2022: Are We Having Fun Yet?

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

1/8/22

Aloha Everyone --

What a week!  Definitely a mixed start to 2022!

I hope you are staying warm and unburned.  We learned last weekend that some friends in Colorado had their house destroyed in the fires near Boulder, and some other friends whose house was ok had no power for about a day with the temperature falling to near zero.  Their main concern, besides not getting frostbite in bed, was to keep their pipes from freezing.  Welcome to 2022.

Our Covid situation here in paradise is similar to everywhere else.  Our new cases are "exploding," "surging," "sky-rocketing, "erupting," "record-shattering," and every other hyperbolic adjective the media has used to describe the spread of Omicron (I feel sorry for media people because they've nearly run out of scary words).  However, just like everywhere else, the new variant is proving to be quite mild and has resulted in only a modest uptick in hospitalizations, ICU usage, and deaths.  Right now our island facilities are doing just fine, although they suffer from the same staff shortages that mainland hospitals are experiencing. Finally, like everywhere else, our hospitalizations are mostly unvaccinated and/or people with preexisting conditions. I contend that contagiousness of Omicron may actually be a blessing in disguise because it will infect many anti-vaxers and give them some degree of immunity whether they accept the reality of Covid or not -- to the benefit of everyone else.

On the more positive home front, I've got all our outside decorations down and stowed away, and this weekend we will take down our Christmas tree.  It's kind of sad without the lights and tinsel, but I also am enjoying getting back to my normal routine.  On Monday I went to Planet Fitness (almost empty),  and Karen played golf on Thursday.  On Wednesday we had our neighbors over for dinner and were able to eat outside by our pool because we had a fair amount of sun in the afternoons this week and the temps were comfortable until later in the evening. We were even able to get in our pool a couple of times this week, thanks to the heat gain during the day.

This week I bought a couple of new toys to keep my mind off the continued disintegration of human civilization.  The first is a new barbecue grill, which I enjoyed putting together on Thursday and Friday.  I could have bought it pre-assembled, but where's the fun in that?  I went high-end this time, figuring this might last me until I won't be grilling anymore.  It was a joy to assemble -- for once the parts fit and were easy to identify, and the instructions were actually clear and easy to follow. My hat is off to the engineers and documentation folks.  Now, of course, I just have to see if it grills any better than my old one.  I expect that, as always there will be a period of learning the quirks and subtle tricks of using it that I'll have to master -- but this is still part of the fun....

The other new toy will arrive next week.  Costco Online featured a desktop computer that has all the features that I want and so I ordered it.  My old one is creaking along and not doing too badly for about 8 years old (a real geezer in the technoverse), but the handwriting is on the wall.  The new one is a Dell all-in-one, meaning very few wires to hassle with, and has a solid state drive, meaning fewer moving parts.  The main challenge will be configuring the new one to my liking, and transferring all of our files and programs.  I expect some snafus along the way, and the "fun" will be in solving issues as they come up.  The advantage of buying it online through Costco is that if there is a problem I can always return it to our local store rather than trying to ship it back.  I'll let you know next week how this goes.  I'm realistic and experienced enough to know that new isn't always better.

Finally, I visited my retina doctor yesterday, and as I expected I had an injection.  Fluid had built up and it was definitely time for chemical intervention.  Still, I was able to go about 3 months between shots, which is pretty good.  Also, the doctor said the retina itself looks pretty good (considering the dead cells), and so he expects a good result from the injection.  My pressures are staying well-controlled, and my left eye is still doing well (20/20), so I'm actually fortunate.

Ok, that's it for now.  Off to market and our beach breakfast picnic, plus some shopping. Look hard for whatever bright spots you can find and focus on them as much as you can.  Stay warm and healthy!