Thursday 4/2/2020

Another day of, basically, waiting around for the market to call with the grocery order. About 10am I was bored and went for a walk.

Yesterday I mailed to the CH writers’ group that I would like to find some beta readers for my novel. One person, Susan, came right back with the email of a grandson, Declan, 14. I emailed him yesterday and this morning he wrote back enthusiastically, so I sent him the link to the book. He’s just on the upper edge of the target reader ages, but hey. I will get some feedback. A few more of those and (assuming reactions are not uniformly negative, in which case I’d just pitch it) it will be time to start querying agents.

Today was the day for cleaning my apartment, but we continue to not have housekeeping staff for that, so as usual I got a big plastic bag of fresh linens on my doorknob. So I made up the bed. The carpets really need vacuuming.

Later we got an email blast from CEO Rhonda:

in normal times, it is very difficult to hire Nursing Assistants. And, now, it is next to impossible… Several housekeepers have volunteered to join the Crisis Heroes Team as Nursing Assistants…
In taking on this role, these housekeepers are expanding their skills and contributing at a critical time to Channing House…

One of the results of these reassignments will be fewer experienced housekeepers to do apartment cleaning. So, … We are requesting residents to join the resident DIY (Do It Yourself) Housekeeping Team. ,,,

we will provide a housekeeping kit which will include a vacuum cleaner that can do carpeted and hard surfaces, cleaning cloths, cleaning solution, and rubber gloves. These kits are for you to keep during this crisis. They are not to be shared with other residents

I volunteered right away. Later I heard there were 87 volunteers. I am sure CH doesn’t have 87 free vacuum cleaners… would they go out and buy them? Well, we’ll see.

In mid-afternoon I watched the National Theater production of One Man, Two Guv’ners. I put it on the big screen and it looked and sounded good. I’d seen a production of this at Palo Alto Players a couple of years ago, and in hindsight the local players were almost as good as the pros.

At 5:30 I called the market again, and it turned out my order had slipped through a crack somehow and “we’re working on it right now.” So Craig drove me down there in his red Prius and brought back three bags of stuff. I spent half an hour in the common dining room/kitchen area, wiping everything down with bleach solution and setting items out around the table with their order forms.

In the course of all this I missed the delivery of my supper. Rather than call and have it specially delivered, I treated myself to a delicious PB&J&cheese sandwich and some of the seedless grapes that came in my order.

 

Wednesday, 4/1/2020

Ordinarily I’d go for a run on Wednesday right after breakfast. But I assume I will get a call from Edgewood market asking for my credit card number to process my order. I don’t want to take that while jogging. So I hang around the apartment until lunch: no call. Then I call Marcia; oh, she got her response 24 hours later. So probably not today at all.

So I went for my run after lunch. Then I worked a while on a different remote desktop manager, Chrome remote desktop.

I didn’t even mention yesterday, that in the afternoon I tried a remote desktop manager recommended by Vanessa, our new CH IT director. That was TeamViewer. It worked well, although it required a fairly complex install procedure on the target (confused elderly user’s) system as well as the tech person’s. So today I tried the free Chrome extension.

Actually it works just fine in the Brave browser, which I’ve been using lately. That’s the Chromium technology, without the whole reporting your life back to Google part. I was able to see and control the desktop of my MacBook from my iMac, just as with TeamViewer. But like TeamViewer it required a moderately complex install process on the target machine. Also required the client to start it on the target and read a 12-digit number to the tech.

In the afternoon, I got an ad from Humble Bundle. I have bought software and books from Humble Bundle before; they are the “pay what you think is fair” software outlet. This bundle was a huge collection of games and books to benefit COVID-19. For $30 I could have over 25 games. OK, then.

So now my Steam account has like 35 games in its library, about 30 of which I haven’t tried yet. Surely one or two will be really engaging?

I finished Dear Esther. It was easy to do; just a very picturesque, beautifully rendered, walking tour of a complex landscape, while a narrator read evocative and strange letters to a woman named Esther. Nothing was really resolved, but soooo atmospheric.

