Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Pandemic over

Finally, some good news about San Francisco: we are on track to become the first city in California to reach the herd immunity against COVID 19. We’ve always had the lowest COVID numbers of any major city, so it’s no surprise we would be the first to reach that immunity milestone. Soon as California fully opens back up on June 15th, I think San Francisco will return to normal really quickly.

Ergo there’s absolutely no excuse for the San Francisco Unified School District: full in-person classes must happen in the Fall semester. We should vote the school board members out of that isn’t the case. For shame.

In certain parts of California, the pandemic is effectively over already: no more masking, everything is fully open. This past weekend we were in the rural areas north of Sacramento, and walking around there felt rather jarring because it was business as usual. I would say only two percent of the people wore a mask at all. There are no covering requirements to enter an establishment. Our friend went into a coffee shop in Calusa, and he was the only one with a mask on.

I have to say though the people there weren’t mean about seeing someone with a mask on. It’s truly live and let live.

Moving on to Marysville, there was a taco festival in the city’s small downtown area. The scene looked like Disneyland before the pandemic. Crowds mingling closely together and having a good time. The only people with masks on were the vendors, perhaps to keep up with current rules. Everything else resembled everyday life before COVID. I absolutely love it. I didn’t care whether or not anyone else were vaccinated, because I myself am vaccinated.

Can’t wait to see the same here in San Francisco very soon indeed.

Truck town USA

Full-size trucks in America are big business. The venerable Ford F-150 is the best selling vehicle in this country for well over two decades. The GM and Ram trucks also sell in very lucrative numbers. It’s a head-scratcher from my perspective here in San Francisco. I would never buy one of these behemoths in our area of narrow streets and scarcely little parking space. Imagine parallel parking a modern four-door pickup truck; I’m not sure one would even fit in one of the city’s metered spaces.

I get the appeal of trucks, though. It’s literally one vehicle to do absolutely everything. The typical “crew-cab” four-door configuration can seat five people with space and comfort rivaling large sedans. The high-seating position is easy to get in and out of. The pickup bed needs no explanation for its utility. Four-wheel drive version of trucks can go off-road with the best of sport-utility-vehicles, provided the trail has the width for these super wide machines. If parking weren’t ever a problem anywhere I normally frequent, a full-size truck would definitely be something to consider.

This past weekend I was up north of Sacramento in the rural town of Calusa. I was amazed at the sheer amount of trucks there. It seems everyone in town is driving a half-ton, crew-cab pickup, about 80 percent of all vehicle traffic to my eyes. The lone Ford dealership in Calusa has an inventory of mostly F-150s! Surely a confirmation of pickup truck’s popularity in those parts.

And why wouldn’t it be? Parking is wide and freely available there. Calusa is a farming community, so the trucks are actually being used to haul stuff. The 4X4 systems will take care of any beaten path with ease. From what I can tell, these people own trucks not for some machismo image, but rather they truly need the utility of these type of vehicles. I can dig it.

Heat training

The curse of living in San Francisco and this year-round mildly cold weather of ours is that we are rather fickle with temperature extremes. Especially when the weather gets hot. Far easier to to deal with cold when it’s always sort of cold. But high temperatures? There’s only so much we can do when weather in the 70s already feel like shorts and t-shirts time. Imagine making that clothing combination last all the way into the triple digits.

I just end up sweating it through. Traveling the grueling summer heat in Japan, I brought a towel with me everywhere, constantly wiping sweat away.

But that was Japan. I made the mistake of not bring a towel with me this past weekend when we went to Marysville, deep north of Sacramento. Back home in San Francisco it was a nice low 60s, but it was well into the 90s near our State capitol. A 30 degrees swing from departure and the destination. How would you prepare for this? We all left San Francisco with two upper layers and long pants - as you do. Upon arrival, we took off our sweatshirts to the t-shirt layer. That was it.

Suffice it to say, I was struggling in the heat. At least I had the presence of mind to wear canvas shoes instead of my usual wool Allbirds. Really should have worn shorts, but I would have froze at the beginning of the trip in. By mid-afternoon I was feeling the adverse affects, and had to find shade whenever possible.

I actually don’t mind hot weather. Because we only get it for one week out of the year in San Francisco, we never get a chance to acclimate. I think I can do quite well living in a place where it’s always above 80 degrees during the Summer. So long as there’s air-conditioning indoors, of course.

Overall I think it does the body well to experience temperature extremes once in a while. It’s good training for resiliency. Going to Marysville and being in the heat felt great the next day, as if I had exercised the day before.

No driving for old me

These days I am driving my BMW M2 so infrequently that I’ve been entertaining thoughts of selling it. It’s rather irresponsible to keep such an expensive car around - plus the relatively high cost to insure it - only to have it sit outside on the curb most of the time (looking mighty pretty, I have to say). I don’t think I can go car-less, but switching to another that’s far less costly to purchase and own would be most financially ideal.

Not ideal for my car enthusiast heart, however. The push and pull between my love of cars and financial responsibility have been an ongoing struggle since my very first turn of the steering wheel. This “hobby” of ours is undoubtedly expensive, and our exravagent spending on cars isn’t suppose to be rational. Heck, car buying in general isn’t rational. If everybody bought only the right car for their purposes, we’d all be driving small, compact SUVs made by Japanese manufacturers.

