Volunteering and fund raisers

I got up early this morning to support a cause in what little way I could. The dentist office that Claire works at is being staffed with its volunteer workers to do routine dental work on Veterans who might not otherwise be able to afford the cost of exams, cleanings, etc. I called ahead to Donut Fresh Express to order a “Box of Joe” for the office staff to express my thanks for what they are doing. After dropping it off I noticed that our town’s Middle School was doing a fundraiser by offering fresh Krispy Kreme donuts – a rarity in the northeast. The nearest locations are in Connecticut. I brought a box home for my boys to enjoy.

ASD

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last updated. Things are settling down back into their usual routines. Timothy started in his Senior Year at the Academy for Science & Design. Nashua is still relatively strict – compared to here in Milford – in their COVID-19 policy, so he attends online Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday. Wednesday is a day when he can catch up. It’s a pretty advanced load he’s taking for a high school senior.

Job Corps

Meanwhile Michael has been spending several hours a day focusing on academics remotely with his program at Job Corps. Since he can’t do a lot of culinary remotely, I’ve been having him make dinners most nights. I pull up one of my archived recipes, we get the ingredients, and I walk him through the steps. At first it was a roughly 50%/50% effort, but now he tends to do 95% of the work and I just give guidance.

COVID

We’re in week 26 of “two weeks to flatten the curve” for a hospital overwhelming surge that never happened and tended to put many hospitals near bankruptcy, along with thousands of small businesses around the country. One can tell the news media is getting desperate. If they could lead with deaths from COVID, they would. If they could lead with hospitalizations, they would. Instead they just lead with cases detected. Never mind that even the NY Times says that ~90% of the positive tests cases are likely mistaken because they over amplify the sensitivity of the test beyond what is a normal viral load to get the disease. Since some college campuses have resumed classes there’s been ~26,000+ positive tests of COVID, but not a single hospitalization. Of the deaths with COVID thus far, only 6% have been with only COVID. The rest have an average of 2.6 serious comorbidities with the average age hovering around 80 years old. Sweden – which didn’t do lock downs or mask mandates – has roughly the same COVID death rate as the US. These facts are dangerous and met with “you just want people to die”, appealing to emotion rather than dialog about the fact that we all face mortality risks every day, many more serious than COVID-19.

11

I was surprised the other day that Android 11 was quietly announced. Claire, Abby, Timothy and I all have Google Pixel phones and so were immediately eligible for the upgrade. It’s a big download, well over a gigabyte, and so I recommend do it when you’re on a good WiFi connection. Unlike some updates, there’s only a handful of user visible things and not a lot of change to adapt to. Most of the improvements are “under the hood” as car guys like to say.

California

Between its riots, forest fires, and the summer heat related power outages, I’m glad that my Father-in-Law left Covina a few years ago and moved towards Carmel, Indiana. Not only can my late wife’s sister keep an eye on him and his health, he’s away from many of the things Californians put up with. It amazes me after decades of progressive politicians in charge that it’s not utopia by now.