reminder to self

Not counting exposure to respiratory viruses, it is 16 times deadlier for me to drive downtown than to take the train.  Plus 5x as bad for the climate.

By next month I should be taking the train to the condo again, except for when I'm transporting something bulky [like a music keyboard if I ever upgrade the keyboard there].

I'd kind of forgotten that Metro existed -- haven't needed to think about delays on the Red Line in over a year.

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Deaths/mile, commercial airline flight safety is best, followed by train, bus, then car, with car by far the worst.  For the climate, train is best, followed by carpooling (3-4 people), bus, plane, with solo car driving a bit worse than flying.  I'd worked this out back when I was deliberating about how to travel to Chicago for work.  Ideally train, but train service outside of the Northeast is glacially slow in the US, generally taking twice as long as driving a car straight through.

As I cannot fly a commercial flight to the condo yet, taking the train is best for safety and climate.  This kind of thinking used to be automatic for me.  But then COVID.

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B ended up spending the night here after all, as we were all too busy to drive him to Metro until after 6pm, and by then he wanted to have dinner & wine with us.  He said last night he'd go home for work today and then return.

By bedtime my arm started hurting where I got the shot -- more than a typical flu shot hurts, but so far less than the horrible shingles vaccine.  I already lifted weights this week, so I can wait to lift again until after this pain subsides.  I may still go running this afternoon and do yoga tomorrow.  The pain in my arm means the shot is working! -- my immune system is going after the faux COVID spikes and the cells that are making them.  Before it started hurting I was wondering whether I'd received a dud.

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Time to get up and eat some donuts from York :-)

Democratic Governors give up on COVID

Right now, the states with the highest rate of COVID cases:

Michigan (D)
New Jersey (D)
New York (D)
Connecticut (D)
Rhode Island (D)

All Democratic Governors.  Without Trump to blame, Democrats have given up on trying to stop COVID.  And they certainly aren't blaming themselves.  Michigan is surging especially badly, but NOTHING is closed in MI, although there are capacity restrictions and mask requirements in certain respects.  For example, indoor dining, bowling, casinos, and movie theaters are limited to 50% capacity.  I mean, how different is 50% capacity from a normal day in a lot of these places?

We're still averaging nearly 1,000 deaths per day in the US.

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Two arguments for continuing to follow your state and local COVID restrictions even though you personally might be fully vaccinated:

(1) The vaccines aren't perfect, you could still catch and spread the virus.

(2) To avoid creating envy among the still-not vaccinated -- solidarity!

It's still an academic question for me, for another nine days at least.  I'll certainly continue to follow mask, capacity, and social distancing requirements, but I'm concerned state and local governments have lifted too many of these requirements too soon.  With cases on the rise again we should be adding to the restrictions, not lifting them.  And all along I've been making up my own mind as to which activities to engage in, I've generally restricted myself more than the law requires.

But Bug is not in charge of the rest of you.

Friday night at the house

Just me and T at the house tonight, B is delaying his return until tomorrow.  So we're having sushi delivered :-)

I worked until 4pm, then took a nap.  I rarely nap on Fridays, usually I'm excited to get out of the house ASAP so I can start my festivities at the condo.  But I'm taking it easy while my body fights with my first COVID shot.  If I were at the condo I'd be fasting this evening so I could play with toys -- but I don't think fasting makes sense if I want my immune system to build antibodies.  Public Health Friend said drinking some alcohol would be fine but not fasting.  I'll probably return to the condo for toy play next weekend?

I ran 3 miles this afternoon, for a total of 10 miles this week.  Also lifted weights earlier this week.  Will probably stretch and do yoga tomorrow.  Might also go on a hike with T, B, and Dax if that's happening.

The excitement of this week distracted me from reading my Book of the Week on China, but I'm reading it now, and I will continue reading it tonight and tomorrow.  Started with geography, now moving on to philosophy and religion.  It's a short book, I should be able to finish it by Sunday.  I'm not sure what my Book of Next Week will be yet.

I think B closes on his house next Friday, but the sellers want an extra month before they move out.  With the restrictions on evictions right now I don't know that I'd have agreed to allow the sellers to stay in the house beyond closing, that could turn into a nightmare.  But I'm one of them lawyers, so my job is to worry about contingencies like this, heh.

Sushi is almost here!