Toyota is going to sell boatloads of the Corolla Cross.

Of course, cars are so much more than just mere transportation, even for those who aren’t the enthusiastic type. It’s an extension of our personality, a representation of ideals, for better or worse. Manufacturers are great at attacking those points with marketing. Everyone have notions of what a typical BMW driver is (again, for better or worse), same with a Toyota Prius driver. The latter of whom is probably hogging up the right-lane going way too slowly.

Must you own a cool car to be a car enthusiast? Even if all it does is just sit? These days I’m really pondering on those questions. I’ll certainly miss it greatly if I were to sell the M2, which is ultimately why I haven’t yet done it. Oh and the fact I’d be taking a bath on depreciation. Sunk cost fallacy is real and immense.

Walking home

With summer semester going into action at the university, the staff are being asked to work on campus fully for two to three days out of the week. California is getting ready to fully open in about a fortnight, so things are returning to normal quite rapidly. Every weekend in May, I’ve gone out to places and ate indoors at restaurants. I’ve hung out indoors with a relatively large group of friends, unmasked. We are back, baby.

Except for much of the rest of the world. Rising COVID rates in countries with formerly ultra low outbreaks such as Taiwan and Vietnam show that vaccines are the only solution out of this mess. It’s perverse luck that the United States is amongst the worse in COVID deaths, yet we are the amongst the first to achieve an appropriately high level of vaccination. I read on twitter that some people are contemplating travel to America just to get the vaccine.

From worst to first, the underdog story. That’s America!

Anyways, being back to working a full day at work makes me appreciate how nice it is that I now live only a 10 minute walk away. To end a nine-hours day on campus without a commute slog in a car afterwards is just the best feeling. Yesterday evening I walked by heavy traffic on 19th Avenue on the way home, and thought to myself how grateful that I’m not the one stuck in a car amongst that quagmire. Maybe it’s not the job that’s soul-sucking, but it’s the commute?

I think this is why plenty of people are thriving with working-from-home. The commute time they get back in turn allows them to perform better. They are less stressed because they have more time. Unfortunately they’re going to hav a rude wake-up call if and when they are asked to return physically to work. Something for employers to look out for, surely.

Running and washing

The muscle pain from running four miles for the first time in over a year is expected, but present all the same. It feels great to run outdoors around Lake Merced again, breathing fresh air as I train aerobically. It has taken this long for me to return to running because I was never going to run outside with a mask on. Heavy breathing through multiple layers of cloth just doesn’t feel right. So I had to wait until I was both fully vaccinated, and for a time when not wearing a mask outdoors becomes socially acceptable in this liberal utopia of ours.

I am happy to report that it was rather easy to pick back up the old habit. I can’t say for sure that I didn’t gain any COVID weight, but my stamina has not waned that much, if at all. I completed the loop around the lake at my usual pace, surprising even myself that I didn’t lose a step, or become overly tired from the (more than) one year hiatus. To this I owe to keeping a regular workout schedule at home throughout the pandemic, and the fact I now walk to work on the regular.

It would not be wise to then on the next day go wash the car, what with the muscle aches and everything. However, that is exactly what I did. My BMW M2 hasn’t seen the cleaning side of a microfiber towel since January, which is insane now that I am typing this out on the first of June. A white-colored car parked outside attracts all the dust and plant fallout that our neighborhood has to offer. The M2 really deserves to be detailed more often, but that’s contingent upon me to not be lazy.

What happened? Back in my twenties I would consistent wash my car once every two weeks. Having a clean and tidy car - inside and out - is something of a prideful point for me. Driving a freshly washed car just feels different and awesome. It’s completely due to laziness that I’ve stepped away from this consistent habit. That said, going four months in between wash is unacceptable. I need to pick back up the pace.

Running and cleaning the car: things I’m endeavoring to start doing constantly again. Wish me luck.

I do lift

Part of doing IT support on a college campus is that sometimes we have to transport quite a few things to and from classrooms. A dozen or so computers altogether becomes very heavy quickly when it’s loaded onto one cart. This is the grunt work that goes on behind the scenes; it isn’t all just done with a keyboard. Who says IT support isn’t a physical job?

I always jump at the chance to do the heavy lifting stuff, because it’s really good exercise. I see it as getting paid to workout. It means I can skip an actual workout session. Pushing a cart full of monitors is far less boring than doing kettlebell swings a hundred times. Why restrain myself in my every day life just because I exercise consistently? It’s like the guy at hotels who valets his luggage but then goes to the hotel gym to workout.

Carrying the bags himself would have achieved the same thing, and more productive.

Of course, I am lucky that my work isn’t the constantly back-breaking type. I wouldn’t be saying any of this if I were a roofer. On most days, it truly is just sitting in front of a computer screen. Which is why it’s even more important to be active when I get the chance. It’s rather perverse when you think about it: white collar jobs need to find ways to keep their workers from becoming the equivalent of couch potatoes. I do very much appreciate my standing desk.

Never miss an opportunity to exert and use some muscles. I can always rest when I get home.