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Life Amidst the Pandemic
Aug. 24th, 2020 01:08 pmI took Lucy to the vet today. Nothing serious, but she's been having some bathroom problems lately, continuing on some problems from back in Berkeley, so I wanted to talk with a vet about the next steps in testing and/or what else to do.
However, COVID made the situation extremely bizarre. They're no longer letting people into the office, instead having chairs set aside. You sit down, fill out forms, then they come and take your pet, then they bring your pet back, then a vet comes out to talk to you, then they bring out a bill to you.
It mostly works, and Lucy seemed to really like sitting out in the open air: she was constantly sniffing. But not seeing the vet with the cat really felt like we weren't able to give Lucy the best care we could. And I also had to listen to the vet tell someone else who was waiting nearby that they'd scheduled an appointment to put his cat down the next day, ad that he should take it home, enjoy the evening, and if he decided to cancel, to let them know. (Poor guy! Poor cat!)
But we have an action plan for Lucy: a few things to try (more litter boxes, which was already on our list for today; probiotics; if that doesn't work something that might help with any back pain; and if that doesn't work an ultrasound). Meanwhile, I *think* her weight is up, at 6.4#, but I'm not sure because our old hospital didn't send over her records like they were supposed to.
(This is why we need to allow patients, or in this case pet owners, to maintain health records in their own decentralized data stores. Because it's a constant problem, for humans and cats alike.)
Back back to problems caused by COVID response: Kimberly was supposed to have an appointment with a special doctor from Oahu next Monday, but it's been cancelled due to the interisland quarantine going up again, this time with no exceptions.
I mean, frankly, we don't want scofflaws from Oahu over here, because we actually got to see what a crappy job they were doing of maintaining public health a few months ago. It's the Plague Capital of Hawaii for a reason.
But no exceptions for health: that's problematic.
In fact, it's overall problematic how our society is deemphasizing preventative health care during this pandemic. It's sending all the wrong messages.
(We went out to the hospital today, so that Kimberly could get a totally unrelated test, and they're back to "patients only" inside, which on an island with two active cases of COVID is absolutely hygiene theatre.)
Meanwhile:
Our electrical work is definitely done.
We had our electrician out here up until last Wednesday, and that was a bit tiring, always having someone working about the house, and more notably always having to have a mask on hand (or rather, on neck). More of the Age of COVID. (I really hope there's a time not too far in the future, where all this seems alien.)
But he finished on time, Wednesday, he just had to work until 7pm every night (after usually getting a start at 10am or later).
So today someone from our solar company proper came up to "program" the system, whatever that means. He was here about 45 minutes and at the end showed me the system working. It was pulling 3.6 KW of power through the panels, using .6 KW to power the house, and using the rest to fill up the battery, or something like that.
But, he sadly told us, he had to turn it back off. I wonder how much pushback they get on that, because he really got in there and said it quick and decisively. I hope not too much on these islands.
So we're waiting on a county inspection (where they may or may not need to get inside, depending on what they've looked at before) and a utility company inspection (where they definitely need to get inside, to ensure that the solar people didn't install more than they said they would, according to our solar guy) and then we need to wait one-to-two weeks for KIUC to place a sticker, and we'll have solar power.
I told solar guy that my current expectation had been before the end of next month, and he said definitely before that.
I suspect that solar power will be something that's initially really exciting, and we'll look at the apps constantly, and within a week or two it'll be regular life to us, and we won't even notice it except for the lack of bills (and probably not even then: a lack isn't that exciting).
But we'll have a more sustainable house, and we hopefully won't have brownouts, and so we won't have smartplugs and dish washers die, and we also won't be burning coal at Port Allen.
If there was going to be a year as horrible as 2020, I am soooo happy to be out of the Bay Area (and my condolences to all my friends who aren't).
Because the pandemic would have been so shitty for us, having to walk or bike everywhere in the hot sun with masks.
And the wildfires are obviously worse than 2017-2018. It's so weird that we didn't have these problems in the Bay Area until 2015 or so, and then there was some climate tipping point, and there are suddenly wildfires making the air in the Bay Area dangerous almost every year for a week or two at a time.
