Saturday 01/09/2021

I really did nothing today except read and walk. I took a moderate walk in the morning, circling back hopefully to where the farmers’ market should be, but it still isn’t operating. And a shorter walk in the afternoon.

At 4:15 I went down to the garage and met Patty, and we drove in my car to Armadillo Willy’s to pick up orders for me, Patty, and four other people. When I got my order baby backs home I was amazed at how much meat I had. Plus I had ordered a portion of their chili which proved to be delicious. But by the time I’d eaten three ribs, half the chili, and one of those delicious corn muffins I was full. Now what will I do with the leftovers? I think I will cancel my dinner order for tomorrow, and maybe lunch as well.

Friday 01/08/2021

Started the day with a standard walk. That done I sat down with my giant spreadsheet and entered the numbers from the accounts that comprise the Nest Egg. My combined investments ended 2020 just 2.5% down from the end of 2019. So I still have plenty of money.

At 11:30 it was time to watch the Stanford Women take on the Oregon Ducks. This was nominally a home game, but of course the team can’t come home to Santa Clara County. The game was played at an arena in Santa Cruz, CA. The Ducks kept a narrow lead through the first half. In the third quarter (after a no doubt inspiring half-time talk from Tara) the Cardinal pulled themselves together and took a lead of a dozen, and then hung on against Oregon to win by a handful.

At 7pm I got a call from Laurie. A couple of days ago she had put in a request to the tech squad for help with an iPad. I had investigated. Her problem was that sometimes, the iPad would, on its own, change to inverted text, white on black. At least, in the Mail app which was what she mostly used. With some research I learned that an iOS device had several Accessibility options that would give inverted text. I made sure all of them were off. The iPad wasn’t misbehaving then, so we called it a possible fix.

So tonight it had gone back to inverted text. I met Laurie on her 9th floor lounge and spent 15 minutes exploring. Some googling brought up the term “Dark Mode”. Hah. More investigation. Yes, most apps seemed to be in Dark Mode, which involved inverted text. And more googling got me to the Settings for Display & Text, where it turns out the damn thing had an automatic switch to Dark Mode from 7pm to 7am! There didn’t seem to be any way to turn that off, but I could set a different schedule so I set it to go to Dark Mode only between Midnight and 3am. Fixed!

Thursday 01/07/2021

Did the aerobics at its new time, 8:15, which was more comfortable, and which attracted a couple more people.

Then did a few things. Paid a bill. Created the next week’s meal delivery volunteer signup sheet, and after Marcia had filled in the regulars, advertised it. And over the afternoon, dealt with five emails from people who had filled in their name in the wrong slot or filled it in twice. Took a long-ish walk. Tidied the apartment in advance of Wanda cleaning it at 2pm.

And went to bed early to make up for last night’s late watching of the government.

Wednesday 01/06/2021

Went for the usual walk, and another walk later in the day (4.6 miles).

Spent most of the day watching the doings in Washington DC, and then until late watching the Congress continue.

However in the midst of watching a mob in the Capitol, I forgot about the 2pm RA Executive Committee meeting. So that was bad.

This was a day that I had been dissatisfied with the choices for dinner and had scratched it out. Rather than send out, I made an entirely satisfactory meal with bread, mayo, cheese and grapes.

Tuesday 01/05/2021

Did the aerobics. Veronica has agreed to change the schedule of the aerobics class from 7:30 to 8:15. She agreed with Michele and me that it might get more people. I’ll like it because there isn’t really enough time to read the paper and do my puzzles before 7:30.

At 9am it was time for the 3rd and final lecture by Stephanie Trick and her husband, this one on blues and boogie-woogie. It was excellent, and at the end when Stephanie ripped into a couple of boogie numbers, and then finished doing four-hands with Paolo, I was almost crying it was so good.

Next up at 11am was the writers’ group, and I read the the thing I’d put together in some haste last night. It got rave reviews. People really liked it. A couple people took the trouble to compliment me on it later in the day, one in email asking for a copy, and one who passed me in the hall. So I’m going to put it in here.