Then I tried out the alphabetically first new game, Alien Spidy. It is about this just adorably cute little spider running around and scoring points and avoiding traps. So cute. Also so impossible to do. This needs a kid’s reaction time. I couldn’t get through the tutorial. You have to combine hitting the spacebar to jump while simultaneously using the mouse to shoot web strands to swing over obstacles. After about 50 tries I gave up.

 

Tuesday, 3/31/2020

One thing I did this morning was to go down to the garage and run the car. Well, I went twice. First time, I stopped in the lobby, informed the desk person what I was going to do, so she would know it was legit to buzz me back in from the garage — i.e. I would not be violating the single-entry protocol. So down to the basement level, through the four heavy doors to the garage, and realize… that I didn’t have the car key.

Prior to two weeks ago, I always had the car key in my left front pocket. But then, realizing I wouldn’t be driving anywhere soon, I put it on the desk. So. Get buzzed in, up to 6, walk the hall, get the key, back to the first floor, explain why I am going to the garage again. Sympathetic laughter from the desk person. Back to garage. Car seems fine, but I start it and let it idle 5 minutes.

Next I explored the question, can I sanitize paper in the microwave? I distributed all these grocery order forms. Tomorrow morning I will collect them from the clipboard in the lounge and have to amalgamate the order. Later I will be getting checks from all those people. In each case, paper that has been handled by others. I read the virus is detectable on paper for 2 or more days. Chinese banks are using UV light on money and also letting it rest for 14 days.

Now, detectable is not the same things as infectious. What is detected is the RNA, but that doesn’t mean it was part of a functional virus. Maybe the virus degrades but leaves its RNA guts behind. Also, it is highly unlikely that any of my 6th floor neighbors are infectious. But you can’t be sure! So I would like to definitively sterilize the order forms and the checks. Obvious idea: microwave them! Would it work? Consulting the googles produces a lot of contradictory answers. Nobody has done the research to really know.

Lots of people pompously state that obviously not, because microwaves only heat water molecules. That’s not true; microwaves act on polarized molecules, which water is, but also most oil and some sugars. I ran a little test. I don’t have any oil on hand, but I have some very oily peanut butter. So a dab of peanut oil on a piece of paper towel, zap 2 minutes, that oil got very hot and smelled burnt. Microwaving clean paper towel only heated it very slightly.

A virus is composed of lipid molecules wrapped around an RNA strand. Lipid molecules are strongly polarized, that is exactly why they can be assembled into a spherical coat. Microwaves ought to heat the lipid molecules, and that would destroy the virus. That’s my ignorant common sense analysis. So my plan is to pick up the order forms wearing gloves, and nuke them for 4 minutes before handling them.

Yes, I know about the woman who microwaved money and it burned. Currency has metallic stuff in the paper and in the ink. My order forms don’t. Oh, ya know, though, the MICR characters on the bottom of a check are magnetic. Hmmmm…. nope! I just microwaved a blank check for 1 minute on high. It got slightly warm to the touch but the numbers did not start glowing like the letters on Sauron’s ring — which I had kinda hoped to see.

Next thing was to investigate Remote Management software. We clearly have at least another month of not entering other apartments, so can we do remote tech support? In an hour I learned a lot about the Remote Desktop Protocol and remote management clients. I netted that out in an email to my tech support buddies, Bert and Craig.

After 7pm I collected the order forms (with gloves on), and nuked them.  This had the amusing side effect of erasing the room numbers I had written on them a Frixion erasable pen. As I learned last year, the erasable pen erases by heat.

I assembled the order, it added to just 30 items, and emailed it to the address at Edgewood market using the same email format that Marcia had used the day before.

Monday, 3/30/2020

Went for a run; it felt fine. Saw only maybe 8 other people on the whole route.

Took a tech support call. This is very frustrating because I can’t go to the person’s apartment and actually touch their computer. If it was a laptop or iPad, I think it will be valid to meet in the floor lounge, wipe down the device, and me to play with it while they watch and talk from a distance.

Unfortunately, Judy has an iMac. And she thinks she’s not getting email. She uses the Mail app, which I don’t. (I’ve been using the Gmail web interface since I first got Gmail, when was that? Thank you Wikipedia, beta in 2004, and I believe I applied for and got a beta invitation, so: 2005. Thus I have 15 years of saved mail in Gmail folders. Not about to start using the Mail app.)

