Life in Silly Valley

Our county 'Shelter-in-place' order has been extended through May 3 (the previous order would have ended April 7) . Schools are closed until May 1, but rumour has it there will be an official announcement cancelling school for the rest of the year. I don't understand why we have these end dates at all - are they based on actual evidence? Or is it just psychological - to give people the feeling there is light at the end of the tunnel. And it is so confusing - the Governor has issued an indefinite stay-at-home order. One would think the orders from Governor of California would outweigh the County order, but why then does the County issue new orders? I read somewhere, can't find where now, that if the guidelines are confusing or have conflicts, people are less likely to adhere to them.  The new order from the county is actually very clear - it specifically bans going to any public recreational facility (parks, tennis courts, playgrounds, etc.), it limits any kind of game...

Today the air was full of flying ants. ThingTwo and I found the source and watched as strange white ants pushed the winged ants out of holes in the ground to start their ' nuptial flight ' to build a new colony. Many didn't get far - the surface of the pool was covered in drowning winged-ants. A disconcerting reminder of expendability and decimation in nature.  A strange phenomenon is taking place - while on the one hand we as a family are settling into this new existence and finding the days are getting calmer, more routine, the news from the outside world gets more grim by the day. While we try to minimize any chance of getting infected, I can see complacency setting in. Are we perhaps not washing hands as much as we were a week ago? Touching our faces more? We ordered food in last night, something we'd decided not to do. But I guess we are sticking to the main principle - we haven't been within six feet (2m) of anyone outside the family for two...

Today we got a postcard from President Trump. I guess the best way to get a message out as quickly as possible during a pandemic is snail mail. I shouldn't scoff - I know there are still people out there who don't have access to TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet, text. Is there a possibility that the use of federal funds by this particular administration to send 130 million postcards with this particular wording during an election year could be seen as political? As usual the country will be split - 50% will think it was an effective use of taxpayers money, and 50% will think it was federally-funded campaigning for re-election.  I was trying to picture the former president making such an inelegant move, and wondered if in fact there could be a legal or procedural challenge to the sending of such mailers. Turns out there is recent precedent, though in an upside-down sort of way.  Dating back England in 1660, franking privileges enable certain government officials to...

A new board game arrived today. Something new today - I thought I'd try and capture what the day is like each Friday, to get a picture of life during these strange times.  By Friday the schedule has got a little lax and weekend-like. The kids wake up and get themselves breakfast around 8am. We have milk and cereal again so that's good. Then the kids head to screens for a while - not the usual school-day routine, but I'm letting it go for now and I really don't feel like conflict. Sometimes showers happen, sometimes they don't. Both kids are embracing PJs-all-day. It is possible that there may not be underwear changes - I need to check up on that! Around 9-10am they transition to school work. Both schools were already using a lot of online tools such as google classroom and schoology so the transition to distance/online-learning has been pretty smooth. The school district had a couple of scheduled times where you could go pick up a laptop if you didn...

 My experience of the health system in the US has been mixed. I have had a couple of medical issues over the last 18 months that have required timely attention. The doctors, nurses, facilities, and administrators have all been excellent. The doctors have been able to order procedures and tests when they want, and I have had minimal wait times. For example, in December my doctor decided I should meet with a surgeon. I got an appointment with the surgeon in early January and then we scheduled the surgery for early February, not because he couldn't fit me in sooner but because he wanted a slight delay while certain medications left my system. On the other hand, understanding and dealing with the health insurance has been confusing and dispiriting. Mr Husband's TechGiant company pays for extremely comprehensive private health insurance. We have a relatively high deductible (we pay the first $4,000 of our medical expenses each year) but after that, everything is 'free' (or...

Distance learning. As the virus escalates around the world, the same patterns of response to the crisis and accompanying fallible human behaviour seem to be playing out over and over again. I'm hearing from family and friends about life in Canada and the UK - it seems like the UK is about a week behind us (lockdown March 23 vs. March March 16 here in our county, March 19 for all of California) and Canada maybe a little further behind (schools closed March 17 but not in complete lockdown at the moment). Here is the typical pattern of response: Social-distancing phase Before the surge. Low numbers of cases, first few deaths. The country's politicians seem to think their country is immune to the problem or that they will try some novel method (e.g. the 'herd immunity approach').  Travel bans introduced to keep nasty foreigners out, but citizens of that country allowed to re-enter from all over the world with little or no testing at the borders.  Public gat...