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.

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