So I have to talk this patient and willing, but not very computer literate, person, through trying to diagnose her mail problem, if she has one, on the phone. It wasn’t clear that she had a problem, because I sent her an email and it showed up soon after. We checked her Junk and Trash folders. So I was baffled.

Then I worked on the grocery shopping thing. I went to the lobby and asked if it was alright to use the copier, assuming it would be — but it wasn’t. So back to my room to print 12 order forms. Distributed them. I put an order date of Wednesday on it, so I have another day to collect info. The question will be, whether to use Edgewood Market and their more personal service, or to use InstaCart to order from Molly Stone’s. I’m waiting for reports from other floors’ shoppers.

In the afternoon, 6th floor resident Gwen asked why she hadn’t heard about the shopping? Because I overlooked you in making my spreadsheet, is why. I apologized and she was nice about it.

After supper I played Dear Esther another half-hour, unlocked a new chapter. Then to the normal TV. Late email from staff adds two new restrictions

Spouses of residents in the Lee Center [our nursing/assisted living facility] had been allowed to visit until now. We had made this exception for the well-being of both parties. We are no longer allowing this exception. Effective today, no residents may visit the Lee Center for any reason. Risks continue to increase and we are no longer willing to take this risk.

In addition, staffing is now being scheduled so that there will be no floating of staff between the levels of care (Skilled Nursing, Assisted Living, and Independent Living).

We met with the leadership of Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s (PAMF’s) Geriatric Practice today. We discussed our protocols for isolation, donning & doffing PPE, and our readiness for telehealth. They were complimentary of our preparations and knowledge on each of these topics.

 

 

Sunday 3/29/2020

Quiet Sunday morning of course. Felt nostalgic for the various coffee shops. And restaurants. Two weeks into the real isolation, and already it feels like a long stretch. Or as I heard one podcaster say recently, “It’s been a month since Monday.”

Speaking of the virus: today the worldwide count topped 700K, double the number from last Monday, so a doubling time of 7 days. Next stop, 1.4M on Saturday 4/4.

At 10:30 I started on the task I’ve been, um, blessed with? To manage group grocery buys for our floor. I started by calling all the apartments on the floor and asking each if they were interested in ordering grocery items, and if so, what kind of thing?

Partly this was an exercise in lowering expectations. To the two people who said “Pizza!” I said, no, we aren’t doing hot food, but people are using Uber Eats and DoorDash. A couple of people mentioned things like hand cleaner etc. To them, the message was, Channing House is (supposedly!) organizing some kind of ordering system for OTC pills, sanitation stuff, etc., and please hold on for that.

But by the end I had 11 people who are interested in ordering sodas, fresh fruit, tea, and the like. I said “start making a list and I’ll check back, probably Tuesday”. Later I realized what would need is a form. Not a web form, and not email because at least a couple don’t reliably do email. I pictured a simple form, with space for the room#, a list of items, and columns for quantity and cost. Here is the latest version: 6th floor shopping order. I made a stab at this using TextEdit but that was useless. Switched to Pages and it went very easily and quickly.

What I figure to do is, print one copy. Write the order date on the top. Down to the lobby, use the CH copier to make 11 copies. Back to 6, slide one under each door. People fill it out and turn it in. Where? OK, I have a nice aluminum clipboard, I’ll put that in the lounge.

On the day I’ll amalgamate an order, putting it in on my credit card. When it arrives, break it down and sanitize the items in the floor dining room, and pile the ordered items on top of the forms. People come and (keeping distance!) pick up their pile. Leave a check (in an envelope, where it sits for 48 hours!) payable to me. I have a couple volunteers who’ll help with that process.

Well, that was fun. Evening, I found a new YT channel I want to follow. I watch more YT that real TV these days. Well… why not?

 

Saturday, 3/28/2020

Did a little desk work. Paid the Hyatt Card bill that includes $1200 for my ten nights in a London hotel. Which made me think how lucky it was I scheduled that trip for those days. Well, not luck; I scheduled it for a gap in the women’s basketball season, so I’d be back in good time for the post-season games. Hah. But if I’d put it even two weeks later, I might have been quarantined on return.

