Happy Birthday Patrick!
last update: 10/20 @ 19:28

Sarah and I went to celebrate the birthday of Patrick, from the Pod Squad last night.

In addition to fantastic chili, cornbread, cake and cookies there was Foosball. Nathan v. the world — in this case Pocket.

It was a very fun evening with great folks.

And always astounding to me that such good people came together years ago, in the height of the early Covid days, to help out their neighbors. And that the core group still really enjoys hanging out together.

Patrick has lots of friends — and a recently married daughter — so there were several groups of folks there to celebrate. The Pod Squad took advantage of the perfect weather to enjoy his porch.

(And I feel the need to clarify that I’m a groupie — I did not volunteer for the Medical Reserve Corps to help with education, testing, contact tracing or vaccinations; I am, however, a beneficiary of their work.)

Pod Squad
last update: 04/20 @ 22:23

Apparently, Peep jousting is not universally known.

That was news to us but helped spur us on to a Pod Squad gathering.

Sarah called an educational meeting of the Pod Squad.

Of course, dinner was part of the agenda.

And quite a dinner it was…

Thank you all for the fantastic food (not least the bulgogi Sarah grilled.

Then we got down to the serious part of the evening…

The main attraction was introducing Peep jousting to the uninitiated.

Peeps are on sale now that it’s after Easter, so Sarah made sure we were well prepared.

And someone brough Halloween Peeps to contribute to the games.

In the end, Pocket was declared winner, though Nathan was in it until the very end.

If you have to ask…

Yes, it’s real thing; even getting an article in Smithsonian, proving the bona fides of Peep jousting.

Conspiracy theorists may note that article is written by a Sarah Z. But not our Sarah Z., not THE Sarah Z. so just move along now…

Birchmere!
last update: 02/02 @ 22:45

We got back to the Birchmere!

Maybe this whole Covid thing is getting better. Or maybe we’re getting blasé. The Birchmere wanted to see vaccine or negative Covid test at the door. And generally folks were well masked when not eating.

And, it was Marc Cohn!

A great evening, lots of fun; great show and a feeling of getting back on our feet after yet another Covid variant.

Robert was busy with Ultimate Frisbee but maybe next time he’ll be able to join us. The Birchmere really is a great venue, even when the smoke machine is turned up to 11.

Done with this
last update: 06/09 @ 20:31

That’s 450 days of data. The 7 day moving average has been in the single digits for weeks now. I’m no longer obsessing. I think we’ve finally turned the corner and I’m looking forward to wider travel soon.

We are extremely lucky to not have had any close family or friends severely impacted. And now that we’re all fully vaccinated, we’re feeling pretty good about getting back to normal.

But I still wear a mask inside the PTO building when I’m not in my office (no longer required for fully vaccinated folks).

Smoking in the backyard
last update: 05/31 @ 10:42

Robert and I got out the smoker for the first time in a couple years. The weather was a little damp so our beach sun shade will remind us of this day :)

With the 7 day moving average of new Covid cases in it’s longest streak of single digits ever, we enjoyed spending time with some Burgundy friends and some of the Medical Reserve Corps folks Sarah has been volunteering with.

It’s starting to feel like things are beginning to think about possibly getting back to normal.

And it’s about time.

Finally…
last update: 05/14 @ 23:27

I spent a lot of time last summer and fall waiting for the seven day moving average to drop into single digits. I thought that would be a sign of things getting better.

It’s not been this low since July Fourth, and that was a tiny blip. I really hope this trend holds.

And, after a year, it’s really odd to walk around without a mask. The CDC said fully vaccinated don’t need to mask up in most cases. I walked to work today with a mask in my pocket, and it felt really strange.

Here’s to continuing that downward trend and getting back to normal.

Looking up
last update: 04/02 @ 22:55

I got my first shot on Wednesday. Robert is scheduled for tomorrow. (Sarah is has been fully vaccinated for weeks now.)

So we’re starting to make summer plans.

Finally.

After a year…

Catastroversary
last update: 03/16 @ 22:47

Not unexpected: Alexandria has now provided a full year’s data for this chart. The city’s version lets you hover on any date to see the numbers. This version is just a snapshot.

The bad news is the current direction of that line. Hopefully the upswing is just more noise in the data and will drop down and start to look better.

There are better data sets to look at now, hospitalizations was the second big metric after new cases. Then percent of tests which were positive; the latest (and most optimistic) data set is percent vaccinated. All generally better measures (especially as testing started out very slow) of the situation than this chart of new cases. But this data set now goes back a full year. Hopefully we’ll feel a lot more like pre-Covid before there is a year’s worth of percent positive data, and well before a year of percent vaccinated is interesting.