Remember, the assignment was: a conversation with Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings and endings. From the Wikipedia entry I got the lovely story that Janus was never built a real temple like the other gods. He only had an open courtyard whose gates were always open when Rome was at war (most of the time) and closed when there was peace. And today, nobody knows where the Janus courtyard was. That gave me material for the first few paragraphs, setting the scene. Then I had the problem of, what would an old two-faced god want to talk about? That required more deep research in Wikipedia.

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A scene based on several Wikipedia entries

The narrow Roman alley ran in deep shadow between plastered walls, the gloom partly lit by afternoon sun reflecting from the white stone of the upper tier of the Colosseum where it peeped over one tiled rooftop. I had completely lost sight of my group and the cheerful umbrella of our tour leader. I decided to cross the cobbled way to the better lit side, but one step from the curb and I heard the annoyed squawk of a Vespa horn from the left and a yell of “Fouri dai piedi” from the right. I jumped back, tripped, stumbled, staggered, and fetched up against a wooden wall. I leaned on it to regain my balance and the wall began to rotate inward. It was a gate, not a wall, turning on primitive hinge-posts, yet smoothly opening to… what? Well, none of my business. I looked for a handle, a latch; I scrabbled on the heavy timbers to pull the gate closed again; but it continue to swing until it fetched up against an inner wall of smooth stone with a thump.

I was facing a narrow courtyard perhaps 20 meters deep and only a little wider than the gate. The walls and floor were of finely shaped stone blocks. It was open to the sky, and I could see that the stucco walls of apartment houses on each side were blank; no windows looked down into it. The opposite end was closed by… was it another gate? The air was cool and the sounds of the city were muted. I took a few steps into the place, wondering briefly if there might be a bench where I could sit and collect myself.

“Is it war again?” asked a baritone voice.

I jumped and looked around.

“I see no war in Italy tomorrow,” replied a tenor voice.

Both voices seemed to come from the same direction, somewhere near a deep niche in the wall to my right. I came closer and saw the head, well, heads of Janus sculpted in … I drew closer … quite amazing detail. The artfully curled hair; the elaborate beard of the left-looking visage; the beauty of the beardless face on the right. In the blue shadows it was impossible to tell; was that only stone? Hesitantly I reached out to touch the sculpture when the voices spoke again.

“If there is no war…” said the baritone,

“The gate should be closed,” said the tenor.

“It is the law,” they said in chorus.

Both voices had definitely come from the niche before me. I wasn’t quite certain whether stone lips had moved in the shadow.

“I’ll close it, but, forgive me,” I said, “Only when I leave. I’m afraid of being shut in; there’s no handle on the gate.”

“Have no fear,” said the tenor; “I see you leaving soon.”

“You are dressed poorly for a rex sacrorium,” said the baritone, censoriously.

“I am not he; I am only here by accident. I’ll restore your peace in a moment.”

“I prefer the wartime,” said the baritone; “with both gates open and all Rome passing by.”

“You can like war because you only see the fallen bodies,” said the tenor, “I have to see the blows about to fall.”

“It’s all fresh in front of you,” said the other; “All possibilities. You don’t have to watch the decay, the funerals, the grief.”

“This is interesting, but do you never…” I began.

“I see the cruelty, the bad choices, the mistakes as they form,” said the tenor. “I scream ‘Noooo’, and then they are past me, and new ones are growing.”

“So delicate you are,” sniffed the baritone. “I dwell in the aftermath, the damage, the scars, the regret, which stretches forever.”

“But can you never see the moment?” I asked.

“The what?” said the tenor.

“The now?”

“The what?” Said the baritone.

“I understand your real significance,” I said. “You are perfect exemplars of what the Buddha taught.”

“Who?” The voices asked in chorus.

“Well, the Emperor Aurelius, then. He said much the same.”

“I remember Aurelius. The gates were open for most of his time. Parthian war, ah…” rumbled the baritone.

