuccessfully.  This week they announced they were suspending the vaccine because of a handful of women that experienced blood clots.  The length of the suspension is unknown but when I got a notice that they were doing the last round of employee vaccination with the Moderna vaccine I decided to pull the trigger and sign up.  My appointment is next Wednesday.

I know a number of people that have gotten the Moderna shot.  A number of them have had reactions which typically mimic flu symptoms albeit for only a couple days. This seems especially true after the second dose is given.  I’m not getting the shot because I have concern for myself dying from Covid.  As I mentioned previously I am pretty certain I already had covid back in December of 2019.  I am getting the shot to remove the proof of vax hurdle that will almost certainly be erected around doing certain activities as well as give Cindy some peace of mind.

For as long as I can remember I have dreaded the prospect of old age.  Part of the reason for that is the possibilities of losing your mind along the way, where you forget most aspects of your life and become more or less an empty husk.  When I look at my family history, there seems little chance I can avoid that fate if I live long enough.  Both of my grandparents on my mom’s side had dementia, not knowing who I was later in life.  My dad’s mom had some similar issues as well. The biggest thing I remember with her is how she would call the grand kids by the wrong name routinely.  She would of course instantly correct herself but it happened so often it stuck in my memory.  As my mom got older she quite often would forget things she said recently and tell me them a second time.  Sometimes I would correct her but most of the time I would just let her repeat herself. I now find myself exhibiting some of these characteristics, already.

The calling people/pets by wrong name thing has been going on for a little while.  I will be out in the chicken yard, looking at one chicken and calling it anothers name.  Of course the chickens don’t care but I certainly do.  I have had this weird issue where I can “misspeak” while typing.  This isn’t a typical typo, instead an entirely different word gets punched out by my fingers inexplicably at times. I also exhibit episodes of forgetfulness where I will tell someone something a second time or I will forget they told me something previously.  It’s frustrating and concerning, considering I am only 53 with a potentially long road ahead of me yet.

I think my adult focus on health and fitness has always had an aspect of me trying to change the typical outcome of aging, not only with the body degradation but the mind as well.  I hoped that living a healthier lifestyle than my parents/grandparents would short circuit whatever is the root cause of cognitive decline.  The realization that it doesn’t seem to make one iota of difference is a hard reality to acknowledge.  No I don’t think I will be a vegetable anytime soon but I find myself making conscious efforts to double check my thoughts and words to avoid embarrassing myself day to day. It’s awesome to be old.

This weekend I again will lose half of Saturday doing another office upgrade.  After that I hope to rebound quickly into our normal weekend routine.