The Pittmeister's COVID Chronicles

In the past week, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased by nearly 3,000.  This morning, per the AZDHS website , we are sitting at 19,255 cases, with 903 confirmed deaths.  In our county, the number of cases has increased to 72 in two short weeks since our governor opted to let the stay at home order expire and the number of deaths now stands at 3. In our zip code, the number of confirmed cases stands at 1-5. The highest number of cases in our county continues to be in the zip code for the border town of Douglas, which is at 28.  In my parent's county, which is just one county over, the number of confirmed cases has increased to 297, though mostly in the western part of the county around the border town of Nogales and its neighboring community, Rio Rico. In the eastern part of the county, which where they live, the numbers continue to hold at 1-5 cases.  Wife and I continue to practice social distancing and are limiting our social interaction. We did have someone come into our

Good Morning! I was very surprised this morning when I checked the stats for the readership of this blog and saw that I had 29 visits already from people in the country of Romania. I hope you're not hackers or anything, but if you are here to read my blog, I would like to welcome you and I hope you find the content that I post entertaining, informative, or a combination of the two.  Additionally, per the stats, some people are visiting my blog from my friend the Domestic Diva and her "Domestic Diva In Training" blog. Even though she has not posted in over five years, welcome and I hope you are enjoying my content. Domestic Diva and I have known each other since we were children. Yesterday, Wife and I finally finished preparing one flower bed and connecting it to another bed we built about 2 years ago and have been tweaking and improving ever since. Here are some pictures:  This is the original bed that we made about 2 years ago now. It has gladiolas and an

In Arizona, there are now over 16,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and  799 confirmed deaths.  To put this into perspective, the estimated total population of Arizona 7,380,000 people.  In our county, there have been 57 confirmed cases.  14 cases are still considered active,  42 have been released from isolation.  There has been one confirmed death from COVID-19 in our county.  To put this into perspective, in 2019, there was estimated population of nearly 126,000 people, with total area of the county at just over 6,000 square miles (16,000 square kilometers).  The number of cases in our zip code is currently between 1-5 with the highest number of cases in our county being located in the zip code for the border town of Douglas, which is about 25 miles away from us.  Wife and I are continuing to practice self-isolation and social distancing, even on this holiday weekend.  I went back to working on campus this week, but my interaction with students was minimal. I was

Yesterday was a little bit different kind of day for Wife and I. I worked, but for her, she left the house around 10 to meet friends in a park to do some Mulberry picking. After they were done picking, they went to one of the friends for some more women stuff activity, which meant I needed to get lunch. Wife gave me permission to eat and so I headed to BK where I got 2 crispy chicken sandwiches, 2 double cheeseburgers, and a large Dr. Pepper. No fries. Wife's other main project yesterday was making butter chicken curry, which we ate for dinner. She made it partly as a thank you to the neighbor who gave us 4 rose bushes. He's an older gentleman who lives alone, but always has plenty to say. We seem to have gotten into a bartering system with him as he some times brings us soup and other food, so we return in kind. Our governor has decided to allow our stay at home order to expire effective tomorrow. No solid plans on how we will begin to return to work, but given that I am t

Yesterday we transplanted 4 rose bushes that were given to us by a neighbor friend of ours. We planted 3 of them in the front and 1 of them in the back. We had to make a run to ACE for ground soil to put into the holes I dug since the soil is very poor. Wife and I are hoping for the best since we haven't exactly had the best luck with transplanting rose bushes in the past.  We also used a solution of root shock prevention to help them survive.  I'll keep you posted.  All for today. 

Over past two weeks, there have been some instances where I feel that people think that because I'm home, I am somehow available during the day. 1. Yesterday, our neighbor came over and needed my help with getting a box or something down from a high place. When he came over, I was in a departmental Zoom meeting and could not simply get up and go help him.  2. The same neighbor brought over some kind of flower plant yesterday (that's why he needed the box) and left it on our front porch. Wife asked me to help her replant it during my lunch hour. So after I ate my lunch (jambalaya), I was frantically digging two transplant holes with my transplant shovel, and then pouring potting soil into the holes in which we replanted the pots so I could open up my Zoom meeting room in time for my 1pm appointment. 3. Last week, I got a call from my pastor at 10am. There was a board meeting to discuss distribution of charity funds from the church's thrift shop to congregation members in

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Instead of getting together for a meal, we all got together on Zoom for what has become a weekly family chat with my sister and husband in the VA. Wife and I painted the wall opposite our computer with a Mother's Day message and some artwork by Wife, which means that today, and every following day until we paint the wall, I will now have to use a virtual background in my Zoom meetings with students or otherwise. This is supposed to be the last week of the stay at home order for our state. It remains to be seen if it is to be extended again. We're supposed to be able to dine out in restaurants again, but Wife and I are going to maintain our "lockdown mentality" for awhile. I'm still waking up, so all for this morning.