“The point is, the future doesn’t exist…”

“I see it,” snapped the tenor.

“And that makes you a god. But does it make you happier? I think you already said not.”

“The never-ending stupidity, like a cold drizzle in the face…” muttered the tenor.

“It’s worse for mortals,” I said, “We see nothing, and if we hope, we suffer disappointment.”

“The past is reliable,” said the baritone.

“The past cannot be changed.”

“It can be regretted. That is what I do.”

“So, Aurelius (and that other chap you wouldn’t have met) came to the conclusion that to be emotionally attached to either the future or the past, was to be enslaved to a heartless master.”

“Then all are slaves! I see it!” Said the tenor voice.

“Perhaps a few escaped…” said the baritone, uncertainly.

“There is a thing you, god that you are, cannot see, called the present. To live in that, they say, is freedom.”

“You describe a space where what I see coming,” said the tenor, “changes, becomes…”

“Becomes what I see fading,” said the baritone.

I began to walk toward the gate.

“The moment of true action…” said one voice,

“The moment when probabilities resolve to fact…” said the other.

I pulled the gate away from the wall; it came smoothly on its ancient pins.

“We cannot see it!” Said both voices.

I stepped around the gate, pulling it toward its jamb. As it settled into place I might have heard a crack of stone breaking.

Monday 01/04/2021

Checked the radar image on weather underground. Just at 8:30, we were coming out of one band of rain, and the next was well off-shore, so I headed out for the usual walk. At the end of it, I stopped at the CVS on University, because a neighbor had asked for a favor.

They don’t get out that much, and his wife wanted a particular brand of eyewash, “TheraTears Sterilid Eyelid scrub”. Paul hadn’t been able to find it online. In fact it looked as if the version she wanted to replace, was being phased out in favor of an “antimicrobial” version. But he thought CVS might have some on the shelf.

CVS on University didn’t, but while I was in the store, I pulled out my phone and went to cvs.com where you can actually check stock on an item. As I showed Paul later, of the 20 or so stores in range of our zipcode, every one showed “Out of Stock” with a single exception. The CVS in Midtown, a mile down Middlefield, had “Low Stock”. So I finished my walk, got in the car, and drove down to that store. There were two bottles of the stuff on the shelf, next to the new antimicrobial kind, so I grabbed both.

After lunch I began to think about tomorrow’s Writers’ Group. I really should produce something, I’ve skipped a couple. The cue is, “A conversation with the Roman god Janus”. After reading the Wikipedia entry for Janus I put together a nice opening paragraph or two that got me into the conversation, then stuck. Well no problem, I’ll have all morning. But a check of my calendar and, damn, I have the third and last lecture on 20th Century Piano styles by Stephanie Trick from 9 to 10, and the writers’ meet is at 11. So after supper I went back to it, and finished it some kind of fashion. If they like it I’ll post it here tomorrow.

Sunday 01/03/2021

I slept almost to 7am, unusual for me. After reading the paper I decided for once I’d be early enough at the Baylands to park, and was down there looking for parking at 8:35. There were a couple of open spots. That hour, there were more joggers than casual walkers. I walked for an hour.

I returned via California Avenue where I parked such that I could access one of the bakery stands without passing many people. I bought an almond croissant and left to enjoy it at home.

That was about it for the day. At 3pm I watched the Stanford Women have a harder time than they should have had, putting away ASU. They let the Sun Devils come within three points in the third quarter before pulling away again to win by a dozen.

Oh. Yes. There was news, in the form of an email about noon, quote,

This is to notify you that we have three staff members and three Lee Center residents who have tested positive for Covid-19. We are issuing a close contact advisory to Assisted Living and a general exposure notice to Skilled Nursing residents and staff. For Independent Living residents and staff, this is a courtesy notice, as there was no known contact at Channing House with these individuals.

Our Covid-positive residents are being moved to the Covid wing today where they will be under the constant care of our nursing team. Responsible parties for these residents have been contacted.