Still in it…
last update: 02/21 @ 17:31

I should have added a photo like this a while back. As the recommendations have improved, Alexandria seems to have done a good job at paying attention.

I think the dining outside, spread out, started to be allowed last summer. Alexandria decided to close off this block of King St. to open up more space for that.

As the weather has cooled, the tents were moved in. We’ve rarely tried the tent dining, preferring take out, but this seems like a reasonable approach.

Of course, we’d love to see the vaccine fully rolled out and the pedestrian block stay so we can enjoy more outdoor dining with the pandemic behind us.

Still looking at this
last update: 02/15 @ 10:45

I stopped posting this chart last fall because I kept waiting for that 7 day moving average to drop down and stay down below 10 new cases a day. It kept looking close.

But then the fall wave really hit and it sky rocketed.

Now at least it looks like we’re going back down. But that 10 new cases per day is still a long way away.

I know new positives is not the best measure now, and artificially high compared to a year ago as testing has become much more available.

And it’s great that the vaccine is rolling out; thank you Sarah and the volunteer Alexandria medical corps working the PoDs (place of distribution).

It’s looking better, but seems like we still have a ways to go.

Giving Thanks
last update: 11/29 @ 18:39

This Cornoavirus year, I’m thankful for a happy, healthy family. Our nuclear family is doing fine; school and work are generally treating us well.

Our extended family is almost all well; some troubling news from the west coast. But overall, we’re doing very well.

Thankful for a lovely meal, with contributions from each of us. I am quite fond of Robert’s cornbread. And the Turkey Sarah pulled off is great!.

(Present tense because with just the three of us, there were plenty of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers.)

Thankful to see Robert fully licensed (provisional) as a driver. He and I took a final check out drive together on Friday to complete a program with our insurance company to give us a small break on teenage boy car insurance rates.

He’s cautious and aware and will be fine on his own. But we’re not getting the WRX STI rally race Subaru…

And thankful for a beautiful set of vacation days. Robert was biking on the mountian bike trail, Sarah getting her five mile walk around town and I was having fun mostly staying warm enough on the river.

Now if we can get that vaccine out and stamp out this virus, we’ll have a really great 2021!

It’s like this see…
last update: 09/28 @ 21:57

One of the options at Great Farms is the pumpkin cannon.

So, it’s not really a pumpkin cannon, it shoots smaller gourds.

But it’s no less impressive…

… and the sight works pretty well.

We each got several shots.

And managed to hit many of the targets we tried to.

And just the loud strong, thump or twang was great fun.

Nothing like a shooting a huge air cannon to blow off some steam after months in pandemic surroundings.

And, yes, we’re still in a pandemic.

This was outside, socially distant and we were masked gunners.

Lost in the maze
last update: 09/28 @ 21:56

Sarah found a opening at Great Country Farms yesterday.

After spending most (not all) of the last several months at home, we jumped at the chance.

Not only did we get to pick and bring home a bunch of tasty apples, we got to enjoy a lovely day outside.

Including, getting lost in the maze.

Well not really.

We did split at one turn and Robert and I went left when Sarah went right.

We lost sight of her and she ended up getting much more into the maze than we did. To be truthful, she did it right.

Robert and ended up coming out the entrance, not on purpose, just by accident.

Continuing Crazy Times
last update: 09/25 @ 10:56

We’re a couple weeks into the new school year. Robert has opted for a green screen background so he can take classes from a variety of locations: star destroyers, McLaren F1 cars and Minecraft villages.

School is clearly less fun at home. But they are buckling down, getting new material covered and the kids are learning.

Truly crazy times!

Of course this graph remains interesting and important. Clearly much better than the spike early on, but it seems very stubborn about dropping much below about 20 news cases a day. I’m sorry that June / July dip didn’t continue down.

Some of the current thinking is that if the positive test rate gets below 5%, it may be time to think about school in person again. We’re not there yet in Alexandria. The city provides that data monthly by zip code: 5.6% to 20.3% in August. (We’re fortunate to be in the 5.6% zip code.)

And democracy can’t stop. This is a presidential election year — fortunately, Virginia has lost its swing state status so we’ve been spared much of the advertising.

With questions about how well the Post Office can deliver ballots (and a personal concern over my illegible signature) along with no question in who I’m voting for, I followed Sarah’s lead and voted early, in person and in mask today.

Alexandria has the best “I Voted” stickers!

