Fence

So you know last weekend we were getting buried in snow. This weekend, near record-high temperatures, and I got the little bit of fence between our house and Karl's house done. Looks good.

SNAE!

This is how you know it's Memorial Day Weekend in East Idaho. I mean, usually it's rainy as all get out, but this year being 2020 and all, snow seems appropriate.

The dogs aren't all that happy. I had to give Dottie the boot to get her out the door to pee this morning.

This is the apricot tree that lost a third of itself a few years ago in an early fall snowstorm. I did spend some time in the back yard shaking trees to try to get rid of the snow. It's very sticky.

Also, when I was outside shaking trees I heard:

[Distant snap][Splat]

[Distant snap][Splat]

[Not-so-distant snap][Splat]

[BIIIIIG SNAP BIIIIG SPLAT HOOOOOOONK!]

[Distant snap][Splat]

Still want to go see what got splatted.

Bathroom Project: Almost Done

So close. So very close.

What you see here is a bathroom that needs only the following:

1. Re-painted walls

2. Light floor cleaning

3. Medicine cabinet

4. Towel and toilet paper rack

5. Mirror.

I'm that close. We'll go get new paint in the morning. Might have it painted tomorrow. I certainly hope so. Because I'm utterly sick of this project.

Eleven Blue (or Red) Men

Because the book I'm currently reading isn't really capturing my attention, I pulled Berton Roueche's "Eleven Blue Men" off the shelf for a re-read.

Yes, it's an ironic book to read during a pandemic. For those unfamiliar with Roueche, he wrote a series called "The Annals of Medicine" for the New Yorker -- a series of short non-fiction pieces, set mostly in New York City, about various disease outbreaks over the years.

The one that caught my attention the most this time is called "A Man from Mexico." It tells the tale of an outbreak of smallpox in New York just at the close of World War II that was traced to an American who had been living in Mexico but was traveling through New York on the way to Maine with his wife to look at a farm she's just inherited.

While traveling, the man became ill, an in New York stopped at a dermatologic clinic at a city hospital. The outbreak sickened twelve people with a virulent form of smallpox. Two of them died.

What's striking about this story is the public health response: A mass immunization.

Officials estimated at the beginning of the outbreak, per Roueche, that only about 2 million of the 8 million people living in New York had any immunity to smallpox, due to vaccinations or exposure and recovery.

First, public health officials tracked down more than 3,000 people who might have come into contact with the man and wife -- a search that stretched into 29 states.

Then, a mass immunization program began, with the then-mayor of New York City going to the press to show himself getting immunized.

What was the public response, to an outbreak that was limited to 12 confirmed cases, including two victims? At least 6,350,000 people were immunized, including nearly 900,000 children who were immunized through the public school system.

So when, I wonder, a vaccine for the coronavirus becomes available, what will the public response be? I hesitate to say it will be as successful as this example from post-war New York.

Because the news and social media clearly tells me vaccines are political now. A mass vaccination program -- particularly one that might have been linked to getting injected with cow juice, as one could colloquially put with the bovine-generated smallpox vaccine -- would meet with some stiff resistance among the loonier fringes of society. That would probably include our current lieutenant governor, who is not a stable woman, if you forgive the pun.

You'd have the fringe saying vaccines cause autism. You'd have the fringe saying anything the government wants to do is baaaaad, baaaaaaad, folks. You'd have the even loonier fringe who'd suspect that government vaccine was really putting nanorobots or tracking chips in them. So noooooooooooooooooooooo way, sir. No way.

And you'd probably have people drinking it by the gallon too, because stupidiousness knows no political bounds.

Anyway, some good reading, if you've got the time.

Paint

The paint in the master bath is too yellow.

Nevermind that in most of the pictures I've taken it looks white. It's too yellow on the walls. That's after two coats.

So I guess we're re-painting.

And if that's the only problem I run into in that bathroom, I'll be a happy man.

What's left to do (aside from the paint)

1. Touch up grout on the borders
2. Grout the wall trim
3. Clean the floor
4. Hang the towel rods and toilet paper holder
5. Install the new medicine cabinet
6. Figure out how to replace the mirror.

That's it. I feel pretty good about things. Thought most of this can't happen until the walls are painted. So we'll see when that happens.

So, How Does it Go?

First of all: ahaha.

I thought with the stay-at-home order, working from home, and time freed up since I'm not communing, I'd have more time for things like editing that novel and blogging.

But as you know, round about the time the virus started lolloping through the state like a big bear, we decided to remodel the master bathroom. Not done yet. And the paint on the walls, completed today, may be TOO YELLOW. Send help.