Almost weekly we get staff with a positive test, but the last three times, the staff person(s) have not had contact with residents. Now, and for the second time, some staff members in the SNF/AL side brought the virus in and given it to residents. The previous time (I think it was August or September?) there were four residents infected, and two died.

The virus is out there in the community at large, and so are our staff, out there circulating in their communities. It isn’t as if they didn’t know; there must have been 25 or 30 staff members (more probably) who have had 10-day home-stay vacations after positive tests. Every staff member has to be aware of, indeed must have worked alongside, somebody who got infected and had to isolate. But they keep coming in, infected.

Saturday 01/02/2021

I decided to go for a longish walk, wrapping around (as planned last week also) to the farmer’s market for a yummy pastry. I went four miles and ended up at the proper place, but again, no market. It’s the real year, how come no market? Sad.

I finished futzing with the dashboard of the model. Here is how it looks (sorry, a little out of focus) when held in the body where it will live eventually.

That “chrome” paint around the two big dials is crap, I gotta work on that. I had some “transparent red” paint and just two tiny drops on the chrome panel looks perfect, just like red jewel lights on the real thing. What you might ask, is that black hole on the left? I do not know. It’s in the model and the model directions, but every MG TC that I find online (and there are dozens) has a chrome passenger hand-hold at that point. Not a chrome-ringed black circle.

Later in the day I got a package from eBay. A couple weeks ago, trying to photograph Jupiter and Saturn, I was frustrated with my lens. Not enough telephoto. I found a used, Nikon 500mm mirror lens on eBay at a reasonable price and bought it. Here is a picture I took with it just before sundown.

Again, fading light on a hazy day. But hold up your thumb at arm’s length; that’s how big Hoover Tower looks from the roof of Channing House. And The Dish is a couple of miles beyond it.

The Nikon lens came in the original black cylindrical leather case. Unfortunately the leather has badly dried out with lots of fine cracks and some chips out of the edges. Not to worry, I googled “restore cracked leather” and it isn’t that hard to do. I ordered some stuff and will restore this vintage (not that old, maybe 10 years?) leather case. Oh boy another project.

Friday 01/01/2021

In the morning, the standard walk. And an hour of work on the TC dashboard. Then came our fancy holiday lunch, which I did not like at all. There was a generous slab of salmon that was ok, if somewhat dry, but the vegetables were grossly overcooked, and there was a crab cake that was just unpleasant and a salad that was bizarre. I am less and less a fan of our relatively new head chef.

After lunch it was time for an online concert by an artist I’ve been a fan of for years, Marian Call. Just a half hour later, it was time for Rhonda’s open meeting. Rhonda (Channing House CEO) always opens this with a statement of important issues and events, then opens it for questions and discussion. The latter part can run long, and this time I left the meeting after an hour of Q&A, in favor of watching Stanford Women’s Basketball playing Arizona. Arizona had a few points of a lead for the first 3 or 4 minutes of the game. Then Stanford defense clamped down and Stanford opened up a 20-point lead and held it the rest of the way.

Anyway, I am going to turn the rest of this entry over to Rhonda, with a lightly edited version of her description of how we all got vaccinated this week. I am just so proud of the Channing House staff for pulling this off, and it’s a great story. So everything below is from Rhonda’s remarks:

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We entered this year with an especially big dose of hope as Channing House was one of the first retirement communities to receive the Covid vaccine earlier this week, on December 28^th and 29^th. I would like to take some time today to give you a little look at the work behind the scenes that made this happen.

It was early October when Long Term Care Communities were advised to begin the registration process with the CDC in order to receive the vaccine by the end of 2020.

I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes at this. I did not believe it possible that the vaccine would actually be approved by the year end, let alone distributed. Still, Yadira, our Administrator in Training, attended the online meetings to learn more about the plan. She reported that there was much to do and that we needed to be very timely in our submission and our follow up.