Also looked at, and then filed the Road Scholar info booklet for the trip to Switzerland that starts June 10th. I have paid for this in full. I deliberately paid for it in full so that, when it is canceled by Road Scholar, I will get the money back, either from them or from the insurance coverage. Half of the payment was covered by the $3000 credit I had from late re-booking of the Greek trip last fall. This is my sneaky plan to maybe get that back in cash.

Well, now I just wait for Road Scholar to admit the obvious — that Switzerland’s virus load is the same as everybody’s, and the peak of the curve won’t be seen by June (more likely, July IMO) — and cancel the trip. Or admit that there’s no non-essential international entry allowed into Switzerland. Whatever, I believe cancellation is inevitable. What will they do then?

Realistically, they are going to try to get their customers to accept rescheduling. I do not want to go to Switzerland in October, thanks. Maybe next year in May? That might be acceptable. Failing that, they’ll want us to accept a full credit, to be redeemed for some other trip at a later date. I’ll think about it. I can sympathize; if enough people insist on cash back for virus-canceled trips, Road Scholar could go bankrupt.

But now I’m also playing a game of chicken. I have not booked the air travel for the trip. I expect it to be canceled, why would I book a flight, and then have to cancel that, and have to recover from the airline? But if I put off booking the flight too long, its price goes up. So I figure I need to book a flight no later than 30 days before departure, which would be the 8th of May. Every day past that, my air fare goes up — air fare that I expect to have to try to recover after canceling. If Road Scholar still hasn’t canceled the trip by the first week of May, I am kind of compelled to book the flight. Well, that gives me all of April to not worry.

I played another hour of Dear Esther. It’s kind of a non-game, having no traps or puzzles, other than figuring out where the different sheep paths on the island lead, but it’s very impressive to look at.

In the middle of the day I learned (via a Reddit post) that the Yale course, “The Science of Well-Being” was available for free. I posted that to CHBB, and then signed up for it myself. It looks to be covering pretty much the research results that I summarized in my book chapter on happiness, with some exercises and maybe some more recent results. After I signed up, I did the first week’s lessons and readings.

Before supper I went for an hour walk. After supper I streamed a concert by Voices of Music. This is a local classical group that Marian started us on season tickets for. I last attended a concert by them on Day 1.017. Now, of course, their concerts aren’t happening, so they streamed the latest one: a musical biography of Leonardo da Vinci, the music he would have heard during his life in various cities.

Late, I learned I’ve been nominated the 6th floor person for doing online shopping. I will work on that tomorrow.

Friday, 3/27/2020

After breakfast, I went for my run on a nice, partly-sunny, 60º day. It was most pleasant and I felt strong.

Back in the shop I did more of what I’ve been doing. I must be getting over 100 emails a day, the bulk from CH people. The number of political emails has dropped sharply from pre-virus days.

In the afternoon I spent an hour with a game, Dear Esther. It’s a very quiet game; you walk through an extremely pretty and gorgeously rendered island, just looking at stuff and listening to strange voices on the sound track. Nothing to find or pick up, no puzzles to solve. Kills an hour or three.

At 4 it was time for Rhonda’s phone meeting. Notes:

• Last Friday, 3/20, was when the building was closed to a single entry and screening started. We have turned people away for high temperature, including some staff, who are being monitored at home.
• Wednesday we started meal delivery and after 3 days we are getting the kinks worked out.
• New protocol: no staff other than nurses may enter a resident apartment without permission from Rhonda, after having been trained in all safety protocols.
• Social distancing now should include one person per elevator (it was three).
• We have challenges getting some supplies: masks, hand sanitizers, etc. We have centralized and locked down all supplies. We’ve requested more from SCC.
• Soon a hand-wash station will be outside the building. Everyone entering now must wash hands (and staff will mask up) before entering. Staff must wear masks when in public areas.
• Some staff shortages but not severe yet.

Questions: Care packages from relatives? Yes, ok.

Apartment cleaning once/month as previously announced? Yes, staff are being trained in safety protocols about entering apartments, and we will start the once a month cleaning as planned week of 4/6. But we do have staff shortages in that department and schedule may be modified.

