'Tis the Season

The Halloween season, that is. This morning I watched the Virtual Real Storytelling Series; cousin Alton was the guest storyteller. He and brother Joel have been taking turns every month or so being here to care for Uncle Bill; but now he has been here since the pandemic started. Fortunately, as a professional storyteller, he can still work virtually. (Fun fact: Uncle Bill was a USPS mail carrier & is a good friend of Mr. Omiya who was aslo a USPS mail carrier & is a current resident at Maunalani along with Dad.)

This is Day 17 of the Unicorn Challenge (Week 3 Day 3); it is a Low Carb, Yoga HIIT day. I am getting better at some of the yoga moves; but still have trouble with others. You can follow along with this 30 minute workout, like I do. Sort of.

This morning I tried out a hakurei greens proothie. It was rather non-descript; the hakurei greens did not add any flavor to the proothie, neither good nor bad. Just nothing; I suppose that can be a good thing. It would be really nice if the pea protein had this flavor!

For lunch I had a baked tofu product that I bought from Kokua Market; I don't know why I keep thinking I might find something tasty non-Asian tofu product. The best pre-made tofu products I have found were Vietnamese dishes; one was a savory baked tofu (lemongrass was my favorite) and the other was a soft tofu dessert with a ginger-honey sauce. I also had the last lemongrass roasted pork ribs and a kale salad with hakurei in vinaigrette with bacon bits, plus a side of Korean-style pickled daikon.

For dinner I finished off the eggplant curry & shirataki noodles. I had another kale salad with hakurei in vinaigrette with bacon bits, Korean-style pickled diakon, and smoky chipotle sauerkraut.

Here's a screenshot I took of the Aix weather app that I use to see what is predicted for the day; and, yes, I like to compare what it going on in these 3 different places. The graphic shows a 24 hour period starting about 2 hours before the present time that it is viewed. The Tesla app is below and shows the actual amount of insolation that can basically tell me whether it was a cloudy day or not. One of these days you will see how much the PV system produces on a really sunny day! FYI You will begin to notice that Honolulu is usually about 5 degrees warmer than Kapaʻau, though that was not the case when I took this screenshot.

Here's some pre-Halloween humor for you.

If I was still in WA I might consider the Ewok.

And now something for my fellow biologists.

And some pandemic humor. It would be too depressing not to be able to find some humor in what is going on.

Some people have been creating "bubbles" with family & friends after seeing how some sports teams and TV production shows have done that. One thing they are not taking in to consideration is those groups are doing a lot of testing and isolation prior to the individuals coming in to contact with each other for the event. Here is what you are really dealing with if you do not test & isolate prior to creating your "bubble".

This is a great article about the spread of infection under different variables. There are 3 different scenarios they examine: a living room, a bar, and a school room. As you scroll through the article the variables for each scenario change to show you how the infection rate changes with the new variable.

Moral of the Story: Don't let your guard down around family & friends.

 

Here is what happens in a bar. Patient 0 is the vector who is infected with SARS-CoV-2 and actively shedding virus particles. (I am giving Patient 0 the benefit of the doubt & assuming Patient 0 is asymptomatic which is why they are out & about).

Moral of the Story: Only spend a short time at a well-ventilated bar where everyone is wearing a mask.

Well the science is in, a survey of 23 state health departments has found that, as of mid-September,  the Sturgis motorcycle rally resulted in the spread of COVID-19 across 5 states. More than 330 infections & 1 death are directly attributed to the rally but experts say this is likely just the tip of the iceberg due to asymptomatic spreaders. I wonder if anyone is going to do a similar survey of the rallies that 45 is holding? How many of his supporters & their friends & family are being infected, and possibly dying, from those large, packed, largely non-mask wearing crowds?

There were 62 new COVID-19 cases reported today for a total of 14,834 known cases. There were _ new deaths for a total of 213 deaths. The 7-day average for Oʻahu is 49 with a positivity rate of 2.0%. There were 1177 active cases with a recovery rate of 79%.