167 please hold for the next representative

Hello again.

Deb is back. We didn't know what sort of quarantine to do. Wear masks until she gets test results back? Sleep in separate quarters?

Ultimately, we wore masks for the car ride home, windows down. Then Deb has worn a mask a bit in the house, but not really. And I haven't at all, mainly because I forgot at first, and after an hour together in our one bedroom apartment, if she has it, I may too.

Yeah, it turns out I'm no better than anybody else. Fingers crossed. She's going to attempt to get a test today. About the only thing we haven't done is kiss, which is pretty standard operating procedure around here if one of us is sick. Maybe we'll have those test results back by Wednesday or Thursday.

She says everything in Florida is pretty much open. San Francisco, at this point, seems like we're doing our own thing. I'm really curious to see how these different approaches play out over time. Unfortunately, all of our diligence might not add up to much, considering everywhere else is popping off.

That pony tail will have to make it a few more weeks. Or, you could just drive pretty much anywhere else in the US, and get a haircut. Indoors.

Sure, the musical never went up this year, half of our storefronts are closed, fully a quarter of the city is unemployed, but we're being safe. And long term, we'll see how this works out. Personally, I have some faith that we're on a good path.

There's an old adage, add a teaspoon of wine to a barrel of shit, and you've got a barrel of shit. But add a teaspoon of shit to a barrel of wine, and you also have a barrel of shit.

Seems like an appropriate time to drop this meme.

Or this one.

Oh, if only.

Watching Joe's response to current events is pretty awesome. It's like the person who has heard this really great joke, and can't wait to tell it, but everyone already knows the punchline.

Unfortunately, this isn't funny.

Let me repeat, if you have a gun, get rid of it.

So a line of 600 out-of-town vehicles parades through downtown Portland, shooting paint guns and bear spray out the windows. Doesn't sound like they were looking for trouble at all.

WTF people, do you really want a war with your neighbors? It won't end well. Shit, it won't even start well.

Or better, listen to this guy. 

No, not him.

Really, no, don't listen to him. No!

Noooo...

Oh nooooooo....

"Studying?" What America does he live in?

Seriously. Hey everybody, just wrapping yourself in the flag and shouting "law and order" doesn't make you a good guy. (Watch Joe's twitter for that joke in about two months.)

So I finally got around to watching this video. Fuck. People, cops included, seriously need to get rid of their guns. If two cops with guns drawn are afraid for their lives because someone is going into their car, I can think of several options besides chasing him around the car and shooting him in the back at close range. 

Walking away is number one. Running is also an option.

Fuck. I'm sorry, Jacob Blake. (Yes, I'm aware I'm pulling a Joe here.)

Ok, let's change directions.

With my back fucked up this weekend, I spent some time listening to a podcast with this author as the guest.

I can't say I agreed with him on most of his points, but he does have some interesting ones.

He argues, as Michael Moore recently grabbed onto with Planet of the Humans, that we're not going to be able to alternative energy our way out of this situation. There's just not enough lithium for everything to be battery powered, at least with our current technology.

And we seem to agree on that.

But where I don't hang with him is on his proposed solution. He thinks the thing to do is use more nuclear energy. I think using less energy more efficiently is going to be a big part of it.

Maybe someday we'll get a chance to chat about it.

It's still smokey.

This was yesterday.

It wasn't actually too bad in the city.

But then this morning, I was back to wearing the P2.5 mask. I guess this is the future.

Worry is wasted energy.

We've had 10000 cases in the city so far. Say that's an undercount by a factor of ten, 100,000 and we're still not at 14%. But what if we reverse math based on our death count? We've had about a hundred deaths. At a rate of 0.37% deaths per hundred, that's 27,000 cases, or three times more than reported, but only 3% of our population. Neither of which is anywhere close to "herd immunity" if that even exists.

Well, how's it going elsewhere?

Oh.

Since Deb was traveling, and in direct contact with a Covid-19 patient, we thought it would be a good idea for her to be tested. Call number one yielded a week wait for an appointment. Call number two scheduled a call with our primary care doctor. I'm currently on hold with call number three. It's been 45 minutes.

Walk up testing with two day turnaround? My ass.