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In skips and jumps
May. 7th, 2020 09:04 pm Somehow, every time I drop by DW, I think I'm reading regularly but it's been two days since I last read/posted. If it weren't for the scheduled social events, the labeled cat food cans (so I don't double-feed them), and the weekly pill boxes I would never know what day it is. So today is Thursday? That means I last posted on Tuesday. So what have I done? Well in the past two days I've finished editing and uploaded four podcasts. So the podcasts are set for the entire month, which means I'll suddenly panic round about my end-of-month vacation and realize I haven't maintained that caught-up-ed-ness. I was relieved that the Zencastr recordings with Janet Todd came out ok with a little editing, because both sessions were plagued with dropped connections and re-starts. We had two lovely chats and I'm glad that loveliness will come across properly in the shows.
Cross my fingers and knock on wood, but my investigations at work are coming along, though with a certain amount of dragging-kicking-and-screaming regarding people I need buy-in from. Had an interesting off-the-record email exchange with someone who was a fellow investigator ten years ago who's in a different department now about the emotional difficulties of not doing other people's jobs for them, even when you're watching them do something regrettable. (I don't actually have that knack. That's why I end up investigating things that nobody actually asked me to investigate.) I'm finding that more and more I seem to have slipped into the role of Wise Old Advisor to the department. The one who says, "You know, maybe we should stop doing this particular task reactively and design principles for a consistent workflow?" The one who reminds the management that we've been struggling with Topic X for the last three or four rounds of process improvement and maybe we have the wrong end of the stick? The one who says, "Actually this is a bigger problem than people are treating it as, and we really should stop trying to shovel dirt over it to cover it up." The big advantage this gets me is that I get listened to and trusted. The disadvantage is that I get asked to solve the problem.
There was a press release from Contra Costa county health services today saying they're starting C19 testing for everyone, symptoms or not. Free to all, though if you're on a health care plan (which everyone is supposed to be, because Obamacare) they'll get charged. I know that Kaiser has been setting up their own comprehensive testing facility in Berkeley but I don't think it's operational yet. (And I'd have to drive to Berkeley.) The CoCo testing requires an appointment, made by phone, so I imagine they'll be swamped for quite a while. I can wait. I mean, what would I learn? I've had absolutely no relevant symptoms. I've been tracking my temperature daily since the start of shelter-in-place with nary a blip on the thermometer. If I test positive, it will have been the most asymptomatic case ever. (And then I'll worry about having potentially exposed others, even though I've been taking all the standard precautions.) So if I tested positive, it would be a combination of freak-out and relief. If I test negative (the expected condition) that's only meaningful for the current instant. I will, eventually, get tested. But there's no rush.
The temperature was supposed to have been in the mid-90s today and projected for that again tomorrow. It was hot, but not unbearably so. I noticed it on my bike ride but still enjoyed the ride. My daily routine is to begin the day by dressing in "normal office clothes" (since we have our daily Skype meeting in the morning), then change to biking clothes at noon, shower after the bike ride and change to shorts and t-shirt, then open the front door (it has a screen security door) and the bedroom windows and start the fans going. Back when I started working from home, I'd play music when I wasn't having meetings, to cover the dead air and mask my tinnitus. But I haven't felt the need to do that for a few weeks. I don't know whether I've gotten used to the silence, or whether the white noise from the fans and the sound of the traffic fulfills the need.
Enough rambling.
Cross my fingers and knock on wood, but my investigations at work are coming along, though with a certain amount of dragging-kicking-and-screaming regarding people I need buy-in from. Had an interesting off-the-record email exchange with someone who was a fellow investigator ten years ago who's in a different department now about the emotional difficulties of not doing other people's jobs for them, even when you're watching them do something regrettable. (I don't actually have that knack. That's why I end up investigating things that nobody actually asked me to investigate.) I'm finding that more and more I seem to have slipped into the role of Wise Old Advisor to the department. The one who says, "You know, maybe we should stop doing this particular task reactively and design principles for a consistent workflow?" The one who reminds the management that we've been struggling with Topic X for the last three or four rounds of process improvement and maybe we have the wrong end of the stick? The one who says, "Actually this is a bigger problem than people are treating it as, and we really should stop trying to shovel dirt over it to cover it up." The big advantage this gets me is that I get listened to and trusted. The disadvantage is that I get asked to solve the problem.
There was a press release from Contra Costa county health services today saying they're starting C19 testing for everyone, symptoms or not. Free to all, though if you're on a health care plan (which everyone is supposed to be, because Obamacare) they'll get charged. I know that Kaiser has been setting up their own comprehensive testing facility in Berkeley but I don't think it's operational yet. (And I'd have to drive to Berkeley.) The CoCo testing requires an appointment, made by phone, so I imagine they'll be swamped for quite a while. I can wait. I mean, what would I learn? I've had absolutely no relevant symptoms. I've been tracking my temperature daily since the start of shelter-in-place with nary a blip on the thermometer. If I test positive, it will have been the most asymptomatic case ever. (And then I'll worry about having potentially exposed others, even though I've been taking all the standard precautions.) So if I tested positive, it would be a combination of freak-out and relief. If I test negative (the expected condition) that's only meaningful for the current instant. I will, eventually, get tested. But there's no rush.
The temperature was supposed to have been in the mid-90s today and projected for that again tomorrow. It was hot, but not unbearably so. I noticed it on my bike ride but still enjoyed the ride. My daily routine is to begin the day by dressing in "normal office clothes" (since we have our daily Skype meeting in the morning), then change to biking clothes at noon, shower after the bike ride and change to shorts and t-shirt, then open the front door (it has a screen security door) and the bedroom windows and start the fans going. Back when I started working from home, I'd play music when I wasn't having meetings, to cover the dead air and mask my tinnitus. But I haven't felt the need to do that for a few weeks. I don't know whether I've gotten used to the silence, or whether the white noise from the fans and the sound of the traffic fulfills the need.
Enough rambling.
