Tag Archives: covid

Visiting people again

Yesterday I saw my grandpa in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic. I talk to him at least once a week, and that’s something I’ve been doing for years and years. But it’s been a long time since I got to visit him because I didn’t want to risk harming him.

Now, I had kept myself masked and safe. I didn’t engage in risky behaviors. But I didn’t want to find out only when it was too late that I was an asymptomatic case. So why would I even take the risk?

But I’m vaccinated now, and I’ve started to go out and be a person again. That means I am now able to visit my grandpa. Though I’m still wary of getting too, too close because he’s a thousand years old, and even with the effects of the moderna vaccine coursing through my veins, who knows!

During my lunch break today, I headed over there. I called him in advance, which is to say that I parked outside and called him to see if he would have me over. Before I could ask him, he asked me if I wanted to come over. I told him I’d see him shortly.

As a perhaps unnecessary precaution, I wore a mask for the duration.

I’m glad I visited him, and I will do it again. He’s aged throughout the pandemic. I think we all have. But it shows on him. I hope he’ll perk up over time.

Seeing people in person still is strange for me, and I have to break out of the temperament I’ve had throughout the covid era of not letting myself get excited because I feel like the things that are exciting won’t happen. I wasn’t always this way, and I won’t always be this way.

I look forward to the next time I visit my grandpa, and I’m stoked to start seeing others, too.

Covid Haircuts: Part 1

When lockdown/isolation started in California in March and salons were not considered an essential service–even in Beverly Hills(!)–the #longhairdontcare trend really took hold, as we all know.

By June, I was looking pretty shaggy. So much so that I finally got to try to re-create the picture of W. C. Davenport, taken by Elmer Chickering, given to me by my sister long ago.

My fiancee took the time to style me up like the old photo and then was patient with me as I tried to sit still without messing things up. I had grown out my mustache so long that it was starting to have split ends. I probably was doing something wrong, but that’s how it goes.

I don’t know these people. If anyone knows this Eleanore Davenport or W.C. Davenport, please send an email to WhoIsWCDavenport@raabidfun.com.

The result of that June afternoon’s work, side-by-side with the original:

It wasn’t until the end of the month that she first cut my hair. And then yesterday I cut hers. Stay tuned.

Adventures in PS4 repair

Through pretty much all of covid, my PlayStation 4 has been acting up. In the middle of games of Rocket League, the thing would just decide it didn’t want to participate anymore. Obviously, I don’t blame it. If you’ve played Rocket League, you understand that this is a shared desire. But the friends I play with cared because it left them a man down.

While the solid white light problem remained despite replacement of the HDMI cable, using a hole saw to cut two holes in the back of the cabinet that houses my PS4 and the rest of my stuff to increase the flow of air, putting a fan in front of the area that has my ps4 so it can cool it down. Nothing worked.

Then I encountered a new problem: The PS4 flashed blue when I tried powering it on. I had to disconnect power altogether and then reconnect power to get it even to react to starting up, at which point it reminded me that I hadn’t powered it off correctly. I know I didn’t power it off correctly, but I also know I will die before the thing would power itself off correctly, and I don’t have that kind of time (you know, by definition).

I had told my fiancee that it’s lucky that our wedding has been facing delays because I’ll get to register for a PS5, and then all my troubles will be gone. She could have been more receptive to that suggestion, and she hasn’t yet warmed up to it, despite frequent attempts to make it an obvious choice.

I started looking online for places that can fix the PS4 that are near me and won’t make me walk through the doors of a building. Lots of results! But then I looked at what it would cost me, and I figured it was easier to be inconvenienced.

But then I came upon discussions of swapping out the hard drive.

That led to research on the hard drive I’d want to get to just start anew. I got close to ordering one from amazon that had reviews that stated it was perfect for PS4. Promising for sure! The cost was about $80, which is OK, I guess, but I still felt like I needed to let it breathe before making a decision.

Then I remembered something exciting: My fiancee had a hard disk drive that she had swapped out for an SSD for her computer. She didn’t need the old drive and wanted to destroy it. I had said that it sounded like fun to destroy it. But we hadn’t yet destroyed it.

I went to the cardboard box where the HDD was stashed and saw that the drive was the right size and had the specs I wanted! I’m fine with a 500GB drive and definitely didn’t need a 2TB. I backed up the stuff on my PS4 and then swapped in the replacement drive that cost me $0. So far no problems with the PS4, and it’s now downloading Rocket League and FIFA20. I should have staggered the downloads rather than installing them at the same time because they’re both making their way along and will finish at about the same time.

I’ll get to play later and see if there’s any improvement from the old drive.

I’m hoping for the best.

NYT Crossword Special June 2020 Great Outdoors Month Complete

This puzzle had too many of the same clues/answers from July’s special puzzle. I say that because I did them in this order. In reality, July’s is the one I should have a problem with.

This puzzle made me kinda sad because I miss being able to go to places. COVID is really bringing me down. I had gone on some bike rides with my fiancee, but the tires were falling apart, so I ordered new ones. That was back in early July. The tires were supposed to arrive at the latest yesterday, but the postal service tracking still shows that it is at the pre-shipment stage. The seller assured me that the tires had been sent out, so I don’t know why it’s not in the system when the label says it’s priority mail. Not pointing any fingers except to the bike that is not safe to ride without new tires.

NYT Crossword Special May 2020 Free Comic Book Day Complete

Since I do the Saturday NYT puzzle with friends, today’s puzzles are special ones. May’s puzzle wasn’t as fun as the July puzzle I posted yesterday.

I don’t really have much to say about this one. The special June one later today should be a substantially better post than this one is.