Day 7 - Governor Newsom reinstates the mask mandate for California

B. and I hiked The Beast Trail today…

A section of The Beast trail…

I learn today that cloth masks are ineffective against Omicron!!  Could that be true? Dr. Kimberly Shriner says cloth masks are merely “facial adornments”; only a 3-ply surgical mask or an N95 will protect you. I can’t believe what I’m hearing…this is similar to Fauci telling us at the beginning of the pandemic that masks don’t work, then reversing himself shortly thereafter and admitting that he lied to the American people so there wouldn’t be a shortage of masks for health care workers. Or what about the CDC telling us the vaccinated could have a maskless 4th of July, then reversing themselves the next week and advising us to put our masks back on? Now, currently…”cloth masks don’t work against Omicron.”  Really?  After the numerous lies we’ve been fed for 2 years, am I supposed to believe this latest anecdote? 

More bad news…the adenovirus vaccines don’t work against Omicron, which is what most of the world has already received. This includes AstroZeneca; J&J; Russia’s “Sputnick”; and China’s Sinopharm (although Sinopharm was always questionable). They don’t prevent infection…you probably won’t DIE, but you WILL almost certainly get infected which means you’re contagious to other people. If masks and most vaccines don’t work, what are we going to do?  

Today, Dr. Shriner says having the one-and-done J&J with the half-dose Moderna booster is the equivalent to having a 2-dose vaccine and booster…this is in direct conflict with Dr. Brewer’s report yesterday! What to do?  Who to believe?

 12/21/21. Tuesday 

6:15 –Alarm so I get out of bed and turn it off. My body aches so I take two Advil and lie down again.

6:45 -7:00 -  I’m up so I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog. She’s asleep and totally out of it, but still manages to roll over on her back so I can rub her tummy. I cue her to go outside and we head to the backyard, where I stand around, waiting for her to go potty. Return inside and coffee for me; cheese for her. I go upstairs.

7:00-8:00 – Shower. Lotion. Hiking uniform – cargo pants, sweatshirt, and black tennis shoes. Light make-up. I put my hair in a ponytail. I listen to What Next.

-L. goes to work.

8:00-9:00 – B. arrives and we go to the Egg Plantation. It’s not crowded for the first 30 minutes, but then people start arriving in droves, sitting at tables right next to us, breathing and coughing all over me. Social distancing and 50% capacity guidelines disappeared last year because Americans are supposed to pretend that the pandemic is over. Nobody masks in restaurants, except the staff, because of the strange practice that Blue areas have of wearing a mask when walking to their table, then taking the mask off for the rest of the meal. Somehow this is supposed to be a safe and accepted practice for limiting viral spread, but it doesn’t make any sense. I have Emily’s Favorite - scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese – and gluten-free toast. Breakfast is really good, nonetheless.

9:00-12:00 – B. and I go to Whitney Canyon and hike The Beast.  It might be named The Beast due to the various inclines throughout the hike, but the views are incredible. There’s no loop so I make the executive decision to turn around and walk back down the mountain simply because I have things to do and don’t have six hours of time to dedicate to this hike. Next time…

12:00-1:30 – B. and I return to my house and B. is able to tighten the bolts on the benches I assembled last night with the wrench and socket set that he brought with him.

12:30 – Mom arrives at 12:30 for her and L.’s  second attempt to view the Miyazaki exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.  Recall that Mom didn’t have her Vax Card last time and was denied entry.   

– Lexi arrives from work and she and Mom leave for the museum.

-B. finishes tightening the bolts on the benches and stays for 7-up and cookies.

1:30-2:30 – I warm up the remainder of my scrambled eggs and eat with a piece of gluten-free toast with butter and jam while reading My Body is a Bog Fat Temple. I’m starting to stiffen up from the hike.

2:30-3:00 – I listen to The Daily; then

3:00-5:30 – take a nap.

5:30-5:45 – I turn on all of the Xmas lights, inside and out.

6:00-6:30 – I take the dog for a walk and listen to True Crime Garage.  At the exact same time I’m passing my own house, Fed-Ex is dropping off a huge package.  It’s the tables!  I ask the Fed Ex employee if he needs me to sign for the tables, but he says no.

-L. and Mom return from their museum outing.  They had a great time!

6:30-7:00 – I am so excited to pull the tables out and start assembling!  I plan on dragging the boxes into the garage but when I get to the porch, there is only ONE box.  Uh-oh.  Are BOTH tables inside the box?  I drag the box to the garage, pull the pieces out, and break down the cardboard.  There is only ONE table. Devastating.

7:00-7:30 – I pull up my Wayfair account and it states that “both tables were delivered on 12/22/21”, when only ONE was delivered. I then call Wayfair. Customer service says the second table is “in transport” and due to arrive on 12/24/21. I’m skeptical so I ask L. to load the Fed-Ex app on her phone and report the second table as “undelivered and missing.”  I’m unable to seat everyone for Xmas dinner without that second table [insert sad-face emoji here].

8:00-10:30-I go to work. This semester is still not over. I scan my highschoolers semester grades and Attendance to the Faculty Website at College No. 2. This class is done.

-The only class remaining is my Asynchronous class.  I take Attendance for the past two weeks, then compile grades. On a separate sheet of paper, I log each student’s final semester grade and percentage.

-I post their semester grades to the database; then

-I scan their semester grades and Attendance to the Faculty Website.

This nightmare is finally over! Two Hyflex classes, two days per week at College No. 1 [Mon. from 2:30-5:30, F2F in a brick-and-mortar classroom with most of the students online AND Thurs from 7:00-10:00, F2F, in a brick-and-mortar classroom with most of the students online]; a highschool Synchronous Online class that met EVERY Wed. and Fri. from 8:00-10:05 a.m. at College No. 2; AND an Asynchronous Online class with new weekly content that was published every Sunday at midnight, also at College No. 2.

-As I’m compiling grades, I purge papers, info, and emails that I no longer need.

-I copy and paste the Module Home Pages from the Canvas Shell to my desktop so I can have a record of course content because this college has a nasty habit of deleting our OLD Canvas shells before we can “course copy” the content into our NEW Canvas shells.  I’m constantly re-creating course content by hand at College No. 2

10:30-10:45 – I log my receipts for this month.

10:45-11:00 – I check my local library calendar and am shocked to see the Betterment Through Books book club is back on calendar for January 2022. Next month’s book is called Friendshipping.

11:00-11:30 – I review my calendar and check activities for next month to make sure I have current tickets for everything.

11:30-11:45 – I check enrollment for my classes at College No. 1 for Spring Semester 2022 and enrollment is still low.

-I pay four bills.

11:45-12:00 – I ask L. for her Dad’s address and prepare a shipping label so I can mail his presents tomorrow; then

12:00-12:30 – I wrap all of his gifts and seal the box. I listen to The Weeds.

12:30-1:00 – I prepare Xmas cards for B. and my nephew, A., then I wrap two of B.’s gifts.

1:00-1:30 – bullet journal.

1:30-2:30 – I rest my eyes for a minute and…oops…fall asleep.

3:00-3:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.