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comment by goobster
goobster  ·  1226 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: November 18, 2020

Welp. Washington State is on full lockdown again for at least 4 weeks. Time to leave social media entirely! :)

Projects:

- The deck building company fired their designer, and sent out another designer to work with me yesterday. Should have full elevation plan and pricing by the end of the week.

- I've restarted the project to remove all the old forced-air heating ducts in the house, now that my tennis elbow is less painful and I can wield a pry bar again. (for a bit)

- Removing the ducting has shown where all the downstairs heat is going... out through several uninsulated walls.

- One of those walls is in my bedroom. So I am in the process of ripping off the wallboard, insulating, and installing EVP vinyl flooring on the wall (for that woody-cabin-look).

- Also reorganized the entire storage room with my wife, to bring her elliptical trainer in from outside, since the weather has gotten very shitty.

- And replaced all the overhead lighting and bad wiring in the storage room, so now we actually have quality lighting so we can actually see things in storage, rather than having to use a headlamp.

- Awaiting the arrival of our new microwave/air fryer/induction countertop oven thingie. Hoping it does at least one of those things well...

- Awaiting the arrival of my first synthesizer, the Behringer Poly D

- Got my home recording set up organized well enough that I can just sit down and record something when I want to. (Posted about that yesterday.)

- Work projects are ramping up, but my company had an all-hands meeting the other day where they say they are going to continue working from home through April... which will probably mean June, because that makes more sense for people with kids, etc. And once the offices do re-open, the only people in the office will be the few who MUST be in the office for business/job reasons.

- Called off all the holidays with my family, due to the COVID spike and lockdown. My wife, housemate, and I will have our first holiday season together... despite the fact she has lived with him for 12 years, and I've lived here for 5 now. We are probably going to order out rather than cook, since we all normally cook.

Finished watching Ewan MacGregor's latest motorcycle trip, Long Way Up and now I want a Rivian. (Apparently Amazon has decided to move away from the ubiquitous Sprinter van, and standardize on a custom-designed, Amazon-branded, Rivian-built truck, and has placed an order for 100,000 of them. That experience should be VERY helpful in ensuring the Rivian is a fantastic road-worthy vehicle... and the price is right, too.)

Can't wait for January 20th.





WanderingEng  ·  1226 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My family seems to be in agreement with calling off the holidays. My parents are pretty reasonable with taking COVID seriously, but I’d worried they approach the holidays as “yes pandemic, but...” When I talked to them two weeks ago they offered up that a gathering was unlikely. Which is good! They’re 73 and don’t need the exposure risk.

_refugee_  ·  1225 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ugh.

I wish my mom could see outside of our family situation enough to realize that we should cancel our holidays. My brother has already cancelled his Christmas trip.

As of right now I am still traveling to meet them next week. My family situation right now a great case example of a situation where the public guidance directly contradicts the private family’s desires; with a dying grandmother you can understand why everyone feels there are very poignant compelling reasons to gather, however it’s also very clear that this is exactly what they’re saying people shouldn’t do.

I will not be surprised if things get worse by next week and travel bans begin to go up.

I don’t know. I am retaining my right to reconsider my decision at any point in time up until I leave. I know how much it will mean to my mother if I am there. She needs all the support she can get right now.

I have a lot of misgivings.

goobster  ·  1226 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fortunately, my sister is a well-respected expert in elder care and dealing with various types of dementia, and she lives with my parents (74 and 84). So their household is VERY strong and diligent about COVID mitigation.

I just wish they didn't have to be.

uhsguy  ·  1225 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Im actually worried that its not locked down enough. The only thing that really changed is that gyms and restaurants are closed. Its unclear to me that they were major vectors. I think we will need to do more to stop exponential growth.

Thanksgiving is recommended to be canceled but I dont know how many people will follow guidelines with no enforcement i fear cases will explode anyway.

goobster  ·  1224 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Two of the places I go to regularly for take out (coffee shop and restaurant) are both closed because staff got infected.

There are only two other places I go outside of my house... another coffee shop/bakery, and the butcher shop...

Phooey.