How reliable is the ear temp test, it reads low, 92, 93? (I’m always 96.5 or so when I come in.). Nursing staff set this up and has been doing some training. We have detected high temps and kept people out. We are trying to get the infrared thermometers but they are hard to get.

Shopping, are people going out to stores, post office? We can’t make you stay in but we do not want you to go to those places. We are working on a process to do group shopping, that was to be ready today but isn’t. Stamps: we can weigh envelopes at the front desk and sell stamps. Prescriptions waiting at Walgreen’s? If it can wait a couple of days, we should be able to pick up for you.

Parking/garage: we have obtained parking for our buses off-site, which adds a few spaces in front. But in response to several questions, no, we aren’t changing the single entry policy. No re-entry to the garage.

The call ended just at 5, and I switched over to streaming a concert from SFJazz, in their new Fridays at Five series for members. For fun, I did what I hadn’t done in over a year, connected the TV to the laptop by HDMI and got the big screen and decent sound. Ironic, because I went to a lot of trouble, last year, to acquire a rebuilt older MacBook pro with the HDMI port, which newer ones lack; and this was the first time I used the port.

 

 

Thursday, 3/26/2020

Another quiet day in Quarantinia. I got my weekly distribution of linens and made the bed. More reading Query Shark, and something there made me rearrange a couple of sentences in what I thought was my well-honed query letter.

I went for a 3-mile walk before lunch. I started to look at the games I had set aside in my Steam wish-list. The way to get a feel for a game is to go on YT and look for tutorials or walk-throughs. Watching a gamer play the first 20 minutes of a game tells a lot about it. On that basis I removed two games from my wish list. They’d sounded fun in the Steam storefront, but when played, they just did nothing for me.

In the afternoon, read a book for fun.

In the evening, the daily update from CH staff had the news the The Vi has 9 cases now. That’s a facility much like CH in size and clientele. They had five, yesterday. The same update had a new policy:

…effective immediately, we will be placing any resident who returns from the Hospital (including Emergency Room) or Urgent Care on a 14-day isolation/observation… If any resident on a 14-day isolation needs to leave his/her apartment in an emergency situation, they will be provided a mask which is to be worn before leaving the apartment. The resident will be followed by a housekeeper to disinfect the area of travel.

This may sound very extreme. However, after Rhonda participated in a conference call today which included updates from an Executive Director at a community in New York that is similar to Channing House, she came away even more determined to do EVERYTHING we can to keep COVID-19 out of Channing House. Our inconveniences are nothing compared to the daily battle that is being waged in communities across the country with active COVID-19 cases.

Another thing: currently every person entering the building has their temperature taken. Every afternoon about 5, a postal worker comes and spends most of an hour in our mail area, delivering all the mail. So, this:

The US Postmaster has issued a letter to LeadingAge, our trade & advocacy organization, confirming that postal workers cannot be subjected to the same temperature and health screenings that are required of all other people who enter the building. This is a nationwide policy which LeadingAge is challenging on behalf of all Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC’s), Assisted Living & Skilled Nursing Facilities. First, we urge you to avoid direct interactions with the postal worker while he or she is here. Second, wait for the housekeeper to disinfect the mailroom before you pick up your mail.

So: a little bureaucratic cat-fight between the Postmaster General and all the County and State health agencies, with us in the middle.

 

Wednesday, 3/25/2020

Today was the inaugural of our room-service food delivery. Here’s breakfast.

As I requested on my menu form, 3 pancakes, fruit, apple juice. Arrived about 8:20, so they started in my half of the hallway first.

There was an issue with returning up the dish. The instructions were clear that we can’t leave the dish outside our door for pickup. (Why? That isn’t explained.) We have to hang about until the server arrives with a cart to collect, somewhere in the 1-hour slot following our delivery slot, hence, 9:30-10:30. That’s a pain; they hadn’t arrived by 10 and I was itching to get out and do my run. I walked down the hall with my green container and found the server at the other end, just starting.

The lunch was delivered in disposable paper containers, and nobody stopped by to pick them up. I gather I was to just trash those.

Then at supper time, I was absorbed at my computer and failed to hear the knock on the door. So there was a paper slip under the door, cutely saying “knock knock?” and giving the extension to call for delivery. That was my bad.