The number of daily confirmed cases continues to increase. Per the AZDHS website , the number of confirmed cases on Monday, May 4th was highest to date at 489 cases. There have been nearly 11,000 confirmed cases in Arizona and the number of confirmed deaths currently standing at 532. In our county , the number continue to creep slowly upward. There have been 41 confirmed cases. 8 of those cases are still considered active, & 8 cases are still in isolation. 33 people have been released from isolation. No deaths have been reported in our county, which is a relief. Still, Wife and I are very cautious when we go out. We always wear a mask and sanitize our hands constantly. We keep small bottles of hand sanitizer in each of our cars. This morning we made 2 trips out. I left at just before 8am for a grocery store run and to visit a hardware store and then we went back to the hardware store together to get some potting soil. I met my "egg dealer" yesterday. He's a co-w

No post-working workout today. Decided to take the day off. Wife made rice noodle salad for lunch.  I made a roasted acorn squash with brown sugar and butter for dinner and we had leftover rice noodle salad, beans, and rice along with it.  After work I went out and took some pictures with my camera and took some photos: Some kind of vegetables of Wife's that are starting to sprout.  More of Wife's vegetables. Here are some pictures of our neighborhood:  Lastly, here are some pictures I took of the sunset tonight. It wasn't very compelling because there were no clouds for the light to reflect on, so I used my Super Vivid setting and snapped these photos:  I love how the sky is made bluer with the Super Vivid setting and the location of the sun is a yellow bubble.  Hope you enjoy! Have a great night! 

I didn't get a chance to post this morning because I ended up sleeping until 7:30a and even then it was difficult to get my  butt out of bed so I guess I'll be doing 2 days in one post.  Yesterday, our governor announced that beginning May 8th, Arizonans can once again get a haircut at a hair salon and on May 11th, we can once again dine-out in a restaurant without having to wait for staff to bring us our food from outside the restaurant.  Personally, I think I may come back to work looking like the guys on The Big Bang Theory Season 3, Episode 1 when they return from their summer at the north pole. Personally, I feel so much healthier after 5 weeks of eating nothing but home-cooked meals and Wife and I have enough food stockpiled that we could probably last another month in lockdown quarantine and not miss very much in the way of food, except for maybe a bi-weekly indulgent run to BK when our culinary creativity meter is on empty. We have reduced so much of our food i

We are still holding at 39 cases in our county. 14 are still active cases while 25 have been released from isolation. The age group with most number of cases has been 20-44 years and not surprising, given the demographics of the county, the highest number of cases has been in the hispanic or latino community. Still no reported deaths from COVID-19 in our county. For the state of Arizona, we are currently at at 8,640 cases, with 276 new cases being reported yesterday. There are 362 reported deaths in our state as of this morning. This family has kept me entertained through all this.... The first thing Wife told me this morning was a friend of ours who lives in the northern part of the state, in a place I will refer to as "Red Rock City", had told her the stay at home order for AZ had been canceled. I looked up Google News and told her that was poppycock, aka "fake news", but that 2 county sheriffs were refusing to enforce the stay at home order. I just ques

Today is Sunday and I realize that Wife and I have not been to a church a service since March 15th. I would like to share some videos of my favorite hymns with you this morning: 1. The Summons 2. Come and Find The Quiet Center 3. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing I can't believe this is my 25th post of The COVID Chronicles. I hope whomever is reading this blog is enjoying them.  Yesterday was a lazy kind of day for most of the day.  Wife read on a Japanese news site that the price of meat was going to double in the United States due to COVID-19 because meat processing plants were going to or had already shut down and she wanted to make sure we had enough meat frozen and stored away that we would not run short, so we went to our local Safeway and purchased a whole chicken (which I roasted yesterday), some pork chops, & chicken breasts to store in our freezer. I need to package up the chicken and ground beef this morning, so I need to make this

Statistical Updates for our state and county As of this morning, our state's department of health services is reported nearly 8,000 confirmed cases with a reported 330 deaths. Close to 75,000 people have been tested in our state... There were 314 new cases reported yesterday along with 10 new deaths. In our county in the southeastern corner of the state, the number of confirmed cases has increased to 39 with a hair under 800 people having been tested. 14 of those 39 cases are currently active, with 25 people having been released from isolation. There are still no reported deaths from COVID-19 in our county. May 1, 2020 Yesterday was $ .99 Blizzard Day at the Dairy Queen, an American fast food restaurant chain the specializes in soft serve ice cream and there is a small DQ shop located in our area of Old Mining Town. Wife and I do occasionally get small cones (sometimes dipped) because soft cream is very popular in Wife's home country of Japan. Wife and I talked

I'm a little late in getting today's post out. Today was the 1st day of registration, so I got an early start on work-related things and didn't have much time to blog. Here's what I made for dinner last night:  Roasted Butternut Squash coated with coconut oil and dusted with salt & pepper. That's brown sugar & butter on the deep-end Drum sticks seasoned w/ my a brown sugar rub of my own creation Roasted together on a pizza pan for 45min at 400 degrees F.  Here's my favorite song about Fridays... All for today!