Sadly, based on my experience in Texas, the only way people here are going to learn is to have the COVID blow up in their faces. They believe it's just the flu, that they're safe from it, and if they do get it, it'll be over in a couple of days. And nothing is going to change their minds until the hospitals fill up and people they know and care about get infected and can't get treatment. All I can suggest is to protect yourself as much as possible and stay away from Texas.

mr. flea's building was going to reopen later this month but we're having a spike in cases locally, so they are delaying it. He is more productive at home than in the building; I hope he'll be able to work from home on an ongoing basis.

In the last 7 days at my work the following happened: I gave notice, staff member A resigned, staff member B reported covid exposure and is isolating pending testing, staff member C resigned, staff member D called in sick but then happily reported a positive strep test, staff member E reported covid exposure (the bus driver!) and is isolating pending testing. Tests here are taking 3-5 business days. I'm tired. We're mostly working in the building, part time staff in cohorts, and everyone spacing out as much as possible.

Yikes, flea, that's a lot.

Hey, how is Nutty doing, have you heard from her lately?

Wow, flea!

All I can suggest is to protect yourself as much as possible and stay away from Texas.

Yep! Apparently we've decided that "suicidally stubborn" is how we're gonna play this. Bar owners are currently protesting and suing the governor because he closed them back down.

I was talking to her this morning! She is in good health, working from home, doing a lot of Zoom meetings. She still works at MIT in the medical part, doing project management stuff. She's been doing a lot of walking for exercise/stress reduction. She's probably still not up to cheetah-in-a-squash-court defeating mettle, though.

DAMN, flea! (That was re: the work situation, not your sister's awesomeness, though it could apply to both.)

bennett, yeah, the Austin offices for Jim's company are shut and staying that way for the foreseeable.

Evidently Florida State University has told parents working remotely they can't take care of their kids while working remotely starting Aug 7.

At work we put up signs saying masks are needed to enter the building but we can't actually enforce it. There was some kind of issue with a customer who got in a verbal alteration with a dept manager. Don't know the details but they had to call mall security.

Glad to hear it, flea! Tell her we miss her on DW? And here, of course!

. . . aaaaaaaaand the Seattle Symphony has officially announced that the season opener in September, IF it goes ahead, will be livestreamed for free.

This has gotten to me. Jim and I have been doing season subscriptions for years now, since we moved to Washington, and this year we've decided to give it a miss - we're still in credit for three concerts that were cancelled last season. The typical audience is 55+, Benaroya Hall holds about 2500, even with spacing and masks and cleaning that's a lot of people to be sharing indoor air with for two hours.