Yadira spent nearly a full week attending webinars on the registration process and navigating her way through a very complicated CDC registration system. Once confirmed there, she was able to start the process with Omnicare CVS in early December.

I was still skeptical. So much so that when I was copied on e-mails of Yadira’s correspondence with Omnicare CVS while she was on her scheduled time off in early December, I responded to Yadira and told her that I was sure that this could wait until her return to work. (As an aside, we are regularly encouraging one another to truly disconnect during our time away. Which can be especially difficult during these times.) But, Yadira responded to me that she really felt that it was important to keep this ball rolling.

I am here today to admit that Yadira was right and I was wrong. And, for that I credit her with getting us to the front of the line in the vaccination distribution. This week, we have been receiving e-mails from various trade organizations and regulatory agencies encouraging retirement communities to dedicate a person to this registration effort and its follow-up communication to ensure that they receive the vaccines in a timely manner. I read these e-mails with gratitude for Yadira’s perseverance from October through December to ensure that was happening.

Still, our contacts at Omnicare CVS reported that we would likely have the vaccine available to us in late January or early February. We operated to that expectation until Wednesday, December 16^th when Yadira received communication from CVS that we were tentatively scheduled to receive the vaccine on Monday, December 28^th. So, we quickly shifted our attention to everything that needed to be in place to make that happen.

In addition, we had received communication from Santa Clara County Public Health that our Lee Center staff could start receiving the vaccine at the Public Health’s clinic on Thursday, December 17^th. So, we were also working on getting that communication out to staff and helping them with that registration.

Yadira and Izveth, our Director of Nursing, began receiving many questions from residents about the consent forms. [the forms are really complicated and badly designed — DEC] So, Elizabeth, our Social Worker, was added to the team to help residents prepare for Vaccination Day.

On Saturday, December 19^th, we received confirmation that the Omnicare CVS onsite clinic would be on the 28^th. And on Thursday, December 24^th Yadira received information from Omnicare CVS that they were adding a day to our Vaccination Clinic due to the number of people participating. So, word went out to residents and staff on Christmas Eve, changing the schedule for Vaccination Day of Monday, December 28^th to Vaccination Days of Monday, December 28^th and Tuesday, December 29^th.

Because James [Alvarado] has coordinated previous flu shot clinics, he took on the coordination effort for the Covid Vaccination Clinics. He developed the schedule and coordinated with the resident volunteers to ensure as smooth of a process as possible.

Izveth [nursing director] & her nurses reached out to family members who needed to provide consent on behalf of many of the Lee Center residents.

Angela (Safety Director) and Keyana (Safety Assistant) entered every consent form into an Excel spreadsheet which they then uploaded into the CVS system. This was completed by Saturday, December 26^th.

As mentioned before, several of us were able to get our 1^st vaccination dose at the Santa Clara County Public Health’s clinic. We used our experience there, to set up the process for Vaccination Day.

So, on Saturday December 26^th and Sunday December 27^th, Angela and Chris Hoebel, who were the Managers on Duty that weekend, set up the auditorium and the dining room. The auditorium included a registration area and the booths for vaccination administration. The dining room was set up as an observation area. This entire setup mirrored the Public Health setup.

So, we were all set on the morning of Monday, December 28^th. We pictured a few bumps to be ironed out in the beginning and, then smooth sailing the rest of the day.

That’s not the way it worked out. We were one of Omnicare CVS’s first clinics. The technicians did not know how to use their software. We noticed that they were entering information from the consent form, which we had already done and uploaded. We were about an hour and 45 minutes in before the first vaccination was administered.

Many residents found themselves at the CVS registration table for 15 minutes as the technicians attempted to get their insurance information accepted. I asked if there was some work-around. They said it was a required step. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

I was given the private number of the supervisor who was clearly harried and frustrated. He was at another clinic which was also not going very well. I pressed him for a solution. But, he was unable to modify the process. So, residents continued to move very slowly past the registration table.