Back to news of the season
last update: 08/24 @ 19:33

I keep looking at this and hoping and expecting to see more of a downward trend. Instead, it seems like a noisy plateau that we’re having a hard time getting below.

I hope to see that change over the next week or so. But I know we really need a vaccine before we can think about getting back to normal.

Meanwhile, we’re reading between the lines of what Robert’s online school will be like this year. The end of last year was not great — but a lot better than some surrounding jurisdictions.

Another Coronavirus Birthday
last update: 07/26 @ 13:57

Robert invited a couple friends over to play video games. We’re sorry that Will was under the weather and missed out.

It’s early yet, but possible that there will be some of the sub sandwhich left by the end of the day.

The kids seems to happy to have a chance to meet in person, even in masks.

And the gaming is going well.

Maybe Robert will leave a comment here about who was the overall winner…

Wrong Way
last update: 07/22 @ 21:31

We seemed to be doing really well and then…

I know, it’s still noisy data. But still.

I’d really like to see it at least flat if not going down. That current trend is clearly the wrong way.

Summer School
last update: 07/18 @ 18:56

TC requires all graduates to have taken Economics and Personal Finance. That’s a good thing for folks joining adulthood and having to manage their own finances, bills and savings.

But it’s not a super hard class.

And it does take some time.

So Robert, and many of this friends, have decided to take it on-line during the summer school session. That will free up a slot for a more interesting and fun elective (Robert — and his parents — is hoping for culinary arts).

And he’s working through the class extra fast in order to have next week free for the NASA / Wallops internship.

But, as Sarah was out running an errand, he decided to get fully geared up while taking the class to check out her reaction to his new look. No, this is not really a reaction to coronavirus; just a way to make a less interesting class a little more interesting.

Porch Portraits
last update: 07/05 @ 11:14

Sarah saw that Joseph Edwards, Single Eye, was doing Porch Portraits as a way to document these crazy, coronavirus times.

He came by Friday evening and we had fun posing for the camera.

But we really enjoyed visiting after the pictures were in can.

Joseph was Robert’s sixth grade teacher so there was a lot of catching up to do.

We got the scoop on how Burgundy is doing with remote education and what their plans are for the coming school year.

And, as Joseph has kids younger and older than Robert, his parental percpective was also fun to plug into.

In these socially distant times it really was a treat to sit and talk with someone outside our “pod” about how the world looks from a different perspective.

I don’t think we realized (I know I didn’t realize) how visitor starved we were. It was great fun to have Joseph stop by. I know we will enjoy the photos for years (expect to see some of his work in next year’s tax day letter), but the immediate time spent chatting was an excellent break from our lock-in norm.

Not total lock-in…

Robert enjoyed a birthday party yesterday (Khaleel has the best birthday for a party). And then he joined his friend Will on their family’s boat to watch the fireworks last night.

He said it was a great day!

Sarah and I enjoyed a dinner outside of Theisman’s, which seems to be getting better after the change in ownership a year or so ago.

Currently looking good…
last update: 07/02 @ 23:12

This looks good today (and for the last couple days).

I continue to be impressed with how Alexandria and Virginia have done with the crisis. I expect to see that average go up a bit more, but I hope not like it was a couple months or so ago.

More crazy times…
last update: 07/02 @ 17:19

Alexandria, along with the Commonwealth of Virginia, has moved into phase 3 of the post Covid-19 world. Things are opening a bit more but folks are still generally on edge.

The Federal government, OPM, is still strongly urging telework for all who can. PTO has started to ease the mandate for telework and is allowing some folks, with good reason, back into the building.

I made the case that I have a good reason and was allowed in this week (my request for next week was approved too late so I expect to be teleworking next week).

They have said the building could have up to 25% of normal staff provided no shared work spaces. We’re fortunate to generally have more offices than cubicles.

But it’s pretty eerie to be in that big a building with so few other folks.

I saw one worker bee on my floor, and I only saw him on Monday.

I’ve seen the guards both at the entrances and walking their rounds.

And I appreciate seeing the custodial staff on their rounds as well.

Clearly nothing like 25% occupancy this past week — of course with the holiday weekend, it would be more lightly staffed anyway.

There are signs up all over the place: the entrance doors note masks are required, the elevator lobbies have footprints 6 feet apart and reminders not to touch the buttons, the stairwell doors remind you to keep 6 feet apart and note that the handrails get disinfected daily. And the pantries have a full set of what to look out for, how to wear a mask and how to wash your hands.