I'm ready to go back to work, not necessarily because I want to go back on the Chernobyl mobile and such, but because I'm tired. That bathroom remodel has taken up a lot of time. Add to that the garden. Oh, the garden. The crabgrass is gone from the raspberries. And the tiller is now in the dumpster at Ace Hardware and we have a new used one I used just this week to prep the garden for planting. That, I'm going to leave to Michelle, as I've still got the bathroom to deal with.

And while it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm really trying not to. The bathroom is close to being done. The paint is a minor issue, given what else we've gone through to get the room to where it is now. Painting would add another day to the project, so not that bad. Still, I'd like to think the only thing I have to do with paint now is touch up, not start over.

Second of all, the stay-at-home order technically expired on May 1. But we're going through stages of re-opening. Stage 2 starts tomorrow, meaning businesses like restaurants and hair salons and such can re-open. All's up in the air as to when we'll get back to work. I keep hearing the word June popping out of the mouths of higher-ups. Part of it is that many of our projects make social distancing a difficult thing to achieve. I keep thinking every Monday when I check in for work that I'll get the message that we're headed back, but that's two Mondays now without the word.

I'm doing about a third of the hours I'm used to, but still getting paid for the difference. When this started six or so weeks ago, they said the Department of Energy had lined things up for this pattern to continue for ten weeks. That seemed like a long time then, and seems like a long time still. I hope things are back to more normal before that ten-week period is up.

The kids, I think, are doing okay. They're both chafing a bit at the social distancing, particularly Isaac, who loves being with his friends. We are winding down home school, though, which is a good thing. Today we spent a good few hours helping Lexie and Isaac with their sculptures for their art class. I'll have to post pictures.

I should say I'm pretty proud of Lexie -- she's earned five merit badges while being stuck at home: Geocaching, Citizenship in the Nation, Home Repairs, Photography, and one other that's eluding me at the moment. Oh yeah. Family Life. That's a biggie. Isaac did manage to squeak out Home Repairs, which is a good one for him to earn. That also means one more Eagle palm for him.

Liam is still doing the mission thing. He's getting more used to working on the church farms in the area, though the wind out there in Osgood is really wearing on him. He started again at Sellers Creek Trek Center this week. He really enjoyed that last summer, so I hope that's a good thing for him.

The Great Bathroom Recombobulation

Barring any disasters, I should be able to start putting the bathroom back together tomorrow.

Still to do:

1. Sealing of the grout. I can seal the grout in the shower area tomorrow morning. The rest will have to wait until Friday morning, to give the grout enough time to dry.

2. Shower fixtures. Should have the rest of the fixtures in by mail tomorrow. Hoping the part I ordered fits. I also have to check for leaks.

3. Painting. Ah, painting. Probably a nice off-white. Should have painted before we did tile, but that's not our way.

4. Before the painting -- wall repair. I have to fix the plaster around the heater, and along one edge of the shower area. That'll start tomorrow, but it won't interfere with putting the bathroom together and getting it back into circulation.

5. Sink and toilet install. I got the holes for the sink drilled today, so the rest should be a piece of cake. Hope I haven't just jinxed myself.

Photos:

Coronavirus: Stage One Achieved

So the stay-at-home order was not extended today. That does not mean things are back to normal; but it does mean we're on the way to how we were.*

What that means in the short-term isn't clear. We had a virtual town hall today at work, and we were told that yes, we could be called back to work with a minimum of 48-hours notice. But as to when that'll happen, it could be next week, it could be a few weeks further down the road. I do know the projects I support are the ones that are least likely to succeed at finding a social-distancing solution, so they'll be among the last to be brought back online. My bet is I'll still be working from home for the next few weeks.

We will be wearing masks on the bus. We will be wearing masks if we can't be socially distant in our cubicles and such. And it sounds like they company's spent a lot of money on automatic faucets, flush toilets, and hand sanitizer.

Further updates as events warrant.

This, by the way, is how I mentally react whenever anyone's coming my way:

I remain impressed with Governor Little. He's had to make some choices that has made the conservative Republicans angry. And that's okay. They deserve to see the world doesn't revolve around them. I'd like to see Gov. Little re-elected, and I'd vote for him just because of his ability to listen to reason during this crisis.

I'm less impressed with the conservative Republicans, who have seen good to use the restrictions for political purposes. Hopefully a few of them lose the primary elections coming up in a few weeks. I've already voted and done what I can to keep them out.

Does that mean I'm politicizing the crisis?

Nah. I didn't like these guys before the crisis.

*There's room here to talk about the "new normal," but whomever thinks we'll go back to anything but the old normal doesn't know human nature all that much.