When Izzy called from the Health Center and said that some residents were being denied the vaccine because they had provided their old Medicare cards, not the ones that had been recently issued, steam started coming from my ears and I headed to make some phone calls to reach someone above the onsite supervisor.

I contacted the Public Policy Representative at LeadingAge California, our State Trade Association. He immediately forwarded my complaint to LeadingAge National in Washington DC who then contacted the CVS Headquarters for the Vaccine Roll-Out.

I also contacted California Assisted Living Association, another of our trade associations. Through them, I reached the CVS person in charge of the vaccination distribution in California.

My complaint was that a valid Medicare card is not a required condition to receive the vaccine in a congregate setting. And, in any other life-saving procedure, the service is provided first and figuring out the insurance is secondary. So, it is incomprehensible how this issue with verifying insurance was going to potentially jeopardize the ability for everyone here to be vaccinated. We were running out of time. And, we had already been told that they would be unable to extend the clinic if they could not get everyone vaccinated within the 2 days we had.

In addition, it was indefensible to deny the vaccination to a resident because we did not have their current Medicare card available.

By the end of Monday, we ended up with the attention of the CEO of Omnicare CVS and an official at the CDC.

So, on Tuesday, the onsite supervisor advised us that they would no longer have to re-enter the data we had already entered. And, that they would be using social security numbers for any resident for whom they could not verify insurance. The result was that on the first day, approximately 100 people were vaccinated. On the second day, over 200 people were vaccinated. Everyone who wanted to be vaccinated, was vaccinated.

As James said the other day, this event was the true reflection of a team effort. In addition to the staff already mentioned, we had AJ (from Fitness & Wellness) checking people in at the lobby, Luis (from the Front Desk) admitting people to the auditorium, Geeta (from Accounting) registering people on Monday, Victoria (from Housekeeping) and Elizabeth (Social Worker) registering people on Tuesday. Ofelia (from Marketing) checking people in to the Observation Area. Our nurses, including Valentyna, Marjorie, and Jinalyn taking shifts to monitor the Observation area. Ethan (at the Front Desk) copying the completed consent forms before Omnicare CVS left at the end of each day.

So, a special thanks to everyone who made this happen. Again, recognition that I am certain that it was Yadira’s dedication and Izveth’s support that brought Channing House to the front of the line. I also want to recognize the prompt advocacy efforts of LeadingAge and California Assisted Living Association. It was through their contacts that we were able to ensure that everyone who had signed up to be vaccinated, was vaccinated.

I also wanted to share with you that since the article in the Palo Alto Weekly, which ran on December 25^th, about the Channing House Vaccination Clinic, we have been receiving many phone calls and e-mails, including, the general public, wanting access to our Clinics; the Vi [another retirement home] asking for information on how we were able to register for the clinics; Palo Alto Medical Foundation asking for our assistance in getting some of their caregivers vaccinated; and more.

It is just one more reminder that what happened here on the 28^th and 29^th is pretty special. We were all honored to be part of this event.

Thursday 12/31/2020

A pretty ordinary day, really. I did Veronica’s aerobics at 7:30. I posted to the house bulletin board a reminder of the upcoming SWBB games on Friday and Sunday, and which channels of our in-house Xfinity system they were on. I prepared the meal delivery sign-up sheet for next week and sent it to Marcia to fill in the regulars.

I futzed around with the dashboard of the MG TC. I went for a walk. Going out for the walk, I paused in the lobby to admire the very inventive display that a committee of residents had created.

It is called “The Bonfire of the Insanities” and we were invited to add anything to the “pyre” that we’d like to see gone with the year. There was a loop on the big TV of the fire with sound, and every so often, a COVID virus whisked up the flames.

At 8:30 there was a “New Year’s Eve” open zoom meeting. The point was to watch the ball drop in NYC at 9pm. Marcia hosted and did a good job eliciting stories from people about New Year’s adventures they’d had. In a crowd this old, there are always people with good stories.

And that was that. I’m going to bed at 10, although I expect the distant sound of fireworks will arouse me at midnight.