It is going to seem really odd when the atrium is full and loud again.

Maybe looking better?
last update: 06/02 @ 22:50

Still a lot of noise, but that trend is starting to look good. Sarah was volunteering at the call center during the cities recent free testing events on Memorial day. I think the results of that additional testing has all been collated now to so that makes this look even better to me.

I’m going to continue to think those two high days Thursday and Friday after Memorial day stem from that increased testing.

Crazy Times
last update: 05/28 @ 11:18

In these crazy, stay at home times, we’re very fortunate. We’ve each set up a work space of our own.

Sarah has the most experience having been teleworking at HUB for years before this latest, full-time, all-the-time telework order.

She has her spot in the living room (currently also the train room as Robert has rediscovered the joys of complex train layouts). He never saw the N-gauge track I had in Richmond or the plans his paternal grandfather had for the basement of their garage in Seven Devils.

And you can see one of the birthday balloons — they are hanging in well — and Robert’s head way back in addition completed just about two years ago. (Excellent timing for the extra and lovely space).

Robert has more physical paperwork than Sarah and I and some has taken up some space next to his desk. (The drawers are full of other important things.)

And his allegiance to home town teams is clear.

Often he’ll work on school work to a soundtrack from his phone. This photo is from one of the times with only one set of headphones on. You’ll have to ask him to explain why he often needs two.

And I have the office that came with the house, in the basement. I don’t always have these two companions, but Sarah got this great picture when they were both camped out with me.

I’ve adapted to the full-time TW by following as much of my old routine as possible. I’m on the clock when dressed for work (but my work shoes are still in the office), and off the clock when I change back to my more casual clothes.

In addition to the good timing on the addition, I finally decided to drop the theoretical benefits of DSL for the bigger pipe possible with cable Internet access. Our commercial cable connection is serving us well and easily supports the three video calls often going on simultaneously.

As I said, we are very fortunate.

Odd Birthday
last update: 05/23 @ 11:21

To celebrate without our traditional Los Tios sombrero, Robert harkened back to my dad’s 80th and declared we should have balloons strewn about the place.

I thought big balloons would be fun.

But I didn’t realize how big big could be. These were huge balloons!

And the expression on Sarah’s face when she came down in the morning was great; we almost bowled her over in surprise.

And speaking of surprise, Robert thought to sneak her gift, two wooden Red Line metro cars, into a balloon. Before I realized how big these were (including inflation collar), I thought that would be impossible.

However, that was the most unique wrapping ever!.

That pink balloon in front of Robert has the two train cars in it.

While Sarah was volunteering at the health department, answering calls about the coronavirus and I was working in my covid-19 basement office, Robert baked Sarah this great cake with both dark and milk chocolate frosting.

And note how it’s surrounded by the train cars.

Not completely obsessed…
last update: 05/15 @ 23:12

Too early to tell.

But, we have a new way to pass the stay-at-home time:

Night badminton with the cool LED shuttlecocks that Sarah found.

The neighbors (best neighbors ever) put up a badminton net. And Sarah found the LED shuttlecocks.

So…

… Our new way to pass the time while we wait out the coronavirus.

Virginia is starting to re-open, except for our part. But maybe the chart is starting to trend the right way for Alexandria… Check back in a week or so.

Topic of the year…
last update: 05/03 @ 11:47

Like everyone else, I’ve become obsessed with the Covid-19 stats. And Alexandria has been announcing new cases (and much less frequently, deaths) for several weeks now.

Every time I think the chart is starting to trend the right way, there’s another spike.

All the usual caveats apply: testing is still much too spotty to really know what’s happening. And new positive tests (and confirmed related deaths) may not really be the best measure of how close we are to passing through this crisis.

Flyover
last update: 05/02 @ 19:51

We decided to try the Washington National Airport parking deck to see the flyover today. That worked well — we were not the only ones but it’s a big space.

I’m not sure this is really the best use of federal government dollars in the current situation. But no one asked us so we enjoyed the beautiful spring weather and the show.

And yes, we kept our distance from others and wore our masks as recommended by the scientists.

Afterwards, we came home to read books on the porch — continuing to enjoy the great weather. But we’d really like to venture further afield and get back to more favored outdoor activities.

Strange Times
last update: 03/24 @ 22:28

No more live music for a while.

We did watch an online concert by the viola duo from our recent group muse.

We’re getting used to being home all day (some outside exercise is clearly in cards, especially as the weather gets better).

The impact the novel corona virus and covid-19 is having and how long that impact will be felt is really hard to understand.

These are some very surreal times.

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