Late in the day, there was further CH communication on food delivery. Surprisingly, the green containers are in short supply. We are asked to rinse ours and return them. There was also a phone/email talk by CEO Rhonda, mostly responding to her hearing some residents refer to the current restrictions as “arbitrary”. She said in part,

I’d like to explain that each change implemented has been far from arbitrary. We are receiving notifications daily… from various agencies including the Public Health Departments for the State of California and Santa Clara County. We study these updates carefully, discuss … the implications of any necessary process changes, then we change our operational processes in order implement the guidance… we are also planning for practices that will be deployed in the event that we find ourselves with a case of COVID-19.

… as a reminder, Channing House is licensed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and California Department of Social Services (DSS). A CDPH Surveyor stopped by for an unannounced visit on Monday to ensure that we were implementing the guidance and directives that have been issued. She was very pleased with what she found. … In addition, I spoke with the Santa Clara County Dept of Health yesterday and they are also very pleased with all the safeguards we have in place.

A side note, The Vi, our cross-town rival, has gone from having two cases, to five.

In the middle of the day I spent more time on agent info collection. I found Query Tracker, a site specifically designed to assist authors in the tedious and complex search for an agent. I looked up all the agents in my spreadsheet and set up my Query List. I’ll be able to track the submissions and replies there. Although in truth, I could have done the same thing in the spreadsheet, if a little more clumsily. What Query Tracker has, though, is author comments on each agent, as well as aggregating statistics on how many rejections and acceptances each has and their response time. So by using it to record my submissions and responses, I’m helping build a dataset.

Something triggered my memory of boogie woogie piano, and I looked up one of my favorite players on YT. That was so invigorating (it was because I was playing boogie woogie at high volume that I didn’t hear the supper time knock) that I decided to share. I put a link to one performance on the CHBB list with the subject “Hump Day Boogie Woogie”. I got several thank-yous, so I will continue that as a weekly series.

 

Tuesday 3/23/2020

Hey, ya wanna see the prettiest little graph? From the Johns Hopkins virus dashboard.

Like that? That, folks, is what the Moore’s Law exhibit at CHM looks like. The world is entering the jet-powered vertical climb part of an exponential curve.

Here at the senior center, we got our new meal instructions at lunch. We get a weekly menu showing what’s on for breakfast lunch and dinner each day. You can cross-out any item you don’t want. Turn that sheet in at the start of the week. Your meals will be delivered to your door.

The CH Writer’s group met via Zoom at 10:30. Thirteen people at the peak, all women except me and Peter. Smart women and good writers, mostly. They had been given a “prompt” and most had prepared a short piece based on it, and read it aloud. I was a late addition and didn’t have anything to read. I made appreciative nods and noises. The meeting logistics went quite well, although the first half hour was mostly people working out how the interface worked.

Later I read more Query Shark; but I am feeling pretty sure my current query letter is as good as it can be. In the morning at the usual 4am or so — I think I have my bladder to thank for my best obsessing spells — I realized there was a logical hole, or more aptly a needless complication, in the climax of the book. And worked out how to fix it. In a semi-dream state I actually heard the characters say the dialog that would fix the problem.

I had also been increasingly aware that, since most agent submissions ask for a few, 5 or 10, pages from the book, that my opening scene needed a little tightening, a bit snappier dialog. So in the hour before the meeting, I fixed those two things: polished the opening scene, and rewrote the climactic confrontation with new dialog.

After lunch I went for a 2-mile walk. Saw maybe four other walkers. We all avoided each other.

When picking up my take-out supper for the last time, I got the detailed instructions on the new meal system. Meals will be delivered in specific time slots, for the sixth floor those being 8:15, 12:15 and 6:15. Pickup of the trays is one hour later. One must be in one’s room when the server knocks. Staff won’t enter any room; you have to come to the door and take the tray. Or it goes back to the kitchen and you can call to arrange a later delivery.

This is going to force a change in my routines, mornings especially. I can no longer go for a run early. I have to be here at 8:15 (possibly later; it remains to be seen which end of the long hallway they will start at). So henceforth I will go out for exercise more like 10am, every day I guess, to run or to walk.

So it goes.