Meanwhile, on Kauai, we've had a hurricane miss us, and I can drive places without a mask, and we're on an island with two active cases of COVID and a population that's about 20% lower than the (infrastructure-busting) norm, because of the lack of tourists.
However, COVID made the situation extremely bizarre. They're no longer letting people into the office, instead having chairs set aside. You sit down, fill out forms, then they come and take your pet, then they bring your pet back, then a vet comes out to talk to you, then they bring out a bill to you.
It mostly works, and Lucy seemed to really like sitting out in the open air: she was constantly sniffing. But not seeing the vet with the cat really felt like we weren't able to give Lucy the best care we could. And I also had to listen to the vet tell someone else who was waiting nearby that they'd scheduled an appointment to put his cat down the next day, ad that he should take it home, enjoy the evening, and if he decided to cancel, to let them know. (Poor guy! Poor cat!)
But we have an action plan for Lucy: a few things to try (more litter boxes, which was already on our list for today; probiotics; if that doesn't work something that might help with any back pain; and if that doesn't work an ultrasound). Meanwhile, I *think* her weight is up, at 6.4#, but I'm not sure because our old hospital didn't send over her records like they were supposed to.
(This is why we need to allow patients, or in this case pet owners, to maintain health records in their own decentralized data stores. Because it's a constant problem, for humans and cats alike.)
Back back to problems caused by COVID response: Kimberly was supposed to have an appointment with a special doctor from Oahu next Monday, but it's been cancelled due to the interisland quarantine going up again, this time with no exceptions.
I mean, frankly, we don't want scofflaws from Oahu over here, because we actually got to see what a crappy job they were doing of maintaining public health a few months ago. It's the Plague Capital of Hawaii for a reason.
But no exceptions for health: that's problematic.
In fact, it's overall problematic how our society is deemphasizing preventative health care during this pandemic. It's sending all the wrong messages.
(We went out to the hospital today, so that Kimberly could get a totally unrelated test, and they're back to "patients only" inside, which on an island with two active cases of COVID is absolutely hygiene theatre.)
Meanwhile:
Our electrical work is definitely done.
We had our electrician out here up until last Wednesday, and that was a bit tiring, always having someone working about the house, and more notably always having to have a mask on hand (or rather, on neck). More of the Age of COVID. (I really hope there's a time not too far in the future, where all this seems alien.)
But he finished on time, Wednesday, he just had to work until 7pm every night (after usually getting a start at 10am or later).
So today someone from our solar company proper came up to "program" the system, whatever that means. He was here about 45 minutes and at the end showed me the system working. It was pulling 3.6 KW of power through the panels, using .6 KW to power the house, and using the rest to fill up the battery, or something like that.
But, he sadly told us, he had to turn it back off. I wonder how much pushback they get on that, because he really got in there and said it quick and decisively. I hope not too much on these islands.
So we're waiting on a county inspection (where they may or may not need to get inside, depending on what they've looked at before) and a utility company inspection (where they definitely need to get inside, to ensure that the solar people didn't install more than they said they would, according to our solar guy) and then we need to wait one-to-two weeks for KIUC to place a sticker, and we'll have solar power.
I told solar guy that my current expectation had been before the end of next month, and he said definitely before that.
I suspect that solar power will be something that's initially really exciting, and we'll look at the apps constantly, and within a week or two it'll be regular life to us, and we won't even notice it except for the lack of bills (and probably not even then: a lack isn't that exciting).
But we'll have a more sustainable house, and we hopefully won't have brownouts, and so we won't have smartplugs and dish washers die, and we also won't be burning coal at Port Allen.
If there was going to be a year as horrible as 2020, I am soooo happy to be out of the Bay Area (and my condolences to all my friends who aren't).
Because the pandemic would have been so shitty for us, having to walk or bike everywhere in the hot sun with masks.
And the wildfires are obviously worse than 2017-2018. It's so weird that we didn't have these problems in the Bay Area until 2015 or so, and then there was some climate tipping point, and there are suddenly wildfires making the air in the Bay Area dangerous almost every year for a week or two at a time.
Meanwhile, on Kauai, we've had a hurricane miss us, and I can drive places without a mask, and we're on an island with two active cases of COVID and a population that's about 20% lower than the (infrastructure-busting) norm, because of the lack of tourists.